Hi guys,
It's me again. Last post received quite a few responses which are all very interesting. here is a new topic.
You may or may not have heard of scandinavian village in Bangsaen and another one in Hua Hin or some where nearby. Right?

As an xpat living abroad, be it Pattaya, surrounding areas, Bangkok or even elsewhere in Thailand and for that matter, the rest of the world ( but not you home country)
Would you choose to have neighbours, or even the whole village, where you choose to live in, having people from the same home country as yours? and why?

Affinity One.

Yes.......
But not so restrictive as saying the home country... I might say Brits, American, Australian and Western Europe.... but no Irish.
(Just kidding on the Irish comment).
I am afraid to say that Thais are not the best neighbours.....
Nor am I..... I epitomise the grumpy old man.

America is a big place with lots of different people, so it's hard to generalize. But, I wouldn't mind having some people around that I had something in common with, whether they were from America or Europe, etc. A good mix makes it more interesting.

Depends on where you live and who your neighbours are, I suppose. I have no problems with mine whatsoever.

If you want to spend your days discussing Volvos, pickled herrings and Abba though, the Scandinavian Village might be right up your gata.

I've been to that Scandinavian village & it appears to me that they overpay for everything.
Maybe they don't want to learn English ?
I'd much rather be around a diverse background of people.

It is nice to have other expats around just to help you learn the ropes and to ask questions.

Socially it is also nice to converse with people from the same background now and again.

That's great Tom... people differ. It might be me too.....
Bad neighbours are just that irrespective of nationality. But the farang ones generally are older and don't have 5 kids and 8 dogs, and paint their houses now and again!

Birds of a feather living together seems to be an international phenomenon. When we traveled through Argentina and Chile we came across a fair number of villages where it seemed there were a substantial number of very old German's were living. I was born and for the most part grew up in Philadelphia and we had many ethnic centric neighborhoods.

Had they been there since about 1945 by any chance.

Had they been there since about 1945 by any chance.

I would agree with the above quote. Now and again, when the mood suits.

There are also many German populations in southern Brazil and Uruguay....from the 1914-1918 migration away from WWI.

And fleeing from justice after 1945 as well !

It's my firm belief that all expats should live abroad.

.

Hell no, I am staying here.