Thailand grants citizenship to half a million people – but not farangs

[jacky54]

Thais get sick of Thai ways, where do they go?

[Broken Record]

I sneaked out when the music started, cut the speaker wites and then megga tested the line back to the amplifier.

So you went to a temple grounds and vandalized their stereo equipment and nobody saw you, even though music was playing, nobody noticed the farang standing there with wire cutters in his hand when the music went off.....

Gotta love anonymous forums.

Id take one of his posts over a thousand of yours!

So would I.

[Cypress Hill]

Oh really, I guess my total loss in the divorce scenario would be 450k max............ the Mc Mansion "YOU" mention is 50m2 + I built myself another house which is 48m2, both done for 450k, yes "built myself" .....NO I dont mean hired a local ,and NOPE nobody came and arrested me for doing it.

The land cost 800k and the Wife paid for the LAND out of her own cash NOT mine.

I NEVER said use yer own money............. 450k was my own money for materials concrete steel etc..............of course you could rent some condo box for 15k a month in the middle of a city but I have NO neighbours and NO noise. If you cant walk away form 450k you must be pretty damn poor.

At the current time that would be 45k a year as married 10 years almost

LOL, I risk a damn sight more than 450K every day of my life, mate, but I'm not stupid enough to risk it pursuing a "peace and quiet" strategy that's entirely dependent on others

I can get peace and quiet for a fraction of the cost and with zero risk

No prizes for 2nd Hill,kannot wins.

Wins what?

[Cypress Hill]

Wrong, most CHEAP building have paper walls...

You get what you pay for.

WRONG

Build quality has jack to do with the price the punter pays

Location is everything.

Go visit a condo in any Noble or Sansiri development - paper thin walls but they cost top dollar

[lostmebike]

If you want piece and quiet, sell up and ship out. It aint gonna happen here.

[fey]

Wait until its their time to sleep and play your own music very loud...give them a taste of their own medicine !

that only works if they dont like the noise

[fey]

I see the "If you don't like it, go back where you came from!" folks are already out. I sympathize with you. I live in an upscale development that takes a card to get into. Quiet and genteel with upscale tenants and homeowners. Very good friends with my Thai neighbor for years. Until he got married and inherited two spaniel dogs. They bark, whine and cry all day long. Makes my and the other neighbors lives miserable. I have talked to him several times and he did remove the dogs for several days. But they are back again. will have another talk with him but don't know what will happen. But here is how the Thais handle these situations. One way is that a Thai wouldn't even say anything; just poison the dogs, commiserate wit the owners while having a drink with them. One solution I read about several years ago was a poor guy living next to a Hiso arrogant Dr and his wife who enjoyed having noisy drinking parties until the wee hours several times a week. The Thai neighbor complained many times and the Dr blew him off. Finally the neighbor went over during one noisy party, shot and killed eight people including the Dr and his wife and then killed himself. Radical but effective. Don't know what I will do if I can't come to an accommodation with my neighbor. Probably won't shoot him.

have you tried small nails in the keyhole, works great for me. local locksmith likes it too.

[kannot]

Wrong, most CHEAP building have paper walls...

You get what you pay for.

WRONG

Build quality has jack to do with the price the punter pays

Location is everything.

Go visit a condo in any Noble or Sansiri development - paper thin walls but they cost top dollar

Yep just as crap and built by the same Burmese/Cambodian workers

[Tonawatchee]

I too live in a beautiful silent backwater away from a small rice farming village. Day time sounds are from mainly birds and the occasional bell clang from the local Water Buffalo herd going by. An occasional C-130 or F-16 will zip by at a lower level and grab attention.

Pickups and motorscooters pass by during the day and several times a month the concussion from skyrockets echos out from the local wat as a cremation gets underway.

In the evenings, distant gongs and chanting emanates out from the wat while cicadas and crickets keep buzzing away. Every few months a wedding or other celebration occurs out somewhere and the music speakers must be 10' high and turned up to the max. But it goes with the territory, as they say.

All in all, life is good.

[Jools]

Ditto. I live in View Talay 2-B in Jomtien on the ground floor and noise has never been a problem. There are offices on either side of my apartment and most of the other residents on the floor seem to be Russian or British. The most noise on this floor would probably be generated by my snoring. If you live in a Thai enclave, you should not be surprised at the attitude you encounter. Surround yourself with your own kind and you'll be happier.

move to the place I am currently living, the View Talay 5C in Jomtien. It is so quiet on the balconies of the upper floors ( 9 - 22 ) and the only noise you hear are the birds chirping by the mornings.

