I know about twenty Soi dogs in Thailand (so named because they hang out in alleys, or sois). They’re not well cared for  and, if this story moves you, sign the petition to improve their lives. If you’re in Chiang Mai you can volunteer or adopt a dog from Care for Dogs. They do heroic work caring for lost dogs who need homes.

I walk two miles around my neighborhood at dawn each morning. The streets are quiet and empty except for dogs. Soi dogs in Thailand are an independent lot. As far as they are concerned they have as much right as any Thai to walk or lie on the road and they expect humans – especially drivers – to respect that. Thais generally do, though there are enough limping, three-legged, and even two-legged dogs around to suggest that their rights are not always respected. though they do a fine job of barking at strangers, they have limits. If it is too early in the morning–before 5 am–or late in the evening– after 11 pm–they prefer to sleep. (Thai cats are well aware of this, as are the pigeons who know the cats will vanish when the dogs appear). Thai dogs will not bother you if it is raining, or chase you if the grass might wet their paws, or if it is too hot, or too cold, or if you are accompanied by a dog bigger than them.

Many people are on a budget, and are looking for a cheap dog fence. That is certainly understandable. However when it comes to the well-being of your pets, why take a chance on a cheaply-made product? Most dog owners see their dog as a member of their family. Doesn’t your family member deserves the best dog fence? Why take a risk when it comes to your dog’s health? While considering a fence in general consider the potential negative consequences of using an electric stimulation device on your pet.

People who’ve never gotten to know dogs find Soi dogs in Thailand frightening and I suspect that they’re responsible for most of the negative stories about them. If you like dogs you won’t have a problem with them. They’re more assertive than house dogs, since dogs are territorial animals and the soi is their territory and they have to hustle for scraps every day. Happily, Thais love dogs – though they rarely pet them, which Thai dogs are OK with – and I’ve never seen an emaciated one.

They’re numerous because Thais don’t commonly spay or neuter dogs. One reason that there aren’t too many dogs is a big market for dog meat in northern Vietnam. Dog-catching has been privatized by dog catchers who smuggle thousands of them across the border every month.

Like everything in Thailand, there’s a dog hierarchy, too. At the top are companion dogs: well-groomed, well-fed, often purebreds that are allowed to socialize with street dogs for a few minutes each morning under their owners’ watchful eyes. These are the friendliest dogs I meet each morning. They approach me fearlessly and enjoy being petted and talked to.

Below the companion dogs are guard dogs: serious looking and larger than the companions. They run loose in the yard and, in return for a protected space and regular meals, bark at passersby and, presumably, bite intruders. Below them are ‘gate dogs’ who  have adopted a house, live in the street by the gate as auxiliary guards. They stick so closely to ‘their’ gate that I assume that house owners feed them on a ‘no obligations’ basis. Both householder and dog retain their independence while deriving benefit from the relationship.

Next down are real soi dogs who live entirely in the street. They live in strictly hierarchical packs for mutual protection are most vulnerable to dog catchers since they’ve nowhere to hide. It is these guys who accompany me on my morning walks and whose social arrangements keep me entertained. When I arrive in their alley they congregate around me, apparently simply happy to be acknowledged by a human. At first they all wanted to be petted but, over the months, the novelty of petting has worn off. Now our greetings are largely verbal: warm words from me; yipping and tailwagging from them. Then we set off for a block or two so they can show off their human friend to the guard- and house-dogs. Then, with their status raised, they peel off and start exploring the exciting new smells that the morning brings. They’re as individual as any human and I find their interactions a constant source of interest and amusement.

