Expats In The Sticks - Explain Why?

[JLCrab]

4 minutes ago, Katipo said:

<snip> The vast majority of us require mental and emotional stimulation that can only come from healthy interaction with others. While it appears some of us here can spend inordinate amounts of time behond the keyboard, this is no substitute to face-to-face interaction with people to whom we can relate and feel valued.

Only? Forget it. I've had plenty years of face-to-face and keep quite busy without it. These days my face-to-face is primarily with young Thai non-English speaking females and that's just fine with me, valued or otherwise.

[chiang mai]

Just now, Katipo said:

 

I am afraid I don't agree. Living in a rural area in your own (probably developed) country surrounded by people with the same culture and language is very different to moving to a small village in the middle of a semi-developed foreign land where you are likely to be one of the only, if not the only, person from your own part of the world. The people around you will almost certainly have a very different world view which will exacerbate your isolation. It is likely that they will have preconceived views of you, will never fully accept you as one of your own, even if you are fluent in the language. There are some who may find this lifestyle desirable, but for many their could be effects detrimental to their mental health. Humans for the most part are social beings, even those who would consider themselves isolationists. The vast majority of us require mental and emotional stimulation that can only come from healthy interaction with others. While it appears some of us here can spend inordinate amounts of time behond the keyboard, this is no substitute to face-to-face interaction with people to whom we can relate and feel valued.

 

How would you know!

 

And FWIW I'm surrounded by a mixture of Thai's and foreigners, my neighbours list reads like the UN: Japanese, American, Swiss, Belgian, Scottish, French. And my Thai neighbours include one ex Police General, the ADC to a military General, the wife of an ex PM (part time), several lower ranking police and army officers. We ALL socialise as a large group twice a year, courtesy the senior retired police general who is a gracious host but we interact with each other as a community on a daily basis. I think you have a picture in your mind of an impoverished village in the back of beyond, full of uncommunicative hill billy equivalents who interbreed and suck pieces of straw for nutrition, this aint that!

[transam]

39 minutes ago, saluandnai said:

i'm from commuter belt of London uk, I came to live in Thailand age 47 after holidaying here fror 10 years, I lived in pattaya for 13 years, for the last 5 of those years I rode around Thailand on my motorbike  looking for somewhere to settle down as I know it wasn't going to be pattaya, I narrowed it down to the chiang mai, chiang rai, pai area, one trip I looked at 8 pieces of land n as soon as I rode onto the last one I knew it was for me, 2 rai all grass dotted with fruit trees , plots either side 20 rai each so i'm pretty secluded, I have built a house on it, have dogs n chickens etc , the people are helpful and friendy , I've  been back to pattaya 3 times in 18 months n only stayed one night, couldn't wait to get back, this is my choice not a financial one n I love it no more rip off pattaya, Bangkok for me . I live between mae rim and pai  surrounded by mountain yet have a makro 20 min away, not a bar to be seen.

 

Was a Thai bird pillion...?

[roiethome]

When I was working for a multinational company I lived in Bangkok for about 15 years in various houses and condos.

Since retiring, I have been living in Isaan for the last five years and would not consider living anywhere else.

As others have said, the air is clean, traffic congestion in our village and town is unknown and there is quiet all around, the next nearest house is 500m away.

I have built a far better house for the money than I could find in Bangkok or any there major city, and have a 2 rai garden to keep us occupied.

We bulk shop once month from the nearest city (55kms) to fill the freezers and the local market is 1km away by motorbike.

If we feel the need to visit friends in Bangkok, it is just 45 minutes flight, though we try to avoid too many trips.

I could never be bored, too much to do, making cheese, smoking meat and fish, relaxing with a beer on the patio in the afternoon.  But we have our creature comforts, fibre optic broadband (faster than I ever had in the middle of Bangkok) internet TV from Europe etc.

If you plan right, it can be a wonderful life "in the sticks".

[Bantex]

I was born and bred in the country back home, I've lived and worked both cities and in rural areas. There are merits to both but I prefer the sticks where I'm part of the community, where people look out for each other both Thais & foreigners. Going to Bangkok etc is like a holiday for us.

Country folk can adapt to both situations but townies can't adapt to the sticks.

Each to their own. 

[Bartman1369]

After 1 week in the sticks visiting the future in laws I am bored to tears. My girlfriend can usually last about 2 weeks.

