I came home from the big village about 8.30 pm last night and about 1.5 km before I got home my Honda CB 400 just wound down and stopped.

I had fuel in the tank and a couple of tries at starting worked briefly and then it died again.

OK so I started to push the bike home which wasn't too hard as there a couple of downhill bits when along comes an older guy on his 115cc bike.

In mangled English and Thai we worked out that yes I had Nam Mun or fuel but the bike wouldn't ackle.

He tells me to get on and puts his bike close to mine, his foot on my exhaust pipe and off we go home.

We get to the bottom of the drive and helps me to push it up the slope to the bike shed.

I was knackered and sweating hard and by the time I got my breath back he was on his way so I thanked him very much and didn't even have time to give him anything before he was gone.

I had to go to hospital in Khampaeng Phet this morning so I stole the truck from my wife, did my bits and came back to the big village 6 km from home.

I talked with they guy who normally does all my bike work and drew what I thought was a flow chart for the fuel system on the CB 400.

I took the truck back to my wife 400 metres down the road grabbed the scooter and went back to the Honda guys. Two of them followed me home a few minutes later with a pickup truck to take the bike to the shop. They had a look at it first and found a rubber pipe either broken or disconnected, got some from the truck and swapped it out which fixed the problem.

They charged me 200 baht for the callout and I gave them 50 baht each as a tip for the 10 minutes of work.

I then asked them asked them if they could take my Phantom down and fix the puncture in the back tyre and 1 1/2 hours later they called and said that was done too.

What a great place rural Thailand is. Friendly people, good service and low prices.

Had an old TZR150.

Gear lever snapped off in the middle of Isaan one evening.

Few lads came out from the two houses next to it.

One returned with a long bolt without saying a word, mended it up, by the time we looked up from admiring his work he was gone. Everyone was happy that it is was okay, off on the road again.

I remember a Brit, a retired dentist, who built his dream home in a village in Northern Thailand years ago. Installed every convenience and a nice big fat expensive generator to run his gizmos when the brownouts came, as they used to regularly.

On returning from a trip back to the UK not many months later, he was taken aback to find that his generator had migrated, seemingly permanently, several hundred metres up the road to the Kamnan's house.

Surprising Rural Thailand.

One of the great joys of living in Chiang Rai is that when something breaks you don't have to go into the "dread mode"

that is so often the case in the USA...you simply dread to even call for a repair as you are pretty sure that it will be expensive and a big hassle to get most anything fixed.

In Chiang Rai it is normally fixed quickly and I am almost always surprised at how cheap it is...heck I have had guys come to my house to fix things that the falang couldn't figure out and then try to charge me ZERO.....of course they could charge me most whatever they want and I really wouldn't know the difference as I am just happy to get it fixed.

The ripoffs that you so often read about on TV just don't seem to happen very much in Chiang Rai...maybe I am just lucky but I suspect in CR if you treat the locals nicely you will have very few problems.

In my village and in the nearby town, with the exception of the banks, I have always had great service, anything that needed done to my house, car, bike, computer etc, in the eight years I have been here has been fantastic, and no overcharging. The same thing cannot be said about the nearest city about 60 Ks away.

What a great place rural Thailand is. Friendly people, good service and low prices.

i drive my pushbike every day in the fields (30km trip) and one day the innertire blasted/torn, so no way i could fix it myself. this guy saw me walking back with the bike, asked me what happened and drove me home 10 km away, bike in the back of pickup. i offered to pay for fuel but he was too "proud" to accept. i have had PLENTY of great experiences here, ungreedy people helping out for free. also in Burma where i travelled with motorbike. many people still believe a foreigner is a guest and should be taken care of. free food, free shelter, free shower, free drinking water, etc. all that still happens here (and burma and laos and cambodia).

Agreed, after 12 years in Bangkok I was pleasantly suprised by how much nicer, easier and better things are as far as getting things fixed and made/built out here in Isaan.

One of the great joys of living in Chiang Rai is that when something breaks you don't have to go into the "dread mode"

that is so often the case in the USA...you simply dread to even call for a repair as you are pretty sure that it will be expensive and a big hassle to get most anything fixed.

In Chiang Rai it is normally fixed quickly and I am almost always surprised at how cheap it is...heck I have had guys come to my house to fix things that the falang couldn't figure out and then try to charge me ZERO.....of course they could charge me most whatever they want and I really wouldn't know the difference as I am just happy to get it fixed.

