expats | Ramblintraveler

I thought it only fair since I posted ‘Things to Love about Thailand’ that I should also have a little ranting page about things I find squirrely about the country as well. Again, they are in no particular order 🙂

#1: Whitening
Ok, now I understand that this is 100% a culture thing. Unlike many people in the Western world and many Europeans, Asians want white skin. White skin is a sign of wealth. For if you are wealthy, you spend most of your time indoors and don’t have to work or labor outdoors, hence you stay out of the sun, hence you have white skin. On the flip side, having dark skin is a sign of poverty. So ok, I get people here want white skin, but what I’m not a fan of is the whitening products and not having a real choice outside of it. Deodorants, body washes, lotions, basically any product for your skin has chemical whitening agents in them. As a falang who prefers a little color to my skin, and as a person who doesn’t want unnecessary chemicals put on my skin, it’s really, REALLY hard to find any skin products without whitening chemicals in them. They are all “whitening”, “extra whitening”, “white and firm”, etc…. What’s worse to me is so-called skin care product experts like Nivea, Oil of Olay, Dove, and so on are on the whitening bandwagon. They are just out to give what the culture wants despite what damage it may do. All about the $$$$… Again, I get it’s a culture thing to want white skin, I just wish there were options that didn’t have the whitening chemicals in them, that’s all 🙂
#2: Electric Lines
I don’t know why it is exactly that electrical poles have what sometimes looks like hundreds of lines coming off of them stretching along every road and side road. It’s as if they had poles with a few lines at first, then as demand for electricity increased they just added more and more and more. It’s sometimes scary as when you walk by many of the poles you can hear them literally buzzing with electricity! And between some of the poles the electrical lines stretch from the top of the pole to at least half-way down allowing the lines to sag almost to the ground. Now, I’m not an expert in electricity by any means, so I may be way out of my depth here, but I would think there would be a “neater” or more organized way to get electricity where needed without just adding more and more to already congested poles… Hmmm…

Wires Galore

Wires Galore_3

Wires Galore_2

#3: Sugar
I learned very quickly that sugar is super popular here in Thailand. They put it in EVERYTHING!! It’s even a condiment on the table for your meal! They have the chili pepper powder, fish sauce, a vinegar sauce with sliced chili in it and sugar. Nope, that’s NOT salt! I’ve heard that Thailand is way up there for diabetes and obesity, though to be honest I haven’t noticed that many obese Thai’s, so while that part came as a surprise to me, after realizing and tasting that yes, everything does have a ton of sugar in it, it’s not so shocking after all. Bread, coffee, “all natural juices”, potato chips, the list goes on! If shopping on the street at the various vendors, if it looks like it may be tart or not have sugar in it, you really won’t know for sure until you take that first bite. As someone who is trying to watch sugar intake for personal health benefits, I literally have to read every ingredient on what I pick up in the store to check for sugar. I’ve done this action so often now, I even recognize the word in Thai (since the majority of ingredient lists are 100% in Thai). Such a bummer!

#4: Visas
If you enter Thailand via air, you automatically will receive a tourist Visa for 30 days. If you want to have a Visa for a longer period of time, you can apply before going to Thailand to the nearest Thai embassy for a 60 or even 90 day Visa. It is possible to get a year Visa if you are doing some sort of education while in the country such as learning to speak Thai or Muay Thai training. If you arrive in Thailand via land (bus or train) you get a 15 day Visa!! Seriously??? What in the world would anyone actually be able to see of Thailand in 15 days!?!?! I understand that there are many expats and travelers that get jobs while originally just visiting Thailand and aren’t being legal about it (paying the appropriate taxes and such) so the government is trying to limit the amount of time people stay in the country to make it harder for those who get jobs and aren’t legal about it. I get that. It’s just unfortunate from the perspective of regular travelers who just want to explore the country without having to leave every 30, 60 or 90 days (yes, even 90 days is a pain to have to do!!) especially with some borders being closed (well, you can leave, but you can’t come back). I’m spending my saved earned money in this country… Wouldn’t they want me to be here for a longer period of time without having to leave? Then again, maybe that’s part of it too… Paying for transport in and out of the country to be right by the Visa is also stimulating the economy… Hmmmm…. The rules do change quite often apparently and many expats who have been here legally for many years simply say that “that’s what happens when the government is ruled by the military”. (Sigh)

