bonviveur

One bad thing I love in Thailand is all beaches are public, you can imagine the frustration of not allowed on the beach in your own country.

This could be you in a few years, thread carefully.

I don't leave in Thailand (yet) but once I saw and used the bum gun I had one installed in my apartment in the US.

I always find it odd a few guys here seems to thing there are certain problems that are uniquely Thai. How many guys have lost everything to their wife or girlfriend.

I know guys in the west who use to leave a big houses and they are leaving in a basement with a hot plate, because their wife took the house, car, kids in any. Stop winning these happen they are not unique to Thailand.

Danger is everywhere, people get away with murder all the the time and everywhere on the globe, stop winning.

I love this thread. Do you guys think our pictures of Thailand will look so old 40 years from now.

It's a amazing how a place can change so much.

keep these old black and white coming.

Thank you to all your guys stories. I have a couple more decades to go and who knows if all these things will still be around to make me smile by the time I make it there permanently.

At least my once a year trip will keep me as happy as you guys are. My last trip in early May this year was great. What brought a huge smile on my face was the crew that came to pick me up at the airport. I went to the wedding of my friends in Singbury. I did not get there until around 3:00am where more people were waiting for me. Kept me drinking until the sun came up, I have never been so happy in my life even thought I was dead tired.

Other smiling moments were: Not knowing who the mother of the kids were because everyone seem to love and take care of them. The entire village showing up to cook for the wedding at 5:00am. The key stay on all motorbike and people borrow them as needed it seems. Pouring water over my head from a large blue plastic drum instead of a shower what the best. Getting a smile back from a total stranger. Wake up at 3:30am to see the entire sky covered with stars, a scene I have not seen since I was a kid growing up in the Caribbean, half hour later a neighbor saw me outside he brought me coffee and stay me with even though we could not communicate.

I don't know if I would leave there permanently but it would be a nice place to go on weekend after a long work week. This place remind me so much of my old country which have completely changed for the worst, so sad.

Good luck and stay safe to all your lucky bastard who lucky enough to be there right now

I have been coming to LOS for a few years now and here are a few thinks that never happened to me but have in the US:

an old lady show me her box cutter as we cross path, I laughed what else can you do

crossing the street as they see me

hold to they purse closer to their bodies or change it side as sit close to them

the store was closing as I am about to get in or followed by someone while shopping

Thought I never stay here for more than a month at a time, I have never experience anything I would consider racist. I always get descent service I love winning them over with limited Thai, that always bring a smile. I have been to Chainat with a friend and loved it, people came all over to see me and chat, I hate at so many houses.

So what if someone think I am poor, I am not rich. I love the fact some think I am poor you don't get hassle as much and if I want to have a quite beer at a bar I can.

Was listening to music in my office when one of my staff asked if I liked 'helicopter'. I told him they are ok but I'd never been in one. We both looked at each other puzzled. Then he said 'you know heli-copten...elic-copten...elic capton'. Then the penny dropped.

That is very funny

All you lucky bastard with green view outside of your windows in Thailand make jealous, one day I will also have such .....

The weather, cost of living, great food, cheap booze, the girls, scenery, islands and beaches, cheap accomodation, the girls, smiling faces, tuk-tuks, river taxis, skytrain, chao praya cruise at night, the girls, 9 year-olds riding motorbikes with 3 or 4 mates on board, mai pen rai, kids looking smart in their school uniforms, pick-ups with 4 generations of family in the back doing 150 down the motorway, baht buses, beer bars, the shopping...did I mention the girls.

Some of the obove is exactly why I am working so hard to move there later in my life, which I could do it now, escaping the IRS is a good one too.

Thank you ladies and gents

I am male Afro-Caribean as you call it, been to Thailand many times never have I felt discriminated against in LOS. I can see see the look, hear the whispers and even heard some of the joke my friends translate for me or they tell me once they get to know me. More like I was the yard stick for what dark is, they would hhold their arms near mine to compare, that is nothing. It's nothing compare to what you would encounter in cities like New York, London or Paris.