Below soi dogs are the wretched of the earth: the strays. These poor creatures have neither turf nor a pack to protect them. Something has displaced them and they literally have nowhere to call their own. They slink around, ears pinned back, with anxiously wrinkled brows desperately looking for food and temporary shelter. Packs of soi dogs pursue them and, if they catch them, attack them viciously. Here’s a video I made of my local dog pack. Sometimes they accompany me for a few blocks; sometimes they ignore me:

The Vinegar Cure

The worst dogs I’ve encountered are the racists (surprised?). They ignore Thais but hate foreigners and feel it their patriotic duty to attack them. There’s one guard dog on my morning route and I would walk quietly past his house, enduring his bloodcurdling snarls and barks. One day his gate was left open and he came after me. I escaped unharmed but my morning was ruined. Happily, Thailand is the home of the water pistol. Thais consume more water pistols per capita than any nation on earth because, in Thailand’s climate, they’re fun, s’nuk. After choosing a compact, high capacity weapon (60¢ at the supermarket – always on sale) I loaded it with diluted vinegar. The next morning I heard the same racist threats but I had my equalizer ready. A few squirts (avoiding his eyes) followed by the sound of baffled, indignant whimpering. He seemed as much upset by our switch in status as anything! He was no longer the aggressor and he obviously hated smelling of vinegar which, to his doggy nose, must have been intense.

I repeated the treatment on Soi dogs in Thailand the next morning and that was the end of it. He still barks at me, of course, but his bark lacks conviction. The racist insults and threats of dismemberment have ceased. We encountered each other out in the street last week and, after a few halfhearted barks he backed defiantly into his open gate.

Prevention

1. Let sleeping and eating dogs alone.
2. Don’t approach dogs you don’t know. You’re probably entering their territory and dogs are territorial.
3. Don’t go near dog hangouts at night, like temple grounds, abandoned buildings, building sites, car parks and empty spaces.  Darkness is their friend, not yours.
4. Carry an equalizer. A rape alarm works fine. Umbrellas and pieces of bamboo are fine. Often picking up a rock is enough to discourage them.
5. Don’t run. It excites their hunting instinct. Walk purposefully as you draw yourself up to your full height
6. Fold your arms or raise them slowly above your head. This keeps vulnerable hands away from sharp teeth.
7. Don’t smile or squeal. Your smile resembles aggressive teeth-baring and squealing sounds like a wounded animal. Command them in low, strong tones.
8. Be wary of turning your back on them. Don’t hang about.  Commotions attracts other dogs. Walk on, possibly backwards.

There are tons of Soi dogs in Thailand, but Deputy Dog is a favorite. This golden labrador is a well-known character around Chiang Rai, the beautiful town 5 hours drive north of Chiang Mai. Richard Berry, who combines an idyllic Chiang Rai life with manufacturing the ultra-natural English Organics cosmetics (you can eat them – literally) snapped a few shots with his cellphone.

On a Lighter Note

There are tons of dogs in Thailand, but Deputy Dog is a favorite. This golden labrador is a well-known character around Chiang Rai, the beautiful town 5 hours drive north of Chiang Mai. Richard Berry, who combines an idyllic Chiang Rai life with manufacturing the ultra-natural English Organics cosmetics (you can eat them – literally) snapped a few shots with his cellphone. There’s no story behind this as far as Richard has been able to discover. This is simply how the dog likes to sit while waiting for his master to finish shopping. Here’s how deputy dog looks when he sees his master approaching:

Monks Kindness to Dogs

Thai temples are a traditional refuge for stray and hungry dogs and the monks beg for food for them every morning as they walk the streets, barefoot. Here’s what happens at feeding time:

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Here’s another beautiful elephant moment in Thailand: the elephant is blind:

And they also make music, as you’ll learn from National Geographic.

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Bangkok, Where Pleasure is King

The mood of Bangkok is very special in Southeast Asia. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, for example, is a whirlpool of frustration; a capital in orbit around anti-colonial slogans. Singapore is energetic, engaged in a puritanical revolution; Kuala Lumpur, in Malaya, is easygoing, a capital with Arabian Nights architecture, where the work manages to get done every day. Bangkok, though, is a rejuvenating tonic; the people seem to have found the magic elixir. Life, a visitor feels, has not been wasted on the Thais.

