Query: Why Is Cm Not Like What It Used To Be?

[Maejo Man]

what a rediculous post.

Saying that the new wave of expats don't want to be in Thailand? Yeah your really correct there, I've spent around £1500 on flights and TEFL course, just so I can get there and wish I wasn't there.

Or maybe your just pissed that the twenty-something thai ladies are paying more attention to the twenty-something expats than the 'senior' ones....

......and I'm sure you'll pass with flying colours

[BigMac]

what a rediculous post.

Saying that the new wave of expats don't want to be in Thailand? Yeah your really correct there, I've spent around £1500 on flights and TEFL course, just so I can get there and wish I wasn't there.

Or maybe your just pissed that the twenty-something thai ladies are paying more attention to the twenty-something expats than the 'senior' ones....

Wow, you sure are a high roller.

Not at all pissed that the twenty (years old?) something Thai ladies pay more attention to the twenty (years old?) something expats than us senior ones. Been there and done it all to many times. The often highly intelligent conversations in the Karen Hut and Linda's were somewhat above my level of comprehension particularly when the young lady was in a highly inebriated state.

Actually I think the twenty (years old?) something Thai ladies would be more impressed with a 250,000-350,000 baht monthly salary than one of 15,000-30,000 baht....................

Fond memories Blinky. All too true.

[Ta22]

i am only 30 and is consider young i assume .

i been staying around asia . and thailand alone would take up about 8-9 years of my life now chiangmai about 7 years

i first came to love chiangmai about 12 years ago when i did a backpack trip up here. and ever since i been visting this wonderful town .. and finally 7 years ago i choose to just stay here .

.

thing have change . and grow .. in my early days i hang out at bars along the loi kroa road . but slowly i got tired of it cos .

i am tired of people telling how good there are and how

i used to stay at guest house for month . and pay the guest house to renew my visa every month . but that is history .

i don't really work here.

i don't know if i am a expat .

but as far as i see.

many of us choose those wonderful town .. cos we did not do well in our country .

notthing to be ashame of . back in my country .

i am just a normal guy - waking up everyday and all i can consider is to make end meet .

and work and work ..

but chiangmai is different .. people here can afford to relax and smile .

ilove this place .

but i had alway treated myself as a GUEST . but one day i would wanna build my HOME here .

[Ulysses G.]

what a rediculous post.

Saying that the new wave of expats don't want to be in Thailand? Yeah your really correct there, I've spent around £1500 on flights and TEFL course, just so I can get there and wish I wasn't there.

Or maybe your just pissed that the twenty-something thai ladies are paying more attention to the twenty-something expats than the 'senior' ones....

......and I'm sure you'll pass with flying colours

Busted!

[Loaded]

Just wondering why in the 80-90's the ex-pat community in Chiang Mai consisted of mostly good folks who were doing good things on real wages.

Most of the ones I know who were here then are drunks married to 'ex' bargirls. The Thai community regard these people as crap. teachers are regarded with respect.

[Ulysses G.]

Like John Mark Karr?

Edited January 24, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[PhilHarries]

It's tough that staying alive means getting old.

It's tough that most of what we do in our life may add up to nothing at all.

And it's either tough or merciful that whatever we do or say or think, life just rolls right on regardless.

Applicable sentiments to this thread?

[Loaded]

Like John Mark Karr?

No. I don't think anyone except an idiot would think he represents farang teachers in Thailand.

I can go to any number of bars at pretty much any time of the day to find sad old farts with a beer and a monster who have been here 'enjoying' themselves since the 80s.

[PeaceBlondie]

Peaceboy here. That Monty Python sketch was priceless. How much would I pay, to rent a paper bag condo overlooking the Ping River?

If I had to vote on this thread, I'd vote for Loaded's post, or one of Ajarn's. But to be more accurate, the drunks come in all ages, all nationalities, all degrees of "been here xx years." And some of us newer (older) teachers entered into long term relationships with hotel managers, uni graduates, etc. My hat is off to all the teachers who stay at the job more than three months; it's really challenging. Wait; I don't wear hats, just helmets. You get the idea.

Surely, Chiang Mai was very different 20 or 30 years ago - no expats here except MNC senior executives making 350,000 baht per month. All of them more sober than a judge in Utah, too.

I don't spend much time in the pubs, and if I needed to get somebody out of a go-go bar, I could just pay the barfine at the front door. So, where do I go to meet quality ex-pats, between the ages of 30 and 90? The CM Expats Club?

