ChidlomDweller

9 hours ago, Byron Allen Black said:

Your observations are most interesting. I too first arrived in the late 1960s and visited frequently until the mid-1980s, when I worked there.

 

I wonder whether the apparent degradation of classical culture has not been much more exacerbated in the big cities. Living in Hua Hin or Khon Kaen might be much more like "the good old days" perhaps...

It would be very interesting to hear the perspective of the people who've been here for 30-50 years, what life was like through detailed personal stories.  Could probably fill an interesting book with all those stories.  

11 hours ago, DavisH said:

just don't drive 5 km over the limit there or jay walk. 

OK, genuinely curious about this.  Is this true or TV hyperbole?  Been only to Sydney twice for about a week and loved it, but that's 12 years ago.  If it wasn't for the distance to Europe (I go three times a year), that's where I'd be now.  I have a hard time believing people get in trouble for jaywalking in Australia, unless you do it brazenly in front of a police officer where you put them in a bind.  

9 hours ago, FaFaHead said:

Yes, you make a great point. I don’t leave much to chance. I have (as I said in an earlier post) had the luxury of doing much research since March online. Anything I could think of, I’ve Googled. I have purchased ebooks and yes, the wife and I have discussed the farmers burning for three months or so. I won’t say it’s not a cause for concern, because it is. We we have taken the position that we’ll rent for a year and go from there. 

 

We we originally started initial inquiries in Pattaya and Hua Hin, but because of my wife wanting to be associated with CMU and wanting to teach in a very good private school, not a public school, Chiang Mai is where we have landed. I have to say, Hua Hin was very attractive. Because of the distance to CMU (and the natural feelings of trepidation when having to entertain driving any great distance twice a day at least five days a week), it’s easy understand our decision to start in Chiang Mai. 

 

No no illusions for the most part. Hopefully it works out. If not, we’ll make adjustments and go from there. 

 

Thank you you again for your input. Your points are well taken. 

 

Robert

Off topic but check out the air pollution threads here.  Some good advice there regarding air purifiers and other ways to minimize that problem.  While you're still in the US, you might want to buy a purifier there already, along with some spare filters.  They're almost twice as expensive here compared to the US.  Even if you can't switch the voltage on your model, a transformer is cheap enough.

21 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

I worked on Wharf Street in Brisbane each day. I lived on the other end of the Gold Coast. If today, I had to catch a train, it is not cheap. Not cherry picked but real life. I use to spend $16 a day for parking alone a long time back on Early Bird Parking. I hate to think how much I would spend now. Yes, I could get it a little cheaper to drive the 110 or so kilometers each way a day if I drove a small car but when you are driving constantly every day, six days a week and spend a large part of your life driving, a small Yaris is not going to cut it. My brother-in-law works now as a Lawyer in the same building I use to (he is now working for my old Company) and he lives with my sister near our home in the Coast, and he tells me transport is not cheap anymore. Below are one-way prices to Town for us via Train. I am in Zone 7

 

Adult

Zones travelled	go card	go card off-peak	Single paper ticket
1	$3.25	$2.60	$4.70
2	$3.96	$3.17	$5.70
3	$6.05	$4.84	$8.80
4	$7.97	$6.38	$11.60
5	$10.47	$8.38	$15.20
6	$13.29	$10.63	$19.30
7	$16.52	$13.22	$24.00
8	$19.61	$15.69	$28.40

 

Yep, that's very expensive, not disputing that, but how much is your BIL making, and how much would he make in Thailand?  You've got to pick and choose a bit where to live, although I admit I'm not an expert on Australia.

To give you two other real-life examples I encountered very recently:  One of my college friends (middle-ranking finance manager at an MNC in Brussels) told me he can choose a company car for 750 euros a month from his employer.  Free parking at the office in the center of Brussels, plus more petrol money than he needs for the commute.  Also 40 holidays a year plus public holidays.  Will probably retire with 2000-2500 euro pension from the government with nearly free, world-class healthcare, a supplementary pension equal to the same amount from his company, and lots of investments (with which he's been smart and/or lucky).  This is a working class guy (father teacher, mother cleaning lady) who is now 52, has 2 paid-down properties and a third being paid by a tenant.  The equivalent Thai, if he made it to university at all and that kind of finance management position, would be very lucky to pull in 100,000 Baht a month.

