On 12/21/2025 at 7:46 PM, Krillin said:

I chose Isaan because, from my perspective, I definitely would not have fit in with the expat communities of larger cities. I could list all of the things I'm not, but in doing so implicitly offend a lot of people. 

 

In my mind, Isaan life meant countryside life, and countryside life meant a quiet life, conservative attitudes, clean air, blue skies, beautiful fields, tight-knit families, hard-working farmers and herders, and a quiet religion. I, uh... Well clearly I was mistaken.

 

Roaming packs of wild, territorial, nocturnal street dogs; temple announcements over giant loudspeakers early in the morning, all-night cowbell and drum concerts utilizing huge subwoofers that can be heard from kilometers away; I hadn't foreseen any of those things. And even if someone had warned me about them, I would probably have responded by saying that they were exaggerating and that no place on Earth could be that over-the-top noisy.

 

How I ended up in the particular town I'm in right now, was actually out of my hands. It's not where I started. 

 

Once I leave Thailand, I intend to never, ever come back. 

Hi Krillin.

I live south of Roi Et and I experience everything that you were looking for. Sure, we get the occasional loud party or festival in the village but, after careful consideration of many factors, we bought some land and built our house 600 metres outside the village. That, and the thick walls of our house, mean that I can sleep soundly if they are partying. Fortunately, none of the farms around us have cockerels, either.

As someone else said, one bad neighbour can spoil it all and you appear to have been unfortunate. However, your original vision still exists in many parts of Thailand if you want to reconsider.

As I'm not a million miles from KK, I'd be happy to meet up and swap notes. PM me if interested.

All the best.

p.s. I've spent 24hrs in Pattaya and it's not for me either but there appear to be many who find their happiness there.

35 minutes ago, IsaanT said:

Ditto, although I've yet to find another interesting farang in my parts. If I do, of course I'd welcome the opportunity.

I arrived in November and haven't spoken with one farang since i arrived.

Just wait until a karaoke bar opens near you...

Very hard to get away from noise anywhere in Thailand.

Thais enjoy it. Why?

Many years ago I read an article that explained that hundreds of years ago, Thais lived in the jungle where tigers and other wild animals roamed at night. Loud noise kept them out of the village. Seemed plausible to me that it it has been something passed down over generations.

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I suppose it depends on where you're meeting these expats, I think if you meeting them in the normal suspect locations like Phuket, Samui, and Pattaya, there's a strong possibility that they're not high quality folks.

I've met a lot of wonderful expats in Thailand, that are highly accomplished, smart, very level-headed, fun to talk to and be around, and I've had the good fortune to establish wonderful and rich friendships with them. There are a lot of high quality expats here, you just have to be fortunate enough to meet them, and smart and discriminating enough to screen out the others.

I agree totally - and plan to move to Isaan from a very smart condo in the centre of Bkk when my lease ends in May

At the end of the day if you meet like- minded people and create genuine friendships the occasional noisy festival will not spoil all of the rest of the attributes of the area

The answer for me is don't live in a Thai village. I made that mistake years ago. Everything has to be loud. Funerals. Monk making. New house parties. Village messages. Dogs at night. Electioneering vans etc etc etc.

And everything starts at 5.30 in the mornings.

On 12/21/2025 at 8:44 AM, Krillin said:

Is this sort of thing normal, or is my town just crazy?

Quite normal – it happens now and then...😉

I enjoy the sound of the local temple-party for about 10-days twice a year – unfiortunately, they got two stages, and I hear both of them at the same time...

On 12/21/2025 at 9:06 AM, Krillin said:

By the way: Cool nice little PA-Front-Of-House-stack for a small party...😎

Always look on the bright side of life: Be happy you don't live 1½ miles away from the famous/infamous Full Moon Party – it continues to sunrise...👍

I live 7 miles away and can, besides the Full Moon-thing, also enjoy the funky bass from Black Moon Parties and Jungle Parties, it's same party-procedure every month...😄

It's amazing how far sound travels at night. We live 2 km, and on the other side of town, from where concerts are often held, but it sounds like they are next door.

