2 hours ago, Hummin said:

Do you have any connections up in Chiang Rai from before? Wife family or friends? I always wondered how it is to settle in a village, with no connections around, buy a piece of land, and how that is in Thailand. 

 

1 hour ago, HuskerDo said:

Good question. I'm curious too.

I lived in Bangkok for 30 years before relocating to Chiang Rai and we live in my wife’s village so things were relatively speaking, easier for me.  We had also been married for 10 years before we did this.  I believe our well established relationship and my long tenure in Thailand made a big difference.

 

There are a few western couples up here but not many.  Usually people are married to a Thai and most of them are from this area.  We do know several couples where the wife is not Northern Thai, however.  Outsiders go through real estate agents I believe but we used word of mouth.

 

Any other questions?

18 hours ago, HuskerDo said:

He's got quite a grand life Pharo. I hope one day you'll have one equally as grand. Your msg was hateful. You seem to be the polar opposite of VF. I wish you well.

Sure but to expand on President Abraham Lincoln's comments 1858:

 

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time except on social media."

I lived in Bangkok for thirty years and before that in the suburbs of a university town and then in Hawaii on the windward coast.  I used to debate with a cousin of mine about whether it was better to live in the city and visit the countryside or live in the countryside and visit the city.  Looking back, I see that my being single had a lot to do with my city preference.  After being married for nearly ten years, traveling a lot as a married couple and me getting older and feeling the need for a homestead of my own, my preference switched to country living and visiting the city.

 

After thirty years in the city I wanted some toys and hobbies other than my squash racquets and club memberships.  I wanted land, views, pets, cars, motorcycle, bicycles, hiking, waterfalls, reservoirs, rivers, mountains and beautiful sunsets shared with my wife and our pets.

 

I suppose I brought with me my city sensibilities and was looking for nature, beauty and comfort, not how to make a living from the land.  I am eleven years into my country living and I am still enjoying it.  I find a drive into town every few days, an occasional flight to Bangkok or an impromptu road trip only helps to reinforce my attachment to country living.  It is always so very nice to return home.

 

I take a lot of pictures of where I live and thought it might be ok to share some of them as a way of illustrating why I like my country life and maybe remind others of why they are here or that there is life beyond the tourist districts.

 

View from the house.

 

Nearest waterfall 20 km away.

 

Sunset on the Mekong River.

 

Cherry Blossoms in the winter.

 

Local Balloon Festival coming up next month.

 

Mountain Roads.

 

Nearby Mountain Peaks.

 

 

 

Tea Plantations.

 

Pets.

 

Local Reservoir.

Where's the pollution? Photoshop!!

Joking.... any land near you for sale ? [emoji14]

1 hour ago, JayBird said:

Where's the pollution? Photoshop!!

Joking.... any land near you for sale ?

Not much point in taking pictures on the bad days when you can't see much.  

 

There is always land for sale, everywhere, but I don't follow the trends.

 

I couldn't help but notice you were only posting very old pictures of beautiful green and clear air even though it is now the midst of the dry / polluted season. Glad to see above picture since it tells the rest of the story. Most do not understand the climate in northern Thailand changes. There is a pronounced dry season where there is little or no rain half the year. During this time it looks like a desert compared to the wet season. It's also when the people love burning everything and the air quality becomes unhealthy.

 

All great pictures, thanks.

 

22 hours ago, villagefarang said:

We live East of Chiang Rai town in the direction of Chiang Khong and Thoeng.  There is a mountain range which runs roughly South to North and the ridge-line is about 20 km from our house.  From the top of that mountain you can look across anther valley and see Phu Chi Fa on a clear day.  It is that parallel mountain range bordering Laos where we like to go hiking.

 

This photo is taken looking West and down on the valley where I live.  Chiang Rai would be behind those clouds.  We live in a village close to the dark green below those clouds but before the rubber plantation.

 

This photo is taken from the same place looking East toward the range bordering Laos.

 

MORE incredible photos VF. Thank you!

1 hour ago, canopy said:

I couldn't help but notice you were only posting very old pictures of beautiful green and clear air even though it is now the midst of the dry / polluted season. Glad to see above picture since it tells the rest of the story. Most do not understand the climate in northern Thailand changes. There is a pronounced dry season where there is little or no rain half the year. During this time it looks like a desert compared to the wet season. It's also when the people love burning everything and the air quality becomes unhealthy.

 

All great pictures, thanks.

