miserable farangland

Farangland is still the same. It's cold and cloudy and I have a 10am-8pm day at university, followed by some quiet moments in my dorm-room.

Over the weekend, I went to town. It was a Saturday afternoon, not that cold and not rainy - quite nice! The town where I stay is actually a really beautiful city, not very big, but not small either.

There is plenty to see in the town centre, yet there was no one there...I walked around, past the cafés, the clothes boutiques, the souvenir shops, the book shops and it was all empty.

For a moment, I was wondering whether there is a public holiday, but those dont really exist in farangland here..

From my 3-years experience of living here, I remember countless shops who have come and gone in the main shopping street of the city, some are even empty - that can not be a good sign. And this is not due to the recession, because even when farangland's economy was doing well, some of these shops were empty.

Then, I realised something. Half of the people out in the street were Chinese. Another few Korean or other Asians. The white faranglanders were missing. Where were they?


Typical farangland butchery

I spotted a trailer in the middle of the main shopping street. The man sold donuts and coffee. He was a typical faranglander.

A rough man, a bit of a beard, rugged face, a jacket, some worn-out jeans and a big smile on his face. He asked me and my friend how our day was.

We told him: We are just having a day out. Then I asked him: Why is it so quiet. He said: If it would have been sunny for 30 more minutes, the people would have come out to town, now they went to the mall (it was overcast, but not rainy at all).

The f*cking mall. I hate them. Everyone goes to malls in farangland. It's that dirty American suburban culture mixed with the traditional "rite of passage" for every faranglander to own his little wee house with a tiny garden, the so-called "quarter-acre dream".


A Faranglander's dream, he/she will work for this life for decades.

How long does it take until people realise that this dream is fake and over. My town here is rather small but it has traffic jams, and rush-hours because EVERYONE takes the car to work.

The malls here are miserable! They teem with bored people. Families, old people, young people, teens, schoolkids. People are bored and cold - lets go to the mall. The mall numbs people's minds - they dont have the creativity to do anything else anymore.

When I used to live in farangtown with my boyfriend, we had a miserable life too. We both like to be among people. Faranglanders however commute between their TV, their car, the mall and work, that's it. So we used to go to the mall too just because we could not stand the quietness of the house or the neighbourhood.


My University on a sunny day

Farangtown is a tough city. It really tests your sturdiness. If you dont have friends, a boyfriend, a car and either creativity and energy, or indifference, you will become depressed.

Right now, I am fine. I have a boring and monotonous and immobile life. I do the same every day but it's ok, because I have a job to do. My happiness is measured in the numbers of words I write every day. If it's more than 500, my mood is good, if more than 1000, my mood is happy.

I want everyone who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, or elsewhere in Asia, and is not happy with their lives to think and reflect on their life.

Dont you like stepping out of your condo, and the next taxi comes right there?
Dont you love having a midnight snack with your friends on the roadside, BBQ chicken, somtam, etc?
Dont you love being able to walk down to 7eleven at 2am when you realise that you want some Orange Juice, MaMa Noodles, or a lollie?
Dont you love that you dont need to think about what combination of clothes you are going to wear because a shirt and pants will do? (ok that one does not hold up for kawadjan and me:))
Dont you love having people around you whenever you step out of your condo?


It's better here after all, isnt it?

Maybe you dont realise all these things, but when they are gone, you realise how you have gotten very used to all these niceties.


p.s. the farangland pictures were taken last year. this year there wasnt any light yet to take the pictures. someone turn the light on please?

a saying from farangland goes: may the last one to leave farangland please turn the light off.

I think they all left....?!?!?