Chiang Mai losing its appeal—how to manage? [long post/discussion]

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, stoner said:

i see you forgot to mention the 5 plus months of totally toxic air you breath ? 

 

are complainers complaining then or ? 

 

last time i checked most western countries did not have the pollution that CM has. i could be totally wrong though.

 

 

This is false.  Bangkok has the toxic air at the moment.

 

The last few years in  CM the air quality has been very good, and it's the same this year.  

[araiwaja]

Decided to spend 3 months up north this year to cool off. Headed to good old Chiang Mai and stayed at a hotel off center for a few nights. Plan was to use those days to find a home. However after experiencing the current levels of bumper to bumper traffic and hordes of tourists, I quickly decided against it. Giving Chiang Rai a try currently. I miss COVID time, everywhere was so much better then. 

[1FinickyOne]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Once I settled down here I hardly ever go to places where there are tourists.

Get out of the Moat/Huay Keow area and there are no tourists.

The view from my house ............

nice view.. 

[BritManToo]

33 minutes ago, araiwaja said:

Decided to spend 3 months up north this year to cool off. Headed to good old Chiang Mai and stayed at a hotel off center for a few nights. Plan was to use those days to find a home. However after experiencing the current levels of bumper to bumper traffic and hordes of tourists, I quickly decided against it. Giving Chiang Rai a try currently. I miss COVID time, everywhere was so much better then. 

No problems at all on my scooter or bicycle.

I can drive and park anywhere/anytime.

[stoner]

58 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

This year we had no toxic air, but 2 weeks of slightly smokey.

rubbish.

 

right now i am looking on aqi website and the reading is 107.  i see about 18 green days from december to end of april. 

 

what stats are you looking at ?

 

https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

[stoner]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

I suppose you use smokeless Ganga .....????

ever heard of edibles ? 

[stoner]

49 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

This is false.  Bangkok has the toxic air at the moment.

 

The last few years in  CM the air quality has been very good, and it's the same this year.  

a quick check on aqi website totally debunks that but ok. also i am not talking about bkk nor is this thread about bkk. 

 

https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

 

18 green days from end november to april. or am i reading that wrong ? 

[worgeordie]

5 minutes ago, stoner said:

ever heard of edibles ? 

So you don't smoke it ...not a real stoner then.....better change your name , what about  Gummy

 

regards worgeordie

 

[seedy]

Best solution - have all the Whiners and Snivelers who profess to hate CNX leave.

And take your AQI reader with you.

Every year the same 'ol same 'ol -

"Oh the traffic ! Oh the air ! Oh the tourists !

Don't like it here - don't stay. Pull up your Granny panties and shove off.

[stoner]

1 minute ago, worgeordie said:

So you don't smoke it ...not a real stoner then.....better change your name , what about  Gummy

 

regards worgeordie

 

i like getting gummed yes. 

[araiwaja]

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

No problems at all on my scooter or bicycle.

It's not a "getting around" problem, I have a scooter too. I simply dislike congested cities, it feels crappy.

[bkk6060]

13 hours ago, ThLT said:

Chinese tourists will likely be even larger and much worse than before the pandemic. I'm having a difficult time with the current numbers of tourists, but triple or even quadruple that, and I don't know how I'll be able to manage or still like living in Chiang Mai.

Yes, I am here now and see it all.  And, they love it so much when they come it will be almost unliveable just hordes of people and traffic everywhere.  WIth the demand prices will also rise I bet much more then people expect. Getting around or even into the city will become a major ordeal none of it good for residents here.

Just about everyone wanted things to be open, so here we go.

[LomSak27]

37 minutes ago, araiwaja said:

Plan was to use those days to find a home. However after experiencing the current levels of bumper to bumper traffic and hordes of tourists, I quickly decided against it.

No idea where you are seeing these tourist hordes. Tourists have been trickling in for the last 6-8 months, and nowhere near the pre pandemic levels of three years ago.

In Maya Mall yesterday. Pleasantly suprised by the number of people. It wasn't crowded, but more people at any one time since January 2020, that I have seen. That is one month shy of three years. Hueykaew road was jammed, but that was Thai locals & thai tourists buying supplies in the run up to New Years holiday. They will be out in force today too. A heads up in case anyone needs to make a holiday booze & bud run, or, cough, buying for a friend. 
Cheers 

[bkk6060]

34 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

No problems at all on my scooter or bicycle.

Sorry to disagree but I do not see it.

I come in on the 107 it is like playing dodge ball with cars backed up, cutting in and out and stopping everywhere.  The least of the drivers concern seem to be m/b.  The malls are packed now and center city is a good place to avoid backs ups all around.  Then the police stops during peak traffic time. Outside of Bangkok, this may currently be the most congested dangerous place I have ever ridden a mototbike.

[LomSak27]

40 minutes ago, stoner said:

right now i am looking on aqi website and the reading is 107.  i see about 18 green days from december to end of april. 

Not looking out the window?! Oh just carping from somewhere else. Not a surprise, par for the course around here. 
Happy New Years. 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by LomSak27

[roo860]

41 minutes ago, seedy said:

Best solution - have all the Whiners and Snivelers who profess to hate CNX leave.

And take your AQI reader with you.

