The mistakes farang make when living in Thailand

 I've mentioned before, you need to take the good with the bad when living in Thailand.

There's a saying, don't do anything in Thailand that you wouldn't do in your own country.

Farang come to Thailand, and expect life to be a fairytale. Even fat, farang men in their 50's assume they're handsome, and the young, pretty Thai lady he met in a bar really loves him, and he's that one lucky older farang that can make it work with a much younger lady.

So you know the story, he retires in Thailand with let's say 10 million baht, after selling his house in his own country. Since the expected lifespan of healthy male is around late 70's,  if he's already in his 50's, this 10 million baht should last him the rest of his life.

Anyways, he meets a bar girl in her early 30's or late 20's, let's say her name is Daeng, and she's the love of his life, he feels destined to be with her and it will make up for the miserable marriage/s he's had with farang women. He marries Daeng, puts land in her name and builds a nice house for them to live in. 

The wedding could cost a couple hundred thousand baht, he will pay her parents a dowry (sin sod), of maybe 1 or 2 million baht, plus the cost of the land and house, he could have already used up 5 million baht, which is half the money he expected to last him the rest of his life.

It doesn't matter though, because he has Daeng, they love each other and now he's already bought her land, married her and paid her parents a generous sin sod, it's sailing off in the sunset right? Not so fast, Daeng isn't sleeping with an old geezer for a basic lifestyle, she wants a high standard of living for her and her family.

Her family isn't just her children, parents and grandparents, also include brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, cousins, the buffalo that always gets sick, and non-blood relatives whom for some reason think they're your responsibility, oh and the goldfish.

Motorcycle break down, family remember need go hospital, this family member has no money, a nice evening out at the local restaurant can result in many of her relatives tagging along, and guess who they'll dump the food bill on?

Anyways, after a few years, he realises this isn't economically sustainable, so he says to Daeng, "teerak, can we cut back on spending, if I continue to spend money like this everyday I'll run out of money, we still have our love right"? Then Daeng responds by kicking him out of the house he paid for.

He then goes back to Pattaya and since his finances have drained, he'll need to make big cuts to his lifestyle, less women, cheaper condo and cheaper food and he knows the 5 million baht he has left will probably last him 5-10 years.

After his money runs out, he'll return to his home country with absolutely nothing, tell a sob story to social security and his family (while hoping they'll take him in) and he'll become one of those miserable old farang trolls on YouTube, whom attacks smarter farang who've made it work out for them in Thailand.

I've watched British airport reality shows, and what I've just mentioned above has happened in a number of episodes.

Now... How do you stop this happening to you?

Well, foreigners in Thailand can still do a 30 year lease for land, and as we know, they can own a condo. Many Thai women refuse to live in a condo and hopes a farang man will put land in her name.

 If you do a long term lease, it will prevent your Thai wife from just throwing you out of the house.

Some farang say, they have to put land in his Thai wife's name to show he trusts her, well you do it at your own risk. Then again, if you did a long term lease on land before you met your Thai wife, you could tell her you already paid 1 million baht for a 20 year lease on a house, so you and her might as well live in it. If her family live elsewhere and she wants to live with them, maybe find a woman whom can live where you did your land lease.

Other mistakes farang make are riding a motorcycle in Thailand when they don't know not only the official road rules, but the unwritten ones.

In Thailand, dont be surprised to see Thai people riding on the wrong side of the road and pull straight in front of you, cutting each other off like crazy and do other crazy stuff that are not legal, but they expect you to adjust the way you're riding to how they're riding.

Some farang get into traffic accidents and say they didn't do anything illegal and say it was the Thai person who was driving/ riding illegally. However, if you caused an accident because you don't understand the unwritten road rules in Thailand, you can guess who will be found at fault for the traffic accidents... You!

Still on don't do anything you wouldn't do in your own country, there's the infamous jet ski scams, in which farang rent a jet ski without being suspicious why they don't need to sign any papers before renting in.

When you rent something expensive in your own country, you'll sign papers saying you'll compensate for any damages or that you have insurance.

Anyways, they rent the jet ski, return it and are told the jet ski has damage, and the farang needs to cough up 40'000 baht to pay for the damage. The farang will refuse to pay, because he's bigger than the Thai man who rented him the jet ski, then he gets swarmed by many Thai men, some of whom have guns or knives. The farang decides to tell the police. The police will come, they'll side with these scammers, because the police are in on the scam too are taking kickbacks.

I am not in anyway defending these jet ski scammers, they are scumbags, and give me and the majority of my country people who try to do the right thing a bad name. I'm just saying, you gotta protect yourself, because there's scammers in every country.

There's a reason many people in Western countries have dashcams to protect themselves against the "walk in front of a moving car and sue the driver scam", and people in western countries whom win big money in the lottery are advised not to tell anyone and move far away, because they'll be targeted for various scams such as "walking onto a rich person's property, purposely injure yourself and sue the rich person", and what about fat Americans suing McDonald's for millions of dollars because they claim they didn't know eating McDonald's constantly would make them fat.

Scammers follow the money trail, whether it be tourists in Thailand, or rich people in western countries.

And on a simpler note, many farang think if they marry a Thai lady, the relationship is expected to last. The thing is, most relationships end, whether you partner is Thai or farang. I've mentioned in a previous blog, Thailand has a lower divorce rate than the likes of America and Australia. 

Yes, your Thai partner might be unfaithful, but many people in Western countries are unfaithful too.

You and your Thai partner might grow tired of each other, it's not because your partner is Thai, it's because they're human.

I've had relationships with Australian and American women, and when the relationship didn't work out, they were quick to blame my race/nationality. Heck, numerous American women I've dated, or their friends who barely knew me accused me of being after her money or a green card, despite these American women having not much money, and me secretly having more money than them.

The Australian women I've dated have been vindictive in their own way after a break up, even saying things such as I shouldn't be allowed to take money I earned in Australia to Thailand and use it to create a great lifestyle for myself (yes, that's right, and TBH, many Australian people in general have told me the same thing).

It's like I said in a previous blog, the world owes you nothing, and if you are careless in Thailand or any country, bad things will happen.