 

Over the years I have built up a huge trove of photos and when posting one tends to sort through the various options to find what looks best or is most representative.  I can't really go out and get a new more recent shot of everything I have photographed over the years, so I have been posting a mix of old and new here.

 

Thailand is like anywhere else in the world and has seasons but being located in the tropics the seasons are slightly different from more temperate areas.  Right now things are still pretty nice as I showed in my recent hiking photos.  The brown photo is not recent as it was taken during one of the worst years.

The Singha Park Balloon Festival is coming up again in a couple of weeks and the weather is usually still pretty good at that time.  Here is another shot from last year.

 

On 1/27/2019 at 11:23 PM, villagefarang said:

Lunch. 

 

I enjoy the landscapes but posting your meals is very teen age girl Facebooky. I'm sure you're better than that.

On 1/28/2019 at 2:41 AM, kannot said:

good  for  them,  ill  stay  in  reality  and  dump  the  fairy  tales

It's not so far from cause and effect. Surely you've got some appreciation of that concept.

10 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

I enjoy the landscapes but posting your meals is very teen age girl Facebooky. I'm sure you're better than that.

You are of course entitled to your opinion, as is the guy who chooses not to believe in karma.  

 

I find pictures can help fill in the blanks more than mere words.  I like a combination of the two.

On 1/29/2019 at 9:46 PM, villagefarang said:

I guess nobody likes food but me but dinner last night was amazing.????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a lot of plate.

1 minute ago, lannarebirth said:

 

That's a lot of plate.

But after seven courses we were all full.????

Back to the subject of my photo selection.  I have many photos of my house, inside, outside, different angles, different seasons and different light.   Still, there is one photo which is my favorite because so many elements came together on that one particular day.  It is an angle few people get to see but it is my favorite so I use it more than others.

 

A photo today would show scaffolding and workers on the roof as we are undergoing some maintenance after 11 years but that is not the kind of photo I like to post.

 

On 1/30/2019 at 9:06 PM, Pharoticus said:

You must be so bored and so lonely.

 

Re-integrate. Make friends. Socialize. Do something worthwhile with your life. 

 

Posting photos of your meals serves only to reveal how lonely you are.

 

Go out and meet some people. You really do need to get a life.

No!

You are the Saddo in this topic.

VF - carry on as before.

Jeez there are some numpties on this forum.

5 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

No!

You are the Saddo in this topic.

VF - carry on as before.

Jeez there are some numpties on this forum.

Thank you.  I try not to engage the trolls directly.????

This talk of food reminded me of a special themed dinner I once attended.

It was an exclusive restaurant in the International room of a casino. The theme was matching the wine with each course of the meal. Only two tables were occupied, ours, and that of a well known media Billionaire and his family. 

All the courses, I forget exactly how many, but probably close to 8 or 10, were presented by Synchronized Cloche Service and a new wine was poured for each.  The food was incredible but the portions miniscule. 

Wonderful experience, but we stopped for a burger on the way home!  

1 hour ago, villagefarang said:

1 hour ago, lannarebirth said:

That's a lot of plate.

But after seven courses we were all full.????

seven courses with quantities as shown would count in my book merely as hors d'oeuvres. but we all know that mileages differ.

On a personal note, roughly seven months ago I stepped away from gluttony, lost ten kilos and took up intermittent fasting with the occasional three day fast.  I also returned to weightlifting and feel amazing for a 64 year old guy.  Though everyone in our party acknowledged being full at the end of the meal, I was perhaps more so due to the fact I seldom eat in the evening, anymore.

 

It has been many years since I last ate a burger.????

1 hour ago, Old Croc said:

The food was incredible but the portions miniscule. 

Wonderful experience, but we stopped for a burger on the way home!

except for "wonderful experience" that sounds quite familiar.

 

after we were hungry (see my nouvelle non-cuisine episode) we stopped at a rural German Gasthaus and hogged. my only problem was to convince the Saudis that the served red deer wasn't pork and the delicious bone marrow soup was made from beef. "red dear" i translated after thinking long as "ghazal" (gazelle / antilope) which finally convinced them. the only little hurdle we had was to tell the cook to scrape off huge amounts of berries. i'm sure he was muttering in his kitchen that Allah should condemn all of us goat herders to live eternally with the shaytan in the deepest jehenna.    

Quote

Pharoticus said:

You must be so bored and so lonely.

Re-integrate. Make friends. Socialize. Do something worthwhile with your life. 

Posting photos of your meals serves only to reveal how lonely you are.

Go out and meet some people. You really do need to get a life.

= rubbish of the day!

2 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

No!

