with thailand i’ve heard stories of “farang prices” where you pay 10x for medical care compared to locals.
a friend of mine in laos had to travel to thailand every time he needed care.
In the case of the latter, usually foreigners pay 5X for entry -- this is government mandated.
Now, as for the former, it's more for gullible tourist fresh off the boat. I was drunkenly making my way home one night, and hopped in a taxi. Guy told me something like 1,500 baht ($40 USD). I just laughed at the guy and said "meter", followed by him giving me a knowing look and a laugh as he turned on the meter. It was a 5 minute drive and ended up costing like 50 baht...If you know, then you know.
Aside from the constant absurd and abusive racism handed out by Thai police in BKK, the country is an amazing place to live. Safe and friendly. And, I want to make it clear that I only received racist attacks (physical and verbal) from cops in BKK and nowhere else in the country -- but of course, everything became fine once they realized I was an American...
you said you experienced racism, that's what I meant, which I thought was pretty clear by the context of people were racist against you until they realized you were american, which is the heart of my question - why is being american an acceptable form of whiteness to the people who were racist against you
I don't mean to be flippant, I really mean to give it a thought as to why you made the assumption.
I'm curious, when people misunderstand some context on the internet that has to do with race - do you often find yourself thinking it has racist undertones?
I don't see how this is confusing. Also, I never clarified any tax as being for white people. The only thing I clarified was that the word "farang" is typically used excluisively for white foreigners.
I have no comment on the absurdity of your last sentence, btw.
The only absurdity here is that instead of attempting to interpret my questions hospitably, you immediately went on the defensive and then refused again to address my question with a lovely touch of asking me to ponder deeply why I would mistakenly think you were white. I'm not sure what fantasy land you live in, but the people I talk too aren't just sitting at their keyboards hoping everyone on the other end is white.
It's pretty gross that I replied with the most sincere curiosity and ended up with some not-so-veiled racism implications.
Maybe you should consider you might not have the full context of the conversation instead of launching into a rant.
The farang only for white people is something that just comes up here sometimes. At one point we tried to get the Thai colleagues to call black expats "farang dam". Didn't catch on haha.
Foreigner tax is the correct way to call it because pricing in national parks is tied to citizenship not race
I am not.
I was also confused. The first paragraph requires clarification.
Specifically what you mentioned: the farang tax mostly applying to white foreigners followed by an anecdote of an incident of the farang tax in action. It biased me to believe the commenter was indeed, white.
The weird reply back when you asked for clarification was obviously immature and absurd. The second Expat chiming in was not helpful either - as if that person’s understanding is some global expert consensus on the comment and you’re a bizarre 5 sigma deviation.
Maybe they’re expats for good reason - they can’t communicate effectively on even the simplest of little things (with peer commenters). So what do they screw up?
When I tried to explain (several times), instead of taking a step back and trying to understand -- you doubled down on your own misunderstanding and accused me of seeing racist undertones everywhere.
Again, I can only assume English isn't your native language, hence the confusion.
I can only assume the confusion arose from the person in question either:
1. not being a native English speaker
2. assuming I was white
Hope that clears things up. I really don't know how I can make this any clearer aside from the lot of us hoping on a plane to BKK and you experience the place yourselves.
Until I read the part about BKK police giving you physical abuse, then I figured you might be non-white because countries outside US are far more racist, generally speaking, than the US. The less developed a country is, the more openly racist it gets (the rich ones can also be racist but do so more covertly). And generally speaking racism against whites is not very common, because (generally) whites bring money and are (generally) considered a positive thing to have around. There are exceptions like maybe American troops in Okinawa but we’re talking about generalizations here.
I now think you are Asian, because that’s the second large demographic in tech. My other assumptions still apply.
Apologies for the unsolicited reply here, I just wanted to make N>1 as far as preconceptions go.
I'm actually a multi-generational mixed person. Both my parents and all four of my grandparents are "multi-racial" -- based on the current definitions of race. But that's a whole different conversation. Don't want to give out any more details than that for privacy reasons.
I normally tell people to stay away from getting involved at all with drugs here, for your own safety. Obviously that may be s little overboard depending on what fits your fancy but I stand by it.
Currently live in Lima, Peru coming from being in CDMX for 6 months and Guadalajara for a couple as well.
Outside of there, it's a crapshoot. Could be very safe, could be VERY unsafe... In a way you don't see in many parts of the US or EU.
Coyoacán is VERY beautiful, but there's not as much to do over there for an expat. It's still really nice.
Condesa is considered the more Hipstery part of the city, nightlife and everything.
Polanco is more of an upscale, very international type of vibe.
Roma Norte is more artsy imo but similar to Condesa as well. Plenty of good food as well.
Coyoacán is more traditional Mexican.
Which is still next to nothing, isn't it?