Chiang Mai in the past.

[Aussiepeter]

13 hours ago, freedomnow said:

Thought your story of old was great - do you think it was fantastic because you were younger or it was generally just better all-round (why) or bit of both ? Also, was it easier to stay here long-term then ?

I was always on a Non-Immigrant 'O' visa which gave me 15 months total stay before a renewal. I learnt to speak northernThai and learnt about all the 'secret places' in the north that tourists would not know about, including "cathouses" and even secret "clubs" where they seldom see a farang. I was in my early 40's during the nineties and single, in a C Mai just starting to blossom. It was much easier to stay long-term, some just went to a border every month. The rot started with Thaksin's reign. His government made some truly horrid decisions - such as bringing in income limits that forced many harmless old-timers to either leave, or like a now-deceased best friend, to break the law. My mate had lived a frugal life with his legal Thai wife in Mae Taeng for over twenty years and always went to Penang for a legal double entry visa. Nobody cared how little or how much $ he had. He worked as a teacher for a Royal Project & had a small pension, but it was peanuts. Then one day the rules changed. He went to get a new visa and they told him that (his exact words to me) "we don't want your type of people here any more, so this will be your last visa". He chose to drop off the radar and never got another visa - living happily with his wife as always & hurting nobody, right up until he died from a stroke with a massive 6 year overstay ! Then there was their stupid restrictions to hours for buying alcohol. I had heaps of money and could easily work around their silly alcohol rules, but as the air in the north became filthier each year I'd finally had enough. A diagnosis of throat cancer (I'm a non-smoker) sealed the deal. I'm not even going to mention their horrific driving. After our daughter was born I made the decision to leave for good, as I did not want her to breath the muck passed off as "fresh air" in C Mai for seven or eight months a year, or become a road toll statistic. The 90's were a fantastic time to be in LOS, with little enforcement of any kind. You could even have a few beers on the train from BKK to CM & I bought the guards a few beers sometimes. That too has ceased, to the detriment of Thailand (I think). We've lived in Oz now with pristine air for eight years, own a farm and my wife is a now a citizen. I went back to C Mai twice before covid hit, but neither my wife nor my daughter, who only speaks English, has any interest in returning. Sadly, the good old days are over.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 9/28/2021 at 1:26 AM, Aussiepeter said:

I was always on a Non-Immigrant 'O' visa which gave me 15 months total stay before a renewal. I learnt to speak northernThai and learnt about all the 'secret places' in the north that tourists would not know about, including "cathouses" and even secret "clubs" where they seldom see a farang. I was in my early 40's during the nineties and single, in a C Mai just starting to blossom. It was much easier to stay long-term, some just went to a border every month. The rot started with Thaksin's reign. His government made some truly horrid decisions - such as bringing in income limits that forced many harmless old-timers to either leave, or like a now-deceased best friend, to break the law. My mate had lived a frugal life with his legal Thai wife in Mae Taeng for over twenty years and always went to Penang for a legal double entry visa. Nobody cared how little or how much $ he had. He worked as a teacher for a Royal Project & had a small pension, but it was peanuts. Then one day the rules changed. He went to get a new visa and they told him that (his exact words to me) "we don't want your type of people here any more, so this will be your last visa". He chose to drop off the radar and never got another visa - living happily with his wife as always & hurting nobody, right up until he died from a stroke with a massive 6 year overstay ! Then there was their stupid restrictions to hours for buying alcohol. I had heaps of money and could easily work around their silly alcohol rules, but as the air in the north became filthier each year I'd finally had enough. A diagnosis of throat cancer (I'm a non-smoker) sealed the deal. I'm not even going to mention their horrific driving. After our daughter was born I made the decision to leave for good, as I did not want her to breath the muck passed off as "fresh air" in C Mai for seven or eight months a year, or become a road toll statistic. The 90's were a fantastic time to be in LOS, with little enforcement of any kind. You could even have a few beers on the train from BKK to CM & I bought the guards a few beers sometimes. That too has ceased, to the detriment of Thailand (I think). We've lived in Oz now with pristine air for eight years, own a farm and my wife is a now a citizen. I went back to C Mai twice before covid hit, but neither my wife nor my daughter, who only speaks English, has any interest in returning. Sadly, the good old days are over.

Excellent post.

IMO Thaksin was the worst thing ever to afflict Thailand.

I used to be able to stay in LOS on 90 day visa exempt with a border trip indefinitely. Like all good things that ended.

I lived in C M for a year, for reasons that I don't need to go into, but I'd rather have lived in Pattaya. IMO C M just isn't a great place to live- the traffic is terrible and the red songtheaws often are a rip off. As for the night life- pathetic doesn't describe it well enough- it was rubbish.

 

The 90s were indeed a fantastic time to be in LOS. I don't think I'd have bothered making it my idyll if I had only arrived this century.