Maha Sarakham

Just follow the Thai Embassy Washington DC website.  They have the most current requirements for applying for travel.  

Where can I find the application?  Is that a Thai Embassy item? 

My Thai wife and I are legally married in the US with a marriage certificate, we were trying to come back in December to see her immediate family.  

By that time, perhaps the situation will have changed quite a bit.  Think its best to wait and see or apply now?

Looked like a handful of expats just sitting around Lamai having a few beers... looks grim.  Even if the borders open this year, not sure we are going to proceed with our previous reservation on Samui.  Have a feeling a lot of places will be going under or not have staff in time for high season.

50 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Cycling and hiking is probably the best in the world, lots of empty roads and jungle within a couple of kilometres. Shopping, western food, hospitals, schools, universities, internet, water, electricity all good.

Music to my ears, we really do love the Chiang Mai area!  I'm not sure why some are so critical of it there, we always have a great time.  I realize the night life scene dried up a lot for expats on Loy Kroh Road, but for a couple - Good View and Warm Up were extremely fun for a social night out. 

I do appreciate the backyard view of the roving buffalo and notes on the SanSai/Maejo area.  I will have to do some research on those areas, thank you!

I really appreciate that photo, thank you BritManToo!  I love that view you have, hoping to have something similar in the future.  

Having grown up around green mountains my whole life, I really appreciate a mountainous backdrop paired with a Thai rice field style landscape.  

We both are outdoorsy people that enjoy cycling and jogging.  I guess we are taking a gamble on the air quality thing for the future, but I have a feeling they will eventually reign that in as it will impact Chinese tourism if it gets exceedingly worse.  Could be wrong, but hey, no one has a crystal ball.

May I ask, what area around Chiang Mai do you live in and do you or your neighbors ever have flood issues?  Anything else to note regarding infrastructure build-up or future projects that you or the wife may be aware of?

Appreciate all of your insights, those of you with boots on the ground or prior experience in Chiang Mai!

Hello TV Community,

Relatively new registration to the forum, but I have been a longtime reader.  

I was just curious if anyone had experience with the Chiang Mai area and flooding in recent years.  I have looked online for flood zone maps but many of them seem very old and possibly out of date due to climate change and changes in climate/weather patterns.

I was hoping to hear from some people that may live in or around the Chiang Mai area, if you were going to buy land or a house there for the future, what area might you consider and why?  I am married to a Thai woman living in the USA, hoping to retire to Thailand in the future.  We both like Chiang Mai because its a fair bit less crazy than Bangkok and still very convenient to everything we might need, including an international airport and hospitals.  We were hoping to buy a plot of land and sit on it until we were ready to go back to retire, as land prices seem to keep rising without fail.  We both like being surrounded by mountains and nature, not necessarily concrete jungle.

Any information is welcome, I read as many of these threads as I can find, but new information is harder to find as more people seem to be leaving Thailand than coming to retire there these days (or are more vocal about it).

Thank you.

58 minutes ago, Keyser Soze666 said:

You sound naive and very conformist. 

He sounds like he makes better financial decisions than the other guy.  Since when is being "conformist" a bad thing when it comes to crippling debt?  

2 hours ago, ThePugAndMe said:

what kind of ball park are we looking at?

Probably $1000 for all those boxes.  It is about 2500-4500 baht per box depending on weight and dimension, no insurance.

That looks like it's going to be some VERY expensive chips!