Living In A Village - Was It Tolerable For You?

[marty147]

The key thing is to keep yourself occupied. I started work at the local secondary school - not for the money but because it gave structure to the day. There are about 200 residents in my adopted village and I'm the only Farang for about 20km. Depending on your attititude you can take one of two approaches - positive or negative.

6am - PA system cranks up

positive = get up early and go to bed early - appreciate the early morning action

negative = start the day in a lousy mood and wish you could lie in 'til noon

No other farang for miles

positive - relish in your celebrity as everyone knows and recognises you

negative - feel crushed by the isolation

No western food

positive = reduce the spiciness and Thai food is quite agreeable (and much better for your health)

negative = lust after McDonalds every day with its high salt, fat and MSG

However, not everyone can adapt and that is no judgement, simply an observation.

I went to the 'big town' a few weeks ago and resented the hundreds of motorbikes with accompanying noise and pollution. I couldn't wait to get back to the tranquility of the rice fields where the biggest dangers are the free range cows that wander into your path.

However, one caveat - I am still working on a plan to disable the PA system permanently - I can be postive only up to a point....

[Lopburi99]

Hi Mate,

Firstly I know how you feel!! I have been living ina small village called Bangnong 35 km outside surratthanee, where there is no farangs whatsoever, (there are a few I have met in Surrat itself) I have renovated the entire top floor of the FAMILIES farmhouse to western standards so at least I have a retreat!! I have been here approx 2 years now and still find it quite hard as my thai is very poor(just cant learn tried and tried!!)

I originally moved here to keep an eye on a couple of Thai workers who were supposedly farming my rubber and making rubber air dried sheet for me!!! That was a laugh one for me and two for them!!!.

So now I have built a small factory for processing the rubber into smoked ribbed sheets very proffitable if done right, and we are still learning, althiugh we are now producing abouth 900-1000kg per day and at 69-72bt per kg thats not bad,

If I didnt have this buisness I would have gone up the wall by now, as it is very hard doing nothing especially if you have no means of communication except with your wife to translate everything, even then you only get about 2/3rds of the conversation.

I have managed to get to pattaya a couple of times for r&r but it is quite difficult as we are very busy, If I had a choice I wouldnt have come here I would have stayed in my luxury condo!!! with all my freinds and all the mod cons, However I have made my own bed so to speak!!

Once we become established and can find someone I trust (LOL) maybe I can install him as a manager and have some more R&R

best of Luck

Paul

Well done Paul. Excellent you adapted as required and built a new business.

I had thought about starting a business of some sort here, but not speaking Thai I expected that might be difficult and risky. Besides, all my life I worked in IT. I used to me a big cheese Project Director assigned to problem national accounts - they used to call me "The Cleaner" - before my disability made such activities impossible. There wasn't any development project I couldn't get on back on track and the client happy again. I loved the work, but wasn't popular within the company because of the staffing changes I always had to make to create a team which could succeed. Adjusting to retired life and having unlimited spare time has been extremely difficult for somebody who used to be as busy as I.

Others have posted about this burning rubber. Happily, I have been spared this. Sounds ugly.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[Lopburi99]

...

However, one caveat - I am still working on a plan to disable the PA system permanently - I can be postive only up to a point....

I've heard of members who have paid off (somebody) to cut the loud speaker wires or short them out or hide a sound-reducing resistor. Sounds like probably a bad idea, right? Sure is tempting though. Seems like it may come back to bite us in the @ss if we did that though.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[offset]

I moved from Chiang Mai to a small hamlet 10k outside of Prachinburi in May. Wife's grandparents house. Her grandfather was dying ( he died 2 weeks after we moved in ) and the family wanted someone to take care of the house.

So far I am adapting.

I have found that life can be nice if you can converse in Thai. I'm not fluent as of yet, but can rattle of sentences and be understood.

To me, that is the secret of having a comfy exsistence in the sticks.

The hamlet I'm in ( I call it a hamlet because there are only approx 300 here ) is family and friends of the family and everybody knows each other.

Makes it pretty easy if I need something.

I have started running again after a 3 year break, which kills 3 hrs in the morning.

Here's a pic of the street in front of the house...no neighbors in sight.

