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Home » Reader question » Reader question: Drinking because of boredom and homesickness?
Dear readers,
I have read that in the past pensioners in tropical countries started drinking because of boredom and homesickness. Is that still the case?
Regards,
Jo
Jo, tell me about your own drinking. People in the tropics are bored? How so? At most now a little because of corona.
By the way, why do you want to know whether pensioners in tropical countries
1. be bored and
2. get into booze.
I think you don't get much spontaneous information on your question. And that is not surprising.
In my opinion, that is still the case. But there is a possibility that it does not apply to every retiree…..
No, that was only the case in the past.
A pensioner is absolutely not bored. In addition to his partner, there is always Immigration.
Given what is going on in the Netherlands, no one is homesick.
And then the drink is just as expensive here as in the Netherlands, if it is available at all.
I sit in front of the window glass
endlessly bored
i wish i were two dogs
then I could play together.
I'll take another one there.
https://jandirksnel.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/twee-hondjes-over-een-rijmpje-van-michel-van-der-plas/
You forgot to mention that this was a rhyme by Michel van der Plas from 1954
Ivo de Wijs has made his own version of this:
Unfinished (after Michel van der Plas)
I'm sitting in front of the window glass
Messing around in the kitchen
I wish I were two dogs
I have been a bar owner in China for years. Now that I live in Pattaya area, only ± 2 glasses of good wine per month. For the rest only water and tea, coffee without sugar. And I've never been bored.
But when I walk around like this, I see a lot of pensioners who are apparently very bored and have been drinking beer from 9 o'clock in the morning with a view of infinity.
Just the name of the poet below.
It's so neat.
Michel van der Plas is the poet who dedicated it to Godfried Bomans.
But Ivo de Wijs has given it a contemporary/Thai twist, hahaa
Those who are bored, regardless of whether they try to solve this with or without booze, will certainly not stand in line to tell their story here.
Here you mainly read stories of people who are so satisfied with their new environment that they do not want to return to the terrible homeland, where according to them nothing was right anymore.
Everything is suddenly so much better, so that you start to wonder what these people hear, read, see or maybe drink, to come to such an unrealistic opinion.
With the latter I speak mainly of those who live somewhere in the country in a village, where besides themselves live one and a half men and a horse's head.
A village where, for generations, the same scenes take place every day, of which they still try to convince their old environment in the homeland that this is the life they have been looking for.
Most of them did not look for anything themselves, because they obediently followed their wife, who happened to be born here and already had a piece of land or a house.
Tastes differ, but if I hibernate almost every year for 4 months in my wife's native village, then I do this largely for her and her family.
I myself would also favor many other places in Thailand to enjoy my hard-earned evening of life here, and could never fall in love so much as to live permanently in such a village.
While I'm sure they exist, I doubt we'll ever hear many honest accounts from people who imagined village life in the country differently.
In the long run it would be a kind of trial in a cemetery for me, with only the sarg for air left ajar.
Because I never want it to come to that, under these circumstances, at most a regular sip could give me a loss of reality.555
Whereby of course I wish those who genuinely enjoy it, all the luck in this world to enjoy it further.
Dear John, people who go to Thailand “only” four months a year are probably better off going to a place where many farangs come, especially if you are a bit older and adapting quickly becomes more difficult. But if you choose Thailand permanently, a village does not have to be a bad choice. Then you get the chance to build something up at your own pace and feel at home in Thailand. But I immediately admit that not everyone will be able to settle in the Thai countryside. Nor have I ever recommended it to anyone.
Dear Hans, For me personally it has nothing to do with the fact that I only come to Thailand for 4 months a year.
Also, after all these years, and my wife's schooling, I speak enough Thai that I can have a conversation with the Thai neighbors and other acquaintances, so that I can manage without Farang for those 4 months.
You only notice in these conversations that a lot of Thai people in the village have a very low Interests level, so that you immediately hit their limits in terms of Interests or knowledge of a certain subject.
Without feeling more or better, I appreciate their kindness and hospitality, but I still find time and time again that for very many of my Thai peers, Thai education, albeit due to the government, education system and financial possibilities, often was extremely limited.
A village party that occurs every now and then is at most cozy as long as the excessive use of alcohol, which is usually already programmed, does not get the upper hand.
Often this alcoholic upper hand is quickly reached, so that it only becomes drinking and screaming and jeering.
This situation, which for many normal Farang has nothing to do with "sanuk", is usually the time for me to say goodbye and go home quickly.
Furthermore, we are dependent on certain months when hibernating, which, due to the very poor and unhealthy air quality, almost force you to stay at home, or at most to go through life with a mouth mask.
All things that I can otherwise enjoy better and healthier in other parts of Thailand and this world, and would always prevent me from settling permanently, especially in such a village where my wife happened to be born.
Dear John, you do have a point, of course. The village where a farang's wife chooses can be unattractive to that farang, such as the air pollution you mention. The village my wife chose – not her native village by the way – had my approval and has no obvious negative features. On the contrary, due to the proximity of universities and research institutes, there are relatively many Thais who speak English and a relatively large number of farmer's daughters and some farmer's sons also continue their education. Poverty is not extreme either. That all has its attractive aspects and, moreover, the people here remain very friendly.
People who are addicted to alcoholic beverages or do so out of profession or habit, drink everywhere and Thailand or boredom is not the basis of that. That is a substance in your brain that says it is so tasty, while the body indicates that it is unhealthy. Taking pills for a lifetime is the result for many, among others. I have seen several people in my immediate environment die because of the extra increase / intake of alcoholic beverages during a long stay in Thailand.
It is possible that this had also happened in the Netherlands and that retirement is not always a positive change for those concerned. I have not asked these people their reason, because it is not appreciated. They decide that themselves and then this is the result. So be it.
it still occurs. Just outside Pattaya is even a death mountain, where a farang regularly jumps to his death. I have also known a few farang who have put an end to it.
In my experience, it is not so much boredom that is the clincher. Often it is a lack of finances. This can be due to poor financial management (the pub, the restaurant and the girl), exchange rate fluctuations and often the so-called love. One good bounce and they're sold, buying a house with land, in her name of course. And then it turns out she's not that nice after all. Consequence of divorce, lost home and lost savings. They have to rent a house and get by on what is left and then they also have to drink the ldvd away. And then friends are hard to find, they were just drinking buddies, who desperately need their money themselves and have warned you so many times. Own fault.
I have lived in Thailand for two years and have noticed the following:
Most (Dutch) retirees I meet are social drinkers and have enough to get their hands through the days without getting bored.
Keeping a garden where everything grows, animals around them. Or are involved in charitable projects. Twice a week they eat Mukata and have a beer with it.
I now live in the center of Leiden and I see 70+ people emptying the bottom of a bottle of red wine into a convex glass that is much too large, somewhere on a bench on the sidewalk of their mansion on the canal at half past two in the afternoon. Or order a young drink with a beer at half past 12 (The other half are standing in line at the pharmacy or don't come out of their lonely house for 9 months because of the cold, but we're not talking about that now).
I don't think drinking has anything to do with homesickness or a tropical country. Boredom? Perhaps. More likely it is because 50 years have worked and now feel like a drink and don't have to get out of bed at 6 o'clock tomorrow to go to work.
Personally, I quickly get thirsty in the Thai weather and I find a beer very good with spicy food. I think I drank more alcohol in Thailand than my retired fellow man. I was neither retired nor bored (and I have at least 42 years to retire!).