Farangs In Buri Ram

[llso]

Not sure if this topic has been discussed before. When I first went to Buriram with my now wife 8 years ago I don't think I sen another Farang. I was living in Thailand at the time and we would visit several times a year you know for the usual events New Year Songkran, some special event Wedding or Funeral. Each time we went I would see one or two more Farangs. In Buriram city that is. In 2000 our village was very isolated and only had dirt roads. Now the roads are paved. A couple of years ago as we were driving into the village from Hwy 219 I saw a couple of really nice houses being built. I siad to my wife wow, people are doing good. She told me that those were houses being built by Farangs. I was absolutely shocked that Farangs were invading our vilage.

Then one day i get a phone call it was Mama wanting to know if the the Farang boyfriend of our neighbor across the street could stay in our hose as he disn't want to stay in her shack. Another time when we were in the village I walked arounfd the corner to the shop to get a cold Chang and there was an old drunk Farang sitting there. He followed ne home and it wasn't until his thai girlfriend came looking for him he left.

I just recently found out that two of the guys that lived in our street in Hua Hin have moved and are building houses in their Girlfriend/wifes villages in Issan. It seems to me there are going to be a lot of Farangs in Issan if this trend continues.

LL

[Lourens]

You might be surprised. now, I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but there seem to be more and more in Buriram everytime I look. I also moved into a village just outside of town in 1999. It was difficult to get something as simple as a cup of coffee in town in those days. Today, just eight or nine years later, the place is practically cosmopolitan. Have a look HERE and you will see what I mean.

[Thaicoon]

I have been going to Buriram since 1994/95, spending up to 2 months a time then with the girlfriend, now wife, there were about 10 ferangs there, all mates and they drank at the old embassy, one nice coulored gentleman called arnie, sadly passed away, a real gent, when i first went to our village, i thought what a place, what have i got myself into,living thai style, then the vong tong opened, so we stayed there sometimes, as Lourens says, dirt road also to our village with big ruts, the times i got the pick up stuck and had to be towed, there were a couple of really seedy joints in town, i think one is still going, Gander?, the shophouses on dodgy road and old cola bar, past the elephant, police closed that about 3 years ago, Also remember Dave opening the Bamboo, he was a character, he is back in the UK, skint, spoke to his ex Mrs yesterday, nice guy but no Business sense, one thing everywhere you went children would come and see the ferang, you do not get this in Buriram to much these days, things change sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse, it was a real culture shock, i hope to move there fulltime in the near future,as we built our house in 1999/2000, i have a good mate Geoff who has been there a lifetime, nice guy, now i love the place and cannot wait to be there fulltime, but got to behave myself, no falling off motorcycles pie eyed at 3 am.

Everytime now i visit, new houses, they are going up like lego, Buriram is an up and coming city.

Edited June 13, 2008 by Thaicoon