Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

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buksida
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Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by buksida »

During travels In recent months I've noticed a growing number of places/occasions where you'll get a "mai khai" (don't sell) if you want a beer. These include but are not limited to:

1) Public transport stations (and vehicles)
2) Gas stations or shops on highways
3) Restaurants in temple or religious grounds/parks
4) National Park premises
5) Seven Elevens/major stores out of hours
6) Religious or royal holidays
7) Political events/election days
8 ) Anywhere near schools
9) Festivals/events/sports with crowds
10) The local cops feel like flexing their muscles
11) Days of the week when the wind blows from the west or there is a full moon.

It seems this list is increasing and I've often found it easier to get a beer in stricter countries such as Malaysia or Indonesia than Thailand at times, years ago here there was never an issue. If the trend continues (and the govt gets their way) beer may be banned totally within the next few years, or only be accessible in specific zones after providing your full address and a copy of your ID. Planning ahead and filling the esky at opportune moments is now a necessary step if you fancy a cold one on a random afternoon, or hunting down a tiny shop where grandma has a stash of dusty tinnies left over from 2543. You can no longer expect to just get one as easily as you used to without consulting a calendar or witch doctor before hand.

Now I like a cold one now and then, especially when I'm on the road (not literally), so these are just some thoughts and observations in a country that is increasingly becoming a major control freak.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Spitfire »

Maybe should rewrite the topic title to "increasing intorerance of everything."

Whole of Asia is heading down this route.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Vital Spark »

I'm glad you posted this, Buksida, because I've been meaning to post something about this subject myself. Thais have a totally different attitude towards alcohol than, say, Europeans. I run a discussion course at university, and a couple of weeks ago the students chose to discuss alcohol (they're 4th yr students - so are around 22 years old). This'll be interesting (I thought), and it was. There are only a couple of lads in the group - and out of the girls about 25% of them had ever drunk alcohol. When they talked about their experiences they confessed to getting absolutely out of their heads, throwing up over their mates, and doing stupid things. Rather stern looks by the 75% teetotalers, whose reasons for not drinking were: their parents were teachers, they were allergic to alcohol, they had drunken fathers/uncles who were unpleasant when drunk. I confessed that I drank beer, :shock: , and tried to explain that most Europeans drink socially and sensibly (normally...), as it's part of our culture. The pub culture. They smiled and nodded, but I don't think that they really understood what I was getting at.

Before the class I surfed the net to find statistics for Thailand and found this site: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/infogr ... -thailand/

When we live in a country where only 30% admit to drinking alcohol regularly (226 bottle of beer a year!!), there's no wonder that they have the attitude they do. I guess the Ministers in the Dept. of Health are all teetotalers - and regard the 'devil's drink' the same way as 75% of my students.

When we moved jobs a few years ago one of our colleagues was rung up by our future boss to find out whether we were OK or not. Months after we got the job she said that she had perhaps said the wrong thing. She felt that she had to tell him that we drank beer, as if it was some kind of crime.?! Luckily, he was one of the 30 percenters and enjoyed both beer and wine - and we had many happy evenings drinking more than we should do with him.

Get real Thailand! I can think of far more worse things that average (non-drinking) Thais do on a daily basis than having a few glasses of beer.

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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by centermid7 »

I would sure have to question that 30% number.

The number of Thai men that I have know who do not drink I could count on one hand. I do know plenty of Thai women who do not but I would guess that it is not 50/50 even between the ladies.

IMO that 30% is far outta wack. "Regular" drinkers or not.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

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Thai's only drink when driving.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

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Spitfire wrote:Maybe should rewrite the topic title to "increasing intorerance of everything."

Whole of Asia is heading down this route.
Care to elaborate, Spitfire - the whole of Asia?? - that's a big part of the world, where's the evidence please?
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Liberty70 »

barrys wrote:
Spitfire wrote:Maybe should rewrite the topic title to "increasing intorerance of everything."

