SimonD

Not to mention medical at age 45 and then every 5 years, not cheap, mine was 82 GBP in 2006. Plus carriage of dangerous goods/toxic materials. (ADR licence). I see a lot of Thai tankers over here with the ADR signs on (1202/1203) and often wonder if they took the same course as myself. The DVLA suspended my LGV, C + E, due to a heart condition, did get it back on appeal, after a good bit of help from Brit NHS. However by then I had enough of being stuck on the biggest roundabout in the world (M25) and retired to LOS.

Other factors include the EU working time directive, crap money for long unsociable hours, VOSA & Polish drivers!.

The fees have gone up since. It's £130 now.

...looking well ahead to read the road and driving defensively without tunnel vision.

Spot On!

Any decent professional driver is not just concentrating on reading 'his' own road, but everybody else's around him as well. He (or she) wil be aware what the 'average idiot road user' is likely to do before that thought has even occured to the 'average idiot' (which includes pedestrians). When you are driving a multi-tonne vehicle at any reasonable speed it doesn't stop on a sixpence when the brakes are applied. Also, when turning a corner, a long vehicle may have to swing out wide to clear the roadside before moving back in. So, give it room (give way), keep within braking distance and drive defensively and hopefully you will get you are going in one piece. Applies to any country in the world, but especially in those with poor traffic discipline, like Thailand.

Remember the old adage: 'Better to get there half and hour late than 30 years early...'

True, true. Even back home, I don't trust truck drivers - chances are they've been up and driving for 24 hours straight. In Thailand, it can only be worse, e.g. the trucks are in much worse condition, more overloaded, and the drivers probably just as tired.

And where might 'home' be for you? Ceratinly not the UK or any other first world country with an unfounded statement of that sort. Ever heard of Driving Hours Regulations, minimum rest periods, digital tachographs that can't be fiddled? Professional drivers are far more alert and aware of road conditions than most amateurs can even begin to imagine. Try sitting for a UK Class 1 HGV or PCV licence (just try the theory test if you don't feel up to the real challenge) and you will see the huge demands on driving competence and situational awareness that are made. In my opinion even the UK car driving examination is far too easy, about 80% of UK amateur drivers should not be on the road in the first place.

Blatant nonsense.

Drive on N 1095 from Mae Malai (North of CM) to Mae Hong Son and you will recognize your error.

The driver in front of you gives you a sign by a right or left blinker, when the street is free for overtaking or not. Here it's normal, in Europe barley seen.

It is actually universally practised by professional drivers (large lorry, coach and bus drivers) on UK motorways and dual lane trunk roads. As these vehicles are not allowed to use the outside (third) lane they may overtake slower traffic only by using the middle lane. The procedure is the overtakee indicates to the overtaker that it is safe to do so by putting on a left signal. The overtaker then moves past and when they are clear of the overtakee, a brief flash of the headlights indicates that it is safe to pull back in. The overtaker normally signal their appreciation with a brief use of the 4-ways. This sort of co-operation between drivers is especially useful at night or in poor visibility.

That is the difference between professional and amateur drivers.

Most of the problems in places like Thailand are caused by inadequate training and education. The Thai driving test is a standing joke and the 'mai bpen rai' attitude of the natives does nothing to help matters. My missus wants me to buy her a car but I have told her she must pass her test before I would even consider it. The car remains in the showroom.

Thank you Jezz and MrRed, good advice indeed!

Apart from the 800k or so that has to sit in the Thai bank for retirement visa purposes, or whatever the proportion is needed when offset against my monthly income, in the first instance I will only be transferring enough to cover the costs of building and equipping the house and buying a vehicle. Later, if things go well, I might free up a bit more to start my missus off in running a small mini-mart/bar, which the village lacks, but that can wait until I've researched it more throughly. The bulk of my funds will, however, remain in the UK.

Jezz, you are so right about my desire to get cracking with this project. If the mini-mart does get off the ground all you guys will be invited to the launch party!

Roll on 2012!

Simon

Wow! Woke up this morning and so many replies! Thank you all very much for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences.:jap:

I've been to her village three times but have not stayed overnight yet. Each time I have been the centre of attention and been made to feel very welcome. Her close family number six adults and six children, plus two surviving grandparents and umpteen aunts, uncles, cousins etc.. All in all, about 30 people. I love the way they all seem to 'mushroom' out of the ground shortly after we arrive! Where on Earth do they all come from? On the last occasion they slaughtered a pig (I wished they hadn't, poor piggy) and we had a feast late into the evening (I didn't drink too much as I was driving back to Surin city afterwards). In addition, her close family have stayed with us in Pattaya on two occasions. Both times they brought sacks of food (especially shallots, garlic and chillies) by way of gifts, way more than we could ever use. Her oldest son also came to stay with us during the school holidays, wherever we were living.

