Bangkok Blogs

There are many popular misconceptions that the average farang in Thailand will hold regarding the Thais living around him. Perhaps the most popular of these is the idea that Thai people are simple to please or perhaps just ’simple.’

This most irritating of misconceptions occurs, I think, because the average farang in Thailand spends an inordinately longer amount of time socialising with the very underbelly of Thai society. By this I mean - prostitutes and pimps.

But even those farangs who do not pitch tents this far down still manage to spend large amounts of time with farm workers and individuals who never got past grade 3.

I’m not knocking it for a laugh now and then, nor indeed as interesting in an anthropological sense. However, if you don’t speak Thai, what motivates the average middle-aged farang to do this?

When someone tells you ‘Oh Thais are simple’ they are referring to a particular social section of Thai society - a section they would never dream of referring to in such a general way were they extolling their own country. If you asked ‘What is the average American like, Joe?’ then the reply would be likely to mirror the ‘middle American’ and nothing less.