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31 Posts
I've observed this and other forums now for several months, and the time is rapidly approaching when I'll be in the country - not reading about it on an internet board.
According to my most recent contact - a man who has lived and worked in Pattaya for the last twenty years - my plan to settle in Chiang Mai is nothing more than a pipe dream fueled by expat forum hokum.
He says moving to Chiang Mai is "going native." He swears there are few if any English speakers to be found this far north, that the food is either familiar and fabulously expensive or totally alien and unfit for consumption, that the social climate is very hostile to those without a Thai spouse, and so on, ad nauseum.
When I first started looking at retirement in Thailand, I was struck by the large number of English-speaking expatriates in Chiang Mai, and the very well-developed infrastructure for making outsiders feel at home. Was that entirely mistaken on my part, or do I have a correspondent with tunnel vision?
Any input is welcome, and I have no ax to grind in this matter. I'm still coming to CM for a short visit, and also plan to check out Kuala Lumpur and Pattaya. I'll return to the US to make my final decision, so it's not a live or die thing at this point. Opinions?
According to my most recent contact - a man who has lived and worked in Pattaya for the last twenty years - my plan to settle in Chiang Mai is nothing more than a pipe dream fueled by expat forum hokum.
He says moving to Chiang Mai is "going native." He swears there are few if any English speakers to be found this far north, that the food is either familiar and fabulously expensive or totally alien and unfit for consumption, that the social climate is very hostile to those without a Thai spouse, and so on, ad nauseum.
When I first started looking at retirement in Thailand, I was struck by the large number of English-speaking expatriates in Chiang Mai, and the very well-developed infrastructure for making outsiders feel at home. Was that entirely mistaken on my part, or do I have a correspondent with tunnel vision?
Any input is welcome, and I have no ax to grind in this matter. I'm still coming to CM for a short visit, and also plan to check out Kuala Lumpur and Pattaya. I'll return to the US to make my final decision, so it's not a live or die thing at this point. Opinions?