Full of optimism, you board a plane to the East in search of spiritual meaning. Once landed in Phuket, you immediately throw that mask in the trash. You spontaneously transform into an unleashed barbarian the moment the first cheap cocktail hits your bloodstream. For you, the promised land of smiles serves solely as a dumping ground for all your Western frustrations.
At home, you probably dutifully separate your plastic waste. In Pattaya, during Songkran, you blithely empty a fire extinguisher in the faces of partying locals. You appropriate public space, as if you are doing the local population a huge favor with your rude presence.
You rent a scooter that is far too heavy and immediately fancy yourself the absolute king of Thai roads. An insignificant office worker suddenly transforms into a reckless stunt pilot. You shamelessly pull a wheelie on a crowded main road and immediately put innocent lives in danger. Apparently, you leave your common sense behind, along with your winter coat, in the departure hall at Schiphol. Unfortunately, the local asphalt turns unnecessarily red due to this insane Western arrogance.
Our elevated intellect displays itself in all its splendor on tropical beaches and at sacred temples. You find it perfectly logical to have loud sex on a public beach full of families. A German idiot defaces dozens of buildings on Koh Phangan with completely useless graffiti. Foreign parasites sell hard drugs via obscure digital channels and completely ruin the local economy. You parade unashamedly in a tiny bikini right in front of a Buddhist shrine. Self-reflection is completely lacking in your appallingly egocentric holiday bubble.
The time for patiently laughing off our idiocy has mercifully and definitively come to an end. Thai residents are sickened by our shameless displays and, quite rightly, demand tough action. The local police no longer tolerate your destructive urges and crack down mercilessly on every violation. They will throw you into a stuffy cell without any hesitation and tear up your visa right in front of your nose. That arrogant French tourist with his pants full of cocaine is probably now crying hysterically for his expensive lawyer.
The myth of the civilized Western traveler has been mercilessly and permanently slaughtered. Thailand is absolutely not a tropical sanctuary for drug-addled and disrespectful antisocials. You are a privileged guest, and you simply adapt unquestioningly to the local rules. Otherwise, just keep wrecking the place in your own pathetic backyard.
About this blogger
- The Expat (66) has been living in Pattaya for 17 years and enjoys every day in the land of milk and honey! Previously employed in road and hydraulic engineering, but fled the capricious weather in the Netherlands. Lives here with his Thai girlfriend and two dogs just outside Pattaya, a 3-minute walk from the beach. Hobbies: enjoying life, going out, sports and philosophizing with friends about football, Formula 1 and politics.
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When you receive well over 30 million tourists a year, naturally there is some riffraff among them. If you then consider that places like Phuket or Samui are primarily geared towards night owls, drunks, and marginals, you can expect some excesses... this is just as common in Ibiza, Chersonissos, or many Spanish seaside resorts. In the Black Forest, Ayutthaya, or Andorra, however, you will encounter a very different crowd. Pattaya also seems to me to be spared somewhat, given that the street scene there is still mainly dominated by expats and a predominantly older crowd. It is a choice countries make, but I think it is still a small minority that misbehaves significantly, and those who misbehave are certainly not just Westerners... other nationalities such as Russians, Indians, and Arabs, just like the (drunk) Thais themselves, are not always exemplary people. The visa-free policy does not have everything to do with it, but in my opinion, it is not really a good thing if one wants to keep most marginals out.