There are mostly farangs living and no one would dare bother the other tenants with loud music.

I am sorry for you but you need to put some more effort into the search for a more soundproof location

[fitzcaraldo]

I dont hear the chicken any more neither the puyaban or temple microphones or the wedding or funeral . Any way my life rythme is adapted. Occasionaly in the early morning i wish there was only the sound of the birds waking up so i take my bike and go to the forest nearby

[fitzcaraldo]

I was shocked last year when visiting some relatives . I was in the room with the new born baby few days less than a week , the music was full blast even pain for my ears !!!?!!!

Speechless was i

[crazygreg44]

i value quiet too so took the time to find an excellently managed apartment building in a quiet soi. any noise or other hassle and the management removes the tenets at the end of the month. there was some construction going on nearby and the manager agreed with the construction company that they would not start work before 8am and stop at 9pm.

i guess i'm saying it is possible to find good places if you look hard enough.

You are lucky.

My father-in-law took time to find a ground at the end of a dead end soi. That was 50 years ago. Now the houses in the soi are slowly being converted to restaurants and night clubs. At the moment they are converting a house just 50 meters from our house into an open air restaurant.

What do we do?

We can't just sell a 70 million baht house and move out.

you can. sell it for 40 million Baht and find yourself a house by a lake, with snakes in the garden and al lush greenery. Go ask TRANSAM how to do it

and just as a sidestep, teach english to snakes

Edited November 25, 2015 by crazygreg44

[crazygreg44]

I too live in a beautiful silent backwater away from a small rice farming village. Day time sounds are from mainly birds and the occasional bell clang from the local Water Buffalo herd going by. An occasional C-130 or F-16 will zip by at a lower level and grab attention.

Pickups and motorscooters pass by during the day and several times a month the concussion from skyrockets echos out from the local wat as a cremation gets underway.

In the evenings, distant gongs and chanting emanates out from the wat while cicadas and crickets keep buzzing away. Every few months a wedding or other celebration occurs out somewhere and the music speakers must be 10' high and turned up to the max. But it goes with the territory, as they say.

All in all, life is good.

a very loud place, dinkum, compared to where I live

[Olgab]

Maybe you should buy headphones for yourself. Or move to the jungle.

[DonaldBattles]

Seems like we have beat this subject to death and everyone has reported. Those living in condos seem to be ok those living in villages experience noise pollution. This will be my last report on this subject as it is getting down to the same old BS of people who don't like the noise are told by others to go back where they came from . This response go back where you came from is very impolite and uncalled for. Also serves to piss people off.

[eldragon]

I was shocked last year when visiting some relatives . I was in the room with the new born baby few days less than a week , the music was full blast even pain for my ears !!!?!!!

Speechless was i

I've seen this too. Probably training the kid to like loud music when it's older.

[eldragon]

Seems like we have beat this subject to death and everyone has reported. Those living in condos seem to be ok those living in villages experience noise pollution. This will be my last report on this subject as it is getting down to the same old BS of people who don't like the noise are told by others to go back where they came from . This response go back where you came from is very impolite and uncalled for. Also serves to piss people off.

I don't like the "go home" comments either. I feel like they're coming from people who have gone way too native and somehow got the impression loud music isn't coming from ignorant, inconsiderate people and is instead in some way part of local culture. But I think the thing that set them off is the way the OP's complaint is made with blanket statements and suggestions that all Thais are ignorant, unreasonable people.

[williet98248]

I see the "If you don't like it, go back where you came from!" folks are already out. I sympathize with you. I live in an upscale development that takes a card to get into. Quiet and genteel with upscale tenants and homeowners. Very good friends with my Thai neighbor for years. Until he got married and inherited two spaniel dogs. They bark, whine and cry all day long. Makes my and the other neighbors lives miserable. I have talked to him several times and he did remove the dogs for several days. But they are back again. will have another talk with him but don't know what will happen. But here is how the Thais handle these situations. One way is that a Thai wouldn't even say anything; just poison the dogs, commiserate wit the owners while having a drink with them. One solution I read about several years ago was a poor guy living next to a Hiso arrogant Dr and his wife who enjoyed having noisy drinking parties until the wee hours several times a week. The Thai neighbor complained many times and the Dr blew him off. Finally the neighbor went over during one noisy party, shot and killed eight people including the Dr and his wife and then killed himself. Radical but effective. Don't know what I will do if I can't come to an accommodation with my neighbor. Probably won't shoot him.

have you tried small nails in the keyhole, works great for me. local locksmith likes it too.

