I prefer to spend my time in the outdoors (when I'm not writing or painting) but I would rather live in a town. I find villages too small, and with not enough facilities and things to do. Cities are too large for me, but I do enjoy Chiang Mai in Thailand because it's not too big and where I stay is 2 km outside the city core. But I hate Bangkok, Tokyo and Manilla. They are just too congested.

My own town of Duncan on Vancouver Island has 5 thousand people, but in the surrounding area there are 27,000 people. There are several large shopping malls nearby, along with the town center. I guess it would be about the size and area of Kanchanaburi, or possibly a bit larger. But, it has more shopping for a wider variety of things that everyone with a home needs.

I was raised in Vancouver, but I will never live in a large city again. There is just too much traffic and it's too difficult to find a place to park. And, I don't find cities all that interesting... other than for a short visit. I've enjoyed visiting London (England), and most of the larger US cities: New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, etc, but mostly just to visit the museums or art galleries. I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

One thing I liked about England is that once you are out of main cities you are instantly into a rural setting. Everything is tidy and you can walk everywhere. My younger sister lives in London and she loves it. She's Canadian, raised in Vancouver, but has travelled all over the world and written many books of her travels, but she chose to finally live in London where she's been for close to 30 years. My older sister has become an American and lives in Virginia, and she's also lived in many different countries: Italy, UK, Spain and Puerto Rico, but finally chose the east coast USA. My brother still lives in Vancouver where we all grew up.

We are all different in where we finally choose to call home. I'm a bit of a gypsy and lead two parallel lives of which each is completely different. I spend half my time in Thailand and the other half back in North America. I don't want to give up either location. I spend no time in bars in Canada and almost every night in a bar when I'm in Thailand. When I'm not fishing with friends, I'm a bit of a hermit in Canada, but in Thailand I socialize a lot... both in the afternoons and at night.

How about the rest of you, and what made you decide to live where you do? After reading about the adventures of a few here I have a rough idea where they live and what they enjoy.

For me it's the city centre or the sticks, you can keep the 'burbs and the quaint country towns.

I lived in the CBD of a major city for a while and loved it. Everything was on hand, never needed a car and being at the centre of the public transport hub got me anywhere I wanted to go just as quick as driving anyway.

Sure, there were problems but it was never boring.

My house in the country is exactly the opposite, quiet, peaceful, friendly people, but equally attractive in it's own way.

It's rural for me. While I can appreciate Scea's stance on the city centre with everything on hand, the big drawback for me is all the people, all of the time.....never any real solitude or privacy.

Maybe for some, but for me solitude is something on the inside, it's nothing to do with what's around you.

That's just scenery.

I take your point.

I'm at my happiest out in the sticks but was born and bred in the suburbs a ferry ride from the hustle and bustle of Sydney city in Australia. My wife and I dream of living a quiet village life as we are fairly self contained even in our city confines.

For me it's the city centre or the sticks, you can keep the 'burbs and the quaint country towns.

I lived in the CBD of a major city for a while and loved it. Everything was on hand, never needed a car and being at the centre of the public transport hub got me anywhere I wanted to go just as quick as driving anyway.

Sure, there were problems but it was never boring.

My house in the country is exactly the opposite, quiet, peaceful, friendly people, but equally attractive in it's own way.

I see that you've listed Chiang Rai as your home base. I wouldn't call Chiang Rai a big city. It's more like a town and pretty quiet. My visits there were less than extraordinary. I guess a lot depends on whether you are single or living with someone special. If you've got a steady squeeze then it's much easier to live the quiet country life... unless your wife is a party girl. Even then, married couples usually just mix with other married couples at house parties.

I live in Chiang Rai province.

What do define as a city anyway?

10.000? 50,000, 100,000?

I like to be close to most everything.

The ability to go for a walk away from traffic fumes.

The opportunity for swimming, boating, ( no boat) if ya like it in the local lagoon.

Close to arterial motorways.

Excellent transport, buses and trains to most places inc CBD.

Lge mall, small local shopping centres and farmers markets,

Where I am living at present has many parks and swimming in the sea.

Suits me.

Manila, Honkers, Bangers etc are 4 - 5 nite wonders to be endured once on a trip.

Too many people, too much traffic...... don't mention air quality, there aint none.

