Going Upcountry To Live

[sibeymai]

Am considering giving up the endless pursuit of money and success in Bangkok for a quieter life in rural Thailand. Would love to hear the comments of people who have done this. Any regrets ? How was the transition ? What are the best and worst things about it ? What do you miss ?

I realise that people who may have dine this may not have access to this forum....but I'm assuming that people upcountry may still keep in touch through TV.

thanks, hoping to hear some inspirational stories.

[Thaising]

Me too thinking like you, have no choice to move upcountry now and have to wait until the day I finish my rat race before my wife allow me move to our second home in the north. Moving upcountry is a good choices if you can forgo some inconvenience in exchange for a peaceful lifestyles without any hassle or stress like big city.

[Jockstar]

Am considering giving up the endless pursuit of money and success in Bangkok for a quieter life in rural Thailand. Would love to hear the comments of people who have done this. Any regrets ? How was the transition ? What are the best and worst things about it ? What do you miss ?

I realise that people who may have dine this may not have access to this forum....but I'm assuming that people upcountry may still keep in touch through TV.

thanks, hoping to hear some inspirational stories.

I might be wrong but i reckon that neeranam will have view on this.

[Neeranam]

The only thing I regret after leaving Bangkok, where I lived for a decade, is that I never left sooner.

Check out the Isarn forum for some amazing stories.

You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere. Khon Kaen, Udon for example are large busy cities with cinemas, bowling alleys, golf courses, great hotels/restauants, available high speed internet.

I might be wrong but i reckon that neeranam will have view on this.

The first couple of months were a bit strange, sitting outside at night looking at the stars I hadn't seen for years. I got a sense of serenity that I had originally come here for. Trying to escape from Bangkok is hard. I know lots of guys who get stuck there, dreaming of escaping some day.

Many of my old mates and colleagues are dropping dead now, literally. The Bangkok lifestyle for 10-20 years is all many people can take.

This story posted by Youbloodybeauty is great.

A boat docked in a tiny Thai fishing village. An American tourist complimented the Thai fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Thai. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Thai explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs... I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Thai.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Bangkok, Singapore, or even Hong Kong! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Thai.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Thai.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral is: Know where you're going in life... you may already be there.

Edited February 20, 2006 by Neeranam

[Jockstar]

The only thing I regret after leaving Bangkok, where I lived for a decade, is that I never left sooner.

Check out the Isarn forum for some amazing stories.

You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere. Khon Kaen, Udon for example are large busy cities with cinemas, bowling alleys, golf courses, great hotels/restauants, available high speed internet.

Told you!

[Thai Chi]

The only thing I regret after leaving Bangkok, where I lived for a decade, is that I never left sooner.

Check out the Isarn forum for some amazing stories.

You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere. Khon Kaen, Udon for example are large busy cities with cinemas, bowling alleys, golf courses, great hotels/restauants, available high speed internet.

And Korat. Surin and Buriram

[zzap]

Regrets? No.

Plus points:

-lots of space:house and land, quiet, very little traffic, animals and plants to observe and play with(the soi dogs are friendly here), close to beauty spots in nature, living expenses very low, laid back way of life with lots of local festivals, friendly neighbours who invite and help each other

Minus points:

-almost no farang food available, everything closes at 8pm, nobody speaks English, slow internet, limited choice for consumer goods of any kind, no courier services, the only public transport: one bus/hour into the nearest town 7am-6pm, unreliability of workers/handymen, village gossip

I almost forgot, I often take it for granted until next time I'll have to venture into Bkk:

The climate is much more pleasant, temperatures vary a lot between seasons and day/night.

And betelnuts grow everywhere and are for free!

Edited February 20, 2006 by zzap

[chownah]

Retirement comes with a whole batch of possible pitfalls regardless of where you are retiring from or to.

Edited February 20, 2006 by chownah

[Neeranam]

Has anyone ever left Bangkok to go upcountry and gone back again because they missed it?

THIS IS A GOOD THREAD ABOUT LIVING IN AN ISARN VILLAGE

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40229&hl=

How do you make a link without posting the whole address?

Retirement comes with a whole batch of possible pitfalls regardless of where you are retiring from or to.

I don't think the OP is talking about retiring.

