Why Are There So Many Americans In Chiang Mai?

[Gladiator]

http://en.wikipedia....ternet_pioneers

British, French and other nationalities on this list.

( an American who grew up in Silicon Valley)

My apoligies to all. it is quite late and that is my excuse....

"

THREE WHEELS ON MY WAGON

Three wheels on my wagon,

And I’m still rolling along

The Cherokees are chasing me

Arrows fly, right on by

But I’m singing a happy song

I’m singing a higgity, haggity, hoggety, high

Pioneers, they never say die

A mile up the road there’s a hidden cave

And we can watch those Cherokees

Go galloping by

SPOKEN: “George, they’re catching up to us!”

“Get back in the wagon woman!”

Two wheels on my wagon,

And I’m still rolling along

Them Cherokees are after me

Flaming spears, burn my ears

But I’m singing a happy song

I’m singing a higgity, haggity hoggety, high

Pioneers, they never say die

Half a mile up the road there’s a hidden cave

And we can watch those Cherokees

Go galloping by

SPOKEN: “Duh, Paw? Are you sure this is the right road?”

“Will you hush up? You and your maps!”

One wheel on my wagon,

And I’m still rolling along

Them Cherokees after me

I’m all in flames, at the reins

But I’m singing a happy song

I’m singing a higgity, haggity hoggety, high

Pioneers, they never say die

Right around that turn there’s a hidden cave

And we can watch those Cherokees

Go galloping by

SPOKEN: “George? Should I get the bag of beads and trinkets?”

“Woman, I know what I’m doing!”

No wheels on my wagon,

So I’m not rolling along

The Cherokees captured me

They look mad, things look bad

But I’m singing a happy song

SPOKEN: “C’mon all you Cherokees sing along with me!”

Higgity, haggity hoggety, high

Pioneers, they never say die…

[globerunner4]

There are 5 McDonalds.

Because contrary to what you see on tv, we are more conservative than Europeans and the like. When we take our family's on vacation we're not comfortable w the in your face prostitution like you see in Phuket. We also come for the culture and I can't think of another area w as many temples and national parks as CM. So I guess you can say we are Thai like in that way. I also noticed the average European getting just as big as their American brothers. They must love McDonalds as much as the next "bloke". Just my observations.

[DowntownAl]

Al Gore invented the Internet.

Do you know about Snopes.com? Or just google "Al Gore invented the Internet" and it will direct you to Snopes or other sites that expose internet rumors, urban legends, and outright lies.

One site sums it up:

"Of course, he never really said that, but after a year of repetition from a brain-dead political media, amplified by late-night comics looking for punchlines about two pretty dull-seeming candidates in 2000, you'd be hard pressed to find a voter in November 2000 who didn't think Gore had really said that. It was one of a number of exaggerations and outright falsehoods that became running jokes about Gore in 2000, that he'd claimed cleaning up Love Canal, etc."

But that won't stop you, will it?

I thought UG was being humorous. Maybe i don't know some history here. Everybody knows Bill Gates invented the internet.

Cute, but actually the internet was the result of research into survivable communication networks by DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department. So the internet is a U.S. invention. So are light bulbs, telephones, transistors, microprocessors, personal computers, weather satellites, GPS satellites, and a few other useful gadgets few people can imagine living without.

Did you know the timing signal from the GPS satellites is essential for most mobile phone service? And the U.S. provides it, and the navigation information, for free. You're welcome.

Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925

The telephone was invented by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford, Ontario before gaining his patent in the US.

The Cesium Beam atomic clock was developed by National Research Council personnel (Canada) in the 1960s. The basis for all ultra-accurate time measurement.

You're welcome.

Edit - almost forgot - Superman too.

Edited September 8, 2012 by DowntownAl

[Genericnic]

Yeah, but the girls in Mexico have bigger boobs, not that you care. Plus we all had at least 4 years of Spanish in school. It's not that hard.

Excusez-moi, I studied ... French.

I went to a fairly progressive high school in southeast Texas in the late 1960s.