Theirs is a land of joi de vivre, where every moment seems worth celebrating. Convivial gatherings for snacks, eight or nine times a day, are considered sanook (joyfully pleasurable), as are the kite fights taking place at the Pramane Grounds. Gossiping is sanook. So is television. A bottle of Mekhong, the raw whisky made here, is sanook di – doubly pleasurable.

– Bernard Kalb, The New York Times, April 15, 1961.

Yes, folks, it’s as true today as it was when Bernard Kalb wrote this for the NYT. In Bangkok, pleasure really IS king. Everything is sacrificed to sanook, including timetables, customers, and personal safety. You have been warned.

In Old Bangkok: River Scene of Glorious Confusion. A wonderful era!

From The Eastern Seas, by George Windsor Earl. 1837: We now threaded our way amongst junks, boats, and floating houses, jumbled together in glorious confusion and totally concealing the banks from our view. Hundreds of small canoes, some not larger than clothes-baskets, were passing to and fro, many of them containing talapoins, or priests, paddling lazily from house to house, collecting presents and provisions. The occupants of the floating houses were taking down the shutters which formed the fronts, exposing their wares for sale: printed calicoes, pater umbrellas, sweetmeats, fruits, pots, pans, etc., being placed in situations calculated to attract the notice of passersby. This occupation was carried on entirely by the women, the men being seated on the platforms, smoking their cigars or making preparations to take a cruise in their canoes. At this period of the year, when the river becomes swelled by the rains, whole streets of floating houses, together with their inhabitants, sometimes break adrift from their moorings and are carried down the river – to the utter confusion of the shipping. These floating streets, nevertheless, possess their advantages. A troublesome neighbor may be ejected, house, family, pots and pans, and all, and sent floating away to find another site for his habituation. In Old Bangkok: River Scene

Read more stories from old Bangkok at Amazon.

This is how I remember Bangkok when I first visited it in December, 1967: In Old Bangkok: River Scene

More about Bangkok..

But..here comes the new rail line that will link Bangkok to Singapore and Kunming, China.

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Thailand is still an exotic, exciting place, as this story about a pythons in Thai toilets, demonstrates.

A woman was almost killed by a python that came out of her toilet last night. The woman, Rampeung Onlamai, 57, had just finished her shower at her home north of Bangkok when a python emerged from her toilet and attempted to drag her down the drain. The snake sunk its fangs into her right hand and then started pulling her down toward its toilet nest. Rampeung defended herself with a broom and called out for her daughter, who rushed to her rescue and pried the python’s head off her hand. The python then crawled back into the toilet.

Rampeung was admitted to the hospital, where she needed 20 stitches to seal the gash. Samkok district officer Metha Taweekunchai said he’ll order his officers to capture the snake in Rampeung’s toilet so the family can resume using it.

Here’s my friend Vern, from Snakes.org, telling you what to do about a pythons in Thai toilets:

Snakes are common in Thailand. The other day I watched one swim across the river towards me. Snakes are cold-blooded so, when he reached my side he hauled himself (herself?) out onto a giant lilypad into the sun and lay there to warm up. This gave me an opportunity to study it closely and I was amazed and delighted at what I saw. The snake was a brilliant, emerald green with two lines of shiny gold scales running down its back. Though I was close, it seemed quite at ease and took its time before slipping back into the water to complete its journey. I wondered what caused it to undertake such a crossing – probably the equivalent of a mile-long swim for a human – when it could not, I suspect, have known what was on the other side. It also had to elude the big fish that live in the river and will sometimes surface and grab unlucky birds. Ah, Thailand!