To give you an idea of how well I get on with them (despite the language barrier but I do make an effort to speak a bit of Thai which they appreciate) my GF told me her younger brother wanted to go to a falang bar for a beer with me, so we went to my local on Khao Talo in east Pattaya. Sat down and the girl brought our drinks and one bin, which she put in front of me, assuming the drinks would all be on my tab. No problem with that. As she turned to go back inside, younger brother (can't remember his name right now) spoke to her in Thai and she came back with another bin and put it in front of him. He leant over and took the slips from my bin and put them in his. We ended up having way more beers than we should have and split the bin 50-50. I was impressed. We both had a great evening until hauled back by our respective 'ball and chains'!

Thanks to the replies on my other post about broadcast towers, I have had confirmed my suspicions about her fathers status. He is the Poo Yai, so I don't think there will be too much trouble over announcements there! I spoke to my lady yesterday by phone and she said he hardly ever used it anyway, mostly only at election times and for important announcements. She joked he could use the tannoy to ask everyone to be quiet as the falang is getting grumpy!

I've walked around the village a bit (its right on the bend of the 2375 road south from highway 24 at the point where the road bends back east), about 20km sw of Prasat and only a few km from the Buriram border. Looking on Google maps and Earth it is about two kilometres long by 0.75 km wide and her papa's house is slap bang in the middle.The Wikipedia entry gives the population of the district (also called Kohk Klang) as 6,500 spread over 12 villages for an average of 550 per village, so I guess Kohk Klang, being the 'hub' has a population of maybe 1-1,200 people but that's just a guess. The place certainly hasn't seemed very busy each time I've visited.

I will be looking to build a modest house on a piece of land on the southern fringe which her father gave to my GF about ten years ago and where there is currently a rickety old shack on stilts that he built for her. The plot is about 400 metres from the family house down a concrete soi and has woods in front, paddy behind and a minor river and more paddy to the right. Only one other house is visible from the property. When I first visited I was astonished at how crude it was it but it obviously meant a lot to her so I bit my lip. "Would you like to see inside the house my papa built for me?" she asked, almost bursting with pride. I took one look at the stairs leading up to the balcony/porch and tactfully declined as it honestly didn't look like it would take my weight. She has told me that this is where our house would be buit and it does seem ideal. Not too close to family, land looks well drained and has very scenic views in three directions. She has also told me that the village is not prone to flooding and has good run-off in all directions. The 'shack' is up on stilts simply to double as a storage area and animal pen below. No other housesn I've seen in the village are on stilts.

I want to replicate the Thai style bungalow we had in Pattaya - two bedrooms (one fan, one a/c, one for us and the other for her two boys who would live with us), two bathrooms, living room, dining room/kitchen, utility room, front porch/veranda (fo entertaining), side garden for her 'green fingers' and a rear garden for growing basic crops for our own consumption (tomatoes etc) and keeping some chickens and ducks. I've got some photos of the land. I'll try to dig them out. I'm guessing that I could get this sort of place for about 1 - 1.5 million baht, would that be about right? The land is hers anyway.

I know exactly what you mean about people wandering in and out all the time without knocking when we were living in Pattay and, to a lesser extent, in Chiang Mai. I would put a low wall around the property but that would be mostly to keep the animals inside, not people out. I think a few quiet words with any visitors would be enough. Like I say, the family are very deferential towards me, unlike her friends in Pattaya whom I had to throw out on a regular basis. Two fridges would also be in order: one for Thai food and basics (unlocked) and one for falang food (triple padlocked, alarmed and wired to explosives).

I intend to get involved in village life as much as I can. Her father is showing the signs of hard labour in the fields and he and I get on very well. I would like to do my bit help the family. Some years back I bought him a powered rice-harvester (looks like the outboard motor from a longtail boat: hand-pull petrol engine on a long shaft driving a vicious looking two blade cutter). It cost me 5,000 baht and he uses it every day. The GF said he can now cut the equivalent amount of rice that used to take him a day by hand in under two hours and doesn't have to bend down all the time. It's the best thing anyone had ever bought him she said. Wandering around the village, a few beers at the local shop (which I will finance and my missus will run) would do me nicely. I also sponsor the local boys football team. I bought their last kit and boots. They had to change their strip to the colours of my English football team but as it includes a 'cockerel' crest (no prizes for guessing who I support) they were more than happy as cock-fighting is a popular village past-time is it not? I don't like the idea of it myself but 'when in Rome...'

