Chapter brought to you by Su Jeong and June. Chapter 3 out of 3 chapter for week before I left for two week travel through Vietnam, Cambodia and layover in Thailand.
I am back!!! so I have like nine chapters to make up… 🙁 Will try to do it before the end of the year. As for my trip Vietnam was beautiful. Cambodia’s recent history was so sad but Angkor Wat is worth seeing!
Very, very disappointed with my 12 hour of layover in Bangkok Thailand. I and my sister tour the city from the grand palace to the chatuchak market. Everyone was either bluntly rude to us, ignored us, refused to help us or tried to sell crap to us in Chinese. Yes we are Chinese but speaking English since my sister was born in USA and don’t speak much Chinese. I guess the Thai are tired of rude Chinese so treat all Chinese looking people as crap. This pissed me off… only other time I was treated to such blunt racism was in Spain. In both country I was refused service in restaurants. At least in Spain the bartender make up BS about the whole restaurant being booked for a party (the place remained more than half empty after two hours and only people that they seated were Europeans!). In Thailand the staff at restaurant in the international airport of all places refused to serve my sister (I guess wanting to buy something cheap and fast doesn’t deserve to be given the menu nor service, McDonalds is better than this!). It was a sit down restaurant serving range of food like Applebees in America. So Thailand and Spain are both on my do not ever go countries.
If I wasn’t so use to the polite and courteous people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan I would have chalked up the rudeness of Thai people as being from the city, eg as a New Yorker we tend to be cold to everyone too. But the difference was so obvious and it was only toward us because we were Chinese (they treated the European people much better) pissed me off. As if Chinese people’s money was dirty but they still will disdainfully accept it. Yes people tried to cheat us and sell us stuff in Vietnam and Cambodia too but they at least treat customers with respect. The longer trip I was planning to explore Thailand is scraped. I feel no sympathy for the Thai! After being treated like this… I feel like acting as a rude, line cutting Chinese since that’s what they expected from me anyway. Rant over.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. 🙁 I hope you enjoyed the rest of the trip the best you could!
Actually my whole trip was amazing in Vietnam and Cambodia. Just at the end of returning I had a long layover and decided to get out of the airport to explore…big mistake 🙁
Racism and discrimination are always so aggravating and disappointing.
Trying to sell fakes seems to be found universally anywhere, not just Asian
~(˘▾˘~)
Glad the Viet were mannerful – Yippee and well-done on behalf of fellow viet (ofc, theres always gonna be some to buck the trend and be rotten eggs …. Just the same as in Canada here
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I actually want to return to North and Central Vietnam Hanoi to Hoi An… the weather was too hot for me in South Vietnam. It’s a beautiful country.
Its sad to hear that.. if you have a chance to come to my country (Indonesia) at least you will get scam (if you cant use our languange) :T (about racist yeah theres too but not much but if youre beautifull enough they will just blantaly look at you or whistling) i recommend go to Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta (tourist will go to this city)
But, enjoy your trip dear!
Been to Bali and Jakarta for friends wedding and everything went great because they speak the language. Yes I did get starred at a lot but was very well protected by friend’s family.
Sorry to hear that happened to you. I’m glad you enjoyed Angkor Wat and kudos to my fellow Cambodians. I hope you had safe travels while there. Also, did you get to visit any other sites while you were there?
I was in the capital of Cambodia for a day. Did the sad tour of the Killing field, the S2 interrogation facility that was converted from a school. My tour guide in Angkor Wat had an uncle who was assumed to be taken to one of the killing field. They never found him. They lied to his family that he was being send to continue his high school education.
I just went to Thailand last October! Even tho I’m a Filipino, my grandfather is Chinese and i did get most of my features from my grandpa’s side. Some sellers are indeed rude to me, but most of them are okay to us…… maybe because my sis looks more of a Thailand local…… now i wonder if i ever go and visit on my own…… will i ever enjoy it……
How unfortunate for you and your sister, but don’t let it discourage both of you from travelling in other countries! Philippines is a must try, people are friendly and always willing to help! We always have smiles on our faces!
