Livin In The Village Or Livin In Pattaya?

[Neeranam]

A village or a brothel?

No argument, village everytime.

But the brothel is convenient if you get sick.

You can buy 'yorkshire pudding' in the brothel. A couple of the many denial statements.

As for living in either of them - never. In the sburubs of a good-sized city is best for me.

[jackyseymour]

As much as I love the peaceful tranquility in our favourite isaan village, the under surface threat of danger is always there, back in the last century years before yorky had even heard of surin on a balmy november evening I was witness to a murder, if the pistol had not have jammed I would have been dead too!! and for what? a case of mistaken identity,it does not matter where you are in todays thailand, the threat of violence or some form of retaliation is always bubbling just under the surface if a thai feel wrongly treated or slighted. I am not saying this threat is not there in other countries,I just feel that behind that friendly tuk tuk or taxidrivers smile a threat is also hidden

And this is it. You never know if that pickup leaning on the horn behind you because you just don't feel save driving 100 kms an hour down that soi might just pull up alongside and pull out a gun and blow your head off. Just because he can. I have a friend on Bali who refuses to come here. He says the Thais are too 'wild'. And he's from Jakarta

[b00]

Are those the only two choices you are considering? I would say you should broadin your horizons a bit. Quite a contrast between Pataya & a rural village, although it seems many Farang gents wind up in one or the other, neither are my cup of tea, nor is Bangkok.

Not at all mate,

A village? why on earth would i want to move there? middle of know where and everyone thinks im a millionare? causes problems straight away!

Pattaya, i couldnt think of a place worse on the planet!

If i didnt live in bangkok i would live in thailand.

I can't understand why you are asking?

Im asking becuase the murder/suicide rates are higher in the village or pattaya than other places in thailand.

Anyway dont take it personal anyone this is meant to be a debate!

[poshthai]

boo,

there are many places to visit much worse than Pattaya.I can take you to many very scary places in stoke on trent and some bars that if your acent is not stokie you will have a big problem.I can spend 7 days in Pattaya and only see greenery or i can see many bars,the choice is ours to take,and i dont go to walking st,maybe twice in 4years,now thats a shit hole.

[britmaveric]

Blackpool comes to mind - scary place!

[G54]

You are more likely to have an accident in the village. Town and cities get priority over electricity. A drop of rain and the lights go out for hours. A storm and the lights go out for up to a week. Stumbling around in the dark after a few Beer Chang with no concrete around the house, potholes everywhere, dogs lurking in wait, spiders, scorpions, those centipede killers, and family sleeping scattered on the floor because they do not like to sleep alone in the dark.

Hazards a plenty.

No water for the toilet. No candles. No parrafin lamp. No mobile phone to call for help (as the battery is flat with no electric).

Add to that the other perils of living in a village do not compare with the same hazards and perils of living in Pattya or similar places.

[issanpaul]

You could live in my wife's village (Sa Kaew), a collection of about 9 houses, no shop- just the mobile pick up variety, no mains water, nil street lighting & telephone lines and be a recluse quite easily. No one would bother you at all!!!

Better to live in a sizable provincial town with decent amenities. Mine only 3 hours from Bangkok a 'run ashore' every couple of months, just what the doc ordered.

Piccy of my last visit to Mum in Laws on 'Mothers Day', the trucks mine!

Shame on you

should of bought house first

[poshthai]

Blackpool comes to mind - scary place!

yes,give me Pattaya anyday before Blackpool,now thats a shit hole of the highest order.

[issanpaul]

Blackpool comes to mind - scary place!

yes,give me Pattaya anyday before Blackpool,now thats a shit hole of the highest order.

There both shitholes

[thaimate]

when in my wifes village i get on with all the familly and neighbours,they love to come and see the farang serving in her sisters store. its the only thing that stops me climbing the walls with boredom.

had a buisness in bkk ,bloody dirty and noisy ,give me Patters ,loverly on the darkside ,drives into the country and some days going into town to see the wildlife enjoying themselves.

[britmaveric]

Blackpool comes to mind - scary place!

yes,give me Pattaya anyday before Blackpool,now thats a shit hole of the highest order.

There both shitholes

Patters is Disneyland compared to Blackpool

[grantbkk]

My family fought adversity for generations to get out of the jungle so I'm not going back to the jungle until they install a high speed public transportation system, world class entertainment centers, fine dining restaurants, hyper markets and lots of pubs to relax and meet women in. Bangkok is only halfway there but here I am.