Another friend I visited recently (we went through the PhD program together) lives in White Plains, NY.  Also 52, 2 paid-down properties, and well over a million dollars in stocks.  He told me he rakes in over 300,000 dollars a year, although his base is more like 200,000 and the rest is from overload teaching.  He's a business professor and would be very lucky to make 200,000 Baht a month here (possible, but very few make that much -- I know because I'm in the industry).  

I find for many things Thailand is far from cheap anymore if you have Western tastes.  In fact, I get reverse sticker shock every time I go shop at Aldi or Lidl, or anywhere in the US nowadays.  

11 minutes ago, Bluetongue said:

So until the decision is finally made I'm living in both really, or la la land some might say.

That's the ideal way IMO, if you can afford it.  When I go to Europe now, I love it.  Beautiful cities, cultural offerings, etc., but everything gets boring after a while and variety is fun.

28 minutes ago, billybadcund said:

Most head back  to OZ as they start to age mainly due to the outstanding medicare system that is available free. Going to another country for them eg japan wont fix that problem

True, but the OP is still relatively young.  For an Aussie, a couple of years in Europe could be fun.  It's all so dependent on the person though.  

For the American who was here in the early 70s and looking to move to Chiang Mai, I hope you're aware of the choking pollution several months a year.  For me that would be a complete dealbreaker about living there, and I'd rather move to a place like Hua Hin, or even Pattaya or Phuket.  

A Thai colleague told me it's common knowledge in Chiang Rai that this cave is prone to flash flooding and dangerous to enter even in May or June.  That coach definitely can't blame ignorance, misleading signage, etc.  He just thought caution is for fuddy-duddies.

47 minutes ago, BangkokSausage said:

Farang fill a huge void by taking on the dark skin uneducated village girls.
Middle class thai men want nothing to do with them and they must shake their head in amazement when farang fall over each other trying to snag one!

True, but the dark skin thing is idiotic racist nonsense on their behalf, and as for most university educated Chinese-Thai girls, talking to my 12-year old niece in Belgium is more stimulating.

7 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

 

I thought you were being a bit harsh on English ladies, until you mentioned Nottingham and those that hangout in Spain ... to be fair they’re not the best representatives, being drunk degenerates. 

I agree.  I lived in London for 3 years and was surprised how many really attractive ones I saw there, counter to stereotype.  That's also taking into account charming, sweet, fun personality.  So much easier to hit it off with someone from a similar background, and like I mentioned before, someone who has a proper job so contributes to the finances and is generally a supportive partner instead of someone you need to provide for (along with some family members).

11 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

 

At the moment my gf is an olive skinned European lady ... I’m not in the Far East currently. 

 

My point was simply that westerners in Thailand praise Thai beauty above all others, and I don’t think they are any better looking than the ladies I see in Europe. I don’t mind Africans but I prefer my own race to be perfectly honest as we have more in common generally. I never denigrated Thai women, I just picked them off the pedestal that many men place them on. 

 

People praise their beauty but what they really mean is availability. That’s what’s controversial.

I kind of agree with them being overrated, esp. vs. the reality of the ones you see foreigners with day to day.  But I do think they have very good genes on average: pretty faces with fine features, slim ass and stomach, nicely proportioned bodies if you overlook the flat chests (which for me is a small price for a slim behind).  On the downside, really bad skin is quite common here (not sure why -- diet?  Destroying their skin from too much cleaning, whitening and cosmetics?  Genes?) and at most 1 in 5 is slim anymore, if that many, and the few slim ones left know their value.

