Expats In The Sticks - Explain Why?

[SaintLouisBlues]

7 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

My Ma use to say can't be bothered will be made to bother.  

My Ma told me never to talk to strange men. My sex life would be considerably the poorer if I ever heeded that piece of advice. In fact, I can't think of a single piece of advice either of my parents gave me that has been of any value whatsoever, and much advice where I have benefited from doing the exact opposite

[Kwasaki]

2 minutes ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

My Ma told me never to talk to strange men. My sex life would be considerably the poorer if I ever heeded that piece of advice. In fact, I can't think of a single piece of advice either of my parents gave me that has been of any value whatsoever, and much advice where I have benefited from doing the exact opposite

 

That's a sad thing to say but looking back sometimes l wish l had of acted on some of my parents advice,  my kids always asked me for advice whether they took it or not was up to them.

I am aware that not everybody gets to have good parents.

My Ma told me not to talk to strange women. 

[nausea]

25 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

If you want to  be bored, you will be and if you dont then you wont be.

Very true, only boring people are bored, and problems travel with you; but at the end of the day it ain't London. Some outstanding people can thrive in an isolated environment, but for most of us it's about synergy. We develop through our interaction with others.

[transam]

16 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

 

That's a sad thing to say but looking back sometimes l wish l had of acted on some of my parents advice,  my kids always asked me for advice whether they took it or not was up to them.

I am aware that not everybody gets to have good parents.

My Ma told me not to talk to strange women. 

My parents said "you can't sing".....How wrong were they.......

 

But mum was right in being pissed off with having to appear in court with me regarding my teen motoring stuff...

[billd766]

1 hour ago, nausea said:

Very true, only boring people are bored, and problems travel with you; but at the end of the day it ain't London. Some outstanding people can thrive in an isolated environment, but for most of us it's about synergy. We develop through our interaction with others.

 

Your last line is not always correct.

 

For most people it is who they are, what they want to become and how they get there.

 

I am retired now and in my 50 year working life I had about 4 careers and enjoyed them all. Two of them took me to places that when I was a boy I had never heard of, one took me over a large part of the UK which was OK but the 70 and 80 hour working weeks burnt me out in about a year.

 

I rarely saw my son that year as he was asleep when I left for work and asleep when I got home. I made a lot of money but had no life outside of work apart from some weekends and the odd holiday.

 

Now I do what I want to do for as long as I want to do it. If I get bored with one job there are usually 3 or 4 others waiting which breaks up the monotony. I usually do outside jobs in the early morning when it is cooler.

 

Keeping the scrub and grass cut down on 3 or 4 rai keeps me busy for an hour or so 5 days a week, provides me with some exercise and gives me the satisfaction of knowing that the job is done the way I want it.

[nausea]

We seem to be in the same place. Can't claim 4 careers, maybe 3 counting teaching here (10 years). I miss my roses. 

[transam]

2 minutes ago, nausea said:

We seem to be in the same place. Can't claim 4 careers, maybe 3 counting teaching here (10 years). I miss my roses. 

I tried Petunias.............

[billd766]

3 minutes ago, nausea said:

We seem to be in the same place. Can't claim 4 careers, maybe 3 counting teaching here (10 years). I miss my roses. 

 

I have a rose bush outside my window which grows and spreads like crazy but as for rose buds, not a sign. My wife is the gardener, I just do the grunt work.

2 minutes ago, transam said:

I tried Petunias.............

 

You should have tried this one.

 

 

[GinBoy2]

Sticks...interesting word. It really depends what your baseline is.

 

For a guy from the UK that probably means somewhere 10 miles from the nearest town.

 

As an American, or an Australian that could be anything up to 100 miles.

 

Living 'in the sticks' is probably  more a question of how you want to live. Does the Thai 'sticks' mean living without a reasonable Internet connection, no access to to a Lotus?

 

Bit of a nebulous question

[nausea]

21 minutes ago, transam said:

I tried Petunias.............

Keep the Aspirdistra flying.

[billd766]

6 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Sticks...interesting word. It really depends what your baseline is.

 

For a guy from the UK that probably means somewhere 10 miles from the nearest town.

 

As an American, or an Australian that could be anything up to 100 miles.

 

Living 'in the sticks' is probably  more a question of how you want to live. Does the Thai 'sticks' mean living without a reasonable Internet connection, no access to to a Lotus?

 

Bit of a nebulous question

 

I live in a small moo baan in rural Khampaeng Phet with small villages of varying sizes between here and KPP but no small towns.

 

My ToT internet connection isn't too bad but I am about 65 km from the nearest LotusTesco, BigC and Makro. I go there about once a month for a bulk shop but otherwise I am quite content with living out here "in the sticks" on the edge of the Mae Wong national park.

