Alternatives To Chiang Mai And Why Did You Pick Cm ?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

What has Taksin coming from CM got anything to do with moving there?

The BKK government now wants to get back at Chiang Mai.. funds dry up, less money gets invested.

Food too spicy??? I'll help you, just say Mai Phet when ordering, couldn't be simpler and only two words of the local language for you to deal with.

Ha! "หมอย เพชร!!, หมอย เพชร!! I yell, but they look at me like I'm some kind of lunatic or want to pretend I'm not there. And, what about the flies, though? I think I'll stick with Mike's.

And there's no beach. Did you go there expecting to find one?

Well, in a fair comparison it needs pointing out; In the Philippines, absolutely every place has a beach. And you can read signs and menus. And people speak English, and are Christian so they share roughly similar values. (Well, Catholic, but that's close enough)

Please give us more of your insights to Thailand, they are priceless.

Heh, didn't expect an encore request, but seeing that it's Friday:

Public transport: There are buses but they go exclusively to places where you really don't want to go. Tuk tuks rip you off, and drivers of those red pick-up things don't understand English and can't read maps, and don't even have GPS in their vehicle, and no seatbelts.

Alcohol: Your only hope really is to wake up exactly at noon and then be fast enough out of bed to buy some before 2pm, otherwise nobody will sell you a beer, not even from a super market or 7 Eleven!

The airport : Permanently under construction. You fly domestic, but then TG ends up parking the plane half way to Sanpatong. What's that all about I wonder.

The women : Mostly too short, overweight and faces like the back of a bus. Or not female. This is a country where 90% of womenfolk desperately need a boob job, but the ones that do go for surgery then opt for getting completely ludicrous noses instead. <deleted>.

The men : The men are actually reasonably good fun once you get some alcohol in them and if you can stand watching or talking about boxing or soccer. Case of TIT (This is Thailand) I suppose.

Sightseeing : Honestly, what's there to do? Don't take my word for it, walk past any of the 8000 travel agents in town: Monkey farm, elephant school, butterfly rodeo, Xtreme Quad Biking that costs more money than renting a Toyota Camry for a full day, Xtreme Orchid Hunting, Paintball in 100 degree heat, Bungee jumping using bits of elastic band from old noodle soup bags, being pulled from tree to tree on a string pretending you're a *#(&*#$ gibbon, trekking to 'hilltribe' villages where everyone wears T-shirts and jeans, rip you off and can't even be arsed to put some rings on their necks anymore so not much to take pictures of. At least there are people dressed up in full hilltribe regalia around the bars and night bazar. And elephants walking the street. So really you got all the Lanna sights & culture you'd ever want to acquaint yourself with right there, which leaves really nothing to do during the day.

Movies: You better like your run of the mill Hollywood fodder for the masses, and they don't sell beer.

The music : Don't get me $*#@)($ started. Lanna music doesn't hold a candle to North Eastern mor lam. Chiang Mai you get the same shit songs over and over again... Khachaoooooow pen saow chiang maaaai.. Oooooiiiiiiiiii Kham... Christ. When Chiang Mai people sing they sound like a cat giving birth to a baby elephant. Case in point: that Soontaree auntie. I don't even want to be across the river from her. And she's Yellow-er than PAD. Or my teeth, for that matter.

Edited November 6, 2009 by WinnieTheKhwai

[elektrified]

.

This really made me laugh, thanks!

What has Taksin coming from CM got anything to do with moving there?

Food too spicy??? I'll help you, just say Mai Phet when ordering, couldn't be simpler and only two words of the local language for you to deal with.

Can only talk to other expats about where to find a decent hamburger??? You must have loads of expat friends.

And there's no beach. Did you go there expecting to find one?

Please give us more of your insights to Thailand, they are priceless.

I think you should google the expression "tongue in cheek"

/ Priceless

I agree. I thought WTK's post was very funny. Apparently some people took it seriously.

The Chiang Mai "beach" is located on the way to the elephant camps in Mae Taeng. It's quite nice and relaxing there.

[Steve2UK]

Hats off to WTK for both his posts. There used to be a tradition on the CM forum of giving advice to "go south, definitely south". Good to see it return in such good form..........

That said, I thought Pai2009's post gave accurate thumbnail sketches of the places named (judging by the ones I know).

[WinnieTheKhwai]

LOL, yeah, remember that; "Definitely South!"

