Life In Kohrat

[happylarry]

are you offering to show me the ropes then Rick???????????

HL

[rick75]

I would love to buddy, but I am back in Australia and I am only getting over in Febuary and don't think I will be heading up to Issan, would advise getting on the Khorat board and fishing around I am sure there will be golfers on there.

[Loz]

Korat is a great place to live. There are many farang who have made homes here, as has been mentioned. There are great places to eat (thai and farang) great golf locations, Great national parks nearby (Khao Yai) and a quiet ( sleepy Hollow) existance is within reach if you step out of the city a little.

No place is perfect, but I've seen plenty that are worse.

Hope you like it here, when you come!

[bina]

socialising after dark

according to hubby, after dark means socializing while sleeping. time not working or eating is meant to be sleeping (the thai national pastime); i think there were or are race course in korat, or am i confusing with udonthani?

korat is juts a bit industrial sprawling city with lots of little muubaans attached to it and the cassava industry surrounding it... its like a mid western city in the states many years ago.

i found some nice places selling material for sewing (if that interests u); its a city like any other city.

i liken it to afula in israel. its a living- in city, not a tourist city. the locals know where the best eats are, where to buy what, what stand in the market sells the best shrimp, and then u go home to your house for friends and wife/husband. im hoping it doesnt expand in husband's village direction; i prefer being rural and dont want to become suburban sprawl, and i noticed that there are already new prefab type villages being built before reaching korat city itself that werent there the last time we visited.

bina

israel

[mca]

This often leads to the preception that Khorat is the largest provice in Thailand.

This is incorrect as by land mass Chiang Mai is.

Sorry but I'll have to dispute that piuchooay. Off the top of my head admittedly it's very, very close but Khorat is slightly bigger than CM. Of course I stand to be corrected.

[Gonsalviz]

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand. I have problems with Chiang Mai. Korat is also a big city. I like Korat a bit more than Chiang Mia but not a lot more. There is about everything you need there but it is not my idea of a place to lve.

I didn't have a problem with CM until I found out Jimmy Carter was building his world famous houses there.

[Rdrokit]

bina you are correct. Korat has a horse racing track. A fun place to go on the weekends. I have lived in Pattaya and Bangkok and now Korat and I love Korat because it is like living in Thailand and not a tourist town.There are MANY farangs living here. I belong to the Korat VFW Post (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and we have 110 members, about half live in country. You should have some kind of a hobby to live up here or you will get bored. I play golf and restore classic cars. Some people like to fish, others have RC planes as there is a small airport to fly them in JoHo (suburb of Korat).

[soihok]

Yeah,,,,,,,,, fair play Ddrokit.

I quite like watching the cows go up the hill,,,,and then watching them back down the hill later in the day.

If I wanted to speak and mingle with my country men (England) then I would wish I was in England or some other terrible farang populated place...as it is I love being in Thailand being surrounded by Thai people.

Horses for courses. Etc and so on.

I love my life in and around Korat.

Saying that I dont work or earn a living here,,,,,thats why my family and me are off overseas to make money so as I can watch the cows go up and down the hill again.

Great.

Edited November 22, 2009 by soihok

[pagreenw]

One of ya is saying chiang mai is the biggest city in thailand,one of you is saying korat is the biggest city in thailand.I( just read A website that udonthani had the 2nd largest .population in thailand.

No...Nonthaburi is according to Wiki. Korat is the the 4th. Chang Mai 3rd. Still nothing to do there for X-pats unless you want isolation. You can go to the mall and swim for a few baht if that's your thing. has a bowling alley, lots of stores, etc. Thats it! Khao Yai is a nice place to visit. Lived there once and would go back but nothing else to do there.

[pagreenw]

One of ya is saying chiang mai is the biggest city in thailand,one of you is saying korat is the biggest city in thailand.I( just read A website that udonthani had the 2nd largest .population in thailand.

No...Nonthaburi is according to Wiki. Korat is the the 4th. Chang Mai 3rd. Still nothing to do there for X-pats unless you want isolation. You can go to the mall and swim for a few baht if that's your thing. has a bowling alley, lots of stores, etc. Thats it! Khao Yai is a nice place to visit. Lived there once and would go back but nothing else to do there.

Guys, No-one is suggesting that either city is largest in Thailand. That's quite obviously Bangkok.

Some say Korat is THE largest in terms of area.

[Foggy Bottom]

According to that Wiki Link, Chiang Mai has a population of 147,500 as at the end of 2008

<deleted> !!!