I am having a house built in Nom Hom which is just outside of Prachinburi early in the new year into a very small village I am trying to keep an open mind on whether I will be able to adapt but I will give it a fair try I did try to look up your village on Google Earth but it did not show

[gpdjohn]

Hi Mate,

Firstly I know how you feel!! I have been living ina small village called Bangnong 35 km outside surratthanee, where there is no farangs whatsoever, (there are a few I have met in Surrat itself) I have renovated the entire top floor of the FAMILIES farmhouse to western standards so at least I have a retreat!! I have been here approx 2 years now and still find it quite hard as my thai is very poor(just cant learn tried and tried!!)

I originally moved here to keep an eye on a couple of Thai workers who were supposedly farming my rubber and making rubber air dried sheet for me!!! That was a laugh one for me and two for them!!!.

So now I have built a small factory for processing the rubber into smoked ribbed sheets very proffitable if done right, and we are still learning, althiugh we are now producing abouth 900-1000kg per day and at 69-72bt per kg thats not bad,

If I didnt have this buisness I would have gone up the wall by now, as it is very hard doing nothing especially if you have no means of communication except with your wife to translate everything, even then you only get about 2/3rds of the conversation.

I have managed to get to pattaya a couple of times for r&r but it is quite difficult as we are very busy, If I had a choice I wouldnt have come here I would have stayed in my luxury condo!!! with all my freinds and all the mod cons, However I have made my own bed so to speak!!

Once we become established and can find someone I trust (LOL) maybe I can install him as a manager and have some more R&R

best of Luck

Paul

My cousin just bought 650 rubber tree saplings ans some land just outside Kabin to star his own little plantation. Monday we drove there and spent the day on his land drinking some brewdawgs and eating some BBQ pork. Another rubber farmer arrived and then we went to see her small plantation and learned how to tap the trees ( my cousin kne but I had no idea..)...this one was in the middle of nowhere. Lots of those white rubber bricks bricks laying around, but she was saying that's where you make the money, with the sheets.

Really cool. I learned allot.

I wish my camera wasn't out of commission right now as I would have taken numerous photos.

[offset]

...

However, one caveat - I am still working on a plan to disable the PA system permanently - I can be postive only up to a point....

I've heard of members who have paid off (somebody) to cut the loud speaker wires or short them out or hide a sound-reducing resistor. Sounds like probably a bad idea, right? Sure is tempting though. Seems like it may come back to bite us in the @ss if we did that though.

Have you tried to use ear plugs I had to use them in the UK when we had some road work done outside my old house they worked for me

[gpdjohn]

I moved from Chiang Mai to a small hamlet 10k outside of Prachinburi in May. Wife's grandparents house. Her grandfather was dying ( he died 2 weeks after we moved in ) and the family wanted someone to take care of the house.

So far I am adapting.

I have found that life can be nice if you can converse in Thai. I'm not fluent as of yet, but can rattle of sentences and be understood.

To me, that is the secret of having a comfy exsistence in the sticks.

The hamlet I'm in ( I call it a hamlet because there are only approx 300 here ) is family and friends of the family and everybody knows each other.

Makes it pretty easy if I need something.

I have started running again after a 3 year break, which kills 3 hrs in the morning.

Here's a pic of the street in front of the house...no neighbors in sight.

I am having a house built in Nom Hom which is just outside of Prachinburi early in the new year into a very small village I am trying to keep an open mind on whether I will be able to adapt but I will give it a fair try I did try to look up your village on Google Earth but it did not show

You're going to be my neighbor! I 'm in Nernhom. That will up the total of farang to around 5!

[offset]

I moved from Chiang Mai to a small hamlet 10k outside of Prachinburi in May. Wife's grandparents house. Her grandfather was dying ( he died 2 weeks after we moved in ) and the family wanted someone to take care of the house.

So far I am adapting.

I have found that life can be nice if you can converse in Thai. I'm not fluent as of yet, but can rattle of sentences and be understood.

To me, that is the secret of having a comfy exsistence in the sticks.

The hamlet I'm in ( I call it a hamlet because there are only approx 300 here ) is family and friends of the family and everybody knows each other.

Makes it pretty easy if I need something.

I have started running again after a 3 year break, which kills 3 hrs in the morning.

Here's a pic of the street in front of the house...no neighbors in sight.