My finances are in reasonable shape. When I'm ready to take the plunge in spring/early summer 2012 I will have about 10-12 million baht at my disposal, plus a monthly income of about 25-30,000 baht/month.

I'll stop yakking now, gone on way too long. Thank you all once again!

Kop kun maa krab!

Simon.

Though Thaivisa has a higher number of what I consider 'real' posters and members than many other Thai expat websites, I am afraid that the tolerance for 'reality' is still quite low. I tend to anonymise the stories I tell a bit (to keep them slightly different from what I might tell my friends verbally, for example) and I have a sense for how much 'reality' the membership here is really able to take. I avoid telling some of my best stories online for this reason. Many posters here are unwilling to believe that if some types of experiences don't usually happen to them, that they can happen to anyone at all. I ascribe this to the most general population here being unwilling/unable to adapt to speaking Thai and the types of persons that this condemns them to spend their time among; to persons who are here for reasons related to various social and emotional dysfunctions that don't get any better for them while they are isolated in a very foreign culture; and to projection- in which persons who are untrustworthy themselves will assume that this is the stance they should take towards any other unknown parties.

I think I get the gist of what you are saying but the use of paragraphs would help. This forum is all about written communicatiuon after all.

@ OP:

I don't feel the need to justify anything I write about here. You can all take it or leave it as you see fit. The only thing I would say is that I have a far more profitable outlet for creative writing than can be found here, so what would be the point of bullsh_tt_ng? Believe it or not, do I care? Live here long enough and you can make anything seem real or unreal, if that is your persuasion.

At least the Thais haven't become that cynical yet. Don't think too mutt...:jap:

Tell your friend to keep their wallet in their pocket! Suggest they go to the local district office (amphoe/muban, take Thai speaker) and try to find out what is going on IF they feel the need. So long as one has the essential services try ignoring it and the endless and receiptless demands.

This happened near me when I lived in Pattaya. New water pipes (government pipes no less) were installed. Holes were dug and left................................ Then another hole was dug, and another, and left..............................The place looked like the second day of the Somme after a week of 'work'.

More craters than the lunar surface.

It went on for months. Motosai were falling into the potholes (cunningly sited on corners) every day.

Give it time and the soi will get back to crazy normal.

Golden rule for dealing with Thai authorities: Don't let ANYONE bully you into paying for services you have not ordered or asked for. No paperwork, no pay. Always be polite (be very polite), calm voice and smiling but stand your ground or you will get shafted. Weakness is ruthlessly exploited. Firmness (with politeness) commands respect. Sounds like the old water/waste truck scam all over again.

Mai bpen rai.

A recent post which unearthed an old thread on the subject of village life stirred many memories, and provided valuable insights for aspiring village dwellers like myself, so I thought it was maybe about time for part two?

I am seriously thinking about moving to my GF's village when I come back to Thailand in 2012 as Pattaya and other touristy hot-spots don't satisfy either of us anymore. If I wanted to bump into farangs every day I could stay in London. If I wanted to be woken up at 6am by noisy motorbikes, loudspeaker trucks and heavy plant I could stay in Pattaya. Although a 'townie' by origin, I hanker for a modest house, some chickens, ducks, cats etc.. and my own space. In all, just a simple life without the stress of town living. Is it possible?

Your thoughts on todays Village Life...?

Simon

Thanks for the feedback, just the sort of info I've been looking for. A bit about me:

Age 50. Lived and worked in SW London (the green bit near Richmond Park) all my adult life until a heart attack in 2005 at age 44 stopped me in my tracks. Doctor said to carry on doing what I was doing (London bus inspector - very stressful but well paid) would result in an early death. Not only that but I found I could not tolerate the cold anymore as my circulation was pretty poor after the heart attack.

Time to take stock. Didn't fancy dying just then. A friend was going to Thailand (well, not Thailand, Pattaya) and I tagged along.

I met my GF in a beer bar in Jomtien as she found Pattaya too noisy and chaotic. We hit it off straight away and when I went back in June 2007 she left the bar and we set up home on the 'Darkside'. There were a few issues between us but as we lived together quite happily and grew fonder of each other. A number of things happened to rock or cement our relationship but I won't go into them here. You get that sort of thing in all relationships, especially cross-cultural ones.

A spell up in Chiang Mai followed (I liked it, she didn't), back to Pattaya then a spell in Trat (nice and peaceful little town) which we both liked but by now she was yearning to live near her family. Back to Pattaya for the last time before I came back to UK to finalise selling up here. Got some inheritance money in the bank and my house in London is worth a fair bit so money is not a concern. As I get older I realise that I prefer the quiet life. I've got nothing against chickens and the only thing that would worry me about the tower is if it fell on me!

