trainman34014

As far as the powers that be in Bangkok are concerned Chiang Mai is just a small backwater town somewhere up country where the native jungle bunnies cannot be trusted to do anything without some kind of parental control from the great center of the universe. Most of them have only heard of it because a certain well known fugitive who lives in Dubai came from here and his sister is now Prime Minister. Of course; we all know that their great power base is sinking and in 50 years will have vanished from the map, so as time passes Chiang Mai will the 'in' place to be, if only to keep their feet dry !

In my five and a half years experience of living here I have found most Thai's smile a lot. whereas Farang's scowl a lot. Most Thai people will talk to me, whereas most Farang's will not.

In the end it's about what you want from a host country and your general expectations. Live and let live.

500 Baht to each voter will solve the problem....full turnout !

I've used them twice and they've been ok but I wish they would use a larger aircraft on the BKK Mumbai section and make things a bit more comfortable. As for the farting; well I've always been able to give as good as I get.

Most of the locals around my way are so pissed they believe they are watching a solar storm nightly but they don't panic, they just open another bottle !

Let me see... sugar on everything, deep fried everything, lack of exercise all going square faced at computers iPhones and tablets, fast food invasions from international and attitude. Yep that will do it. Look forward to looking like the American populace within 10 years.

Maybe another "Hub" possibility for Thailand.

Yep; that's it.....Hub of black strips !

As highlighted lifestyle also to blame; no exercise, poor diet, taking meals at any time of the day... just general indiscipline towards life.

Sounds exactly like most Western countries I know !!

Well, this is something that I've been thinking about , who the hell cares if the number of people on retirement visas increases or decreases, or if the most of the applicants r britishers or russians, they, they are not the real problem, the elephant is the huge number of foreigners( of all nationalities and colors) that hav thai families( married to thais, or that have thai husdband/wife) and don't even have the right to earn a living in this country unless you hav a bachellor degree, or lots of money in the bank. we r thousand of people in this situtatuion, and it seems that no one in teh goverment care about us or about the well-being of our thai relative who in most of cases depends on us, at least give us the chance of work freely, eliminate the income requirements to our visa or make it equal to the normal income of a thai 15000 bath/ month ( 400,000 yearly = 33,333/month), and pleace lower the income requirements for pr and citizenship as well, we r human beings and our thai families too.

If you don't have the degree or skills to get job here, you could always take the family back to your country and see how you go there.

Do you think you could live on 15,000 baht a month here with a family?

First of all, yes, you can live here with 15000 baht/ month, most of thai people that i know live with that and even less, and secondly not allways your thai family want to leave thailand, after all is their country, and in my experience for thais learning english is difficult so just imagime how much more difficult must be learning, spanish, portugese, italian , french etc, is not so simple as you think.btw i do have my degree, and earn enough but i do know many foreigner that r suffering because of these absurde rules.

I too can live happily on a limited budget,I have a retirement visaand great immigration people[udon Thani] 16,000bt pension,a small car,a motor bike and a TukTuk----- yes a Tuk tuk for general messing about.We live in a small house on a "falang Estate",have good neighbors both falang and Thai,and a great wife of 5 yrs.Kids are grown up and have flown the nest long ago[27 and25] and fone Mum and me on a fairly reg basis.I can have a beer in our local bar with falang friends and Thai wives,and really I am so happy to be able to leave all my money problems behind and just settle down to a peaceful and happy life----Thats what I came here for and thats what I got. A lot of falang come here for sex only.OK it is easy but they also want to continue joining the "rat race" here same as in their homeland.Keeping up with the Johneses means you still have to have a big shiney 4wd [mainly to put all the vllagers in the back of !!!!] The wife has all the right labels on her vast wardrobe ,and the 2 storey house is full to the brim with gadgets that work great for a few months,and drive the once proud owner to a heart attack trying to get Thais to replace or repair with parts from O/S. OK some of this is said with toungue in cheek but the picture of Falang chasing "happiness" in Thailand i am sure is a familiar one with many of you. The broken and dejected man who's ambition was to own a bar and became that bar's only customer,and ended Thousands of Bt in debt. The Falang who picked a gorgeous YOUNG girl to marry with disastrous consequenses------ I could go on. I think mainly I am trying to say this.By all means have an initially good time,but try to keep an eye on reality.It is possible to live a happy life here.That life is normally very favourably compared to what it would have been "back home" in all aspects of your new life. Settle down quietly ,make Thais your friends. Maybe find a wonderful loving and caring older lady------ My wife is pushing 50 and she is still worth a dozen of my initial 20 odd year old gold-diggers---- both day and night,and being 76 myself and still active all this is a bonus. Be Nice to Immigration and they will respond likewise.Treat the trip as a day out to see familiar friends ---- its not a trip to the dentist----With a change of attitude and a change of lifestyle I am sure you can enjoy peace abd happiness in this land of smiles.I wish that to all of you that are having difficulties,good luck---------Dougal the [happy] Kiwi

