I started taking Shan language lessons from this old lady near Chiang Mai and I'm now pretty sure her all grandsons are gangsters. They're all friendly but I do wonder if one day while I'm at the house a rival gang will pull up and shoot us to bits. 
 

Is my worry merited?

Any gangs aren't to be trusted, and there's always people who end up as collateral damage as their care for life doesn't exist. Limit your visits or bring the lady elsewhere to talk. You can be the nicest person towards here and be in the wrong place, wrong time if her grandson(s) live with her. 

12 minutes ago, chawbdurian said:

I started taking Shan language lessons from this old lady near Chiang Mai and I'm now pretty sure her all grandsons are gangsters. They're all friendly but I do wonder if one day while I'm at the house a rival gang will pull up and shoot us to bits. 
 

Is my worry merited?

 

I've had lots of exposure to the Thai Yai over the years. There's absolutely a gangster vibe with them. They're a minority underclass basically and I think this gives this a "us vs the world" mentality. Doesn't help many of them to go to school and are just kind of floating around and in squatter camps (I live near one actually, they generally don't seem very friendly and many can't speak Thai).

 

Never saw any violence personally but there seems to be a  steady a stream of gang related machete attacks that happen on and off in Chiang Mai.

 

This begs the questions why are you learning the language then? Once you mastered Thai then Northern Thai maybe you would you consider it but even so there's not much utility. Learning any Thai yet alone northern dialect is a huge task and much better use of time in my opinion.

21 minutes ago, chawbdurian said:

I'm now pretty sure her all grandsons are gangsters

Probably safe to go there in the mornings and afternoons , though wouldn’t worry too much about it and the cops know who most of them are and they know it.

45 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Any gangs aren't to be trusted, and there's always people who end up as collateral damage as their care for life doesn't exist. Limit your visits or bring the lady elsewhere to talk. You can be the nicest person towards here and be in the wrong place, wrong time if her grandson(s) live with her. 

Yea they all live in one big dilapidated shack. Unfortunately I don't think she would hop on my Honda wave but I'll try and keep my wits about me.
 

24 minutes ago, novacova said:

Probably safe to go there in the mornings and afternoons , though wouldn’t worry too much about it and the cops know who most of them are and they know it.

Definitely wouldn't catch me there after dark.

 

@NorthernRyland what kind of gangster are they though? I have experience with the Mexican cartel and would not like to repeat that again, but if they're more like a mafia then that's ok. I can keep my head down, be polite, and bring gifts now and then. As for why, just personal interest. 

41 minutes ago, chawbdurian said:

@NorthernRyland what kind of gangster are they though? I have experience with the Mexican cartel and would not like to repeat that again, but if they're more like a mafia then that's ok. I can keep my head down, be polite, and bring gifts now and then. As for why, just personal interest. 

 

First of all, once you can tell them apart from Thais you'll notice they're all over Chiang Mai, basically everywhere. If you eat at local restaurants you'll notice the staff is very often thai yai. Construction too. So it's just a minority of them causing problems.

 

no it's nothing like cartels. The stories are usually just them fighting with each other. I'm sure there's some property crime and lots of drug dealing but I wouldn't be afraid of them or actively try to avoid them. I say this but of course there was that Thai girl that got her hand severed with a machete recently but even that I think is a case of mistaken identity. I just wouldn't start a fight with them is all.

 

That comes to mind, since Chiang Mai seems to be filing up with foreigners now I noticed this one farang guy appear around Mae Jo who I've seen drinking at this thai yai girly bar. The guy may be clueless and just saw young girls and that was enough but he really shouldn't be there.  It's a total dive and I wouldn't get anywhere near that place myself but he seems to have survived so far. 😂

 

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Any gangs aren't to be trusted, and there's always people who end up as collateral damage as their care for life doesn't exist. Limit your visits or bring the lady elsewhere to talk. You can be the nicest person towards here and be in the wrong place, wrong time if her grandson(s) live with her. 

You don’t know much about the Tai Yai people do you Fred?

Have you ever met any? 
Do you even know what the OP is talking about?

7 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

You don’t know much about the Tai Yai people do you Fred?

Have you ever met any? 
Do you even know what the OP is talking about?

Malcolm, Try to post a reply without an assumption. I know it's hard for you, seeing it's a habit, but if you really think before you post, it can happen.