As for as safety goes Thailand is not the most dangerous place on earth but if you get on someone's radar it really doesn't matter if you are in the city or in your hut in the jungle. They will find you and kill you. Avoid confrontation of any kind. Smile a lot even when things are not going your way. The hours of 1:00 AM to about 5:00 AM are the most dangerous to be out on the street when you factor out traffic accidents. Alcohol and drug fueled violent crime is most prevalent late at night. Don't advertise your wealth unless you have a security team to back you up. Lock your doors on your car and home to help avoid becoming a crime of opportunity. Your wife or girlfriend can become the source of the most danger to you without even realizing it. You may have the perfect woman but since she tells her family and friends EVERYTHING you have no secrets. Your gold, money or jewelery hoard will eventually become common knowledge. When the black sheep of the family hears this it is forever etched in his or her brain. Desperate people resort to desperate measures and your stuff becomes fair game. You can still be a high profile victim without the cooperation of your significant other. Keep those life insurance policies small and remember if you die the family shares the cash. One desperate gambler cousin can seal your fate.

[b00]

You could live in my wife's village (Sa Kaew), a collection of about 9 houses, no shop- just the mobile pick up variety, no mains water, nil street lighting & telephone lines and be a recluse quite easily. No one would bother you at all!!!

Better to live in a sizable provincial town with decent amenities. Mine only 3 hours from Bangkok a 'run ashore' every couple of months, just what the doc ordered.

Piccy of my last visit to Mum in Laws on 'Mothers Day', the trucks mine!

I hope you didnt stay there after dark mate, who knows what would of happened to you?

[mrcheshire]

I say village livin is for the villagers! and the occasional offbeat farang

Since the beginning of time and be4 that villagers want to move to the city. Go figgure!

[issanpaul]

You could live in my wife's village (Sa Kaew), a collection of about 9 houses, no shop- just the mobile pick up variety, no mains water, nil street lighting & telephone lines and be a recluse quite easily. No one would bother you at all!!!

Better to live in a sizable provincial town with decent amenities. Mine only 3 hours from Bangkok a 'run ashore' every couple of months, just what the doc ordered.

Piccy of my last visit to Mum in Laws on 'Mothers Day', the trucks mine!

I hope you didnt stay there after dark mate, who knows what would of happened to you?

BTW I love the washing line

[llso]

Interesting question:

I have never actually "lived: in the Village but spent a lot of time there. I never felt threatened and I guess it depends on what kind of relationship you have with the family. I speak Thai failry well and that helped.They knew from the start I wasn't a rich Farang so knew they couldn't expect too much. In my wife's village 80% of the people are related to the the family in one way or another. This made a difference as everyone typically got along well. The village was so dam_n remote never hardly seen anyone else. Now they have a paved road from the main highway years ago it was a miles long journey down a rutted dirt track to get there. I told my wife from the start trhat I didn't care if she wanted to kiss her family's behind but I was not going to. We built a nice house bought some farmland (well actually my wife did now we live in U.S.) I get along very well with my wife's sisters children. They are very respectful and consider me part of the family since they were all very young when I came on the scene. So I have been a part of their lives some from birth.

Some others are right about being isolated I would usually find some kind of project to do when I was there just to keep busy. More work on the house , Building a block wall fence, Made a nice outdoor kitchen with some leftover blocks and tiles from building. Some paving and brush clearing. I enjoy my time in the village and everyone has come to know me. including the village idiot who I was a bit aggravated at first but now he is OK. I don't know how different things woukld have been if I had lived there permanently. The family is certainly better off since I came around. I lived in Thailand for 7 years and never had a bit of trouble with anybody. Just be polite and don't do anything stupid and you will be fine.

LL

[sonofdon]

This is what i dont get a guy says he isnt gonna kiss butt of wife family, yet wife builds family nice house. Can wife do it wo husband? You are building a house for them is what i see, nothing wrong with it i just dont see how man can say he not part of the wifes generosity so to say.

And family is better off since he came around, is this guy some kind of savior. I think he knows how to make life better, contrubute money.

