While I always try my level best to look at as many positive aspects to a life in Thailand, there are times when the negative aspects rear their ugly head and make living here a little more frustrating or annoying that it perhaps ought to be.
The reasons to not live in Thailand below are not in any specific order other than what came to mind when writting.
The reasons to not live in Thailand below are not in any specific order other than what came to mind when writting.
Food Poisening
This is one of the most common problems for both visitors and in many cases ex-pats in Thailand. I have only had two bouts of food poisoning in my six and a half years in the country and perhaps I have been luckier than many others, but all the same, this is a horrible condition to suffer with. The symptoms I have experienced have been vomiting (in the worst case scenario), diarrhea (in every case), fatigue and sleeping far more than usual and have a weak body (in every case).
I feel that food poisoning is most commonly brought on by eating food from a local market stall or street vendor. While I believe these people take as much care in their food preparation as possible, it is the water they use that is the root cause. Tap water in Thailand should be avoided like the plague as it does not reach the standards you enjoy in more developed countries and with a potential 200 or more bacteria that can thrive in water, the risks are quite obvious.
The larger, indoor restaurants offers a much lower degree of risk but I think it would be foolish to think you could never get food poisoning eating here, even in the major chain restaurants.
Your best chance of not suffering with food poisoning in Thailand is to cook all your food yourself, or get your wife or girlfriend to cook, making sure that any tap water used is boiled properly, thus reducing the risk significantly.
I feel that food poisoning is most commonly brought on by eating food from a local market stall or street vendor. While I believe these people take as much care in their food preparation as possible, it is the water they use that is the root cause. Tap water in Thailand should be avoided like the plague as it does not reach the standards you enjoy in more developed countries and with a potential 200 or more bacteria that can thrive in water, the risks are quite obvious.
The larger, indoor restaurants offers a much lower degree of risk but I think it would be foolish to think you could never get food poisoning eating here, even in the major chain restaurants.
Your best chance of not suffering with food poisoning in Thailand is to cook all your food yourself, or get your wife or girlfriend to cook, making sure that any tap water used is boiled properly, thus reducing the risk significantly.
Loss of Electricity
I do not know just how widespread this "issue" is but living on the outskirts of Udon Thani can be a nightmare when you lose the supply of electricity without warning - and you never get any warning! Any time a new property is built, naturally enough a new connection to supply electricity needs to be made and this is just one of the reasons why the power is suddenly lost. This could happen two or three times a day, with a duration on between thirty minutes and several hours.
My biggest issue with this is not having any information in advance which would provide the opportunity to perhaps make arrangements to go out of the home for the duration. Even if we knew it was going to be a specific day of the week, some kind of contingency plan could be made, but it is totally random and incredibly annoying. If you use the internet or rely on electricity for any reason, this is likely to drive you a little crazy in a short space of time.
It is possible to buy a generator and have it connected to your home but this can be costly, noisy and not environmentally friendly. I know many expats have done exactly this but it is perhaps not essential unless you are totally dependent on the supply for whatever reason.
My biggest issue with this is not having any information in advance which would provide the opportunity to perhaps make arrangements to go out of the home for the duration. Even if we knew it was going to be a specific day of the week, some kind of contingency plan could be made, but it is totally random and incredibly annoying. If you use the internet or rely on electricity for any reason, this is likely to drive you a little crazy in a short space of time.
It is possible to buy a generator and have it connected to your home but this can be costly, noisy and not environmentally friendly. I know many expats have done exactly this but it is perhaps not essential unless you are totally dependent on the supply for whatever reason.
Loss of an Internet Connection
The loss of an internet connection is just as random as the loss of electricity, and often for the same reason - a new connection somewhere on the network. However, equally random appears to be something 3BB (our ISP) are especially good at, and that is disrupting the connection while carrying out some kind of maintenance on their hardware. I find the loss of the internet connection more annoying than the electricity as it is far more frequent.
Atrocious Driving Habits
Despite having rules for driving and road use, and rules that are quite similar to those in the UK, the roads in Thailand are among the scariest places on Earth in my view. The annual death toll is high and the accident count is massive. There are several factors, most of which are brought on by the attitude of the individual drivers and Thai way of life in general.
