1 hour ago, Odysseus123 said:

But it's a great topic anyway..and everyone seems to be contributing.No problem with a double up.

Some Thai friends of mine built this traditional style Thai house in the country..

 

Lovely place.

Much like the sister's family house I lived in, but more expensive. I didn't like it having no mossie screens though, and spent evenings slapping the little critters. Lucky not to get malaria.

Those floor boards look like the ones in family house, all hand smoothed with an adze.

Rural.

Issan.

 

  I think it's worth mentioning that when you get older and don't don't have as much desire for happy endings etc , RURAL ISN'T CHEAPER THAN URBAN . It's the same in most countries . Accommodation ( buying , renting , hotel stay ) is way cheaper in the country , but it evens out in other costs . The obvioius one is that you don't have to have a car to get around in a city , and if you want visit the country , the city has the best deals on car rentals . Everything else is a little more expensive -- petrol , furniture , appliances imported food ( and wine ), kids toys are all a little more in the country ., Gai yang and fish , even fruit is cheaper in BKK than Issan .

15 minutes ago, gimo said:

RURAL ISN'T CHEAPER THAN URBAN

Indeed! I read so many posts about how cheap it is "in the sticks" if you own your own house, once the house is built, most things are the same price or more, one thing - you certainly don't have the temptations living in the sticks that you have in the city.

Being content with your lot living in country I think is also age related, you are (hopefully) happy to live in your own skin as you have realised that buying toys and eating in expensive restaurants isn't all it is made out to be, not for everybody and certainly not for younger folks though admittedly. 

2 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

But it's a great topic anyway..and everyone seems to be contributing.No problem with a double up.

Some Thai friends of mine built this traditional style Thai house in the country..

 

I love a wood house , but it looks like a lot of work to maintain , so when we decided to build a new house I took inspiration from the above design  but in an easier to maintain form. 

All open downstairs is a cool place  have a few people over. (house blessing party, the whole village was there) 

 

Or chill with the dogs. 

for those who like big city convenience , but country living, Khon Kaen , (where we are) and Udon Thani are great IMO, (I am sure there are others but that what I know) . Both cities are designed in spoke and wheel design, Living just outside the wheel (ring road)  you are in a country setting , but jump on the ring road, take one of the "spoke" roads and you are in the heart of the  city in 15 minutes.

I would say for the most of us as we get older the slower pace of rural living works best. Having said that, there is definitely a misconception that rural living in Thailand (especially living in Issan) is slow paced to the point of boredom.  All you have to do is leave your house; and, get in your car to confirm that. Issan is the main training facility for all the bad drivers in urban Thailand.  My Scottish friend has rightly named it the land of Moby's.  They are everywhere.   

11 hours ago, billd766 said:

Mom and Pop shops plus 7/11 in the big village 6 km away is OK. BigC is 65 km away along with Makro, Tops and a small Lotus Tesco ends up as a monthly bulk shop. We do have a lot of local markets, both wet and dry close by and they are very good.

Unavoidable progress I guess for us that's gone on over the years in our village with development as well nearby development that has spoilt the village by further population from other parts of Thailand, not so much high season tourists.

 

Noticeably becoming very busy in the last 4 years with more car/trucks and many more motorbikes/scoots.

New buildings have been going up everywhere nearby for rent or buying in outer areas with farmers selling land .   

We live off main village road backing off to a quiet soi in Muang Kao and for me have old farmhouse mancave on farmland 2K out of village so not too bad.

We only use the village market, Mom and Pop shops and there's two 7/11's now, don't bother much with all the other big shops which all within 15K, Big'C' nearest @ 6K.

I like visiting rural Thailand, but couldn't live there. Likewise big cities. I'm perfectly happy living in a Hat Yai, not too big, not too small and there's rural not far away.

If I moved to a new property it would be one of these 3.  Somewhat rural within an hour drive of Bangkok.  By a beach.  Up north where it gets cooler (except the pollution would deter that)

18 hours ago, SteveK said:

Rural Thailand is so laid back it's insane. Almost everything I aim to do I end up thinking, nah, I'll think about that tomorrow and have a large Chang for now.

 

50 weeks of the year in an Isaan village and 2 weeks a year in Bangkok would be perfect for me.

2 weeks in Bangkok would be stretching it for me, love the quiet life ????

17 hours ago, CharlieH said:

2 problems there, 1st neither of us have facebook, and more importantly we dont have an upstairs ????  and no jungle either ????

