Housing Estate - Country Homes Maybe !?

[jubby]

We passed through a beautiful Housing estate yesterday on the hash. Near to Chiang Rai beach. Some of the Houses were quite rundown and appeared unoccupied. Beautiful place nonetheless. Someone mention it was called 'country Homes' .

What Happened to it ? Whats the History ? It must have been magnificient when it was first Built.

[mumbojumbo]

Ask Limbo, he has lived there for long time.

[jubby]

Thanks Mumbojumbo, I will. Where is he ? He's gone quiet.

[mcgriffith]

I visited Limbo's house on my last visit.

It's an older moo baan with some beautiful homes, but like every other moo baan in Thailand, some owners maintain their property, others not so much.

Limbo's house was very nice, BTW.

If the rent was right, that area in CR would be at the top of my list when I eventually make the move up north.

[dindong]

I visited Limbo's house on my last visit.

It's an older moo baan with some beautiful homes, but like every other moo baan in Thailand, some owners maintain their property, others not so much.

Limbo's house was very nice, BTW.

If the rent was right, that area in CR would be at the top of my list when I eventually make the move up north.

I would not recommend it.

A mate who lived there for a few years got burgled twice.

The security and the mangement are useless.

The properties are well past their sell by date, having a lot of timber which is rotten and the management don't seem to care.

I do agree that it probably was once a really classy place to live but no longer.

[mcgriffith]

Nonetheless, still a very nice place to live; peaceful, birds chirping in the trees- and minutes from downtown.

I can deal with moldy timber and crumbling bricks, as long as the vibe is right.

As for security, I reckon that will be an issue no matter where you live.

[Paul888]

We drove through there a few months whilst looking around at houses, and both my wife and I felt that we had stumbled onto a set of one of those movies where the people get lost and appear in a town and the place is deserted, but then they develop car trouble and have to hang around until one by one they all get picked off.

There was a child's bike abandoned by the side of the road, and one of those mesh doors swinging open and closed with the wind. Other than that it was silent and eerie, and there were no signs of visible life. It was all together a very weird feeling doing the circuit around there and my wife could not wait to get out of there.

I imagine a few years ago this was a very nice village, but now everything just seemed faded and off colour. Very strange.

I am sure there is more story.

[jubby]

It is a little strange, maybe strangely appealling . There must be more to the story.

Come on Limbo , the Honeymoon must be over by now. Your audience awaits you

[kandahar]

If someone doesn't post soon about what the deal is, I am going to just invent the story and post it. I'm sure it will be as good as the truth.

[villagefarang]

If someone doesn't post soon about what the deal is, I am going to just invent the story and post it. I'm sure it will be as good as the truth.

Go ahead with your story, as I don't see anything forthcoming any time soon. Besides it might force out a rebuttal of some sort. Probably only name calling, but we can always hope for more.

[kandahar]

If someone doesn't post soon about what the deal is, I am going to just invent the story and post it. I'm sure it will be as good as the truth.

Go ahead with your story, as I don't see anything forthcoming any time soon. Besides it might force out a rebuttal of some sort. Probably only name calling, but we can always hope for more.

I could handle that. I was called a name once before, a long time ago. It didn't hurt me.

[Paul888]

If this does not have the makings of a beautiful subject for a short story competition, I do not know what has.........

In fact, I will even offer up a 1000 baht prize for who can come up with the best story.

Winner being either anybody who bothers to enter or if more than one does, then we will put it up as a poll to deicde the winner. I have a short attention span so let's say closing date 14th July.

[kandahar]

If this does not have the makings of a beautiful subject for a short story competition, I do not know what has.........

In fact, I will even offer up a 1000 baht prize for who can come up with the best story.

Winner being either anybody who bothers to enter or if more than one does, then we will put it up as a poll to deicde the winner. I have a short attention span so let's say closing date 14th July.

I don't know if anyone can be enticed to take such bait. Someone is sure to chime in with a comment about needing a work permit for this.

Here's the thing: I'm pretty tied up following the "Pigs, Worms and Compost" thread in the Farming Forum. If that thing slows down, I will see if I can find the time for a good story about Country Homes. But whatever I can do, lots of others can do better.

Edited July 1, 2010 by kandahar

[villagefarang]

If this does not have the makings of a beautiful subject for a short story competition, I do not know what has.........

In fact, I will even offer up a 1000 baht prize for who can come up with the best story.

Winner being either anybody who bothers to enter or if more than one does, then we will put it up as a poll to deicde the winner. I have a short attention span so let's say closing date 14th July.

A true philanthropic patron of the arts. Thank you Paul888. A thousand baht for the taking kandahar. This ought to be easy for you.

[sceadugenga]

How about a limerick? I can do limericks.... sort of.

[sceadugenga]

Sceadugenga's ten minute story.

The Chiang Rai Housing Estate Story.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived a beautiful young property developer called Goldilocks.

Goldilocks had some nice river front property outside of town and decided to build an up market housing estate on it.

She never had the finance so she went to the three Bears’ house to see if Baby Bear would spring for a loan. Baby Bear, seeing a nice earner in this, agreed immediately; so Goldilocks went off happily to see her architect.