It's pretty amazing how every small town can seemingly have a free public concert, fair, circus, market or whatever every other week. Plus the 23 or so public holidays (admittedly only for gov't workers) each year.

I am confident we could start a group "So sorry I moved to Isaan Dog Hell" ... and it wold have 1,000 members in a week. There is no point in me ranting, just want you to know you are not alone. We had a wonderful life on floor 30 riverside condo in Bangkok, and took all our money to build an house in Isaan. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if you took a one kilometer radius and drew a circle around our house, there are probably 1,000 dogs in total ... and not ONE of them is trained to come when called, sit, stay, and STFU! 555. The best advice to give anyone thinking "move to the quite farmlands and enjoy nature" ... NOTHING could be further from reality, I mean, you can't even go for a walk, and riding a bicycle is basically an invitation to the emergency ward at the local hospital. And a good night's sleep = IMPOSSIBLE.

1 hour ago, JustinTyme said:

I am confident we could start a group "So sorry I moved to Isaan Dog Hell" ... and it wold have 1,000 members in a week. There is no point in me ranting, just want you to know you are not alone. We had a wonderful life on floor 30 riverside condo in Bangkok, and took all our money to build an house in Isaan. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if you took a one kilometer radius and drew a circle around our house, there are probably 1,000 dogs in total ... and not ONE of them is trained to come when called, sit, stay, and STFU! 555. The best advice to give anyone thinking "move to the quite farmlands and enjoy nature" ... NOTHING could be further from reality, I mean, you can't even go for a walk, and riding a bicycle is basically an invitation to the emergency ward at the local hospital. And a good night's sleep = IMPOSSIBLE.

We have a home in Issan too, and I go there as rarely as possible, even though I adore my woman's family. Fortunately they come to visit us often.

On 12/21/2025 at 3:09 PM, msbkk said:

Not normal but also not abnormal. You might enquire how many days or weeks it will last.

Sensible advice. It could be a local festival as I found out when I lived in rural Khon Kaen Province, usually lasting 5 days.

On 12/21/2025 at 7:46 PM, Krillin said:

I chose Isaan because, from my perspective, I definitely would not have fit in with the expat communities of larger cities. I could list all of the things I'm not, but in doing so implicitly offend a lot of people. 

 

In my mind, Isaan life meant countryside life, and countryside life meant a quiet life, conservative attitudes, clean air, blue skies, beautiful fields, tight-knit families, hard-working farmers and herders, and a quiet religion. I, uh... Well clearly I was mistaken.

 

Roaming packs of wild, territorial, nocturnal street dogs; temple announcements over giant loudspeakers early in the morning, all-night cowbell and drum concerts utilizing huge subwoofers that can be heard from kilometers away; I hadn't foreseen any of those things. And even if someone had warned me about them, I would probably have responded by saying that they were exaggerating and that no place on Earth could be that over-the-top noisy.

 

How I ended up in the particular town I'm in right now, was actually out of my hands. It's not where I started. 

 

Once I leave Thailand, I intend to never, ever come back. 

I've lived here 19 years, moved several times, but still haven't found a quiet place to live. For the last 12 years or so I've lived on the edge of a golf course in a small community of executive type houses outside of a small village. Sounds ideal, but it's within a kilometre of two colleges where they have regular music festivals, very close to a temple and there are very noisy dogs in some of the houses in the community. But the killer is over the last year or two, lots of pool villas have been built in the area, where Thai tourists come at the weekend and holidays to let off steam. These all have very powerful sound systems and the bass noise passes through the walls and windows of my house no problem. I know from past experience that if I move elsewhere in this country I'll just find more of the same so I put up with it, I'm too old to move and the UK's no longer for me.

1 hour ago, boloaf said:

I've lived here 19 years, moved several times, but still haven't found a quiet place to live. For the last 12 years or so I've lived on the edge of a golf course in a small community of executive type houses outside of a small village. Sounds ideal, but it's within a kilometre of two colleges where they have regular music festivals, very close to a temple and there are very noisy dogs in some of the houses in the community. But the killer is over the last year or two, lots of pool villas have been built in the area, where Thai tourists come at the weekend and holidays to let off steam. These all have very powerful sound systems and the bass noise passes through the walls and windows of my house no problem. I know from past experience that if I move elsewhere in this country I'll just find more of the same so I put up with it, I'm too old to move and the UK's no longer for me.