David

Edited September 8, 2012 by onthedarkside
non English script removed

[CrazyKid]

Could it be that many are missionaries?

No that is just their position at the moment

[harrry]

I know I cannot comment on moderation but if I coulld I would have to commend mcgriffith for the free and easy way he has kept discussion going on this thread. Well done.

[OriginalPoster]

Do you know about Snopes.com? Or just google "Al Gore invented the Internet" and it will direct you to Snopes or other sites that expose internet rumors, urban legends, and outright lies.

One site sums it up:

"Of course, he never really said that, but after a year of repetition from a brain-dead political media, amplified by late-night comics looking for punchlines about two pretty dull-seeming candidates in 2000, you'd be hard pressed to find a voter in November 2000 who didn't think Gore had really said that. It was one of a number of exaggerations and outright falsehoods that became running jokes about Gore in 2000, that he'd claimed cleaning up Love Canal, etc."

But that won't stop you, will it?

I thought UG was being humorous. Maybe i don't know some history here. Everybody knows Bill Gates invented the internet.

Cute, but actually the internet was the result of research into survivable communication networks by DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department. So the internet is a U.S. invention. So are light bulbs, telephones, transistors, microprocessors, personal computers, weather satellites, GPS satellites, and a few other useful gadgets few people can imagine living without.

Did you know the timing signal from the GPS satellites is essential for most mobile phone service? And the U.S. provides it, and the navigation information, for free. You're welcome.

Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925

The telephone was invented by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford, Ontario before gaining his patent in the US.

The Cesium Beam atomic clock was developed by National Research Council personnel (Canada) in the 1960s. The basis for all ultra-accurate time measurement.

You're welcome.

Edit - almost forgot - Superman too.

That tidbit about Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patenting the FET is interesting. He wasn't able to demonstrate a working prototype though, and the first Bell Labs transistor that did work (more than 20 years later) was a bipolar device rather than a FET.

[ramrod711]

Definitely lots of American missionaries here. At the Superbowl watching party held at the Empress Hotel we missed the halftime show to listen to some lady ramble on for several minutes praying for Burma.

Next year I'll definitely watch it at one of the bars.

The breakfast was pretty good, especially if you went during the speeches

[Genericnic]

Yeah, but the girls in Mexico have bigger boobs, not that you care. Plus we all had at least 4 years of Spanish in school. It's not that hard.

Excusez-moi, I studied ... French.

I went to a fairly progressive high school in southeast Texas in the late 1960s.

David

So, foreign languages are ok as long as they are in English script?

The removed Russian script said, "And I studied Russian" in response to Jingthing's French.

David

[Chicog]

There are more Americans in Pattaya than Chiang Mai. In fact as much as I know Americans in Chiang Mai, I wouldn't say there are lots of them, no more so than Europeans and other caucasian expats.

[Ricardo]

There are 5 McDonalds.

Plus the new one, with drive-in, near Arcade-2 bus-station ... and I'm sure I saw another new set of golden-arches, on the Super-Highway near to the police-station the other day ?

If one accepts the premise, that you are what you eat, then we're all becoming more-American, but I don't think that will work with the Immigration-officer at JFK.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Ricardo

[heybruce]

Cute, but actually the internet was the result of research into survivable communication networks by DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department. So the internet is a U.S. invention. So are light bulbs, telephones, transistors, microprocessors, personal computers, weather satellites, GPS satellites, and a few other useful gadgets few people can imagine living without.

Did you know the timing signal from the GPS satellites is essential for most mobile phone service? And the U.S. provides it, and the navigation information, for free. You're welcome.

Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925

The telephone was invented by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford, Ontario before gaining his patent in the US.

The Cesium Beam atomic clock was developed by National Research Council personnel (Canada) in the 1960s. The basis for all ultra-accurate time measurement.

You're welcome.

Edit - almost forgot - Superman too.

I'll take your word for it on the invention of the telephone, Alexander Bell split his research between Boston and Canada, I couldn't find a definitive statement as to where the first workable phone was made.

