NorthernRyland

This is nonsense, you don't need an absolute standard with 0% margin of error. People know full well what a pitfall is and what types of owners are especially worrisome when they keep them. The dog genome is well documented and you could classify the breed with precision if you really wanted to.

Nice try. Urban "youths".

I've come to believe the common man needs religion to live a moral life. Western nations are falling apart and I think the wholesale rejection of religion by the upperclass has been a major factor.

"unfortunate death" says the guy who didn't almost get killed.

1) The general inconsiderate and oblivious nature of the people 2) Reckless driving (see #1) 3) Thoughtless city planning that makes daily life a hassle (all roads are mixed used, no parking, congestion etc..). Moving out of any city fixes this though. 4) Roaming dogs (see #1) 5) Noise pollution (see #1) 6) Concrete, hot, congested housing developments with micro sized plots and nearly touching roofs. I thought suburbs in America were terrible but Thailand is next level. This problem is getting worse as Thailand "develops". If those were fixed (they won't be) I wouldn't feel the need to leave the country every year.

We need to find the Soviet blueprints for how to build a gulag so Thailand can start construction immediately.

Now this is a new one. Dripping water, seriously?

well to some degree the wealth disparity is actually a skill disparity. So many unskilled, undisciplined people that drive down the average and make competent people look like super heroes.

I just did a flight to the US which was leaving at 11:30 and by the time we arrived the counter before security was closing but they said there was another one inside (after security). However once we got in we didn't see where it was so we either missed it or the women gave us bad info. Luckily we got a permit earlier at immigration but apparently you can still do it in the airport even during late hours.

Thai's they have a reputation for being a sex tourism destination with it's main export being young girls that marry older men for money (or illegal immigrants) so they take their chance to strike back when they can. Fair enough but it's not making them any friends.

He's either a foreigner, white, black, asian, a man, a women or a specific nationality. People want to know who's causing trouble (a passenger isn't good enough) and the blame is going to be pinned on someone and tarnish some groups reputation so naturally we don't want it to be ours.

Not sure how yet but we're probably going to get screwed also.

This is why land is ridiculously expensive in Thailand and sits unproductive for 10, 20+ years. It's not that your price doesn't reflect the reality of the market, it's that you didn't pray to the right monk. Don't reduce the price, just do more praying and it will eventually sell.

He should have known better than to distribute obscene content in the sex tourism capital of the world. Some people will never learn.

The motorbike is using a common strategy for crossing the road in Thailand where they inch out into traffic and let the oncoming traffic avoid them. This is also the same technique dogs use (sneaky and no one will notice!) and is the concept behind the classic arcade game Frogger.

What's the ethnic angle there? They always report the nationality of the foreigners but this time I see a dark skinned person is involved and no mention of it. I've always heard Thai's and Indians don't get along too well so maybe we're starting to see this play out as they appear in larger numbers as tourists.

Thai's are often defending themselves against dogs with sticks also. They have no control over their soi's or emotions it seems.

I bet they're just lazy or don't know the protocol so they say no. Tiny little tyrants.

nah screw them, we got married in Samoeng and it was fast and painless. Doing that in CM would have been a pain in the ass, just like doing anything in CM these days. However we did have our landlord talk to them first so maybe a favor was called in? I don't get this nonsense since it's supposed to be their job but who knows what goes through these peoples minds.

We were denied by two in our local area in Chiang Mai (San Sai and Mae Rim). They can do what ever they want I think.

For reference here is my ride to Mae rim and access to the other side the valley, which is a very nice area and i used to live there actually but the loud noise from the Temple and villagers eventually caused me to move out. this is not a terrible ride but it's getting worse every year. It takes 25 mins for me by bike which is not terrible but also something I wish to avoid (not sure why google says 18 by car...). Just a couple years ago they doubled the road across the Ping river and while it's not that crowded yet it's turned into another high speed road and not very nice anymore at all. It's just bad enough and takes enough time it makes me want to avoid it. The only single good thing to happen in CM for me has been the creation of a bypass road over the 107 which makes access to Mae Rim easier now. Before you had to ride on the 107 and even that little stretch was such a nightmare I stopped doing it. So you can still do a few things in Mae Jo and it's not totally broken yet but it gets worse every year and the writing is on the wall.

You were probably on the 107, which is not where I would be starting but that's a much worse road and not only dangerous but just miserable in general. It's not actually that far from the city and if they actually cared about not living on the sides of roads like dogs there would be good side roads for motorbikes which avoided the highway intended for heavy traffic. Instead what we get is a mixture of all traffic on one single road, the worst case scenario.

Yeah that's the problem, my world in CM has gotten very small because I want to avoid these horrid road conditions here. One thing I really love about Thailand is a taking a little motorbike ride along some winding roads and going to a little restaurant or market. If when I leave my house and I have trailers and pickups going past me at 90k an hour only to get stuck at some nasty intersection, this ruins the experience for me. The message to the OP is, don't move to CM and do a smaller town instead unless you can handle congestion, dangerous driving, no parking etc... There's so many better options if you can afford to go without some of the comforts CM has.

I know but I see these people literally everyday, all day. Maybe it's not him but there's a good chance. You have compassion for him but what about the other reckless people who do crash and get other people hurt and killed? Some of the crashes are from reckless drivers are they not, or are you saying reckless drivers never crash? Think about that.

That's not true at all. As bad a Chiang mai is there's still many areas you can ride a motorbike safely, you just can't go far and the range you can travel goes down every year due to congestion. If OP wants I will personally do screencast over Google maps and show which areas are liveable for scooter riding along with routes you can go safely etc... There's lots of small sois and such and if live in a good area a quick trip to 7-11 or the local market is very pleasant and safe (unless you're dangerous yourself). yeah don't go across the whole city on the motor bike but daily living on a motorbike is possible and preferred IMO.