 

I did read up on Thailand for decades before I moved here, along with talking to many Thais that owned restaurants both in the NYC and San Antonio area, so yes, I knew a little about Thailand by research. There is a thing called the internet where people can get information about anything . I'm sure you use it yourself when you post things.

 

One thing you might consider. People are much the same worldwide, apart from local customs, including gangs and how they work.

 

The Shan originate in Burma, Myanmar now, and are also located in China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, especially the northern regions. Tai speakers. A Tai ethnic group. We learned about this in high school, and seeing I always liked Asian customs, I researched more.

10 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

You don’t know much about the Tai Yai people do you Fred?

Have you ever met any? 
Do you even know what the OP is talking about?

And as the forum expert on everything,i am sure you know all there is to know about the Thai yai.  No one like s a know all.

13 hours ago, chawbdurian said:

Is my worry merited?

I'd be more worried about the AN forums members ganging up on you. 

 

It's happened to me a couple of times 😂

 

13 hours ago, chawbdurian said:

I started taking Shan language lessons from this old lady near Chiang Mai and I'm now pretty sure her all grandsons are gangsters. They're all friendly but I do wonder if one day while I'm at the house a rival gang will pull up and shoot us to bits. 
 

Is my worry merited?

 

Yes. You have multiple options;

1. Immediately run away

2. Neutralize the threat, by a pre-emptive action, much as what Michael Corleone did a few times in the Godfather

3. Come up with a new tale. Perhaps next time the adventure can be of having carnal relations with one of the gangsters and the family objects.

4 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Malcolm, Try to post a reply without an assumption. I know it's hard for you, seeing it's a habit, but if you really think before you post, it can happen.

 

I did read up on Thailand for decades before I moved here, along with talking to many Thais that owned restaurants both in the NYC and San Antonio area, so yes, I knew a little about Thailand by research. There is a thing called the internet where people can get information about anything . I'm sure you use it yourself when you post things.

 

One thing you might consider. People are much the same worldwide, apart from local customs, including gangs and how they work.

 

The Shan originate in Burma, Myanmar now, and are also located in China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, especially the northern regions. Tai speakers. A Tai ethnic group. We learned about this in high school, and seeing I always liked Asian customs, I researched more.

How many do you know Fred?

1 hour ago, theshu25 said:

And as the forum expert on everything,i am sure you know all there is to know about the Thai yai.  No one like s a know all.

I have slept with one of them, smoked opium with them, been to a wedding and a funeral, good friends with two of them, eaten a lot of their food some of which is delicious without being spicy, taken a few of them to immigration for their reporting and spent quite a few weeks immersed in their culture on an orange farm.

I doubt Fred would know one if he fell over one.

 

Back on topic I can honestly say I never felt the slightest bit scared of them and found them to be warm and friendly.

 

How about yourself?

13 hours ago, chawbdurian said:

Yea they all live in one big dilapidated shack. Unfortunately I don't think she would hop on my Honda wave but I'll try and keep my wits about me.
 

Definitely wouldn't catch me there after dark.

 

@NorthernRyland what kind of gangster are they though? I have experience with the Mexican cartel and would not like to repeat that again, but if they're more like a mafia then that's ok. I can keep my head down, be polite, and bring gifts now and then. As for why, just personal interest. 

My understanding is that there is a class of "excitement junkies" known as "mafia groupies" who like to hang around them ... and the wiseguys tolerate them ... until someone pulls a mean prank, or the mafioso decides to shake one down, or a groupie looks ripe for the picking (involve you in narcotics, either as an unaware smuggler or collateral damage).

 

An artist pal in NY recounted to me how he had helped a young girl on drugs get straight, and her family was most grateful. Her father was a made man and expressed his thanks to my friend. Nevertheless, people in the know advised him to politely accept nothing from anyone connected to that element of society and to keep a prudent distance. There is absolutely no upside to associating with them - for one thing, you might easily wind up in police files, as a potential drug mule or other type of associate.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the same thing applies to the Thai underworld.  

No gang consists of nice friendly people. Think about that and you know all you need or want to know.

3 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

I have slept with one of them, smoked opium with them, been to a wedding and a funeral, good friends with two of them, eaten a lot of their food some of which is delicious without being spicy, taken a few of them to immigration for their reporting and spent quite a few weeks immersed in their culture on an orange farm.

