Relocating to Isaan

[kirkieb]

Hi currently live in Pattaya for 7 years and had enough. Wife's parents aging so we are considering relocating to the family farm. About 70 kms North East of Kalasin. South of Suko nakon .  I need access to a hospital that can prescribe my drugs all covered by Aust Gvt. Also looking at the availability of High Speed Internet for various needs. Currently the Village Parents are in does have Internet but we want to relocate and just checking how forgiving is the internet in these areas?

Looking to start a conversation with any who have made the move and pros and cons.  Been there many times so know what Im getting myself into. Will build a one bedroom house on the family farm.

Cheers Kirky

[Puchaiyank]

You are only 80 kilometers from Khon Kaen...look there for most everything you need...just a little over an hour drive...

 

Welcome to Issan...enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and great foods... 

[kirkieb]

147 kms from where we plan to locate. to Khon Kaen, Sukhon Nakon is about 1 hrs drive, Kalasin 1 hr, Somdet 30mins. Hoping to find a hopsital a bit closer to me although I only need go every 3 months or so. Thanks for your input.

[Justin Side]

Take your ear plugs.

Isaan is the noisiest place I have ever lived in.

You might just be lucky and fine a quiet place.

[KhunBENQ]

4 hours ago, kirkieb said:

Hoping to find a hopsital a bit closer to me although I only need go every 3 months or so.

What transport will you have?

Driving car yourself or your partner?

Don't you think you will feel the need to visit a major city more often?

You will have about 140 km to Udon Thani which has the best offers in all of upper Isan.

Accommodation is cheap (to avoid a stressful one day return).

And an airport with a couple of domestic connections.

 

About the medicine. That is difficult to answer without the details.

Do you need proper prescription and receipt for refund?

 

Fast internet: can vary much between easy and impossible depending on location.

In 2011 I had to rely on slow mobile internet, then ADSL and later fiber to the home.

Nowadays True and 3BB are fighting for customers, 100 Mbit advertised.

 

Build a house? You take that pretty easy.

Expect some headaches.

[SteveK]

My brother-in-law lives near Kalasin, not too far for me.

 

We got 3BB to hook up the house with an internet connection at no charge, and it's fast and reliable, even out in the sticks. Monthly bills for unlimited internet is 599 I think, a fraction of what I was paying in the UK for a similar service. The guys who came to install were extremely nice and professional, they refused cash tips because they said they could be sacked for accepting them! Gave them some drinks instead, really nice guys.

 

I think it's about 30-40mbps, fast enough to stream movies on 2 pcs or online gaming with no issues. It has never dropped out, apart from when there is a electricity blackout, the old fai dum.

 

Village pharmacy is limited but has basic medications like antibiotics, blood pressure, diabetes stuff etc, all without prescription, anything more exotic or expensive requires a trip to the city, Ubon in my case. Feel free to PM me with your medications and I can tell you roughly how likely you are to be able to get them. Oh sorry - I see the Oz government pays for your medicines, so yes you'll have to go to a hospital, apologies. But with the price of medicines in Thailand, it might be cheaper to buy them in the village than to travel to the hospital, YMMV.

 

My village has a tiny hospital, but they can do some simple tests etc and very cheap, mostly they seem to deal with ob/gyn and people who fell off their motorbikes - almost nobody uses helmet, gloves, jacket and full length trousers when riding, so a simple slip in the rain can be nasty.

 

Most people are in bed before 9pm every night - no nightlife, only proper restaurant is the local moo gata. Very different from Pattaya, maybe go and live there for a month or two before you decide?

 

The professionalism and capabilities of local builders seem to be a bone of contention where I live (amongst the Thais, there are no farang here), I have seen some very poor "bodge-jobs", in typical Thai fashion the builder will not want to admit that they can't do something to save face, the end result being poor. Ask around and get the best builder you can. As KhunBENQ wisely suggest, it may be a source of stress and headaches for you until it is finished, I gather from people I have met who have had houses built that you should go and check at least once a week to make sure everything is going as planned.

 

If you want a quiet life, just read a few books, do some gardening or cook some food, Isaan is an amazing place to live. Weather is great, prices are low, and the people are genuine and friendly. The only thing that annoys me is that nobody in Isaan seems to eat the sai grok Isaan that I loved in Bangkok - and if you don't eat pork you will struggle.