Don't know how that will get rid of the dogs.

Have considered setting up a speaker on the balcony facing his bedroom and playing thumping music all night. Probably not. The last few days the dogs have somehow been restrained to an occasional yelp and bark. I don't know what he has done but I can live with an occasional bark. I consider him to be a good friend and the dog situation just a bump on our friendly road. He helps me when I have a Thainess problem and I help him with western culture questions. He travels extensively all over the world.

[Lee4Life]

You're better off to keep moving until you find somewhere that suits you, I wouldn't believe those who tell you that you need to fight back. Things here can get really ugly really quick, and if things go south you aren't likely to get a lot of sympathy. It's just not worth it.

[JingerBen]

You're better off to keep moving until you find somewhere that suits you, I wouldn't believe those who tell you that you need to fight back. Things here can get really ugly really quick, and if things go south you aren't likely to get a lot of sympathy. It's just not worth it.

Good advice from start to finish.

[spidermike007]

You probably want to find an apartment building populated by mostly farengs. They are conscious of noise, and tend to keep it down. And you can reason with them, something that is hard to do with a lot of Thai men. Or a house on a quiet soi. I recommend coming at 5:30 am, and staying an hour. Then again at 6pm for an hour. You can see if there are any of those monster roosters, nasty dogs, bad kids, loud music, etc. Do this before you commit to the place.

Finding quiet in Thailand is not easy. Most Thais do not even hear noise, and if they do, they don't interpret it as something bothersome or intrusive. Always remember, this is not a foreign country. It is a distant planet. Planet Thailandia!

[IAMHERE]

Buy a drum kit and start practicing from 2 am. I'm not even joking...

It may be better to let the 'bad' guy sleep 4 hours then start to practice the drums. After 4 hours sleep I can never get back to sleep, neither will her.

[bermondburi]

Seems like people have never heard of the nine rai rule or even the sixteen rai rule. That should work for most people. Personally, I find the supermarkets the worst. A ladyboy trying to sell me some shity hotdogs at the meat aisle, at full volume.

[thaibeachlovers]

i value quiet too so took the time to find an excellently managed apartment building in a quiet soi. any noise or other hassle and the management removes the tenets at the end of the month. there was some construction going on nearby and the manager agreed with the construction company that they would not start work before 8am and stop at 9pm.

i guess i'm saying it is possible to find good places if you look hard enough.

You are lucky.

My father-in-law took time to find a ground at the end of a dead end soi. That was 50 years ago. Now the houses in the soi are slowly being converted to restaurants and night clubs. At the moment they are converting a house just 50 meters from our house into an open air restaurant.

What do we do?

We can't just sell a 70 million baht house and move out.

You can sell if you really want to, but you might not get what you think it's worth.

I like stories like yours, as they support my ( and many others ) theory that it is always a mistake to buy any property in LOS.

With 70 million, you could have rented an amazing house, and when it got too noisy just moved on to another amazing house.

[casualbiker]

You suggested that the "best policy" for someone seeking peace and quiet in Thailand is to marry a local, buy a big chunk of land in her name and building/buying a bloody McMansion on it

Considering your "best policy" leaves you with your ass hanging out in the wind financially, I'd say that YOU'RE the one with the problem

There are far cheaper and infinitely less daft ways to secure a bit of peace & quiet in this country

Oh really, I guess my total loss in the divorce scenario would be 450k max............ the Mc Mansion "YOU" mention is 50m2 + I built myself another house which is 48m2, both done for 450k, yes "built myself" .....NO I dont mean hired a local ,and NOPE nobody came and arrested me for doing it.

The land cost 800k and the Wife paid for the LAND out of her own cash NOT mine.

I NEVER said use yer own money............. 450k was my own money for materials concrete steel etc..............of course you could rent some condo box for 15k a month in the middle of a city but I have NO neighbours and NO noise. If you cant walk away form 450k you must be pretty damn poor.

