WinnieTheKhwai

Hi Mike, welcome to the forum, and to Chiang Mai I guess.

I think Chiang Mai will suit you just fine. For your initial visit though it's tough to find something that's traditional/rustic, offers cooking facilities AND can be booked for a reasonable price by the month.

In your case I think I would pick a nice guesthouse inside the old town area (within the moat) and negotiate a monthly deal. You probably won't have cooking facilities then, but it's easy and cheap.

As far as I know, all Tai Yai, even those with proper work documentation, cannot drive a motorcycle and if caught doing so are liable for a 2k baht fine.

Could that be related to not having a driver's license? Probably on some immigration statuses they couldn't apply for a Thai driver's license.. Also for Westerners you need to be on a particular type of visa I believe to obtain a Thai drivers license. (Probably can't do it on a 30 day visa exemption!) For tourists this is not an issue as they would have one from their home country, inlcuding ideally an international license. For most Shan people I bet that's not an option.

So, driving without a driver's license, yes I would imagine that being an issue, and be considered as 'doing something wrong'.

It has always struck me as grossly unfair.

Well.. I think this is the time where it would be good to separate out the ethnic background from the citizenship/immigration status : Thai Yai / Shan is an ethnic background. Some Shan people are Thai citizens, born in Thailand and with Thai ID cards and driver's licenses. They can do absolutely anything any other Thai can do. Some Thai Yai / Shan people are more recent arrivals from Burma, without Thai citizenship. Those people are immigrants, and as such don't enjoy many of the rights Thais (incl. Shan Thais) have. Buying land would be another one, voting rights, etc, etc.

The going rate for a Tai Yai on a motorbike stopped by the BIB seems to be 2K Bt, sometimes even though they've done nothing wrong.........

Being in a city/province where they shouldn't be illegally would qualify as 'something wrong' though! We made sure all our maids were legal with the proper documentation. So that means legal employment, and they can go to the market just fine.

They just can't leave the province without obtaining permission first.

This is Thailand, all fish are tropical. Pla Nin fish you see at Tesco's and Pla Dook slithering around at the market are tropical.

To be special I think I'd want a refrigerated salt-water tank with herrings swimming around in it.

(Sorry )

Yes be subtle and there is business to be had. As an example, I heard the Pub is popular with the gay ex pat crowd, on the other hand the Queen Vic (Previous management - I hasten to add) cynically advertised on several gay websites and got themselves a bad reputation with local gays as a result.

To a large extent the internet has replaced the gay bar as a pick up joint. All most gays want to do is go out and enjoy themselves and they don't need an exclusively gay venue to achieve that.

Of course.. However there's types of establishments, and I can only speak for the straight universe here, where a little cuddling is common or encouraged. If you go to regular mixed venues like Warm Up or whatever then there's probably a limit on that?

Also, why did advertising in gay websites back-fire for the Queen Vic? If anything it would send out a message that they're welcome?

Come on, just about anyone who has a maid who isn't some relative of their Mrs has one who is Thai Yai.

Just about all of ours were.

Sure, there are many people with tai Yai maids, but how many people have a conversation with them that goes outside work talk? I can't believe there are many Farang who sit down and discuss the SSA and Shan politics and with their maids!

No.. I don't.. That's not the nature of a work relationship.. I might discuss this and other wider issues with those who are bar/karaoke girls though.

But yeah, "no socializing with the maid". In addition they're expected to use their own bathroom exclusively, and use their own dedicated maid plates, glasses and spoons. So we have 4-tier segregated cutlery: For special occasions, for regular use, for the maid and then finally one set to mix dog food. And never they shall mix.

Umm.. thinking very long and hard, nothing really that's really close. But in the general North, cities that stand out somewhat are IMHO and in no particular order:

Phrae

Chiang Saen

Mae Hong Son

It's very nice right now (7pm).. After some nice winds that cooled things down. It's about 28 degrees now.

It means gibbon. (a type of monkey).

Their call sounds like a repeated 'phua phua phua' which is Thai for 'man', 'husband'. So, it's used for women who are overly slutty in throwing themselves at men.

Frankly I see it used mostly for ladyboys displaying the same trait, but I suppose you could use it with women too.

Either way it's not very nice! Be careful with it even in jest.

Believe it or not I have a Liverpool and Everton scarf on the wall side by side. To be honest though, that is because they are sad and bitter and I put it up to stop them whinginging. It does confuse a lot of people though.

Don't worry, a lot of people who've been in Thailand too long become partial to swinging both ways.

So erm, yes, I think Red Lion pub would then be a good bet, as they're apparenlty open and footie-minded. Chances are they will have to shut the front door, so if you get there late, just knock.

Other than that you're looking at some of the bars that often stay open past closing time, but some of those will play music and not the match commentary..

I can't help but think that certain key-segments are on a particular decline.