I get on well with her father and feel sorry for him. He's worked hard all his life and now has a few health problems that make working the fields very difficult. He's only about 54 but looks so much older. Her mama is an alcoholic who has been in and out of hospital ever since I've know her and my GF gets very angry with her mother. A younger, married sister and younger, married brother with their children complete the inner family. They have never asked me for money. My GF has her own 'house' on a quiet soi on the outskirts of the village. Behind and to one side are paddy fields and woods. She tells me that this is her land and where we would build our house. The more I think about it, the more I am tempted.

Simon

Thanks for the speedy replies!:jap:

"The first thing I'd say is, if you understand so very little about village life, how can you even consider moving to one?"

Good question but you've got to start somewhere. After all, I'd never lived in Thailand before I tried it (and fell in love with it). How can one learn about village life without living there? Anyway, that is what she wants me to do so I'm just asking a few questions should the prospect arise. If it turns out I don't like it, I can always move... I get on ok with the Thais. It has been the farangs who I had the problems with, especially in Pattaya. Never met so many guys claiming to have been in the SAS!

I have lived in various parts of Thailand ever since I met her early 2007, with brief spells back in the UK. I have been to her village several times and know the family to a limited extent. I have a city background (London) but am pretty adaptable. I'm not terrible keen on living IN the village (no peace or quiet I imagine) but she wants to be within easy reach of mama and papa. Prasat is the nearest town and I want to talk to her about living there as a compromise to start with and see how it goes. There is no 'ploy' on her part I can see. She is no spring chicken and has two boys (15 and 10) she works very hard to put through school. All she has ever asked me for is a small contribution to their bus fares and books - peanuts.

As for the broadcasts, yes it is her papa who makes them so I guess it's true he is the headman/Poo Yai Baan?

Hello All,

My GF's family live in south-western Surin province (Kok Khlang village in Panhom Dong Ruk district) and her fathers' house has a narrow steel tower, just taller than his two-storey house, right outside. Three loudspeakers are mounted on the top giving all-round coverage. I've asked her what this is for and she tells me it's for giving information to the nearby houses. She implied that her father is the village headman but I'm not convinced about that. He seems less wealthy than some of his nearest neighbours. I don't know if it is the only such tower in the village, which is quite large and sprawling, and I haven't walked around the whole place but it's the only one I can remember seeing.

As part of her strategy to get me to agree to eventually move to her village, she tells me that there are "Many farang live near village". Is anybody here familiar with Kok Khlang? I'd like to know a bit more about the place and this tower and her fathers' status puzzles me. Does anyone know the truth about this tower and it's significance and purpose? Do all villages have them?

Thanks in advance,

Simon

My best slip-up was when ordering sticky rice from my fave street vendor. Instead of saying "Kow Ne-ow" I said "Kee Ne-ow". She saw the funny side of it but...

This thread brings to mind two events I've experienced in Thailand. The first was in Bangkok, at a modest restaurant/bar in a side soi near Khao San Rd. I was with my Thai GF. I forget what it was we ordered but neither dish was correct or properly cooked. I wanted to complain but my GF dug me sharply in the ribs and glared at me "Cannot complain, make everyone lose face" she said. "Why not? We didn't get what we ordered. If no-one complains then how do they know they have a problem?" Futile. She wouldn't let me make a fuss so we just picked at the food, paid and left. "We never go back again" she said as we walked out as if that was sufficient punishment.

Another was in Trat. The waiter took our order and was gone nearly half an hour. When he came out of the kitchen with our food on a tray, he stopped and looked around, clearly having forgotten who had ordered it. We were trying to attract his attention as he went from table to table to try to find the foods' 'owner'. Eventually, by a process of elimination, he found our table. About 40 minutes later he went through the same routine with our main course! Not having any more time to waste waiting for desert, we gave him a reasonable tip (the food, when we eventually got it, was very good) and left. Looking back it seems humorous now but wasn't so at the time.

Hello All,

I first visited LOS in January 2007 and moved there in September that year to see if I could live there 'long time'. Found out I could and had a really great time. Met a decent girl and rented a small house. Unfortunately I'm too young to retire yet so I'm back in the UK working hard to build a future in the sun while my girl does her bit in for our finances in a Bangkok furniture factory.

I joined this forum back in late 2007 but this is the first time (I think) I've ever gotten around to posting. Lots of good info here - and much more mature than some other Thailand forums I've looked at. Glad to be aboard!

Simon