Losing Jungle Status

[parrot]

Over the 20+ years we've lived outside the city, I've liked to say, "we live in the jungle". When we first built here, the power dipped to 160 every evening. You could count the revolutions of a fan on high speed at 6PM. No TOT lines, no mobile phone back then, no city water. Other than the main 210 highway and the road at kilo 18 was dirt. Our soi was jungle sand until we topped it with a few dozen trucks of laterite. A few years after we built the first TOT lines arrived.......but lines were stolen or hit by sugarcane trucks or felled by storms so often as to make the phones unreliable. Then the tetsabahn started cementing side streets......one or two or three each year. About 10 years after we built, the city put in a transformer nearby and upgraded the power lines along the main road. Then city water arrived. Then fiber optic cable arrived. More roads paved.......until we were the remaining road in the village that was still dirt. Then a cell phone tower was put in a mere few hundred yards away making mobile phone connections easy and internet at high speed. A few weeks ago my Swiss neighbor had 3 phase power installed.
Today, on the way back from the market in Nongwahsaw, we saw a grader, roller, and road sprayer a few sois down.....I commented to the wife, "I thought all the sois, except ours, were paved already." And then, later in the afternoon, the procession arrived.......sprayed our soi with water and graded. The boss didn't know when the road will be cemented, but as other roads in the village have been done, it probably won't be long.
And when that happens, I'll have to hang up my jungle hat and join the rest of civilization.
And count another reason to be glad to experiencing change in a developing country.

[Shado]

I enjoy reading posts like this. Twenty years ago most of us were somewhere else doing something else. We arrived here for different reasons and under different circumstances and our reference point is tied that event. We've all seen the changes that have occurred during our personal presence, but for me, it's interesting to see how coping with the vagaries of living in Thailand were, compared to what we have now. Not sure I would have coped very well back then.

[Drunk Monkey]

A good read Parrot..

Just a few things that were NOT at all common sights 20 years ago ...which are prolific now

Fat Thais especially children
Coffee Shops
Imported and Craft Beers
Empty beer bars in "High Season"
Big Bikes and high end luxury cars
Lap dogs as actual family pets.
25mil plus houses in Isan
Meat pie n sausage vendors
Imported steak
Falang sitting as opposed to squatting toilets
fancy hotels
WEBSITE FORUMS.

ANYMORE ANYONE ??????

dm

[glalt]

I haven't been up here that long, only 14 years. We live in the boonies of Loei province. 14 years ago we had to go 150 kilometers to Udon Thani or Khon Kaen to satisfy my wants for farang things. Then Tesco Lotus built a store in Loei city. Lotus had a lot of problems with the city and local businessmen. As it turned out, even after the signs were put up, it never opened. That was a mistake on the part of the Loei businessman. Lotus went south of the city and built a Superstore. The businessmen shot themselves in the foot. That made me quite happy when it opened. Since then there is a Big C, Home Pro, Makro and other chain stores, all on the south side of the city and more convenient for me as we are south of the city.

[tamada]

I still have 160 V most evenings and I am just 200 m past the ring-road on the Nong Sai highway!

[tamada]

A good read Parrot..

Just a few things that were NOT at all common sights 20 years ago ...which are prolific now

Fat Thais especially children
Coffee Shops
Imported and Craft Beers
Empty beer bars in "High Season"
Big Bikes and high end luxury cars
Lap dogs as actual family pets.
25mil plus houses in Isan
Meat pie n sausage vendors
Imported steak
Falang sitting as opposed to squatting toilets
fancy hotels
WEBSITE FORUMS.

ANYMORE ANYONE ??????

dm

Condos.
Oven-ready turkeys.
Tattooed farangs.
---- air quality.
Cyclists in spandex.
Food Panda.
GrabFood.
Half decent (but still expensive) wine selections.
Cheap apples.
Ferraris (from Laos)