Living in Thailand: What Do You Love?

Why are you here? What is it you love about Thailand? Why is it for you? I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on & responses to these questions.

I mean, of course, aside from the weather, the food, the beaches, the mountains, the people, the culture, the temples, the festivals, the women, and the freedom?

But seriously, we know it’s not all sugar & spice, and everything nice; yet, here we stay. In spite of a significant downside. After all, it seems to hold true that the back of the hand is just as big as the front.

Maybe each of us has our own reasons: most of us have Thai girlfriends, wives, and/or partners – that’s a fact. Still, many of us do not bundle them up (literally in some cases) and take them back “home”: to the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the US, or wherever it may be. And I don’t think that money or visas are the issue in many cases.

In my experience, the tropics generally – and Thailand in particular – have an intoxicating effect on one’s senses. We are drawn in and smothered by the heat, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the danger, the chaos, the warmth, and yes, the smiles. And what smiles.

We come from so-called developed, industrialized, or increasingly post-industrial nations; nations of law & order, procedures & policies, health & hygiene; sometimes, it feels, nations with way too much of this, in a word, “civilization”.

Of course, I am generalizing. But having lived in Thailand more than 2 decades, and SE Asia more than 3 decades, I’ve met lots and lots of people who’ve agreed with the generalizations above. And it strikes me that many of us have much in common. For better or worse.

I remember returning to my small hometown after having done fieldwork among the Karen people on both sides of the Thai-Burmese border. I lived in the jungle with the Karen National Union soldiers and their families, came down with malaria and dengue fever at the same time, and basically went through the typical “hardships” one experiences when immersed in fieldwork among a traditional people. (Although it must be said that these “hardships” are a way of life for the people we are just visiting.)

I asked my old friend back home, “You probably think this is all good fun, eh? A romantic adventure in exotic Asia? One you’d like to do?” Well, he looked at me like I was crazy, and as much as shouted, “No! It doesn’t sound like my idea of fun!” I must say I was a bit surprised by his reaction, and it drove home to me the differences between us; how he was quite happy to stay home and sell real estate, and well, I wasn’t – to put it mildly.

On the other hand, the many kindred spirits, if I may, that I meet over here are usually somewhat nonplussed by any stories I might regale them with, and may simply ask me a question or two about my background or a particular story.

In many cases, they then go on to tell me even more amazing and incredible stories, which is wonderful, and part of the reason I, for one, love it here. Because I am meeting like-minded travelers – in the true sense of the world – who are curious, adventurous, and restless; that is, like me. The place is indeed full of colorful characters.

Looking at it from a meta-cultural perspective, we are the ones “dispatched” from our “tribes” to venture forth and see what the hell is out there. We are the ones mixing with other races, and creating beautiful babies possessed of what biologists sometimes call “hybrid vigor”: in a nutshell, offspring embodying the best of both races, hale & hardy tots beloved by their host culture.

To push this admittedly romantic metaphor even further, if we would have been born Neanderthals – literally that is, not simply figuratively! – we would have been the ones sent on ahead to check out the next valley, the next hunting grounds…indeed, to go on a quest for fire.

I realize this is rather self-glorifying, maybe even self-justifying, and we all know tons of nutters, madmen, and junkies living among us. But that does not in any way diminish the heat, reduce the spiciness, or cool the real fire that does burn here. And that we do not feel when we return to our native countries.

I would submit that after many years here, we may become accustomed to the heat, but yet the fire still burns in all our hearts. It cannot be otherwise. It’s the nature of the place, and… it is our nature.

Simple I can do as I wish most of the time, a long as I don't infringe on other people. That is the difference to me other then that Thailand is just another hunk of dirt.

I don't really like the where that much after haivng lived in a Desert Climate for over 20 years.

The food I like some some I don't

The women if you want to paly with young cuties it's here, I'm happily married and found that experience to be very frustration chasing he young cuties. But, thats me. I seldom frink so the bars hold nothing for me.

The people some are good some are bad just like anywhere else.

I live very comfortably here on my retirement, actually have more in the bank then when I moved here. Love it I won't say that, but it is my home. I honestly believe it is a good a it is going to get for me.

Bravo Dude!!!

My life, while currently far more sedentary than yours, would have been unbearable if relegated to leading a normal "life of quiet desperation" like most of the people I grew up and went to school with. A visit "back home" to where I grew up is a depressing ordeal that finds me constantly murmuring prayers of "Thank You Jesus" for enabling me to escape this".

Best of wishes for 2011 and the future to you and yours,,,,,,,,,,,,,LL

Thanks Uncle Lee - Same to you & yours.

Thoreau's "quiet desperation" has a nice ring to it; but I've always felt that "controlled anxiety" is closer to the mark for most people. Certainly feel less of that here, with less fingers poking into my life.

But like ole Henry, I can appreciate his thoughts when he told us that he "went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

I've always liked being taken "on my own terms" here. Very few people know who I am, what I've done, what degrees I hold, etc. -- and that's as it should be IMO. One's worth must -- and should -- be proven daily, not based on one's name, or family, or inheritance, or titles. But as usual, I digress.

Suffice it to say that despite it all, I'm happy here, and I know many others are also. Thus they feel less need to proclaim otherwise here.

Have a great year, all. See you in the funny papers.

Maybe that's the key to enjoying life here in Thailand: keeping life simple as Thoreau did in Concord. We have a downsized version of a pond in our far-back yard. There's nothing better than meditating on a slice of wine-cork floating in the water, bamboo leaves reflected on the surface, an occasional red dragon fly landing on the bamboo pole, and best of all, the cork heading toward the depths of the pond with a catfish on the hook. There's almost nothing I love to hear more than the wife ask, "Do you think you could catch a few catfish for me?" 14 years here, and they've been easily the best 14 of my life, and I wasn't deprived for the rest of them.
When we sold off our stateside possession in a huge yard sale, a woman asked me why we were selling things from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Panama in a yard sale. I told her we were moving to Thailand. She said, "I'm sorry," as if we had committed an original sin and were damned to the depths of hell. I explained that we were moving of our own free will, but I don't think she really understood where Thailand was on the map, let alone why someone would pull up roots to move there. Most people take the right at the Y-intersection in life. I like to think we're one of the few who choose to bear to the left. No regrets here.

I know, I dug up an old thread but really wanted to say thank you for the contributors of this thread. As an American seriously considering moving to Thailand, and specifically Udon area, this was enlightening to read. Sure I am doing my due diligence and 3 2 weeks trips since December 2010 albeit reading the threads confirms many sides of this issues facing immigrating to Thailand. All in all, this thread epitomizes my feelings of wanting to go. Thank you really for all that wrote as it encompasses many complex thoughts and dare I might say made me happier than reading all threads on this forum. Gary