 

I don't have Facebook , Line and other things like that to loose my precious  time  ;

We don't have upstairs but jungle is not very far ..

maybe less than one kilometer ...

 

I'm living with my thai wife and one of our daughter in a village in Isaan ;

the first 7/11 is at 10 or 11 km in a PoToTo station on road 22 ..

Like some of us I like to go to a big town such as Khon Kaen or Udon Thani ;

 

I like also to go to Bangkok when I have to go there, that is to say go to the French Embassy for a document that I can only get there.
This Embassy is located in Bang Rak, near China Town, a district in which I like to walk a lot to photograph life, buildings, traffic ...
and not far also from Silom where is the tallest skyscraper in Thailand as well as other very tall buildings ...
Excellent when you have an UGA on your camera;

 

A few days, 3 at most and I am very happy to return to my deep countryside where I can ride my MTBike on a bunch of beautiful laterite roads with almost no car traffic .

15 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Im a bad driver and refuse to pay 2-4x market value for a car.

I'm a good driver ( not good, excellent one ) ;

it was my job during 40 years all over European countries ..

 

My life has been anything but a long, quiet river
(reference to the French film which has the same name);
40 years and about 6 million km behind the piece of wood; piece of wood that I knew when I was driving my Scania Vabis with a long nose and what was called "knitter" at the time;
indeed the gearbox was already with mechanical relay, and when we changed gears there was the gearshift lever on the floor and just next to it another lever of the same length which allowed to pass the half speed. .
To use it, you had to drop the steering wheel and make a gesture vaguely reminiscent of a person who knits since each hand was on one of the levers ...
I really regret that at that time photography was not part of my hobbies; It was however that of my dad ... who had installed a photo lab in one of the bathroom in our apartment to develop his films in B&W
I now have a superb collection of trucks and coaches that I drove from 1967 to 2007 ...
this is not the case, and the internet and Google allow us to look at the photographic collections of people more attentive than me at leisure.

I like your poll. It’s exactly how every  poll should be done. Most polls contain one , two or more paragraphs which always influence the poll answers  then a link is attached to influence the poll results even more. I have never understood why polls on here are usually done that way. A poll should be a question then the potential answers then nothing else. 

1 hour ago, sirineou said:

I love a wood house , but it looks like a lot of work to maintain , so when we decided to build a new house I took inspiration from the above design  but in an easier to maintain form. 

All open downstairs is a cool place  have a few people over. (house blessing party, the whole village was there) 

 

Or chill with the dogs. 

for those who like big city convenience , but country living, Khon Kaen , (where we are) and Udon Thani are great IMO, (I am sure there are others but that what I know) . Both cities are designed in spoke and wheel design, Living just outside the wheel (ring road)  you are in a country setting , but jump on the ring road, take one of the "spoke" roads and you are in the heart of the  city in 15 minutes.

What a marvellous house!

 

Yes-very similar in concept and design.

 

Ubon Ratchathani has a similar "spoke and wheel" design which does make it easier to get about.

 

I always liked Khon Kaen.

14 hours ago, Denim said:

Bangkok is a huge city and very diverse. It is not centered on Nana Plaza etc. The suburbs can be very interesting if you live there off the tourist traps.

Totally correct ;
we can say the same thing about Pattaya where I have friends and where I like to go at least once a year, always with my wife.
Pattaya is not just the area between 3rd road and beach road;
If you get out of this hell, you discover, especially on the other side of the railway, wonderful and very quiet places

Whenever i go to Bangkok for a couple of nights i always feel so much better when i have got away from all the traffic and head home.

Don't get me wrong i like Bangkok for a couple of nights in a year but no way would i want to live there .

Tough one! Bangkok is the only place in Thailand that has enough on offer (in breadth and in depth, as it were) to be of interest to me long-term. But air pollution has been getting beyond silly, to the point that it has become indefensible to live here without having a compelling reason to do so. If only they had second tier cities with a somewhat higher level of sophistication! Maybe in 20 years.

 

I enjoy rural Thailand, but it gets incredibly boring after a week or two. So all things considered, I'm voting "urban".

 

12 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

I have also noticed something interesting.....all the Thai country people live in Bangkok. They clearly know what is good for them.