But Baby Bear didn’t really have the money. So he went to see Mother Bear and asked her to lend him the money. She liked the sound of the deal as well so she agreed to lend it to him.

But Mother Bear didn’t really have the money either. So she went to see Father Bear who also promised the money without actually having it.

So he went to his friend, the Big Bad Wolf, who also lived far, far away, in the other direction, and he DID have the money and lent it to Father Bear.

The money was passed down the chain to Goldilocks, with everyone taking a nice cut for their trouble, and Goldilocks started building her houses.

Then one day something terrible happened. The Big Bad Wolf had lunch with Father Bear and said “I’ve got a cash flow problem, give me back my money or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and blow your house down”.

So Father Bear ran to Mother Bear and said the same thing, she immediately found Baby Bear who ran down to the new housing estate and demanded his money.

Of course Goldilocks never had the money because she hadn’t finished building the houses or sold enough of the ones she had built.

So the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed and everyone’s houses fell down. Some a little faster than others.

So Goldilocks gave up property developing and moved to Pattaya where she sends her Mother fifty thousand baht a month and tells her she works as a checkout operator at Big C.

And the Mother lived happily every after.

The End

Edited July 1, 2010 by sceadugenga

[jubby]

Thats not a Limerick you Geordie R%$8^&@ !! (profanity, much profanity and pornography) .

Its a Bloody Nursery Rhyme.

Its probably not far from the Truth I suppose

Thanks for clearing it up

[sceadugenga]

Sorry... forgot the limerick.

There was a nice house in Chiang Rai

That was built on pie in the sky

The builder went bust,

In banks he did trust

And the buyers all moved to Chiang Mai

[villagefarang]

Here because someone asked is a copy of an email I just received from a source who lives there. Only the names of the innocent have been change to protect their identity. The main body is passed on unedited. Enjoy.

We don't know much about the history of Country Home estate, but we have heard (from various sources, and, therefore, none of the information is - in any way -substantiated) the following:

Developed approx. 16 years ago

It was to be a resort where you could rent a house or room,or hold an owner-occupied house, and have your meals and entertainment at the resort main building/swimming pool. The gym/ sports equipment is still there, though the pool is a home only to frogs, and the water's a lovely green colour.

The infrastructure was laid down, the central complex was built and the houses were started. Park/garden areas were laid out, a central pond with waterlilies (all still in place, but not as 'tidy' as first envisaged I imagine). About half the plots were developed when a 'disagreement' arose between the (4?) developers who may/may not have been from Krungthep. This disagreement about how the resort was to develop resulted in the death/murder?! of one of them. Apparently this left the estate 'jinxed'. But, as it was also at the same time as the property downturn in the 1990's, this might well have contributed more to it's subsequent decline/non-completion.

Some houses have been lived in by the original purchasers since they were built, whilst others have been taken out of mothballs and sold on to new purchasers. About a third of the houses, although all are structurally complete -with lovely wooden flooring etc - have never been lived in. Like many 'built' properties, they suffer from what my Thai sister-in-law says is a reluctance to 'buy second-hand' houses. They are also definitely not Thai in design, which would put a lot of people off.

The banks/original developers have rented out a number of their properties, some on short leases, others to people who have lived here for years. They have sold off others -but getting info. about what is available to buy is extremely difficult , as local estate realtors will tell you. The original developers seem quite content to just let their holdings moulder away.

When it was first opened, it was apparently very popular with the locals (the local primary school used swimming pool every Friday) and ex-pats who visited the resort building/pool a lot. A friend remembers going swimming and having meals here regularly for the first couple of years. None of the original rentable houses were equipped with kitchens - it was assumed you would eat at the resort building or elsewhere.

Current situation: two plots have been developed with 'new' style houses on them, some of the vacant plots are used by local farmers to grow crops - sunflowers this year on the field beside us. Some of the original owner occupiers live here all year, others (from the south) come up for winter/Songkran etc leaving staff to look after the houses at other times. Permanent residents include 2 houses occupied by 'big-wigs' from the police, a local gynecologist, 4 Dutch/Thai families, quite a few Thai business people/families, a couple of British families etc. At a guess, about a half are 'long-term' lessees, half owner-occupiers. Some of the houses have been substantially re-modeled and look very little like their original designs. The resort building /pool has been out of use for some years. The general garden areas/roads are kept tidy by gardeners employed by the original developers/rented income. Ditto estate 'security'.

The estate looks very odd as you can have a house that someone has spent many millions on,sitting in it's immaculate gardens between two structurally intact but otherwise derelict and completely overgrown houses, or like ours which has a big empty field beside it where house plots were going to be.

All in all, it makes for a, surprisingly, very pleasant place to live. We are not phased by it's 'gentle decline'. Quiet, with nice neighbors, good mix of Thai/ non Thais, and for us - really good geographical position. Close to the town but we only need to go out the back estate gates to get to lots of good cycling/ dog walking countryside.

As I said originally, how much of the little history we know is 'fact' is debatable. It would be good to find out the real history - might have to wait till my Thai is an awful lot better though.

[jubby]

Well thanks VF, I did suspect the Asian Crisis had some involvement. Your contact sounds happy with the place though.

I guess thats all we're going to find out. Only 16 years old. Wow.

Oh and Scea, you definately have a Gift ;-)