Noise pollution, a widespread problem in Thailand
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Countless are the stories in the media, but also on the Thailand blog of people who are bothered by noise pollution.
It does not only take place in noisy condos, but also in the living environment due to barking dogs, sound systems of temples or partying young people. The environment often does not respond for fear of revenge or bullying. Well known is the story of a farang who pulled the plugs from an installation of the temple. The population did not thank him and the police handled the case further. If it doesn't happen that often, people resign themselves to it.
But sometimes the measure is full, also with Thai. A group of young people celebrated loudly with music and alcohol in an apartment. The owner of the apartment asked them several times to turn down the music, but in vain. Other tenants also suffered from the revelers. Because he felt threatened at one point, he took a firearm with him. He lost his temper and fired at Mr. A, age 19, said to have been in self-defense. He suffered bullet wounds to his arm and ribs and was taken to a local hospital for medical attention.
The Mueang Chonburi Police Department was notified of the incident in Baansuan district. mr. Choosak voluntarily reported himself to the police. He is charged with attempted manslaughter, illegal possession of a firearm and firing a firearm in public.
What is wisdom in noise pollution?
Source: Thailand News
Not so hard. Corresponds to the Dutch system. You are powerless alone. But with a group that all have the same nuisance, you can also call in the police here. Usually this certainly helps if a Thai is speaking.
I speak from experience here. Even a karaoke had to close because of this.
I have more nuisance from motorbikes and trucks with all sorts of things wrong with them.
Sometimes you can't understand or call each other
Are you watching TV, another noise machine passes by.
Many Thai people seem to have little or no opinion about nuisance for their environment than the average farang.
Whether they have not learned it, or do not think at all, because they see the alleged burden itself at that moment as pleasure or virtue, will certainly be one of the causes.
Most people in Europe would immediately think of their environment when it comes to noise and also burning rubbish, and unlike many Thai people, prevent this nuisance for their environment, or at least think about it.
Sometimes in our village, in the middle of the night, the sound system of a resident suddenly turns on, who may have won something in the lottery or is very drunk, so that a normal sleeper stands up in his bed at this time.
Supported by loud barking from all the dogs in the village, this can steal a few hours of your sleep.
During the day, when you have all the windows open to air the house, and your wife has just hung up the clean laundry, although the wind is exactly in the direction of our house, it can happen that an over-industrious neighbor suddenly starts his house or to burn garden waste.
Things that as a farang, because I live here as a guest after all, I don't want to say anything about it, but I can still shake my head wonderfully.
The same happens if a person leaves his smelly and often smelly diesel car right in front of your house, where you sit comfortably with others on the terrace, because otherwise the air conditioner turns off, and he likes to continue his way in a cool car when he returns later. want to.
Was all this never learned, stupidity or selfishness, I don't know, but I prefer to let my Thai wife, who now knows it differently from Europe, do the talking.
Dear John, I think that a lot can be traced back to a lack of information from the government, and for example the good organization of proper waste disposal by the government, plus that much more information needs to be done in schools about environmental pollution and hearing damage, .
But the most important thing is to enforce the rules.
According to my wife, it is no longer possible to address a Thai about his behavior. In traffic and as a neighbor. The short fuse we know and loss of face certainly play a major role. We see the shootings and stabbings in the news every week. Often started small and ended big. One thing is certain and that is that the authorities are doing too little about this. Solidarity is also often hard to find. As long as a change of mentality does not occur among many, nuisance will fall to us.
There are wise words in your speech and let's hope that there will also be an awareness of the impact the life of each individual has on life in the whole world.
Noise pollution is something personal, but the CO2 emissions of all of us affect a lot of weak people. Computers, servers, buying goods… nothing is for nothing, but we don't talk much about it yet unless people in Isaan have another crop failure while the solution can be so close by because of the people who don't want to see it.
That is one of the reasons that we have opted for a moo job.
Most people in our moo job have to work hard to pay the mortgage on the house and the loan on the car. After 19.30 pm, when it is dark everyone is inside and to bed on time because in the morning they have to get up early to work.
Of course there are sometimes parties or weddings, but that is sporadic and not a nuisance.
Why should the government do something about it? Just as the vast majority of road deaths occur among the plebs, the kharatchakan (literally 'servants of the king', the officials) live in 'guarded communities', also known as moo jobs. It is always very quiet there. Inequality in Thailand is in everything.
Twice I approached sound trucks, both times during a cremation. An I-message always works well. So not 'You're making a lot of noise, fuck off' 'but 'I'm very bothered by the noise, could it be a little less, please?' Nobody gets mad about that. Just always do. The noise makers do not always realize that others are affected. .