As of 2001 - 2004, on its own just Chiang Mai University (the CMU near the zoo) was admitting 16,000+ students on it's registers every year, with a faculty and support staff (including groundsmen, caterers, security etc) in excess of 8,000. CMU was then one of five universities inside the city boundary. Lord knows how many colleges and schools there are within the city boundary either, same goes for hospitals and clinics. Just those two professions (education and health care) most likely account for in excess of 100,000 students and staff on their own ... and the rest of the city certainly has a lot more than 47,500 people in it.

Five years ago, it was estimated that the city limits contained in excess of 300,000 residents - and there has been almost a doubling in accommodation units since then due to a massive building boom that was still going strong even last summer, when the rest of the world was crying "global recession".

I'd reckon that Chiang Mai will hit 500,000 within the next few years easily.

The number for Khorat was 146,000 and although it's a lot more low rise and sprawling than Chiang Mai, I'd say it's likely to be more accurate as it has a far smaller transient population - far fewer tertiary education centers and noticeably less hospitals (the two main urban causes of transient population).

Without looking it up, I'd not like to guess whether Chiang Mai or Khorat is the larger province as they seem pretty close on that score. However, I do know that in 2002 or 2003, Chiang Mai had 26,000 officially recorded non-immigrant, non-quota immigrant, and immigrant foreigners resident in the province, and it's grown some since then. I doubt Khorat has that - the last sneak I got at the stats board in Immigration (last summer) showed less than 10,000 annual visa extensions for the previous year (2008) and that included other SE Asians working in the farms and factories.

Speaking of Immigration, there is one major difference between the two cities now too -

In Chiang Mai, the Immigration office is less than 2 Km from the moat and on the way to the airport.

In Khorat (or rather out of it) Immigration is now 25 Km south of the city at Chok Chai (which would be like Chiang Mai residents having to drive to Lamphun city to go to Immigration) - now <deleted> is that all about?

It's a real friendly move for the foreigners without a car ain't it? Lord help us during the rainy season when our 90-day address registration nausea comes around. Or are they expecting us all to stop and spend small fortunes at Dan Kwian as we go past it?

Not a happy camper with that little bit of stupidity - seriously considering a move back to CM due to just this one issue.

Foggy

[wildoates]

According to that Wiki Link, Chiang Mai has a population of 147,500 as at the end of 2008

<deleted> !!!

As of 2001 - 2004, on its own just Chiang Mai University (the CMU near the zoo) was admitting 16,000+ students on it's registers every year, with a faculty and support staff (including groundsmen, caterers, security etc) in excess of 8,000. CMU was then one of five universities inside the city boundary. Lord knows how many colleges and schools there are within the city boundary either, same goes for hospitals and clinics. Just those two professions (education and health care) most likely account for in excess of 100,000 students and staff on their own ... and the rest of the city certainly has a lot more than 47,500 people in it.

Five years ago, it was estimated that the city limits contained in excess of 300,000 residents - and there has been almost a doubling in accommodation units since then due to a massive building boom that was still going strong even last summer, when the rest of the world was crying "global recession".

I'd reckon that Chiang Mai will hit 500,000 within the next few years easily.

The number for Khorat was 146,000 and although it's a lot more low rise and sprawling than Chiang Mai, I'd say it's likely to be more accurate as it has a far smaller transient population - far fewer tertiary education centers and noticeably less hospitals (the two main urban causes of transient population).

Without looking it up, I'd not like to guess whether Chiang Mai or Khorat is the larger province as they seem pretty close on that score. However, I do know that in 2002 or 2003, Chiang Mai had 26,000 officially recorded non-immigrant, non-quota immigrant, and immigrant foreigners resident in the province, and it's grown some since then. I doubt Khorat has that - the last sneak I got at the stats board in Immigration (last summer) showed less than 10,000 annual visa extensions for the previous year (2008) and that included other SE Asians working in the farms and factories.

Speaking of Immigration, there is one major difference between the two cities now too -

In Chiang Mai, the Immigration office is less than 2 Km from the moat and on the way to the airport.

In Khorat (or rather out of it) Immigration is now 25 Km south of the city at Chok Chai (which would be like Chiang Mai residents having to drive to Lamphun city to go to Immigration) - now <deleted> is that all about?

It's a real friendly move for the foreigners without a car ain't it? Lord help us during the rainy season when our 90-day address registration nausea comes around. Or are they expecting us all to stop and spend small fortunes at Dan Kwian as we go past it?