[girlx]

I am very happy living in the suburbs of Bangkok as im away form the city centre nonsense, and it’s a hel_l of a lot safer and peaceful walking around here.

erm- the outskirts of BKK aren't really a "village". and you aren't really "farang".

i agree with people who said being one of a few farangs in a village is almost as dangerous as being in pattaya. not only because a village is removed from civilization, but because villagers are often ignorant and prejudicial of foreigner's ways, and can easily get offended (and thus vengeful) or exploitative.

[whatsoever]

A village or a brothel?

No argument, village everytime.

village or brothel - village everytime (agree 100%)

Thai village or brothel - brothel everytime

[G54]

This is what i dont get a guy says he isnt gonna kiss butt of wife family, yet wife builds family nice house. Can wife do it wo husband? You are building a house for them is what i see, nothing wrong with it i just dont see how man can say he not part of the wifes generosity so to say.

And family is better off since he came around, is this guy some kind of savior. I think he knows how to make life better, contrubute money.

Why does he have to be some sort of saviour?

When living with a thai don't most of us contribute in some way? Maybe we buy a washing machine, a fridge, help out with concrete around the outside of the house, maybe decorate inside the house instead of the grey walls (unless they live in a tin hut).

Pay for the odd nights out. Take them to the buffet. Buy clothes or help here and there with bills.

Many other little things we can do that can make a difference and often make life better.

None of the above are going to break the bank.

I am not advocating we pay through the nose, but helping is another matter and I do not see why that means we are some sort of saviour.

[bangkokrick]

It really depends on your indicidual situation as to whether you would choose to live in a rural village on in the city of Pattaya. I would suggest that the men who live in the villages have a Thai wife or girlfriend and that Pattaya is for single guys.

Once the Pattaya lady has made the catch the last thing she would want is to lose it to another women, so they always want to move back to their villages. This also helps the direct family on a local level because the Farang is living on the door step.

hel_l if i suggested to my Thai wife that we go to live in Pattaya i would wake up surrounded by ducks minus my gonads.

Cheers, Rick

[mizzi39]

This is what i dont get a guy says he isnt gonna kiss butt of wife family, yet wife builds family nice house. Can wife do it wo husband? You are building a house for them is what i see, nothing wrong with it i just dont see how man can say he not part of the wifes generosity so to say.

And family is better off since he came around, is this guy some kind of savior. I think he knows how to make life better, contrubute money.

Watch this one. I have a bad feeling that this is a reincarnation of cynthialee or part of her trollish family.

[llso]

This is what i dont get a guy says he isnt gonna kiss butt of wife family, yet wife builds family nice house. Can wife do it wo husband? You are building a house for them is what i see, nothing wrong with it i just dont see how man can say he not part of the wifes generosity so to say.

And family is better off since he came around, is this guy some kind of savior. I think he knows how to make life better, contrubute money.

Why does he have to be some sort of saviour?

When living with a thai don't most of us contribute in some way? Maybe we buy a washing machine, a fridge, help out with concrete around the outside of the house, maybe decorate inside the house instead of the grey walls (unless they live in a tin hut).

Pay for the odd nights out. Take them to the buffet. Buy clothes or help here and there with bills.

Many other little things we can do that can make a difference and often make life better.

None of the above are going to break the bank.

I am not advocating we pay through the nose, but helping is another matter and I do not see why that means we are some sort of saviour.

Well let me clarify,

When I said I'm not going to kiss their butt, I meant I wasn't going to do anything extravagant, Like buy new truck for them, Give them large chunks of Baht. My wife when she is in the village really bends over backwards to please her family special food, catering to them, especially her Father. What I meant I was not going to go to same extremes as she does in trying to please them.

As for the house. It is by no means extravagant but a nice two level "Issan House". They had already started building ( roof and poles in place) it when I came on the scene. At the time wife then girlfriend was pregnant with our daughter. My job situation in Thailand was starting to look bad and we were going to be closing our factory. Finishing the house was a bit of insurance that if I had to abandon Thailand they, wife and child would have a suitable place to live until I could return of arrange immigration for them. AS it turns out I hung on in Thailand for another 5 years. I fixed up the house to make it more comfortable for my extended stays there. I also got a lot of things pumps, water tanks, air conditions and other stuff when our factory finally closed down for good. The house and land is completely in my wifes name. I rerally don't mind helping them out because they really need it. The old house was nothing more than a chicken coop.

