dotpoom

I will be 70 in a few weeks and this subject crops up more and more in my brain. As en ex. active alcoholic my normal way to solve my problems was the "geographical cure"...(move to a new place/ setting) forgetting that whereever I went my brain and body always seemed to come with me.

  It's a tough one...I have always loved Spain, only yesterday I looked up rental prices there and was shocked to discover I wouldn't be able to afford it...(maybe at a pinch). The most frightening thought is how I could have ended my life in this way without a family member who even cares a whit whether I'm dead of alive (active alcoholism took care of that even though I'm 20 yrs. sober).

   A few years back I decided that I could choose a method to finish it all off by my own hand, even sought out the best method, but whether that developes is another matter.

   Believe it or not...I have always relied on a HP (Higher Power) when faced with insurmountable difficulties.. and have recently taken to do that again "Thy will be done...not mine"...So far I have never been let down.

   I am thankful that I have been blessed to have had the chance to experience "old age".

  So many of my drinking buddies never got it. Died in their 20s 30s 40s and so on.

  But I will say getting older does present new difficulties.

  I often smile when I think of the old lady getting out of my Taxi some 40 years ago. She was struggling to get out of the back seat and she turned back to me when she was half way out and said the words..."Don't let anybody tell you son...that getting old is great fun".

   God Bless you old lady and hopefully you are happily looking down on us all.

If you think you are going to be that sick...should you be travelling at all?

On 6/6/2019 at 9:21 AM, Brunolem said:

The 800,000 baht were there long ago, as was the 1,900 baht fee payable for most services. 

I'm sorry, didn't read all the way down but I agree 100% with what I did read and have posted on it a few times.

  This might interest you...I am what you might call a "loner"...had to give up the booze 20 years ago so don't have friends like I did before then... However, I did meet two guys in a coffee shop and we go to talking..and the subject turned to how it was now almost impossible for the Farang to stay in Thailand and how they were trying to drive us out...I said exactly the same point you have made above...and they had to hold themselves back from devouring me for not being of the "knocking" class they were expecting me to be. It was almost like they considered it "sacrelegious"...when I said nothing had changed for me in the 19 years that I have lived here. They almost called me a complete out and out liar...so vehemently...that I began to almost doubt myself....So, to cut to the chase ..when they "discovered" that I had been doing it the legitimate way (not using agents)...the whole scenario changed. They started to look at me as if I was some class of dollar millionere trying to pass myself off as one of the boys, like themselves.

   They were obviously using agents and backroom lawyers and whatever else they learned in the pubs to stay in Thailand....I honestly don't think it ever occured to them that not all people are doing it that way like themselves.

  I was lucky to get away from them in one piece when one of them asked me .."if they arn't trying to push us out, why then have the brought out all these new rules and regulations"..

and I replied....."to get rid of all the agents and the illegals"....

   I decided after that...being a "recluse" ain't so bad after all.

When I came here first in the year 2001...I lodged that money in the bank....and immediately carried on my life as if it never existed...I put it totally out of my mind and lived my life like I never had/owned it.

   Even to this day (at almost 70) when sometimes I think of returning home or moving to Spain and I start to do my financial calculations as to if it's possible or not (I have no place to live if I did return home or family that would want me and my pension wouldn't even pay the rent on a studio apt. )...after I'v finished doing my sums I almost have to pinch myself to remind myself that I also have an extra 800,000 Bt. in the bank.

   Plus...that money is worth a lot more Euro now than it was when I first lodged if.

   I think the Euro was about 54 Bt. back then....today it's only 35 Bt....A nice little windfall if I were to pack up and head off in the morning.

  I have also survived 2 relationships in those 18 years that almost took me for everything.

19 hours ago, TaoNow said:

There is a pervasive paranoia among a large segment of expats who frequently post on this part of the TV forum

Thank you for your post.

  I have made more than a few comments on this subject myself.

  It has always appeared to me that the majority of (if not all) the posters with the attitude you refer to are simply people "jumping on a band wagon"....."getting in on the act"...to be one of the "populists"...or whatever (maybe it makes them feel good that the more they knock everything Thai...the more "likes" they will get ..who knows?

  One of the most popular comments is (like you say) "They are making it so hard for us to renew our extention of stay here they are trying to drive us out for sure"....to which I reply..."It's not any harder for me...I did exactly the same thing this year as I have been doing for the last 18 years" (money seasoned in the bank).

   I will deal with the Insurance thing if and when I am ever affected by it.

  PS ..it makes absolute sense anyway. Why should the mostly poor country of Thailand (it's Taxpayers) have to fork out 1 Baht to pay for the medical bills of some Farangs in their country (most of whom have or had more money than the average Thai person would see in a lifetime.