Am I crazy to move to Issan?

[willyumiii]

Only you and your family can decide if Issan is right for you.

You will not know until after you have tried it.

You are wise to leave the door open to returning to the states if it is not right for you.

I moved to Issan almost 4 years ago from California.

There are times it drives me frigging crazy, but also times I am very happy I am here.

I started out in a small village of about 30 houses, all family of the wife..

Now in a large town, not a city...it's better for me.

It can be trying at times, but I do not think I will ever return to the states.

You will not know until you try.

Advice will not help you..

Remember, free advice is worth what you pay for it!

Just do it and leave that door open..

Choke dee!

[Pattaya Pat]

No need to learn Thai nor change diet if you get a condo from near civilization, say the aforementioned suburbs of Pattaya for example. The only reason I can think of for moving into Isaan would be lack of money and trying to live on a shoestring budget, i.e. going totally native.

You are just thinking of Isaan as small villages and rice fields etc. You could live in a big city in Isaan, such as Khorat, Ubon, Udon and Khon Kaen, that is NOT going native.

[96tehtarp]

No need to learn Thai nor change diet if you get a condo from near civilization, say the aforementioned suburbs of Pattaya for example. The only reason I can think of for moving into Isaan would be lack of money and trying to live on a shoestring budget, i.e. going totally native.

You are just thinking of Isaan as small villages and rice fields etc. You could live in a big city in Isaan, such as Khorat, Ubon, Udon and Khon Kaen, that is NOT going native.

The places you mention are very popular destinations for Thai tourists originating mostly out of Bangkok. Although not "going-native" these places probably wouldn't have anything of interest for a foreigner who's most comfortable in a place like Pattaya. Everyone else absolutely loves the culture in Isan's big cities. and nearby national parks.

[traviss]

How old are the children? Do they speak Thai fluently? Have you considered the educational impact to the children? What reasons have your wife and children given for not wanting to move to Thailand? How long have you been retired? Honestly, how much further do you anticipate your retirement funds going? You may be unpleasantly surprised.

You are building a house, you are moving to Thailand. "Will I go crazy living in a Thai village? Sounds to me that you may only be interested in the impacts to you and not the impacts to the rest of the family. Try it for the six months as stated. Good luck and let me extend a "welcome back to the US" in advance. Hopefully you will still be happily married and your children won't despise you for making life choices that may negatively impact them with knowing you only thought of yourself.

Yes, I do live in a Thai village located two hours NW of Udon Thani. My wife and son were already located here and it was only myself in 2012 that relocated. My relationship with my wife and three year old son have deteriorated since due to the fact that I am extremely board, easily agitated and completely unhappy living in the village. Don't get me wrong, I like Thailand and the people. My family has simply recognized minimal benefits to village life and will be relocating back to the US in the near future.

[Jay Sata]

How old are the children? Do they speak Thai fluently? Have you considered the educational impact to the children? What reasons have your wife and children given for not wanting to move to Thailand? How long have you been retired? Honestly, how much further do you anticipate your retirement funds going? You may be unpleasantly surprised.

You are building a house, you are moving to Thailand. "Will I go crazy living in a Thai village? Sounds to me that you may only be interested in the impacts to you and not the impacts to the rest of the family. Try it for the six months as stated. Good luck and let me extend a "welcome back to the US" in advance. Hopefully you will still be happily married and your children won't despise you for making life choices that may negatively impact them with knowing you only thought of yourself.

Yes, I do live in a Thai village located two hours NW of Udon Thani. My wife and son were already located here and it was only myself in 2012 that relocated. My relationship with my wife and three year old son have deteriorated since due to the fact that I am extremely board, easily agitated and completely unhappy living in the village. Don't get me wrong, I like Thailand and the people. My family has simply recognized minimal benefits to village life and will be relocating back to the US in the near future.

I am not surprised you are bored coming from the USA to a unsophisticated Issan village. The region is fine for those who live abroad like me and fly in for three of the nasty winter months in Europe and the USA.

I could never live or stay for 24 hours in one of those third world villages. In the capital of the region,Khon Kaen, you will find poor or stranded US or European ex pats who made the mistake of bringing what funds they had to the area only to discover the dream turned sour.

There is a local forum where all you read is a glorified facebook page illustrating the boulevard of broken dreams and ambitions.

Failed bars,tourism tours,Mexican themed restaurants,etc. Khon Kaen is littered with down at heal expats who moved in and cannot move out.