I’m sorry to hear that,I really hope the rest of your trip went better 😊
I was in Thailand last year I loved it, so I’m sorry that you had such a bad experience.
So sorry to hear about your horrible experience in Thailand 🙁 Thanks for the heads up. Now I know which countries to avoid when traveling. Anyway, so glad that you’re back safe and sound.
iam so sorry to hear that…..i never go to thailand before and iam planning too next year …this year i go too indonesia and every place i go they all treat me nicely …the food too spicy tho
What do you mean by “I feel no sympathy for the Thai!” ? That is a very heavy statement. Also, by no means is ignorance and hate ever the answer to ignorance and hate. I’m sorry you were treated unfairly in Thailand, but judging an entire nation’s population (Thailand in this instance.), based on a few negative personal experiences, is ignorant and hypocritical. It’s ignorant for obvious reasons and it’s hypocritical, because in one sentence you are mad that they lumped you in with Chinese Nationals (Whom,according to you, are rude af, which brings up the issue of you being as ignorant minded towards Chinese Nationals as the Thai people you were criticizing, but I digress.), then a moment later, you are lumping all the Thai people together as rude racists. You should do some serious self reflection. Furthermore, the comment about wanting to live down to the negative stereo-type you ASSUMED was being placed on you by the Thai people you encountered, makes me think you must be either very young, or very ignorant. I have a feeling you are very young and were not being wilfully ignorant, but I hope you evolve in the future. The ONLY solution to ignorance, is edification/education. If you think someone is being racist, either call them out and educate them, or educate them with you actions, by NOT living down to their racist misconceptions and stereotypes. When you return hatefulness for hatefulness, everybody loses.
For a person who accuses me of having too many ASSUMPTIONS and judgmental aren’t you doing the same? I don’t expect everyone to agree with my rant nor am I going to sugar coated my words to be ‘political correct’. I guess if I ranted about the King of Thailand you will report me and have me locked up? (Yes this law exist in Thailand and yes Thailand tried to impose this on the media content of other countries). If you do even a little research you will see I didn’t ASSUME how Chinese tourist are viewed by Thai heck just check the news and even youtube have rants by Thai actress on this topic.
For your information I am Chinese as stated in the rant you obviously didn’t read. So I have no delusions about how some bad Chinese tourist made the whole nation look bad heck even the Chinese government issued guidance on how Chinese should behave while traveling abroad. So don’t pretend to be a hero and jump to defending Chinese Nationals by calling me a ignorant minded person. This only make you look self-righteous. The world is not black or white, there is no absolute right or wrong, we live in a grey world.
There is some truth to your words that people need to educate the very ignorant. You made so many assumptions about me from my age to my education, to how I should feel and think, I don’t know where to start ‘educating’ you. But judging from your response you clearly didn’t read my rant which clearly explained my experiences that compared what happened to me in Thailand to Spain. Yes refusing to serve someone or even seat them in a restaurant based on their ethnicity (Chinese) is the definition of racism. You are the one who assume I am saying all Thai people are rude and racist based on the title of my rant. I even explained why Thai people may be rude by comparing Bangkok, a big city to the attitude of people in New York City.
Finally all of this misunderstanding started from one phase that you brought too much of your imagination into “I feel no sympathy for the Thai!” For the sake of educating the ignorant I’ll explain to you what I was thinking when I wrote that and what it really mean to me. As a very logically person I did some internet research on why Thai would not like Chinese tourist. Turned out there is a lot of history between China and Thailand where some of the richest Thai are of Chinese decent, and Chinese tourist visit only Chinese/Thai business. So according to the article the Thai feared the Chinese will buy up all of Thailand and kick the native Thai out. So Thai are ultra sensitive to the “rude behaviors of Chinese tourist. The article compared Thai attitude to Egyptians attitude to the same “rude Chinese tourist behavior” While the Egyptians only laugh it off and prefer Chinese tourist to Europeans because Chinese tourist don’t bring the baggage of religious strife with Egypt. So my no sympathy meant don’t care if Chinese business take over Thailand! It had nothing to do with what you are ASSUMING.