Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

hey all,

for those of you not in the 'know' (probably everyone save maybe KKF) I'm half thai, born in chaing mai in northern thailand...not trying to take over degen's thread here *though im cut i wasnt invited [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]* but i hope i can help with some of the cultural issues..

someone asked abt how similar countries like thailand, the philippines and vietnam are, and as i've lived in thailand and the phils for extended periods of time and visited vietnam, i feel qualified to comment. my father met my mother when he was a DEA special agent in chaing mai (part of the golden triangle of drug trade), and was later head of the DEA in the philippines and in charge of training their narcotics agents. my parents got divorced, and both remarried (my mom to a german man and my dad to a filipina). i currently live in Australia, but have lived in Manila, BKK, Chaing Mai and Phuket.

Anyway;

vietnam was/is by far the most impovrished of the three, and because of the socialist gov't, there were quite a few oddities like university professors taking jobs as tour guides for better pay, etc. that said, the country is beautiful and the people are gorgeous - very similar to the thais in attitude, but alittle more 'chinese', both in appearance and character.

the philippines is different altogether - its more 'european'(?) for lack of a better word. i mean its still an asian country, but for one thing, everyone - even the homeless on the street - speak english. its also a very roman-catholic country and is therefore quite conservative. not that this changes anything, cuz there are still bar girls aplenty, im just trying to emphasize that its not thailand.

anywhoo, on to thailand

everything that KKF and Degen have told you all so far is by and large true. i feel i should point out (my mother is of the thai upperclass - i mean she was a classmate of the princess at uni and many of her friends were/are ladies in waiting. she was also the only one in her family to marry a foreigner (or two), everyone else having married well-off thais) that thailand can still be very class-based. depending on where you go, you'll see several things like poorer people not looking richer thais in the eye, bowing their heads, or with maids - if they're in the same room the maids are sitting on the floor. now this is somewhat out of date but if you travel to somewhat-rural areas you'll still see this. i think this is what accounts for the 'politeness' of many thais - its been a part of the culture for many years to be subserviant to those who are superior (and with many of the poorer thais, thats what white people are, but this isnt as common with the upperclass who see themselves on equal footing as the whites).

also there is alot of stigma attached to bargirls, so if you plan on living there and mixing with any form of thai society outside of bars, expect some attitude. oh another thing - the isaan ladies can be verrry good looking, but are usually darkskinned (as are many of the bargirls). this is also looked down upon, they consider people with darkskin to be of the poorer classes, so fair skinned thais and mixbreeds are envied (lucky me) - you'll probably notice many of the actors/models in thailand are this sort of thai, either mixed or fairskinned ie some chinese ancestory.

in response to the guy that got busted with weed in northern thailand - not a good idea to carry weed around in northern thailand! if you want to smoke do it in BKK (and dont bring it in to the country for gosh sake) or in the south, where the police are more lax about this. i know that they still have random inspections of (for eg) trains in the north that are heading to BKK, so be wary. most of the stoners in thailand have migrated south. koh samui (i think, i honestly can't remember which island it was exactly) is a good example of this, people (farang and thai alike) will spark up a joint after dinner like you'd expect to see people sparking up cigis, seeing as there is no regular police stationed on the island. also amphetamines are used alot, security guards will often resort to this on late nights.

ok i think i've rambled enough, but if anyone has any questions, i'll be happy to help.

-pug

PS im gonna be in BKK for a few days in late november before heading to the states, then a few days in early feb on the way back to aus, if anyone's gonna be there.