making Thai friends

[klikster]

Originally Posted by singto

Klikster - first, I wasn't directing it at you so chill out pal.

Actually, you did .. no other username was quoted. If you did that by accident, pretty sloppy for a moderator.

PS. I'm not your pal.

I don't remember how long you said you've been living in Thailand but...

Actually, it doesn't matter. But I have lived here long enough to listen to people brag about how long they have lived here, but don't know zip. They often have a bar girl for a wife and their only friends are on the next bar stool.

The vast majority of people who go to temples are Thai and they don't go to make friends - they go to pray.

Gee, how silly of me. Imagine me thinking that someone wanting to live in Thailand might want to make Thai friends.

Most of the Thais I know go to the temple, pray, and leave.

Then I guess the Thais you know are not the type I would want to know

It's not a social gathering...

That is about the least enlightened comment I have heard. In neighborhoods, temples are the predominant social gathering places for Thais.

[singto]

Originally Posted by klikster

Actually, you did .. no other username was quoted. If you did that by accident, pretty sloppy for a moderator.

PS. I'm not your pal.

Okay pal, whatever you say. Believe whatever you want.

Originally Posted by klikster

Actually, it doesn't matter. But I have lived here long enough to listen to people brag about how long they have lived here, but don't know zip. They often have a bar girl for a wife and their only friends are on the next bar stool.

Well I've been her 14 years, nearly 15 and I dare say I know enough not to have to brag. I don't have a bar girl, pal, I've got an educated woman (not from Issan either), and I go to a bar about once a year.

Originally Posted by klikster

Gee, how silly of me. Imagine me thinking that someone wanting to live in Thailand might want to make Thai friends.

You've got a real hard on, don't you? Thais don't go to the temple to make friends, they go to pray. If you want to go somewhere with the intention of making friends, then go to a group function or somewhere like I recommended.

Then I guess the Thais you know are not the type I would want to know.

What sort of Thais would those be? Those in the government or police?

That is about the least enlightened comment I have heard. In neighborhoods, temples are the predominant social gathering places for Thais.

Sorry PAL - the temple is for praying - on some rare occasions there are gatherings but for a foreigner looking to make friends IT"S NOT ONE OF THE BEST PLACES. GOT IT?

[synthia]

My experience has been that there are people who go to temples to pray, who go to temples to get a massage, who go to temples as tourists, and who go to temples with nice gardens just to sit around and read or relax. I can't say I've made friends in temples, but then I wasn't a resident and wasn't looking for friends. But I've passed a few pleasant hours chatting to people while lounging around a temple garden.

[singto]

Originally Posted by synthia

My experience has been that there are people who go to temples to pray, who go to temples to get a massage, who go to temples as tourists, and who go to temples with nice gardens just to sit around and read or relax. I can't say I've made friends in temples, but then I wasn't a resident and wasn't looking for friends. But I've passed a few pleasant hours chatting to people while lounging around a temple garden.

A temple is a holy place. If the guy wants friends and he happens to make them at the temple, so be it. But going to the temple specifically to make friends is way too desperate - there are so many places where people go to make friends or to interact (and I'm not speaking of bars).