Live in Issan? What do you do?

[MeMock]

Welcome rondothai.

There is a gardening section somewhere where there will be plenty of people that will be able to help you.

If the village has a public telephone, wouldn't it be easy to get a phone line to your house?

[Dalton]

Would truly welcome advice on the aforementioned lawn project!

Welcome to TD, you can always pop in to see me, I live 14km south of Buri-Ram city.

[rondothai]

CAT gave (sold) me a Huawei (153.6k) wireless modem if that is any indication. Will call CAT to find out.

It's plain old CDMA. CAT now offers CDMA2000 EV-DO in many places. It's much, much faster (supposedly). But, you'll need to buy a new modem (12,000 baht) to use it.

Trouble is, I've yet to find someone who actually uses it so as to get a real world bandwidth report.

Here in a village some 6 kms from Buri Ram I have C-motech CCU-650 wireless modem supplied by CAT at a cost of 10,000 THB. Unlimited connections about 900 THB per month. The C-motech booklet promised speeds of up to 2,400 (mps I think!). Never get that - and depending on the time of day the connection speed can vary from "disconnected" to around 120kbps. Complained endlessly to the boss at CAT - who shrugs and mutters about updating the software.

If you look at the appropriate section on THAIVISA you will find that CAT are considering abandoning CDMA! A lot of info there - next time I am in Buri Ram I want to ask Mr Tawee just what the future is for my investment in CAT CDMA!

[Norton]

next time I am in Buri Ram I want to ask Mr Tawee just what the future is for my investment in CAT CDMA!

Keep us posted. I just talked with CAT here in Roiet. Found out I am to far away for CDMA2000 so will have to struggle with lower speed. I have yet to experience disconnects but speed can be pretty dismal at times. I went with CDMA as a trial to see if acceptable. Alternative iPstar much more expensive but much better speed. Sounds like it's time to abort the CDMA trial and put up the satellite dish for iPStar.

[Chong Boy]

I know the guy who died and you guys are slagging him off!

Nah, just kidding

Another option for remote regions is EDGE which is a heap faster than GPRS.
The download speeds aren't anything like DSL or 3G/WCDMA but I used to use it every day until DSL came to my village 100Km SE of Udon Thani. It's fine for downloading small movies, mail and internet. If you subscribe it's about 1000 Baht a month unlimited but check for offers!

I know AIS,DTAC and TRUE all have EDGE rolled out country wide and I think orange will have it but not sure how far they cover yet.

All you need is an EDGE phone which you can buy cheap second hand and use as a modem. If you buy an EDGE/3G modem you will waste your money as any EDGE phone has a built in modem.

[Ivor Biggun]

I know the guy who died and you guys are slagging him off!

Very good way to introduce yourself. I nearly believed it at first

[rondothai]

Would truly welcome advice on the aforementioned lawn project!

Welcome to TD, you can always pop in to see me, I live 14km south of Buri-Ram city.

Hi Dalton - have sent you a message via Skype

[Dalton]

Hi Dalton - have sent you a message via Skype

I dont think that work, try to pm me here on the forum..

[Thetyim]

I dont think that work

Your Skype handle is displayed when I click on it.
Delete it from your profile if you don't want it.

[Dalton]

^ Yes Sir. errrrr, how did I get it there in the first place...

[Bluecat]

When I go to Isaan, which is not that often, what I do is meeting people.
They come to my place, I go to theirs.
We like to talk, eat and drink (in no particular order...).

[Dalton]

^ Sounds nice enough...

[Bluecat]

Indeed...

[designer]

The question what does one do in the country you live in , if you dont do anything there you will do less in thailand,except you might shag more.

[Bluecat]

What is doing?
Making money?

[shayno]

I stayed in a village near Khong an hour north of Khorat. Simple people but very active. They were really into cock fighting there. I found it pretty hard to get excited about it myself. I watched for a while to be polite.

[racefan]

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but can some of you Rural Issan dwellers give me a rough idea of how much a month it would cost to live in a small town living a simple lifestyle.

I have a fully paid for lovely teak house in Chonabot which is about 45 Kms from Khon Kaen.

The only "luxuries" I would contemplate are ADSL and UBC Platinum package, or whatever they are calling it now.

A ballpark figure would be most helpful.

[Rigger]

15,000 to 30,000 bht I would guess

[peterpan]

He said a month Rigger.
A min would be 30 to 40 I reckon, without kids.

[Loombucket]

If you don't drink or smoke, cook and eat everything Thai style, shop at the local market and use a small bike, you can manage on 10,000. Add your luxuries onto that.

[Rigger]

Well that was just a guess at how poor people live

[navydoubs1977]

(I live in Pak Chong by the way),

love that place, if i ever did make the move it would be there or near there.
when we were there last had a drive down a lane off the main strip, went across a rail track and there was a temple just up on the hill. if you go the other way to the temple there seems to be a load of new ish houses just left empty, any ideas why?? they looked lovely too!

[navydoubs1977]

you can manage on 10,000

its possible to live on £150ish per month???
surely not??

[Lite Beer]

You can manage quite easily on 25,000 a month including ADSL, Truevisions, Electric bill , food ,drink. If you eat local food and drink beer at your local shop.

[sabang]

^ What if you fall over drunk and break your ankle at your local shop?
I think a realistic budget, especially for a newcomer, is at least 40K.