Whole of Asia is heading down this route.
Care to elaborate, Spitfire - the whole of Asia?? - that's a big part of the world, where's the evidence please?
Certainly no problems getting a drink in Vietnam that I know of - North, Central or South!!
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Gregjam »

Perhaps the title should refer to beer rather than alcohol. In general Beer is not drunk by the working classes as it is expensive. Lao khao is drunk a lot as is Sang Thip or other cheap liquors. Why buy a bottle of beer when for the same price you can get a bottle of local hooch and who knows what you are drinking when it is added to other drinks. Obtaining alcohol may be difficult in town but go to most small places just outside town and certainly the "mom & pop" places in more remote areas and you will have no problem even if it is one of the banned days.
There may well be less tolerance of alcohol which may be due to the publicity it is getting on youtube and facebook. With Loy Krathong not too far away I dont anticipate any reduction in the usual drunken antics though. My wifes family do not usually drink beer but when we throw a party you can be sure it gets consumed, they move on to the stronger stuff later on. And this is a family that has lost members due to alcohol and some injured due to drunken drivers.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Big Boy »

Gregjam, I think what you are saying was probably true 15 years ago, but the amount of Thais choosing beer as their regular fix has increased dramatically. I would say 95% of the Thais I know would class themselves as working class.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by crazy88 »

Well football fans have been banned from drinking alcohol in the grounds for 28 years in the UK and I do not remember petrol stations selling beer.

Large stores like Tesco, Makro you cannot buy a can of beer out of hours but you can buy 10 litres( Might be more)

7/11 I can have a beer at 11am but not at 4.30 pm????? Easy. Just open one and put the rest on the counter. Family mart no problem.

Near schools? Then why can MV outlets sell alcohol with a massive school next door? The school on the Palau road there are plenty of bars and shops selling within walking distance.

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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by J.J.B. »

I think the attitude towards alcohol is different across Europe too, let alone Asia. When we lived in Italy, it was amazing to see that when people went out socialising, they would have one drink. They often only drank half of that! It didn't matter the age or gender, if you were out with a group of colleagues or friends socially and offered them a second drink, they would refuse, saying they had already had one.

Alcohol on the continent is also significantly cheaper than the UK and seems more respected. For example, in a supermarket you can buy a two litre bottle of 95% almost pure alcohol. The Italians use it to make home-made limoncello and myrtillo, amongst other fruit liqueurs. Try that in the UK, where 'street-drinkers' will break into a hospital to steal the alcohol-based hand sanitiser, and you would have dead tramps littering the car park at Lidl! The UK Government's notion of 'per unit' pricing for alcohol is a farce, it's nothing to do with the price, it's much more embedded in the culture.

But, my daughter, who turns 17 next month, has virtually no interest in alcohol at all. At her age I was smuggling out my elder brother's gopping homebrew wine or disguising vodka in a shampoo bottle to drink later with friends! We'll buy her some alcopops occasionally and she'll open one then nurse it for the next three hours, ultimately leaving half of it. She likes it well enough but prefers to drink water - as do most of her friends. It's not a big deal for her. Perhaps having all the answers to the questions you ever wanted to ask as a teenager, available in the palm of your hand, has removed any sense of mystique and intrigue for her generation.

I think there are no shortage of opportunities to get all manner of booze (in Hua Hin, at least) and have never experienced any sneering or judgement from anybody selling it. Separately, as someone who's currently contemplating an all-grain brewing experiment, perhaps I'm looking for self-reliance anyway, just in case the shutters finally come down!

Time please!
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

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barrys wrote:
Spitfire wrote:Maybe should rewrite the topic title to "increasing intorerance of everything."

Whole of Asia is heading down this route.
Care to elaborate, Spitfire - the whole of Asia?? - that's a big part of the world, where's the evidence please?
Yes, perhaps a sweeping statement but we could consider the following:

The Philippines - We all know they elected a very controversial president that is bordering on the criminal before he even took office. Obviously hates the West and has designs for changing many things whatever the cost...not to mention his 'War on drugs' and intolerance to a few other things. He will screw up so much more than what he has already as he has another 6 years to totally fcuk it all up...which he totally will.

China - I heard from some folks that have experience of the place that what they are doing these days is that they want to get rid of Chinese people/domestic immigrants from where they want to get rid of them (like Shanghai) that are not necessary anymore (including foreigners too), i.e. 'Thanks for your help but goddbye.' I guess nothing new with China, being it's a state run by a dictator that hides beind 'La La' socialism....but they are even throwing their own migrant people out of the major cities that they helped build. I read on BBC that they are bricking up migrants houses windows that have been turned into shops over the years citing cutlural housing preservation (as if they give ahit about that).

No need to even mention the South China Sea and their beligerence on that front. I read they are even thinking of putting a small nuclear reactor on one of the islands....great move for diplomacy and tolerance.

