Observations of Thai Culture

Hi and welcome to Expat.com georgeteague66 !

Wow. I guess we have seen happier introductory posts.
Anyway thanks for sharing your experience and warning others against possible misadventures.
I'm sure you can share positive experiences as well though

Regards
Armand

Wow thats some introduction, some unkind souls might suggest its a none to subtle troll post. Me, I will give you the benifit of the doubt seeing as its your first post here.

To be honest you sound as if you have been on the recieving end of some sharp business practice or a failed marriage to a Thai. None of my business-just an observation.

I haven't lived here 40 years(Vietnam war era?)but I have lived here long enough to know NOT everyone is out to scam you, nor do they all see you as a walking ATM.

Lets face it if you don't like a deal here,  its as easy to walk away as it is back home.

The first Thai language I learned here was how to count and the denominations of the Baht along with please and thank you! My mental maths work just as well here as they do back home,  the only difference being the name of the currency. So no I don't need a calculator.

Please don't get the impression I am a Thai apologist, I'm not and yes I can list plenty of things that are wrong with Thailand. BUT I am not Thai, its not my country and I stay here because I can afford to and it suits me. Thailand allows me to do this subject to a minimum amount of fuss with visa's etc.

I hope you next contribution to the forum will be to answer some of the queries raised by the inexperienced expats who don't have the benifit of your 40 years spent in the Kingdom. They come here in the main looking for some solutions to real issues and not to read rants about our host country and its people.

Same as the other.
I have been in Thailand almost 3 years for studying and nobody try to scam me.
On the contrary Thai people are most honest than  European and American ones.
I had a street vendor running after me when I paid by mistake with a 1000 note instead of a 100 note. I forgot twice my camera at the hospital only to find it untouched the day after ( after I don't know how many teacher, student, assistant, patient and cleaning lady pass by ).
I spend whole days in houses without running water with the whole street passing by, never fearing once to see my laptop, mp3 or mobile phone disappear.
That something that you need time to get used to. If you left something at one place it will stay there.
On the opposite I had trouble explaining to Thai people that you really need to be careful about your stuff in Europe, and that no, no when your are a women, it is not safe to walk alone in the street of a city at night.

But if :

- You believe that someone can fall in love with you, when you are able only to present yourself in Thai and nothing else
- You believe that girls that you meets in the bar can be perfect for long stable relationship.
- Dating and parting a lot is perfectly normal here, everybody does it and there will be strictly no impact on your professional and social life.
- That you can make easy money without special skill or hard work
- That because people seems to show deference to you, your life here will be easy, no need to plan, no need to make effort. Leaving day by day is the key.
- That people here are just eager to make you earn some money because "hey you are you, a very special guy"
- That because you are a foreigner some rule can be bend ( I am thinking in particular to the ever famous, " Bank cannot loan money to a foreigner, but there is a special way " and " Normally you can not buy land in Thailand, but you are special guy I have a connection who can make exception for you"

So basically If you apply the same standard for your behavior in Thailand that the one you use in Europe or in the U.S, you will see that Thailand is full of descent and honest people that will only try to help you achieve your goals.

Only trouble that I encounter is that Foreigner have very bad reputation here, so it is somethings that you have to fight against. But I do not hold it against Thai people, because after three years here I tend to stay away from foreigner too. Not that I try to go native (I almost finish my studies and the sooner I can go back the better), but I learn quite fast that with some exception foreigner here usually do not amount to much and are best avoided.

I agree with the poster georgeteague66,

He is a straight pipe.......i like his stlye of writting no BS.

Come thailand enjoy e beaches and thai food.......keep low profile i think you should be fine.

I would say that working with the principle that nobody care about your financial health but you, would be safer.

This is true generally in all country

Just as a side note I heard much more story about expat wanting to do business in china and coming back with nothing than in Thailand. The reason being that Thailand is a lawful country, meaning that if you have a contract with a company in Thailand and they broke the contract they will be held accountable. But in China ( and most of the country surrounding  Thailand in fact ) a contract is just a glorified peace of paper.