Every year the same 'ol same 'ol -

"Oh the traffic ! Oh the air ! Oh the tourists !

Don't like it here - don't stay. Pull up your Granny panties and shove off.

Well said, they're a bunch of first class <deleted>.

[Rimmer]

Troll meme and reply have been removed

[BritManToo]

57 minutes ago, stoner said:

rubbish.

 

right now i am looking on aqi website and the reading is 107.  i see about 18 green days from december to end of april. 

 

what stats are you looking at ?

 

https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

I look out my window,

If I can see the mountains the air is good.

If I can't see the mountains (and it's not raining) the air is bad.

No need to look at any websites.

 

Today is bad!

[orang37]

Chiang Mai changed/changing ? Of course: other than in old photographs, what city or area hasn't changed in ten or twenty years ? With aging, what eyeballs have not changed; what modes of perception have not changed ? What memories have not been reshaped by both trauma, and revelation, by dreams fulfilled, and dreams crushed ?

 

As I have pondered the frequency of these posts which suggest memories of Chiang Mai as a personal "garden of Eden," now lost, I have found it helpful to meditate on the work by the German researcher Dr. David Stromberg, which I had the pleasure and horror of hearing presented live by the author himself in 2015.

 

Stromberg's "Farang Grandosity Syndrome" (FGS) has continued to be a useful tool in understanding some of the types of farang who choose to be here ... of course, we must use the word "choose" with caution ... for a set of certain mid-life-train-wreck (primarily) males who make a great deal of noise about themselves online (in this forum, and elsewhere), they were drawn to Amazing Thailand as if shipwrecked on Circe's island, awakening half-drowned in a lush paradise where they could, thanks to the sorceress' wine, have the adolescence they never had while turning into ... swine.

 

Here are the notes I took: Stromberg's FGS

 

cheers, ~o:37;

[BangkokReady]

12 hours ago, redsongthaew said:

Give the Phuket tourist areas a try sometime...

2 hours ago, Doctor Tom said:

Not been to Phuket yet then?  If not, you've got a treat coming, thousand times worse than CM or BKK. 

I'm not in any hurry to go there.  I've been to Krabi.  Beaches are nice, but they don't sound like the nicest parts of Thailand.  They actually sound like the worst.

[stoner]

38 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

Not looking out the window?! Oh just carping from somewhere else. Not a surprise, par for the course around here. 
Happy New Years. 

 

 

i mean pfffft science right. the looking out the window method is much better. 

[stoner]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I look out my window,

If I can see the mountains the air is good.

If I can't see the mountains (and it's not raining) the air is bad.

No need to look at any websites.

 

Today is bad!

peek a boo method too eh.

[In Full Agreement]

1 hour ago, seedy said:

Best solution - have all the Whiners and Snivelers who profess to hate CNX leave.

And take your AQI reader with you.

Every year the same 'ol same 'ol -

"Oh the traffic ! Oh the air ! Oh the tourists !

Don't like it here - don't stay. Pull up your Granny panties and shove off.

 

Wait   a moment.    Is this one of those "Go back to your home country" posts?

 

 

[BananaStrong]

 

GREEN IS GOOD.  GREEN IS NORMAL.  Green is Life.  The ability to live.  Brain to think.  Body to work.  Lungs to breathe, happiness to develop.......Green is normal for the falang.      OH Wait, what is this BLUE?  OK, Blue is EXCELLENT.   17 Good and Excellent months out of 52.    

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by BananaStrong

[ThLT]

1 hour ago, seedy said:

Best solution - have all the Whiners and Snivelers who profess to hate CNX leave.

And take your AQI reader with you.

Every year the same 'ol same 'ol -

"Oh the traffic ! Oh the air ! Oh the tourists !

Don't like it here - don't stay. Pull up your Granny panties and shove off.

The good ol' "just leave if you don't like it," from someone who is unwell with criticism. ????

So you're complaining about people complaining?

Wouldn't that be complaining, but on top of that also being hypocritical?

[ThLT]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Once I settled down here I hardly ever go to places where there are tourists.

Get out of the Moat/Huay Keow area and there are no tourists.

The view from my house ............

Beautiful view. Must be peaceful. Thanks for that.

[dddave]

15 hours ago, papa al said:

Try Chiang Rai.?

CR is quickly heading in the same direction...new bridges to China via Laos will bring the hoards.

Loei is still a beautiful refuge but probably not for much longer.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, ThLT said:

For those who have lived in Chiang Mai for many years, how did you get through such a phase? How do you manage to get past these kinds of things?

I left it.

[seedy]

1 hour ago, In Full Agreement said:

Wait   a moment.    Is this one of those "Go back to your home country" posts?

Read the post. Did I say 'Go to your home country' ?  NO

so the answer to your question is NO

[seedy]

1 hour ago, ThLT said:

from someone who is unwell with criticism.

No problem with criticism.

Problem lies with the eternal P and M from people too, well ... "Challenged" to improve their lives in the face of such appalling air quality, traffic, and hordes of tourists.

Truth be told - most posting negatives - I hazard - do not even live here, have NEVER lived here, and posting from a foreign country.

Or - as said - just may well be 'Old Women' masquerading as residents.