You are also correct about the patent for a FET transistor, but it appears little was done with this patent. The first practical transistor design and the initial applications that made the modern world, were developed in the AT&T Bell Laboratories in the U.S.

Wikipedia credits the U.S. with the first ammonia maser atomic clock and the UK with the first accurate Cesium atomic clock. However the atomic clock and several other technologies were put together in the U.S. to make the now ubiquitous GPS system.

I thought Superman was from Krypton.

By the way, I wrote "You're welcome." after mentioning that the U.S. provides, at considerable expense to U.S. taxpayers and free of charge to the world, the GPS navigation and timing signals that are integral to much of the modern world. Why did you write "You're welcome."?

[OriginalPoster]

Cute, but actually the internet was the result of research into survivable communication networks by DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department. So the internet is a U.S. invention. So are light bulbs, telephones, transistors, microprocessors, personal computers, weather satellites, GPS satellites, and a few other useful gadgets few people can imagine living without.

Did you know the timing signal from the GPS satellites is essential for most mobile phone service? And the U.S. provides it, and the navigation information, for free. You're welcome.

Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925

The telephone was invented by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford, Ontario before gaining his patent in the US.

The Cesium Beam atomic clock was developed by National Research Council personnel (Canada) in the 1960s. The basis for all ultra-accurate time measurement.

You're welcome.

Edit - almost forgot - Superman too.

I'll take your word for it on the invention of the telephone, Alexander Bell split his research between Boston and Canada, I couldn't find a definitive statement as to where the first workable phone was made.

You are also correct about the patent for a FET transistor, but it appears little was done with this patent. The first practical transistor design and the initial applications that made the modern world, were developed in the AT&T Bell Laboratories in the U.S.

Wikipedia credits the U.S. with the first ammonia maser atomic clock and the UK with the first accurate Cesium atomic clock. However the atomic clock and several other technologies were put together in the U.S. to make the now ubiquitous GPS system.

I thought Superman was from Krypton.

By the way, I wrote "You're welcome." after mentioning that the U.S. provides, at considerable expense to U.S. taxpayers and free of charge to the world, the GPS navigation and timing signals that are integral to much of the modern world. Why did you write "You're welcome."?

re: I'll take your word for it on the invention of the telephone, Alexander Bell split his research between Boston and Canada, I couldn't find a definitive statement as to where the first workable phone was made.

In the early days AT&T of the US and Nortel (or Northern Electric) of Canada were intertwined and it made little difference to anyone in which country the first phone was built.

But... while I find this stuff to be interesting, I suppose that it's off topic.

[TeacherTurbo]

Pretty simple. There are over 300 million Americans. They should equal almost all the Europeans combined.

WHATS YOUr point, there are over 2,000 million Asians. America has 2 entire continents and less than 500,000 people. Europe really does not have the land mass of North America or the amount of Wild life and forest protection....

[OriginalPoster]

Pretty simple. There are over 300 million Americans. They should equal almost all the Europeans combined.

WHATS YOUr point, there are over 2,000 million Asians. America has 2 entire continents and less than 500,000 people. Europe really does not have the land mass of North America or the amount of Wild life and forest protection....

His point was mistaken. Worldwide, there are not more Americans than Europeans.

[rsokolowski]

As an American, these are a few of the reasons that I am here:

1. Police are not on every street corner.

2. Taking an airplane does not require you to have your privates fondled by a pervert.

3. The corruption in Thailand is much lower than in America.

4. The women are not ashamed to be a woman nor act like one.

5. The women on average are 25k smaller.

6. Problems can usually be resolved without a lawyer and huge expenses.

7. Healthcare is much cheaper tho not as good.

8. 0bama bumper stickers are nowhere to be found.

My country seems to be having a few problems lately.

As an American that is retiring to Thailand in less than three years, I qgree with all of the above. I will be retiring to Issan though and not Chang Mai.

[hellodolly]

As an American I am here for the same reason I would have if I was a Canadian.

