I will know I have made it in life I ever end up in that thread ;)

I am convinced that Dubai changes people for the worse as I was your typical unassuming Brit until moved here...haha

Know what you mean, having spent time myself as a Gulf-expat-Brit.

And do remember that when you eventually leave and return to your home country, you will forever remain a member of the 'whenwes'. This will allow you to regale (as in, bore ! ) friends & relatives with endless tales of "when I/we lived in Dubai/Muscat/Abu Dhabi/Bahrain ........" :rolleyes::rolleyes:

When I flew EK F a few months back into SIN, I only got an E-class, which was somewhat disappointing.

Are there differentiating cars for F/J at FCO ?
Might be there in a few months.

On a more serious note - all expat life changes you: people subconsciously try and assimilate.

I have seen countless numbers of people from Western backgrounds in, shall we say, rather less developed countries, interacting with service staff (even front line airline staff), and the way they speak to them is absolutely unacceptable: I am confident in saying that they would never speak to someone in their home countries that way.

One of the explanations I can think of is that they feel unshackled by the peer pressure (and of course, the feeling of elite success for being relatively wealthy by local standards - that is, the standards of the people they interact with the most) that has kept their behaviour in check where they have come from and are less inhibited in their expression.

When you say "unassuming Brit", in my experience with interacting with Brits in an expat capacity, the self-perception is, for some, quite inaccurate: some are not unassuming, they simply act with regards to social consequences (but have not realised this is what they are doing). Absent that feedback mechanism, those individuals revert to either an assimilation of their economic and therefore social position in their new residence, or something more unpleasant :D Rather like when an excess of alcohol, but rather more chronic!

The dichotomy of self-perception and reality is more trivially seen, in the case of the UK, when it comes to tips. Anecdotally (and through surveys), Brits think they are quite generous when it comes to discretionary gratuities. However, when tips are not mentioned, the average amount is 5-6%. When the service charge is added to the bill, there are very, very few complaints about it and is generally paid willingly. For a 10% service charge, the service charge balance turns into around 9.7% of revenue, for 12.5% it is around 12%. When you interview people about it though, the average amount that is declared is 10% :)

Source: hospitality industry

Too serious for this thread I think - just I think expats should be much more self-aware about how exactly they are acting if they don't want to avoid the trap of sliding into boorishness that quire a few slip into.

Holy cow that's one hell of a thesis.

Yep. But always good to hear from someone with understanding of the subject matter ^

You missed a rather infamous and now closed thread which had a lot of theses in :D

@eternaltransit - I totally agree with your post above, in fact is does make me cringe sometimes when I hear how expats talk to certain nationalities in Dubai, in fact I have called people out on this more than once.

When I relocated to Dubai, I made a conscious effort to avoid most places where British expats hang out and I don't really have a social circle that involves many Europeans these days.

Anyway, don't want to derail this thread any more

Arriving on J into BKK. A group of four people, what will the cost be to extend the trip to Hua-Hin ?

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/i...75-1365886.pdf

Hua-Hin 230km THB 4,500
Except:
1) Six Senses Hua Hin or Evason Hua Hin
9 Moo 5 Paknampran Beach, Pranburi,
Prachuap Khirikhan 77220 Thailand
2) Villa MAROC165/3 Moo 3
Paknampran, Pranburi, Prachuap Khirikhan
77220, Thailand
3) Aleenta Hua Hin – Pranburi
THB 6,000

Is that pr. person or for the car in total?

Normally per car is what is quoted.

hi there,

will be flying to saigon soon. was able to book service for ZRH but couldn't find anything for saigon. don't the offer it in Vietnam?

thanx&greetz,

JohnnyT

I have just enjoyed an excellent service from EK. Tristar (LHR) provided new E class cars from our Dorchester home to and from LHR T3. I negotiated a reduced excess which the driver's took on arrival, although there was a mix up at LHR on the return, as they had incorrect paperwork at the hospitality desk, even though the driver's copy was correct, so a slight and embarrassing delay!

Both drivers did an excellent job.

In Singapore, the car was also an E class.