What happened to down time and Losers, Boozers, Drifters and Dreamers

      Inter net is down, again, it's raining, again, kids are playing in their cousins house, wife , aunt and mother in-law, plus some cousins are down the street, eating som tam. I have no books left to read and so am at a lost as to how to fill my day . I could of course crack a bottle, but much too early for that. So I thought I may as well add another instalment to the story. This will really be about nothing, just some observations on life in general.





      When I was younger, time seemed different, my father would go to work, come home watch TV with the family. Saturday night out with the work mates to the pub, for a few beers. Sunday was  a neighbor time, The men  of the street would gather in someones house, garage or if the weather was good, the back yard. They would sit drink and talk. BBQs were more often than not  lit and wives and children would attend. That was Australia when it was a lucky country. Later in my life, living in the UK, there was always time to stop for a few pints after work. Life just drifted along.
      About 15 years ago, a friend of mine returned to a small village in Yorkshire, after 23 years in Australia. He went to his old local pub for a beer. The first words he heard were, hi Jeff, haven't seen you for awhile, been away. It was the same with the wife in our village. After all those years away, at school in Bangkok and living in Australia, it was like she had never left. I wonder how many of us could return to our home towns and say the same, not many I would bet. Time has stood still in a few places, but these places are disappearing fast.
      At first I hadn't noticed that the way of life was changing, it was just me getting older. Now when I look back I see that it was not age, but the way the world had been programmed, by social engineering. There was no longer down time, every hour was accounted for. A get together with the work mates was no longer, coming out for a  beer, It had to be planed months in advance.  Days off were no longer free time, but had to be used productively.
      A friend one day said , that he and his wife were going to travel around South East Asia. They were to start in Singapore, head up through Malaysia, across Thailand and Lao to Vietnam. I said sounds good, how many months do you have off. He looked at me and said, it's a 10 day package tour. Seems you have to cram in more and more in less and less time. Whether in your job or in your life.
      Think this can be seen very clearly in the binge drinking culture, which has come to most of our cities. How can you expect people to work longer,  work faster and do more. Then go out on a Friday and Saturday night and drink at their fathers pace. When you can get 5 or 6 hours of alcohol down your throat in 2. Governments blame everyone else, but they are the ones that turned up the speed.  At least in Australia, there is no time to stop and smell the roses, anymore.





      Here is where much of Thailand marches to a different drum. Your local shop keeper is more likely to be asleep in a hammock than stacking shelves. When the locals have down time, which is most of the time, it is spent eating and talking or sleeping. If there was an Olympic sport of sleeping, Thailand would be undisputed champions. I have always found it amazing that, a cousin or visitor , after eating and talking, can lie on a bench with an empty coke bottle as a pillow and be asleep like a baby within minutes. Only wish I could do the same. There are no Saturdays or Sundays, work is done when it needs to be done. If there is a reason for a bit of a party the Lao Khow [ rice whiskey ] is just as likely to start flowing at 6 am as 6 pm. Things are done when the time comes to do them, not by a clock. No one says lazy  so and so sleeping at this time of day or look at him drinking at breakfast. They live in the moment, not by some man made concept of the right time and place.




      Losers, Boozer, Drifters and Dreamers

      Now what sort of westerners find themselves in these forgotten places. The vast majority come first because of wives and girlfriends. For most of them it is something they have to do to keep the wife happy. Their best memories of the place will be boarding the plane home.

The boozers
      There are quite allot of ex servicemen, cops, fireman  and public servents of one form our other. Mostly yanks and Brits who live a better life on their pensions here, than, they can at home. Of these, most will have an Issan wife and live in a big town or city. They will buy or rent modest homes or apartments. After a life of disciple and routine, they find themselves somewhat a at lost as to what to do with their time. They then  settle in to a regular daily cycle, which almost always means beer with the boys each night. Normally they will not be big drinkers, as their pensions don't allow for nightly binges. When I enter a strange farang bar, it is to this table I usually end up . I call these  the boozers. Not in a derogatory way. They have done their service, lost most of what they had in a divorce, lasted to get their pensions. Their biggest worry in life is exchange rates. It's just their time to relax and kick back.





