Chiang Mai --- Why Are You Here?

[donniereadit]

1. It's easier the moving upcountry (there is more English spoken, people are used to foreigners).

2. It's cheap (I can afford a detached place. I don't have to listen to sex tourist neighbors having sex constantly or see them around my home, or worry that one of their guests will steal something)

3. There is a good balance between local and foreigner places (I don't have to hang out with fat bald guys like you do in Bangkok, Pattaya etc, but can eat at local places where they don't go).

[Mapguy]

Perhaps if the OP had opened with why they were here and not tried to tie it into a three day celebration the ex pats who live here would have been more receptive to giving their reasons.

It was just listening to and thinking appreciatively about the simple (sometimes noisy) joy and hope and prayer for tomorrow that are part of this festival that motivated me after reading so much about hamburgers, pizza, malls and so on. And now we have jazzy illuminated billboards, too!

Edited November 18, 2013 by Mapguy

[LarryBird]

2 chicks at once.

[Mapguy]

Did you get a coupon from Tops?

[puukao]

There is a 10 billion baht reward for my whereabouts.

You should Google 'IP address'. Maybe better look it up in the library.

I have my IP masked 1,765 different ways with a subnet gateway throwing packets in only binary primary codes. people think i'm on Mars.

now back to the OP's question: Winter in USA < weather in CM during the months of Nov - Feb

Smiling in Thailand not working > smiling in USA when at work

Learning a language is good for the brain.

Cheap massages.

Nice to walk at 10 p.m. with shorts and feel good.

[Frank James]

Best bookshops in Thailand. Always able to get great stuff to read. Great variety of food and drink. Great airport. Fine people. Able to see people from every country on earth come to visit here. We live where others vacation, and yet it is affordable. Rent is quite reasonable, and there is good selection. Weather is agreeable 2/3 of the year, better than where I came from. (Hot Smoke Season is a drag, but it ends.)

The new malls and condo/condo/condo (tomorrow's cheap rentals!) are mushrooming all over, but they are avoidable. Weird stuff to see here around every corner. I love it. It is home, until the End.

[Jose]

Why Are You Here?

In order to answer in a satisfactory manner, one may first need to define "I":

1) Who are you?

2) Why are you here?

I suspect the first question is the tough one.

[LarryBird]

Why Are You Here?

In order to answer in a satisfactory manner, one may first need to define "I":

1) Who are you?

2) Why are you here?

I suspect the first question is the tough one.

I'm guessing OP was looking for different stories about what brought people here.

[FiftyTwo]

I came to BK on holiday, didn't like it.

They put me on the train to CM, did like it.

Weather was crap back in the UK, so I never went back.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I'm here for the incredible nightlife.

[LarryBird]

Gotta make your own scene, Winnie.

[hellodolly]

I'm here for the incredible nightlife.

You are so easily impressed.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

It's at least somewhat true though. In Bangkok I don't bother going out anymore, and places like Pattaya and Phuket, while objectively better, are not something I'd want to deal with 24/7. (it's not even very clear-cut that Pattaya is better, as Chiang Mai has a much bigger scene for somewhat respectable nightlife, be it Thai or international. Phuket may come a bit closer.)

And then all places outside of Thailand are worse, for me.

So I'm left with Chiang Mai.

Edited November 21, 2013 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Rasseru]

Ah, indeed, the great philosophical question: why are any of us here? I think that one has to find the best answer to that question one can, for oneself, and that there is no single answer for everyone.

[habfan]

Chiangmai Sausage.

image.jpg

I'll vote for the sausage! Otherwise, why here in Chiang Mai?

A recent article in City News Chiang Mai entitled "Mega-Mall Mania & Morality" is really quite interesting and well-written. I'm puzzled how moral considerations are involved, but here it is:

http://chiangmaicitynews.com/news.php?id=2659

The views expressed in the following excerpt come rather close to expressing my own appreciation for the traditional side of the city and concerns about current development.

