Fast taking on the dark side of Singaporeans

Singaporeans are complain kings, we all know that. In fact the whole South East Asia knows that. I think the whole world knows that, and maybe even the deities above also know. Instead of going on with our otherwise peaceful lives in a very safe and clean country, we Singaporeans will utilize every chance there is to complain about the smallest of things. We complain about bad food, we complain about bad services. We complain about that chipped edge in the cup we are served.

A neighbor hung out her huge underwear to dry, a piercing vision burned into the back of our eyes, we complained. Neighbors naked in their own apartment, we also complained. People smoked, we complained and now the smoking ban in public places. I stood too near to a table waiting for diners finish up in a hawker center, they complained I invaded their airspace. We complain about everything. We don’t just complain, we bring it up to the managers and even to the authorities. It just makes us happy that someone suffers because we complain. During the 17th century, Galileo discovered Earth revolves around the Sun. It’s the 21st century now and Singaporeans still thinks the universe revolves around oneself.

In the tight knit community of housing board development flats (HDB), we would call the police if our Indian neighbor cooks curry all the time. It had happened, a PRC* complained and surprisingly, the Indian household was told to stop cooking curry. Naturally, the social media flared up big with storms of more complains soon after, just as expected.
(*PRC - China immigrant commonly classified with a large dose of racism as Permanent Residence China)

We complain to police about drivers cutting into our lanes, video evidence provided by the in car camera so popular now. The bloke who got complained then receives a letter sent to his home, a huge fine he must pay. I used to have a car, exhaust note an anonymous neighbor thought too loud. Complained mystery neighbor did, magically I received a lovely summon for a fine. I had also to change my exhaust system.

Life is simple in Bangkok, well at least it used to be. Land of smiles, true. All are friendly, this no longer really true. Taught to be forgiving, taught to be compassionate by Buddha’s teaching. Taught to have a cool head and to take things lightly. I am starting to see the community losing her beauty. Just check out the social media, you could see aplenty of complaining. During the course of renovating my kitchen, I had changed the position of my ventilation fan to make way for a new kitchen hood. A day after I got a call from the developer, the household behind registered a huge complain. Complained he did that the vent will blow “bad smell” into his house. We explained that we had purchased a kitchen hood with its own independent odor removal system venting air out through the original position in which the ventilation fan was, directed away from his residence. The ventilation fan we moved serves to only vent warm air out. My nice neighbor complained back two folds. Ok, he have his reasons, I would complain too if I were him (especially since I am Singaporean). I will move the ventilation fan somewhere else as a complying gesture.

In the community I will soon live, they have a common Facebook page. It’s filled with a myriad of complains. So I suppose the neighbor behind voicing out his concerns in a large way was just the norm when compared to the list of Faceook entries. Gentle Thai people, what have become of you. Why the change over the years? Is it the economic progress, the brewing competitiveness resulting in change in behavioral patterns? Fast adopting a “my-one-must-be-bigger-than-yours” attitude many are becoming. And in the evolution towards a better quality of life, individual expectations of their surrounding intensified.

I was in a lift at work. There was a lady from the insurance company within. Another stranger entered and she was holding onto a queue card of some sort representing services required. The lady from the insurance company spotting that started to chat with the stranger first asking what she was visiting the company for. Then it grew into a conversation about the New Year holidays and their return to the provinces. Such warm friendliness, I wonder how long more will I see. Soon we will regress to become like Singapore, strangers remain strangers, arrogance will be the first stance, I am better off then you. It seems the more money we earn, bad social behavior we will see the emergence. The manners between Bangkokians and the laid back country folks then diverges as the gap between the rich and the poor widens. The latter being more pleasant.

I was at Starbucks blogging this entry. The seat opposite mine was unoccupied. Until the Chinamen came and without asking permission, sat. If I were still who I was, with an aggressive tone I would have voiced to him hostilely “ask me before you sit”. I had done this before to protect my airspace, several times in fact many years back. Now that I am drenched in Thai ethnicity, I let it be, no one was sitting there anyways, I was alone. I remained silent and continued this entry.