#5: Thai’s Don’t Sweat!
Ok, this one is obviously just meant to be humorous… It simply astounds me how the Thai people never seem to actually sweat!!! Seriously, if I’m sitting indoors without a fan directly on me I start to sweat profusely! And even then, while the skin being hit by the fan is dry and cool, my backside is not! Walking anywhere and well forget it, I’m drenched in sweat so often just walking about that my clothes change color from being sweat soaked. I’m constantly peeling clothes off soaking wet clothes and setting them outside to dry after my walks and when they do dry they are streaked with white marks across them (from the salt in my sweat) so into the wash they have to go. Yet watching Thai laborers in the sun constructing a new building, carrying materials and such, not a single drop of sweat anywhere! Their skin isn’t glistening with any sign of stress!! Ok, now of course this is a teeny bit of an exaggeration because of course they sweat, otherwise I’d think that was a major health issue, but seriously compared to how I and other falangs sweat, it’s night and day! What is their secret??? I’m off for my third shower of the day now to rinse off the sweat from simply writing this post. 😉

Back to Thailand

After a boat ride, taxi and two separate buses I arrived in the cool (literally) little town of Boquete. Nestled between mountain ranges, this adorable town was quite a sight to behold! I can still recall sitting on the bus, completely surrounded by nothing but the view of mountain sides, when all of a sudden the view opened up and ahead was Boquete. It literally reminded me of some little obscure mountain town in Europe, quietly slumbering, hiding its secrets in the valley.

I stepped off the bus at the main square and started my hunt for a place to stay. There were several hostels along the main “highway” that looked quite nice, but a little out of my preferred price range. I had immediately decided to stay in Boquete for 5 days to a week so I wanted to find somewhere that I could get comfortable in for a bit. Off the main road I came across a house that had a little sign hanging on the front. The building to the right looked like a personal home, while the building to the left had 2 doors with numbers on them. I wish I had taken note as to the name of the place so I could share it with future travelers to this area, but sadly I did not.

After speaking with the family living in the main house about accommodations in one of their 4 apartments, I paid for 5 nights at $8.00 a night. That $8 a night bought me my own private room with queen size bed, little kitchen, private bath and even a little TV. Sadly the television only got a few channels and of course all were in Spanish, but at least it made for some entertaining distraction when I needed some.

Not a whole lot of excitement occurred in Boquete for me really. I used my time there to unwind a bit and get some essential things done before traveling on. For example laundry and a very much-needed pedicure! Hey, a girl still has to keep herself up regardless of where she goes:). I spent my days walking around the town and exploring new areas of the town each day, which also served as a good way to get exercise. Every day, and on some days all day, we had thunderstorms, the kind that rattle the very core of you shaking you from the inside out! Now I absolutely adore thunderstorms and was quite happy to be somewhere with consistent ones for a bit. During my lunch and dinner I would turn on the television and watch Spanish Soap Operas, which let me tell you are quite dramatic and funny in how dramatic they are. The days basically passed like this with a walk everyday for at least a couple of hours, otherwise killing my time with books or thoughts of where to go next.

What was interesting about Boquete was the great extreme of people present. It is obvious that Boquete has turned into the American Retiree place to go. For one, it’s cheap and in Panama in general it is quite easy to become a resident. All that is required is proof of steady income, which if you have your social security check, you get in immediately. What was funny to me though was the great divide in the town. You had your Panamanians, your Panamanian Tribe people who were easily spotted due to their traditional clothing that they wore daily, and then you had the Gringos (i.e. the expats living off their Social Security checks out of the Country where the cost of living is lower). It was humorous to watch as the Gringo gang walked around the town. Their dogs were all on leashes (every other dog was street smart and ran around free), they all walked in packs (the people, not the dogs) and English was the only language spoken or attempted (at least in all those who I noticed). I did find it quite sad that these people didn’t seem to make an attempt to learn the language. For if I were to permanently move to another Country, at least I could try to show respect to them by learning their language. Especially since I was in effect there taking advantage of their cheap standards of living…. But I digress.

Along this point I did myself look into a Spanish school in Boquete. As I probably mentioned before, I only spoke conversational Italian prior to coming to Latin America and while it was slowly changing over from Italian to Spanish, I thought some school would probably be a good idea to help facilitate and speed the process of speaking Spanish better. Boquete though was not somewhere I wanted to be for a long period of time though. It served its purpose well as a relaxing and quiet retreat, but knowing myself I knew there just wasn’t enough of a life there to keep myself busy for an extended period of time. Plus it was chilly there at night and sometimes during the day when the sun failed to make it through the cloud cover and I’m really a warm-weather kind of person so staying in cold climates can only be tolerated for so long! Interestingly enough, the school in Bocas (Habla Ya!) had a sister school in Bocas del Toro, Panama on the Caribbean coast. I had heard a lot about Bocas so thought perhaps I would check out the school there and if I liked the town would stay there for the classes. So after my 5 nights in relaxing Boquete, I moved on to Bocas del Toro.