Unusual thoughts from Old Expat
- 14 Mar 2024 : 04:50 am
This is not an ad to sell anything. Rather, it is an opinion, an essay, from an expat with several decades living in Thailand I am paying the Baht-Sold web site to print this, because I appreciate an open market, which Baht-Sold provides. But I have no connection with them. They just provide the web site and, more importantly, an audience of others here in Thailand who also appreciate an open market like this. I’m willing to pay for access to such a market. What might I gain from writing and paying? Specifically, getting acquainted with other expats of “like mind”. I hope. If not, I’ve risked some time to write and a small amount of money to pay for a featured post. Or, perhaps I’ll gain a few new friends among my fellow expats … even if our conversations are only by email, or Signal, or LINE, rather than in person at some bar or coffee shop. So, here we go … Before deciding to come to Thailand, I’d lived in three other countries outside of my own (the USA). Lived – my only home – not just visited as a tourist. In those other countries, I had no problem meeting other expats. Some became friends. Some I prefered to ignore. But there was no problem getting acquainted. In Thailand, not like that at all. Quite the opposite. I’ve had very poor luck getting acquainted with other expats. Passed many in malls, in restaurants, at events, yes … BUT … almost none wanted to get acquainted. Not with me, anyway. I seriously began to wonder if I needed a stronger deoderant. So I started observing more carefully other expats who looked like me – similar age, apparently similar education and social background, similar financial position – to try to understand if they were having an easy time of making friends. Or not. The place I was able to observe the most was in various condo buildings where I have lived over the years. The vast majority seemed to be “friends” only with their Thai girl friends or wives, and perhaps their families, and … and … and that was about all. Nowhere did I see much success in getting acquainted with other expats. Yes, there were exceptions. The motorcycle riders had a club. The bridge players had a club. The golfers knew the names of other golfers. And the bar-stool sitters sat on the same bar stool, day after day, year after year. So there was that. Oh, and the homos always seemed to have plenty of “friends”. But none of those groups attracted me at all. What I decided to do was “advertise” for friends. But in a gentle and subtle way. And for some of that advertising I used this web site, Baht-Sold, along with other web sites, in other ways. Huh?? How can one advertise for friends? For example, I’m interested in computers, so I placed ads for the sort of computer equipment I wanted to buy. As I chatted, by email or LINE, with sellers, about the computers for sale, I dropped hints about my observations about expat life. Some of those men responded in an interested way, some did not. But in a few cases I was able to connect with men with similar ideas, whom I never would have met in any other way. I was pleased with the results of that approach. (And I did buy a nice used computer and other equipment, too.) So now, with this “post” I’m taking a more direct approach. Not buying or selling anything, but offering my thoughts about one aspect of expat life here, and seeing who responds in an interested way. Maybe no one will respond at all. Only one way to find out, eh? One thing that appeals to me about this web site is there are NO public comments … such as on forums or at the bottom of conventional blogs. If someone wants to comment, it can only be private and personal in an email sent through this web site. I’m not interested in public comments. And I don’t bother posting on public forums. What I do appreciate are private and personal conversations. This seems the ideal place to “advertise” for that. That’s all I’m going to say in this first “post”. Yes, this is a very unusual use of this web site. And I am paying for this. I want to see if any other expats here in Thailand think about the problem of getting acquainted with other expats. Maybe some do. Maybe not. I welcome comment and critique. Simply send an email through the Baht-Sold web site, and, if suitable, we can continue in private emails or on SIGNAL or LINE or in phone calls. Some of the key ideas I’ve mentioned here: - benefits of open markets - providing value-for-value, and earning a profit for doing that, rather than expecting “free” - private conversations (as opposed to public postings) - experimenting with new approaches, rather than sticking to well-worn methods Thank you for reading. - Old Expat in Bangkok