Indonesia - Brings back the death penalty and doesn't care what people say, sinks fishing vessels, fails to crack down on forest fires because of the palm oil industry's power and is ever lurching towards Islamic law and it's well known indifference to everything. One of the worst places to do business in many people's eyes.

Burma - Social indifference to all non Burmese and nut job xenophobic monks plus a soft democratic government that lacks teeth because the previous junta still holds significant power.

Thailand - Can't say too much here as will be moderated by the green squad. Suffice to say that prominent people get jailed for being sarastic in public statements and basically a witch hunt is going on atm. Thailand keeps getting itself in the news for all the wrong reasons, like with that kid from HK. I'd say plenty of intolerance...even if passive.

Cambodia - Basically this country has sold it's soul to China and gets lots of goodies in return but the price is that ASEAN is neutralized and can't make a collective statement because Cambodia doesn't agree on China's bidding. ASEAN has basically become a meaningless talking shop (like the UN) as no-one can agree due to political differentences and moves. I guess Cambodia doesn't care for ASEAN...just itself. It (Cambodia) gets more from bowing down to China that it does from serving the agreements it signed up to regarding ASEAN (make no mistake the importance of neutralizing ASEAN for China). HunSen is a dictator like Robert Mugabe who's time is more than done. Hopefully these people will move on from this mortal coil soon and allow fresh politicans to take over (dreaming I know).

India/Pakistan - Two nuclear powers that hate eachother and can't agree on anything without losing face infront of an insane public. These two are a family at war, always have been since independence. They are only interested in one-upmanship with eachother and Kamir/Jammu will ensure there will be no peace between them. Tensoin and indifference towards each other are unusually high atm.

North Korea - Goes without saying on this one, but they seem hell bent on being a problem no matter what. China refuses to reign then in and Obamas administration lack a spine on not just this issue but many.

The deployment of a THAAD system in South Korea (Obama's only recent example of balls) has the Chinese hopping mad but they are the antagonists here in the South China Sea and could solve the North Korea problem at a click of the finger....but decide not to.

Russia - The new assertive Russia is just begging the west to engage it somewhere and will keep on pushing until someone says 'That's enough' and does something. Europe and the US have lost so much credibility in the last couple of years it's unreal and the Chinese, Russians and so many others have done whatever they can to get stuff done till there is an angry Hillary Clinton in the White House...whom they all despise.

As another poster mentioned....they can still get a beer in Vietnam, well...good for you. Vietnam seems to be one of the few Asian countries that isn't going silly atm.

It doesn't look so rosy atm......and looks like confict of some sort might well be on the way somewhere with so many beligerent powers jostling for influence and stature and importance, which we have not seen the likes of for a very long time.

Nationalism has been rising in many countries all over the world, including Asia, and with it brings a high degree of intolerance. I don't think my comments in the previous post about intolerance were too way off but are not just limited to Thailand.

A great deal of people are naffed-off and tired of the status quo that has gone before for a the last 20-30 years and the upcoming generation is showing it's will nd dissent.....not to mention that it's easy to see that it's slowly starting to come to the surface in many place in many ways.

My appologies for a ridiculously long post...maybe wasn't needed. Just observations of a private individual and not chaiming to be a definitive source on anything.

Edit - Sorry, forgot Malaysia, another one lurching towards Ismalic theocracy and intolerance. Also edited for typos.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by buksida »

I'd rate the following countries a LOT easier and a LOT cheaper to get a beer than in Thailand:

Burma
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
Philippines

Malaysia is equal price wise and no silly time restrictions. Indonesia is a little more restrictive, hell they're considering banning it all together, maybe Thailand will follow suit ...

Good point JJB, I hadn't considered the fact that smartphones have now taken over teenage minds where as a quick slug of Special Brew behind the bike sheds was the go in our day.
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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by Vital Spark »

Cambodia's great for beer. Any time, any place, anywhere. Vietnam's pretty cool as well.

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Re: Thailand's increasing intolerance of alcohol

Post by caller »

crazy88 wrote:Well football fans have been banned from drinking alcohol in the grounds for 28 years in the UK
No they haven't. You can buy beer in pretty much every stadium, including in the stands, but you can't take beer on to the terraces.

I can only speak for one Thai club, the Korat Swatcats, but no beer is allowed within the ground. You can't even take water onto the terraces!
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