My philosophy and now my wifes too is that we will help them but not to the point that it hurts us. It took a while for my wife to see this point of view.

LL

[bassmaster50]

I have lived in Pattaya and in rural village, and didn't find either one nearly as dangerous as New York or any large American city. If you walk around drunk in Pattaya alleys at 3am you could have a problem, just as you would in any high-crime area in US. And as for villagers, they were always friendlier to me than even in small town in US. Mind your own business, avoid conflicts and take basic security precautions and I don't see anything particularly dangerous about living anywhere in Thailand.

[zorro1]

lots of mention of being"ripped off" in the city so what does that mean? are you saying physically robbed or payed 50 bht to much for the rolex? I dont get it, I live on Suhk BKK and if Im being ripped off then I dont notice it as I pay the same for my beer at the landmark hotel as the guy sitting next to me

[Nignoy]

This is what i dont get a guy says he isnt gonna kiss butt of wife family, yet wife builds family nice house. Can wife do it wo husband? You are building a house for them is what i see, nothing wrong with it i just dont see how man can say he not part of the wifes generosity so to say.

And family is better off since he came around, is this guy some kind of savior. I think he knows how to make life better, contrubute money.

Why does he have to be some sort of saviour?

When living with a thai don't most of us contribute in some way? Maybe we buy a washing machine, a fridge, help out with concrete around the outside of the house, maybe decorate inside the house instead of the grey walls (unless they live in a tin hut).

Pay for the odd nights out. Take them to the buffet. Buy clothes or help here and there with bills.

Many other little things we can do that can make a difference and often make life better.

None of the above are going to break the bank.

I am not advocating we pay through the nose, but helping is another matter and I do not see why that means we are some sort of saviour.

Well let me clarify,

When I said I'm not going to kiss their butt, I meant I wasn't going to do anything extravagant, Like buy new truck for them, Give them large chunks of Baht. My wife when she is in the village really bends over backwards to please her family special food, catering to them, especially her Father. What I meant I was not going to go to same extremes as she does in trying to please them.

As for the house. It is by no means extravagant but a nice two level "Issan House". They had already started building ( roof and poles in place) it when I came on the scene. At the time wife then girlfriend was pregnant with our daughter. My job situation in Thailand was starting to look bad and we were going to be closing our factory. Finishing the house was a bit of insurance that if I had to abandon Thailand they, wife and child would have a suitable place to live until I could return of arrange immigration for them. AS it turns out I hung on in Thailand for another 5 years. I fixed up the house to make it more comfortable for my extended stays there. I also got a lot of things pumps, water tanks, air conditions and other stuff when our factory finally closed down for good. The house and land is completely in my wifes name. I rerally don't mind helping them out because they really need it. The old house was nothing more than a chicken coop.

My philosophy and now my wifes too is that we will help them but not to the point that it hurts us. It took a while for my wife to see this point of view.

LL

We werent doing anything, apart from digging new wells for the village, building roads and and bridges and an airfield, some yokel out of the next village(which wasoff limits anyway)thought he recognised some one who had insulted him, he walked up to us and started shooting,the poor bugger he killed had only been in thailand 72 hours it was his first time out of camp!!you dont haveto do anything, these days being a farang is enough reason to be attacked!!

[phutoie2]

You could live in my wife's village (Sa Kaew), a collection of about 9 houses, no shop- just the mobile pick up variety, no mains water, nil street lighting & telephone lines and be a recluse quite easily. No one would bother you at all!!!

Better to live in a sizable provincial town with decent amenities. Mine only 3 hours from Bangkok a 'run ashore' every couple of months, just what the doc ordered.

Piccy of my last visit to Mum in Laws on 'Mothers Day', the trucks mine!

I hope you didnt stay there after dark mate, who knows what would of happened to you?

BTW I love the washing line

That not a washing line!!!, its an electric cable to a light bulb for the outside loo (john). The best bit which is not clear from the photo is that the house only has 3 sides!, I asked once, who knows !

I have offered over the years to pay for improvements but Mum only accepts a little money off me for pork & groceries. They farm 13 rai of land so they do manage and brought up 6 children in that house, all who turned out ok, good honest working folk.

I have stayed there overnight many times, its a good stop over on the way to Koh Chang or Rayong coastline for us. On recent visit, mum in law bought me a new mosquito net, orange one, nice touch!