I had lunch at Daret's Guesthouse today, and I don't think I've ever seen it so empty.. There were 4 other people. And, more importantly, they were all in their sixties at least.. Really NOT the backpacker crowd you'd expect!

So, backpackers being one segment.

Other segments... : single male travellers.. particularly gays..Driving past some areas that used to have gay bars doing booming business, they were mostly all closed. (Night Bazar etc).

Note that I'm not in the tourist industry so this is not just whining about business. I do think it's remarkable that 10, 15 years ago there were FAR fewer foreign residents in town, but bars and restaurants were doing good business then..

So coming back to the yellow or what ever colour the lines are why paint lines on the road in the first place if nobody give a hoot about them? the highway department or the government could save millions of baht every year by not marking the roads at all

Sigh.. I don't know why I bother sometimes to explain every little ittie bittie tingie about Thailand, but the lines are obviously very useful. It helps check if oncoming traffic is encroaching on your lane or not. Especially in corners this is very useful; if someone is cutting a bend short and moving into your lane, then you can move out of the way a bit. It's a near-subconscious thing, you don't even realize you're watching this when driving in Thailand, but you are. You'll notice especially when on a newly paved road without lines.. you WILL miss them!

I paid attention today and noticed that some really wide roads have an uninterrupted line in the middle (Chang Klan road South for example). And then there's some uncle doing 30 km/h and braking every time as much as a motorbike emerges from a soi.. You BET I'm overtaking that sucker. If only Thais would speed up a little and not drive like old ladies.

Poll:

Should JT treat himself to a life?

[a] ....

I agree with one of the writers that the police does not do a Thing!

Apparently you missed this:

My neighbor, thai police, had his TV and some other stuff that was removed a few weeks ago. ( Burglary )

I only noticed because the whole Chiang Mai CSI showed up and was throwing dusting powder on everything.

See, they do when they want to! Then after obtaining prints they probably checked ALL of the burmese workers in the area as well, just for being Burmese, and being there!

I'd like to get me some of that type of service from the police..!

"Skoi"

What does that mean and/or how would you spell that in Thai? Never heard of it.. They might call them 'maew' or whatever though.

One question: how many Tai Yai people do you really know well? Or were you just trolling?

Come on, just about anyone who has a maid who isn't some relative of their Mrs has one who is Thai Yai.

Just about all of ours were.

Phatcharanan wrote one of the funniest posts I've read in a long time in his parody on night life in Pattaya, but unfortunately the thread is now closed because a few people don't know how to be polite. There are many ways of getting your point across without being insulting, but that seems to be a problem with some people who seem to enjoy putting others down in their posts.

Is there a link, even though the topic is closed? Would love to read it. I did a search but it did not turn up anything.

I'd buy a safe, but not sure what I have of value that I'd put into it.. I could put in the laptops I suppose, but those either travel with me or are in my bedroom. Other than that..

I think the wider point is that Chiang Mai offers something nice & good value no matter what you're into.

What I want to know is why they painted the road bright red just before the Nong Hoi underpass on the Middle Ring. It looks ridiculous, and is very distracting if you're not used to roads suddenly turning red. And just prior to the tunnel as well, so that makes it two features that aren't too common on Thailands roads being thrown at drivers at the same time. Why?

Thankyou for the Video Clip - looks like a very lot turned out today !!!!

So for every million Thais, how many of them showed up for the "big" red rally? These diehards do NOT represent the majority of Thais.

So basically in your world/mind a rally is an election?

In which case Obama's big rally in Grant Park Chicago had 100,000 turn out.

Better yet his inaguration had maybe 4 million?

Yet the population of America is 304,059,721

Yes thats 304 MIllion

Are you saying then he was........elected by the minority?

I mean he was only represented by a fraction even smaller than the example you gave.

Hey, hey, no logic and numbers, that's just not fair!

It was.

It's interesting how Rubens remains to be just the PERFECT 'number 2'. He's just good enough to finish ahead of the rest in a good car, but just not good enough to trouble a team's number 1 in form. That's exactly what you want when you're Ross Brawn.

Biased is one thing, I think they're evil. Wouldn't call them worse than Fox though, who are also in the evil category. Both outfits seem set up actively mislead, deceive and brain wash the public.

..and yet another boring race.

You know it's a boring race when the most exciting thing that happened was someone almost running out of fuel.

A single English teacher is not as good as a proper pre-school / kindergarten with all the programs and infrastructure. A very good bilingual kindergarten costs about 7000 baht / month.

Your concerns about air clarity and temperature are not very valid. (Unless perhaps the school is downtown next to a main road, but in that case safety from traffic would still be the bigger concern).

You can't quote 20 quotes. There's a maximum of 5 or so. So then it gets really tricky as you have to quote using italics and other stuff to make quotes look visually different from one's own ramblings..