Things You’ll Miss And Won’t Miss About Your Home Country

Part 1: 10 Things You’ll Miss About Your Home Country

1. Seeing Family and Old Friends

Number one on this list is seeing family and old friends. Being able to jump in a car, actually sit down with the kids, grandkids, or old mates for a Sunday lunch or a pint.

In Thailand, you’re always aware you do make friends out here. But back in the UK, it’s so easy, isn’t it, to pick up a phone, jump in a car, and go meet some of your old friends that you’ve known for years, meet them in the pub. You might miss that aspect of things. Yeah, you can meet guys in bars here, but it’s not quite the same as your own country. Some people might say that’s a good thing I don’t know.

2. Cooler Weather

Number two on my list if you come from a colder country anywhere in Europe (this won’t count for the Australians, I shouldn’t think part of Australia anyway) cooler weather.

Thailand’s great, don’t get me wrong. It gets very, very hot here and it’s always humid. And you might miss the fact that back home you’re able to kind of dress a bit more dressy than here, because it’s uncomfortable to wear a lot of clothes in Thailand. I do miss that aspect in a way where I’d come out on an autumn morning, take my dog, and it’s cold, but it’s fresh and it’s really nice. You’ll definitely miss that out here because it’s always hot in Thailand, even in the winter like now it’s 28° in high season.

3. Strong Consumer Rights

Number three on my list is strong consumer rights. Here, sometimes you get kind of cheated or ripped off, and you just have to walk away. You can’t do anything about it. They might have made a genuine mistake, but they don’t understand what it is your Thai isn’t good enough to explain to them, they don’t speak English, and you just have to walk away.

In the UK and I think this is true for most Western countries the consumer laws are very, very strong. You buy a car and it goes wrong, you’ve got legal rights to take it back, get it repaired for free. And that goes for anything really. So, we are quite protected in the West as far as consumer rights go.

4. Food Variety and Quality

On my next point, I put food variety and quality. Now, I’m double thinking this one because originally when I made the list, I thought you might miss some food from home. But actually, I can’t think of any food back home that I can’t get here in Thailand. You can get all the raw ingredients, even down to Marmite and Bisto gravy American products as well.

All the restaurants cater to Westerners especially in the tourist areas with Western food and Thai food, or you’ve just got dedicated Western food outlets such as Irish pubs and English themed bars. But I added it to the list anyway.

5. Straightforward Systems

You’re going to miss straightforward systems you know, like the NHS numbers, income tax, driving license, council procedures. You can handle it all yourself. It’s very, very easy. So if you get a form from the council or you’ve got to pay something online with the government or you’ve got to sort something out in your own language, it’s just so much easier, isn’t it? You can just go online and do it.

Here, unfortunately, even if you speak a decent level of Thai, it can be very laborious. I’ve just renewed my visa myself this time, and the paperwork involved it’s quite a lot of paperwork. It’s just easier to get things done back home, I find. I’m not complaining about it because I love Thailand, but I’m just giving you things that you probably will miss.

6. Honest Pricing

Honest pricing. Now, this is a big one for me. In the UK I’m using the UK as an example because that’s where I come from the price on the product is what you’ll pay normally. I’m talking about everyday items, not big ticket items such as cars. A car might be advertised for £4,999 and you’ll say, “Well, I’ll give you 4 and a half,” and you’ll agree at £4,700 with a free warranty or something like that. But I’m talking about everyday things entrances to parks, museums, any fees you have to pay.

Here, it’s a bartering system. Any price they give you, you’ve got to barter that. I normally start about a quarter of what they ask me and we settle in the middle. But you’ve got that two tier price here as well that I’m not keen on. A lot of people defend that when I talk about it they say, “Well, you know, we make a lot more money than the Thais, and it pays for the parks and all the rest of it.” So I’m not going to get into that today, but I’ll just say you might miss not having that here, like in your own country.

I went to one of the islands a while ago with a Thai person. They paid 40 baht to get on the island. I had to pay 140 baht supposedly for the rangers to keep it clean.

7. Clean Pavements and Predictable Roads

Number seven is clean pavements and predictable roads. Now, I must say over the years that I’ve been visiting Thailand, the roads have become excellent. I would put the roads here the main roads, the highways and the A roads on a par with any Western nation. They’re very, very good. The traffic light system’s good you get a countdown on the traffic light, so you know how long you’re going to sit there until it goes green.

