ThaiVisa Chiangmai Revisited - Attention Newbies and Unhappy Immigrants

[Mapguy]

This thread is mainly for "newbies."

I was hesitant to participate in Chiang Mai ThaiVisa years ago when I arrived in Chiang Mai. As I recall (perhaps unfairly!) it seemed to be populated by too many characters who were not always --- shall we say --- helpful. And some could be awfully nasty. Well, today, yes, there are zingers which might smart, but all in all this is a civilized while still lively place, especially when compared to the awesome appalling vulgarity and idiocy of some "comments" I have seen on other sites. There is not a lot of vulgar verbal "body slamming" that goes on here.

I am in favor of the often helpful pointers about life in Chiang Mai provided from time to time here, but this place is absolutely not the kind of place I would go mainly or exclusively before moving here. I am in favor of some lively chat and have been known from time to time to indulge in what is popularly as "trollish" behavior. After all, what is life if not upon occasion to get a conversation going or, I admit it, to jerk a few chains!

My sense of the place is that, in the past several months, other than the occasional post about where to get laid or find a "decent" girlfriend --- advice about which I ponder the efficacy of using a public forum --- that, as any must certainly agree, this place is a very useful place for practical information (if only people could learn north from south and give better directions to places!!! ). I personally have taken many notes about things that I might need in the future. But not about things like where to go to buy light bulbs! Such request indicate people who flew here without thinking about how to take care of themselves sufficiently. If people are that concerned, they might re-examine very seriously having moved to a foreign land. I would ask very seriously why they are making such a move, especially if you before have had only tourist and/or limited experiences abroad. Escape, perhaps? That wouldn't be a happy reason to move anywhere.

I do wish the carping about life's mini-irritations (tipping, et cetera) were less pervasive on ThaiVisa Chiang Mai than they are. Quite often, it seems to me (other than always never hearing the other side of such stories) that there is defensive misunderstanding based on discomfort in being in an unfamiliar place, a lack of language ability, and so on.

Chiang Mai, despite the absurd lists of places to retire worldwide that crop up on the travel pages of popular magazines/web sites these days, is a different place than where you were before --- and one which definitely might not be the one for you. If you insist on bringing your environment here as well as yourselves --- call that neocolonialism --- then I suggest you are being selfish and unappreciative of, or unable to handle, whatever Thailand has to offer.

[scottishjohn]

I am not a 'newbie' but I will just copy this extract from your post;

"trollish" behavior. After all, what is life if not upon occasion to get a conversation going or, I admit it, to jerk a few chains!

Which of the above are you doing?

[kjhbigv]

"If you insist on bringing your environment here as well as yourselves"

IMO it gets more like the "West" almost daily.....no need to bring my own environment, most of it has arrived!

[northernjohn]

I am not a 'newbie' but I will just copy this extract from your post;

"trollish" behavior. After all, what is life if not upon occasion to get a conversation going or, I admit it, to jerk a few chains!

Which of the above are you doing?

I am waiting for him to start one about immigration.

[amexpat]

I was intrigued by the title because the Chiang Mai forum was indeed called the Chiangmai forum back in the day. So I was ready for a revisit.

Don't worry about vulgarity, Mapguy. We are very, very, well protected from impure thoughts here.

[masuk]

A few years ago, I was considering retiring to CEBU, Philippines. I joined their local forum, and was horrified!

Whinge, grumble, troll, more troll, moan. Most of these seemed to come from some strange country called AZ, or WA, or TX.

I couldn't understand why they didn't return to their land of TX or whatever, but it seems a lot had local spouses and were supporting their families..

So...... I moved to Chiang Mai and joined the forum here.

Seems to me that a great many of the people having a moan seem to come from those same strange lands of AZ or whatever.

But it doesn't seem to get too personal, and ever hopeful that most folk will remember that we're in ASEAN, in Thailand, and it's our decision to stay, and this is after all, a metric country.

Sure, the local plod (BIB) seem to be the most indolent characters I've ever come across, at the cost of many young lives each year for casting a blind eye on age/helmets/crazy driving.

By and large, it gets to be interesting and informative here , from visa runs to identifying a horribilis bug.

Don't give up guys (and Gal)

ARYAN BROWN

Now it is not good for the Christian health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles
and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white
with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

Kipling

[orang37]

Khun Mapguy, having just swallowed a Phrik Kee Noo by accident, exhaled spasmodically: "Chiang Mai ... is a different place than where you were before."

The fictional sense of continuity of experience that results in a set of habitual perceptions that come to filter and shape new experiences, so that one acts "as if" living in Chiang Mai is predictable, while inevitable, is, like all fictions, sustained by habitual behaviors. Safety, comfort, in that rut.

I note that often old-time expats tend to imagine there was a "golden age" that existed during their early years in Thailand: and, the present, by contrast, irritating, less magical.

