NorthernRyland

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.

Wat Doi Tairn? I'm sure i know where you mean the english doesn't look familiar. To not piss on Mae Jo for a while there are some good things places which make it ok: 1) 900 rai. 2) Wat Taen Pra 3) Ride to wat Chom Kiti (or can loop up to the old Pai highway and back through Mae Rim too in 60'ish k) 4) You can make it to the Mae Kuang dam and Doi saket Temple in under 50k if you ride along the canal. In theory you have access to Mae Rim but I find myself not wanting to do the 30min gauntlet before you reach the mountain base and rides to Mon Cham, Samoeng etc...

Sorry I'm ranting right now so forgive me, but does any else feel like good riddance to another reckless driver? Yeah he killed himself this time but what were the odds he could have taken out another innocent person in the process? I'm assuming he was being reckless because you see this selfish behavior every day, all day. Personally when I see these wrecked cars I also think good riddance but I'm just cynical I guess.

Same story. ???? Scenic, chill, good northern Thailand vibes. I'm a cyclist by the way so what I want in my life is easy access to nice roads with little traffic. CM does have those but you're trapped now regardless of where you live in the city. If traffic was less congested I could ride up Doi Suthep still from Mae Jo because it's not THAT far really but due to the road conditions it's a non-starter now. Even getting to Mon Cham from Mae Jo has become a chore because of the ever worsening road conditions. You can overcome these things but I'm just so burned out and I can't stop thinking about how nice it is when I visit smaller towns and how much easier I could live there. i didn't mention it because it's so impractical but I do rent a little cabin in Samoeng and come up here over the weekends for cycling. It's honestly too small and very difficult to get food etc... but it's chill and nice weather. Getting very close to purchasing land and building little house so maybe I could stay here more while the wife still keeps her job in Mae Jo.

Yeah I live in Mae Jo also and dealing with that road is the worst part. I literally can't go anywhere from where I live without dealing with it. It's all subjective but I find getting stuck at all those red lights and fast traffic to very unpleasant and stressful on my motorbike. The 1001 is a major highway in CM and has heavy traffic like trailers which need to use to it for transportation. A real nightmare in my opinion.

The city is very quiet and charming and has lovely mountains all around. It's more remote but still going to immigration would be much easier than Chiang Mai. Getting imported foods would be very difficult and airport travel a problem since CM is ~7 hour drive away.

This is the primary point. Chiang Mai is great city BUT you're trapped within a horrible network of roads with some of the most inconsiderate drivers in the world so doing simple things like to doing an errand can be long detours around u-turns with crazy fast driving. Anytime I go some place else I realize how terrible it is living like that. If you must live here you need to be extremely strategic on where you live and make sure you're not trapped between any of the major roads, which are always expanding and encroaching on once nice areas, and it's only going to get worse next year...

I've been living 10 months a year in Chiang Mai for 15+ years now and it gets worse every year. Congested, polluted and so frustrating getting around due to traffic and u-turns that I dread going in to the city. Housing is becoming a real problem because land is so expensive the only people who buy are property developers that build these awful congested little housing projects that are so close the roofs nearly touch. I saw a 1 rai piece of land in some ghetto little village in Mae Jo yesterday for 6.5 million baht. More 11x11 meter plots for tiny houses will occupy that whole field soon and more congestion to follow. Any smaller city in the region is better in my opinion unless you're easily bored and need to go to new places every night and be around crowds of people. 100% I would move tomorrow if I could find something to do with my wife. Places in the north I would move to: 1) Mae Hong Son 2) Nan 3) Chiang Dao 4) Phayao 5) Chiang Rai (maybe) Of course this all subjective. Chiang Mai was tons of fun when I was in my 20s and there was less car traffic but now I want something more livable and chill. I'm leaving back to Colorado next week and I'm already dreading the horrible road conditions when I get back. Remember it gets worse every year so if your off put by traffic and congestion it's only getting worse next year.

It may be time to euthanize the elderly and sterilize the poor too. Unnecessary baggage.

getting?

Chinese in Thailand have been some of the worst offenders of bad behavior and noise. Even the Thai's who I usually bully about being noisy and inconsiderate complain along side me about the Chinese. It's surprising since there's so much Chinese influence in Thailand and the Thai's themselves are some % Chinese by ancestry. Another large offender albeit lesser known are the hill tribes, who are largely Chinese compared to Thai's. They live on mountains so you don't get to experience them that often but if you live around them the burning, littering and insanely dangerous driving is enough to raise the blood pressure. Much worse than Thai's on fronts except for maybe loud speaker noises.

Those kids on motorbikes are uniquely annoying for me. Not because they're loud and disturbing but because the so-called adults here have so little regard for the state of society that they can't even be bothered to control kids. Indeed it's even illegal to modify motorbikes but no one here cares enough to get off their a** and do something, not even the worthless police force. It's a theme in Thailand that the worst people in society never face any consequences for bad behavior and so they drag everything down to their level. Personally I can only stay here for 6-9 months before their inconsiderate nature grinds me down and I feel like I need to leave.