Obviously I haven't lived here long enough to really know anything about the place, this is just what I've noticed so far.
Good:
-If you buy food from street vendors you'll never pay more than $1.50 for a meal.
Bad:
-Buying food this cheaply sets an unreasonable standard in your head where paying a normal amount for a meal (say, $5) is infeasible.
Good:
-The most expensive bottle of water I've seen here was 20 baht (about 60 cents) and it was 1.5 liters.
Bad:
-I'll never be able to buy bottled water again in America without wincing.
Good:
-A lot of items and services (basically anything made expensive because of labor involved) are cheaper in Thailand, like T-shirts, tailor-made clothes, massages, taxis, etc.
Bad:
-This can very easily lead you to the ill-advised conclusion that everything is cheaper in Thailand which is certainly not true. I've seen pints of Ben & Jerry's here going for $10.
Good:
-Anybody selling goods knows at least a passable amount of English.
Bad:
-Knowing that is a crutch which prevents you from ever challenging yourself to learn more Thai since you're worried you'll sound like a retard and would rather just speak your own language.
Good:
-Thai people are very friendly and always smiling.
Bad:
-More often than not their teeth are perfect and make you self-conscious about your own, hence you don't smile as much as them and probably make them think you're some sullen jerk.
Good:
-Young Thai people are incredibly fashion conscious and make for good people watching.
Bad:
-You feel like a complete schlub next to them.
Good:
-Thai people seem to revere our culture and language considering how much of it is around, American movies everywhere and t-shirts with English on them just for the sake of having English phrases.
Bad:
-As an American you're a dime a dozen here so while they may enjoy your culture that doesn't make you interesting.
Good:
-Their culture is genuinely interesting, they've made lots of cool movies and they've got musical instruments that sound unique.
Bad:
-You're a tourist and you have no idea where to find any of this stuff. Almost all of their movies on DVD have no English subtitles and you have an easier time finding places to buy Thai instruments from in America than you do here.
Good:
-It's never cold.
Bad:
-It's always hot.
Good:
-The city is endless!
Bad:
-The city is endless.
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7 comments:
clever post young chap. I knew blogging would be your thing! I love it! Keep it up!
I like how everything you post has a good and bad side—seeing the positives and negatives of a situation seem to be a mark of the considerate.
Maybe you should have gone to England where your teeth would have looked perfect.
I can only assume that after posting this you were whipped, water boarded, and left naked in a field for implying that there any anything bad about the thai life.
You're thinking of China Matt. Or maybe Iran. Or probably a bunch of other countries... but not Thailand I don't think. It's a parliamentary democracy!
I thought most of what you said made thailand sound really good. you make it sound like you arent coming back :P
Oh...
No wait, I'm thinking of Canada.
yeah.
Canada has the whippings.
Yar, a parliamentary democracy, insofar as you don't insult the current king or...that other one that they worship, Yul Brynner played him in the King and I. He's seriously like their most revered national figure for some bizarre reason.
Also, not that it makes it any more pleasant, but in India parents - the super-poor kind - will sometimes horribly maim or disfigure their kids to work as apprentices under more experienced beggars, the logic being that the kids'll never graduate beyond their present social class and begging can be a comparatively lucrative job when compared to hauling nightsoil and working as a porter. Thailand's got some Indian influences on the culture, so that's probably where the class of hideously mangled and burned beggars you keep stumbling across came from.
What else? Oh yeah: Stefan, my copy of Windows that we burned / borrowed from somebody when you built my computer last year is due to expire in a couple days. Can you fly back to New Hampshire to set my computer right again?
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