I'm trying not to criticize or slag off Thailand or expats. As I used to think, when I drove my sportbike past a Harley rider, "Hey buddy, we're all in this thing together."

[adjan jb]

Just wondering why in the 80-90's the ex-pat community in Chiang Mai consisted of mostly good folks who were doing good things on real wages.

These days there are still plenty doing the right thing but there are so many youngsters who just hang around here to work in the pseudo-english teaching fraterntiy for very basic wages and all they want to do is take pi_ss out of those who create a good profitable business that benefits both the Thai people and foreign community.

I can't imagine the new ex-pat (loose terminology) will ever earn the respect that the real Chiang Mai ex-pat has earned.

We have different memories. I do remember that in the 80-90's, the ex-pat community consisted of a lot of drunks (some of them became local legends : Andy Mao for one), drug dealers and junkies, retired bank robbers, sex-pats, and other stinky neo-hippies.

These days, I don't know any youngster teaching for basic wages (That's their problem not yours) whose only aim is to take p#ss at Farang (or Thai) businessmen. Could you elaborate ?

I don't know either what you mean by "REAL ex-pat community" and " the respect it has earned".

- Some of my friends have been hanging around since the Vietnam war. Do they belong to the real community ? Am I a rookie ? (I came to LOS only 17 or 18 years ago)

- Respect ??? What respect ? Could you, again, elaborate ? (If any respect has ever been earned, it has already been spent, IMO)

Anyway, old and new ex-pats have one thing in common, they whine all the time. That's what your post is about.

As far as I am concerned I stay away from ex-pats, both old and new. After all, I didn't come to Thailand to live among white people and eat Farang food.

[Loaded]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be, in other words troll.

However it has elicited many comments that accurately describe the 'old' ex-pat community.

[richard10365]

It is kinda a funny post though. If you think about it.

It reminds me of some old wrinkly guy on some front porch somewhere rocking back and forth. His teeth sitting next to him in a acid solution dissolving the crud thats been built up by years of neglect. His wire rim glasses hanging loosely on his nose while he squints intensely trying to focus his vision on the activities in front of him.

Mumbling to his equally old "real Chiang Mai ex-pat" friend, "look at all them young whimper snappers ........their messing everything up". "Things sure aren't like they were when we were young" "Remember WWII or when a 5 cents got you a whole meal" "Did you get your social security check yet?"

I guess it's a true sign of your age when your start complaining about things the next generation (or the next few generations) is doing.

Thats ok. It's a normal part of life. Like young kids discovering their sexuality, old people discover they don't have much else to do so they complain about the young people.

Gosh dern whimmper snappers,......no respect!

[Ulysses G.]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be.

Blinky Bill is known for having a laugh at those who take the bait too seriously.

Edited January 24, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[adjan jb]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be.

Blinky Bill is known for having a laugh at those who take the bait too seriously.

Do you mean that Blinky Bill, the OP, is a troll ?

Edited January 24, 2007 by adjan jb

[Ulysses G.]

I would say that he is blessed with a good sense of humor.

[Maejo Man]

Well that surely stirred up a hornet's nest, as was the original intent We've had aspiring TEFL teachers that can't even spell English, let alone teach it. A smattering of old timers that have agreed to an extent, but justified it by saying that they have gained a lot from all their experiences here, and wouldn't be anywhere else. Then the others that have recognised that getting old is just a part of life, and it's to be expected that things never remain the same.

Personally I would love to see the atmosphere that prevailed in Chiangmai 20 years ago still in evidence, but alas, times change, as do people's views, and we just have to accept it..........................RIP

[p1p]

As far as I am concerned I stay away from ex-pats, both old and new. After all, I didn't come to Thailand to live among white people and eat Farang food.

I'm always somewhat bemused by this attitude and find it strange when a Farang I happen to meet or say a polite "Good Morning" to sticks their nose in the air, makes a kind of "Harrumph" sound and walks away.

Why do these people find it so hard to be simply polite and pass the time of day?

As to long term ex-pats. I have close friends I have known here since the early seventies and others who have been here a "mere" five or six years. They have little in common with each other apart from being, in my estimation, good people. However, all of us tend to live our own lives and keep pretty much to ourselves and our own circle of friends, having little or no contact with others.

I'm sure teachers, like any section of society, number the good and bad amongst them. I just find it sad to read so many examples of dismal English on the forum and elsewhere, penned by those who are supposed to be teaching the language I love as a foreign language. How can you teach the language of Shakespeare, Dickens and C. L. Dodgson, amongst others, if you can neither string a sentence together, nor spell your way out of a paper bag?

