If you've seen my previous post where I wrote about the
Top 5 Things I Like About Living In Chiang Mai, Thailand
I listed the top 5 things I liked about living here, but It's not all good, as with any place to live their will be downsides, as with everything, It's all down to personal preference, the things I don't like, you may like or it may not concern you.So without further ado, here's my top 5 list.
Pollution is absolutely awful!
The pollution is worse than anywhere I've lived in my life, compared to the 1st world west, it's unbelievable. After living here several years, I've developed all kinds of problems, have consistent phlegm and my nose clogs daily. It's very common to see people burning stuff on the side of the road, car and motorbikes exhausts are puffing out black, gross smelling smoke and you can barley even see any of the mountains most days. I originally came here to get healthy, but who knows what kind of damage it's done to my body here. Looking on the pollution data websites, they often rate it in the 200's and lists it as unhealthy/dangerous which compared to the west usually in the 20s-30s. I often see people burning fields which cause dirty black smoke and there is even a "burning season" where lazy farmers just burn there fields instead of removing and composting excess crops, practices which wouldn't be allowed in the west! My girlfriend had no breathing problems and barly blew her nose or had phlegm in her throat, now she's always clearing her throat and often has trouble breathing because of it. I'm sure long term exposure to this place is just as bad as smoking cigarettes, if not worse!
Apartments are lacking
In my last article, I said it was good that the apartments were cheap, but in all honesty, you get what you pay for. Often have cockroaches and ants roaming around apartments. The water pressure is often bad, sometimes non existent, most places don't even come with a proper kitchen unless you pay almost western style prices and when you do get a kitchen it's like 1 small counter and a fridge with an ice box with NO REAL FREEZER.
Often the maintenance people don't really care about the upkeep of the apartments, in this 7500 baht apartment which is actually supposed to be more up market, there has been broke or missing tiles in the hallways outside my apartment for weeks now. There is no laundry facilities in most apartments too, you have to go to a local laundrette or downstairs to a communal washing facility. Don't get me started on the clothes washing facility's too, they use cold water and often, clean looking clothes will actually come out looking dirtier and smellier than they went in, no matter what soap we've used. I've used 8 different laundry's at different apartments and even had a girls help with the washing. We even put a large comforter in and it came out part melted in some place, despite there being no heat!
Sidewalks are almost non existent
God help the disabled in this place, the sidewalks are often littered with either garbage, people selling stuff, rocks, debris or even cars parked on them. Many times when walking you have to actually walk onto the road, sometimes against oncoming traffic. I've seen some people in wheelchairs having to go on the road, they seem few and far between though, most likely they've been killed off due to lack of sidewalks!
Traffic is non stop
I've never came across a more lazy bunch of people, not sure if it's just in the city, or Thailand in general, but people will use motorbikes and scooters and even cars to go such short distances. I see whats essentially as car park of cars at all hours of the day whenever I make my way within 5km of the city. It's actually gotten alot worse since I came here in 2015 as well, really noticeable worse. There is definitely not a proper structure of transport in place either, such as buses or trams around the city. Everyone seems to use car or motorbike or Red taxi which is a truck with a space for up to 10-15 passengers on the back.
The heat and humidity can be unbearable at times
Now I'm not going to complain too much about the heat here as I knew what I was getting myself into, but as a warning to fair weather people, The temps are often 35C and 80%+ humidity which makes it feel so much hotter, sweat doesn't evaporate from you as it should which in turn heats the body up. We're in "Winter" now and we're still often having temps of 35c in the day which is unreal. I imagine its much worse because of the pollution having a green house effect also.
So there is my top 5 things I DON'T like about Chiang Mai, I don't have any problems with the place, but as with any place, there are good things and bad things. I hope you can read both of my articles, good and bad and make an informed decision of whether or not you want to visit or come here to live.
But.... the amazing food just about makes up for all of it!!!
Having eaten out alot for the first few months of my being here, I found the food very oily and salty. Trying to order clean, healthy foods is awkward. I honestly prefer to just cook myself so I prepare all of my own meals.