Who needs to retire when work is so laidback?

Edited February 20, 2006 by Neeranam

[Gary A]

Had someone told me four years ago that I would be living up country out in the boonies I would have told them they were CRAZY! It started by accident. Accident for me but no accident for my Thai wife. She had a western style home here and wanted me to see her home. We stayed in her home for a couple of weeks and I kept myself busy plumbing and wiring for my western hot water shower and toilet. That was after we went to town the second day and bought a mattress to replace her rock hard one.

When we got back to the farang ghetto called Jomtien I was thinking that it was actually pretty nice in the boonies. It took about four more trips for me to make up my mind that the boonies fit me quite well. While living in Jomtien I spent way to much time in the bars and was bored with life as it was. What I missed most of all was a shop that I could tinker in. Now we have our privacy and I have my shop. I enjoy the garden and the dog also. A Thai friend has a small shop near the top of a mountain near here and I go drink beer there at least twice a week. I have Ipstar Internet and UBC TV. I spend a lot of time on the net but spend VERY little time watching TV. I must have a hundred DVD's that I haven't seen and at the rate I am watching them they will last me the rest of my life.

I absolutely HATE to have to make the occasional trip back to Jomtien. The Pattaya traffic is about as bad as Bangkok.

[Ned]

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant . You might be lucky but then again you may not and you'll have to be on your guard against the leeches who want your cash. Your partner in the village setting also may lose a lot of her independence . There's often a lot of pressure on people to follow the herd in the village.

[GuestHouse]

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant

One of the attractions of Thailand is the geography of the place.

There is ample scope for anyone of us to go 'UP COUNTRY' while leaving the in-laws 'DOWN COUNTRY' and if they happen to be 'DOWN COUNTRY' we can head 'UP COUNTRY'.

This is also why I try to keep the inlaws as far away from my car as possible. I don't want the mother-in-law overcoming her motion sickness....

[ray23]

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant

One of the attractions of Thailand is the geography of the place.

There is ample scope for anyone of us to go 'UP COUNTRY' while leaving the in-laws 'DOWN COUNTRY' and if they happen to be 'DOWN COUNTRY' we can head 'UP COUNTRY'.

This is also why I try to keep the inlaws as far away from my car as possible. I don't want the mother-in-law overcoming her motion sickness....

The only thing wrong with living up country to many people have seen the light and it is changing rapidly. You can be a busy or layback as you care top be here up to you really does apply

[Maigo6]

I have a house in Loei province and a rental in Pattaya, for quality of life Loei is easily better than Pattaya in my opinion, Pattaya is just too busy, traffic at the weekends is nearly on Par with Bangkok and its gonna get a lot worse with all the building projects going on.

Sure, the shopping is good in Pattaya, and where I live in Loei, I am 140Kms away from the nearest Big C or Lotus, then again, it's less than a 2 hour drive so no big deal once a week.

I have UBC, great family, great house, good atmosphere and clean air, good restaurant in Phu Kradueng and the locals are friendly.

If I'm bored I can always jump in my car and go out, same as I do when I get bored in Pattaya, takes me 7 hours to drive from my place in Pattaya to my house in Loei, so I have a choice, but if I was older and did not like travelling too much and I could only stay in one place, I would choose Loei over Pattaya without question.

I am a 15 year veteran of Pattaya and the growth of Pattaya has been staggering, the roads just cannot cope with the volume of traffic.

When I drive down from Isaan the trip is not so bad, till you hit the Eastern Seaboard area, then its non stop trucks and bus's, then in Sunny Pattaya it's all motorcycles and Baht bus's till Friday when the Bangkok invasion comes for the weekend, then its a traffic Jam.

Up Country for me.

[Tippaporn]

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[Tippaporn]

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How do you make a link without posting the whole address?

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In the above code I added a space after the first bracket and before the last bracket so that the code will show. It will look like this:

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Actually, the easiest way is to highlight the text you want to display and click on the "Insert Link" button next to "Text Color." A dialogue box will pop up in which you past the URL. Your highlighted text will be inserted automatically.

Edited February 21, 2006 by Tippaporn

[Neeranam]

"""Don't forget about your partner's relatives. """"""""""

Better to keep the relatives at a safe distance.

Tippaporn, thanks a lot but I still can't do it.