[PeaceBlondie]

Teachers here are not being paid by ThaiVisa to post. Sometimes they post when they're drunk, or sleepy, or hurried. We just slag them off when they make an error while correcting somebody else's mistake. Few of them have spellcheck while they're typing, and are too lazy to double-check. Some of them don't teach English. Also, you can get lax on your correction skills when the high school seniors write papers, "I go to shopping yesterday."

Really, blinky bill, congratulations for stirring up all the rivalries: the teachers versus the non-teachers; the long-term expats versus those who've only been here for 3.52 years; the residents versus the tourists; those on rich expat salaries versus the pensioners; the drinkers versus the teetotallers; the misisonaries versus the whoremongers; etc. And what about the Brits versus the Yanks versus the French versus the Ozzies? Don't you just hate those penny-pinching, sober, Slovakian, Lutheran, 49 year old backpacking teachers of kinesiology, who speak poor Lithuanian?

[Ajarn]

As far as I am concerned I stay away from ex-pats, both old and new. After all, I didn't come to Thailand to live among white people and eat Farang food.

I'm always somewhat bemused by this attitude and find it strange when a Farang I happen to meet or say a polite "Good Morning" to sticks their nose in the air, makes a kind of "Harrumph" sound and walks away.

Why do these people find it so hard to be simply polite and pass the time of day?

As to long term ex-pats. I have close friends I have known here since the early seventies and others who have been here a "mere" five or six years. They have little in common with each other apart from being, in my estimation, good people. However, all of us tend to live our own lives and keep pretty much to ourselves and our own circle of friends, having little or no contact with others.

I'm sure teachers, like any section of society, number the good and bad amongst them. I just find it sad to read so many examples of dismal English on the forum and elsewhere, penned by those who are supposed to be teaching the language I love as a foreign language. How can you teach the language of Shakespeare, Dickens and C. L. Dodgson, amongst others, if you can neither string a sentence together, nor spell your way out of a paper bag?

Fact is, anyone can string a sentence together, and I believe anyone can spell their way out of a paper bag.

So, what is your real issue with non-perfection? Nobody, including yourself, is perfect so why the bitch?

[tigerbeer]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be.

Blinky Bill is known for having a laugh at those who take the bait too seriously.

i don't know about others but i find it very difficult to differentiate when a post is about humour / just "taking a piss" and when its serious.

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

It is kinda a funny post though. If you think about it.

It reminds me of some old wrinkly guy on some front porch somewhere rocking back and forth. His teeth sitting next to him in a acid solution dissolving the crud thats been built up by years of neglect. His wire rim glasses hanging loosely on his nose while he squints intensely trying to focus his vision on the activities in front of him.

Mumbling to his equally old "real Chiang Mai ex-pat" friend, "look at all them young whimper snappers ........their messing everything up". "Things sure aren't like they were when we were young" "Remember WWII or when a 5 cents got you a whole meal" "Did you get your social security check yet?"

I guess it's a true sign of your age when your start complaining about things the next generation (or the next few generations) is doing.

Thats ok. It's a normal part of life. Like young kids discovering their sexuality, old people discover they don't have much else to do so they complain about the young people.

Gosh dern whimmper snappers,......no respect!

Reply of the week!

God bless you all

[Johpa]

in the 80-90's the ex-pat community in Chiang Mai consisted of mostly good folks who were doing good things on real wages.

and a bunch of it in the Karen Hut Bar. What happened to that great place, did it move?

And if your a real dinosaur you will know the original location of the Karen Hut and that it moved into an ice cream parlor on the soi behind Chaiyaphum Rd. I remember that about once a month a group of young Thais would walk in and it would take them a few minutes to realize that the place was rather dark for an ice cream parlor and that there was no ice cream served in dishes to be had at the establishment, and that the only people there were Thai women and Farang men. I think the Karen Hut just sank into obscurity, (What ever happened to the deaf girl?) along with most of the other bars of that era as the "scene" moved south of Thapae down to Loi Khroh.

And the only ex-pats earning real wages in the 1980s were the tobacco folks who constituted the core of the Hash, unless you thought teaching for John at AUA or at one of the local colleges for a pittance was real wages, a viewpoint I would disagree with. But most of us were fairly comfortable living on those wages as the cost of living was pretty affordable back then.

Regardless, Chiang Mai has changed, the ex-pats have changed, jeez, even I have changed. So what is the issue?