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Creating a form, thousand-armed, each with a weapon,
Mara on the elephant Grimekhala roared frightfully with his soldiers.
The Lord of Munis conquered him by means of Dhamma-giving and so-on:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

More than Mara making war all night
Was the frighfulness of Alavaka the yakkha, impatient and arrogant.
The Lord of Munis conquered him by means of well-taming with patience:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

The noble elephant Nalagiri became quite mad,
Very cruel, like a forest fire, wheel-weapon or a thunderbolt.
The Lord of Munis conquered him by means of sprinkling the water of loving-kindness:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

Very cruel, with a sword upraised in his expert hand,
Running three leagues along the path he was, Garlanded-with-fingers.
The Lord of Munis conquered him with a mind performing marvels:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

Having made her belly like a pregnant woman (by tying on) a piece of wood
Cinca spoke lewdly in the midst of the people.
The Lord of Munis conquered her by fair and peaceful means:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

Saccaka, whose speech habitually departed from the truth,
Raised up, like a flag, his theory with a mind become completely blind.
The Lord of Munis conquered him by wisdom’s shing lamp:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

Nandopananda the serpent of wrong understanding but great power,
The (Buddha’s) son, the Elder (Moggallana) serpent-like set out to tame.
The Lord of Munis conquered him by means of a demonstration of power:
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

Like a serpent well coiled about the arms were the wrongly grasped views
Of the Brahma-god named Baka of pure light and power
The Lord of Munis conquered him by means of the medicine of knowledge
By the power of this may you be of wholesome victories.

These are the eight verses of the Buddha’s wholesome victories.
Which should be chanted and recollected every day without laziness
(So that) being rid of the many kinds of obstacles
The man of wisdom can attain Liberation and happiness.

– Translation by Ven. Khantipalo

And here’s a video of Thai monks chanting The Buddha’s Wholesome Victories:

Some reading about Thai monks chanting The Buddha’s Wholesome Victories

• Learning Pujas from Gen-la | Tsem Rinpoche – And Tibetans, and have you seen the Thai monks chant? Oh, wow, when they start chanting and they pass down that cord to bless you, it’s like wrap me around twice, I love it! Have you seen the Japanese monks chant?
• Wesak a day to reflect on the teachings of Buddha – Health … – Thai Monks Chant New Home Blessing 1 of 2 in USA. Buddhist Theravada Thai monks from Wat Washington Buddhavanaram chant Pali blessings in recently rented house. From left to right they are: Ajahn Padet, Ajahn …
• Theravada Buddhism (TB): Imee Ooi – The Chant of metta ( Lyrics … – May (6). Buddha Puja · Thai Monks Chant 2 · Thai Monks Chant · Is Nibbana Guaranteed? The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta [Part one] · Imee Ooi – The Chant of metta ( Lyrics: Pali & Eng… ▻ 2010 (4). ▻ December (1).
• Could Luis Suarez be Arsene Wenger’s Cantona … – Present a wisp of fairy spirit?The fairy spirit is really extremely precious, common of Ning palace monk, which afraid is a core pupil to want to acquire 1 wisp, all through his entire life don’t necessarily have this opportunity. …… Strong suits are regional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, but don’t stop there – Las Vegas is jam-packed with Thai restaurants, many of them better than you might be used to back home, unless home is, say, Thailand. Procedure is …

The post Thai Monks Chant The Buddha’s Wholesome Victories appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

And here’s a reminder about riding scooters in Thailand:

Riding a motorcycle or scooter in Thailand comes with unique responsibilities and dangers. Scooters are wonderful in traffic but they have 4 drawbacks:

• You’re vulnerable to any mistakes in road design and construction.
• No matter what or who you hit, you lose.
• They’re a bitch in the rain.
• Range.

1. Road design, construction and maintenance create hazards.

• Lethal obstacles are often built into Thai roads. My favorite? Where freeways cross an overpass, they build raised footpaths out into the motorcycle lane – withno warning. These deathtraps freaked me out until I learned to anticipate them.
• Though roads are well maintained, safety is casual. A Thai friend was killed riding her motorcycle home in the rain when she hit an unmarked pothole on a main street.
• I slid off because someone  spilled cooking oil around a curve.