I am having a house built in Nom Hom which is just outside of Prachinburi early in the new year into a very small village I am trying to keep an open mind on whether I will be able to adapt but I will give it a fair try I did try to look up your village on Google Earth but it did not show

You're going to be my neighbor! I 'm in Nernhom. That will up the total of farang to around 5!

That will be 5 and a little bit I have a small baby that does not look Thai at all in fact a couple of people has asked my Thai lady if he was her baby

Edited September 23, 2009 by offset

[Lopburi99]

Great photo - you gotta love that open road!

Sure wish I had my Harley now. That would change things a lot. Hmmmm <idea>

There, I think you've answered your question. The loud noise thing can only be remedied by your waking up earlier than when it begins (I know, pain in the ass if you're not a morning person), then get on the bike and roam! The feeling of freedom will probably make a night or day change for you. For me, I hate big cities but I've lived in BKK for 3 years now. I have felt trapped here just as much as I imagine you can be trapped anywhere. Getting my bike made a big difference (once I can escape the hel_l that is BKK traffic) to adjusting my feeling of freedom.

You don't need a Harley either, there are many other options that are easier to buy and own (you don't want to add to your headache!). Head out to your nearest Kawasaki dealer, they have the cheapest "big" bikes (600cc and up) in Thailand right now. I wish I'd waited and bought a Kawasaki, instead of buying used. Owning an older bike can be a pain when you live in a condo that doesn't let you take the bike apart.

Getting up early and going for a ride will also be the best time to go, hardly any traffic or kids to worry about. You can almost pretend that you're back on the old rural roads in whatever province you came from. (for me it's Ontario)

Good luck!

I am going to rent a bike for awhile, an idea well worth trying. I haven't biked in years, I hope my balance is still ok. Do the still make the fat boy seats?

Actually I was born on a farm outside of Regina Saskatchewan. In January '47, one of the coldest winters in a decade I understand. Feet of snow at a time, and frostbite-nasty winds coming across the plains. But in summers the riding was great if you like the plains. So flat a tree 100 miles away could be seen. I think riding would be better in Thailand actually. Far more picturesque that that part of Canada.

[gpdjohn]

I moved from Chiang Mai to a small hamlet 10k outside of Prachinburi in May. Wife's grandparents house. Her grandfather was dying ( he died 2 weeks after we moved in ) and the family wanted someone to take care of the house.

So far I am adapting.

I have found that life can be nice if you can converse in Thai. I'm not fluent as of yet, but can rattle of sentences and be understood.

To me, that is the secret of having a comfy exsistence in the sticks.

The hamlet I'm in ( I call it a hamlet because there are only approx 300 here ) is family and friends of the family and everybody knows each other.

Makes it pretty easy if I need something.

I have started running again after a 3 year break, which kills 3 hrs in the morning.

Here's a pic of the street in front of the house...no neighbors in sight.

I am having a house built in Nom Hom which is just outside of Prachinburi early in the new year into a very small village I am trying to keep an open mind on whether I will be able to adapt but I will give it a fair try I did try to look up your village on Google Earth but it did not show

You're going to be my neighbor! I 'm in Nernhom. That will up the total of farang to around 5!

That will be 5 and a little bit I have a small baby that does not look Thai at all in fact a couple of people has asked my Thai lady if it was her baby

I'm sure you'll see me...the only farang puttin' around on a blue Vespa.

For your dining pleasure, the best moo kratiem in Thailand on soi 9..just look for all the techno students around 1030 to 1:00pm.

[Lopburi99]

I moved from Chiang Mai to a small hamlet 10k outside of Prachinburi in May. Wife's grandparents house. Her grandfather was dying ( he died 2 weeks after we moved in ) and the family wanted someone to take care of the house.

So far I am adapting.

I have found that life can be nice if you can converse in Thai. I'm not fluent as of yet, but can rattle of sentences and be understood.

To me, that is the secret of having a comfy exsistence in the sticks.

The hamlet I'm in ( I call it a hamlet because there are only approx 300 here ) is family and friends of the family and everybody knows each other.

Makes it pretty easy if I need something.

I have started running again after a 3 year break, which kills 3 hrs in the morning.

Here's a pic of the street in front of the house...no neighbors in sight.

I am having a house built in Nom Hom which is just outside of Prachinburi early in the new year into a very small village I am trying to keep an open mind on whether I will be able to adapt but I will give it a fair try I did try to look up your village on Google Earth but it did not show

You're going to be my neighbor! I 'm in Nernhom. That will up the total of farang to around 5!

