Nautilus05

Actually, one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had was Songkran in a small Issan village.

Early afternoon was regular enough -- main party was at the local store, so apart from touring around to say hi to everyone, and gets strings on our wrist from the village elders, etc... we just hung out at the store with loads of beer, free flowing water, etc. Normal enough.

However, later on in the afternoon a pickup truck with the large-sized Issan speakers came around. Then what seemed like almost everyone in the village (about 300 people) all got together, and started dancing on the street while the pickup truck ever so slowly pushed them around the village streets. I don't know, but just seemed surreal to me. I'm in a small village in Nakhom Nowhere for some reason, every villager is piss drunk and happy as can be, soaked from the water, dancing in the streets while the truck is blaring Issan music and slowly pushing everyone along.

Can't say I want to repeat the experience, but it was definitely an experience.

That almost made sense.

I don't think there are many decent beach destinations left in Thailand, that aren't filled with tourists and tourist scams / pricing, are there?

Check out Vietnam. Tons of excellent beaches there. I've heard the govt are <deleted> though.

As I stated before, a farang doing so is clearly stooping to the same level, IMO would only be appropriate if you were both clear this was a straight transactional rent-a-wife scenario, not in any pretending it's a normal "real" full-on partnership. And being a pr1ck to boot. . .

Not sure where you are getting your scenario from Wym.

Never at any stage has he said the kids cant live with them.

Right, basically the kids can be tenants and live rent free, but they're not allowed to call him dad, or expect anything fatherly out of him?

I'm absolutely certain that will go over well. If that's actually what he has in his mind, tell him to drop the relationship now. Don't drag innocent kids into that mess, because there's no way it will work out, and it's just not right to do.

I don't get it...

OMG, she slipped, hahaha... Are we still in 3rd grade here, or?

As for security, did you see the caravan of vehicles behind her? I'm assuming some of those vehicles have well armed officers inside of them. Can't just go pull up in a stretched out limo with leather seats in Issan though, and say you're for the people.

I have explained this a couple of times. He doesn't want to be their Father. They have a Father already.

'The way it works' is the point of the thread.

Does it have to work this way? Surely in these modern times of jumbled parentage and multiple marriages the old status quo is up for change?

Again, I really don't know what you're expecting here. I mean, if he goes with her, then all four of them will be sitting at the same table every night for dinner. Going on vacation means all four of them going. Coming home from work means coming home to the lady AND two kids, not just the lady. Going to sleep means making sure the kids are already tucked in, and sleeping first.

If he's not ready for that, tell him to drop the relationship now. Otherwise, he's just going to <deleted> the kids emotionally and mentally by popping into their lives for a while as a father figure (which the kids will see him as), then leaving when he decides it's not for him.

In this situation the kids living with them is okay with him.

It is the level of financial support expected for the kids he disagrees with. He doesn't want to take the kids financial needs on as his responsibility

Well, how exactly does your "friend" expect this to work out? He'll pay the rent, and buy the food, but his being a father ends there?

If he goes with her, he's taking the kids down the journey with him. They become a family of four, not a couple. That's just the way it works.

Do I really need to explain this?

I have an excellent cleaning lady I can recommend. Too bad she's in Khon Kaen though.

She's a machine though. I leave her to it for a bit, then come back, and she's hand cleaning my laundry out front, furniture is moved everywhere, fans are taken part for a cleaning, etc. Cheap too -- 400 baht for a day.

Huh? Maybe I'm being stupid here, but of course the kids come with the package. What the hell?

Tell your friend to demand that she ship her kids off to an orphanage, and let me know how that turns out.

Moving doesn't solve the problem, there will always be a time when a party is thrown with loud music. Unfortunately, the best thing to do is to sit it out.

Not really. There are places in Thailand where's is quiet and respectful. I'm in one of those places, and honestly, it's too quiet for me. I'm the opposite of you guys -- you complain about the noise, where I complain about the lack of activity / interaction.

Ok, there were a few parties on New Years that lasted until about 1 am. Then a couple months back there was one morlam concert somewhere in the vicinity, but lasted one night. Other than that, unspoken word here is 8pm, neighborhood shuts down, noise off, and all dogs inside. That's just the way it works here.

Tell her if she pays half, you'll pay half.

At least that way she has an idea of what it requires to raise the money to buy such a thing.

Move to a better neighborhood, and the problem will magically disappear. That type of thing is unheard of here.

Did you even realize how insulting your post for people like me is? Life's much better in Ubon and it's a freaking big city with all available what Thais and foreigners need.

God, what's wrong with this world?

Geez, don't get so insulted. Different strokes for different folks, type of thing. There's quite the difference between Ubon and say Bangkok, Chiang Mai, or Phuket,

I've never been to Ubon, but have lived in Khon Kaen for years now, so I'm assuming they're about the same. My parents won't even visit me anymore, until I move to Chiang Mai.

They love Chiang Mai, but absolutely hate Khon Kaen. Actually, that's wrong. My mom will come visit me, but my dad won't. He's staying home, unless I'm living in Chiang Mai when the flights are booked.

Just curious, why are you moving to Chiang Mai? I have lived there for a few months, and didn't like it: boring+smoke season. Khon Kaen was, literally and figurativey, a breath of fresh air...