The ripoffs that you so often read about on TV just don't seem to happen very much in Chiang Rai...maybe I am just lucky but I suspect in CR if you treat the locals nicely you will have very few problems.

Not just Chiang Rai either. This is common in Thailand and one of the true delights of living here.

From what I have seen and experienced in rural Thailand over the last 10 years what happened to me is nothing out of the normal.

A few years ago driving down Sukhumvit road at On Nut in Bangkok my car broke down at a bus stop. Not one of the 50 odd people could see me trying to push it 50 metres down the road and around the corner except a guy pushing his handcartwith stuff to sell on it.

He left his cart and helped me push the car out of the way. He accepted my thanks and nothing else. He was probably from rural Thailand too.

I lived in Issan for 6 years and I loved living in Issan, one thing about Thais as i'm sure the majority of you on here know is if you act like them you will be treated like them, if you however decide to bring your western ways here then you will be shunned at every opportunity. Western arrogance, tempers and "common sense" do not have a place here and if you display these traits you soon become known as an idiot, harsh but the truth.

One of the great joys of living in Chiang Rai is that when something breaks you don't have to go into the "dread mode"

that is so often the case in the USA...you simply dread to even call for a repair as you are pretty sure that it will be expensive and a big hassle to get most anything fixed.

In Chiang Rai it is normally fixed quickly and I am almost always surprised at how cheap it is...heck I have had guys come to my house to fix things that the falang couldn't figure out and then try to charge me ZERO.....of course they could charge me most whatever they want and I really wouldn't know the difference as I am just happy to get it fixed.

The ripoffs that you so often read about on TV just don't seem to happen very much in Chiang Rai...maybe I am just lucky but I suspect in CR if you treat the locals nicely you will have very few problems.

Apply that near anywhere, especially Thailand and all is correct.......................nice day.

I lived in Issan for 6 years and I loved living in Issan, one thing about Thais as i'm sure the majority of you on here know is if you act like them you will be treated like them, if you however decide to bring your western ways here then you will be shunned at every opportunity. Western arrogance, tempers and "common sense" do not have a place here and if you display these traits you soon become known as an idiot, harsh but the truth.

So...If you use "common sense"...you will become known as the village idiot...?

I lived in Issan for 6 years and I loved living in Issan, one thing about Thais as i'm sure the majority of you on here know is if you act like them you will be treated like them, if you however decide to bring your western ways here then you will be shunned at every opportunity. Western arrogance, tempers and "common sense" do not have a place here and if you display these traits you soon become known as an idiot, harsh but the truth.

So...If you use "common sense"...you will become known as the village idiot...?

read again ggt. I said if you displayed so called Western "common sense" you will be known as an idiot, not "Thai "common sense" which is another thing altogether

Wouldn't Thai common sense be an oxymoron?

I lived in Issan for 6 years and I loved living in Issan, one thing about Thais as i'm sure the majority of you on here know is if you act like them you will be treated like them, if you however decide to bring your western ways here then you will be shunned at every opportunity. Western arrogance, tempers and "common sense" do not have a place here and if you display these traits you soon become known as an idiot, harsh but the truth.

So...If you use "common sense"...you will become known as the village idiot...?

read again ggt. I said if you displayed so called Western "common sense" you will be known as an idiot, not "Thai "common sense" which is another thing altogether

...so,what's the better option...to 'be known as an idiot'....or become one..?

i was lost one nightwhen i was new in bkk ,comlpetely exhausted and my vision was getting blurry and i was drifting off to sleep while riding

(id been awake for 2-3 days on coffee finishing a late project ) so i parked my bike outside an army base

the next day i couldnt find it and arrived at the wrong army base (they were both on the same road/area ) soldier came out saluted me and asked me

whats the problem ? i put him on the phone to my gf and she explained i parked outside the army base on that road and they told her theres another base

in the area ,its probably that one

i said thanks and asked for directions to it ,he said no no ,you stay here

he ran inside and another older guy in military uniform came out on a honda wave and said jump on ,lets go

in 5 min he took me to the other base and sure enough ,my bike was there

he wouldnt even accept a tip either ,refused about 3 times until i practically forced him to have a drink on me

,theyre not all scumbags ...........

The ripoffs that you so often read about on TV just don't seem to happen very much in Chiang Rai...maybe I am just lucky but I suspect in CR if you treat the locals nicely you will have very few problems.

I find that the people who get ripped off come into the situation with a Western arrogant attitude.

I smile, speak quietly and slowly, ask for their help ...

Never had a problem. 9 years running.