simon43

You know this how?

I'm making $$$$ from live-streaming myself eating Kellogg's cornflakes every morning....

Oversize number plate?! That's nowt! I were fined for driving down road near Don Muang Airport, and that road (t' motorway) was only for them Thai folks, not for foreigners - well that's what t' pig said when he demanded 1,000 baht off me..... "Thai folks only on this road, no foreigners, OK?" !

Where's the photo of the buffalo whisperer?

You can live very healthily and happily in Thailand on less than $1,000 USD/month! Granted, I'm not eating imported wago beef... 🙂

I have a locally-bought old Mazda car with a Maserati decal.........

Off-topic, but briefly to clarify.. "..registration, insurance, maintenance and petrol into account?" registration? insurance? Don't know about those things! I just drive to the shops.beach etc 🙂 For my medical insurance, I am somewhat healthy for my age, no statins etc, no high blood pressure etc, so my premium is low and has never risen since I have never claimed. $500 deductible on a claim and only my prostate bph/utis excluded (prostate cancer is fully covered). As for frugal living, I don't consider that I live a frugal life. My rented home was built just a few months ago, so all modern and well-built. I have hearty home-cooked meals every day, swim in the mountain river outside my door every day, go to the beach a few times a week, enjoy my ham radio hobby, teach as a volunteer at the local Burmese school blah blah blah. My stress levels are zilch, nada, non-existent 🙂

In that case, he needs to urgently contact the overseas pensions office in the UK because he is 100% eligible to the annual increase, thanks to the social security agreement between the UK and the PI.

From the report, what exactly is a humiliating haircut? 🙂

- detached studio little house next to a mountain stream - 9,000 baht/month - car (old but reliable), 1,000 baht/month petrol - $1m medical insurance - 5,700 baht/month - Food/drink - 5,000 baht/month 20,700 baht/month. Obviously throw in extras like loo paper etc, but I'm still well-short of my (estimated) 35,000 baht UK state pension. If the PI doesn't appeal, there are other warm climates where the UK pension is linked, such as Mauritius (where I lived for 6 months after Covid). Nice place, nice beaches.

Same here - I was able to top up my NI at the cheap Class 2 rates whilst working in south-east Asia - definitely worthwhile to do.

You would need a PI forwarding mailing address AND a friend in the PI who can post the form back with a PI stamp! I imagine such people exist 🙂 As for me, I'll stay in Thailand after I retire, but I'll move to PI if exchange rates/inflation etc turn me into a pauper...

From what I understand, if you stay in the Philippines for more than 180 days, (with bank account, visa etc to demonstrate your residence in the country), then you can move back to Thailand after 180 days and you will continue to receive that increased pension. Rinse and repeat every 180 days - but I imagine most cannot flit between Thailand and the Philippines every 180 days....

Not according to my avatar 🙂 I left Laos because of the burning season, gets worse every year. I am in Khao Lak, nice salty and clean air, good for my lungs.

If you move to the Philippines (or any other country with a social security agreement with the UK), then your pension will jump up to the current value paid out to UK pensioners and increase each year.

I'm not yet on my UK pension (9 months to go). But I have been 'testing' out whether I can have a modest and healthy life solely on a UK pension (actually not even that, 29 years). Nice detached studio house, garden, own car, private medical insurance, healthy food etc. It is costing me about 20,000 baht per month 🙂

I researched this a few months ago. In fact, the Thai government made an official request some years ago to the UK government for a social security agreement to be arranged between the 2 countries, so that UK pensioners would receive annual increases, similar to the Philippines. The UK government didn't even reply to this request.....

Personally, I think all immigrants should be required to eat bacon butties for breakfast and keep damp dogs as pets.....

When I built small hotels in Phuket, I always leased the land for 20 years at a cheap, monthly rate. The lease of course was registered at the land office. The contract actually stipulated no financial penalty on me if I 'abandoned' the land before the end of the lease, because although I owned the buildings on this land, the land owner could claim these if I abandoned the lease. Of course, a non-Thai can legally lease land in his/her name.

[quote] ... ...A funny story about that riding a train in Italy as a 15 year old talking albeit rapidly ... [/quote] As an aside, I teach 300+ young students whose first language is not English. They all have the same view about 'Americans' (meaning from the USA). Americans speak English much too fast! I find this a constant problem when searching YouTube for short, relevant science videos for my online lessons. The video content is good, but I have to reject it because the narrator is from the USA and speaks too fast. British narrators seem to mostly speak at a more acceptable pace, (and science videos don't seem to use Brummies or Scousers!). Apart from fast-speaking Americans, I reject many videos because they are spoken by Indians with a very strong accent. (Yes, I could use a wide range of narrator accents in my lessons, but time is short and my students' English abilities are still at a lowish level!). In the UK, I like the West Country accent, also soft Scottish 🙂

Working class Brits?! I'm nothing of the sort. In England, one eats breakfast (at breakfast time), lunch (in the middle of the day), tea (a meal around 5pm) and supper (an evening meal). As for 'Dinner', you can have that with your lunch.....

Sneaky Burmese payback for their defeat at the battle of Nong Sa Rai.....

Any person with a touch of class, (like me for example), would avoid GG like the plague. I come from a family of academics, my father a professor of languages, my mother an author (but only writing in French, her second language). My 2 elder brothers are Cambridge graduates, and have published many research papers. I got my Masters in Space Science from London University. I speak English, Thai, Lao, French and some Burmese.... Trust me GG. Any man with true class would not want to associate with you..... have you tried the local mental asylum?

[quote] ... ... wearing a black bin bag around his neck. [/quote] .. as you do!!

At the party for my Thai wedding some 20+ years ago, up in deepest Issan, we decided to call it a night when the shooting started....