That will be 5 and a little bit I have a small baby that does not look Thai at all in fact a couple of people has asked my Thai lady if he was her baby

Hey guys we drive through Prachinburi on our way back to Lopburi, where we still visit often. Perhaps have a beer together someday?

BTW, the wife's granddaughter, now 2, from day one had features just like mine. Everybody in the market was sure she was mine . Those little Thai babies are soooo cute! Love 'em.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[gpdjohn]

Hey guys we drive through Prachinburi on our way back to Lopburi, where we still visit often. Perhaps have a beer together someday?

You bet!

( right now I'm still recovering from a karoke session here at my house from yesterday...)

[offset]

Hey guys we drive through Prachinburi on our way back to Lopburi, where we still visit often. Perhaps have a beer together someday?

You bet!

I will have to put that on hold till the new year but I love to join you both

[Lopburi99]

We have quite a bit of land in a village just outside Chaiyaphum. We are going to build an house on it next year. Not a big one and it will do for a weekend retreat. I don't know if it's because i haven't got my home comforts there but I go stir crazy if i'm in the village for more than 2 days.

There are a few farangs not too far away but I'm a towny, so i don't think village life will ever be for me.

I may be quite a bit like you bo. I love and miss the creature comforts I had grown used to back home. If I had more income I wouldn't have as much of a problem with boredom as I do now. I'd buy a nice bike, a sat dish to get English TV (now we watch only Thai television, every night - but that's for another thread!). I'd also a/c the complete house, not just the bedroom, buy a overstuffed leather chair and ottoman, and maybe soup up a car engine in a hobby car. Yes, more comforts and toys would help a lot, but the days of buying anything I wanted are long gone I'm afraid.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[robblok]

We have quite a bit of land in a village just outside Chaiyaphum. We are going to build an house on it next year. Not a big one and it will do for a weekend retreat. I don't know if it's because i haven't got my home comforts there but I go stir crazy if i'm in the village for more than 2 days.

There are a few farangs not too far away but I'm a towny, so i don't think village life will ever be for me.

I may be quite a bit like you bo. I love and miss the creature comforts I had grown used to back home. If I had more income I wouldn't have as much of a problem with boredom as I do now. I'd buy a nice bike, a sat dish to get English TV (now we watch only Thai television, every night - but that's for another thread!). I'd also a/c the complete house, not just the bedroom, buy a overstuffed leather chair and ottoman, and maybe soup up a car engine in a hobby car. Yes, more comforts and toys would help a lot, but the days of buying anything I wanted are long gone I'm afraid.

You could try fishing as a hobby, a satelite disk is not that expensive i think. Not if you compare it with the other things you want. I only use aircon in my gym when i train and in my bedroom when i sleep. I do have an aircon in the living room but i only use it when there are guests.

I am lucky that i can be quite happy if i have a computer and that im not that far (30 min) from BKK. Do you ride a motorcycle ? even a small one could change a lot of things. WHen i started riding one (started on a honda wave) i got a lot more freedom. I dont know how secluded it is there and how far to the next village and so on but at times a bike is fun.

[Valjean]

We have quite a bit of land in a village just outside Chaiyaphum. We are going to build an house on it next year. Not a big one and it will do for a weekend retreat. I don't know if it's because i haven't got my home comforts there but I go stir crazy if i'm in the village for more than 2 days.

There are a few farangs not too far away but I'm a towny, so i don't think village life will ever be for me.

I may be quite a bit like you bo. I love and miss the creature comforts I had grown used to back home. If I had more income I wouldn't have as much of a problem with boredom as I do now. I'd buy a nice bike, a sat dish to get English TV (now we watch only Thai television, every night - but that's for another thread!). I'd also a/c the complete house, not just the bedroom, buy a overstuffed leather chair and ottoman, and maybe soup up a car engine in a hobby car. Yes, more comforts and toys would help a lot, but the days of buying anything I wanted are long gone I'm afraid.

I'm sure you've thought of this but what the heck I'll toss it in. You're an IT guy and you say you like to be busy. I wonder if you could kill two birds with one stone and do freelance IT from the village. You'd be busy and make some extra money. There are plenty of sites; guru.com, elance.com and others. Or depending on your specialty there might be more targeted ones. I was looking at Spiceworks the other day and wonder if via that community you could do network management if that's your area. In the beginning perhaps it's less about the money and more about your sanity. You could bid low on projects just to get going. The freelance sites like guru.com rank you on references and projects so it's good to get a few under your belt.

