We moved not far from Krungthep Krita golf course about 7 years ago. We have a market that opens every day in Moo Baan Nakkila and another that's every other day just around the corner. That was pretty much in 7 years ago but now
- There's more international schools in the area
- There's more restaurants in the area
- There's an excellent gym 4km away - with Onsen, Sauna, Steam Room, weights, aerobics room, badminton courts, climbing wall, outdoor swimming pool - and it's cheap
- There's more villages in the area
And there's no traffic to speak of at all - so getting to these places is a breeze.
Not sure if this counts as gentrification or not - but life is much better now than when we moved here.
Baan Thap Chang airport link is just a 5 min walk away, so getting into town when we need to is easy enough - with or without driving. We tend to only drive into town on Sundays as it's the least painful traffic wise.
On top of this we have the Klongs - canals with walking paths. You can do up to 80km on the Klong paths believe it or not - they look like this -
We have sidewalks too - so you can actually walk around a bit by the roads.
It's not for everyone but I think it's a good balance between having access to Bangkok and having a bit of open space and not being stuck in traffic all the time. The school run takes about 12 mins.