My wife is very close with her family, and I get on with them very well. As we now live only an hour or so by car from the village, she always attends different events there, whether for family, temple, or a village festival, and I often go with her.
I’ve been to house-blessings, merit-making, funerals [...]
Dear Kris and Noi,
Three of us have been planning our first trip to Pattaya, but lately I’ve been keeping up with Thai news and it doesn’t look good.
I know our newspapers exaggerate all the bad stuff to sell more papers, but there are lots of pictures and reports of reds, yellows, pinks, blues, like a [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
When there are groups of expats together, you can always hear lots of moans about Thailand and the Thais, and their attitude to expats. What gets me though is that these moaners almost always are living here or have been regular visitors for many years. So, even though they say they are [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
We’ve just had a very nice week’s holiday in Hua Hin. We like Pattaya best, where we have lived for several years, but some things there we think are better organised. I don’t know about all of Hua Hin, but in the part where we were, where the horses are, it [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
When I was living in Malta about twenty years ago, they introduced a system whereby all aliens who lived there for more than six months in a year had to obtain an identity card. This card had to be carried at all times, the same as the Maltese nationals did. Many expats, [...]
Do you have a question about customs, culture or life in Thailand? Send it to Kris & Noi at: PTPrivatePosts@yahoo.com
Dear Kris & Noi,
I was recently persuaded by friends to visit a Thai music show. I don’t mean pop music, but the folk or country music, not sure of the difference. It was a great night, [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
We recently spent some time in my wife’s home town, and at different times we watched a wedding, then a merit procession pass by her family’s home. In both parades there were some expats stumbling about trying to imitate the Thais dancing. It looks charming when Thais, young and old, perform [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
Back in Pattaya after my first road trip around Thailand, and would recommend a similar journey for any expats who wish to really get to know the country and the people. We avoided the south of course, so I was very surprised to see so many police checkpoints throughout the country, [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
Last October I met a really cute Surin girl in a bar, ten years younger than me. She said she was new to the bar life and I believe her, as she was a bit awkward with me, not pushy like the other girls, and sometimes her English was difficult to [...]
Dear Kris & Noi,
I have to admit that, living in Pattaya and frequenting the bar and naughty boy scene regularly, I have often joined in with other expats in bar conversations about all the faults of the Thais we meet in the Pattaya bar and nightlife scene. You know the stuff: girls ripping us off, [...]
