MisterTee

Few and far between in Thailand.

Norwegians have always seemed to be polar opposites to Thais.

Quite a few similarities in my opinion.

Differences? Most Thai girls have brains... for starters.

If I was her, I wouldn't trust you.

I am afraid my vision of the Thai-Thai marriages and associated problems is different.

Apologies to anyone who might feel offended. Speaking strictly statistically.

Human, biological, climate and social factors kick in pretty early.

Education factors concerning sex are often undervalued.

Early unwanted pregnancies being a stigma lead to intra-family solutions.

Once the 'love, romance and passion' aspects have failed Thai female starts looking for a 'Father Figure'.

Hence unequal age marriages. Hence Thai-Farang marriages.

Personally, I think the role of a Farang Father is not an enviable one. No offence meant. Purely statistically speaking.

Any attempt to present Farangs as more desirable partner - socially, economically, culturally, sexually, etc. - is a wishful thinking.

'Once the 'love, romance and passion' aspects have failed Thai female starts looking for a 'Father Figure.'

You're dreaming. Your reasoning is as defective as your syntax.

In the future, backup your videos, photos and documents (as you should) on a spare external drive..........................

Can't say it often enough. All it takes is one time losing really important stuff to convert the non-believer, but it's a hard lesson learned.

The only things I have on my C-drive is the operating system and associated folders, and program files. Nothing else. And that has been cloned and is saved on an external hard drive. ALL FILES, ALL IMPORTANT INFORMATION, ALL DATA, papers, music, videos, photographs, everything to run my life the way I like it run is stored on multiple external hard drives, Back-up copies of everything, and "incremental back-ups" made every night, automatically. Actually, I have copies of the copies as well.

I learned the hard way, I'm sorry to say, and lost quite a bit of stuff I'd really like to have now,

So don't forget all the stuff you stored on diskettes. Do you even have a diskette drive any more? Most computers don;t have them these days, or files that were made on software that is no longer available. I had graphic files that I made for a post-graduate Thesis that I made using software called 'Harvard Graphics" The files won't open with anything else and Harvard Graphics is no longer available except for outrageous sums of money from collectors.

Back-ups and up-dates... It really IS important

Yes, I was a non-believer and you converted me.

Everything cloned and saved in triplicate... then the cat jumped up and pissed on my keyboard!

What do I do now?

wrong side of the tracks = a crappy area. like there are none in thailand ? get a life, grow up, not everything is a insult to thsiness :-)

No big slums in Chiang Mai since the early 1980's when they bulldozed the one behind Wat Puak Chang.

The mixed neighbourhoods are one of the attractions of the city.

"Always a bridesmaid, never a bride."

He has it in the bag this year.

Nick was a friend of mine. Terrible what happened to him.

Really nice guy.

What did happen to him?

Can you tell?

Nimman is expensive. Much cheaper rentals are available in the other locations you mention. A favorite area of mine is sort of "behind and a bit to the south" of the train station. It's been described to me as "the wrong side of the tracks" but I lived there for years and loved it.

I couldn't do Hang Dong, but I know people who are very happy out there.

The expression "the wrong side of the tracks" doesn't apply to any neighbourhoods in Chiang Mai. They are all mixed, with different social and economic elements living together.

It is an ugly American term that should be left in its home country where it is more characteristic.

It doesn't belong in Chiang Mai.

Well, considering the area was described as "behind and a bit to the south of the train station" and presumably the trains run on tracks.....then it could literally be on the wrong side of the tracks.

You're splitting hairs.

In the US, where the expression originated, it means a bad neighbourhood... unequivocally.

If your prone to racist remarks, then this is the thread for you. Me I'm an English teacher and have worked with several Nigerian's. They are just like anyone else apqrt from their African accent which is similar to a South African accent. They understand that some Nigerian's are up to no good, but stop pointing your racist finger at all of them. The colour of your skin doesn't make you important, love and understanding, this is important. This is 2014 not 1814.

An English teacher???

Some school is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

A number of posters have left the CR forum.

TVF's version of 'lese-majesty laws' prohibit any discussion of the cause.

If the "cause" is red. then good riddance to those who have left.

Tawan was a bunch of English guys from Hong Kong. Many bad stories have emerged about them. Even their boat charter business had really dubious activities.