[Gary A]

I told my wife that I NEED my (our) privacy and that if she wanted to move in any of her relatives that was up to her. Of course it is also up to me whether I stay or not. I would NOT stay and would be packing up my things the very next day. I put up a two meter high block wall around the two rai property for a reason.

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant . You might be lucky but then again you may not and you'll have to be on your guard against the leeches who want your cash. Your partner in the village setting also may lose a lot of her independence . There's often a lot of pressure on people to follow the herd in the village.

[Boon Mee]

I lived in Bangkok and the suberbs of JT - Ban Saray - for years before moving to a little mooban in northern Suphanburi. Not there full-time 'till later in the year but it's nice. Listening to the 'Gow Wow' birds instead of traffic. No farang anywhere I've seen - even in Samchuk, the closest big city. I like it...especially now that the pooyai baan has removed a couple of his speakers!

[tutsiwarrior]

where I live there's no grapefruit juice and I have to go all the way to Tescos to buy a bottle of vodka...

oh, de pain ob libben...

[Thaising]

I told my wife that I NEED my (our) privacy and that if she wanted to move in any of her relatives that was up to her. Of course it is also up to me whether I stay or not. I would NOT stay and would be packing up my things the very next day. I put up a two meter high block wall around the two rai property for a reason.

I just color black on my face, so wife relatives will dare not stay.

Don't forget about your partner's relatives. They can often make the life of the upcountry farang very unpleasant . You might be lucky but then again you may not and you'll have to be on your guard against the leeches who want your cash. Your partner in the village setting also may lose a lot of her independence . There's often a lot of pressure on people to follow the herd in the village.

I will walk only with my underpant.

[Boon Mee]

where I live there's no grapefruit juice and I have to go all the way to Tescos to buy a bottle of vodka...

oh, de pain ob libben...

Make sure you get there at the 'appointed' hours tutsi or ya gotta wait it out up in the food court checking all the 'eye-candy'.

[a2396]

Up country does not always mean living in a village. Khon Kaen, Udon Thani & Non Khai very pleasant with a good balence of big and small. KK has HS internet, western food, good shopping, friendly people, etc, etc. Beats anyplace I have lived is USA - all things considered.

[Martin]

There is even a third choice upcountry that lies between village life and city life.

I landed in it by the lucky accident of who I fell in love with, but it can be a deliberate choice.

That is to live in an "emergent middle-class" part of a District Township ("Amphoe").

Then your neighbours are a nice mixture of the more-thinking self-sufficient farming folk, and the salaried workers (teachers, police officers, bank branch managers etc.).

In the eight years that I have lived halfway between Udon and Khon Kaen, life started good and has just got better and better.

We even get 'farang food' now (steak pies, Wiltshire-cured bacon, black pudding, Cumberland sausage and so on).

Roland Rickard gets it sent up in dry ice on the overnight bus from Pattaya and we pick it up from his house in Khon Kaen.

His telephone is 043 226 253/ 09 541 3588.

[Lourens]

No regrets whatsoever. I never lived in Bangkok but spending one or two days there is usually enough to make me long for the rural splendour of Buriram. Summertiiiiime, and the living is easy. . . What was that song again? Anyway - Upcountry is the only way for me.

[Martin]

I lived and worked in Outer Bangkok (near Rangsit) from October 2004 to April 2005.

The best bits were the three breaks that I got up home in Isaan.

Although I feel it is good to have had the comparision, I think the bit of Bangkok between the International and Domestic Air terminals will be as much as I will bother with from now on!

But I have to recognise that I am lucky to be able to feel in touch with all that is going on, via the Internet and satellite tv.

Eight years ago, my only contact with world events was the arrival on Thursday of the prevous week's 'Weekly Guardian' from London.

'Upcountry' has changed a lot.

[sibeymai]

well, thanks everyone for your valued contributions. Progress scores seem to indicate an overwhelming vote in favour of living upcountry. An expected result. Since I'm not worth a fortune I'm a little daunted by the prospect of giving up work. I'm not near enough to retirement age yet but would think ther are ways to have some cash coming in upcountry regardless of how remote the location. All in all, logically the decision to leave BKK should be easier than the decision to come to Thailand in the first place. Courage, boy, courage.