[Tanaka]

BKK : traffic is unbearable, expensive,not freindly

Phuket : Tourist junk with lots of gangsters, good hospitals, right by the beach and sea

Huahin : Lovely little sea side town. There is nothing much to do after a the first week. No good hospital.

Pattaya : Tourist junk with plenty of gansters, XX, XY and XY with external XX, beach and sea, good Hospital.

Udonthani : Upcountry with shopping mall, a pretty ok hospital, nothing else, quiet.

Khon Kaen : Big universities town, new shopping mall( central group)plenty of good food with reasonable price, not many expats, not many english speaking local,

good hospital.

Chiang rai: Quiet lovely town, nice weather, not much to do.

Chiang mai : Lovely quiet city, lots of shopping mall and super market, you can find almost everything you want here, good hospital,nightlife in town(if you wish) great food both western and thai(you may ask UG) there are plenty of great food on the side of the road that just come out of the stove/BBQ you only need to find out ( Sticky rice and BBQ chicken for less than 50B a meal). Lots of local speak english, people are friendly and helpful.

Udon Thani, my home, has 4 hospitals at least, in town. More outside. They are building a new mall area. As if that is what we really need. There are bars and hostesses available.

[Artamus]

I've travelled for many years on/off in Thailand, but always seem to gravitate back to Chiang Mai. In my mind there's a large difference between north and south Thailand in terms of the general feeling of the place, the people etc. If you like beaches and the beach life then you will never be happy in the north. If you like the mountains and more stable weather then the north is a better bet. I prefer the people and culture up here. South maybe has better food (especially seafood).

Visted friends in Hua Hin several times and find it one of the least attractive places in Thailand - far too many farang - it's almost like living in Copenhagen or Stokholm.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Artamus

[elektrified]

BKK : traffic is unbearable, expensive,not freindly

Phuket : Tourist junk with lots of gangsters, good hospitals, right by the beach and sea

Huahin : Lovely little sea side town. There is nothing much to do after a the first week. No good hospital.

Pattaya : Tourist junk with plenty of gansters, XX, XY and XY with external XX, beach and sea, good Hospital.

Udonthani : Upcountry with shopping mall, a pretty ok hospital, nothing else, quiet.

Khon Kaen : Big universities town, new shopping mall( central group)plenty of good food with reasonable price, not many expats, not many english speaking local,

good hospital.

Chiang rai: Quiet lovely town, nice weather, not much to do.

Chiang mai : Lovely quiet city, lots of shopping mall and super market, you can find almost everything you want here, good hospital,nightlife in town(if you wish) great food both western and thai(you may ask UG) there are plenty of great food on the side of the road that just come out of the stove/BBQ you only need to find out ( Sticky rice and BBQ chicken for less than 50B a meal). Lots of local speak english, people are friendly and helpful.

Udon Thani, my home, has 4 hospitals at least, in town. More outside. They are building a new mall area. As if that is what we really need. There are bars and hostesses available.

No offense but Udon Thani would be a hard sell for someone who is looking to have some fun in his retirement. Those "hostesses" over there in Isaan are a little rough around the edges so to speak. Not exactly the same dolls available to an older gent in C.M. (with 100K per month to burn).

Edited November 8, 2009 by elektrified

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Huh.. I honestly don't see any difference. Kind of the same demographic you find in comparable bars and pubs.

Also the expat/tourist nightlife situation is so dire in Chiang Mai, I can't even call Udon to be worse.

For general Thai yuppie/middle class nightlife Chiang Mai is probably better though.

[mtone9317]

If you can live without a beach it has to be CM. I live in Isaan (not impoverished thankfully) to try out being close to my pregnant wife's family for a few years, but will choose CM when given a free hand.

If you want to stay away from tourists and be part of a small but growing quickly ex-pat community then take a look at Ubon Ratchatani.

Went to Ubon to apply for a teaching and got the job. The area reminds me of Fresno, California. Talk about isolated. It's a farm community, not many people speak English. The bus ride there from CM was a nightmare, Nakon Chai Air Bus. He was passing double trucks in the rain on a down hill two lane road, several times we almost had a head on accident in the middle of the night. Don't bother to take your kids to Disneyland, a bus ride to Ubon is more exciting.

I choose CM because of the cooler weather, BKK is the hottest city in the world according to Wikipedia.

He is right about all the exposed wiring, it's a contractors nightmare. Open sewage running into the street, and the streets are lined with trash.