Chiang Mai residents know by now that the city is exploding with development, and I often hear people saying that Chiang Mai is The Little Bangkok or The Second Bangkok. Both those names irk me, being as irked by the real Bangkok as I am, yet I'm undeniably one of the many excited face-fanners when it comes to the thought of Central Festival opening up right on my doorstep. Those are usually the moments when one particular Thai friend of mine will sigh, roll his eyes and say something like, “Crazy farang.”

If I'm going to digress here (which I will, because I’m very good at it), I'd like to mention that this particular Thai friend is a young, wealthy student at CMU, and particularly blunt for a Thai person (might that be the influence of all his crazy farang friends?). He regularly moans about Little Bangkok becoming overcrowded, overbuilt, and most of all, overrated. He’s one of the many kee bon (a Thai expression for a nagger or complainer) who have no desire for a fancy Central Festival or a massive Maya to arrive in humble old Chiang Mai.

My friend is also one of the many Thais, young and old, with fond memories of their hometown that contain little of what makes Bangkok so vivid and wild. Chiang Mai, to him, used to be vivid and wild in a different way – vivid with people, with “slow living” and tradition, and wild with nature (at least, more of it), and a feeling of freedom and simplicity: a place you could feel the breeze, or hear the birds. Now, Chiang Mai often feels like a concrete jungle, full of smoggy claustrophobia and desperate blocks of buildings, creeping into every corner of the city, and ultimately, suffocating the beauty that was or might have been. Deep, I know.

Makes no sense to me. Chiang Mai has many different areas don't like the one you are in move.

I am here because I like the view I have. I love my location. Most every thing I want is handy. Getting around the city is cheap and easy. Most of the move theaters are nice and cheap. I can still get western food. My wife's mother and part of her family live here. The weather is not constantly hot and muggy. There are some interesting people here. The medical service is great just do like you should do back home check out your doctor. Mine is like the old fashioned family doctor. She has even been known to make house calls.

As for the festival. Not sure if that is a part of it or not. Did not partake in it last night. Had to go to the other side of the river and it was a real pain coming home but that is only one night a year. In past years I have gone out and really enjoyed it. It is a piss poor reason to base living in Chiang Mai on. Also and mapguy you are going to love this one. I can go into immigration and not get jacked around. I know what to expect and am often times pleasantly surprised. for instance the last time I got my yearly extension I was on my way from the American counsel where I had just got my income guarantee to the Makro in Hong Dang and thought well I will just drop in it is on the way. 9:00 in the morning they told me to come back at 3:00 in the afternoon. I was almost positive they were going to say come back tomorrow.

Twice I have lost my wallet once in a tuck tuck and another time in a store. The Tuck Tuck driver brought it back about an hour later with credit cards and cash still in it and was reluctant to take three hundred baht. and the store went through it and found a card for the name of my residence described me and the manager recognized me and called me I went back to the store and almost had to force 300 baht on them. Actually it was Subway in the Night Bazaar. Nothing was missing three credit cards and over 10,000 baht in cash. Last two times I lost my wallet once in Canada it was never returned all though the person who found it knew where I worked and called the company. the time before that in Seattle at the race track the guy who found it called me and told me a location he had left it at and I got it back minus the cash that had been in it.

Why do I live in Chiang Mai because I was bored in the western culture and wanted some thing new. I suppose it is part not doing well with the nanny state laws that are all based on fear. I like the people because they are not so afraid of death that they can not live. they enjoy life with out all the modern things we westerners take as necessities.

I don't like the smoggy season. But you can't have every thing. I wish I was as well healed as some of the trust fund babies who can just leave for the sea=son but I was not that astute at saving my money. All though I have an income big enough to live back in Canada.

Dolly at the risk of sounding flip…….. you might want to get one of those chains that attaches your wallet to your pants.

[oiezs]

im here for training..6 month in chiang mai..and i love here..haha..lot of thai friends..they are so nice and really helpful