This is one of those things like I never have any problems with it, in my neighborhood my neighbors wake up early to go to work, the Temple nearby ringing the gong, the monks asking for a donation to give them a to provide a meal and those dogs that bark in Chiangwai in the north and also Corona free, what more could you want.gr maarten
A few years ago, the workmen of our neighbor lived on the empty plot of our neighbour's sister (between them and us). Those were the tin huts. Not only that it looked ugly, we were also bothered by peeping neighbors, who could look into our garden from their raised door and in the morning, when we sat outside, stared at us without batting an eyelid. It didn't interest me much, but my wife didn't like it. So then I raised the wall with two bricks and couldn't do that anymore.
A few weeks later, every day around XNUMX:XNUMX AM, one of the neighbors would turn on the radio loudly and play until they were picked up for work.
So we complain to the neighbor that the workers had to produce a little less noise. The sound system was often also turned up during the day. Then I turned on mine, which was even louder.
When that didn't help much, I complained loudly and started throwing stones on the roofs of those huts.
The only ones that still sometimes disturb me are the temples, where music is sometimes played until 4 o'clock in the morning during a party, or to test the installation, the sound is turned up at 5 o'clock in the morning. The nearest temple is about a kilometer away from us…
Furthermore, here in the countryside we are fortunately not bothered by noise. On the contrary. I often sit outside at night and watch movies through my projector and have the sound from a sound bar running. Then I like to turn it up a few decibels – because of the effects… I couldn't have done that in the civilized world, but I could here.
We will have to learn to live with it here, even if you live in a quiet area like me, you run the risk of noise pollution.
I personally like to sleep without air conditioning with the window open, especially now that the nights are less warm, but there are plenty of people here who can only sleep with the air conditioning on, so you hear the hum of the compressor, you also hear then the pump of your own or your neighbour's water tank that starts up regularly and of course the dogs that are used as cheap security and start at every sound.
In the 7 years that I have lived in Thailand, I have had to move 2 times before the lease was terminated. The first time, notably in my first rental house in a village. Neighbor warned us in the beginning that her baby (25 years old son) had a party at home once a month with friends and colleagues from the 7 eleven depot where he works. That was acceptable for the first 3 months, but then it became more and more frequent and later. At one point, especially when the mother was not at home, the partying went on until 3 or 4 am. On a certain evening it was really extreme, about 20 young people. At 24.00:01.00 am, requested that the noise be reduced and the party ended. Requested this again at 02.00am. Some young people listened. At 2 I demanded with the garden hose in my hand that the party was over. In response I got XNUMX glasses of whiskey thrown at my head. A glass smashed through the wall against my chest, luckily it didn't break. You can't imagine what the consequences would be if the glass were shattered. The son and a boyfriend wanted to fight me, screaming that they would kill me. Fortunately, it did not come to that, because there were also some young people who prevented this. Reported to the leadership of the village the next day. This one only asked for understanding, not disapproval. The police have drawn up a report with great reluctance. My Thai girlfriend was stalked and threatened the following days. We were advised by the police to move for our own safety.
The 2nd case involved an illegal dumping of rubbish just on the other side of the wall of the village where I lived. The stench and nuisance of flying became so severe that I also started having problems with my airways. The entrance to my house was exactly in line with the usually blowing wind. In the morning I had hundreds of flies in my entrance. My complaining to the owner and village management had no result.
Here too only 1 solution remained possible. Move out and as soon as possible. A month after my departure, the owner of the piece of land in question was finally persuaded to clear away the waste. It is shocking to experience that the Thai simply accepts things that are completely unacceptable to us Westerners.
If you drive around in a car like the one shown here, you belong in an insane asylum, period! Luckily there aren't that many of them. But household waste is a big problem, see my attached photos, I live among all kinds of Thai people, but I often think and therefore mine and everyone's nest of polluters. That annoys me and not a little bit, living next to such a rubbish dump, yuck.
Dogs, also such a problem, in my immediate neighborhood of about 20 houses there is 1 Thai woman who ALSO works as a civil servant at the local amour. Has multiple dogs, against venue guidelines. Those dogs are barking like the day before yesterday at 04.00:06.00 am, persistently and when I went out at XNUMX:XNUMX am and went to challenge the dogs in front of her house, many neighbors came out to see what was going on, many looks from disapproval as far as barking was concerned, but hid as much as possible, well that's how you do it as a Thai. Well I said SHIT on it in Dutch, after all those dogs disturb my life and even worse my sleeping pleasure in such a way that I feel compelled to act. How do you as readers do that?
Everyone suffers from it... You can't address a Thai about his behavior... then they get angry. Solution Bring a box of beer . Tell them that they have a nice party .. Have a chat and then mention between nose and lips that you can't sleep .
And when the beer is gone, they turn the music even louder in the hope that you will bring another box of beer? 😉
Used to be bothered by noise from neighbors, dogs and the temple, we lived in a compound with townhouses, I knew I wouldn't want to live there anyway, so my girlfriend sold her house and we bought ourselves a single house in a nice job , no more nuisance and not from the temple a few hundred meters either. We now live among people who are slightly more affluent, could that be the reason?