Alcohol and drugs play a major role in traffic accidents, and much to my dismay I have seen some of my relatives jump in their pick up truck, pissed as a fart, to drive 30km or so home at the end of a party. It makes me so sad and more than a little angry.
Mobile phone use is becoming a more common factor in traffic accidents. So many Thai people seem to be so dependent on their mobile phone and it is not uncommon to see people riding a moped and texting something at the same time.
Motorbikes/Mopeds. There are just thousands of mopeds and motorbikes to contend with when driving in Thailand, especially in urban areas. The biggest problem seems to be that they will ride anywhere on the road to get where they are going, so cutting corners, under-taking and weaving through traffic is all too commonplace. It is so hard to anticipate what is going to happen next.
Whoever is in charge of the Traffic Police. At risk of upsetting the Thai Royal Police, they or at least their senior colleagues must take a good portion of the blame for the high accident and death rates. Their is little more than lip service being paid by the police and while they are quite happy to stop moped riders without a crash helmet, or just pull ransom drivers over for a driving licence check, they don't seem to do anything to actually prevent any re-occurrence of offences. The fine of 200 baht for no helmet is laughable and the 500 baht for failure to produce a driving licence is not much better. I am told there is some process for repeat offenders and if that is true I am going to speculate that it is very ineffective and does little to educate drivers.
However, above all else, the attitude of the people is the main problem. It is not their fault that the driving test is inadequate and once let loose on the roads legally are little wiser about how to drive a vehicle than they day they were born. There is such a sense of urgency to get where they are going which is very much at odds with how they act in just about every other aspect of their life, which is normally a laid back, near lazy way of life. It is this urgency that causes most accidents in my opinion, combined with a lack of awareness of what is ahead of them.
Alcohol and drugs play a major role in traffic accidents, and much to my dismay I have seen some of my relatives jump in their pick up truck, pissed as a fart, to drive 30km or so home at the end of a party. It makes me so sad and more than a little angry.
Mobile phone use is becoming a more common factor in traffic accidents. So many Thai people seem to be so dependent on their mobile phone and it is not uncommon to see people riding a moped and texting something at the same time.
Motorbikes/Mopeds. There are just thousands of mopeds and motorbikes to contend with when driving in Thailand, especially in urban areas. The biggest problem seems to be that they will ride anywhere on the road to get where they are going, so cutting corners, under-taking and weaving through traffic is all too commonplace. It is so hard to anticipate what is going to happen next.
Whoever is in charge of the Traffic Police. At risk of upsetting the Thai Royal Police, they or at least their senior colleagues must take a good portion of the blame for the high accident and death rates. Their is little more than lip service being paid by the police and while they are quite happy to stop moped riders without a crash helmet, or just pull ransom drivers over for a driving licence check, they don't seem to do anything to actually prevent any re-occurrence of offences. The fine of 200 baht for no helmet is laughable and the 500 baht for failure to produce a driving licence is not much better. I am told there is some process for repeat offenders and if that is true I am going to speculate that it is very ineffective and does little to educate drivers.
However, above all else, the attitude of the people is the main problem. It is not their fault that the driving test is inadequate and once let loose on the roads legally are little wiser about how to drive a vehicle than they day they were born. There is such a sense of urgency to get where they are going which is very much at odds with how they act in just about every other aspect of their life, which is normally a laid back, near lazy way of life. It is this urgency that causes most accidents in my opinion, combined with a lack of awareness of what is ahead of them.
Price Discrimination
Price Discrimination is rampant in Thailand, regardless of where you go but there are some precautions you can take to avoid getting ripped off by these "chancers". In my opinion the Tuk Tuk drivers are the biggest offenders, closely followed by shops and market stalls that do not display prices. Unfortunately there are times when you can not avoid the services of a Tuk Tuk so you either need to be a bit streetwise, have a Thai in attendance and let them get the right price, or swallow your pride and let them have their way.
I understand the reasoning behind this, and that is to get more money for food and family, and I am a little sympathetic to their plight but there is no real good excuse for this behaviour and I for one do not accept it. Wherever possible I will use a metered taxi and it normally costs less and offers more comfort.
I understand the reasoning behind this, and that is to get more money for food and family, and I am a little sympathetic to their plight but there is no real good excuse for this behaviour and I for one do not accept it. Wherever possible I will use a metered taxi and it normally costs less and offers more comfort.