I doubt Fred would know one if he fell over one.

 

Back on topic I can honestly say I never felt the slightest bit scared of them and found them to be warm and friendly.

 

How about yourself?

If you realized how much further I am advanced than you in everything in life, you would dry up and wither away. Like I said, you can't make a reply without an assumption attached. Or exaggerations.

 

I know why, but please tell us why you always ask about other's lives, especially since you'll always turn the answers around to suit your weird agenda.

 

I tell you the facts, and you either completely forget what I said or make it out to be totally different. What does this give you? Are you so jealous of the normal lives of others that you have to take our lives and somehow imagine they are less than your own?

 

Asking for pictures of other's wives and girlfriends. Are you keeping a scrapbook for some weird reason? If you think anyone believes anything you say, when you're caught out in lies you're mistaken.

 

Yes, I've met people from Myanmar, likely long before you left mommy's house, as all cultures and nationalities live in the US, especially in big cities like NYC, and I lived 15 miles from NYC for 30 years, and my parents were from Brooklyn. What you haven't done is been around gangs, as you wouldn't survive. It isn't hard to sleep with hookers, or eat food with ethnic people, as it happens everyday to people who live here, although most don't need to buy women to sleep with them. The way you talk , if you were around gang members, your weird posts would disappear from this forum.

 

If you aren't going to give the OP some good advice about avoiding gang members, try not replying, as it's a lot more dangerous then you'll ever know.

 

Remember to add that to my file although it will certainly come out different when you try and throw it back at me later. What you're not realizing, is that whatever you might have done in your life, I probably already did it, and better, before I turned 25, besides traveling for hookers. 

56 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

No gang consists of nice friendly people. Think about that and you know all you need or want to know.

Working as a security in Oslo, the new Balkans  arriving Norway in the 90ies tried to be friendly, giving us vip passes on their nightclubs, free food on their restaurants, and treated all the neighbours friendly and with respect. There was not in their interest to act or scare the locals, rather not. We knew what we had to deal with, and did not accept as we wouldn’t do or expect from others.

 

somehow my district became more normal after their arrival than before at least on the surface, so their presence made my job easier, but more work for the police who used us as their eyes to report what was going on form our point of view. The violence is more internal than against normal people or call them civilians. 

 

In the 1990s, Balkan criminal groups, particularly those from the former Yugoslavia, began establishing operations in Scandinavia, including Norway, primarily driven by the collapse of Yugoslavia and the associated wars. These groups were involved in crimes like drug and weapons trafficking, and often used the increased cross-border trade and the influx of refugees from the region to their advantage. They were highly organized, brutal, and operated through transnational networks, sometimes infiltrating legal and political institutions through corruption

3 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Working as a security in Oslo, the new Balkans  arriving Norway in the 90ies tried to be friendly, giving us vip passes on their nightclubs, free food on their restaurants, and treated all the neighbours friendly and with respect. There was not in their interest to act or scare the locals, rather not. We knew what we had to deal with, and did not accept as we wouldn’t do or expect from others.

 

somehow my district became more normal after their arrival than before at least on the surface, so their presence made my job easier, but more work for the police who used us as their eyes to report what was going on form our point of view. The violence is more internal than against normal people or call them civilians. 

 

In the 1990s, Balkan criminal groups, particularly those from the former Yugoslavia, began establishing operations in Scandinavia, including Norway, primarily driven by the collapse of Yugoslavia and the associated wars. These groups were involved in crimes like drug and weapons trafficking, and often used the increased cross-border trade and the influx of refugees from the region to their advantage. They were highly organized, brutal, and operated through transnational networks, sometimes infiltrating legal and political institutions through corruption

Absolutely. Inter gang rivalry is the most common area of trouble.

17 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

You don’t know much about the Tai Yai people do you Fred?

Have you ever met any? 
Do you even know what the OP is talking about?

Oh Fred is like Pattaya Lou ...he knows everything!

Please don't call him "know it all " Fred , because he does know it all ...he is a genius 

Thankyou Fred for your service 

[quote]

...

3. Come up with a new tale. Perhaps next time the adventure can be of having carnal relations with one of the gangsters and the family objects.

[/quote]

 

Sorry, is that word 'objects' in your sentence a verb or a noun?  🙂

Probably not much by international gang standards.

 

Thais use the word mafia too easily