So understand the physical situation and be far more vigilant than at home.

2. No matter what or whom you hit, you lose.

You already know that you’re much more vulnerable on two wheels than on four. But driving anything in Thailand carries an additional responsibility: you pay all costs for an accident. Because you’re a farang you are rich and the rule here is that the party with more money pays the costs. (If you have first-class insurance, even your insurance company will agree to pay, despite your innocence) If you are clearly not at fault and there’s been no injury, either leave the scene asap or offer the other driver a 1,000 Baht note ($33), apologize, and drive off.

When an old Thai on a motorcycle drove along the curb past stopped traffic, straight through a stop light, he hit me hard. Bystanders wanted to call the cops so I would be forced to pay for the accident. To his credit, the gentleman waved them off, but commonly, people you collide with will refuse responsibility. Thais’ main goal is to prove that they were not responsible for the accident (or anything, it seems sometimes). 1,000 baht is usually sufficient to prove that they’re correct.

3. Bikes and scooters are a bitch in the rain.

Thailand’s rainy season makes motorcycling a watersport. You’ll need a poncho, which can be had for as little as $2 in many shops, that has high visibility and you’ll need plenty of tread on your tires. And, of course, you’ll need to drive very cautiously. It’s a white-knuckle experience that’s best avoided. I simply follow elderly Thai drivers. They’ve been doing it all their lives.

4. Mileage Vs. Range

Exhilarated by the fact that your scooter gets 98 miles to the gallon, you set off for a pretty village 40 miles away. After a beautiful day in the mountains you head home and, along the way, discover that you’re running low on fuel. Of course, gas stations have disappeared and there’s no sign of another one. How could this be happening when the scooter gets such great mileage? Simple: its tank holds as little as 1 gallon of gasoline. So…top up your tank whenever it drops below half. A backup plan: most country stores sell gasoline. Yep, in beer bottles, for a couple of bucks. Just ask for N̂ảmạnbensin pord while pointing plaintively to your gas tank and you’ll soon be back in the saddle.

The post Scooters in Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

Do you want to live as you did in your $7,000/mo, $750,000 California-style house? Or would you be content to live a middle-class life in Thailand like a middle-class Thai person would?

What would it feel like to live a middle-class Thai life in Thailand?

Well, take a close look at any middle class Thai. Let’s say a high-school math teacher.How does a middle class Thai teacher live? How do Thai middle class government employee live? Or a  middle manager of a big Tesco department store – how do they live?

Well, first, where do they live? If you want the full Thai experience with all the beauty and culture, great climate and laid-back lifestyle at the lowest cost you’ll live in Chiang Rai, up north, near the border. Move to Chiang Mai, where I live, and you’ll pay 30% more, to Bangkok and add another 30% for costs like accommodation. (If you have a Thai spouse, of course, you’ll pay Thai prices, but that is another story).

In Chiang Rai, a friend is a middle manager at Tesco, the British supermarket chain. He’s considered middle class and single Thai girls are eager to date him. He rents a nice apartment for 3,000 baht/mo. bought a new car on credit, and he helps support his mother, father and grandfather. By Thai standards his lifestyle is enviable.

As a farang, $1,200/mo. puts you into Chiang Rai’s upper class middle class. You would live in either an apartment or a townhouse – usually two stories, in a gated community — or rent a house.

But you can’t live a Thai middle-class life very well if you don’t speak the language because you can’t take advantage of Thai prices (farangs pay more for most things, it’s an unspoken rule here). If you don’t speak the language, what can you do?

You find a good lady friend. It doesn’t matter if she’s your wife or a good friend. Finding such a person can take time. It took me almost 3 years because it takes time to gain entry to Thai culture. Middle class Thai women are not falling over each other to befriend some random farang – any more than middle-class American, British, or Australian women are. Maybe it took me longer to find a Thai woman friend because I wasn’t interested in dating her. What I wanted was a cultural ‘in’ to Thai life.