There are also some interesting pockets of work I think someone could do well around SaaS. Take popular web services like Freshbooks, Zendesk, Basecamp, MailChimp - the list goes on. They all have APIs, widgets and such to connect with each other. I think there's a good market for both packaging up solutions and custom development. As many SMEs move their infrastructure to the cloud they will need help and the dependency of a local onsite IT guy is going to go down. You can be anywhere - even in the village.

Just a thought...

[ignis]

Village is always nice.. clean and fresh air.. good people... just love living in a village.

Fully agree

Guess it is what some call a Village.. To me if you have Loud Speakers, Schools, Shops then this is a Town..?

Myself had to rent a Condo in Pinklao end 2003 till the house was finished ready to move into in May 2004.. The noise there was unbelievable, the only + thing was a pool..

So 5 years on in the Village there are 63 detached houses, it is silent 24/7, and will always remain so as it is a dead end private road, we the owners hired Security so no one every comes in.. Nearest shop 3km, nearest Bank or Supermarket 12km, so yes a car is a must, but would never change it, as could never live in a Town or City..

As for having nothing to do, never find there is enough time in the day... Have Fish Ponds, have 4 dogs, always things to do in the garden and the house.

[gpdjohn]

I may be quite a bit like you bo. I love and miss the creature comforts I had grown used to back home. If I had more income I wouldn't have as much of a problem with boredom as I do now. I'd buy a nice bike, a sat dish to get English TV (now we watch only Thai television, every night - but that's for another thread!). I'd also a/c the complete house, not just the bedroom, buy a overstuffed leather chair and ottoman, and maybe soup up a car engine in a hobby car. Yes, more comforts and toys would help a lot, but the days of buying anything I wanted are long gone I'm afraid.

I broke down and bought a western style bed as I got really tired ( no pun intended ) of sleeping on a teak bed frame with a 1" pad. Only Thai style furniture in the house, solid wood, and I watch tv ( UBC ) laying on my Lanna style pad ( 6' folding 3" thick pad ) I brought w/me from CM, with those square neck busting pillows.

I do miss the soft cushy couch and maybe a Lazy Boy chair...

Most I miss is farang food. Only stuff here is in Prachin.. KFC, Mr. Donut ( at the Big C, which should really be called the Little C) and 2 pizza places.

[ferd54]

I lived in Thailand for 14 years (in Chiang Mai) and eventually had to get out due to various vexations (barking dogs, road deaths, mai pen rai, fake "Kaaa" from the women, wife's family insanity, etc., etc.)

I'm very curious what string of events and decisions led some to settle permanently in a Thai village. I recoiled at the thought every time it came up.

[Lopburi99]

I lived in Thailand for 14 years (in Chiang Mai) and eventually had to get out due to various vexations (barking dogs, ..., mai pen rai, fake "Kaaa" from the women, wife's family insanity, etc., etc.)

I'm very curious what string of events and decisions led some to settle permanently in a Thai village. I recoiled at the thought every time it came up.

You brought me a chuckle ferd, thanks.

I like that word, "vexations" - perfect. Apologies in advance for using it in the future.

Fake "Kaaa"s by every female vendor of any age in the markets. Not a vexation for me though.

Hopefully some additional posters will tell you about their events and decisions leading to permanently settle in a village. Good question.

[Lopburi99]

I broke down and bought a western style bed as I got really tired ( no pun intended ) of sleeping on a teak bed frame with a 1" pad. Only Thai style furniture in the house, solid wood, and I watch tv ( UBC ) laying on my Lanna style pad ( 6' folding 3" thick pad ) I brought w/me from CM, with those square neck busting pillows.

I do miss the soft cushy couch and maybe a Lazy Boy chair...

Most I miss is farang food. Only stuff here is in Prachin.. KFC, Mr. Donut ( at the Big C, which should really be called the Little C) and 2 pizza places.

"neck busting pillows" -- the terms we farang come up with -- Actually I have been unable to break the habit of sleeping on my stomach and face. Try that with a neck buster! Tough on the forehead! Another reason for an guaranteed headache each morning.