 

We have stayed in Bkk and Pattaya and that is just too crazy. I have always lives in small to medium sized towns ,  that's why Jomptien is perfect for us. We will buy a condo then in a few years look for some land near here.

[Kabula]

Everyone has different dreams, but listen to no one and follow your own dreams.

 

Understand if you ask friends and even family about your dreams, most responses will be negative. 

 

Many years ago, I asked everyone about my dreams and all I got was negative comments.

 

I ignored the comments and started a business off my kitchen table.

 

Most everyone who laughed at my plans ended up working for me.  My businesses were successful for 25 years.

 

All my dreams came true and I retired 20 years ago after traveling to 49 countries.  I've lived in  Prague, Czech Republic, and Costa Rica for many years.  Bangkok, Thailand has been my home for 10 years.

 

Life is very different and difficult now for most people in the world. What you dislike today you may cherish in the future.  Always, keep your options open and burn no bridges.

 

Understand life is short, so don't waste it by putting your dreams on a back burner.

 

Do what you enjoy, help the needy as that is the power of money and you will find the money and joy will come back to you in ways you never dreamed about.

 

Put your goals in writing and act on them ASAP!

 

Accelerate your goals by finding a mentor.

 

While in a foreign country, always ask a expat who has lived in the same country for a minimum of 5 years their opinion on anything to do with investments, and relationships.

 

Never invest in another person's business!  Avoid partnerships.

 

Guard your heart involving romance as today it's all about security and most are better dealers!

 

Life is what you make it - be the first to initiate conversation.

 

Good luck....

[Mansell]

Presently living on a quiet beach in Phuket which ticks all the boxes.

but my wife wants to live in the 2000 person village where she comes from, which is outside Sara Buri. My problem is the soul sucking heat up there.....even last week it was very very hot, and this is not summer. Arrived back here last night and it was raining and cool, and today was pretty cool with some rain in town, but not at the beach. I am originally from Scotland, so the high dry heat doesn't work for me. Lived for 43 years in SoCal and when it went over 90 I actually would feel ill. So I am in a quandary....to move north and live with my wife, or live separately, and visit occasionally. And please don't tell me to dump the bitch.....you can dump your bitch!

i am not in love with big cities or the flat countryside of rice fields, but enjoy the lush jungle of Phuket. I could move up there and end up bored and hating it...then I have lost my beach house here. Decisions....decisions.......what to do?

[blazes]

1 hour ago, chiang mai said:

 

How would you know!

 

And FWIW I'm surrounded by a mixture of Thai's and foreigners, my neighbours list reads like the UN: Japanese, American, Swiss, Belgian, Scottish, French. And my Thai neighbours include one ex Police General, the ADC to a military General, the wife of an ex PM (part time), several lower ranking police and army officers. We ALL socialise as a large group twice a year, courtesy the senior retired police general who is a gracious host but we interact with each other as a community on a daily basis. I think you have a picture in your mind of an impoverished village in the back of beyond, full of uncommunicative hill billy equivalents who interbreed and suck pieces of straw for nutrition, this aint that!

 

 

How nice that you have so many hi-so friends.  Twice a year you all socialise?  Yes, that's about as much as I could take, too.

[JLCrab]

32 minutes ago, Kabula said:

Everyone has different dreams, <snip>

Too busy to dream -- I started traveling to Asia / PRChina 30 years ago and just took what came. The best things that have happened to me I could have never planned on happening. I started to learn Chinese language almost 50 years ago because an MIT professor who wanted to study Chinese writing didn't drive and needed a ride to the Chinese (Taiwanese) MIT professor's house who liked giving Chinese calligraphy lessons.

 

I started to volunteer in Thailand  because I said some things to someone I met on a Thai domestic flight not knowing that he was the Founder of a large Thai NGO under Royal Patronage and was looking for someone with my background.

 

As attributed to John Lennon: Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

[swissbie]

2 hours ago, dotpoom said:

Not complicated....there are "country" people ....and there are "city folk"...in this world,... and neither would voluntary swap for love nor money.

Not always that simple. Before moving here, i loved to live in the city and i loved to live in the mountains. Now we're living in the outerskirts of BKK, but also like to stay at our second home, "in the woods" in Songkhla Province. Still couldn't make a decision, so moving between the two places. My wife has the same problem (?), not just "country people or city folks", we are neither or both. But we like it the way it is.

[chiang mai]

12 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

 

How nice that you have so many hi-so friends.  Twice a year you all socialise?  Yes, that's about as much as I could take, too.

