NorthernRyland

I got beat in a road bike race up Doi Inthanon (Thailands highest mountain) by a 60 year old Dutch man. Not only did he beat me (aged 30 then), but 700 other Thai people of all ages.

You think you're too good for a fat wife?

I paid 10,000 for 2 round trip tickets from CM to Hua His on March 22nd. How much did that used to cost? I never went before. Also is it cheaper flying different times of year? I thought March was low season because I live in the North when it's ruined now but maybe it's still busy in March around those parts?

Why Chiang Mai? That city is getting hard to live in because of traffic. So many nicer places in the North if you ask me.

It was only a few years ago Pad Thai was 40 baht. What is the world coming to. When I first came in 2005 it was 20 baht for Pai Thai. I don't think I've ever had a bad Pad Thai, just lame restaurants with no fans or bad chairs.

Building is smart for security but if something goes wrong it would be a disaster to lose your money and now you're too old to re-earn. I would only do this if you can afford to lose the home. Who knows how the laws in Laos work and if any of that can be trusted anyways. I know Thailand has endless laws but do they ever actually enforce them? I'm very skeptical myself.

I don't understand this. Isn't the land a joint marital property? Part of being married is that you lose your right to hold sole title. I'm very skeptical these hold up in court with married couples. If you get divorced I believe you would be required to liquidate the property, I guess unless you can settle the divorce with other funds then you could hold the land.

It's easy to mistake media type for the reality on the ground. Since 2020 there have the been the same amount of interracial crime as usual but you don't hear about it like then. Why? Because there isn't an election happening now. If it's useful in the coming election they'll find a black on white incident and make it public and stir up emotions just like in 2020.

what exactly is wrong with the width of the main entrance? this sounds like the kind of thing you'll be ruined for in America, but in Thailand???

I wouldn't be caught dead paying 200 baht for Pad Thai. To each his own.

America is boiling over with tensions but that's not because people are racist. It's because they've mixed so many groups together and they're all fighting for power. This doesn't happen in daily life though it's all politics and being pushed on the population. Thailand on the other hand is explicitly for Thai people and they very well now who isn't them. It's a very different feeling here. I'm ok with it myself and I'd prefer Thailand keep Thai and avoid all the tensions plaguing any multi cultural country.

America is the least racist country on the planet. Have you seen the data on which countries are ok with having neighbors of another race? America tops the chart. Thailand is far more racist than America. Not even close.

where to?

In fact this could go the other way. My family are liberals from Colorado and were happy Trump is out office and thought they did a good job voting against him. Flash forward to today and millions of illegal immigrants have entered the country and managed to overwhelm the services in Denver, a self declared sanctuary city. They're facing a budget crisis now and people are starting to panic since the migrants are get ejected from shelters and risk moving into surrounding areas. I even heard them admit they may have a problem. LOL. Oh really? You know what could have prevented this? That's right, voting for Trump. Maybe they will actually learn a lesson this time since their policy for the first time ever may actually end up impacting their own personal lives.

this is so tiresome. Get a rapid anti-trumper to tell you how this actually affects their life and all they have are vague notions and ideological moral posturing. It's always the rich got a tax cut (doesn't affect them), illegal immigrants got deported (doesn't affect them) people were insulted (doesn't affect them) loss of global stature (doesn't affect them). You don't have to like Trump to understand this is media induced hysteria and unless you're in government nothing bad will happen to you. If you're so desperate for illegal immigrants move to Mexico and hire a maid. If you get your taxes lowered volunteer to pay more. If the war in Ukraine gets defunded send your own money to them. etc... etc...

those are easy to resolve by avoiding certain people. The big problems with Thailand are unavoidable but wanting to live in a normal country is a hard to argue against. I'd say go and save your sanity.

England is the new Caliphate. In a few decades it will be illegal for women to travel alone without a male chaperon.

Imagine the situation if all those immigrants start leaving London and come to Thailand on British passports. Millions of "Londoners" have British passport but I seriously doubt Thailand wants THOSE Brits to come on 30 day visas. Is it just me or are Thai's pretty racist against Arabs? I think so.

Off topic but debt is the least of that countries worries. The entire cultural fabric has been destroyed by immigration and it's essentially just a glorified work camp where you can live work and pay interest on loans to banks. There's no central unifying national identity and people the military is going to collapse just in time when they start the next world war. I could go on and on. There's no salvation for that country unless it breaks apart into smaller regions.

Well in that case I do spend 2 months a year in Colorado so I wouldn't apply. Paying state seems ridiculous being there only 2 months with no residence. Maybe I should hire an accountant. 🙂

I can live here but I don't think I could do actual business here because of this loss of face thing. For me it's important to be able to tell a person something they did is wrong and it needs to be fixed without them having their ego hurt. It's like dealing with children sometimes. Just last week I took my road bike in to replace a number of parts and the guy decided to change the rear cassette size because he didn't have the same sized one in stock and instead of telling me he needed to order it he just changed it and let me figured it out later. Of course now he needed to take off the new one and order another one anyways. Why do they do this? It's loss of face right? I've know this guy over 10 years now so it just doesn't make sense to me.

How terrible driving is in Thailand can not be understated. Every day you need to use the roads and these people make simple things like driving and parking a total headache. I used to think I was in Thailand because the "laid back" lifestyle but when I stay in Colorado for the summers my life is notably less stressful because people are actually polite and respectful on the roads. It snuck up on me fast, maybe my age, but living in Chiang Mai is officially a source of stress in my life so I rented a house up in the mountains and stay here with my dog and let the wife come visit on the weekends when she's off work. If it wasn't for her career she invested years in to I would leave that city for good tomorrow. Rural Thailand may be boring if you're not well occupied but at least it delivers on the promise of Thailand which is cheap and laid back. People are still annoying and make noise and burn things though so there's that.

Makes sense. How much more debt can Thailand can take on? GDP quadrupled in the last 20 years who knows how much of that was debt. Household debt is 90% of GDP so they're reaching the limit already.

This is 100% true with Thai people. They don't seem to understand opportunity cost and investment. Less money today could be more money in the future if you actually do something with it. The land market is especially outrageous. Every guy with a little plot of unremarkable land is convinced it's going to moon and will let it sit vacant for decades before they reduce the price to something which people can actually afford today. My opinion is that it's their culture of gambling. There's always a chance some rich person is going to come along and solve all your problem by paying ridiculous amounts for property which has no potential to return on their investment. Makes no sense but you just gotta believe harder until it becomes true.

Thailand drives me nuts about 9 months so I leave for 2 months. Lucky my parents are still around or this wouldn't be possible. Getting stuck here full time would be a problem for sure.