What a beautiful place we live in and for the next few months we also have some very pleasant weather.

Add in some wonderful nice and friendly Thai people, good food, and many pretty girls who will smile at even old guys.

Sure beats the heck out of a zillion other places I can think of where people are busy about their lives going to work in cold dark raining predawn and getting back to their little shoebox of a home after dark.

Thailand is far from perfect but all things considered I for one can certainly find a LOT more things that I like about Thailand and Thai people and especially Chiang Rai than many many other places on this planet.

Enjoy the dry/cool season, the scenery, the food, the girls, the slow pace, the laughing kids, and yes even the "mai bpen lie" of the Thai people.

In many ways those of us who spend time in Chiang Rai are the lucky ones.

Not lucky....sensible.....we chose to live here.

A marvellous place... and as I said in an earlier topic, the best time of the year.

Nearly thought the Op was talking about those Personal Massage Thinggies

I couldn't agree more with this post. I retired at home, bought my retirement place and huge shop to restore collector cars and work with wood making things for myself and family. After 4 years of short cold wet days and long nights of same same, I came to Thailand. Now I did Bangkok and Pattaya on my way to the Golden Triangle. I won't go into it, but I assure you, I hadn't seen thailand until I arrived in Chiang Rai. I found a place where people thot, what's the panic, tomorrow will come no matter what! I stayed, OK some pretty girls smiled at me, an old dog like me, but what turned me, is I sat having coffee across from a thai man my age, he smiled, I talked english, he thai, we didn't understand each other and he didn't give a hoot. I think he told me to sit quiet, listen for a change or maybe said Mai Phen Rai enjoy, I don't know. I have only been here a little over a year, did short visits home and miss Thailand everytime I go.

Now I build things for my wife, sit and have coffee with my father-in-law, who watches me work, thinks I must be the village idiot, but says I have a good heart and lets me build them the silly farang way. Tolerance and acceptance is shown to me every day by my new family, something this world could use more of.

I to count my blessing................

Some of us put the place down , just to keep the little piece of heaven to ourselves.

Well put, both regarding Thailand and the positivity...