WinnieTheKhwai

In my view of the Ping, all looks normal. Wait until September for any flooding, but at this point, it is too early to tell.

I agree. Flooding caused by rivers usually happens when a lot of rain falls in a short time near the end of the rainy season when all the reservoirs are full. Then water has to be released to keep dams from overflowing / breaking, which causes flodding in low lying areas nearish to the river.

In addition to that you get smaller localized flash-flooding due to heavy rain and/or clogged drains. That can happen at any time.

This is June. Seems to me there's plenty time to gradually release water, if it needs to be released at all.

But yes, I'm building my next house on stilts. I think it makes a lot of sense, plus you get better views and catch more breeze.

Make sure you get detailed info on where exactly he is, because the place is a complete zoo. I tried finding someone in there once and vowed to never set foot in there again if I could possibly avoid it. (This may not apply to Sripat though, Sripat was considerably less crowded.)

(BTW, when I spoke of 'My Art' I of course referred to "the art of pissing people off on on-line forums", though maybe that's a skill more than an art. )

on the market now, there are digital programmes describing themselves as painting products, as someone has already mentioned, so it appears you can use the word ' painting' to produts, which neither involves either brush or paint, so if you feel so strong about the subject, i recommend you contact them to argue your point, as much as youve argued the point with me.

Good one. While I'm at it, I'll also argue with the makers some of the gaming programmes that that the end result of their software isn't 'war'.

( I'd still struggle to call it art, much like doing cross-stitching for example, but when I'm in a good mood I might settle for a 'craft'. )

Anyway, here's my art.

If you come to Thailand as a sex tourist and spend time in Pattaya or similar you will probably end up iwith a b/g and most probably the "i hate Thailand group" if you waste your money building a house and all that cr@p

..Oh, you mean the, "All Thai are stupid", "All thai men are abusive and lazy", "All Thai are lairs", "I must speak dumbed-down pigeon English to all Thai, even ones who obviously can understand 'normal' English", "I must critise all of Thailand, particularly availability of western food, and nothing is quite the same as 'back home', and im always being ripped off", "My woman is young and slim, but it doesnt matter that im three times her age and have a hygiene problem and that i have a hanging beer belly..i know im still handsum..."..etc.. group?

While I agree that I don't like people displaying such negativity, I also dispute the link between said behavior/mindset and coming here as a sex tourist. Most sex tourists I know are perfectly happy people and adore Thailand and everything in it.

Also you gotta wonder what percentage of Thaivisa members started out that way. (Or still are)

Are we talking football here or American Football?

I'd be interested if this was about football, i.e. the sport that involves feet and ball most of the time.

This government's successes? That could very well be the shortest book ever written.

If this happened to me on a visit to Thailand, I would probably write the place off and never return. Just an observation.

I would dread the day something got stolen in my home country then, as I would have to leave and never return.

Now, now.. we should embrace the new type of people coming to live in Chiang Mai. May well make it a better place! You know, the people who go talk to pick-up truck drivers because their vehicle emits smoke, or to banks for charing a fee, or to laundry shops. I'm all for it, let them shape up!

I'm getting Deja vu.. Haven't we seen this rant before? It's still not very positive or uplifting.

I'd want to see Chiang Mai 100 years ago. Just daily life. Maybe Bangkok too.

I mean an event is an event.. I have no personal stake in any of it.

> 1. The immaculate conception

I'd rather watch a couple maculate ones.

-I know what life is like in Canada, but what do the early retired folks in Chiang Mai fill their time with?

Largely the same as in Canada, but we get to do it year-round.

- What are the educational opportunities like?

You mean for you to take courses or for kids to study? You can take courses in things like language, massage, meditation, golf, cooking, etc.

- What about English books or Book exchanges or libraries?

Chiang Mai is blessed with many used book stores. For things out of the mainstream there's always Amazon.com

- What about English movies and TV?

We get the usual cable channels on subscription from Truevisions. (www.truevisionstv.com). You know, HBO, Cinemax, Nat-Geo, Animal Planet, Discovery, CNN, BBC, etc, etc. For less mainstream things there's internet downloads of weird British TV series or whatever else you may like.