 

 

[Nsp64]

After pattaya , issan will be a real leap of faith.

Tried it for 6 months after living in bangkok for 5 years.

Benn back in bangkok for the last 4 years.

Hated it, the people aren't salt of the earth,  they're jealous I'll educated and lazy.

[SteveK]

49 minutes ago, Nsp64 said:

they're jealous I'll educated and lazy.

I've driven through some Isaan villages at 6am, seen loads of women old enough to be my grandmother spending the day bent over picking rice, the old guys using those brush cutters to cut the plants by the side of the road, for less than what a McDonald's happy meal costs. If that is lazy, then I dread to think what I would be.

 

Judging by your spelling and grammar, you didn't get a particularly great education either.

 

 

 

[bkkcanuck8]

6 hours ago, Nsp64 said:

After pattaya , issan will be a real leap of faith.

Tried it for 6 months after living in bangkok for 5 years.

Benn back in bangkok for the last 4 years.

Hated it, the people aren't salt of the earth,  they're jealous I'll educated and lazy.

'Issan' is a big generalization.  Not all cities in 'Issan' are the same, as with any region there is some diversity. 

[ThaiBunny]

I stay in a village in Isaan with my Thai friend's family from time to time.  The people are super friendly but there's nothing to do, the food is not what you'd get in Bangkok/Pattaya and the household discourages me from going out for a walk by myself as the village dogs are "unfriendly". The latter is certainly true; I go for a walk every day with someone from the family and they always carry a big stick, which they occasionally need to use.  There's also a problem with the overly solicitous village drunks.

 

I'd think a larger town like Ubon Ratchanthani, Udon Thani or even Sisaket might be bearable.  The first two have both an airport and a university. I particularly enjoy going to Nong Kai and having lunch at one of the restaurants on the river bank, looking across to Laos. I've even seen what appear to be local Westerners in smaller towns like Rattanaburi - god know what they do for social life or intellectual stimulus.  But Isaan is certainly different to Bangkok or Pattaya in many, many ways

[NCC1701A]

17 hours ago, kirkieb said:

About 70 kms North East of Kalasin. South of Suko nakon .

we send recon teams in there from time to time. no one has ever returned.

[Liverpudlian]

14 hours ago, Justin Side said:

Take your ear plugs.

Isaan is the noisiest place I have ever lived in.

You might just be lucky and fine a quiet place.

RRRRRRRRR cha chaaaaaaa.

[geoffbezoz]

6 hours ago, Nsp64 said:

After pattaya , issan will be a real leap of faith.

Tried it for 6 months after living in bangkok for 5 years.

Benn back in bangkok for the last 4 years.

Hated it, the people aren't salt of the earth,  they're jealous I'll educated and lazy.

But strangely, many I know, in Udon Thani, have better English language grammatical and spelling skills than you appear to have !

 

So as for being uneducated ( well I think that is what you were implying),  then you are clearly unaware.  As for being lazy, yes many are but that is the case everywhere, is it not ? Remember, before the trucking in of illegal, poorly paid people from Cambodia/Myannmar,  it was an Issan workforce that built most of modern Bangkok.

 

Still guess you feel at home with your own kind enjoying the polluted air in Bangkok.   Experts say over time it may indeed dull the senses and lead to irrational behavior. Looks like it effects some quicker than others. ????????

[faraday]

Sometimes the replies on tvf, make me doubt the veracity of the poster.

 

That, & the time of day they post, often makes me wonder if they do actually live here.

 

 

I know many hard working people here, friendly as well.

 

Yup, some are lazy & lacking in education, which is true everywhere. Even in Bangkok, I expect.

[colinneil]

15 hours ago, Justin Side said:

Take your ear plugs.

Isaan is the noisiest place I have ever lived in.

You might just be lucky and fine a quiet place.

Why post nonsense? Issan noisy, load of hogwash.

I am sitting here typing this and all i hear is the noise of the birds ( feathered ones).

Ohh my mistake a mc just went past, noisy exhaust.

[GinBoy2]

Well you are going to be fairly isolated.

 

If you don't already, get your wife to teach you Isaan Lao, otherwise you will feel very isolated.

 

Khon Kaen is a mini BKK, but you are an hour away, so it's not like popping out to the store if you want something.