BUT it will change. The more Brits, Oz, and Americans, come the more it will change, but the change will come slowly.

The worst thing about my GH house is a nearby Club (you know which one) plays ear splitting music from 1am to 5am every night. It's pure BS to let them do that.

That's my project for the next week.

Thank God for the crazies: the musicians, poets, artists, writers, and creative souls. They are the ones that make changes, because they are the ones crazy enough to think they can make change happen.

[BlackArtemis]

I did a study abroad in Cm and wound up coming back for another 2.5 years. I chose CM because it feels like a small town and not a city, yet it offers all the basic needs, such as decent communication and utilities, great food, even a good amount of western foods when you have that yearning for something from home.

I lived in phuket for over a month and said screw it. I got treated for a walking wallet. It didn't matter that I could speak Thai, I was white and therefore should buy X item at Y price. Many times I noticed restaurants had dual pricing.

The beaches are nice, but not worth the rest of the package. I found the nightlife pretty Skeezy.

Bangkok just felt like NYC with asians. I never liked the city life, in three years I have spent less than a week there, and that's too long IMO.

Krabi, I could live in Krabi, I found myself being treated much better than anywhere else down south. it's beautiful a little bit expensive, but less than Phuket.

I could probably do Phitsanulok, but this is because I have friends and family there.

Didn't even bother with Pattaya, I hated Patong so why even go close to Pattaya.

What I settled on was in my opinion the best choice. The culture, the food, the people. My wife and I would just vacation in Krabi.

[Ulysses G.]

Also the expat/tourist nightlife situation is so dire in Chiang Mai, I can't even call Udon to be worse.

With the slightest amount of work, the nightlife scene in Chiang Mai

is great. It is not Pattaya or Bangkok or Rio or Amsterdam, but it is a hel_l of a lot better than most places.

[uptheos]

I notice no-one chose Chiangmai because it's cheap and there's enough nooky to go around.

I suppose all the affluent guys here, considered Zurich, Geneva and Vienna et al, but they just didn't come up to their high standards.

Chiang Mai is a good place to live, but if I had a lot more money I'm dam_n sure I can find nicer.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Where then? I have to spend time in really expensive places but no way would I want to live there.

[BlackArtemis]

I notice no-one chose Chiangmai because it's cheap and there's enough nooky to go around.

I suppose all the affluent guys here, considered Zurich, Geneva and Vienna et al, but they just didn't come up to their high standards.

Chiang Mai is a good place to live, but if I had a lot more money I'm dam_n sure I can find nicer.

The cheap factor is a bonus, not a necessity. However since electronics and cars are all 3-10x more expensive in Thailand it balances out.

3k for anything less than an Alienware laptop or 40k+ USD for a Honda Accord? Now thank you.

[uptheos]

Where then? I have to spend time in really expensive places but no way would I want to live there.

Yeah, right our lungs couldn't adapt to clean air after so many years.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Ok, no mention of specific places yet so a few guesses: Hawaii.. South of France.. A combination of Canada in the summer and Hong Kong in the winter.. I'd still miss Chiang Mai like fuc_k.

[uptheos]

Ok, no mention of specific places yet so a few guesses: Hawaii.. South of France.. A combination of Canada in the summer and Hong Kong in the winter.. I'd still miss Chiang Mai like fuc_k.

With enough money and a choice of anywhere in the world I don't think it's necessary to list, as I'm sure each individual has their own preference........but on the other hand with enough money and a choice of anywhere in the world, it seems a lot of people choose Chiang Mai lol.

Maybe they are drawn by the cryptic sentence above ......but with enough money.......why?

I know one guy who insists Chiang Mai is the best place in the world to live and to my knowledge the only country he ever visited before Thailand was Spain.........go figure.

[pjclark1]

I quite like San Francisco, but choose to live in CM.

Plenty of night life and nookie here!

(How many go-go bar do you need?)

[uptheos]

I quite like San Francisco, but choose to live in CM.

Plenty of night life and nookie here!

(How many go-go bar do you need?)

Yeah, I know what you mean.....San Francisco is a pretty boring place.

It doesn't have any 'Best Pizza Threads' to while away the hours on, since it has the best Pizza.

[scotbeve]

Been in CM for 22 years, seen many changes - not necessarily for the better. The "Smoky Season" sucks, summer is "pretty" hot, people are great, and you won't get ripped off if you SPEAK THAI and have the northern sense of humor. It's essentially laid back, convenient, but getting a bit too crowded in the city center. I think it's a safe place to live - never had any problems / altercations there. Motorcycle "drivers" (using the term loosely) in CM are abhorent - some of the worst in the world. The CM food is fantastic throughout the province. There's too much Karaoke for my liking.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

> (How many go-go bar do you need?)