The losers
        This group are people who have made some money in their home countries. These are the guys who will be talking money, world economics etc,  If you ask them what they used to do, they will say things like, I was the owner of a transport company [ owned their own taxi cab]. Had a plumbing construction company,[ a father and son plumbers.] Many more will say they were  into real estate and got out before the bubble burst [ Had bought a second house and had to sell when they got divorced ]. All will be doing on line consultancy work and have some vague idea of starting some business in Thailand. They come from all counties and live in houses 10 times bigger than they will ever use. This is to impress their friends, who will never come and visit. Often the homes are in the middle of no where, but near to the wife's village.
      These people will  more than likely be of the short stay type. After they have moved into their mansions, reality kicks in. They sit in their big homes alone, drinking. Their idea of being  Lord of the Manor, soon disappears. They have spent big to impress, but there is no one to impress.  They will head back to Pattaya if the money permits, or head home to start again. Some with a small  overseas income will simply sit and drink themselves to death. Theses are the real losers of  Issan, just too smart for their own good. You will see the relics of their homes, doted over the countryside.
      My nearest neighbor, a very sick man, lives with his Thai wife of many years, in a 5 story monolith. He can't climb the stairs and spends his days and nights  in a small room on the ground floor, watching football and waiting to die. Last month a  Norwegian , 52 years old died in his home. He refused to go in the ambulance on 3 separate occasions, he was diabetic. Died in the night with a bottle of Sam Sung by his side. Further down the road there is a  big house with a medieval turret on it. Never have seen anyone ever live there.
They came, they spent and those who could  went.





The dreamers
      This group has 2 types, those with money and those without. Both have one thing in common, they suspend all belief in reality and commonsense, when they arrive in Thailand. This for some reason seems to inflict Americans more than  other nationalities.  Maybe due to some belief in US superiority, but more likely a lack of understanding, how the rest of the world really is.
      Here I will tell 2 story's , each from one end of the wealth spectrum, hope none of them read this.  I am sure anyone who lives in Thailand will have many such tales.
      First the poor guy. I get many e mails from people who have watched one of my youtube videos. Most are questions on rubber farming and some about Issan weddings. So Joe citizen from the US writes after having watched my Issan wedding on youtube. His questions and story were simple. While on a 2 week holiday to Thailand he meet, would you believe it, a girl. She is 15 years older than him, I take that to mean he is one fat ugly SOB. He is madly in love and wants to move to Thailand, marry the girl and live, but has very little money. His questions are , does he have to tell anyone in the Thai Government that he is moving permanently to live here and how much money will he make from the girls 25 rai [ 10 acres ] of unused rice paddy, plus how much do I think he will need for the wedding. What can you really tell him, sorry you may as well just get used to the fact that you are a fat, ugly SOB and will live the rest of your miserable life alone. Of course not, you try to break the bad news with a few hopeful options, but really, there  are none.
    
      Second, the rich guy. Same as the poor guy, contacts me from the net. His girlfreind comes from a village about 60 km from me and could he come visit and have a talk, next time he is in Thailand. I tell him if he brings beer I will talk till the sun comes up. 2 months later up he rocks, a load of beer and one drop dead Thai girl.
      His story, he has never been married, same age as me 54, worked his whole life building up his business, he's not mega rich, but could call it a day buy a villa and yacht in the Med and live the good life till he  died. I am not one to believe many storys that I am told, so did a few searches on the net and found he was indeed who he said he was. On this first trip to Thailand, he had left his hotel walked into the first Go Go bar he saw. She said hello and that was it, all loved up. 2 weeks later he's on the plane home and she's heading back to the village with an ATM card that will not stop. Now he is a man of the world, been to Vegas and Thailand, knows what the go is and is 4 mil Baht a good price for 25 rai of rubber trees. I try to tell him to slow down. No a week later he calls to say do I want to come see his rubber plantation.
      2 days later he's on the plane back to the states and that's  it for 6 months. I get a phone call, I'm back and am getting married in the village in 2 days time. Never one to turn down a free party, we are off, wife, kids and mother in-law. When I get there, first thing I see is the new extensions on the house, a new small shop beside it and a brand new twin cab 4 wheel drive . This guy had only been with this girl in the flesh,  for 5 weeks and he had spent over 5 Mil Baht.
      He had also brought a friend with him, who I think was less than impressed with the goings on, but we had a good talk over the beer. Seems the groom had no intension of moving to Thailand for several years to come. His business was was his life and if he sold up now, he would be lucky to walk away with much over 4 Mill US  dollars.
      In all fairness to him, his dream may not seem that expensive if you have that kind of money. As for his new wife, she is really a nice girl and would have make a very good wife, but like all of us, wants to do the best for her daughter and mother and have a secure  future. There will be no more GO Go bars for her.





The drifters.
      These are a lesser seen type, but you will find them in the most unusal  and unknown places. They are a combination of the losers, boozers and dreamers. They come in all ages and from most western countries. You will find them in any country in the world. They are looking for something, but don't know what. In Thailand in some unheard of place you will see a Swede bend over cutting rice in a paddy field. or a German plowing a field with his iron water buffalo. On a remote island  in the flood plains of the Mekong, an Australian baking bread. Or a Brit moving his water buffalo to better grass, in the back of beyond. In my case a Brit/ Ozzy growing rubber in a place no one has heard of. They don't go out to towns much, but if you ever meet one, buy him a beer, he may just give you a few words about the meaning of life.