I have never seen anyplace on earth more beautiful than the San Juan islands. I lived in Seattle, Everett and Spokane WA, Portland OR, San Francisco, Denver and Boulder CO, the Gulf Coast of Texas and Florida, Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, Saigon, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec city, Nassau, Bimini and a bunch of other places. On a clear day from Victoria on Vancouver island you can see two snow covered mountain ranges. I used to take my small sailboat from Oak Harbor to the San Juan islands for vacations. For those who didn’t know, where Ian lives is in the Japanese current so it never gets real cold or real hot. Whales play in his backyard. Orchids and palm trees grow on Vancouver Island and snow covered mountain ranges are only a short drive away. My god Ian how can you stand to leave Vancouver Island for Thailand? I’d still be in the neighborhood except that my beautiful blond Texas wife needed sunshine. It was one of those years that the sun decided not to shine for three months. I didn’t mind it. The kids didn’t mind it but it drove my wife nuts and she convinced me to move from Washington State to the Gulf coast of Texas. A land so flat, her words (you could see a mosquito with an erection at 20 miles).

I live about a mile from the Gulf of Thailand in a small industrial city because I can’t afford to live in Victoria and import my Thai family there. I use the word family rather liberally.

But if I was you (obviously a man of means), I’d smuggle a small Issan village back to Vancouver and tell the local authorities they are Eskimos that speak a funny language from a little known part of the far north. Dress them up in fir parkas smear a bunch of fermented fish oil on em, teach them how to sing, “God save the Queen”, and “O Canada”, who’d know?

It wouldn’t be too hard. Fly the village to northern Russia and have a crab boat pick you up and continue the trip to BC. Speaking of crab how can you stand the crap fish in Chiang Mai after the bounty of Vancouver?

You can probably tell by the detail of this post that I have actually thought of doing something like that except the Thai’s would never pass for Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie, Tulalip, or Puyallup Indians from Washing State. I have however seen some natives of Issan who look a bit like the Kaska Indians of BC.

It is beautiful where I live, Mark, and I'm very happy on Vancouver Island. But as you know, I'm single and not a kiddie anymore. There are things that Thailand offers that resemble nothing that Canada has anywhere... one being the relatively happy tolerance in Thailand for all types of life styles. Gays, heteros, ladyboys, children, old folks, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims all mix with each other easily, and with seemingly little animosity. I'm totally heterosexual, but I can sit with a group of gays or ladyboys and nobody bats an eyebrow or makes any comments. My friend and I often go hiking around Chiang Mai and we get invited to have a drink of beer with teenagers. If I even approched or spoke to teenagers in Canada I'd be looked at as some sort of weirdo. Mike and I will walk along any Chiang Mai street and often get asked by Thais to stop for a drink with them. And, the Thais aren't trying to scam us, it's just a friendly gesture. It is that difference that I love about Thailand.

This is the view from the mountain behind where I live on Vancouver Island. My home is right between the two lakes in the background. That is my son with me. He lives with his family in Victoria.

This is from one of the many gulf islands that you speak of. My home is behind the upper right corner in the picture.

The only place I can think of that compares slightly with British Columbia is New Zealand. Both areas have rugged mountains and many ocean inlets. New Zealand is the one other country I think I could happily live in. But it's just too remote from anywhere else.

Before anyone can really answer this important question, they should visit Wolverhampton.

You will never slag off wherever it is you live again......Trust me.

So where's the photos?

Looks ok to me.

Look closely and you'll see the boarded up pound shops and the streets full of vagrants.

hel_l on earth.

Before anyone can really answer this important question, they should visit Wolverhampton.

You will never slag off wherever it is you live again......Trust me.

Is that where they play that strange game called "Footy", and thugs like to beat up folks in the pub after the game?

Not sure about " Footy " but very accurate about the pubs ( nothing else to do )

Not sure about " Footy " but very accurate about the pubs ( nothing else to do )

I'm not sure if it was an Aussie, a Kiwi or bloke from the UK that asked if I liked "Footy". It was a long time ago. He was referring to football and what we call soccer in North America.

I think that would be an Australian.

One of the reasons we started the penal colonies, was to find somewhere to place all those who couldn't quite keep up with the basics of the English language......Bless them.

I think that would be an Australian.

One of the reasons we started the penal colonies, was to find somewhere to place all those who couldn't quite keep up with the basics of the English language......Bless them.

No, if an Aussie (or a Kiwi) said "footy" he meant Rugby football, not soccer.

Oi, suiging....(could that be sui for short? )..... carefull now!

We don't want to start a Down Under vs Pommyland war of words do we?

I live in a bar, and some days it drives me crazy.

I seem to remember there was some degree of personal choice involved here.

Well, yes, but it was so much easier when I was just a customer.