- Do people play badminton in Thailand?

Yes. It's not the number 1 sport (neither is it in Canada) but many people play it, it's easy to find courts and tournaments.

- What are the popular activities? Golf (costs?)

Don't know exact costs, but most people who are into golf seemed very happy with the standard of the courses and the costs.

- How risky is it to ride a motorcycle in Thailand

This is by far the most dangerous thing you can do in Thailand.

, I have heard different cautions that it is much more dangerous than in North America. Why would this be?

Because people follow the rules less, and because road design isn't as good as in Western countries. Sometimes pretty basic rules aren't followed, such as driving on the wrong side of the road, at night without lights, while drunk. It's virtually guaranteed that you'd have some type of mishap sooner or later. I'd stick to cars. You'd still get into mishaps, but those mishaps are less likely to involve scraping the tarmac.

- Are there opportunities to meet other English speakers other than the famed bar scene?

Yes absolutely. Actually while bar staff would be better at colloquial 'small talk' type conversations there's no doubt that educated Thais speak FAR better English, even though they may be less experienced in North American phrases and slang.

-Are there times of the year when the weather is unbearable?

Unbearable no, but I'm no fan of March. (Haze). Then April is super hot, September and early October very wet. All other months are fine, with December/January/Most of February positively amazing.

-Someone talked about pollution / bad air what is the cause of that?

Field burning and forest fires in the greater region incl. Burma and Laos. Results in haze. And it's very dry. There are usually about 10-15 days a year that the PM-10 count is really too high.

-I have been reading more in the news that Thailand is becoming increasingly unstable politically,

I know the news can distort reality so it would be nice to get some idea from people on the ground

so to speak

My personal opinion is that we aint seen nothing yet. However I don't see it impacting the day-to-day of people who aren't involved in politics, which includes foreign retirees.

- Do they offer classes to learn Thai? Is Thai a difficult language (like I found Mandarin)?

It's probably similar in difficulty to Mandarin due to not finding any similarities with Western languages, though reading and writing may be easier because it's just a finite set of left-to-right characters, so not terribly different form learing Greek or Russian. And if you've done Mandarin then you're at least familiar with the concept of a tonal language.

What sorts of things can a Canuck like me anticipate to find a bit challenging to adapt to

in the Thai society / way of life?

I don't know.. Being able to find your car back in January? I think it mostly depends on you yourself. Some people are just pretty open in their nature and enjoy seeing/learning new things. Those types of people tend to do very well.

What is it that keeps you living in Thailand? What do you really enjoy?

The culture, the weather, the food, the people, the sense of freedom, the sense of adventure/exploring.. I mean I live in a completely brain-dead gated community, but was at a small weekly market yesterday that's just around the corner a 3 minute walk away, and a guy actually managed an 'Oh My GOD!' in Thai when seeing the big foreign dude. He then smiles and offered me some whisky. I think everyone on this forum can tell you several dozens of those nice and fun encounters. I don't know, I just like the way of life. Add to that the stellar quality of life / value for money and it's all in all a pretty good place. Of course there are challenges, and your ability to engage those challenges is the bigger part of how well you will like it long term. Personally I wouldn't have it any other way.. My main fear of retirement would be to never ever find any challenge or something out of the ordinary!!

Well, the headline comes from The Nation. They've had worse.

In addition, it's kind of okay here as we know the lay of the land. When it hits tourist forums though the shit hits the fan because people don't realize the distinction between Chiang Mai the province and Chiang Mai the city. So then people start cancelling trips up North because they think the city is under water.

Now, not being Einstein, but if everyone reacted in the same way, why would the owner want to bring it into town? The locals most certainly don't waste their money feeding it!

No, they do waste their money on feeding it.

That's why you also see them at other locations, places where there's no tourist in sight. ( Or maybe you don't spend that much time outside of the city area? )

Same applies to the 'deaf' people with the card going along the bars; people would think that's a tourist-only thing but you also see them in very Thai local hangouts such as the Santitham area. And you can see kids selling flowers in local pub/restaurant areas as well.