But there’s still a big problem with pavements here in Thailand. They’re not really thinking about disabled people in wheelchairs, mothers with prams, that sort of thing. You’ve only got to take a walk outside and a lot of the pavement is uneven. There’s sellers set up stands and you can’t walk by a lot of the time. That’s more for a city like Bangkok Sukhumvit Road is a great example if you’ve been there. So you might miss being able to just walk down the street and not be hindered by all these bits and pieces.

8. UK Humor and Sarcasm

UK humor and sarcasm. As I said, I’m basing this video on the UK because I come from the UK, but wherever you come from even the Australians, they’ve got their own banter, haven’t they? Their own way of joking, like we have in England, and the Americans have their own way they talk to each other.

And you can miss that, because you have a smaller group of friends here and you can miss that kind of banter that you had in your own country.

9. The Ease of Getting Things Done in Your Own Language

The ease of getting things done in your own language calling a doctor, bank, council, insurance company all that sort of thing. I think I’ve said enough about that already on the other point there. It’s just easier because the language is the same.

10. The Christmas Atmosphere

Number 10 the Christmas atmosphere. We’re coming up to Christmas here in Thailand. It’s the 20th of December now, so I’ve dated this video. It doesn’t feel like Christmas to me.

If you’re in a place like Pattaya where all the girls dress up and there’s Santa Claus and all that sort of thing I’m in Hua Hin, there’s a few decorations, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a good old festive Christmas. You know, you might even have a bit of snow outside, and it’s all over the TV, isn’t it? There’s a real festive feeling until the day after when it’s over and then they put the Easter eggs on the shelves.

That is something I miss. I’m here now 5 days before Christmas. I’m going to treat it like any other day. I’m not religious. I don’t have children here. I’m not going to make a big deal. I’m saving that for New Year’s Eve I’ve booked a nice restaurant.

Part 2: 10 Things You Won’t Miss About Your Home Country

1. Gray Skies and Endless Rain

Now, here’s 10 things that you definitely won’t miss about your own country. I don’t think you would anyway.

Gray skies and endless rain. In the UK and I’m sure it’s the same in a lot of European countries especially you just have a Sunday off, you want to go out and do something, and it’s drizzling all day, gray skies. You don’t get that in Thailand. They have a rainy season here, of course it lasts for several months but it doesn’t go on all day. It’s normally quite predictable. You know it’s going to come about 5:00 and be done by 6:00. So you’re not going to miss that.

2. The Cost of Living

You’re not going to miss the cost of living. It’s so much cheaper to live out here in Thailand. I’m talking about things like rent, council tax, fuel.

I’ll give you an example. My car if I fill it up here, it’s about 1,500 baht. That’s from the red line absolutely empty. 1,500 baht is about £35, I guess $40 around there. If I filled it up in the UK, I’d be looking at about $80 US. So it is definitely cheaper here.

You can find very reasonable apartments and rooms for, you know, 3,400 pounds a month as opposed to thousands that you’d pay in London. Even my place in the heart of Sukhumvit I was paying 20,000 baht for a 51 square meter apartment. This house three bedroom house, two bathrooms on a mortgage £11,000 baht a month. That’s kind of like £210, £250 a month for a house. So you’re not going to miss the cost of living.

3. Miserable Attitudes

Miserable attitudes. Everybody out here they’re paid to be happy. You walk down the street and you smile at the Thais it’s very rare they won’t smile back at you. Maybe one or two miserable ones, but for the most part, people are happy here. The expats who live here are much happier because they’re living out here and not in their own countries. They’re having a much better quality of life. The Thais always smile back.

So there’s a happier kind of mood in the air, as opposed to back home where people are worried about paying their bills and having to get up for work and what our corrupt government is going to do next. So you’re not going to miss any of that.

4. Nanny State Rules

And talking about the corrupt government you’ve got the nanny state rules, the fines and the restrictions, endless regulations. Thailand in that case is much more relaxed.

I’ll give you a great example. Living in Bangkok, I would occasionally drive down to Jomtien next to Pattaya, and I could park my car on the seafront there, leave it there all day it wouldn’t cost me a penny. I did that quite often. A lot of car parks they’re free.

In the UK, you go onto a council bit of beach and you have to park your car you’re paying up to 15, 20 pounds a day. It’s just you park in town, they’ve got parking meters everywhere, and it’s just a total rip off. It’s so much more relaxed here. They’re not so kind of nanny state, as it were.