Not sure about " Footy " but very accurate about the pubs ( nothing else to do )

I'm not sure if it was an Aussie, a Kiwi or bloke from the UK that asked if I liked "Footy". It was a long time ago. He was referring to football and what we call soccer in North America.

Must have been a Brit - no one else would make the mistake of referring to soccer as 'footy'.

Footy is mainly played in the Land Down Under and has Australian Rules.

Kiwis mainly worship the finest of games - Union - along with South Africa.

Europe is soccer crazy, but some countries do produce competent RFU teams.

The Americans have their own kick-and-throw game, which is very good for TV companies, because it stops every couple of minutes and you can slip in a couple of quick adverts. (So does Rugby League, about which I shall say nothing more).

Well, yes, but it was so much easier when I was just a customer.

I knew you wouldn't like having to be nice to the customers in the interests of retaining same.

Not sure about " Footy " but very accurate about the pubs ( nothing else to do )

I'm not sure if it was an Aussie, a Kiwi or bloke from the UK that asked if I liked "Footy". It was a long time ago. He was referring to football and what we call soccer in North America.

Must have been a Brit - no one else would make the mistake of referring to soccer as 'footy'.

Footy is mainly played in the Land Down Under and has Australian Rules.

Kiwis mainly worship the finest of games - Union - along with South Africa.

Europe is soccer crazy, but some countries do produce competent RFU teams.

The Americans have their own kick-and-throw game, which is very good for TV companies, because it stops every couple of minutes and you can slip in a couple of quick adverts. (So does Rugby League, about which I shall say nothing more).

Union has many rules.

Before anyone can really answer this important question, they should visit Wolverhampton.

You will never slag off wherever it is you live again......Trust me.

Wolverhampton? That's a bluddy Utopian vision compared to my birthplace, Merthyr Tydfil.

Thomas Carlyle visited Merthyr in 1850, writing that the town was filled with such "unguided, hard-worked, fierce, and miserable-looking sons of Adam I never saw before. Ah me ! It is like a vision of hel_l, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling, all in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills."

Merthyr was an iron town and was for a long while in the 19th century was the most populous parish in Wales and home to, arguably, the oldest railway tunnel in the world.

Things haven't changed much except, in keeping with the rest of the UK, the hard work part has disappeared.

In Britain today, Merthyr:

Ranks 13th worst for economic activity

Ranks 13th worst for life expectancy: women live on average 79.1 years, and men 75.5. This is lower than the average for England but better than the Scottish and north of England averages.

Has 30% of the population suffering from a limiting long-term illness.

We like the number 13 (I was born on the 13th).

A controversial Channel 4 programme rated Merthyr Tydfil as the third worst place to live in Britain in 2006 following areas of London.

However, in the 2007 edition of the same programme, Merthyr had `improved` to fifth worst place to live.

Fifth worst? C'mon boyos we can do worse than that.

My ideal place is a remote cottage in a wooded valley on the banks of a fast flowing crystal clear river with a subway station 100 yards up the road with a high speed link to a large town.

Well I've got close : a small house about 200 yards from the Sai Gon river and a half hour taxi ride to District 1.

Well, yes, but it was so much easier when I was just a customer.

I knew you wouldn't like having to be nice to the customers in the interests of retaining same.

It's a bitch, and totally against my inner being........ I have worked in customer related services since, well, when I first started working, but they have always been sober up until now.

Can you imagine exactly how frustrating it is when every night I get faced with the same people, with the same opinions and attitudes, who once their bellies are full of beer (it starts long before that most times) can't talk about anything other than Thai driving skills, all Thais are stupid, Taksin is a wanke_r, this country will never be sorted out.... etc etc etc.......

And I have to be nice to these people.

My ideal place is a remote cottage in a wooded valley on the banks of a fast flowing crystal clear river with a subway station 100 yards up the road with a high speed link to a large town.

Hey, that is where I live...

My friend has a cottage on the upper river where I can stay anytime I want, and it's only 20 minutes from where I live...

I've got a hut by the upper river

And the fishing is good ...

And my home in Duncan is only 5 minutes from the train station.

The town is small, but adequate, and has a nice center.

There is a First Nations interpretive center and art gallery on the river that flows through town.

Small town's are a waste of time unless you're born there. The friendliness of country people is a rural myth, you have to live there for 40 years before anyone will talk to you.

Trust me on this, I'm from one.

Small town's are a waste of time unless you're born there. The friendliness of country people is a rural myth, you have to live there for 40 years before anyone will talk to you.

Trust me on this, I'm from one.

Perhaps it was the hat and the gun ?