 

Work is easier to find in Bangkok than in Sawang Daen Din and the salary will not be the same either.
But to choose between Bangkok and a job in Israel or Taiwan, the young and not so young from Sawang will go overseas ..or working conditions will certainly be as difficult as in Bangkok but where the salary will often be 5 to 10 times higher .

One of my  brothers in law and my eldest son worked 10 and 5 years in Taiwan;
Right now the husband of a niece picks up oranges in Israel for a very interesting salary;
I even asked (laughing) if they wouldn't hire an old farang to do the same job ...

Touristic Urban for me with everything I need within a 15min drive and almost immediate service

I think that some who are railing against rural living are basing their decision on short visits, with few of their possessions around them.  As with living anywhere, if you are in your own home, equipped with all the things that make life bearable to you, then life becomes far less boring.  I fully agree that, if you dumped me in someone else's house in a small village, I too would start going crazy with boredom after a few days (if that long), however, that goes equally for the city, or any other location, no matter how desirable.  Put me in a hotel or house away from my place for any length of time and I long to return to my own home in the village.

Reading some of the horror stories about immigration in places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai - turning up an hour before it opens, lining up for a queue ticket and spending most of the day there, provides another plus for rural living in one of the smaller provinces.  I turn up at my local immigration around 10:00, maybe have to wait for one other person, and get my extension and re-entry permit done at the same desk in about half an hour.  90 day reports are done in a couple of minutes, and as for the TM30; What TM30?

3 years in Cairo then 13 in BKK both for work i like cities...

Now i prefer semi rural My house  is 15 km from smallish town 6 km from village with 7 11 and 1 km from beach

Hua hin for shopping 2 hours away or Bangkok 5 hours

 

Suits me....... really rural, like miles from nowhere Nah!

I haven't voted because I like both. Rural for the beauty, peace and quiet ((except that the wife sounds louder in all the quiet round here!). City for the buzz, and fun but only for a few days. Not only the frantic pace, but the crowded pavements and transportable roads get too much now. Too expensive to stay long too!

Neither. Suburbs have the best of both. Access to services and goods and space to live in. The downside is the murderous traffic.

18 minutes ago, poohy said:

3 years in Cairo then 13 in BKK both for work i like cities...

Now i prefer semi rural My house  is 15 km from smallish town 6 km from village with 7 11 and 1 km from beach

Hua hin for shopping 2 hours away or Bangkok 5 hours

 

Suits me....... really rural, like miles from nowhere Nah!

 

If I did not live in the village of my wife or also live in her mother, two of her sisters and one of her brothers ...
And yes, everyone in a very small village and if I want to see my mother-in-law, I have to move to her house; nobody in the family comes to talk to me about sick buffalos or other nonsense ...

So if I did not live where I am, I would most certainly be your neighbor; a few km maybe but not very far; PKK is, for me, one, if not the most beautiful province of Thailand.

20 hours ago, CharlieH said:

who the hell wants secondhand burgers when you have a steak at home...55555

Who the hell would n't want a 20 year old 'burger' for an hour or two now and then?

Rural, urban – or the missing somewhere in between, like a tourist destination area – however, it's all depending of one's life-style and economy; the latter including if you are still young enough to work, and your job might be with a major company in an urban area.

 

I could live in rural Thailand, but it would be a slightly different life-style from what I live now.

 

If I had to – for example due to work – I could also live in urban Thailand, even Bangkok; but as much as I love this city, my love begin to fade a bit after some three days and need a rest, later I love to get back for another short visit.

 

My life-style fits well into a beach-side tourist destination, which is not urban. nor rural, but got some of the urban benefits, and some of rural village atmosphere. A balance where you still have the international touch, and also the village atmosphere, and being able to mingle with the wonderful local population.

 

I voted "urban" as from the two choices given, that might be the one that suits my preferences best...????

I know there are some rural areas with beautiful nature.

And there might be some rural areas with people who care about the nature.

But until now, when I was somewhere up-country (north or south or east or west) it seems most rural people give a $%I& about nature. They throw rubbish anywhere, don't care about leaking oil out of vehicles, etc.

And there seem to be many drunk people, some in their homes but many also on the streets.

 

Obviously Bangkok is far away from perfect but it seems there are huge differences depending in which part of the city you live. I feel in the middle of Bangkok a lot more comfortable compared to anywhere up-country.

I didn't vote. A tough choice.

 

My answer? Wherever my mates are. Currently urban but...

I would prefer never to have decided to settle in Thailand!
City or countryside is all dirt!