5. Traffic Cameras and Parking Wardens

Traffic cameras and parking wardens you’re not going to miss them. Now, they do have a lot of cameras here that’s mainly for the police. So if a crime’s committed, they’ve got video evidence. They do have some speed cameras on the roads, but it’s nothing like the UK.

You see the occasional camera, but they’re mainly on major highways and they’re not every few hundred yards. You don’t have the flashing speed cameras well, you do have speed cameras here, but very few and far between, and it’s mainly on busy, very busy highways.

If you park in a place where you shouldn’t park especially in Bangkok I had a friend who parked his scooter at the end of Soi 8 with the intention of coming off the BTS later that night after he’d been out with friends. He came back and it had a chain around the back wheel. But it’s not as bad as the UK. You haven’t got these people jumping out from behind bushes to give you tickets.

6. Overpriced Pubs

The overpriced pubs in the UK. I know Wetherspoons I wasn’t sure to put this one in or not because people have told me that in Wetherspoons you can get a decent breakfast, lunch, and the beer’s quite cheap. But I remember living in Kent before I came out here I’d often meet an old school friend once a week in a local pub on our estate, and it was getting ridiculous the prices. We’d occasionally have a meal in there we stopped eating in there because it was just stupid prices. And if we had three pints each during the evening, you were looking at close to 20 pounds or something. That was back then 4 years ago.

It’s much cheaper here. Out of Bangkok if you go to tourist areas in Bangkok, it’s quite expensive for a beer. But down here, for instance, I can have a large Chang in Bangkae that’s a big night market 65 baht. It’s a restaurant I can order some food. 65 baht. There’s another market over the other side of town called Lunla Market 70 baht, you know, 5 baht more. So as long as you’re not going out to entertainment venues, it’s definitely a lot cheaper here than it is in Europe.

7. The Constant News Doom Cycle

The constant news doom cycle. In the UK, you’re drowned in politics, crime, arguments. Thailand is less mentally draining. It’s not all that constant doom and gloom that miserable feeling that I touched on earlier.

8. Woke Nonsense and Identity Arguments

And then the woke nonsense and identity arguments that you get in the UK. Again, I’m referring to the UK, but this could be anywhere in the world where you come from. There’s always marches on a Saturday for the lefties and then the righties the Palestine flag around their shoulders. I’m not anti anything I’m just giving you an example of the marches.

Then you’ve got the English I don’t know what they call them these days with the English flags. It’s just so much woke nonsense in the UK now. The things they’re teaching our kids in school the police I’m not going to give any examples because the lefties out there will have a go at me, so we’ll skip past that and I’ll keep quiet.

9. Street Crime and Aggressive Behavior

Number nine street crime and aggressive behavior. Now, I don’t know about where you come from, but London is a no go zone virtually. We’ve got the worst mayor we’ve ever had Mayor Khan is about as good as a chocolate teapot. He’s just absolutely useless. He doesn’t seem to care for real Londoners.

Knife crime is through the roof. You can’t wear a nice watch in the UK because gangs of youths will rip it off you. You’re looking at your telephone in the street. There are certain countries now that have listed the UK as an unsafe country to go to. Can you imagine the UK an unsafe country to visit for a vacation? Absolutely terrible. They’ve cut back on the police so much. I’m sure it’s the same in a lot of other countries.

10. Feeling Like Life Is Work First, Live Later

And the last one on my list feeling like life is work first, live later. UK life is revolved around your job, and they always want more and more and more out of you.

It’s virtually impossible to start a small business now because you just get taxed through the roof. I remember when I started a small business a couple of times when I was back in the UK. When you come to do your income tax your yearly tax the first year a new business is going to struggle. But the government to make sure they get their money not only do you pay the year’s income tax for that year that you’ve been open, but they want 50% of the upcoming year to make sure that if you do go out of business, they’ve got their money. So they make it virtually impossible for businesses to succeed.

You need massive profits. Staff salaries are so high now. I’m not saying staff should work for nothing of course not. But there’s just so many costs. I had years ago in the UK I opened a little shop where I was selling VHS tapes. It was when the crossover for movies on CD and VHS were kind of still together. One side of my shop was VHS tape, and the other side was the CD ROMs. I used to buy secondhand ones at reduced price and then use a website to see what I could sell them for. I took in good money, but the problem is by the time I paid my rent and then I had to pay a chunk to the council it was a lot of money. I visualized having three staff in there, and in the end, I was working by myself. And when the business had been up and running and making money, the problem was it was like I was working for a small salary, and I was putting in a huge amount of hours.