I live in Thailand and I like it here.

[villagefarang]

Like the title says, I live in Thailand and I like living here.  While we do encounter other Farang/Thai couples socially, all our best friends are Thai. I have no shocking tales of woe or hysterical rants to entertain you with but I can regale you with a brief story and photos of my four day trip to Nan, which I just returned from.

 

Nan isn’t all that far away from where we live in Chiang Rai, at 215 kilometers, but the drive can take a while depending on which way we go.  We left early Saturday morning after packing the SUV with gifts and everything we could think of not knowing exactly what was on the agenda, taking the quicker route down the 1091.  The first 155 km are pretty ordinary but it gets nicer from there.  On the way back we took the more dramatic 1148 through the mountains, which is a favorite of mine.  The distance is almost exactly the same but it takes a lot longer.

 

The reason for our trip was ostensibly to run 10 km in the Nan charity run on Sunday but everyone in the group joked that was only 5% of the reason. Sightseeing, food, clubbing, karaoke, massage, camping under the stars, mountains, temples, shopping, photography, and lots of laughing and talking, seemed to be the main focus but the charity run was what brought it all together.  Our host welcomed us into her incredible home and took care of everything.  I was really impressed with how organized and efficient her household was and how massive and well constructed the house was.

 

My wife met all these people last year while studying NLP in Bangkok and being certified as a Life Coach.  They are a very impressive, positive, high-energy group of successful and active people.  I enjoyed being treated like one of their gang without any of the normal “farang talk” and repetitive questions one gets in some circles.  The only special treatment I received was to ride shotgun in the front seat, due to my seniority, I suppose.  The main group was my wife’s age, though two of the girls brought their mothers who were not very mobile and were unable to join in the more athletic actives.  For the sake of everyone's privacy I am not posting any of the personal images which ended up on FaceBook, and there were a lot of them.

 

 

 

 

 

The night market in Nan.

 

 

 

 

We drove up to this mountain top after midnight so below were my first glimpses of where we were the next morning.

 

 

 

 

 

View on the 1148, on the way home.

 

 

This is the balcony connected to the bedroom we stayed in.

 

 

 

 

[tideout]

Great pics and a nice story.  A very pleasant change from the usual drama..... 

[from the home of CC]

nice pics

[villagefarang]

Just now, tideout said:

Great pics and a nice story.  A very pleasant change from the usual drama..... 

That is why I decided to post this.  I took a rather long break from TVF but thought I might test the waters again with something a little more positive.

[KNJ]

great SHOTS..... AS ALWAYS.

 

Nice to see you back. Any motorbike adventures during your absence ?

[pgrahmm]

This is a special place......

 

Thanks for the upbeat post....

 

The self poisoning/at risk crowd should be along shortly - though, hopefully not.....

[villagefarang]

11 minutes ago, KNJ said:

great SHOTS..... AS ALWAYS.

 

Nice to see you back. Any motorbike adventures during your absence ?

I sold the Ninja 650 a few years ago and bought a nice bike for roughly the same price.  Much better exercise.????

 

When I am not out peddling or hiking you might catch me training my racing buffalo.

 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

This is a special place......

 

Thanks for the upbeat post....

 

The self poisoning/at risk crowd should be along shortly - though, hopefully not.....

Well it is nice to see the OP back after his break....????

[faraday]

Thank you, great pictures & sounds like a whole lot of fun.

 

Yup, I love living here too. There are many Thai people who can be truly lovely, & their sense of humour is often so devilish & appealing.

 

And there's never any ice on the windscreen in the morning!

 

????

[villagefarang]

9 minutes ago, faraday said:

Thank you, great pictures & sounds like a whole lot of fun.

 

Yup, I love living here too. There are many Thai people who can be truly lovely, & their sense of humour is often so devilish & appealing.

 

And there's never any ice on the windscreen in the morning!

 

????

No ice, but I did manage to find the one spot in their large parking area where a tree dripped some really nasty sap on my car.????

[mauGR1]

Some beautiful pictures, nice post !

[CGW]

Nice pictures, great post, if only this was the reality the majority of us have to deal with daily ???? 