 

I have neighbours who are friends, no more no less, end of!

[GreasyFingers]

Moved here to the WTB home area from Samui 6 months ago as a try it and see. Very quite here as far as meeting other farangs but I always had my own opinons and not needed that of others so it is working out ok. That was one of the problems of living in a tourist/expat area and drinking at the bars every night, some brilliant people but others c##kheads who needed someone to agree with their opinions. Have spent many years living  in Sydney but after living in a north coast tourist town wished that they put up a big fence around the city so we did not have to put up with them each season. They are "different". Good luck to those that love Bangkok and Pattaya but if you ever need to come here  for the cooler weather don't look me up.

[chiang mai]

I just read again the OP and realised I missed his last question.

 

Next year begins the first year for us where we're going to spend six months here in northern Thailand and six months in the UK, northern England no less where we own property, fish and chips and mushy peas and ferrets! The timing will be that we escape Thailand at the start of the burning season and then go travel through early Spring, a second visit later in the year completes the picture.

 

Why? to escape the excessive heat and smog in Feb-April and to add some greater breadth and different perspective to our lives - we are nervous about it all but excited also.

 

 

[Colabamumbai]

Because chicks live in the sticks.

[saluandnai]

2 hours ago, transam said:

Was a Thai bird pillion...?

nope

 

[villagefarang]

I grew up in the suburbs of university towns.  I then lived in Bangkok for thirty years before moving to a small village 55 kilometers from Chiang Rai.  I have enjoyed all three environments over the years but right now it is the country life I prefer.  I used to live in the city and travel to see nature.  Now I live in something more akin to a resort environment surrounded by nature and travel to cities to see friends and do things I can’t do here.

 

As I have aged there seems to have been a shift toward environment over people.  Comfort, convenience, tranquility, beauty and nature take precedent on a daily basis over the excitement of the city.  I don’t believe you are necessarily one thing or the other but perhaps like different things and different times in your life.

 

For six years we travel a lot and did the six months here and six months there thing.  Eventually we wanted a more settled existence and built this house we now live in with our pets.  We still travel but seldom for more than a few days at a time as we miss our home and our pets.

[Laza 45]

5 hours ago, jimmyyy said:

I could easily afford a nice place in Bangkok or Pattaya, but I prefer just outside of Khon Kaen.  I grew up in a small town, and prefer small town living.  We live in a very nice new house, Khon Kaen is just down the road if I have a need to visit.  A few days in Bangkok or Pattaya is all I can bear.  To many damn people.  

I agree.. I live in Kalasin.. great place.. only an hour to KK if I need anything there..  :-)

[1FinickyOne]

18 hours ago, thehelmsman said:

Do you stay because you truly love the place or because you can't afford to relocate??????

 

First, there are many different types of rural properties, just as the city... Some are quite beautiful, some not so, some are near very pleasant small cities, some not... each individual property is different too...

 

Yes, I can afford to relocate and have considered condos in cities, but don't really want to be tied to a 2nd residence. We can afford to vacation wherever we want and switching around is fun too. Truly love the place? I would not go that far... I did not truly love Bkk when I lived there either. But I do love my wife and her family - all great people and my wife is very happy that we are in the village with her family. We have a nice house here and it is quite comfortable. I think that before the days of internet, it would have been much more difficult to stay here full time... but my life is here now and when I need a break, I can just pack up and go away for a few days... 

[jonbsails]

Was stationed here (Udonthani) 69-72. always dreamed of settling here. a year ago everything clicked, got married bought a little home in small village (Baanjan) outside of Udon (which is a 10 min ride). every 3 months or so spend 2 weeks "doing" south Asia. Vietnam caverns, Chiang Mai, Cambodia Wats, Taj Mahal, Thailand beaches and diving, once a year go to BKK and see museums and wats. Just down the road is an area where Ho Chi Minh spent a year plus dodging the French. Fishing in The Mighty Mekong. I have golfed all over SEA. Her family and the farm, is in Nongbualamphur Non Sang. We visit once every cpla months and I have a ball with her cousins and my niece and nephew. Every time I am on one of my expeditions, I see or hear of something of interest. Could not do this in States. In USA, all I would be able to do would be buy a condo and play cards with the residents because of my income coupled with the cost-of-living, dying a slow death. Here, I am still excited about my last touristy thing or planning the next one or being there. I don't do bars except to dance with my wife or drink or chase girls, the 3 asset-sapping activities one can undertake. But a smidge of Thai stick....well! Half the ex-pats I have met ARE bored to tears nursing their beer or scotch, smoking cigarettes, and walking to the toilet every 20 mins.