I like it here.Things are different. Thais are not afraid to live. It is cheaper to travel to other parts of the world that I am interested in.

And last but not least.

WHY NOT

[HaleySabai]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

[mesquite]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

[mesquite]

As an American, these are a few of the reasons that I am here:

1. Police are not on every street corner.

2. Taking an airplane does not require you to have your privates fondled by a pervert.

3. The corruption in Thailand is much lower than in America.

4. The women are not ashamed to be a woman nor act like one.

5. The women on average are 25k smaller.

6. Problems can usually be resolved without a lawyer and huge expenses.

7. Healthcare is much cheaper tho not as good.

8. 0bama bumper stickers are nowhere to be found.

My country seems to be having a few problems lately.

+L

Edited September 8, 2012 by mesquite

[brommers]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

[mesquite]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

Ahh..yes...thanks!

[lizardtongue]

I lived in Hua Hin for several years and there are not many Americans or Canadians but a ton of Scandi's and a fair few Germans living there.

[hellodolly]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

True. Most people don't realize it but besides exporting war fare the states exports confusion. Many different religions telling the Thais they have it wrong this is the way it really is. They have been known to get two or more religions into one village and separate the unity they had with out outside help.

[OriginalPoster]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

True. Most people don't realize it but besides exporting war fare the states exports confusion. Many different religions telling the Thais they have it wrong this is the way it really is. They have been known to get two or more religions into one village and separate the unity they had with out outside help.

They have also been known to build hospitals and schools.

[KRS1]

As an American, these are a few of the reasons that I am here:

1. Police are not on every street corner.

2. Taking an airplane does not require you to have your privates fondled by a pervert.

3. The corruption in Thailand is much lower than in America.

4. The women are not ashamed to be a woman nor act like one.

5. The women on average are 25k smaller.

6. Problems can usually be resolved without a lawyer and huge expenses.

7. Healthcare is much cheaper tho not as good.

8. 0bama bumper stickers are nowhere to be found.

My country seems to be having a few problems lately.

As an American that is retiring to Thailand in less than three years, I agree with all of the above. I will be retiring to Issan though and not Chang Mai.

I agree with all this, except the police are no longer on every street corner, they cant afford to do that anymore, unless the economy in that city is strong.

That being said i got 3 tickets at one time during the first 2 weeks I was back in the US...and no I was not at fault and they will all get dismissed.

[Genericnic]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

Yes. One of our least desirable exports.

David

[Jingthing]

I once heard that there are upwards of 40,000+ missionaries in CM...guess which country in the world is known to be the biggest export "thumper".....

What do you mean by "thumper?"

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

Yes. One of our least desirable exports.

David

Careful now. One of them might be our next president!

[Genericnic]

My guess is "bible thumper'. I have met many of these around the world & they have all be from the USA.

Yes. One of our least desirable exports.

David

Careful now. One of them might be our next president!

I hope not. I would hate riding around on a bicycle and wearing a white shirt and tie not to mention having to give up coffee.

David

[calibanjr.]

"In other tourist places, Hua Hin, Koh Chang, Samui, Phuket, Bangkok I heard nowhere near this number as a percentage of foreigners".

Haven't you compared the prices?

The answer is pretty obvious.

But then they seem to be very frivolous with tips, so I'm not sure the prices have much to do with this.

Yanks don't tip that's why in the states they add on 15%.

I believe you have it exactly backwards. In the states, salaries for wait/bar staff are supported at a lower minimum due to tips, so it's understood that the wait/bar staff make the substantial part of their income through tips. There are seldom added-in service charges in the states, generally set service charges are for serious restaurants and set for groups of 4-6 or larger. The reason Americans have the reputation of heavy-tippers is because of our system of pay for waitstaff. Standard U.S. tipping is 15% unless service is substandard, 20+ if excellent. It's not an insult to the Euros, they have a different remuneration system, but we used to (when I was a waiter at a high-end restaurant in Boston) inform them ahead of the bill. I was so charming, being a silver-tongued Boston Irish boy, that it generally worked out well in the end.