[villagefarang]

1 minute ago, CGW said:

Nice pictures, great post, if only this was the reality the majority of us have to deal with daily ???? 

I didn't build this reality overnight.  I have lived here for a very long time.

[villagefarang]

22 minutes ago, transam said:

Well it is nice to see the OP back after his break....????

Not that kind of "break".????

[CGW]

7 minutes ago, villagefarang said:

I didn't build this reality overnight.  I have lived here for a very long time.

If you don't mind me asking what do you consider a long time?

[villagefarang]

27 minutes ago, CGW said:

If you don't mind me asking what do you consider a long time?

I am guessing you can't read my signature at the bottom of my posts "More than Forty Years in Thailand and I now live in a house, in a field, in a valley with a view ..."

 

I lived in Bangkok for 30 years before moving to Chiang Rai more than 11 years ago.

[marcusarelus]

Long time seems to me like the blink of an eye.  20 years have passes and it seems like less than a minute.  No regrets.  Maybe I should have done more or seen more or learned more or loved more.  Now is all about today.  

[villagefarang]

18 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Long time seems to me like the blink of an eye.  20 years have passes and it seems like less than a minute.  No regrets.  Maybe I should have done more or seen more or learned more or loved more.  Now is all about today.  

Yes, but today can also be about doing, seeing, learning and loving more.????

 

I am 64 so it helps that my wife is much younger.  She keeps me current and active.???? 

[theguyfromanotherforum]

If the story is not about Farang getting miserabled, I simply won't read it.

[villagefarang]

7 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

If the story is not about Farang getting miserabled, I simply won't read it.

I included the pictures for those who don't like to read.????

[nikmar]

Ive been wanting to go to Nan for a while now after hearing so much about it. These pics made it a priority. Thanks for posting.

[camble]

Thanks for you post, never been to Nan but will put it on my list.  I enjoy living here too.

[from the home of CC]

1 hour ago, villagefarang said:

That is why I decided to post this.  I took a rather long break from TVF but thought I might test the waters again with something a little more positive.

I took a long break also, the anti thai sentiments got under my skin some. Then I realized that there's a lot of unhappy people out there that have no where to express it, especially being away from their native homes. I seem to tolerate the bs better if I view it from this standpoint. Post like yours remind me of the reasons I came here. 

[CGW]

2 hours ago, villagefarang said:

I am guessing you can't read my signature at the bottom of my posts "More than Forty Years in Thailand and I now live in a house, in a field, in a valley with a view ..."

Appears with the uncalled for sarcasm you will fit right back into TVF ???? 

[Lacessit]

Good stuff. While I found Nan itself fairly mundane, the mounbtain scenery is certainly worth seeing.

[villagefarang]

44 minutes ago, CGW said:

Appears with the uncalled for sarcasm you will fit right back into TVF ???? 

There was no sarcasm intended.  I just assumed you have the signature and perhaps the avatar functions turned off leaving you unable to read what is normally at the bottom of my posts.

 

Perhaps you would prefer a different answer.  I consider 40 plus years a long time.

[villagefarang]

51 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Good stuff. While I found Nan itself fairly mundane, the mounbtain scenery is certainly worth seeing.

I found Nan more interesting this time because of the people we were with and where we stayed.  I saw one farang guy sitting by himself on the mats where people eat the food they buy at the walking street market.  He looked pretty lonely sitting there all alone.

 

I don’t drink so the club we were at before heading up the mountain got to be a bit much for me and I excused myself and went outside for a while.  The musicians were not bad but the volume was a bit excessive in my opinion.  The others were singing, dancing, drinking and generally having a very good time.

 

The good times and the conversation were enough to make up for a little discomfort and lack of sleep.

[bannork]

There are a lot of lovely people in Thailand, both in the cities and in the country, as anyone who is civil, respectful of others and tries to learn the language soon discovers.

And there are many beautiful places, some well off the beaten track.

 

 

[madmen]

That's interesting. I to did the NLP course and it was instrumental in my success in my marketing company

But how will your Mrs use it? Big money in training in the west but never really thought that Thais would pay top dollar for it

[StreetCowboy]

I hope to see you out and about with your bike - we’ve been Short of great photos in the Cycling forum