Gated communities: is Hua Hin and Cha am a dangerous area?

[caller]

Crispernator, if you're going to Hua Hin to live, it's kind of a little different to how the majority of Thais live and probably not the best of places to get assimilated into the culture. As for gated communities, up here in Korat there is a boom in property building, mainly gated communities and as there aren't that many farangs here, guess who buy's them all up?

As for older or newer developments in Hua Hin. I'd hazard a guess that the oldest will be about 15 years old, if that?

[JamesWest]

Hi all thanks for the replies ,now i hope im not stepping on anyones toes here but ill say what i think about being in a gated community .Firstly they are or look fairlly sterile in that i mean there is no individualism /character in the homes from what i have been looking at ,maybe this is just the newer ones but thats my take on it.As someone said before there are the maintenaince fees which some apparently do not pay which should be noted by the consortium and no work done to there property but then that leads to other problems if your trying to sell your property and the one across the road looks like a dump .
Another thing is that when and if i come to live there i dont want to be surrounded by farang ,that to me is why i am coming there ,from what i have heard there seems to be a lot of farang who do nothing but gripe about living there {not on here } and my first question to those type of people is why are you still here ? My idea of coming to live there is to try to assimilate into the culture ,i know as a whitey it will probably never be but as close as you can get to it, also i think by moving into a gated community you would be isolating yourself from what you came there for in the first place to live amongst the thais and thai community
Now i know there will be some who will say you dont live here you dont know what your talking about and this is true i dont live there ,but i have been doing a lot of homework on this and other subjects prior to a move ,evrey country has its bad points and i have looked at these as well ,in fact i watched two of my countrymen get the crap kicked out of them in phuket last night ,but that goes with the territory they want to engage in . Anyway that is a small look at how i veiw living in a gated community.

i swore i would never complain about Thailand, but you know what happens, after awhile, it is like slow water torture, with someone dripping water on your head 24/7. no matter how great you think it is here, and it is great, crazy and great, there comes a point where you have to talk to somebody about all the crazy things that go on here.

That is one reason you see so many people on forums talking about all the problems. You have to talk to someone. Sometimes you just can't believe what you saw or what happened. Sometimes it is just the stress of almost being killed crossing the street and you want to share with someone. And of course, on forums, there is no universal person, everyone is different.

and some sad and defeated people (men) are on forums, TV is famous for that, who have a problem with everything here now.

I lived in a gated community with a swimming pool and a beautiful house but I did not feel like I was in Thailand. Other people come here and do everything they can to make it like home. House, food, car. Everything. And they want to be with other farangs. I do not. If I go out, and I have to be around other farangs, I like it if they don't speak English, so I don't have understand even one word of what they are saying. That is just me. Some people need people to socialize with. Yes sometime it is nice to talk to strangers.

I really like the Thai people, and sometimes my heart goes out to them, as they have so many problems here, most of which have been solved decades ago in the west. Everyday I see a very old Thai woman who lives across the street. She smiles at me when I walk past her house, and I smile at her. We never talk because "no can" but it is really nice to just have a moment like that. She looks like a very interesting person. I have even got the Soi dogs to stop barking at me.

The other thing is, what if all you heard in your reseach is how perfect it is here. What you need to know is the "truth".
It is "up to you" to decide if you can live here. Thailand is not a nanny state. That is why I like it here. It can be brutal sometimes, but we all know the risks.

When I first came to Thailand, I went to the far north and looked around. I thought if I can live here, then I can do this. But when push came to shove, I chose Hua Hin because it is easier to live here, with more English and I like the beach. As time is going by and I am getting more used to living here, I may move to the south, away from all the tourist stuff. I am getting tired of driving past Chinese tour buses.

assimilation would require learning Thai. and then you would have to be around open minded Thai people. And even then... maybe not.

the problem with Thai neighborhoods and Thai houses is Thais have never heard of the saying "Less is More". They just keep adding and adding and adding to everything so there becomes too much personal statement with the way their house looks. And anything can be sold or any business conducted right on the front door. It can be a problem. That is why gated places with rules are popular.

as for all these stories about people getting their ass kicked in bars, for me, I NEVER SET FOOT IN A BAR in the USA unless I was waiting for my table at a nice restaurant. I never saw a bar fight, drunks staggering down the road or any of the stuff tht goes on here. And I still don't if I stay off the internet and out of bars.

The real issues here are transportion safety, emergency services, hospital services, no rule of law for farang, some culture shock, language barrier, being scammed by Thai and criminal farang element, bargirls and your money, boredom. And personal discipline to not get sucked into the black holes here.

[hhfarang]

As for older or newer developments in Hua Hin. I'd hazard a guess that the oldest will be about 15 years old, if that?

I'd guess about 12 years as when we first started looking at Hua Hin as a place to live in 2003, during a pretty good look around town and adjacent areas we only saw a couple of gated communities, and they were not completed at that time.