I've lived in 3 different villages near Chiang Mai for the past 16 years.

Never any noise problems.

On 12/21/2025 at 1:46 PM, Krillin said:

Once I leave Thailand, I intend to never, ever come back. 

Sad. Never to come back to Thailand because of one experience of a few days in an Isaan village? Sounds to me like you didn't do proper due diligence. What you describe is a part of village life as far as I can gather. Are you serious? Or Bob Smith?

Even in Hua Hin city at Xmas the temple next to my peaceful residence becomes a rock'n'roll/mor lam/EDM stadium. 10 long nights long through to New Year. Although there is another condo building between mine and the seismic epicenter, it's like someone has stacked the subwoofers outside my bedroom. Fortunately the noise finishes at one am so sleep is possible after. And I enjoy morlam and intelligent EDM as well so I went along a couple of times. The atmosphere's great. Food as well. Shame you didn't go along to see what was up.

On a tangent, are you by any chance a digital nomad? I'm curious because you said you're a day worker, yet living way beyond the boonies. Just wondering what kind of day job is available to a village farang that's all.

There are no noise complaints or possibly even noise bye-laws in Isaan - because what you experienced is what your idealized cow herders and monks and tight-knit families actually all want. It's their lifestyle.

May have something to do with otherwise sparse entertainment in the village. Excitement being restricted in my experience (I have a little, but wouldn't consider living there till I'm perhaps 80 or so) to the mom'n'pop shop, perhaps with a tinny radio offering a quiet sound track, and the daily migration of the cattle to and from their grazing ground. Oh yeah, and the odd pig squealing as it gets slaughtered. And TV. Lots of TV. Top volume lakhon - screaming, murders, gunshots, fights and appalling 'dramatic' mood 'music'. Top volume. All day. Most houses.

Thailand is actually an extremely noisy country in the main wherever you go. Something to which the Thias seem impervious as it's their culture. It makes it almost impossible to find the type of bucolic paradise you seek here, except perhaps as a forest monk ... and even then ...

As you mentioned, even the cockerels will wake you up after the dogs have finally gone to sleep.

55 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I've lived in 3 different villages near Chiang Mai for the past 16 years.

Never any noise problems.

That's the first time I've ever read anything like this 555

On 12/22/2025 at 11:15 AM, Woke to Sounds said:

 

 

 

So you moved to small town in KK to work a day job?

 

I call bullsh** people.

Definitely

14 hours ago, JustinTyme said:

I am confident we could start a group "So sorry I moved to Isaan Dog Hell" ... and it wold have 1,000 members in a week. There is no point in me ranting, just want you to know you are not alone. We had a wonderful life on floor 30 riverside condo in Bangkok, and took all our money to build an house in Isaan. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if you took a one kilometer radius and drew a circle around our house, there are probably 1,000 dogs in total ... and not ONE of them is trained to come when called, sit, stay, and STFU! 555. The best advice to give anyone thinking "move to the quite farmlands and enjoy nature" ... NOTHING could be further from reality, I mean, you can't even go for a walk, and riding a bicycle is basically an invitation to the emergency ward at the local hospital. And a good night's sleep = IMPOSSIBLE.

That's quite a generalisation and not true for the area I live in.

Sure there are the occasional parties, funerals, etc.

However, it isn't hell and a good night sleep is had most nights.

4 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

That's quite a generalisation and not true for the area I live in.

Sure there are the occasional parties, funerals, etc.

However, it isn't hell and a good night sleep is had most nights.

I agree.

I lived near Phu Wiang, a small town in rural Khon Kaen Province. Yes, there was noise from the ocassional town and temple festivals but all ceased by around midnight and then all was quiet. I always got a good nights sleep (and still do here in a suburb of Siem Reap, well away from Pub Street)