Don't get me wrong I love the city having been a regular for a decade and a half but the place has changed with the arrival of those who think their dreams will be fulfilled only to wake up to a nightmare.

If you can't enjoy life where you came from then the dream in Issan will turn sour .

[RegularReader]

I first came to Udon Thani in 1994 to ask my wife's father for her hand in marriage. We were only here for one day, but my impression of the place was that I had come into some backwater place, like I had only seen before in movies about India, or parts of Africa.

Now, 20 years later, after spending time in Hong Kong, The Middle East and from 2000 until early last year, Bangkok, we are happily ensconced in Udon Thani.

My wife had been pushing the idea of a move for many years, but until about 3 years ago, I railed against it. All I could see was my "original" impression. Then about 2 years ago, following the end of a job I was doing in Bangkok, we somehow found ourselves up here, for an extended period of a few weeks. It was during this time, I started to see the good things about the place.

Over the 20 years there has been so much growth. The infrastructure now is pretty good for a city this size (around 400,000). The internet is as least as good as Bangkok and from my experience, matches most parts of my home country, Australia. The roads are now good. There are lots of good eating places - not just Thai tin shacks beside the road. The malls (Central Plaza, Landmark etc.) and shopping in general (including several excellent Falang style food stores) offers a wide variety of Thai and international products. Food is excellent and cheap.Imported food and booze is about the same price as Bangkok.

We don't have a lot of money, but we get along quite well on far less than we ever did in Bangkok. More, the air is clean (except when some locals decide to burn plastic!). I go running on tracks and roads around the rice fields nearly ever day. We grow our own vegetables. The family farm is only 5 minutes from our house. The centre of Udon is around 4kms (as the crow flies) from our house, which is in what you might call, a "semi-rural" area.

My mother in law is 86 and my wife is able to now spend quality time with her and the family (as do I).

If you set ground rules that both you and your wife agree to(which you would do, no matter where you live),being surrounded by family can actually be a pleasant experience.

For the moment, this is as near as we can get, to having an "ideal" life style.

Of course there are threats on the horizon, such the growth of Udon overtaking the farm and area we live in. Sudden changes in economic conditions, poor health and lots of "black swans" one cannot prepare for.

I suggest anyone, who is contemplating a move to any where in Isaan, must understand, it is not the same as "Farang-land" or "Falang-land"(as it is called here). There are lots of compromises (its not all beer and skittles). But if you are able to see this, you'll have a great time and an excellent life style.

[MJCM]

Not wanting to open a new topic but we also decided to move from Pattaya to Buriram (Krasang to be more precise) in the next couple of months. We already spend a lot of our time over there (3-4 weeks at a time) so we decided to move permanently.

We have already a house in the wife's village but that is bit remote for me (read no Internet only 3G(and no full signal)) and the roads are in a terrible state (last couple of km's are still dirt roads), so we are now looking to buy land (2-3-4 rai) near Krasang where we will build another house.

[patongphil]

Love this sort of stuff. We are just about to head up to Khon Kaen after quite a few years in Phuket. Just going to dip toes in the water for a year and see if it will suit our family or not. Not burning any bridges yet but definitely pretty excited about the whole idea.

As for the OP well we are going to give it a go as would forever regret it if we didn't at least give it a try.

[55Jay]

Not wanting to open a new topic but we also decided to move from Pattaya to Buriram (Krasang to be more precise) in the next couple of months. We already spend a lot of our time over there (3-4 weeks at a time) so we decided to move permanently.

We have already a house in the wife's village but that is bit remote for me (read no Internet only 3G(and no full signal)) and the roads are in a terrible state (last couple of km's are still dirt roads), so we are now looking to buy land (2-3-4 rai) near Krasang where we will build another house.

Are you going to rent your house in Patts?

[MJCM]

Not wanting to open a new topic but we also decided to move from Pattaya to Buriram (Krasang to be more precise) in the next couple of months. We already spend a lot of our time over there (3-4 weeks at a time) so we decided to move permanently.

We have already a house in the wife's village but that is bit remote for me (read no Internet only 3G(and no full signal)) and the roads are in a terrible state (last couple of km's are still dirt roads), so we are now looking to buy land (2-3-4 rai) near Krasang where we will build another house.

Are you going to rent your house in Patts?

Nope House is not available (family of the wife is living there) and my Condo is for sale.

Edited September 8, 2014 by MJCM