[bert91157]

Hey SteveG, if you need some help with them beers I will be home next Week.

[crispernator]

Hi guys thanks for the replies ,Caller your probably right about the assimilating part ,i am not familiar with korat but ill have a look anyway later where it is .Is it thais buying up these new developments or someone further northeast ? James i can understand what you are saying and enjoy reading your posts ,when i was in bangkok s/o wanted to take me to see grand temple so i know about tour buses i picked the day when they all went there i think.I can understand about having a gripe ,i do it here about some of the stupid things that go on but it is the ones with negatitus that im talking about ,i came across this in the phills but i just tried to keep away from those who were like that as it brings you down .

Like me you dont frequent bars or pubs as we call them here ,for me mainly it was because everytime i went into one some hero wanted to mix it up ,i could be sitting at a table with a group of friend have lunch and id be getting stares from some tool at the bar why i have no idea so i just stopped going and very rarely do i go now .So i wont be sitting on a bar stool anytime soon ,i have lived near the sea all my life and to try to live in the mountains i think would kill me something about the sand underfoot i think .

I can also relate to what you say about more is less ,just looking on some property websites where they show the inside of some of the homes ,my god its like a rats nest maybe it is the old thing about the more material posseions i have people will think i am better ,i dont know myself i would be looking at a 2 bedroom home ,i still havent worked out about the 2 bathroom thing yet s/o said it was if you had guests over seems a waste of space to me but t.i.t I think what i would be looking for is somewhere not on the beachfront but maybe a few km away ,so as it is still whithin driving distance ,i looked at somewhere i couldnt afford that was on the beachfront lovely place ,but then i thought about maitenance my brother lives on the beachfront and i have seen what salt air does .

I can understand the transportation issue and also the rule of law for farang ,from what i have seen it appears that the two worlds are miles apart thai law and farang law . Scam artists will be lucky with me as im as tight as a fishes a### hole when it comes to giving money away on great ideas ,cheap get rich quick schemes are all the craze ,i subscribe to an old saying "if sounds to good to be true then it probably is" the emergency services i can relate to if you dont have health insurance ,a person i was aquainted with eneded up in a public hospital with no insurance for what i believe was gout as he was a bit of a drinker cost his inlaws 40000 baht for a couple of days as he had no money left "except for grog" which i might add he never paid them back "scumbag" language barrier is a big one but then its up to you to learn there language ,no use saying they dont understand me ,

My S/O could not speak a word of english when we first met ,so i tauhgt her now we hold conversations very easily even though it is sometimes for me a stop and think "now what did she mean " but for most part she can speak reasonable english ,better than my thai 55555 but im working on it.Back to topic ,i used google earth yesterday to look at cha am and surrounds unfortunately unlike bangkok i could not get a ground view so a bit mor difficult to get a feel for the area ,one thing that i have noticed and this is all over thailand is the house in the new deveopments are all the same ,i suppose it makes it easier for quantity costing if they are but it is so boring still same thing is happening here in new estates bit like pick your box anyway thanks again for the replies guys always enjoy reading them

[Farang]

While on this thread there appears to be a consensus against living in a gate community, I quite like living in one. (Dusit Land and House on 94th street) I actually chose this over a somewhat similar villa not in a gated community.

This very well built gated community is close to the HH center, yet is quite tranquil and quiet. There’s a good swimming pool, a great restaurant with really nice international bunch of people, the community is well maintained with clean, safe, well-lit streets and the kinds can safely play within the area of the community. AFAIK there have never been any burglaries or other suchlike incidents in the area.

People in this community help each other, do a lot together; travel, advise, golf, sight-seeing trips and such. One is never without friends if the gated community has good people and spirit of camaraderie.
For maintenance, cleaning, general areas gardening, lighting and guarding I pay 500 THB/month. A freehold villa of two bedrooms and two bath is about 3.2 mio.

Yes, I quite like it here, and, having tried other forms of habitation, here’ll I stay. I feel no great pressure to assimilate any further to Thai society, just to this community. To each according to his wants.

[caller]

Hi guys thanks for the replies ,Caller your probably right about the assimilating part ,i am not familiar with korat but ill have a look anyway later where it is .Is it thais buying up these new developments or someone further northeast ?

Personally, I'd find somewhere other than Korat to look at. Not a lot happening here and the city isn't particularly aesthetically pleasing. Yes, Thais are buying these properties, some from Bkk in case things go belly up there.

[Big Boy]

Farang, not wanting to live in a gated community is a personal choice - I'm not saying they are safer, nor am I saying they are not.

The thing that bugs me with gated communities is the actual security the security guard offers. I have driven on to your development many times, and the nearest thing I've seen to security is receiving a salute as I enter and leave - I've never been challenged. What exactly are you paying the guard service to do? As I said earlier, the only development I've seen with creditable security is Emerald, and I believe they should be used as the template for all others.

