You Can't Do This! I'm A Farang!

There seems to this air of superiority that surfaces from time to time in Thailand when a foreigner living here seems to think he's somehow above the law or able to bend the rules.

I'm out one glorious day in Chiang Mai and see this American farang ranting and raving at the security guys outside the gates to the US Consulate. You know the one I mean? It has the big cornet shaped white chedi outside.
Anyway, I stop walking and listen to him go on about this and that.

It soon transpires that he's trying to post some documents via the guards to someone within the place. Only one problem, it's outside opening hours for the consulate. Yet this high and mighty farang seems to think the rules don't apply to him and is yowling and howling at them.
"Look damn it! I'm an American Citizen and this is my Consulate. You don't tell me what to do here." He blew and blasted like a big walrus about to explode.
Anyone would think he owned the place the way he carried on.
It's always a spectacle when a farang loses his temper and this guy was no exception. The guards (who I'm suprised didn't throw him out the gateway) eventually got their boss to come along and I think he sorted it out in the end.

It's a bit similar to the movie quote in Indiana Jones where the lead actress playing Marion is kidnapped in the basket by two arabs. As they are carrying her away down the alley she's howling "You can't do this, I'm an American!"

But seriously, I always follow the old thai way of not loosing your temper in public and when it comes to embassies and consulates there are no shortcuts.
Yet here's a US guy who seems to think it's ok to be an ass in public.
Not only that but he seemed to look down on the thai guards as inferior to his overwhelming uncle-sam persona that was so ruffled by them following the rules.

After I left, shrugging my shoulders at the sorry example shown by some of the fellow expats out here I thought the matter closed. Then, while scanning through the on-line expats forums I come across the very same guy posting his sorry-assed tale on one of them!

Get this, not only does he feel he was in the right, but he's going to try and complain further up the chain-of-command about the guards! Jeez, I can only imagine what his letter will be like, quite how you can punish the guards for doing their job is a bit unusual, even for Thailand.

Still these odd types of farang who buzz around in their little world make for an interesting place as we sane types go about our business!