Of course this mean that you know your Thai business partner and have been paying attention at every step of the transaction. In fact once again like in the U.S or Europe.

What would happen do you think if a rich Thai business man wanted to do business ( I mean spending money ) in the U.S and was operating with the assumption that because people were nice to him he could trust them completely without checking anything except the end results ?

bracket wrote:

I would say that working with the principle that nobody care about your financial health but you, would be safer.

This is true generally in all country

Just as a side note I heard much more story about expat wanting to do business in china and coming back with nothing than in Thailand. The reason being that Thailand is a lawful country, meaning that if you have a contract with a company in Thailand and they broke the contract they will be held accountable. But in China ( and most of the country surrounding  Thailand in fact ) a contract is just a glorified peace of paper.

Of course this mean that you know your Thai business partner and have been paying attention at every step of the transaction. In fact once again like in the U.S or Europe.

What would happen do you think if a rich Thai business man wanted to do business ( I mean spending money ) in the U.S and was operating with the assumption that because people were nice to him he could trust them completely without checking anything except the end results ?

I agree both thailand and china are not recommended to do bizness, too many red tape, flimsy law biased against foreigners, corruption among e high ranking officials.

I recommend ppl to go relax, keep low profile, learn their culture, enjoy their food, enjoy e low cost of living.

You can do business when you are a foreigner both in China and Thailand.

In China it is more difficult due the absence of a stat of law regarding contract. Basically if you can do something that they can neither copy or make cheaper you will be okay. Trouble is a lot of European and American businessman did not (and still do not) follow this rule when they move from Thailand to China. I know of one case in Jewelry where a company associated itself with a Chinese partner for opening a factory in China, the factory was constructed but never started production the reason being that their Chinese associate build another factory right next of their own, who was doing exactly the same thing for a lower price.

In Thailand the main problem is that the life seems very easy so a lot of people thinks that it is the same with works. But in fact the rule for a successful business are quite universal. You follow everything, I mean you have a lawyer who examine every contract and you check every step of your process production, once again exactly like in Europe or the U.S.
For a more know situation.  If you want to open a bar it is possible but you have to know precisely the legal situation, know the detail of the deals with your suppliers (and check that they stick to it), know how to communicate with your labor force, have an idea of your market and work very very hard. Usually foreigner who try to open bar do nothing of this so they fail, unless someone take care of thing for them of course.

I would say someone like a Thai wife ( that they meet in a bar ) who start the business ( man it is incredible she does everything for me, yes she is essential to the bar as she is the only one who know how thing works) the husband providing only the initial cash flow and some basic works. The man being in love check absolutely nothing of the legal situation ( foreigner can not own land so the bar is in the name of the wife of course, the wife forgetting to say that other arrangement are perfectly possible, which if a little more complicated have the advantage or disadvantage of letting the ownership in the name of the husband ). Once the business is establish the women kick the man out and keep the bar, et voilà.

You have the same story in Europe and U.S by the way, but when it follow the same pattern most people will tell you that the husband as been pretty stupid to put everything in the name of his spouse.

Trouble with Thailand is that the life seems too easy. International company know that usually when they send a foreigner there the time must not exceed two years. More than this and you have some good chance to have some behavioral trouble beginning to appear. But once again this is not systematic.

Woahhh thanks a lot for all these sharing information! Considering to go to travel in Thailand this summer Hope that it would be a great trip !

Some parts of bracket's mention are true. It depends on how you look at things. Many people judge things based on their experiences. Some foreigners have successful businesses even though they got married with bar girls but they are very rate. To play safe, I don't want to risk having a business with a bar girl though some educated girls may kick you out and look after your$$ as well.

I think it depends on where and how you look at things. Doing business in China, TH or anywhere else, you have to be careful. I find doing a business in China is much more insecure than TH. If you don't know Chinese people/language well, they may cheat on you any time. Of course, they marry you because you have$$. Trying to search Chinese or discussion from the past years, you will see many things are more risky from Thai's.

Money makes the world go round. It should surprise no one that Thais are eager to make money.

Also, if you surround yourself with decent people, western and Thai, you'll generally have positive experiences. You sleep with dogs you get fleas.