[UltraSearchs]

But society changes everything.

Yup so does whisky.

I'm sure most Thai don't really think much of noise amongst other things. Sometimes we eat next to an 8-lane highway, with another 6-lane highway above it, right next to big intersection (The food is tasty). When the lights change we have to stop talking until all the mocys, then tuk-tuks, then cars, buses, trucks etc race past. With the elevated highway the sound just bounces around, not to mention the pollution. We try to eat inside, I'm sure the fumes just swirl about in there anyway, but the tables are right up to the roadside and always busy.

When we lived in Prachin there was a spare piece of land at the back of our house where the Saturday night market was, but over Xmas weekend Toyota set up a huge stage right outside our bedroom window and had karaoke dancing "Ka Ka" girls all night.

Thai can also sleep anywhere, often times I've tried buying something at a market only to have to rouse the attendant who is face down in their somtam.

And then there was the time when we went to look at a prospective house, a 5-bed Thai wooden mansion, new build, farang owned, pictures on the net and stuff, looked really good. We got there it was so new the roof wasn't complete, nor were the stairs or the electrics. We walked round open mouthed, noting where the pictures had tactfully been taken. When we turned round and said we couldn't possibly live there, they said don't worry it'll be finished in a week, they'd work round us.

No I'd say Thais consider financial return very highly and everything else after that.