At the current time that would be 45k a year as married 10 years almost

If it works for you, fine

but no one with any

sense would ever

regard it as a 'best

policy'

I dont regard constantly moving condo as a best policy either though, have you any other thoughts on avoiding noise?

I'm with you.. Would love to find some reasonably priced land with a good view. But alas on my pitiful budget I think it's not to be.

[mogandave]

Buy sound attenuators

[fey]

Seems like we have beat this subject to death and everyone has reported. Those living in condos seem to be ok those living in villages experience noise pollution. This will be my last report on this subject as it is getting down to the same old BS of people who don't like the noise are told by others to go back where they came from . This response go back where you came from is very impolite and uncalled for. Also serves to piss people off.

Has some truth to it though. The noise and inconsideration for others who dont like it is cultural. Also, you cant call police for noise complaints like in other countries and zoning laws regarding noise in residential areas dont seem to be in effect here.

Its a pretty good sign the op has settled in the wrong country and will have to look harder then most to find what they want here. But it will likely always be a problem for them unless they isolate.

[jacky54]

Got new neighbors across the road of the lower class Thai type. First thing they have done is put the stereo outside the house with the speakers pointing directly at our lounge, music non stop. Unfortunately we bought the place, but I might be moving anyway.

[Gecko123]

In the past it seemed like maybe only one house in my moo ban had a stereo system. On occasion it would be cranked up for everyone's listening enjoyment. This was almost never a problem, and actually lent a pleasant sense of community to the moo ban.

These days, however, there is a total proliferation of powerful sound systems, both in homes and cars. Whether coming from near or afar, it seems like the noise is constant. The bass woofers are particularly annoying as the low frequencies penetrate cinderblock and brick walls with ease. Many people assume that living in rural Thailand will be blissfully quiet. Between farm equipment, home entertainment sound systems and public address systems, it can be quite noisy, and given the reach of these sound systems, it is far from certain that you will enjoy peace and quiet here in rural Thailand. And don't forget that most vehicles these days come equiped with sound systems which at high volume can be heard far off in the distance as they approach and long after the vehicle has passed by.

Noise was my number one concern when I built my house. My nearest neighbor is close to 100 yards away, and I built far back from the road and even bought another parcel of land to provide an additional measure of insurance against noise intrusions. But even these ample clearances are proving to be a poor match for these sound systems.

Another trend which I find very disturbing is that complaining about noise, no matter how contritely you approach the problem, seems to invariably make the problem worse. Some Thais seem to feel so disempowered, that upon discovering they have the power to annoy you, revel and delight in taking every opportunity to exercise that newfound power. Having a powerful sound system seems like a macho thing for some guys, and asking someone to turn down their stereo is treated as a challenge to their manhood or something.

For example, about three weeks ago, around 9 PM at night, I noticed the sound of loud music outside my house. I stepped out on the porch to get an idea of where it was coming from. It was really hard to tell whether the sound was coming from a ngan liang kilometers away or from somewhere nearby, and I decided to take a rare night time walk to see if I could track down where it was coming from. About 10 minutes walk from my house I discovered that the noise was coming from a pickup truck stereo system turned on full blast to the point where the sound was very distorted. The pickup's front doors were open wide, sending the sound squarely in the direction of my house. The vehicle definitely had some special sub woofer bass augmentation equipment as well. As I said, their house was a 10 minute walk from my house, which gives you an idea of how loud the music was.

There were about 10 people, including women and children, sitting on the elevated front porch. I knew the family. The father and son had actually done some home repair work for me not that long ago. It was pretty obvious that everyone (the three adult men anyway) was pretty smashed, and when I started asking if they could turn the music down, things got scary-confrontational almost from the get-go. I just raised my hands submissively and walked away. My advice would be to never ever confront anyone after dark when people are more likely to have been drinking. Things can get out of hand really quickly.

I don't know the exact root cause of why this is happening, (and I'll even accept the possibility that the problem is all my fault), but over the past 6 months or so I have noticed a general trend of Thai people being less friendly and welcoming, and much more quick tempered than in the past. I suspect that the economy (poor harvest/poor commodity prices) and the political environment are playing a big part in why this is happening.

But I definitely empathize with people struggling with noise issues, and wish I could offer an easy solution to the problem.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Gecko123