Chiang Rai Is Too Big Now

[thegovernor]

Does anyone agree with me that the once nice litttle city of Chiang Rai is now getting just too big nowadays? I feel this is the case,ihave been a resident for many a year now and the place seems to have lost its charm,it used to be that nearly all the expats and farangs seemed to know each other personally which gave Chiang Rai that really nice village kinda feeling.

With the opening of the new Central Plaza and all the new expansion i believe this place will get to be a big city with no charm... The Governor.

[brianmarinus]

I have talked about nearly the same for a long time ago-this and what influence shopping centers like Central have-go and take a look at the prices in Big C, and then compare whit Central-much cheaper in Big C for the same thing.

I have already heard about complaining among thais about the ladies and youngsters who are so happy about Central-but spend to much monye there.

I think that it will cost some small family owned shops the life.

Central,new resorts around town and whit thise things also more tourists in the area-I think are getting everything much more exspensive-including the price, at renting and buy a house..

Whit this saying-I still mean that Chiang Rai is a good place to live,but we all are different, and we require differents things from the place where we want to live.

[pomchop]

Tony Joe White revised:

Got me a rocker without no arms, ol' wood stove to keep me warm

My firewood out of the rain ,I sit and watch the seasons change

There's a woman in Bangkok ,got plenty of money down in her sock

She come to see me time to time we sit on the porch and sip our wine

A man ought to know when he's got it all holding it down up in Chiang Rai town

Dogs howl in the night the rats ate my food but that's alright

Must have needed it more than me ain't no sweat I'll eat their cheese

Way back in the woods a hoot-owl calls making his rounds up in Chiang Rai town.

The eagle flies wild and free catches fish down in my creek

I watch him rise on the breeze I don't bother him he don't bother me

Walmart moves into town progress can't keep it down

Tourists come from miles around I sit on the porch the sun goes down

But I live way back from it all keeping it cool up in Chiang Rai town.

[maidu]

I first visited C.Rai over 25 years ago, and was then the seed was planted in my brain to return to reside, which I did 13 years ago.

Like beach resorts which go from small, relatively unknown spots, to teeming cities, - C.Rai is going through its paces on the wat to being a big city.

Look at the remaining rice fields in outlying areas. Most of those will be packed with cookie-cutter housing estates, mostly thanks to Chinese/Thai Sinthanee Corporation.

Even my little village of Hoy Plakang and its approach are looking more and more like commericalized suburban sprawl, week by week.

The friendship quotient for C.Rai is still head and shoulders above that of larger tourist towns, like C.Mai, so it's ok. I moved to rural area outside town, so it's managable, though there are dogs barking at all hours - but you get that everywhere in Thailand. Thais just don't have a clue how to deal with dogs

[DonaldBattles]

Chiang Rai population seems like it has doubled in the past 6 years, with mostly Thais. Traffic in town is horrible and there is never a place to park. The road past Don's going up the mountain used to be slow but now traffic night and day with lots of cars and motor bikes. Night time drug traffic could be he cause. It is still the best place I know to live.

[villagefarang]

It might be possible to know all the members of a particular subgroup but to know all the expats of the Rai would surely take some doing. With the farang residents spread over such a vast area in Chiang Rai one could hardly expect to maintain a village feeling or know everyone. Some might think they know everyone but that is another matter.

Meeting new people is a joy and with new people arriving all the time things certainly do not get stale socially. The insular nature of the old boy’s club or the bar culture can make it hard for the newcomer at times, one might guess.

Times change, places change, even people change. Guess I’m not one for nostalgia because I always feel like now is the best time. So, no I do not agree that Chiang Rai is getting too big nowadays or that there was some perfect mythical past.

Then again my perspective might be a little warped by more than 30 years in Bangkok before moving here.

[thegovernor]

It might be possible to know all the members of a particular subgroup but to know all the expats of the Rai would surely take some doing. With the farang residents spread over such a vast area in Chiang Rai one could hardly expect to maintain a village feeling or know everyone. Some might think they know everyone but that is another matter.

Meeting new people is a joy and with new people arriving all the time things certainly do not get stale socially. The insular nature of the old boy's club or the bar culture can make it hard for the newcomer at times, one might guess.

Times change, places change, even people change. Guess I'm not one for nostalgia because I always feel like now is the best time. So, no I do not agree that Chiang Rai is getting too big nowadays or that there was some perfect mythical past.

Then again my perspective might be a little warped by more than 30 years in Bangkok before moving here.

[/quot

I said NEARLY all the farangs and 16 years ago we pretty much did and of course i enjoy meeting new people and making new friends,one of the nicest things that can happen in our lives.So from Bangkok to a farang in a village,hence your monicker,if you had stayed here a good while back you might see things differently. the governor.

[villagefarang]

I said NEARLY all the farangs and 16 years ago we pretty much did and of course i enjoy meeting new people and making new friends,one of the nicest things that can happen in our lives.So from Bangkok to a farang in a village,hence your monicker,if you had stayed here a good while back you might see things differently. the governor.

Yes I settled on VF when I was starting a blog about building our house in the village. Over the years the blog has morphed into something else but the monicker has stuck.

I don’t know about seeing things differently if I had been in CR longer. Though we have lived here for only 5 years the wife and I have been visiting from Bangkok for 14 years now. I find people's memories quite subjective at best on this matter. Wherever you are, people mourn the passing of some mythical Camelot. I see it as a case of selective memory. Whether back in the 70’s or now, the story is always the same. “Things were better way back when.”

I always think things are better right now. But that is just me.

Edited December 14, 2011 by villagefarang

[changraider]

I can't really comment on changes in CR over the last 16 years. But in the last 25 years I've worked in 18 countries and around 35 cities, and one thing I can say for certain - things change :-)