Ummm... I'm still in my early 30s, so not quite ready to settle down in the slow pace life that Khon Kaen offers. I'm sorry, but there's not really much here. There's a few nice golf courses, a few malls in town, and that's about it.

I'm your typical "farang in Thailand" story. Got married in home country, didn't work, so travelled around, ended up in Thailand, fell in love, moved to Issan, that didn't work out either, so now I'm sitting here scratching my ass wondering how I ended up in Khon Kaen. Again, typical story, and we've all heard it 100s of times.

Chiang Mai because I want more of an urban atmosphere, more to do, plus I plan to open a software development firm, so there will be a better selection of talent to hire there. Plus there's lots of business connections to be made in Chiang Mai -- tons of online entrepreneurs have chosen Chiang Mai as their home for one reason or another. There's lots of us online guys there though.

Sounds like we're neighbours J

You're in Piman Thani? I actually really like that sub-division, and wish I could have ended up there, but wasn't a possibility at the time. Transportation from there into town is good too -- songtaew light blue #8 comes by all the time, and takes you right into town.

We were actually somewhat neighbors before though. I lived in "Tawanna Thani", just down the street. We actually always secretly laughed at you guys during the rainy season. We were a little higher up, so your streets would get flooded, while our street stayed nice and dry. Your sub-division was far nicer than ours, so we had to find something to poke fun at, I guess.

But no, now I'm a good 25km from there. Completely other side of town.

That was a bit of a weird article. Starts off with a warning to store water due to prolonged dry season, then out of nowhere throws in a tsuanmi and volcano eruption from 125 years ago for some reason.

When are you moving? Do you want my house? That would be perfect, as I want to move to Chiang Mai, and this would mean I don't have to really break the lease, hence have a possibility of getting the deposit back.

Sounds like my house may fit the bill for you though. 2 storey, 3bdrm, 3 bath, partially furnished. Nice open floor plan, excellent kitchen table with 8 chairs, sectional, another table, fridge, entertainment unit, some kitchen stuff, etc. Three bedrooms upstairs, each has air conditioning + king sized bed. Master bedroom has en-suite bathroom + shower + tub. Nice good sized yard that wraps all around the house. Nice open floor plain in the main living area, although the kitchen is quite small (ok, very small). No TV at the moment though, so you'd have to buy that. 3BB internet is all hooked up, and ready to go though. We can just transfer that into your name, if you wanted to stick with them.

You said you're retiring, so I'm assuming you're looking for more of a quiet area? If so, this would be perfect. More of a up-scale neighborhood, so no problems with loud / drunk neighbors, dogs, nothing. The one downside (for me at least) is that it's a little outside of town, so you won't be right in KK city in walking distance to everything. There's a nice lake a couple km down the road though, which has a nice park, Tesco, large market, and everything else you need. Then KK itself is about 8km down the road.

14,000/month for 6 month, or 12,000/month for 12 month. That's assuming the owner keeps with current prices -- owner is Thai, and the wife of an Australian guy. Deposit was 30,000.

Organic Jasmine rice all you can eat, Free. The family provides.

Chili powder. Free. The family provides.

Beer Free. The family provides.

Whiskey Free, the Family provides.

Vegetables for soup. Free the family provides.

Water and energy for cooking. Government subsidy, might as well be free.

Chickens, fish, pork raised on the farm. Pay for feed. The chickens eat almost anything. They like bugs.

Lobster 700 baht per kilo.

So you're a leech, is basically what you're saying?

Here's your KFC chicken for example. I'm absolutely certain this is healthy! Don't fret, just a tad genetically modified for maximum productivity.

It always amazes me that someone could come here to live and only eat western food ,i have a friend who has been here 20 odd years and never eats "Thai Rubbish" amazing ,when i am back in the UK i miss Thai food so have to take some with me .

as for the prices ,from what i see many poor westerners eat crap packet food full of e numbers and god knows what ,at least poor Thais eat good fresh food.

is it possible to get thai food not covered in pesticides , im scared to eat it now , it may only appear to look fresh , and most of it is dangerous , profit is more important than life or health to thais

Don't be naive. Do a little research on companies like Monsanto and their food production methods, before you begin criticizing Thai farmer food production methods. We're all being fed shit, regardless of country or where we buy it.

I wouldnt knowingly buy any meat from the market man, i was once at a market and there was one women sitting there selling some kind of meat and literally 1000's of flies around it it was dog rough, i was actually more shocked at the women for sitting there thinking somebody was going to buy off her

Wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Neither myself or my dogs have ever gotten sick off market meat. However, my one dog did get trichinosis once from some vacuum packed pork fillets from Tesco.

Let's try it this way - my household of 7 gets by on under B1,500 per week.

Geez, how do you manage that? I spend at least 3000/week, and it's just me and two dogs. Granted, I don't need to feed the dogs steak, but nonetheless.

I will admit though, I do miss having a market close by. At the old house used to have one just down the street, and it was great. Meat and veggies were always fresh and cheap, plus you only had to goto Tops maybe once a month to grab the imported stuff (parmasen cheese, sour cream, bell peppers, etc.). Nowadays, it's unfortunately easier to goto Tops and stock up for a week at a time.