The price you pay for services sounds very reasonable. I've mentioned the site (not by name) where they wanted the first year's extortionate maintenance up front. I do like the notices put up outside of Dusit's properties indicating that maintenance has been paid. My assumption is shame on those without a notice displayed .

I have several friends on several developments where the developer rips them off in various ways - it sounds as if yours is not one of those.

[crispernator]

Farang i have read your post a couple of times and i can see your reason for liking a gated communty ,for me it would be the opposite ,to many people knowing to much about your life .The original post i made was in relation to if cha am and hua hin were safe places to live but it sort of got sidetracked a bit .For me im happy being by myself ,i do have a small very small group of friends as i have learnt through experience not to trust anyone especially with personall information .Sounds a bit to much like colonial india to me but if thats what you like then good on you ,for me rather than golf id sooner have a few beers and a game of darts ,played it once didnt didnt see the point in hitting a ball for miles then trying to find it afterwards .One sentence that did make me wonder was "i have no great pressure to assimilate any further with thai society just to this community " can i ask you why you chose thailand as a destination to live ?

[Farang]

Big Boy: Yes, in DLH8 the security appears very lax, particularly if one drives a decent car and there’s a round-eye behind the wheel. True performance of security is measured rather by number of incidents not happening in the guarded area, than by the daytime theatricals of gate-keepers to which obviously harmless visitors are subjected.

As I said, to my knowledge there has been no major incidents in the area, so I'll award an "A" to DLH8 security.

Crispenator: In a gated community one can stay as apart from rest of the crowd as one pleases. No one is intruding into anybody’s life in any way whatsoever. Nor does anyone compel anyone else divulge one’s secrets to anyone else. In this gated community (DLH8) one plays golf, tennis, water polo, pool, darts or does not play them, there’s no peer pressure to do or not to do any of that.

I chose to live Thailand after having lived in various and sundry other countries and cultures before because of climate, people, food, culture and for the laissez-faire of the society. I definitely did not choose Thailand in order to assimilate myself into Thai society.

Did you?

[Vital Spark]

Sensible reply, Farang, about assimilating into Thai society.

One thing that should be remembered, Crispenator, is that Thais do not generally have the same sense of privacy that we're used to. Make friends in the locality and leave your gate open, and they'll be popping in just when you least expect it. It's fine living in a non-gated community, but make sure that you've got a drawbridge...

VS

[arcadianagain]

I bought a house on a gated community which I currently rent out. Having thought about some of the replies I can see that living in a non-gated house makes sense if you have a Thai partner who knows the Thai mentality and the foibles and customs so you don`t put yourself into any bother. My community is managed by an annually voted-in committee, all visitors are noted in with a visitors card, patrols make irregular rounds, the electricity is paid direct to the supplier, the public areas are kept up to scratch and everybody seems to be pretty happy. There is a mixture of residents, all Thai, all European and a mix of the two.

[bsdk1960]

Hi all thanks for the replies ,now i hope im not stepping on anyones toes here but ill say what i think about being in a gated community .Firstly they are or look fairlly sterile in that i mean there is no individualism /character in the homes from what i have been looking at ,maybe this is just the newer ones but thats my take on it.As someone said before there are the maintenaince fees which some apparently do not pay which should be noted by the consortium and no work done to there property but then that leads to other problems if your trying to sell your property and the one across the road looks like a dump .
Another thing is that when and if i come to live there i dont want to be surrounded by farang ,that to me is why i am coming there ,from what i have heard there seems to be a lot of farang who do nothing but gripe about living there {not on here } and my first question to those type of people is why are you still here ? My idea of coming to live there is to try to assimilate into the culture ,i know as a whitey it will probably never be but as close as you can get to it, also i think by moving into a gated community you would be isolating yourself from what you came there for in the first place to live amongst the thais and thai community
Now i know there will be some who will say you dont live here you dont know what your talking about and this is true i dont live there ,but i have been doing a lot of homework on this and other subjects prior to a move ,evrey country has its bad points and i have looked at these as well ,in fact i watched two of my countrymen get the crap kicked out of them in phuket last night ,but that goes with the territory they want to engage in . Anyway that is a small look at how i veiw living in a gated community.

[Name Taken]

Farang, not wanting to live in a gated community is a personal choice - I'm not saying they are safer, nor am I saying they are not.

The thing that bugs me with gated communities is the actual security the security guard offers. I have driven on to your development many times, and the nearest thing I've seen to security is receiving a salute as I enter and leave - I've never been challenged. What exactly are you paying the guard service to do? As I said earlier, the only development I've seen with creditable security is Emerald, and I believe they should be used as the template for all others.

The price you pay for services sounds very reasonable. I've mentioned the site (not by name) where they wanted the first year's extortionate maintenance up front. I do like the notices put up outside of Dusit's properties indicating that maintenance has been paid. My assumption is shame on those without a notice displayed .

I have several friends on several developments where the developer rips them off in various ways - it sounds as if yours is not one of those.

To sleep all day?