If you get into the local dating scene you can easily find educated women with good jobs who are open to a relationship with a farang because their Thai husband or boyfriend treated them badly. That is much more common here than back home. Thai men abandon their families at an alarming rate – and don’t pay alimony or child support.

Bear in mind that you are definitely expected to support someone, whether it’s her child, or her parents. That’s part of marriage to a Thai. Get used to it now.

So, before you get here, use the online dating services. They’ll help you talk to with educated women before you get off the plane and give you the opportunity to learn about the Thai culture from them . They understand that you know nothing about Thailand. And they’ll help you understand the role of Buddhism, or respect for elders, or respect for objects and social norms. Before you come, do your homework and really prepare to live here. That way, you’ll learn how to live here as a middle class Thai would and you’ll live better than you’ve ever done before. I live on $2,400/mo., travel abroad 3 or 4 times a year, and drink only imported Belgian beer (draft, of course!).

What’s Your Thai QOL?

How do you define quality? My idea of quality for me might be different from yours.

For me, quality of life means that my environment is very safe, comfortable,and healthy. I feel my energy lifted just by seeing the beautiful environment, the smiling, happy people, and the climate that I’ve finally adapted to.

The man who owns my apartment usually fixes any problems within 45 minutes, then apologizes for them. Everything works perfectly and looks good, always. My studio is large, bright, cool and well-ventilated, with a balcony, at the end of a cup-de-sac, and costs me 3,000 Baht/mo. Yep, that’s $100. Of course, that includes free internet and is fully furnished, like most Thai rentals. You can buy a good secondhand car for $3,000 if you take your care and look around, you don’t have to buy a brand new $15,000 Honda Fit.

But here’s a warning: a $3,000 used car will probably not satisfy a middle-class Thai woman. It would threaten her status, her place in the community. There’s no point in complaining about that. A lot of Thai –and all oriental – culture is about status. If you want a middle-class Thai wife you’ll have to  to fit into Thai society’s expectations of what that means.

So take a sober look at the pluses and minuses of the kind of life you want to live – then take another look at the money you have. My money from Social Security was $1200, the average. It wasn’t enough for the lifestyle I wanted so I started this business. It lets me work 1-2 days a month and, by so doing, double my income. Now I’m much more acceptable in middle-class Chiang Mai, where glossy interior design magazines still picture the emerging Thai middle-class dream.

I don’t have any insurance because it’s not available at my age. I live a very healthy lifestyle and if something goes seriously wrong, I’ll fly back to Australia or the US, where I’m covered by the national health programs.

Anyway, enough from me. Listen to what Richard Weeks can accomplish on $600/mo:

www.trh.superfasttests.com

Future Reading:

• Why I Gave Up Flipped Instruction – Lectures are viewed at home by students, via videos or podcasts (found online or created by the teacher), and class time is devoted to assignments or projects based on this knowledge. In theory, this sounds …… My class demographics tend to be pretty middle class, although we do have kids who live in poverty. My class sizes tend ….. I teach World History at an international school in Thailand and have ‘flipped the class’ in terms of putting video ‘lectures’ online. I don’t …
• Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden on Asia-Pacific Policy … – In terms of economics, the Asia-Pacific region —- stretching from India to the Pacific nations of the Americas -— is home to a middle class of about a billion people. Some of the fastest growing growth rates in the world are …
• Rock and Roll, Economics, and Rebuilding the Middle Class … – Live Streams · Podcasts · Shareables … Today, at 7:00 pm EST, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger will deliver remarks on income inequality and rebuilding the middle class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As he’ll discuss this … It is, to a considerable extent, up to private sector businesses, organizations and communities to ensure that economic growth leads to widely shared prosperity and a decent living for the vast majority of our people.
• Remarks by the President to UAW Conference | The White … – These jobs are worth more than just a paycheck. They’re a source of pride. They’re a ticket to a middle-class life that make it possible for you to own a home and raise kids and maybe send them — yes — to college. (Applause.) …

The post Live A Middle-Class Life in Thailand? appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

Lying, cheating and stealing are not confined to Thailand. They’re universal human behaviors and the older I get the less they bother me. But lying, cheating and stealing have a cultural flavor in Thailand that’s worth examining because we’re all going to encounter it sooner or later, and it’s not just confined to sex.