Best stay clear of them.

Brits wouldn't do anything like this... there had to be Thais involved.

what meeting you're talking about? AA

It more sounds like he's talking about Thaivisa.

It does indeed.

A parallel reality.

But it is a racist headline. It should be 'passenger' not 'farang.'

Like that really bothers me

Try replacing the word farang with nigger, paki, rag head or yid. Like that really bothers you?

You don't know what you are talking about.

There is nothing racist about the term "farang" unless it is combined with something derogatory.

Learn the etymology of the word and stop posting nonesense.

wasn't there another black money scam a week or two ago?

a fool and his money are soon parted ...

if it sounds too good to be true ...

greed .... 555

"A fool and his money are soon parted"... how true! but they were lucky to get together in the first place.

Tattooing in Chiang Mai was first commented on - to the best of my knowledge - by M. Grandjean, the French Catholic missionary, who visited the city during the first three months of 1844.

His observations are interesting and worth quoting verbatim:

"There are ordinarily distinguished two kinds of Laocians [Kohn Muang] - one of whom are called Thaung Dam, that is, Black-bellies, and the other who are called Thaung Khao, that is, White-bellies. They are thus named because the men of the race of Black-bellies, when they arrive at the age of fourteen or sixteen years, are accustomed to have drawn upon their bodies different figures of men, flowers, elephants, tigers, serpents, and other animals. This operation they perform by making, by means of many needles joined together, a number of punctures upon the epidermus; they then apply a black ink, which brings out all the designs traced upon the skin; they quietly bathe themselves afterwards, and the impression is ineffaceable. The tattooing is not executed without pain; for they are obliged to bind the patient, who generally continues sick for fifteen days, and sometimes even dies. However, as the young Laocians cannot obtain wives if they lack this kind of beauty, there is not one amongst them who does not voluntarily submit to this painful operation. The White-bellies on the contrary, are contented with their natural graces."

Chiang Mai girls didn't escape Grandjean's notice either:

"As regards the women, they are more active, more industrious, and more intelligent than the men. They have an undoubted empire over their husbands and can drive them away when they are not content with them."

Plus ca change...

Was there no mention in Grandjean's account of the mystical properties of Sak Yant?

From what he writes it sounds like tattooing was done for vanity and the ability to get a wife - and perhaps some prime poon-tang before marriage, and maybe afterwards a little on the side.

It's a well known fact that soldiers were often tattooed with Sak Yant to ward off bullets. It would be interesting to see how many farangs among the "true believers" would go before a firing squad to test the efficacy of their newly acquired bulletproof Sak Yants.

Thank you very much for your responses. I finally found some flights not really expensive to Udon Thani, so I think I will choose this option!

A good decision and a safe choice.

Bon Voyage!

Thailand is a great place to visit but it could never be home.

That's because you don't fit in... for whatever reason or reasons.

It's your fault, not Thailand's or the Thai people, who if you avoid Bangkok and the tourist areas, are the best in the world.

A bus crashed on that route a few weeks back, a few injured/dead.

Fly to Udon and bus from there, life is worth more than the money you'll save.

edit: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/driver-killed-bus-plunged-ravine

Yes, that's the latest incident.

There has been carnage on the CM-KK and the CM-Loei parts of that route for years.

I fail to see what your problem is. If you don't like the tone of a thread, no one is forcing you to read it. Just try another till you find one you like. Canarysun writes happy threads about train travel in Thailand.

Not everyone has your good luck, so why would you deny them the chance to vent and feel better for it? For many, here is the only place they can go to vent.

OP's happy. Great.

Others aren't - it's a fact but there are all sorts of reasons for that - health, relationship and/or money issues.

Look at the member who, only the other day, said he'd been given 6 months to live.

OP's not so naive as to believe that there won't be bumps in life's road some of which may not be so easy to overcome so it begs the question; why start a puerile thread asking why everyone isn't as high on hope as he is?

I'm sure many of the grumps probably saw life exactly as you do now but - as the saying goes - shit happens.

True enough, but some people handle problems better than others.

Having a family makes a lot of difference too - a Thai family, who will take care of you when you get old, and not get rid of you like they so often do in my former homeland where there is not much security anymore.