Wild Dogs Howling And Drunken Men Singing!

[fredtitmus]

I came to Thailand end of november and i dont think i have slept straight through much since i have been here and i am not a light sleeper,i am staying in an apartment at the university compound in khon kaen basically because it were cheap at 3,500 baht per month.The apartment is new and has everything i need,the thai students that share the apartment are great too,very helpful and respectful.But there are just a couple of things that are bothering me,between 2am and 4am every morning the dogs start howling,one big dog starts near my apartment (i think hes the instigater) and then slowly you can here the dogs howling and barking everywhere like a mexican wave.Its as if they are having a sing song and it lasts for about 5 mins.

Just before the newyear though i didnt here them and the next evening i remember saying to the girlfriend i slept through last night! so that night we were having a nice quiet night in when this BOOM,BOOM,BOOM music starts,it were a house about 500 metres down the road this went on for a couple of hours.Then it really started some guy who'd had a few started singing the old traditional thai songs,it honestly sounded like he were being strangled and the speaker seemed like it were next to my window.My girlfriend was laughing her head off cos she could here all the students going down stairs complaining that they couldnt read there book or watch tv and i had enough too i said to my girlfriend im going out for a few(so something good did actually come out of it!) This went on all new year at differant premises with equally bad singers(i might add the women were actually very good).

Into the new year and the dogs are back(i think they f**ked off as well while it were all going off) and its back to normal with the howling oh and the goose gozzling! I know it seems like im complaining but i am actually on the old man and the dogs side cos it is a bit refreshing to see people let other people have fun and not go complaining and calling the police because that is what would happen in england,everyone would get stressed out,maybe a set too and then police would shut it down and the dogs would all be captured, put in cages,then either put down or if they are lucky given to an owner who shuts them in the house all day and goes to work but in thailand the dogs are free just like us.

So i would like to thank thailand and thai people for making my life more interesting,ok it maybe a little crazy at times but at least its not boring.

.

[fredtitmus]

do you have any interesting/ funny/crazy thai stories that have happened to you but probably wouldnt happen back home? dont hold back!

thanks

fred

[IanForbes]

You'll eventually get used to it... just like the Thais do. I have pond right outside my apartment window. Across the pond is a series of Thai kareoke bars. the sound comes across the pond like it was a meter from my window... which is always open for the breeze.

I can positively say that I've NEVER heard a good voice from any of the kareoke bars. If someone was searching for singing talent they would never find it here.

And, the common soi dogs you find EVERYWHERE in Thailand are just part of the country. There is no escaping them. Thais love their dogs and most owners keep their dogs behind fences and walls. The wild, soi dogs infuriate the penned up ones and there is constant barking and howling. You eventually get used to it and tune it out. It's either that or get used to wearing ear plugs.

The very things we like to complain about are often the very things that make Thailand unique and exciting. We don't have the pampered life in Thailand that you find back home.

[Old Croc]

Try living in Patong.

The dogs and drunken voices are there all night, but you have to add random fireworks displays at any time of the night to the mix!

Last night, about 1.00am, several large, star burst type, fireworks went off about 30 metres from my open bedroom window. I'm talking big MF's, not little backyard stuff. The sort of fireworks that usually explode well up in the air. I think these must have been launched from somewhere below the hill where I live so were not much higher than the house when they went off.

Like living in a war zone!

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

OP,

I am from the UK also and have lived here on and off for 7 years in mainly rural northern Thailand... and I can honestly say that no one that I know from back home could grasp just how much my life has changed and believe the stories regarding the what craziness I have witnessed. The latest episode was at my neighbour's house - we had a party for the temple fund raiser (the 'tamboon' lasted all week with loud speakers blaring out from 5am to 10pm each day for 7 days)... At the party, we all gave some money and paraded the money tree etc to the temple, dancing and singing etc... great fun and totally random! however, before going, they had set up a karaoke stage in their front garden which was so loud everyone at the party was sat behind the stage/speakers around the back, drinking and eating (and being able to talk to each other..) Whoever was singing was doing so in front of about 40 empty chairs and several tables! No one suggested turning the sound down.That said, it was great fun blasting out some tunes when it is that loud :-)

At the end of the night there was the habitual 'handbags' between two of the Thai guys (they are always at each others throats after drinking) - the step son was trying to break into the house to beat up his step dad (who had passed out drunk before we even made it to the temple - it was his party!) who himself was trying to break out of the house to beat up his step son... luckily, the women of the house had foreseen such behaviour and had bolted all windows/doors closed... as such, the two drunken buffoons were left shouting at each other through the windows etc... it would have been funny were it not so pathetic. I was the only guy left at this time of events, and not wishing to get involved in Thai domestic affairs, I was going to leave, but the 12 year old daughter asked me to help, so I was obliged to intervene as passively as possible, ushering the step son back to the table to drink more beer with me and start a chat about football/women or whatever would stop him getting up and making more of an arse of himself and further upsetting his family.

Just another typical night of the beers in a Thai village...All I can say is 'thank the heavens for Thai women' - without them around keeping their sh*t together, I honestly think that Thailand would be a smoking pile of rubble by now.

Cheers!

[Panhandler007]

dam_n soi dogs kept me up for MONTHS!!!

[bifftastic]

Dogs and chickens!

Previously, I was led to believe that cockerels greet the dawn of a new day by crowing. Then I came to northern Thailand!

All day, the scrawny feckers are at it!

I'm currently in London, I called my g/f the other day and when she answered the phone, all I could hear was one almighty cacophony of noise. Kids, the TV, our dogs, the neighbour's dogs, chickens, the 'tractor' starting up, I just laughed.

Which made her angry....."Why you laugh? Hah? You wake me up now!"