My experiences in these cities are worst , like catching a taxi in NYC, refuse entrance to a club, make you wait for service, assuming your the parking attendant, going to an expensive store that all of sudden just closed these to me are worst than anything I have ever experience in LOS. Because you can't never be sure why the taxi did not stop for you or why you could not get in the club or why the guy park his car and handed you his key.

When to small village near Chainat with a friend for the weekend, I was a superstar people came from far away to come see me little children wanted to touch me. No one in Thailand cross the street at my site or grab their pocket if i sat next to them.

Your friend will have the best time of her life in Thailand, just smile and she will win them over.

This is a good subject, for me is what you are going to Thailand for. I lived for 10 and now 20 years in each a coule of places but I never thought I was moving to paradise nor was looking for it.

For me it's for the experience of it , I don't understand when people talk about the good old days, what is that ? there is nothing like the present. When it's time for me to move here permanently I will have no expectation, all I know is I am looking forward to live in another country that is it.

It can be Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand or Burma but not Laos, I love the ocean. Both of the other places I have live before had good & bad things about them but I was always happy to be there. I like Thailand and hope to spend a few years there with the good and the bad which are everywhere. I love starting new, there is nothing like it for me so not dealing with snow would great for a few years.

I like strong Thai massage but only got two so far and each time they had to wake me because I was snoring or they touch sensitive part of my body, I am very tickelish that is why i have done only two.

This one of things I look forward to when I am Thailand, street food, to me it's one of the reason I would move there in a heart beat. To be able to eat so good and so cheap is a dream come true, thanks to my good stomach I have yet to even feel the slight rumble.

Where else can you get a delicious noodle after a night out sitting on a small plastic chair that can barely support my weight with motor bike, ladies, not quite ladies, you smile at someone and you get one back ten fold.

God I miss the place.

This is such a great topic, a subject I have struggle for many years and it's nice to rad so many different point of view from people in and out of Thailand. I have been very poor and doing better able to travel a couple times a year which I love but at the same same I wonder if I am wasting my best year by trying to earn as much as possible.

15 years ago I would say if I ever have the kind of money I have now, which is not a lot, what would do? The answer would of been find a nice country such Thailand open a business to give me enough income to live and keep me from spending the principal. 15 years later I am still struggling with the decision am I going to wait till I am 60 or 65 to finally say enough is enough.

This is why this topic hit home for me, how much is enough and I am not talking millions. I just want o live peacefully on some remote place, now it's south east asia, and be selfish and work for myself for once and enjoy what I do.

No one is happy being poor but almost everyone say they are happy being rich.

From a Thai perspective why change anything?

Plenty of money made on visas, keeps Thais in a job, and plenty of bonuses to be made by staff and intermediaries.

Farang will come here regardless as they want Thai pussy (despite whether they admit it or not), so screw them for all its worth every possible step of the way from the airport the taxi to the hotel to the bar to the tour to immigration.

Keep it as it is to keep the lawyers busy.

Keep it as it is so those Issaan families can get free houses and Isuzu D-Maxes.

Keep it as it is to keep those arrogant farang bastards in their place under the heel and grovelling.

Keep it as it is as it has worked really well for so long.

After all demand will never change will it?

If demand changes substantially then so will the rules, although they will try a superficial fix that actually changes nothing first. If it actually got really bad you might see some change. Other wise get rich or keep jumping.

It's a good thing you are not Thai, you care too much.

There is a show here (USA) call human weapon, they measured how powerfull blows from all different martial art including boxing. Grabbing someone from the back of his head and give him the knee like they do in Thai boixng was the most powerful blow register, it had the potential of breaking ribs, puncher lungs and a bunch of other damage.

Please don't setup anything for your friend he may die from just one blow, it happens all the time in boxing.

LOL, that might be stupidest comment yet no offence... You can also get cancer from eating carrots and meat...and u might die fom it.. Will it stop u from eating em?... didnt think so

bonviveur sounded like common sense to me and you look like you want your friend to die

Did you get a new visa?