Singapore is now filling up to the brim with an influx of PRCs. We complain nonstop about it but for reasons. As different cultures mixed, conflicts are bound to occur. In MacDonald’s we Singaporeans queued orderly waiting our turns to order food. There was a case, a China women walked in and just cut right into the queue up front. The queue of Singaporeans, initially strangers, united as one and complained out loud and all gave the women a good scolding. She left. We protected our rights with our aggressiveness. There are many more cases where PRCs had been force into submission by our complaining nature. I was told Singapore is the only place where mainland Chinese nationals had learned to behave in their spreading migration across the world.

In Thailand, the land of compassion. We are kind mostly, but not of lately. Being kind has its weaknesses. It had opened the avenue for others to take advantage of us. It had happened in business, Thais dealing with foreigners. Until this day, for some reasons Thais still perceive foreigners, especially Caucasians, to be the almighty and trust them totally. A Thai trusted a foreigner with his good speech, “you do business with me, I fair fair, you can trust me I am good businessman”. As a result after delivering of goods, beyond the 90 days credit terms normally not given to first time deals, not a single cent collected. It’s been more than 180 days, the Thai company had been swindled. It is fortunate that over the course of time, Thais had awoken and learned to protect themselves. It is the wise thing to do in the cycle of development. In social circles, Thais are also wising up, not to be taken advantage of they have learned, they have their rights and complain they will if their turn. With progression comes the intensification of societal imperfection, we cannot avoid that. The renowned Thai friendliness written in books shall only remain in books. Thais taking on the complaining side of Singaporeans is not all that bad, really it has it good points certain ways. But with it comes the conduct I so tired of, a life years ago I abandoned.

Renewing Thai Driving License for Foreigners

It does not really matter if one drives around with an expired license here, because it does not really matter at all. But being a most of the time law abiding citizen, I choose to renew mine. It’s already a linguistic challenge to get license renewed at the nearest land transport authority just hunting for the right building and the right counters. With the recent change in regulation, it became a treasure hunt like experience for us foreigners.

Thai regulation changes at a rate the mood of the person sitting on top of authority swings. Driving license used to be lifetime but some years ago, we new license holders will have to renew ours once every five years. Renewing it used to be just going to the nearest Land Transport Authority and getting it done after taking a picture, printing a new card and paying a fee. This year, someone decided to add a battery of reflex test and a mandatory one hour refresher video session to it.


Again, back in Chatuchuk Land Transport Authority I was. Be advice, do not drive there for errands which had to be done there. There is simply not enough parking. Take the BTS to Chatuchuk. It will be wise. All signs are in Thai and technology advances had not produced glasses that do automatic word recognition that infused Google translation. Fortunately, memory served me well and I remembered where Building Four was. I reached Building Four just like how birds followed the Earth’s magnetic fields to their nesting grounds.


Went to the second floor, told them I am foreigner and asked for “foreigner service”. Queued at the counter, the not so friendly staff spent excess time filling Thai forms which I could never. Was then told to approach the “foreigner counters” 17 and 18. Normally, these counters will be very free and things are done in a matter of minutes overtaking the nominal long queues at the sixteen other Thai counters with their crowd. But that day, there were ten of us or so. After having the staffs checked the forms and scribbling more Thai scripts onto them, I was told to sign Thai forms which could as well be donating both my kidneys when I am still alive. They took my passport and I never knew when I will be getting it back.


From second floor I was told vaguely to go to the third floor. Looking silly standing lost, I was guided to join the queue of Thais for what could be entering the gas chamber. There we took a number, was handed my passport back together with more forms, and was asked to watch a Thai video with no English subtitles. But I could understand Thai fortunately so I got to know the sequence of test that I will have to undergo that followed. There were four tests.


We were asked to move into a room in batches of twenty following our queue numbers. Test 1, shouted out the color of the lights, red yellow or green, as they were flashed. Test 2, used a controller, moved a stick in a box some distance away forward and back till it looked like it is next to the other. Test 3, stepped on the brake in time when the light turned red. Test 4, positioned head on strange apparatus and shout the color of lights that appeared at the sides, looking forward all the time. There were people who were color blind I could tell. They kept getting the color wrong and gotten a scolding. There were people who did not brake when the light turned red. They were re-queued and re-tested until they passed.