 

Noise! Yeah get used to that. Blood from the ears loud...weddings, funerals, mork ordination, music from 5am at ear shattering volume

[Jip99]

6 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Why post nonsense? Issan noisy, load of hogwash.

I am sitting here typing this and all i hear is the noise of the birds ( feathered ones).

Ohh my mistake a mc just went past, noisy exhaust.

 

 

You must have missed the cockerel that has been crowing since 05:30.....

[bkkcanuck8]

2 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Well you are going to be fairly isolated.

 

If you don't already, get your wife to teach you Isaan Lao, otherwise you will feel very isolated.

 

Khon Kaen is a mini BKK, but you are an hour away, so it's not like popping out to the store if you want something.

 

Noise! Yeah get used to that. Blood from the ears loud...weddings, funerals, mork ordination, music from 5am at ear shattering volume

It is sound differential that makes everything sound louder... if it is loud all the time, then the sound blends in more with the background.... If you don't have that -- every event is going to seem much louder.

[colinneil]

2 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

You must have missed the cockerel that has been crowing since 05:30.....

No we have eaten the noisy buggers.

[cooked]

Dunno, what's this "boring" word mean? Work around the house, looking after animals and yoursel, writing a book, plenty to do. If getting up early (which apparently means you can't get 8 hours sleep) is your main problem, then, yes, stay out of the rural parts of any country. 

[ThaiBunny]

2 minutes ago, cooked said:

Dunno, what's this "boring" word mean? Work around the house, looking after animals and yoursel, writing a book, plenty to do. If getting up early (which apparently means you can't get 8 hours sleep) is your main problem, then, yes, stay out of the rural parts of any country. 

Work around the house - that's why I employ servants

Looking after animals - ditto

And yourself - ditto

 

Pleasure is:

meals with friends (ie. other westerners or Thais who speak English)

reading

exercise of the horizontal jogging variety, with multiple fellow joggers

[bluesofa]

I wish our village in near Udon was quiet.

Plenty of traffic going past on the main road through the village, plus noisy advertising trucks.

Next door neighbour keeps pigs and a load of chickens, so from 4am onwards they're constantly noisy.

Perhaps we should live in a quiet housing estate with no nature or advertising trucks allowed in.

 

[AGareth2]

59 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

we send recon teams in there from time to time. no one has ever returned.

must be the women

[Gecko123]

My recent thoughts on village life summarized here:

 

Not Isaan, but a small village in Central Thailand.

[baansgr]

The noise isn't just an Issan thing, im sat on my terrace in a quite soi in the center of Jomtien, yet a family in a house about 70 yards away are practicing the Buddist art of sharing their wonderful music with the neighborhood for free...bless them

[simon43]

In just under 2 weeks I will pack my worldly goods into my pick-up and drive the 1,400 Km from Ranong up to Bueng Kan.  I used to live in Nong Khai and very much enjoyed the rural lifestyle of Issan, which was only marred by living with a mad wife.

 

Happily (for me), that wife and the others are long-gone.  I have a very good Canadian friend who retired last year and lives a short distance from Bueng Kan.  He's also a radio ham like me (but he can't get a ham licence in Thailand - it depends on one's nationality).

 

Since getting my last divorce about 6 years ago, I have got used to living alone and making good and enjoyable use of my time.  I have plenty of hobbies to keep me occupied.

 

Apparently, the word is out in Bueng Kan that a handsome and available bachelor will soon be in town.  I imagine hoards of betal-chewing 'hags' beating a path to my door in the hope of relieving me.. (of my money, not anything else!).

 

Sadly for those old crows, my money is long gone... ????

[KiChakayan]

Another thing to keep in mind, is where you are going to "boomboom" when you get a bit bored with you wife. In an Issan village, every smile you dispense to the local "hotties" will get reported to you MIL. I get all my medical done at Bumrungrad which is a stone throw from Nana.  And then it remains a small world... ????

 

[grifbel]

why not move to the Ozzie outback if you want to be isolated.

[riclag]

Pattaya / Issan Village , Sorry I didn't see that you been their

[puchooay]

1 hour ago, ThaiBunny said:

The first two have both an airport and a university.

Is that what makes an interesting town, a bearable one?

 

If so, Buriram has an airport and 3 universities. Best put it on your list.