Made in Thailand

• My first toaster, made by National, was not fail-safe. After one month it happened that the toast jammed inside and wouldn't eject, while the heater hadn't switched off. The toast caught fire and burned. The unit didn't have a ground connection, either. I trashed the toaster.
  My second toaster failed after 2 months. The filament had broken at the terminal. I repaired it and cut my finger on the sharp metal edges of the cabinet. It failed again after another month. The filament had broken at another terminal. As I realized that the connection between filaments and terminals was poorly done and more trouble was ahead, I trashed the thing. It was branded "Turbora".
  My third toaster, the most expensive one, was made by Moulinex. It has so far lasted for over 2 years without trouble, I use it twice daily.
  
• My first water cooker was a local product. It took 30 minutes to boil 1.5 liter of water.
  My second water cooker was a German product, brought from home. It took 4 minutes to boil 1.7 liter of water. I gave away the local product.
  
• My first modem was a cheap product from Taiwan. It disconnected me from the ISP every few minutes.
  My second modem was a US Robotics. It was extremely expensive because of the American brand name, and it could only do 28K while other modems managed 33k. But it worked. After 2 years it broke down and I bought a cheap Taiwanese 56K modem, which surprisingly works until today.
  
• I bought Duracell batteries at a foreign-managed department-store. They lasted 20 hours in my Garmin GPS12. I bought (cheaper) Duracell imitations at a street market in Bangkoks's Chinatown, they lasted 50 minutes and were far too expensive for this poor performance.
  
• I bought a locally-made flashlight which lasted 3 minutes before the bulb burned out. There was no spare included, either. Never ever a bulb burned out on my Surefire, Pelican or Petzl lights.
  
• I had bought a stack of 100 no-name CD-ROMs. Within one year, they deteriorated so that they could not be written any longer. Those that I had already written became unreadable. I trashed the whole stack and bought Japanese ones.
  
• I used to have a traditional camera. My photo-lab messed up the colors every time, all pictures were pale and blueish. The same negatives reprinted in Germany yielded good results.
  I bought a digital camera in Singapore. Since this day, my pictures are perfect.
  
• I was looking for a pair of new slippers and saw these locally-made imitations of Reef Brazil. They looked good to me, the sole very grippy, durable as well.
  I had pulled my kayak ashore at the mouth of the Huay Khamin Waterfall. It was midnight. I wore these slippers on my way from the water up the hill to the camp site, a moderate ascent. The outer sole was very grippy, but as the upper sole got wet, I started to slip terribly. Soon I saw myself walking barefoot through the jungle in the middle of the night ! I gave the slippers away and bought originals for 2.5 times the price.
  
• I needed to replace a bicycle tire in Yala, southern Thailand. I had the choice between a Thai product and an extremely expensive American product. I chose the Thai product. The second day, a bump developed on the tire. I had to reduce the pressure, cycling became hard and my rim suffered. Once in Malaysia, I obtained a Taiwanese tire. It was cheaper than the Thai product and gave me no problem since then. Sure, I never got a refund for the Thai rubbish.
• Milk bought at Big-C Future Park usually goes bad 3 days ahead of the "best-before" date. If bought at Tops, it mostly lasts as indicated. Sausage bought at Tops is often smelly. I have no alternative outlet that's reasonably close.
• Thailand is following American standards for electrical hardware. But.. while America is powered at 110 V, Thailand uses the European voltage of 220 V. The locally-produced hardware can safely handle 110V, but not 220V. I got electric shocks several times, mostly when I was barefoot or wet. In the flat that I rent, I've done a number of safety-relevant modifications to the electrical installation.
• Thai food is great (if you know the right places). However, none here is able to tell you if your meal has been genetically modified or not. The crops are being mixed without any record. If you believe there's a problem with food that has been genetically modified, stay out of Thailand. Otherwise, welcome amongst the guinea pigs !

• If you plan to buy an item and find that both a local and an imported product are popular / available, go for the imported product. There's a good reason it's being offered. If you can't afford it, try to postpone the purchase or find out what is the problem with the local product and if you can tolerate it.
• If a product carries a label that reads "Made in USA", be careful. It is probably an imitation. Imitations can be easily identified by funny English on the packing or manual, or simply by poor workmanship on the product itself.
  An item that is honestly labeled "Made in Thailand" or "Made in China" is usually more trustworthy.
• As a tourist, avoid buying complex items (like electronics). The quality of clothes and woodcarvings is a lot easier to judge than the quality of computer memory or a camera. You are likely to be unlucky with the camera or it could be an older model that has already been discounted in your home country.
• If you find that a local product is dangerous to your health, don't hesitate to scrap it before something bad happens.