31.

[Robroy]

Chiang Mai is terrible.. it's boring, no nightlife worthy of the word 'life', it's polluted, congested, unsafe, ugly with all the concrete box type architecture, ugly electrical and telephone wiring all over the place, stench of (almost) open sewers, many areas in town are prone to flooding, you can't own houses or land, you're effectively illiterate unless you learn the local script, few people speak good English, Fugitive ex PM Thaksin is from Chiang Mai, beer is expensive and not very good, the food's too spicy and comes from open air markets where flies and bacteria are all over, (this is why the only topic you can talk to other expats about is where to find a half decent hamburger), you'll be ripped off for everything you want to buy (including that hamburger), Chiang Mai is an arts & culture Sahara, for nightlife you better really enjoy "Kantoke Dinner" because everything else is a joke, the weather ranges from 'very uncomfortable' to 'downright toxic' with the possible exception of a couple weeks in December or January.. I could go on. Look at Channel 18, even the panda's are depressed, and they're supposedly the main attraction! Yes, a Panda Jail is actually a main attraction, go figure.

Satire or not, the above is largely true. It's physically quite difficult - traffic, footpaths, etc.

However it is the most interesting place I've lived in - tho that would depend on what scene you plugged into: an interesting spectrum of expats & Thais (& Burmese, tribes, et al).

I left because the Thais burn their rice crops each year, & the smoke pollution went on for many weeks - killing 58 people (& nearly me) & causing 300,000 (sic.) to seek medical treatment.

However I still miss the place.

Anyone jaded by Chiang Mai should pay a visit to Phnom Penh, where I live now. That would probably cure you.

[Priceless]

[...]

I left because the Thais burn their rice crops each year, & the smoke pollution went on for many weeks - killing 58 people (& nearly me) & causing 300,000 (sic.) to seek medical treatment.

[...]

Have you got a (reliable) source for the above?

/ Priceless

[uptheos]

> (How many go-go bar do you need?)

31.

So in September, April, June and November you visit at least one of them twice and in February you visit three of them at least twice.....that right?

[jackr]

PS . when did the spell-check on TV start? Great idea.

Back for more, Mike? That'll be your browser btw.

On CM, long way from the outlaws

[KevinHunt]

PS . when did the spell-check on TV start? Great idea.

Back for more, Mike? That'll be your browser btw.

On CM, long way from the outlaws

At this time of year, with the sunny days with clear blue skies and fresh, cool evenings  (I can't comment on the mornings!) then I reckon it has to be the best weather possible. Absolutely perfick (as Pa Larkins would say). 

[uptheos]

PS . when did the spell-check on TV start? Great idea.

Back for more, Mike? That'll be your browser btw.

On CM, long way from the outlaws

At this time of year, with the sunny days with clear blue skies and fresh, cool evenings (I can't comment on the mornings!) then I reckon it has to be the best weather possible. Absolutely perfick (as Pa Larkins would say).

Absolutely.......at this time of year!

[scotbeve]

November is my favorite month in CM!!

[WinnieTheKhwai]

> (How many go-go bar do you need?)

31.

So in September, April, June and November you visit at least one of them twice and in February you visit three of them at least twice.....that right?

I might only visit 5 or 6 regularly, but I don't like to feel constrained. It's good to have the others for backup.

For example, Pattaya seems to have hundreds of them, but realistically while there I visit just a handful. Still, you have to keep your relationship with life exciting, which means occasionally trying a new bar, to keep things fresh.

Diversity is good. Don't take my word for it, ask God.

Edited November 9, 2009 by WinnieTheKhwai

[uptheos]

> (How many go-go bar do you need?)

31.

So in September, April, June and November you visit at least one of them twice and in February you visit three of them at least twice.....that right?

I might only visit 5 or 6 regularly, but I don't like to feel constrained. It's good to have the others for backup.

For example, Pattaya seems to have hundreds of them, but realistically while there I visit just a handful. Still, you have to keep your relationship with life exciting, which means occasionally trying a new bar, to keep things fresh.

Diversity is good. Don't take my word for it, ask God.

A 'back up' go go bar.....now there's a face loser for the girls if ever there was one.