Thais and You

Firstly, I'll talk about how the Thais look at people from other nation from my personal opinion. I have been living in Bangkok, Thailand for about 20 years now. Originally I'm from Denmark.

Visitors should know
From the time that I have been here, I have learned a lot about how Thai people treat foreigners. If you're Caucasion or white skin or westerners, they will call you "Farang". The word for westerners. They believe, you have money and that you can spend your money freely. Since your currency carries much more weight when compare to Thai Baht. Most Taxis and Motorcycle Taxis would try to overcharge you somewhat, but not all though.

When you go around shopping, it is best to have a Thai person accompanying you to negotiate the price for you. Again this is not necessary, if you know your way around and how things work here. You'll never be cheated in a Supermarket or Shopping mall. But there's a high chance that things you're buying from the street or market would be a bit overprice or even double at times. This "overcharging thing" seems to happen with all foreigners.

One of my personal experience down soi "Pat Pong" in silom. I saw a fake rolex watch that I thought it would be cool to buy a fake one from Thailand, since I'll not be able to find one in Denmark. I asked the guy selling for the price. He doesn't even speak English and punched numbers in the big calculator that he has. He was selling me at 4,000 Baht.

A Thai friend of mine was with me at that time. So I asked him to bargain the price down for me. After about 5 minutes of talking, the guy was ready to sell that watch for a 1,000 Baht. 3 times the price!!! I was amazed.

The Thais usually like people with white skin, in general. A white man walking down Nana Plaza will have a great time with all the Thai girls wanting to be with you. Of course, only if you're not fat and ugly.

People of Chinese origin, or yellow skin and Indian origin or dark skin. Thais believe Chinese and Indian people are stingy and will try to get as much out of them as possible. Thais called the Chinese "Chek" and Indian "Kaek". In some of the condos and apartments in Bangkok, don't even allow Indian to stay. This really surpises me, because most of the wealthy Thais are actually Chinese - Thai or Indian - Thai.

Most Thais believe having a fair skin (white) is better than having dark skin. They don't totally dislike people with dark skin but they would prefer fair people. Don't be surprise, if you go to the beach and see all the Thais wearing T-Shirt and pants at the beach. All because they're afraid of getting tanned.

Overall, Thailand is the land of smiles. Although people in Bangkok are a bit more serious, but otherwise Thais overall are kind and nice people. This is probably the main reason why I love Thailand. Life here is easy, far more better than Europe. Although some may find it tough settling, others do quite well. You can see, most Farangs are settling in very well in Pattaya.

In the office
I have been working in Thailand for quite long to understand how things work. Thais are really very considerate "Kreng Jai" about what they do. They are somewhat afraid of giving their opinion at work place. After the meeting in done, I say "Anybody have any questions?". They are all quiet.

Once out of the meeting room, then they'll start chatting among themselves. When I give them a lot of work to do at one time, they wouldn't question me. But would sit quietly and do the work. When its time I go back and ask them again, "Have you done the work?". They say, "no, a lot of work". I thought to myself, if you can't do all of it then why not tell me. Why just sit quietly and not say anything!!

NOTE: This is just a man opinion and is not meant to comment on any one in particular.

Reader's comments:

Anybody going to Pattaya for there first time Dont listen to bullshit from ladies about waterbuffalo customer support be carefull where you select your woman dont give in to stupid demands on how much you should be paying them its best to agree prices after there bar fine some start happy then they moan most are really good so i would choose and stick with one for a few days depending on how much money you got else getting through to meny could cost a few quid does anybody get irratated paying hotels to bring a lady back it can really cost through a 2 week hoilday my moneys on apartments barfine,moneyforgirl thats it not more money for the hotel. Added by: russ    Report abuse

true, very true....all in all Thais are lovely people Added by: asslover    Report abuse

I believe this is true :D Added by: Anonymous    Report abuse

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