Not a happy camper with that little bit of stupidity - seriously considering a move back to CM due to just this one issue.

Foggy

think of us in Surin or Buriram that have to drive to Chok Chai.

[Foggy Bottom]

Went there this morning with the brother-in-law ... it's not even a government building - just a converted shop house in a row of shop houses .... wonder which Imm Cop's wife rented it to the department?

They've moved the goal posts on 90-day reporting too

Now, when you're within 90-days of visa renewal, they will only extend the date of next reporting to the final day of your visa. If you renew your visa before the last day of it, they will NOT do your 90-day at that time, you MUST go back again during the last seven days of your (sub)90-day registration that ends with your old visa. Also, the guy with two gold stripes on his shoulder said that even one day late is a B2000 fine, and too many late fines and they will send you out of country. Meanwhile the (younger) female officer wearing civvies, said you can do the shortened 90-day re-registration within seven days EITHER SIDE of the expiry without penalty.

These goal posts ain't so much moving, they're on a high speed Japanese bullet train - and that's just between two adjacent desks in the same office, within seconds of each other's statements.

Starting to think visiting Immigration needs to be approached the same way that Bib visits a crime scene - take a piggin television news crew with you.

It's getting ridiculous that two officers sitting next to each other cannot even agree on the rules - I'm expecting that next time I go, they will both deny having said the above, and give me a completely different set of "instructions".

Foggy

[Jimbo]

Went there this morning with the brother-in-law ... it's not even a government building - just a converted shop house in a row of shop houses .... wonder which Imm Cop's wife rented it to the department?

Foggy

The immigration building at Chock Chai is only a temporary location until they have completed the building of the new one which will be at the Suranaree industrial zone which is actually very close to Korat. The new immigration office will house the staff of both the Chock Chai immigration office as well as the staff from the old office at TOT.

I was at the immigration office last week and I was out in under 15 minutes. The staff were all very helpful and friendly so definitely no complaints from me.

[Foggy Bottom]

Given past experiences of over a decade, I would normally agree with you, but Friday's visit although "friendly" was definitely unhelpful - I left more confused than after any other visit to any Immigration office.

Also, they did not volunteer any information regarding what you've reported about the Sunaree Industrial Estate, nor did the staff at the TOT office on Thursday, even when presented with my press credentials and grilled about the reason for setting up the Chok Chai office.

Additionally, when my wife asked about the desk at Chok Chai prominently labelled for house registration reports (a requirement of all Thai house owners with an alien under their roof) they just evaded the question and gave no answer. My wife's the tabian baan holder and property owner, and wanted to be sure she is complying with the relevant laws, but they completely ignored her questions about it.

Even my brother in law, who only hung around at the car, picked up on what my wife and I discussed afterwards and commented that it sounds like they want foreigners out - and he's a medium-high level government employee who rarely if ever comments on anything beyond football and his family.

BTW - which industrial estate is Sunaree? Is it the one next to the TOT office, the one on the way to Do-Home/Dan Kwian, or is it near the Sunaree Barracks? I can't find it on Google Maps, nor on any of the printed local maps I've got.

[Jimbo]

It is the one along the stretch of road from Do-Home to Dan Kwian. There is actually a very large sign at the entrance of this factory zone so you won't have any problems finding it.

The ground breaking ceremony was a month or 2 ago. It was reported on Korat Farang and some members were actually present during the ceremony. The new immigration office should be completed and operational during the final quarter of 2010 I believe. In all fairness, I wouldn't have known about this if I had not been a member of KF. It was not reported anywhere else (perhaps it was on Korat Map but I am not sure) so I can't blame you for not knowing about it.

You might have a poor experience with immigration and I might have a positive one. It all depends on the person you end up talking with and even depends on the actual day. I was perfectly happy with the way I was treated by them during my last visit and I also had some questions in regards to some visa issues and marriage documents and they were more than happy to explain everything to me. So no complaints from me.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Jimbo

[Foggy Bottom]

Thanks Jimbo

I'll try and get a trip out there for a nosy before rainy season, in readiness for when it opens. It's still a long haul for me (completely the opposite side of town) on my little motorbike, so not a journey I look forward to making too often - I don't even "do DoHome" unless someone with a car is offering a lift ... mind you, wouldn't be the first time I hauled furniture on the back of the Honda Dream - LOL.

FB