You might go to jail for setting this up.

You lost me there BKK

Some BMs attitudes on this thread stink IMNSHO!!

I did not read where spencer tries to take the moral high ground or state his way is the only way!!

To slag the man for living like a Thai in Thailand is beyond the pale!

Sure some of you need your overpriced creature comforts and gloat over your vast personal wealth but to call a mans home a sh*thole because you own a castle in a third world country reeks!!

If that's the prevalent attitude amongst falang towards all who live in accommodation that costs less than 3k a month then no wonder many Thais hate us.

Well said

I see we are still equating money with happiness, I know a few guy who their western wife have taking them for everything, now leaving in a basement with hot plate but he the happiest I have ever known him.

It's all relative

There is a show here (USA) call human weapon, they measured how powerfull blows from all different martial art including boxing. Grabbing someone from the back of his head and give him the knee like they do in Thai boixng was the most powerful blow register, it had the potential of breaking ribs, puncher lungs and a bunch of other damage.

Please don't setup anything for your friend he may die from just one blow, it happens all the time in boxing.

When traveling one should always be on their best behavior, I apply these even at home.

it does not have to be against the law for you not do it, just use your common sense

Don't walk in dark place

If it's too good to be true it usually is

Don't be greedy

If you see trouble starting get the hel_l out of there

If you see someone getting the sh''t beat out of them (foreigners or native) you don't know what they did don't jump in

Just because it's cheap don't drink till you pass out

Avoid confrontation at all cost

Don't fight for things that are not even worth $10 back home (I know it's the principal but a simple shove can result in death)

Remember taxi drivers in most country can easily disapear if the price change at the end of your trip pay it and walk away

Thai superstition or ghost stories are nothing compare to where I was born in the Caribean, I have heard it all and then some. When my wife tell me these things I smile but I understand, compare to us they are light weight when it come to superstition.

I have friends who have been here in the US for more that 20 years and they still believe there are people who can take a special shower and become bullet proof or if you put a grain of salt on the tip of your finger and point at a rainbow it would be cut in half by the rainbow

For me there is no such thing as OCD, no one in prison has OCD people tell them what to do and when to do it, I don't think there is anyone leaving in a slum with cleanlyness OCD.

ps where r you reading bkk franchises do well. i would think some do and some dont. and if you want one that guarantees success you looking at big startup capital. ex mcsomchai.

If you're looking to buy some sort of franchise, if $52K is all you've got, including to invest, you may have issues (unless it's a place that doesn't need much in the way of premises).

Remember, as a foreigner, you can't easily borrow money here for a startup. (Ran into that problem when I first moved here, as I naievely assumed I could simply get a mortgage based on my income.)

$52k is not the money for me to do business with it's just to come and spend a year while looking. I got a lot of help here from the folks here, I can bring this amount down to about $30K.

Sure you can spend $150 in new york a week as long as don't make any major purchases, working 12 to 14 hours a days for six days when i don't really have time to spand a lot.

Thank you all and specially for the budget sample.

Reading this forum while residing in the US has made being away from Thailand more palatable. Myself and many others left Thailand with the intention to return when they had the cash to live comfortably. The rat race is addictive and money becomes king. "If I worked one more year, I could save enough for another ten in Thailand". For the last 3 years, I've told myself that this year will be the last. This year better be the last .

Can't wait for the day I will have to face the visa issues, noise and other annoyances. You don't know how lucky you are until you have to leave Thailand because it was your only option.

Five years have past since leaving Thailand and I hope Thailand is everything it was in my early thirties. For all of you lucky farangs, I'm jealous. Happy New Year and hope the good times keep rolling.

These are my exact sentiments on this subject. I am also here in the State with 20 years at my current job, I have been giving myself deadline as to when to make this move to Thailand but raises and yearly bonus is keeping here.

Just like you I hope to make is happen in 2008 for at least a year and see what it's really like being there and if I can make a living there. My greatest fear is coming back here with no job prospect and very little money to start over.