[JLCrab]

Ah yes to be surrounded all day by beauty tranquility nature and the essence of being in the NOW

 

[GinBoy2]

I was born in the Californian Back of Beyond, then moved to the city for college, back to Back of Beyond in the USAF...then a whole host of places in between.

 

Do we need to choose what we want forever? I've liked/hated places I lived throughout my life.

 

Curiously however, it;s he places I hated at the time, that somehow I now look back on most fondly

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Kabula said:

Everyone has different dreams, but listen to no one and follow your own dreams.

 

When I was a late teen, a good friend and I used to talk about the importance of doing your dreams, especially when young. I bumped into him many years later and told him I had always pursued my dreams - and asked if he had done the same... he had - but told me that he never imagined that so many of them would be nightmares... 

 

sounds like both you and I have been lucky. 

[Colabamumbai]

"a smidge of Thai stick" , ah yes 40 years ago Thai sticks were great, good quality weed.....  

[Sheryl]

I remain quite happy out in the "sticks".

 

But my "sticks" are just a 3 hour drive to Bangkok, So I can get there when I need to. (I do it only of necessity though, and always breathe a sigh of relief to get out and back home.

 

Also the provincial town (about 30 km away) has over the years developed more - we actually have Big C, Tesco, and mroe recently even a small Robinson's there. Noen of these were there when I first settled, used to take me 2 hours to reach the nearest Tesco or Big C.

 

And a few years ago broadband became available - till then had only dial up. Granted even now it is limited to ToT, but still beats dial up.

 

A 7-11 even opend up near me maybe 5 years back, that was a major blessing as before that had to drive the 30 km to the provincial town to reach an ATM or buy milk.

 

So it has gotten easier. But even back when it was harder in all these respects, I still loved it.

 

Why? Clean air, brilliant clear star filled sky at night, all manner of exotic birds in the garden,  peace and quiet, friendly, down-to-earth people who have not soured on farangs....

,

[Khon Kaen Dave]

After 5 years in Bangkok,and 11 in Patts.Having had 2 bars and made our money,we sold up and came here to Khon Kaen.We still get to visit Patts 3/4 times a year but its only for 4/5 days.I still see the same drunks,speaking the same BS and all the aged ex pats leering after young bar girls. The same idiots trying to get into their best mates girlfriend's/wifes knicker's.Like jimmyy said,'too many people.We are about 30 kliks out of KK proper,and if we want to we can nip in for a night,play pool,get a drink and go home the next day.

he bloody T shirt.I wqs born in the east end of London and dragged up there,saw enough to last me a life time.Dont miss uk beer or uk pubs.

No,this will do me,until death comes knocking on the door and tells me its time to go.

PS,i would hate to be an aging man in Patts right now.Its a young man's town,and boy's,you're welcome to it.

[connda]

I stay in the sticks because I like it, but then again, I'm in my mid-60s and enjoy life in the slow lane.  When I was younger I liked the city life.  That's probably it in a nutshell. 

[saluandnai]

just about sums it up

 

[thehelmsman]

I'll be leaving the rice paddies of the north and moving to a sleepy beach town within the year. As I love the ocean and the baby needs an English speaking school, it's a perfect fit. Win-Win I'm not a fan of the big city. I was raised in the country on a farm but watching the rice grow isn't my idea of a good time. When I retire I want more.

[4MyEgo]

5 hours ago, Katipo said:

 

I am afraid I don't agree. Living in a rural area in your own (probably developed) country surrounded by people with the same culture and language is very different to moving to a small village in the middle of a semi-developed foreign land where you are likely to be one of the only, if not the only, person from your own part of the world. The people around you will almost certainly have a very different world view which will exacerbate your isolation. It is likely that they will have preconceived views of you, will never fully accept you as one of your own, even if you are fluent in the language. There are some who may find this lifestyle desirable, but for many their could be effects detrimental to their mental health. Humans for the most part are social beings, even those who would consider themselves isolationists. The vast majority of us require mental and emotional stimulation that can only come from healthy interaction with others. While it appears some of us here can spend inordinate amounts of time behond the keyboard, this is no substitute to face-to-face interaction with people to whom we can relate and feel valued.

 

Yep TVF does it for me 555