On 7/1/2018 at 6:55 AM, BangkokSausage said:

I have never not even once seen a stunner married to a farang. It's almost like they intentionally seek out the ugliest girls in the village

I've often thought this too.  Guys go on here about the women, and it's commonly accepted that many/most came for the women, or at least that was a big part of the draw.  But for all that, I very rarely see a mixed couple here where my spontaneous reaction is "lucky guy!"  More often it's "you came all the way here to end up with that, and on top have to deal with the intercultural crap, and have a partner who doesn't contribute to the household finances?!"

But I admit I'm a weird one, and to each their own.  Young guys (under 35-40 tops) can do really well here and date out of their league.  Older guys can too, but only relatively.  If I were 70, I'd much rather be single and jerk off to porn than be married to a 50+ year old Thai grandma who I have nothing in common with.  By then the looks are gone anyway, so her being technically a better catch than what you'd get in the West doesn't mean much.  

A whole other issue is that the obesity epidemic is truly rampant now.  I'm writing this from a visit home (Belgium) and I think I see more fat women in Thailand nowadays than here.

This may sound crazy but what works for me: put deodorant before taking a shower to kill the bacteria, then soap and rinse 2-3 times.  Just soaping once isn't enough.  It also helps to trim the armpit hair.  No deodorant after that.  When you start the day clean like that I don't have an underarm odor problem.  Used to have that yellow stain problem too, now no longer.

40 minutes ago, melovethai said:

enjoy life, dont try to micromanage it. We all sometimes have something not right happen to us, so smile and enjoy. Sad having to post about being ripped off a $1

 

I don't think he's losing sleep over 6 ounces of beer.  The point is that such a big company engages in this deception.  Multiply this $1 by millions of purchases a year.

A highly recommended read on this topic is Irresistible by James Altman.  I picked it up here in Asia Books.  He's an NYU psychologist who specializes in behavioral addiction.  Just being aware of the traps and the tricks companies use to pull you in helps.  Aside from that, it's an interesting topic since it's truly a disease of our time.

Just one example, the system of likes makes it much more addictive, because each time we log in we get a rush from receiving them.  Another is not giving the users closure to keep them coming back and building in some "goal frustration" to keep the rewards unpredictable so they feel better when they do come.  Same idea as battered wife syndrome.  I'm pretty sure many sites allow trolls to continue posting for this reason.

Golf umbrellas all the way.  The only way to stay mostly dry in a tropical downpour.

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

I had no idea it was so easy traveling around the world while teaching.

If I could redo my life, I would train to be a teacher...

With a PhD in a discipline that's in demand (typically those where universities compete with the private sector -- medicine, computers, business, law, etc...), and a half-decent publication record, the world is your oyster.

For EU nationals Spain is quite attractive IMO.  Barcelona is very expensive now but there are secondary cities I could see myself.  For instance Valencia, Bilboa or Malaga.  The Canary Island would be too insular for me.  

In Asia, I've done Singapore and found it a bit boring but after seeing the impunity and political impasse of Thailand I have a newfound appreciation for the place.  In Asia, Tokyo and Seoul are great places for working-age expats like myself.  I teach at a university here and once in a while I get exchange students asking if and how to get a job here, but I point them elsewhere always.  Thailand is a terrible place for a 22-year old to start his career.  I'm moving to Tokyo myself, but if it wasn't for that, I'd be looking at Europe.  

Turkey was also attractive (climate, mix of exotic with modern amenities, close to home, interesting vantage point for travel) until recently but now with Erdogan that place is no longer on my list.

Adding to the economic picture in the above post, there's the whole automation revolution coming up.  This will obviously keep taking jobs in manufacturing, but also increasingly office and service jobs.  Waiters?  Replace 80% of them with a tablet ordering system.  I read recently about a Zara concept store where retail employees are replaced by a computer ordering sytem inside the store.  Bank branches will keep on closing and even a lot of business of banks will shift to financial platforms like online payment systems.  Basically anything that's repetitive, including many services, can be done cheaper and often better by a machine.  The government has the right idea with their 4.0 talk (it's a global buzzword that they just stole to sound smart) but we all know it's just empty rethoric and Thailand won't be able to escape it.