House sparrow or migratory bird in Thailand?
Last week I had another meeting with my fellow blog writer and good friend Joseph Jongen. For years we see each other at least once a year, usually in Pattaya and I always look forward to his arrival, because it is always pleasant and, moreover, he brings cigars for me.
We drink a glass (or several glasses) of beer in Megabreak and let that be followed by a meal with a good glass of wine in one of the better restaurants in the area. We know each other's business background and private life, and if we have briefly reviewed that during our meeting, we discuss all kinds of more or less important matters. We have no problem at all in coming up with solutions for all kinds of world problems, we gossip about people we (don't) know, but who are sometimes active on our blog and we disagree about whether PSV or Ajax will become champions this season.
Thailand
Joseph and I are both devoted to Thailand and know it well. We have both been coming there for many years, have seen large parts of the country – Joseph much more than I even – and have our ideas about what makes Thailand attractive. There our opinions sometimes differ, which is why I once described Joseph in an email as a migratory bird and myself as a homebody.
Migratory bird
Joseph has traveled Thailand from north to south and east to west. He knows every corner of the country, but that was not enough for him in the long run. He wanted to see even more and over the years expanded his travels to Thailand with trips to neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and further afield to the Philippines, Hong Kong and so on. He recently visited Macao and Celebes, including Brunei. It means travelling, in and out of hotels, but he finds that he gets a lot in return in the visits through encounters with foreign peoples and seeing interesting places. So he always remains a tourist, a real migratory bird!
House sparrow
I also know Thailand quite well, at least enough for my feeling. I have also traveled around the north and the northeast, visited islands and although I found these very pleasant trips, I felt that I have seen it all, I don't have to visit another temple, I don't have to go again admiring a mountain landscape, I don't need to discover new beaches. I now live in Pattaya, live a normal life with family, my hobbies (including Thailand blog) and I like it that way. So you can safely call me a homebody!
Verschil
The big difference between Joseph and me is that he lives in the Netherlands, would not move to Thailand for any price and I once chose to live in Thailand. That difference is of course partly determined by private circumstances in the past, but we both feel “sanook” with the choice made!
Finally
In Thailand we know tourists, winter visitors, temporary expats and residents from the Netherlands and Belgium and I am curious whether they, each for themselves, feel more like a migratory bird than a homebody. Please let me know!
“In the past” I was more of a so-called migratory bird, I also crossed all of Thailand with a Thai acquaintance, who had his own travel agency and often went exploring to put together a new trip. Unfortunately, that best man passed away 4 years ago and I have become a homebody. I still regularly go out with my wife and daughter, but they have different interests than me. They mainly go to a temple to pray or market. Don't mind going to such a temple, but also want to look around at my leisure. The Thai pray, if you can buy food there, they will eat and otherwise as soon as possible to a place where you can eat.
An acquaintance once said to me, Actually, we should do the same in the Netherlands, go to 5 different churches in one day and the next day. See how they react 🙂
During my working years I have visited quite a few countries for the company I worked for. I always found it pleasant to take the time to see more of the country in question, than just the place where I had my business contacts. So at the time I would have been more of a migratory bird than a house sparrow.
Nowadays, especially since I have settled in Thailand, I am much more of a homebody.
I really appreciate the resort, with all its tranquility, and the house we live in. I am satisfied with 1-2 trips per week to the city (Udon) for some shopping, sitting on a terrace and eating out.
A few times a year we travel a little further, such as to Chiang Mai and to our friends near Roi Et. Other than that, I'll ignore it. So yes, now a real house sparrow.
I myself am a homebody, can enjoy the outdoors around the house in the Isaan.
See my wife, also a homebody, taking care of the fruit trees and all the other vegetables.
just the company of my house sparrow friends
I continue reading in my book with a beer within reach.
The house sparrow also sometimes wants to fly out.
We do this once a month
staying in a hotel in a big city somewhere in Thailand for a week
Everyone will spend their time differently.
That's a good thing, otherwise it would be very busy if we all did the same thing.
I can also imagine that there are falang,
who would like to do it differently
But for various reasons,
being more or less trapped in an undesirable situation.
For that falang would say, turn the knob, and start again
If you keep looking back at what you lose, you won't get ahead.
life is too short not to enjoy it.
We have traveled a lot. Mainly. by camper, Europe, Canada, America, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, China, Russia. Great trips. But for more than 13 years every time also Thailand.
Starting with a week, 2 weeks, a month etc. Now settled in 2 countries.
Thailand and the Netherlands, fifty fifty.
Like a bird, we migrate to the warm south every year, so to Thailand for a longer period of time.
But once in our Thai home, we have become real homebody.
We cycle and scooter liberally around our house almost every day. We walk on the beach, bake Dutch bread, wash, clean, garden, drink a coconut at sunset, eat somewhere in the street, chat and read. Wonderfully clear and structured! Every now and then friends from the Netherlands come and get things started, we like to bring them to this beautiful country, but we also like to wave them goodbye.
Then peace falls around us again.
House sparrows!
I think most permanent residents in Thailand have become 'house muses'. That is precisely the big difference between a tourist who visits Thailand and someone who lives there permanently. The permanent residents are usually already past this stage of traveling and settle somewhere where they build up a regular life as a pension, which does not consist of partying and traveling around every day.
Personally, after coming to Thailand for 20 years and living there for a long time, I no longer need the real traveling around, not that I consider EVERYTHING seen. Life organizes itself in a certain form of regularity, just as you would live as a pensioner in your home country. You don't move around there anymore either. I still do trips here very regularly, both by car and by motorcycle, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a few weeks, but the purpose of these trips is completely different from when I was a tourist in Thailand. Now the trips are more focused on visiting friends, friends who live elsewhere in Thailand. Are the visits eg aimed at the combination of seeing friends, the sights of their region. Sights that tourists are usually deprived of because they are not really tourist hot and are only known by people who live there. And not to forget, but very important for Lung addie: the culinary, which differs quite a bit in Thailand depending on where you stay. So, here in the South you enjoy the exceptional Seafood, in Isaan for example I will not eat seafood or sea fish, there are other dishes that get my attention. Living in the South, it is always interesting to taste and get to know the other life, such as in Isaan or the North.
I traveled all over the world from the age of 23 to 55. Stayed in beautiful hotels and big cities, but I also visited glaciers in Alaska, the Rocky Mountains and traveled to the Cape of Good Hope. Have visited wine estates, robot museums, waterfalls, rivers, seas and lakes. Walked the wall in China, visited the Ming Tombs at a time when China was just opening the gates to the west. Shot photos in the Himalayas on a trek through Pakistan and swam in the Red Sea in southern Jordan.
Walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Tower Bridge in London and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Visited cities in Japan, traveled all over Indonesia and drank a nice Caipirinha at the Copa Cabana in Rio de Janeiro. And all that with sometimes only days in between.
Yes, I was a traveler and I enjoyed that.
And now? I have not left Thailand since January last year. We occasionally make trips and now that we have a car, we also do day trips. No more. Sometimes I am at home for three or four days, except when I go cycling or swimming…
And I thoroughly enjoy all of this. I enjoy going to bed at ten o'clock every day and getting up before sunrise in the morning.
I'm glad I was able to travel in my younger years and now I can dabble in my garden, start a project and also break it down when things don't go the way I thought they would. Wonderfully busy with everything and anything that I could never do in my travel years.
The desire for, is often more fun than the possession. In my case, that also applies to Thailand. Nice to come regularly, but to live there…. no. If I am going to live somewhere, I still want to have the same rights and obligations as everyone else in that country. Unfortunately, this is not possible in Thailand.