And then I needed instinct to know I need next to go onto the fourth floor. There, I had to endure a one hour educational video. It was not all that bad. The first ten minutes or so of the video was the most interesting take awoken everyone from our dull transition from counters to counters. They showed a program “Reality via TV” (loosely translated) which featured horrific accidents of motorcyclist with their pillions crashing into speeding vehicles at traffic junctions. Oh man, there was one case where the riders flew so high towards the traffic cameras after the smash. The rest of the session was about watching how Khun Amnat was such a bad driver in contrast to his traffic law abiding perfect neighbor. Khun Amnat was in a wheelchair at the end of the show, his son became a comatose. You could well predict what was in between without me blogging.


After one hour getting to know Khun Amnat, back to “foreigner counter” 17 and 18. Took my picture, printed me card and paid 605 Bath. And so they had changed the rules recently and force drivers to so call undergo a “refresher” course by watching a B grade movie every five years. This is not a bad thing considering the colossal number of bad drivers out there. But still they do not teach Thai drivers about the most basic things such as right of way, how to negotiate a circle and that we should let pedestrians cross at zebra crossings, not run them over. And what about the remainder of the drivers who are holding on the lifetime licenses? Done, till five years later falling on my birthday. Thai licenses are set to expire on birthdays so that one could easily remember.

From Pepsi to EST

And so for some reasons, Pepsi’s local partnership with Serm Suk bottling plant ended in the beginning of Nov 2012. No more Pepsi production in Thailand. Thais were even saying Kentucky Fried Chicken does not serve no Pepsi no more. That remains to be seen, I seem to be able to order Pepsi through their online menu. Anyway, EST had blanketed the Kingdom by storm. Why let the distribution channel got to waste Serm Suk would ask themselves. Instead of delivering no nothing to the retailers, they cooked out their own recipe and called it EST. No idea what that means. Retailers continued with whatever Serm Suk sent and sold what was received. In metro, yes we know what EST with their deceiving Pepsi matching colors is and so we went over to the Coke faction if there is a choice. At restaurants and food outlets, they would say “sorry no more Pepsi… we have EST”. But guess what when upcountry. A fellow mate of mine asked for Pepsi and was given EST. The outlets in the provinces had associated Pepsi with Serm Suk. They see the same delivery man. They pay to the same account. They order through the same channel and receive the bottles from the same truck with deceiving stickers in the same blue red white colors. To them Serm Suk water = Pepsi. I have heard of color blind, but this is either word or brand blind.

How do we solve problems here?

As I did ever blogged before, if any sections of roads suffers from extreme congestion due to cars queuing up for that u-turn, traffic police here simply blocks off that u-turn. Drivers go find a u-turn somewhere else. Same concept goes for toilet in the block I work in. To solve the problem of too many dirty toilets, simply just locked many of them up. If no one can use it, it won’t be dirty. And so I ran from floors to floor looking for that open toilet, shit leaking as I did. And in my dash seeking critically needed relief, I came across the cleaners sitting down at corners yakking away about which pa-la (fermented fish) from whatever province makes their som-tam (Thai Papaya Salad) better. Amazing Thailand.

A380 Introduced

The Thai Airways fleet recently had a new member. The famed giant of the skies - A380. The in-flight magazines are sprawled with pages on this plane. The media updated with images of this massive technology marvel in the skies. So proud, so glorious the carrier is now. Well guess what, they only have one. And it flies only the short routes between Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. Theses giants are suppose to be for long haul. What the heck are they thinking? And they are promoting wildly the airfares so cheap to be on the A380. And so the topic on us Thai frequent flyers here is that we are guinea pigs. We think they are doing a load test, stuff the A380 full and make it takeoff and land as many times as possible just to make sure a nut don’t fall out, a bolt don’t fracture, the wings don’t snap, the engine don’t independently fly off in different directions, the brake works, the toilet flushes, the aircrew gets familiar, the ground crew accustoms to maintenance, the pilot don’t push the wrong button that open doors in mid air… practice makes perfection before the long haul assignment.