Sounds like your western food selection is about the same as in Chanthaburi, which is near Chao Lao Beach. I find the Mr. Pizza there is the only one having anything that resembles decent western food. Their meat pizza isn't bad (although their cheeses are strange), and some pasta dishes aren't bad. Personally, it is an occasional but very important full English breakfast at Simple Simon's in Jomtien Beach which keeps me from throwing up my hands in futility and high-tailing it back to the States.

I'm sure your new bed is miles better than sleeping on the floor with a strange little 3/8" pad. We've all been there, and hope to never do dat again.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[Lopburi99]

Village is always nice.. clean and fresh air.. good people... just love living in a village.

Fully agree

Guess it is what some call a Village.. To me if you have Loud Speakers, Schools, Shops then this is a Town..?

Myself had to rent a Condo in Pinklao end 2003 till the house was finished ready to move into in May 2004.. The noise there was unbelievable, the only + thing was a pool..

So 5 years on in the Village there are 63 detached houses, it is silent 24/7, and will always remain so as it is a dead end private road, we the owners hired Security so no one every comes in.. Nearest shop 3km, nearest Bank or Supermarket 12km, so yes a car is a must, but would never change it, as could never live in a Town or City..

As for having nothing to do, never find there is enough time in the day... Have Fish Ponds, have 4 dogs, always things to do in the garden and the house.

OMG, I don't even know the difference between a village and a town <embarrassed>. Where we live there are no schools or shops, but it has the loud speakers so is it a village or a town, I don't know.

Glad you are happy in your village. You are very lucky it is silent 24/7.

[manjara]

I broke down and bought a western style bed as I got really tired ( no pun intended ) of sleeping on a teak bed frame with a 1" pad. Only Thai style furniture in the house, solid wood, and I watch tv ( UBC ) laying on my Lanna style pad ( 6' folding 3" thick pad ) I brought w/me from CM, with those square neck busting pillows.

I do miss the soft cushy couch and maybe a Lazy Boy chair...

Most I miss is farang food. Only stuff here is in Prachin.. KFC, Mr. Donut ( at the Big C, which should really be called the Little C) and 2 pizza places.

The village I stayed in was near Ngao in Lampang province, and there is very little farang food within 100km.

In the end I bought myself an oven and made my own pizza, though I wasn't able to persuade any of the locals to milk the buffaloes to make mozzarella, so I had to get that from Phayao.

[Lopburi99]

I'm sure you've thought of this but what the heck I'll toss it in. You're an IT guy and you say you like to be busy. I wonder if you could kill two birds with one stone and do freelance IT from the village. You'd be busy and make some extra money. There are plenty of sites; guru.com, elance.com and others. Or depending on your specialty there might be more targeted ones. I was looking at Spiceworks the other day and wonder if via that community you could do network management if that's your area. In the beginning perhaps it's less about the money and more about your sanity. You could bid low on projects just to get going. The freelance sites like guru.com rank you on references and projects so it's good to get a few under your belt.

There are also some interesting pockets of work I think someone could do well around SaaS. Take popular web services like Freshbooks, Zendesk, Basecamp, MailChimp - the list goes on. They all have APIs, widgets and such to connect with each other. I think there's a good market for both packaging up solutions and custom development. As many SMEs move their infrastructure to the cloud they will need help and the dependency of a local onsite IT guy is going to go down. You can be anywhere - even in the village.

Just a thought...

Another good idea Valjean, thanks. I was wondering if I could locate some IT work to do from here but hadn't searched the net yet. Appreciate the sites you mentioned, I'll check them out. But mostly I am very much a dinosaur now. I haven't programmed in years (Fortran , assembler, PL1, VB, C++, etc.) and my knowledge of pc systems and networking are woefully obsolete. I have developed web sites before, complete with internet commerce, but it has been seven years and that knowledge is also out of date. I could perhaps do a straightforward MS Access application but my VBA is stale too . I used to teach all this and more at a university but after doing project mgr/dir activities all the hands on stuff quickly got old. I'll still check out the sites you mentioned. Who knows, maybe somebody in a 5th world country somewhere needs some Fortran written ? I was an expert Fortran programmer for many years, but that was when 30 characters (bytes)/second modem (acoustic) speeds were blinding fast!

