Citylife (which changed its name from the Chiang Mai Newsletter in 2002) has been in publication for over seventeen years. Let’s look back at what we wrote 10 years ago.
1999:
A Thai reader expressed their view on expats “I appreciate that farang like to live here and it makes me proud that they want to live here. But, I think sometime they complain too much. Of coarse our driving is bad, the road are bad, the dogs are bad and the politicians are bad, but I have been abroad and although thing are efficient and clean and good, I came to realize that we have a wealth that the west has lost. We have an alive society! Thailand is growing, evolving and changing in such exiting ways. I know that things need to change and of course, we should not just sit still and hope for things to change, but, lets look at the good side of this country. We have been a democracy for half a century. We still have so much learning to do. Look how long it took most countries to work with democracy. I think that we are doing quite well. Give us break!”
2009:
Chiang Mai has grown dramatically over the last ten years, new roads, new restaurants, new laws, regulations on selling alcohol, bar hours and drunk driving but yet many expats are still complaining. The topic of interest changes per month, two-tiered pricing, crack down on bars, Thai politics, there is always an opinion to be expressed. Are falang really always complaining or just trying to understand the culture and society that they are living in?
100 years ago
The Chiang Mai Record was kept by D.F.Macfie from 1884 to 1919 noting the names and movements of foreign reidents and visitors in the north of Siam.
May: Chao Dara went on tour to Lakon and Phrae returning to Chiang Mai.
Archibald Ross Colquhoun explains arriving in Chiang Mai. “The inhabitants thronged out in great numbers to see strangers, but were quiet in their demeanor, and formed a great contrast to the often turbulent and rude crowds of Chinese cities.”