Keep in mind that buying food for an elephant = 'making merit'.

It's not even just for tourists like everyone seems to immediately assume. Occasionally there are crackdowns on this, and the only thing that happens is that they walk elephants in the outskirts of town, (not anywhere near tourist areas).

However, I doubt if the city elephants are harmed other than emotionally.

Elephant's feet aren't designed to walk on tarmac all night. Also they're at extreme risk of being hit by traffic late at night. That will harm them physically as well as emotionally.

Keeping things in perspective though, the abuse and exploitation of hilltribe kids selling flowers all night is probably the most pressing issue.

www.truevisionstv.com

This is the main TV provider, using a small satellite dish.

So.. are you looking to buy? Other than that, 1 year is a pretty regular term to rent for a house.

He wasn't talking about property, he was talking about buying a small house. You can own a house just fine. If it's something nice made out of wood you could even move it fairly easily. And, buying something doesn't imply that you have to legally own it yourself. As an example, if you're in the purchase department of a company then you buy a lot of stuff that you then don't own afterwards. Sheesh.

Sorry, back to Panda burgers.

> Love the pandas also

Those panda's are EVERYWHERE.. They're fast becoming a pest, and a nuisance to traffic. They're like big soi dogs.

> I would love to buy a small house here just for hols away from the Island

Which island? We could home-swap for holidays. (Well, over the Mrs. dead body presumably, but it is an idea.. )

That assumes he'd actually get two customers at the same time.

Honestly though, with prices around 100 baht, and with a gazillion massage shops... Is it just a front for something else?

What would a typical punishment be for .6 grams of heroine? I mean *typical*, not what the law book says. Anyone know? It's obviously a small quantity for personal use. He's not charged with being a drug smuggler or seller.

The law says:

(41)

Section 67 Any person who possesses narcotics of category I without permission and in

quantity computed to be pure substances, or in number of used dosage, or in net weight, that does not

reach the quantity prescribed in Section 15 paragraph three, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of

one year to ten years, or to a fine of twenty thousand to two hundred thousand baht, or to both.

Probably going through the legal process actually would be the appropriate thing to do. Speaking of laws, I thought this forum had laws against discussing the breaking of the law? And loads of people are telling him to run? Interesting.

I can tell you what would attract ME into a massage shop.

Tourists though.. who knows. Price, probably.

Tough to make money though among a couple hundred similar massage shops, in a city almost without tourists most of the year.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. So from these responses it seems like things are not a simple as they first were made to sound.

You'd do well to turn some people on 'ignore', it makes the general appearance of the forum a lot clearer and factual.

We typically get maids from a people-broker we know. Live-in around 3500 baht, or if it's someone who comes in a couple days a week then we pay 200 baht a day. Most are reasonably good, the current one is absolutely stunning at what she does.. She arranges stuff as if it's a 5 star hotel room. I'd gladly pay her 250 a day if the money issue ever comes up with her.

BTW, a Thai or Farang household makes no difference whatsoever, of course. Some of the people who post on this forum seem to be struggling through life, but I don't really care enough to go argue with them.

LOL..

Welcome to Thailand.

BTW, if I drive my truck pretty slowly and with low revs (2000-2500 rpm) for a couple days/weeks and then suddenly take it past 3000 rpm in third or fourth gear then I get a huge cloud of smoke. It's great, it means being able to emit smoke at will, so you can treat them to some pay-back.

That only works once though, after that there's no smoke when taking it over 3000rpm. Must be something to do with a lot of crap building up in a filter of some sort. Anyway, I'm not trying to understand it, just to enjoy it.

My view is that if she is being straight with you, this is actually a manageable problem, so don't let all these fear-mongering posts get to you. Ask her to change her mobile phone number, which is easy to do, and break off all contact with him. If she won't, then your problem is with her, not the ex-husband, and you'll need to decide whether your relationship is worth the headaches this situation might bring.

Completely agreed. Best answer by far. But intriguing nonetheless to get a view of the mindset of some fellow forum members. If it is a troll then it was well worth it.