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99

[aussiejosh]

Why would you go back to the Village while everyone in it is desperately trying to escape and have a better life? (I mean the ones who haven't given up and decided to be content with their 'lives?')

[mahtin]

Why would you go back to the Village while everyone in it is desperately trying to escape and have a better life? (I mean the ones who haven't given up and decided to be content with their 'lives?')

I think you miss the point.

I believe that many small-town people are driven out by economic necessity, and would be only too happy to stay with their families.

Too often the man goes off to seek his fortune, leaving loved ones behind.

[bob6023]

I live in a village Phitsanulok provence,and have now for 4 years. I built a home here and surrounded it with a 6 foot wall. I have a Bang Gaeow dog to oversea security. Once I educated some family members as to walking into my home unannounced things got immediatly far more peaceful. Theres probably 500 folks living in this village, I think half are related to each other.

her folks live in the house also, but they are not a problem to me as they upkeep the grounds and are good about staying out of the way. There are numerous brothers and sisters living here in the village but they have learned to be respectful of my privacy also.My wife had a sign made saying beware of Bang Gaeow dog. If you come in the gate and get bitten we will not pay.Before we got the dog we used to have fools just wandering thru the gate onto the property. That does not happen any more. However the dog does love family members and they can come in the gate anytime.

My wife and I both love to exercise and I have a couple pieces of equipment for that. My hobby is working out and I spend 3 or 4 hours a day on that. it is beautiful here in the mountains and basically I am enjoying myself every day. Of course there are times I get a little tired of it so we drive into Phitsanulok city at least twice a month and spend a day or two there. Get massages do a little shopping, whatever. We have found a beatiful small hotel there we like alot and have found great massage for 140 bht hour. So its aways a good get away.

Before I retired I lived a very busy life ,in my home country ,with a lot of stress so I enjoy the solitude of our life here. There are two small towns about 10 to 15 miles , which have busy markets and we visit one or the other at least once a week.

Sure I sometimes get sick of the noise and the burning and chickens crowing and some of the people are pretty stupid, but most are very nice to me. I don't speak or under stand thai and I'm too dam_n old to learn at this point.

My advice, take it for what its worth or not. Make sure you have a good partner that you love, and loves you before committing to a village life.

[philo]

An interesting thread. But it is a pity it came to late for me.

I lived in the sticks for more than two years. It killed me to the point that I have now decided to abandon my two children. I am now in such a bad shape that I don't know if I will be able to make it from Nong Khai to BKK and back home.

Maybe it wasn't the village - mabe it was't my wife and the family. May be it was me.

I tried my best: built a house, made a garden, tried to make orchids a hobby.

They have more than doubled the size of the parents house, all her sisters and brothers now have a house, the total family land is about 100 rai, now all planted with rubber. They have a pickup car, an 'Isan' tractor and a new motorbike.

For me - it loved it in the beginning. But the:

Money

No electricity

No water

Everybody broke

Lottery

Inlaws

Noise

Smell

Dirt roads

Cows on my lawn

Snakes

Scorpions

Centipedes

Loneliness

No friends

No reliable mobile telephone connection

Lies

Being left out of decisions

Tools disappering

Garbage

Smoke

No eating but sticky rice

Fried chicken with no meat (only bones and skin)

etc. ad infinitum left me sitting in front of my house drinking from early AM to late PM.

As I said - it was (has to be - you cannot blame others for things that you did volountarily) my fault for choosing the wrong wife, wrong family in law and the wrong location. Also - I was a stupid romantic that tried to 'renew' my life in countryside. It turned into a disaster.

It's a wonder I am still alive ... I have decided to give my wife 30k a month and try to crawl to BKK. Hopefully I will be able to sit out the 15-20 hours back home.

Good luck to you that can stand it.

[perousing]

hi philo what a sad ending for you , i am left wondering if your ex wife and her family give a sh-it about you now, i would think not, they have had everything from you now, best of luck in the future

[Lopburi99]

Philo, please try to take the advice many have given you on your thread of last week. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. Keep taking steps, baby steps are fine, but please keep trying to move forward.

Try hard not to concentrate on the past. Not good to do that. BTDT and believe me I know. Forgive yourself for your mistakes, and look to a new and better future. A new start can be exciting. Try to look at it that way, as difficult as that may be under the circumstances.

Edited September 23, 2009 by Lopburi99