Thanks for the thoughtful replies. A lot of great info here. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one getting hammered by Taipei winters. I feel like a wimp when telling others about the weather.
My options depend on the company. Hopefully I will learn more this week and can update this thread accordingly.
Thanks again!
As mentioned by others, chiang mai is no longer the peaceful, cultural gateway it used to be. Tourist packed and changing local attitudes plus pollution. You’re much better off living in a ‘normal’ place that isn’t a destination.
There are lot of expats living now in Chiang Mai most of them are westeners I wonder what kind of attention it has to attract many tourists to stay in the area, despite being on the countryside. Nevertheless It is Thailand and very tropical I guess this is how many visitors enjoys the weather.
There were good and bad things about Chiang Mai when I was there 3 years ago. Believe it or not but Kaohsiung is more laid back and relaxed. There’s almost a sense of normalcy in Kaohsiung vs chaos in CM. But I loved other things like the restaurants there. I’m not sure if the pollution is worse in CM (vs Kaohsiung) though.
The downsides of Kaohsiung are the constant smog in the winter and the summer heats comes one month earlier and leaves one month later but it’s actually 1C warmer in Taipei in the summer. Overall it’s easy to live here.
What does that mean?
What does that mean?[/quote]
Its mostly the hoes that fuck with the farangs.
I lived in Chiang Mai for a time. Nice place, friendly folks, food is awesome weather is great. One thing that got to me though is that all non-asian white foreigners are pharangs, and there is little difference between them in the minds of the locals. Dating locals can be an issue because a Thai woman seen with a foreigner is automatically considered a whore. I dated a Thai woman who owned several businesses there, and we encountered this problem regularly.
I don’t know if it’s because I was in Bangkok before and I went during the off-season, but I thought CM was extremely quiet, a completely different world than Bangkok. I’m very surprised to read some people saw it as chaotic. In my view, it’s the complete opposite, except from the (relatively) small area around “downtown”.
I have lived in both for years on end. Thailand 3 and Taipei 18. I think Chiangmai is a much better place to live than Taipei in terms of climate. Taipei’s climate is just awful. If its not raining it’s threatening rain and all you hear about is drought, WTF is that?
However, Thailand doesn’t have the salaries of Taiwan except at the Unis. Thais can be seriously dangerous where as Taiwan is relatively safe. They are both very beautiful places in different ways. Thailand is a Kingdom. It has a clearly established identity; this is reflected in the architecture. Taiwan has serious identity issues consequently very ugly architecture. Thailand has a greater variety of climates, topography, and peoples. Taiwan has some variety in peoples but it is quite one dimensional in terms of topography albeit awesome topography.
Mandarin Chinese is a very useful language to learn; however, it is not as beautiful as Thai, which is the Spanish of Asia.
Thais are a lot, lot, lot less conservative than the Chinese. They are also funnier. They like irony. They are also more liberal in their thinking and tolerant; however, for the most part Taipei is a very honest society of high integrity. Thailand is too generally but it is parochial and falang are often just seen as targets; however, if they know you are local that is simply a non-issue and something you can readily share a laugh about.
[quote=“Fox”]
Thais are a lot, lot, lot less conservative than the Chinese. They are also funnier. They like irony. They are also more liberal in their thinking and tolerant; however, for the most part Taipei is a very honest society of high integrity. Thailand is too generally but it is parochial and falang are often just seen as targets; however, if they know you are local that is simply a non-issue and something you can readily share a laugh about.[/quote]
In which place you are more likely to get food poisoned? just curious.+
(I already know in which place you are more likely to have some drug in your cocktail and get stolen and or raped)
Or go to jail for insulting the king. But we know that already. Thailand is a lot more unstable than Taiwan now, how things have changed.
But how about fake food? do they have as many fake food / food poisoning as here in Taiwan?
Well there was the occasional case of blindness from the methylated spirits in the fake whiskey.
[quote=“jesus80”][quote=“Fox”]
Thais are a lot, lot, lot less conservative than the Chinese. They are also funnier. They like irony. They are also more liberal in their thinking and tolerant; however, for the most part Taipei is a very honest society of high integrity. Thailand is too generally but it is parochial and falang are often just seen as targets; however, if they know you are local that is simply a non-issue and something you can readily share a laugh about.[/quote]
In which place you are more likely to get food poisoned? just curious.+
(I already know in which place you are more likely to have some drug in your cocktail and get stolen and or raped)[/quote]
Taoyuan?
[quote=“Fox”][quote=“jesus80”][quote=“Fox”]
Thais are a lot, lot, lot less conservative than the Chinese. They are also funnier. They like irony. They are also more liberal in their thinking and tolerant; however, for the most part Taipei is a very honest society of high integrity. Thailand is too generally but it is parochial and falang are often just seen as targets; however, if they know you are local that is simply a non-issue and something you can readily share a laugh about.[/quote]
In which place you are more likely to get food poisoned? just curious.+
(I already know in which place you are more likely to have some drug in your cocktail and get stolen and or raped)[/quote]
Taoyuan?[/quote]
Sounds like I’m visiting Taoyuan tonight 
Funny you say that because it implies you think spanish is a beautiful langage ?
In my ear (i speak neither of them), italian is more beautiful to hear than spanish.
How anyone can call the nasal pattering that is Thai “beautiful” is beyond me. The only thing it has in common with Spanish is the speed at which it is spoken. The script looks kinda cool though.
Most likely he ddidn’t mean the sound but the grammar and its possibilities (which I’m not aware of). In my opinion, Thai sounds plainly gay.
[quote=“jesus80”]Thai sounds plainly gay.[/quote]You’re about equal with me on the political correctness front.
Funny you say that because it implies you think spanish is a beautiful langage ?
In my ear (i speak neither of them), italian is more beautiful to hear than spanish.[/quote]
I prefer English spoken with an Italian accent, like New Yorkers.