This forum may be to Chiang Mai as the Chiang Mai zoo is to the non-native animals within it, with some of the reptiles here more dangerous, and, some of the songbirds here: more ... melodious.

Yes, I agree with you that this forum has a lot of excellent sharing of resources, very informative threads, and mutual support. And (praise be !) mercifully free of the whinging troll-blather so typical of other forums, thanks to the mods.

tweet, tweet, ~o:37;

[NancyL]

And yet another late night, dare we say, wine-fueled, trollish thread from our good-old buddy Mapguy.

[jellydog]

A lengthy post by the OP that says absolutely nothing.

[uptheos]

And yet another late night, dare we say, wine-fueled, trollish thread from our good-old buddy Mapguy.

I don't think his Internet comes on before 11pm or he has to wait until the wife's asleep.

[Mapguy]

Droll! Droll!

There is actually a theme. You might call it a "caution." I do assume that most people read more than the Daily Mail or USA Today (albeit you have to read the whole post, which admittedly might be a little arduous!). I did, however, after all, say this was for newbies since it is a recurring theme.

My goodness, got a few rises from some megaposters !!! Fun! An interesting comment by Orang37 and, very recently commented upon by Thakkar! What was that elephant trying to say ?! Probably, "Give me a banana!" But I like Thakkar's clever interpretation. [Oops! I now see it below!]

[Thakkar]

<snip>

This forum may be to Chiang Mai as the Chiang Mai zoo is to the non-native animals within it, with some of the reptiles here more dangerous, and, some of the songbirds here: more ... melodious.

<snip>

tweet, tweet, ~o:37;

Once at CM Zoo, while my back was turned, an elephant shoved me almost to the ground using its trunk to push my buttocks. Was that, do you think, metaphorical as well? It felt quite actual.

T

[harrry]

And yet another late night, dare we say, wine-fueled, trollish thread from our good-old buddy Mapguy.

I don't think his Internet comes on before 11pm or he has to wait until the wife's asleep.

Pity she does not have insomnia

Never mind Mapguy..we need you....as an example.

[Mapguy]

Uh oh!

[northernjohn]

<snip>

This forum may be to Chiang Mai as the Chiang Mai zoo is to the non-native animals within it, with some of the reptiles here more dangerous, and, some of the songbirds here: more ... melodious.

<snip>

tweet, tweet, ~o:37;

Once at CM Zoo, while my back was turned, an elephant shoved me almost to the ground using its trunk to push my buttocks. Was that, do you think, metaphorical as well? It felt quite actual.

T

Was it Satisfactual? LOL

[orang37]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Once at CM Zoo, while my back was turned, an elephant shoved me almost to the ground using its trunk to push my buttocks. Was that, do you think, metaphorical as well? It felt quite actual.

I suspect that was allegory, or allergy; of course we (fortunately) don't know what your buttocks were doing at the time.

~o:37;

[Mapguy]

For the benefit of Uptheos, NancyL and any others so concerned.

Now, back to the substantive nature of the original post, not all that difficult to follow. You don't have to be of the Deconstructionist School of literary criticism.. If you think I can be obtuse, you ought to read some of that crap. What they could do interpreting a simple rhyme like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is truly bewildering!

Shall we get back to the theme(s) of the post with which you might or might not agree ?

[Diplomatico]

Now, back to the substantive nature of the original post, not all that difficult to follow. You don't have to be of the Deconstructionist School of literary criticism.. If you think I can be obtuse, you ought to read some of that crap.

Substantive nature, lol. The five paragraph OP could have been succinctly written as "I like this forum better than I do some other forums."

[Lizard2010]

I find the forum helpful

Most times saves me asking

Will be valuable when i finally retire to Chiang Mai.

Always enjoying the Trolls

[orang37]

Substantive nature, lol. The five paragraph OP could have been succinctly written as "I like this forum better than I do some other forums."

Ah, but that reductio ad absurdum would miss the deep semiotic mysteries lurking in Mapguy's textual manifestations as a metaphor for the conflated eschatological force of post-capitalist pseudo-idealism incarnate as a cross-species encoding of the DNA of autonomy as homicide.

The embodiment, as it were, of what Dr. Groucho Marx described with the pithy zinger: "those are my principles ... if you don't like them: I have others."

~o:37;

[justcruisin]

Ahh....I had to pull out my 1946 Little Oxford Dictionary to translate the above convuloted post, even it couldn't come out with a concise meaning!

I tend to agree with Mapman as I was in Immi this morning and a cacophony of languages were overheard during my 2.5 hour visit to get a Re-Entry permit, including Maltese,Chinese,Burmese and Japanese.

The blame actually lies with the Airline industry and cheap airfares for making the place too accessable to the masses!

[mikey88]

I might be wrong but my feeling on these sites is that a few people dominate the posts and their attitude is often what I would call...smart arsed...

But I've ground that on TripAdvisor as well...