I was wondering what people on the board do when a local seriously pisses them off in some way?

Do you get angry and shout? Get happy and laugh it off? Get drunk/ stoned and try to forget it? Run back to the family and report it all in the hope they will do something about it?

What sort of anger management skills do you apply to the situation and why?

PSD-Kiwi wrote:Smile and move on

Every time? Or, is that what you try to do? Why?

never really had any khmers seriously piss me off, been a few times where say a moto in PP has got me all frustrated due to saying he knew where i wanted to go but in the end not having a clue and taking me to somewhere completely different, but that would have been due to the language barrier ive learnt now to make sure i know the way and i can guide him in khmer to my destination

theres probably been other times, maybe someone trying to rip me off or something, but nothing dramatic enough to report about

I don't get pissed off with locals. Where's the value in it? We chose to come to their country and live our lives; they didn't ask us to come. If I'm not happy with the price of something; I do what the locals do and walk away. There's always another vendor somewhere else who will do the deal at a price I am happy with. Other than that... nearly everything you deal with a local over they have no power to change. There's no point in getting riled up in the bank or the pharmacy or the ISP or whatever because they can't do what you want them to do; their position on the food chain ensures that they have zero power to get things done 99.9% of the time and if they can, and won't, you can always go and see someone else at the same place to get it done. Punctuality isn't an Asian thing so there's very little point in working yourself up over it and so on...

I've never encountered someone who went out of their way to wind me up in Asia; face cultures don't do that. So why get flustered at all? Better to be calm and let it all wash over you. They're right too... nothing really matters that much in the scheme of things.

Jamie_Lambo wrote:never really had any khmers seriously piss me off, been a few times where say a moto in PP has got me all frustrated due to saying he knew where i wanted to go but in the end not having a clue and taking me to somewhere completely different, but that would have been due to the language barrier ive learnt now to make sure i know the way and i can guide him in khmer to my destination

In my book that doesn't even register anymore, and hasn't done for years.

there's probably been other times, maybe someone trying to rip me off or something, but nothing dramatic enough to report about

Not really looking for stories about what got you pissed off. I'm more interested in how you dealt with the feelings it gave you.

TheGrinchSR wrote:I don't get pissed off with locals. Where's the value in it? We chose to come to their country and live our lives; they didn't ask us to come. If I'm not happy with the price of something; I do what the locals do and walk away. There's always another vendor somewhere else who will do the deal at a price I am happy with. Other than that... nearly everything you deal with a local over they have no power to change. There's no point in getting riled up in the bank or the pharmacy or the ISP or whatever because they can't do what you want them to do; their position on the food chain ensures that they have zero power to get things done 99.9% of the time and if they can, and won't, you can always go and see someone else at the same place to get it done. Punctuality isn't an Asian thing so there's very little point in working yourself up over it and so on...

I've never encountered someone who went out of their way to wind me up in Asia; face cultures don't do that. So why get flustered at all? Better to be calm and let it all wash over you. They're right too... nothing really matters that much in the scheme of things.

Again, not really what I was getting at in the OP but also interesting.

I don't get pissed off with locals. Where's the value in it?

Are you really saying you have never gotten pissed of with someone in Asia? How do you deal with it physiologically?

What do you mean where's the value in it? You mean it makes you feel powerless, but they are also powerless as you mention in your post? What about the times when they are the one's giving you the shit directly and have the power to change that? Are you saying that SEA's are immune to doing that? Oh, and this thread isn't supposed to be about getting ripped off at the shops.

juansweetpotato wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:I don't get pissed off with locals. Where's the value in it? We chose to come to their country and live our lives; they didn't ask us to come. If I'm not happy with the price of something; I do what the locals do and walk away. There's always another vendor somewhere else who will do the deal at a price I am happy with. Other than that... nearly everything you deal with a local over they have no power to change. There's no point in getting riled up in the bank or the pharmacy or the ISP or whatever because they can't do what you want them to do; their position on the food chain ensures that they have zero power to get things done 99.9% of the time and if they can, and won't, you can always go and see someone else at the same place to get it done. Punctuality isn't an Asian thing so there's very little point in working yourself up over it and so on...

I've never encountered someone who went out of their way to wind me up in Asia; face cultures don't do that. So why get flustered at all? Better to be calm and let it all wash over you. They're right too... nothing really matters that much in the scheme of things.

Again, not really what I was getting at in the OP but also interesting.

I don't get pissed off with locals. Where's the value in it?

Are you really saying you have never gotten pissed of with someone in Asia? How do you deal with it physiologically?

What do you mean where's the value in it? You mean it makes you feel powerless, but they are also powerless as you mention in your post? What about the times when they are the one's giving you the shit directly and have the power to change that? Are you saying that SEA's are immune to doing that? Oh, and this thread isn't supposed to be about getting ripped off at the shops.

I'm saying that in SE Asia; I've never been pissed off with anyone (well, except for a Russian tourist but we worked that out in the end). I don't mean that it makes me feel powerless at all; quite the opposite. You have no control over how other people will react or act towards you; you have 100% control over your own actions (whether you want to admit it or not and let's be fair we all lie to ourselves sometimes). You can choose not to be angry. You can choose to let life drift by just like the locals. Or you can be angry, hold on to a non-compatible way of life and use it to drive a wedge between where you are and yourself.

In China, I'd lose my rag with a local approximately once a day. There is a substantial minority of Chinese who are just fucking rude. I can't abide rudeness. I have lost count of the numbers of Chinese that I have physically ejected from shops, cafes, bars, train stations, etc. for rudeness. It helps that I am about 3 times the size of the average Chinese person. But once that became common place; I knew it was time to leave. China doesn't need to change for me, if I want to be there - I have to change for China. It turns out; I don't want to be there. So I left and not a moment too soon.

yes fucking stinky noisy chinky chank needs to be ejected, 90% of them dont hv a indoor voice, 90% of them need to hang a spitoon around their neck, 90% need to learn how to read, no smoking means no smoking, 90% need to know that the world do not revolve around china.