[rijb]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

I live in a small moo baan in rural Khampaeng Phet with small villages of varying sizes between here and KPP but no small towns.

 

My ToT internet connection isn't too bad but I am about 65 km from the nearest LotusTesco, BigC and Makro. I go there about once a month for a bulk shop but otherwise I am quite content with living out here "in the sticks" on the edge of the Mae Wong national park.

 

You're a better man than me.  What do you do for mental stimulation?

[billd766]

12 minutes ago, rijb said:

 

You're a better man than me.  What do you do for mental stimulation?

 

I am trying to organise 160Gb of Ebooks in various formats into just epub and mobi formats and then into author last name first name order and sort them into fiction, non fiction, biographies, auto biogs etc. At 2 hours a day there is about 7 or 8 months work.

 

I have also been taking some online uni courses in ageing well, cyber security and genealogy and trying to trace my family tree back as far as possible.

 

Those alone keep my brain ticking over quite nicely.

[baneko]

In Scotland I came from the Highlands(sticks). Work dried up and moved to Aberdeen(city). I came to Thailand and met my missus and moved to outside Phanat Nikhom(sticks). I bought a couple of rai but not built on it yet. Maybe being pulled back to the city life.

Think I can make the most of any location. Town or Jungle. Its what you make of it that counts. There are pros and cons in all locations.

[Dale59]

We live in a very nice area of the US for 9 months of the year. The other 3 months my wife and I spend at our home I built for us in her village years ago. For me it's just a time to relax, read a lot and get away from the crowds. I'm an American first and not particularly into the whole Thai thing, and the villagers seem to like it that way, but it's a chance for the wife to be with her family and for me to decompress. We also use it as a launching point to go see other parts of Asia. Don't see anything changing in the future.


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[Khon Kaen Dave]

Dale59.

My wife and i lived in Pattaya for 7 years and owned two bars for 5 years.We made our money a good few times over.When this pm took over,i saw a decline in the bar business on its way,so we sold up 18 months later. We know about the all about the bright lights and decided it was time to go home. My mrs was wealthy in her own right before i met her,due to some shrewd insurance deals that she did years ago.She built a house in Isaan and we moved back over a year ago now.We still travel and have a few holidays a year. We normally visit the islands. As i was a construction engineer in another life,i am able to make any repairs,such as building movement or internal problems.We live 2 kliks from the town and 8 kliks from the nearest big lotus.We go fishing for our supper,and more or less live off the land.When a pig is slaughtered in the village we get to go and buy the best parts of it.We buy our chicken at lotus and our fruit in the market.The villagers know me as 'dawid' and i get to go and help out when they have any problems that i can handle.I dont make money out of these people,but i get the odd bottle of whiskey,in return, and am always invited to any of their party's,weddings,etc.I read every day,and i have 3/4 kids come to me 3 times a week to learn English.I teach them for free 'cos most lot of these people have got FA.yes i was a teacher and yes i did have work permit and yes i do have a degree.We have a wonderful life here,i can only equate it to Shangila.people have no idea of village life,unless they live in one.Village life is what you make it.I would not move back to Pattaya if you paid me.

[akirasan]

My wife has a deep seated fear of living further than 2km away from her mothers house.  

I was considering buying an apartment by the beach and chilling out there from time to time, don't know yet..might have a few years of watching rice grow in me before I do that.

 

[JAFO]

On 12/1/2016 at 0:16 PM, billd766 said:

If you are bored then find something to do.

 

Learn to cook, take an online university course, grow organic food, learn how to para-glide, take up sailing or fishing, buy a racing motorbike and learn to ride it professionally. Learn how to write computer games or even become an author. Explore the internet. Read books. The possibilities are endless and only limited to yourself.

Exactly Billd766. If you are retired this your chance to do all the things one complained about not having time to do while they worked. I moved here and am just as busy as I was in the US. I mess around modifying my truck and motorcycle (Albeit my wife doesn't get it and thinks its a waste of money). I go for bike rides. I have a GoPro Hero5 camera I am playing with making videos. I help my FIL in the yard and have my honey do's to do with the missus. I plan on buying a drone and learn how to crash it(Opps I mean fly it 555). 

 

I love living away from any city life. I grew up in the country as a kid and am glad I am able to return to the fun and freedom it offered. Big city life was never really for me. Great during my income earning years. I think of the guys here with 20- 30 rai. Man I would make a dirt track and ride motorcycles or ATV's. I could go on and on. 

 

In the end the ones that tend to complain never really had a plan or lack the drive to want to go do something. Thailand isn't the limitation, it's usually the person.