Living In Thailand

Read your site again Sunday as I do every Sunday which always helps me to keep in touch and there was an interesting topic this week.

I think it would be fair to say that Thailand is a bit of a magnet to many misfits and criminals that inhabit this earth. Sex, drugs and Rock 'n Roll can have that effect on people.

I have had the misfortune of meeting a few over the years. For some reason, many seem to live in Pattaya, a real low life magnet if I ever have seen one, both farang and Thai alike.

The few problems I have ever had in Thailand, and I have been travelling to the land of smiles for a good many years now, have been in Pattaya though to be fair, these same problems could occur anywhere in the Kingdom. It just seems to happen more often in Pattaya.

Add to that the touts, particularly those Indian tailors and some of the indigenous low life as well, and I include those thieving women with a penis that wait like jackals to pounce on Beach Road in the early hours of the morning, and one could be forgiven for thinking that Thailand is a refuge for all that is bad with the world.

But of course, take a walk if you dare up or down Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok after 2 AM between Soi 5 and Asoke and the chicks with dicks are out in force there as well, always on the look out for the venerable farang.

I am nearing 50 and work part time in Farangland. To say I have had a guts full of this city where I live, indeed the entire country would be to put it mildly.

I have over the past years seen first hand the wonderful way our western liberal democracies treat white, heterosexual, middle class males, and it ain't good folks. Not good at all.

Add to that the "no fun syndrome" which is out there of a night time in the west and the drug and hormone driven violence that seems to be all pervasive particularly on a Friday and Saturday night, and – well you get the picture.

In basic terms, I am and have been only existing here in Farangland. Paying the bills, the child support, the rent and in return I get a no fun zone. For all intents of purposes, I may as well live in Antarctica! The females here are as cold as penguins and most have behinds the size of a walrus. And the attitude. Well – if you look at many for longer than 1.2 seconds you may find yourself on a charge of sexual harassment. Don't complain about your lot though, because you will be stereotyped as a misogynist or worse if you do.

I know Thailand well and its pitfalls. I know about the games that people play, including the games of the bar girls in particular. I know how frustrating it can be when ones tries with little success to complete the most basic of tasks. The corruption, the heat, the smog, the traffic etc.

But you know, whenever I arrive in Bangkok, I feel alive! I feel as though I am in a place of happening.

My mind of late has turned to the serious business of where I go from here. Do I remain in Dullsville, treading water waiting for my once a year trip to Thailand to "live" again, or do I take the giant leap to relocate to Thailand, returning home once a year to see my daughter who lives with her mother and I now only see a few times a year now in any event?

Retirement is now a very real possibility for me and frankly, living in Thailand does have a lot of appeal. I am not without friends in Thailand, and I know that my life would certainly be very different to that in Dullsville.

So we will see. I intend to have a major review of my life in a couple of months time then I hit the big 5-0.

To those of you living in Thailand, your lot really isn't that bad. If you haven't done so for a good many years, just wait till you go back home. Then have a real good long think about those little things that get up your nose in Thailand.

The cost of living is skyrocketing where I live, with rents going into orbit. The basics such as groceries, entertainment {ha, that's a laugh} fuel and everything else is going north at a rate of knots, not seen for many a year now, the products of a booming economy. Sure, the cost of fuel the world over is on the increase and those bar fines and friendly liaisons with the local ladies may also not be what they were just a few years ago, but I can tell you that generally speaking, Thailand is a whole lot cheaper than the first world.

Perhaps happiness is where you find it. And I can tell you all folks, it is getting harder every day to find it in the first world.

Real hard.

Stickman's thoughts:

You hit the nail on the head when you allude that we should do things that make us happy. A miserable existence for much of the year is no way to live.