Knowing I would spend last Christmas in Australia a Thai friend offered to handle some tasks I’d been putting off: touch up the house’s interior paint; respray scrapes on the car; remove the failed outside garden and its brick wall; replace the sticky sliding door tracks; finish painting the front fence. For 10,000 baht (US$300) he’d handle it all.

I returned a month later to find that – if the jobs had been done at all – they’d been done half-assedly. The garden was gone but the bricks remain; the door tracks were removed but not replaced; my friend had found the car’s insurance policy, located a body shop accredited by my insurer and charged God knows how much to the policy as an ‘accident’. The body shop had done a quick, cheap spray job. The ‘commission’ will, no doubt, end up in my friend’s pocket and, though the work was minor, the car wouldn’t be ready for another week. My request that we cancel the job and pick up my car was met with changing excuses, so I rented a car while the bodyshop finished its overpriced work.

That episode stimulated my interest and I began asking expats this question: have you experienced lying, cheating and stealing more frequently in Thailand than you did at home? (I wasn’t too worried about their having rosy memories of ‘home’: most expats have a pretty jaundiced view of life back home). 100 percent of them answered ‘yes’, and so do I. The big question is “why?”.

Here’s my guess: most Thais have no interest in befriending farangs socially. Their culture, like all ancient cultures, does not accept new members other than by birth – and we don’t share their obsession with hierarchy and ‘face’. So a higher proportion of Thais who choose to associate with farangs tend to be from lower income groups and do so for monetary gain. As a good friend said: look at the Thais in your life and ask, if they were farangs, would you still be around them? Do you hang out with losers and crude people at home? If not, why do so in Thailand? Is it because such people are likely going to  hurt you? Then why are you letting the Thai equivalent of such people into your life? Thais…..liars, cheats and thieves? Only if you choose to mix with the tiny percentage that are.

The rest of the country? Some of the most honest, kindest and nicest Thai people you could possibly meet. Just like anywhere. And, when you do get lied to or cheated or have something stolen, ask yourself if your choice of friends – just as you would at home.

Finally, here’s someone who knows a bit about how the Thai girlfriend game involves lying, cheating and stealing:

The post Lying Cheating and Stealing in Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

15-Year-Old Dies in Phuket Vegetarian Festival Shoot-Out.

Shoot-outs between teenagers are part of the landscape in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. They’re belong to a very old

tradition and are implicitly tolerated because, despite the mayhem they cause, they help preserve Thailand’s ancient warrior culture. Because Thailand has the best rice-growing land in the world it has been the target of many invasions from larger, envious neighbors over the centuries. In a dangerous environment like ours, you don’t want the boys to become sissies, do you? That’s why Thais generally take a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude to these incidents. Though Thailand’s homicide rate is slightly higher than the USA’s (5.0 vs. 4.5 per thousand citizens), the light touch policing makes for a much more relaxed environment. Police suppression is not nearly as evident in Thailand is it is in most Western countries. That’s one reason I like living here.

This headline is the first I’ve seen that balances Thailand’s pacifist Buddhist culture (the vegetarian festival – Thais love their abundant, exotic veggies) with the old warrior culture. Bravo!

Thailand’s headlines of the week are brought to you courtesy of the ever-inventive Thai people, who don’t like to make the same mistakes twice: they prefer to try new, exotic ones, bless ’em.

https://youtu.be/MQMSuFyTdJk

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