Forum

About Face.

By Sean Moran, Created on: 14/10/2008, Last updated on: 13/04/2014

» One olde axiom that comes to mind is, '[i:3b539sim]If you can't say something nice, then keep your mouth s.h.u.t.[/i:3b539sim]' Just a thread that pertains to one of the cultural differences one might notice in venturing from a typical 'westernised' society of the assertive kind to the shores of...

• fast eddy commented : Morning Sean, Yes, I'm totally with you too on the vast difference in attitudes when facing village Thais and big city Thais. As I've said before, I'm trying for the perfect balance between friendly, unbiased Thais in my life and the availability of modern living. The extremes are obvious and I have tried big city life both in Bangkok (Samsen Road soi 1) and Nonthaburi (Wat Tagarn, Sai Marr) both of which places saw me make some very good Thai friends (or I should say friends of my Thai wife - she made them and I was the curiosity factor) but any financial transactions needed to be taken with me out of the picture to avoid the price hike. The other extreme doesn't really appeal as my hermit/wandering days are over and I do like a bit of creature comfort. I think I am pretty much where I want to be right now and the search has payed off. Klauskent - you are also spot on. Even Thais have said that they don't have friends as we would class people under that word. As such, alturism doesn't exist out here as every action has an inherent consequence on the scales of Karma. You may argue that if this is the case why don't they just go about helping each other wherever they can and fill up their Karma account? Well, they (the Thais that your everyday westerner would come across in daily life) do tend to live day to day through financial necessity and therefore need to score whenever and wherever they can! Do they 'trade a better tomorrow for a better today?' is their fundemental question of life! It's a constant battle - but you can be sure that it's 'game on' with whomever they transact with - be it Thai or Non-Thai. Not sure that this could be our fault as we introduced this to them. Not sure where that came from. What I do know is that the boy friend of one of my colleagues bought a little bag of pineapple from the fruit vender in front of the Errawan Shrine next to Sogo Department store and was charged 200bt for what should have been 20bt! Now this shrine is very holy and to take such a risk within a stone's throw of the place tells you a lot about Thais! fast eddy

• Sean Moran commented : [quote="fast eddy":188q8ofh]Morning Sean, Yes, I'm totally with you too on the vast difference in attitudes when facing village Thais and big city Thais. As I've said before, I'm trying for the perfect balance between friendly, unbiased Thais in my life and the availability of modern living. The extremes are obvious and I have tried big city life both in Bangkok (Samsen Road soi 1) and Nonthaburi (Wat Tagarn, Sai Marr) both of which places saw me make some very good Thai friends (or I should say friends of my Thai wife - she made them and I was the curiosity factor) but any financial transactions needed to be taken with me out of the picture to avoid the price hike. The other extreme doesn't really appeal as my hermit/wandering days are over and I do like a bit of creature comfort. I think I am pretty much where I want to be right now and the search has payed off. [/quote:188q8ofh] The balance. Gee. I'm still searching. Back on the night of May 2nd, 2005, I discovered gold in Rayong, and his name was Anuchit, an ex-cop from Nong Khai. This was his "sister's" raan ahaan in Mabkha: [img:188q8ofh]http://www.geocities.com/smoranean/img/gall/sstar01.jpg[/img:188q8ofh] And this was one of the best photos we've had taken the weekend he invited me along with some of his ex-cop mates to go camping off an island just off Ban Chang. We'd already been rained out from sleeping on the beach and had to shelter in the ranger's hut at arounf 03:00 AM before that Saturday morning that the photo was taken: [img:188q8ofh]http://www.geocities.com/smoranean/img/gall/banc01.jpg[/img:188q8ofh] I think I owe my best mate Anuchit my life, although we've lost contact this past year. He might have changed phone numbers and he doesn't write English to email. I've never met a better bloke in all my life. It was only after we'd been out nightclubbing for a few months (to pick up the ladies and stuff of which we never had any luck at all) that we stopped off at some traditional massage place for a traditional Thai massage to ease our broken little hearts after another night down at the US1 or Rayong Brewery without meeting any women that he had to produce the .38 from his jacket. My friend is a policeman, kao jai? Only then did he confess that for all those months when we would head into town on a Saturday night to visit Legacia or somewhere in Mapthaput, he made sure to carry his revolver. Not to shoot me, but because I was farang, TO PROTECT ME [b:188q8ofh]in case I got up to too much mischief when I was drunk[/b:188q8ofh]. I'll never forget that. That was altruism. Maybe just the same as he had a word in Mrs Na's ear about not ripping off the farang the night I first got invited to KMS (Karaoke Mai sanuk), he may have displayed a little courteous firepower to some of the strangers at the night clubs (without my knowledge) if ever there were (and believe me there were on one or two occasions) times when I was too pisst to know which country I was ranting and raving in. When I decided to head off from Rayong to Chanthaburi, which turned out to be Khorat and then Nonthaburi, my best mate served the dinner and while I ate, he rode off on my mo-sai without my knowledge to have both the front and back tyres on the Suzuki replaced by the shop across the road. The cost was less than 300 baht. That's what I remunerated, but it actually cost less, because they trusted him as the restauanteur across the road, and he (in the same overprotective way that I can't help but appreciate) didn't know that I'd been going to that same motorcyucle shop since I bought the bike for new kickstarts and oil changes. I reckon I would have paid around 250 baht each for the tyres, which is fair for a farang, but my best mate got me an even better deal. After my collision, I saved the Suzy and it coasted off into the wilderness while I hit the car without need of extra force. It spent a few months in the police holding yard and accrued 200 odd baht in charges for sitting there rusting away. I gave Anuchit the bike, and went 50/50 on the disposal fee for him to get it out when I got back to LoS. The least I could do. I'll always be a wanderer, but I don't want to be an hermit.

• 61 replies, 76,687 views