You are the Saddo in this topic.

VF - carry on as before.

Jeez there are some numpties on this forum.

1

Come now TG, cut him some slack. 

 

He must have been on a course to learn how to be such a numpty - no one could be like that naturally. Why not let him demonstrate why he got an A+ in the final assessment!

 

????????

With next week being a scheduled week off for me, and already doing most of my work from home in Bangkok anyway rather than slice my way through the smog to get to the office, I finally had enough.  Telling the office I might be gone for some time, I got the heck out of Dodge and headed up country yesterday.  In the evening, my wife and I drove to town to get some groceries at Tops and eat in one of my favourite restaurants anywhere.  Coming home, the night was cool and clear, and the stars shone bright, so we put the top down.  The road was near deserted and driving was a pleasure.  Arriving home, the pomelo trees are in blossom and the fragrance hit us as we came up the driveway, long before reaching them.  After parking the car I just stood there for a while, looking at the stars and breathing in the perfume.  Bliss.  This morning, I fired up one of the motorbikes and went for a spin.  Good roads, little traffic, temperature in the mid 20's.  While stopped at a roadside coffee shop for a bit of brunch, I couldn't help thinking why?  Why would anyone with a choice rather be in Bangkok, or indeed any other congested expat ghetto, than doing this?

1 hour ago, ballpoint said:

With next week being a scheduled week off for me, and already doing most of my work from home in Bangkok anyway rather than slice my way through the smog to get to the office, I finally had enough.  Telling the office I might be gone for some time, I got the heck out of Dodge and headed up country yesterday.  In the evening, my wife and I drove to town to get some groceries at Tops and eat in one of my favourite restaurants anywhere.  Coming home, the night was cool and clear, and the stars shone bright, so we put the top down.  The road was near deserted and driving was a pleasure.  Arriving home, the pomelo trees are in blossom and the fragrance hit us as we came up the driveway, long before reaching them.  After parking the car I just stood there for a while, looking at the stars and breathing in the perfume.  Bliss.  This morning, I fired up one of the motorbikes and went for a spin.  Good roads, little traffic, temperature in the mid 20's.  While stopped at a roadside coffee shop for a bit of brunch, I couldn't help thinking why?  Why would anyone with a choice rather be in Bangkok, or indeed any other congested expat ghetto, than doing this?

Once again I love the imagery.  Being able to look up and see the Milky Way and smell flowering trees in your front yard is priceless.  Of course not every day is perfect but I prefer to keep the good ones in my memories and let the others fade with time.

Even though Chiang Rai is in the North of Thailand, it is still in the tropics.  I don’t remember when I first became aware of this little tidbit, but where I live now is almost exactly on the same latitude as where I grew up in Hawaii and the same as my year of birth 19° 54”.   So each year the sun passes only a few degrees north of us and only briefly.  That is important to know when orienting a house up here.

On 1/30/2019 at 10:06 PM, Pharoticus said:

You must be so bored and so lonely.

 

Re-integrate. Make friends. Socialize. Do something worthwhile with your life. 

 

Posting photos of your meals serves only to reveal how lonely you are.

 

Go out and meet some people. You really do need to get a life.

I like to post photos of an empty plate so that people know how good it tasted.

Oh, for a scratch’n’sniff internet!

Beautiful region, beautiful photos! Great work! All genuine, no tweaking of colour and light?

 

Near Mekong, but what region? I'd like to checking out sometime if driveable from me in Kalasin Province.

3 hours ago, villagefarang said:

Once again I love the imagery.  Being able to look up and see the Milky Way and smell flowering trees in your front yard is priceless.  Of course not every day is perfect but I prefer to keep the good ones in my memories and let the others fade with time.

The bad times make the best stories, and get better every time you tell them.

edit: a good story doesn’t make the listener jealous, it makes them glad that they are enjoying the experience vicariously

11 minutes ago, Kalasin Jo said:

Beautiful region, beautiful photos! Great work! All genuine, no tweaking of colour and light?

 

Near Mekong, but what region? I'd like to checking out sometime if driveable from me in Kalasin Province.

Chiang Rai province in the North.  

 

All digital photos are tweaked by software in the camera.  In addition to that I make an effort to help the photo look more like what I see with my own eye.

7 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

The bad times make the best stories, and get better every time you tell them.

edit: a good story doesn’t make the listener jealous, it makes them glad that they are enjoying the experience vicariously

I get that some people love a good story of misery and woe but that has never been me.  There is nothing better than a friend's story of success, in my opinion.