Jayman

I received the following in an email from a mate.  I inquired as to the source but it seems to be unknown.  I enjoyed int and thought I would post it here for others.




This is a light-hearted look at cultural perceptions, not to be confused with an entirely serious world view, but, how Thai are you?

Thais are often uniquely incapable of learning about their own country, being too deeply entangled in the characteristics of Thai-ness that prevent them from seeking the truth. They are hampered by superstition, the importance of image over substance and of social harmony over truth, a natural tolerance of social ills, and a willingness to smooth things over instead of addressing ugly problems head on.

Farangs are an asset to Thailand in many ways, including their objective view of Thai society that exposes obvious truths that are often invisible to Thais.

I've seen grown women refuse to stay in a house for fear of Ghosts(???)
I've seen grown men refuse helpful advice because they might "lose face" so they continue on their own path, resulting in serious injury
I've seen young men not even hold the door open for their own girlfriends (because men are superior in Thailand) and then look at me with disgust when I do because now I've made them look bad. (WTF?)

That's THAI-NESS for you.
Superstitious naivety before good sense. The immature notion of "Face". Absolute selfishness and ZERO common sense.


Farangs will never understand that the convenience offered by driving on the wrong side of the road outweighs the dangers created.

Farangs will never understand why you still love your drunken father who you send money to from Pattaya.

Farangs will never understand why it is legal to generate unlimited amounts of noise in residential neighborhoods in order to sell a 10 baht icecream.

Farangs will never understand why you allow people with no idea whatsoever how to drive to get a license for 200 THB under the table.

Farangs will never understand why you allow your children to drive around on motorcycles when they are 7 years old.

Farangs will never understand Thai husbands that allow their wife to live with a Farang when he is in country, help spend the Farangs money when he is not, and think he is maintaining "face".

Farangs will never understand women losing their house in a card game.

That’s why Farangs can not understand "Thai-Ness".

However, if everything was just ‘same, same,’ wouldn’t it be boring?
So it’s important to adopt and adapt to the ways of Thai-ness, how well are you doing?


Ways of Knowing if you have Thai-ness or not.

You look four ways before crossing a one-way street.

You put salt and chilli on your ice cream.

A Thai cop stops you for a minor infraction and you automatically reach for your wallet..

You believe you may have been possessed as a child.

You wake up in the morning and realize that you have nowhere to go and all day to get there.

A Thai bar girl you've just met tells you that her mother is deathly ill and you just laugh and walk away.

You consider your mobile phone a fashion accessory.

You start wearing sandals everywhere…

You start driving cars barefeet…

You no longer enjoy Songkran. Instead, you stay home with a stack of videos.

You become an expert on buying and selling gold jewellery.

You believe that Yabba goes well with som-tam (a bit like white wine)

Dogs become animals you'd rather kick than pet. (or possibly eat)

When driving a car you'll start using every free inch of the road.

You realize that all the important words in Thai begin with the letter S. Sanuk (Fun), Saduak (convenient), Sabai (comfortable), Suay (pretty).

You think a calendar more useful than a watch…

My mate is married with a thai and also has a child.  He's here on a 30 day visa exemption stamp and needs to extend by like 18 days as he has air tickets to take the whole family to OZ.  He will be getting his non-imm O in OZ on his visit.  Is it possible to get an 18 day extension or will he have to do a quick border run?

I have read that perhaps 7 days is the max extension given on visa exemption stamps.

I have to go get my Thai drivers licenses renewed soon and I know that typically you have to bring in the residence letter from Thai Immigration.  I recently got my yellow house book which obviously has my name and address in thai. I'm wondering if this will suffice for the renewal of the licenses.  If I can avoid having to pay Jomtien Immigration for 2 letters (1 car and 1 motorbike) and just bring in my yellow book with copies that would be lovely.  


Does anyone have experience doing this?  I will be renewing at the office just outside Pattaya.  I do understand that the other requirements will be to bring in my passport (with copies) and the med certs.

I have just spotted it as I was leaving Numchai tonight.  It's in the same parking lot as Numchai and lotus.

 uploadfromtaptalk1329400652044.jpg   35.72K   37 downloads

Given that this is a forum about Thailand I think it would be very nice to have a Karma points system implemented into the forum.  I have seen this system in many other forums and it seems to work quite well.  This would allow members to both give positive points to posts they agree with/find helpful as well as give negative points to those they find insulting/inflammatory.  This would also give incentive to posters to stop posting garbage as soon they will get labeled as a waste of space member and others will see right away that this poster makes a habit of posting inflammatory stuff.

Of course the karma count would be seen under the posters name and post count with every post that is made.  This would let the members do a bit of "self-moderation" so to speak as they could both approve or disprove of posts.

I do think the "like this" button is a step in the right direction but it needs to followed up with the "dislike this" button.