NorthernRyland

I'm thinking of one place in particular which is just before you take the steep road up to the temple past the Huai Jo reservoir. I cycle there often and I know a group of older guys that come in and do group walks around the area including that trail. Could by some of the other ones but that one is particular goes deep in and has lots of forks which are not easy to distinguish.

I walked in to that trail once with my dog and after passing a couple forks I decided you could 100% get lost in there so I turned around. I you had GPS you could maybe be fine but you'd need to mark the forks probably and certainly not be in there past dark.

Thanks we should have planned for this week then. We could do it this week if we rushed or in 2 weeks because the week of the 6th - 12th I won't be in the city. If 3 weeks is safe then that's good too. We just want to be safely in the window in case we need to get some papers and come back a couple days later.

A+ rant. I'm convinced it's just a government make-work program. No company that actually cared about profits would throw away money doing pointless things like verifying the same hand signed duplicates of papers every year.

Oh I thought the under consideration thing was just the first time. 3 weeks sounds comfortable so I'll go Nov 13-14 I think. The plan was to submit the same documents as we did originally, if we can remember what they were! so many things so we should have made a list and kept it in a file. Thanks!

I have my first 12 month marriage renewal coming up on Dec 9th (Chiang Mai). How many days in advance do I need to submit my renewal? The first time it took at least 30 days but I believe the renewal will be faster because they already did the interview and other things which I don't think they repeat every year.

Thailand does pretty well with them even though I know there's bad blood between them. They seem to be generally distrusting of outsiders, which makes sense given they're literal tribes and they don't want to change their culture which they're very proud of. It's the same story as with the native people in America and the European colonies. So what do you do? Thai's DO attempt to assimilate them and put them into Thai schools and speaking Thai, which is good for them honestly but that also means they get intermixed and their culture destroyed so I don't blame them for being bitter either. The whole thing is unfortunate.

My most offensive opinion living in Thailand is that the Hill Tribe are largely a blight on the country. I've lived around them for years (Hmong and Lisu) and here are my observations: 1) Trash dumps found all along the mountain sides along the way towards their villages. They don't have trash disposal up there so they simply dump it in the woods and leave it for the rest of us to deal with. Thanks guys. 2) Burning trash and burning in general. Again, no way to deal with trash on the mountain tops so they burn it. 3) Most pathetic villages in all of Thailand. Very ugly, no gardens, just mangled concrete and rubbish. They seriously have no class. 4) They forage in the mountains and are a major culprit for the burning of the forest as it makes it easier to get inside and find things. Anytime your around their villages you'll see motorbikes parked along the side of the road and trails in to the woods. Once they get deep back in the mountains on foot and start a fire at the base it will be impossible to stop them. Luckily for them they live on the top of the mountain so the smoke doesn't affect them very much. 5) Reckless drivers, much worse than Thais. Very dangerous to other drivers. I see them wrecked on the side of the road often. Motor vehicles are too advanced for the these people, seriously they shouldn't be allowed to drive. 6) They're not even friendly like Thais and I often get stares and questionable looks when I pass through on my bike. Even the young kids seem to be reclusive and mistrusting of outsiders which is not good. It's often very unconformable being around them so I get in and out quickly, which is all the same because their villages are disgusting anyways.

It's a lost cause until they correct the culture of burning in Thailand. Maybe it's illegal for some small window but the rest of the year people burn anything they want and it's seen as acceptable. Sadly the government shows no interest in changing this part of the culture and the people are sheep and stay silent.

Air is good in rural Chiang Mai now and mountains but people are burning aggressively, every little pile of leaves or grass they can get their hands on. Farmers will do exactly what they've been doing for generations and just a matter of time until the forests get dry enough and they'll lit those up to.

Don't ask questions you already know the answer to.

She didn't claim it was your fault for not stopping? I see so often people driving like if they get into the road this means they've won and now you must stop for them. The idea of road rules seems to be beyond these people.

The girl may have tried to rush the turn because she was nervous about sitting in the middle of the road. I see many Thai's pull all the way over to the left and before crossing because they don't feel safe waiting in the right lane in the middle of the road, which is probably smart because people here are always going too fast and will swerve in to the other lane instead of slowing down and stopping. So much poor emotional control with the Thai people when they drive. The guy was probably going too fast for the road given how many cars are turning across it. Not that it would be enforced but a much lower speed limit like 40 would probably be smart for those road conditions. Another sad but predictable death on Thai roads.

so it's way more expensive than America now? Still lots of good $20 meals to be had in America and the portions are in excess of what you need anyways. BKK can piss off with those prices.

Reminds me of this one

IMO Thai's are pretty anti-social outside of their immediate family and they aren't looking out for people around them. It's a real sore point for the country if you ask me.

I've had 3 girlfriends in Thailand and they never asked me for anything. Only my wife now has started asking for things since I have a good job but when I was broke she never asked for anything. For example I agreed to buy her a new Flip 5 phone (buying new phones is stupid IMO so I don't support her here) but she has to pay me back by covering the electricity. 🙂 Very little money problems if you find the right kind of women.

How so? This is pretty extreme so I'm curious. I have many misgivings with Thai people but nothing spiritual like you describe. I wonder if the people that do well with Thai people have lower expectations of other people? I think it's possible if i really expected Thai's to meet my own standards and beliefs then held them accountable then I would have real problems but I tend to take them as they are.

Sorry if I spammed with messages, I tend to get a thread late and start replying as I go along. The only thing i don't like is when pages of two people bickering consumes the forum. Sometime the mods will shut that down but not always. Probably better to take those to DMs.

Truly a damning indictment of expat life in Thailand. I don't think it's that bad for what it's worth.

Please mute me then. Is there even a mute/block function here?

No I'm really not. I speak Thai just fine these days and that's how I communicate with people here. I'm just telling you how I observe THEM to be, not even towards myself. Sure you can go out of your way to talk to them but that's not normal behavior and it makes people uncomfortable sometimes. After I come back from the US I feel more outgoing but eventually I settle in the to the culture and that includes not making small talk with the 7-11 girls and random people selling food. Maybe I should do that more but I all I'm saying is it's not normal in their culture.

That's always makes me cringe too. Schools in America are pathetic in so many ways (I dropped out of HS at 17 it was so painful). All that matters are the kids really. I was raised in a university town with lots of government and research jobs so the kids I went to school with had higher than average intelligence as their parents where in these sectors. It made a huge difference in my life. Now I imagine if I put my kids (don't have them though) in Thai school where I live now. The majority of the kids would be from parents who were working in farms or selling things by the side of the street and food stalls. 100% guaranteed they would come out lower IQ just from that alone. That's the real reason people put their kids into private schools, that is to have their kids socialize with kids from other families that could afford the school in the first place.

It's like with any kind of growth. You can give a kid good diet and they'll reach their highest possible height or can you can starve them and they'll be shorter then they would be otherwise but they're never going to reach 9 foot with good diet alone. There's always an upper limit which is heritable. This is the same as all species no? Doesn't matter how well you train your dog you can't teach them to speak. Likewise you can't take a person with 80 IQ (presuming good diet and environment etc..) and put them in the theoretically best school possible and expect them to get to 130 IQ.

I bet you had a good baseline to start from. As for Thai's abroad there could be a bias in favor of intelligent people that are more willing to take risks because they feel more confident or simply have the skills and ability to let them go abroad in the first place.