Agree with the majority of what you say Dougal. Just wish you could paragraph a bit more and make it easier to read instead of a complicated chore !

It doesn't work well anywhere else so I can't see it working at all well here where the people manning the tracking equipment will most likely be bribed or drunk ! Just what we need; thousands of scumbags still free walking the streets instead of banged up with their own kind.

Had to get the manual version because wifey terrified to drive automatic. Come to think of it she's terrified of driving at all but there you go ! Was wondering about getting an English book; must go back and order one.

Have to say it's a wonderful smooth little motor car with pleasing looks and on a run its doing a little more than 60mpg which is terrific. Petrol might be cheap in Thailand now compared to Europe but it's only ever going to rise over time so economy is the best policy.

older vehicles would get really messed up with the gasohol.

It'll eat away at your rubber hoses and seals in the fuel system, leading to major repairs. Right now I think that the best would be Vpower95 (gasohol) since I've heard that the % ethanol is lower than 10%.

You'll definitely need retuning the engine since gasohol isn't as efficient as pure petrol. Newer EFI with computer control stuff, could adapt to a certain level, but older carbs will have problems.

My wife's old Daihatsu Charade ran on Gasohol since it was invented. She had the car from new for 19 years and I don't know how many of those years it ran on Gasohol but it never caused a single problem in the almost five years I used it until replacing it last year with a new car. It performed just as well after 96,000 klicks as it would have done for all the years before. Apart from normal servicing it only ever had brake pads and engine timing belts replaced as you would with any car. Most Japanese engines have been built down the years to take the lowest grades of fuel.

Some sort of problem in Hang Dong area today. Seems like forever to get any website up and everything is painfully slow. Could be last nights storm has caused problems as we lost all power for about 70 minutes.

Beware ! Most Thai's think it's incredibly funny to empty your wallet.

'Thailand ranked 13th in terms of the outflow size'. Well; I'm sure Yingluck and her buddy's will be trying harder to achieve the Number 1 spot in the future to become the 'hub' of illegal outflow in Asia !

If you like large rugs there are people who sell them as you are leaving the car park of Tesco on 108. I've looked at them a couple of times and they seem to be quite good quality ones from India. I think these people move around a bit as they are not always there.

Rain is forecast for Chiang Mai Monday through Thursday this week, but we will see.

If you want to buy check out BigC on 108 between Hang Dong and Sanpatong. They've been having a clearout and I noticed prices have been substantially reduced since the New Year. You may be lucky if they haven't sold out.

What we need is some King Edwards; then we might get a really decent roast potato.

Good stuff. Makes me want to go out and find rare creatures like Farang that will smile at me as they also seem to be near extinct. Other animals can certainly be a lot more interesting these days.

I don't care for Tesco or Rimping in Doi saket all I need is Mc Donal and Pizza company in the area and it's all good.

You forgot the red light district !

Blimey; for that sort of money just 10 klicks out of town you can get a near Palace in the hills. Why bother with a crumby condo in the smog bound City? Get out of town and the pollution is not even half as bad.

We eat there from time to time and like the food. Plenty of choice, easy prices and sit downstairs. Never had a bill for more than 450 for two and always full up when we leave. I know three other restaurants in Chiang Mai that charge a small sum for Aircon; but you won't see it on the bill, they just add it to the food prices. Amazing that people don't notice it isn't it?

Stanley Market, Hong Kong Island, June 2012. I'm sure they still have plenty of stock !