[Wizzard of Oz]

IME it's us young'un's that are happy/grateful to be in such a beautiful place, and the older one's that are largely either bitter and ageist {see example below} or just unhappy. I can't ever recall meeting someone under the age of 35 who wasn't happy and respectful to be living here.

You can't have met too many people then. Or seen the drunken idiots performing.

Go on, gve us an example of how you witnessed someone trying to take the piss out of some of those who've created a good profitable business.

Below is a PM I received from one of the younger expats after I replied to his posting on a thread which he started that was promptly removed by the mods. The post was totally derogatory towards the owner of this succesful business. No names mentioned.

The bit about being widely hated in the expat community is far from the truth.

Hi,

I'm using a friend's account because I have been banned by TV. Thanks for your message insulting me.

It's all OK...I just wanted to ge it off my chest that (name removed) is a total hypocrite, ###### and scrumbag who can't have a relationship with a woman unless she is a prostitute, and a cheap one at that.

This creepy guy is widely hated in the expat community here. If you don't hate him, then you just haven't gotten to know the guy.

Have a nice day.

This is biggest load of bullocks post I've ever seen. At least now I know to ignore any post by you. Your norrow minded thoughts that every young person is like the handfull you've seen in public are absurd. Get your 18 year old hot thai chick who is with you only for your money to go to the shop to buy you a clue. After all, isn't every old phalang here only cuz it's the only place someone who is not rich or special in any way in a western country can get a hot chick - come to thailand where their averageness is seen as rich. Aren't stereotypes fun?

Not at all pissed that the twenty (years old?) something Thai ladies pay more attention to the twenty (years old?) something expats than us senior ones. Been there and done it all to many times. The often highly intelligent conversations in the Karen Hut and Linda's were somewhat above my level of comprehension particularly when the young lady was in a highly inebriated state.

Actually I think the twenty (years old?) something Thai ladies would be more impressed with a 250,000-350,000 baht monthly salary than one of 15,000-30,000 baht....................

Lol ... funny that you confirm that you are part of the dirty old man stereotype while simultaneously insulting thai women. Good job.

You never said in your original post what was so special about the ex-pats who came here earlier btw, though I expect that you are now just one of those phalang who complains about everything here. I can't believe how much of a tool you are.

[Blinky Bill]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be.

Blinky Bill is known for having a laugh at those who take the bait too seriously.

i don't know about others but i find it very difficult to differentiate when a post is about humour / just "taking a piss" and when its serious.

I'm going fishing......There are some big mackeral here in PNG and boy do they make the reel scream when they take the lure. Sounds like a few of the wonderful folk on TV.

Bercanda saja teman.

[mongoose]

in the 80-90's the ex-pat community in Chiang Mai consisted of mostly good folks who were doing good things on real wages.

and a bunch of it in the Karen Hut Bar. What happened to that great place, did it move?

And if your a real dinosaur you will know the original location of the Karen Hut and that it moved into an ice cream parlor on the soi behind Chaiyaphum Rd.

Chiang Mai has changed, the ex-pats have changed, jeez, even I have changed. So what is the issue?

Yeah, I remember it on the soi off Chaiyaphum somewhere near the now Rydges Hotel. Don't recall it looking like an ice cream parlor but I do not recall any ice cream parlors of that time.

No issue, just some nice memories.

[chuchok]

Blinky Bill is trying to wind up people to show his clique on this board how clever he can be.

Blinky Bill is known for having a laugh at those who take the bait too seriously.

i don't know about others but i find it very difficult to differentiate when a post is about humour / just "taking a piss" and when its serious.

I'm going fishing......There are some big mackeral here in PNG and boy do they make the reel scream when they take the lure. Sounds like a few of the wonderful folk on TV.

Bercanda saja teman.

You couldn't catch a cold....

Edited January 24, 2007 by chuchok

[adjan jb]

As far as I am concerned I stay away from ex-pats, both old and new. After all, I didn't come to Thailand to live among white people and eat Farang food.

I'm sure teachers, like any section of society, number the good and bad amongst them. I just find it sad to read so many examples of dismal English on the forum and elsewhere, penned by those who are supposed to be teaching the language I love as a foreign language. How can you teach the language of Shakespeare, Dickens and C. L. Dodgson, amongst others, if you can neither string a sentence together, nor spell your way out of a paper bag?

I don't know if the above comment is meant for me... If so, be aware that I'm neither a native English speaker nor an English teacher. English is only my 2nd or 3rd language.

[meadish_sweetball]

Ok, that'll do.

Closed.