puukao

in my opinion, when you pay a Thai significantly under what they would make in your home country, you are exploiting humans for your financial gain.  maybe psychological gain as well, like a god ruling over them for such little money.  we just assume 500 baht will make their life as good as ours, and everything will be just great for them because 300 is the norm.  but if someone is building a house for you and really, really struggles with the work......for god's sake man, give the man his proper due.  i'm really talking about physical labor and......well, maybe at the end of the project give him a bonus if you appreciate the work.  we can do sooo much to help others, but we never do.  we exploit.  sometimes it's fine, since the job is not difficult..... and if everyone you hire is lazy, that still doesn't mean you can exploit them more.  to me, that means find another country where you appreciate the people.  

that story is nothing.  once i was jaywalking and an undercover spy from the Ukraine tried to get me to pay 39 million baht, knowing i only had 38 in my pocket.  i was threatened, bugged, and put into a cargo hold for 139 days.  i then realized this "cargo hold" was what you farangs call a plane.  i landed in Siberia and then things really got crazy.... 

so you bought them, will eat them in a day or maybe two... and wondering to know if... lol

i think they are the same.  

17 pages in a day means one thing....  the title is WRONG, inaccurate, click bait, not true, and clearly goes against common sense to all who live here. 

next....

5 hours ago, KhunFred said:

I was complimented for being so clean.  My GF actually bragged to her relatives about how many showers I took. How incredibly bizarre.

until they found out why you took so many showers?  lol

7 hours ago, BarnicaleBob said:

I know a lot of TV programs and movies sometime depict mobile home communities as trashy.  However, the park I picked is 55 and over only (Yes, my wife meets the standard), no kids running around, lots of social activities in three clubhouses of which all have swimming pools, pool tables, hobby and craft rooms, card rooms, libraries, hot tubs, saunas tennis courts and shuffleboard courts.  Not to mention a very beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean less then a 10 minute drive away.  Here is a link to just one of several homes I'm looking at, note you can fish in the lake in it's back yard.  You might have to use a vpn set to a US location to open this link.   https://www.mhvillage.com/Mobile-Homes/Mobile-Home-For-Sale.php?key=2022624 

 

 

can't see the link, but interesting.  55 and over does make more sense.  lake in the back yard means mosquitoes, but i love the atlantic.  i've been in maybe 10 trailer parks in the US, but none for people over 55.... we all know the bottom line.  you both go there and trust your gut feeling.  that's really everything.  until that happens, i still wouldn't want to be in some "cult."  LOL.  What if they have 10 devil worshippers?  all 100 yards away.  or retired crazy people who are always 1 minute from you, asking for peanut butter at 5 a.m.  lol.  a retirement community is expensive and also crazies, but maybe better medical care if needed on site.  again, life is crazy.... you might live next to someone who had 100 daughters who are 30 and sunbathe in the nude every day....LOL... or billy the meth head.... we just don't know, BUT spend more money than less. more money can help filter out the crazies....

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

If that's your thing. I think I had a foot massage last time in 2007, could care less if it was $6000.

 maybe you could care less, but I couldn't care less.

????

My carry-on bag was 49 kg, and I just said Mai Bpen Rai, kaaaaaphom.  

smile.

In the year 3098, the world as we know it ended because of a Zombie Apocalypse.... all cases were on one very, very small island about to be blow up by 100 nuclear bombs.  One Zombie went to the airport and threw up blood.... Unfortunately, due to Facebook and Twitter, the average IQ in 3098 is only 34.... so everyone helped him on the plane, destined for Mexico City, Beijing, and elsewhere....

one lady on the plane wanted to kiss the Zombie for a cool selfie....    

4 hours ago, BarnicaleBob said:

This may sound radical, but I am thinking I could move to Florida and live in a senior mobile home park for not much more than I spend here.  You can purchase a used mobile home in one of these parks for next to nothing because when the owners die, the children are not old enough to live in them and they can't afford to keep paying the lot rent on them. 

Although I make well over 100,000 baht, I almost never spend any more than that living here in Thailand.  I did the math and found I could be living in a mobile home in Florida and still not be spending much more than 100,000 baht ($3,200.00) to live there.  Being my income is significantly higher than that, I will be making the move as soon as my Thai wife gets her approval for a green card, which should be sometime this Summer. 

i'll play the devil's advocate...... first, the manager of the park can be crazy and make your life crazy (no, never lived there, but stayed at some when i did extensive traveling).....fines all the time, crazy rules, and they really own you on everything.   one place checked internet usage on each person, then banned people.  i'm not a fan of that.  then the people who live there.  10 kids in a trailer....one guy drinks all day....one guy talks to your wife all day...you get the idea.  i'd never do it.  if you want to leave, they may charge you a zillion months.  

I'm not a big fan of tiny homes, but more so than a trailer park.  or a nice townhome, not condo.  

florida has the most crazies anywhere.  needed to throw that in....

if i had to pick......i would start with San Antonio and a townhome.  

try to travel to places in Minnesota and Wisconsin....if you can handle the cold, might be a better quality of life.  my two cents....

There were small holes not yet found in the room, with poison darts laced with a bacteria found only in one tree, deep in the Amazon forest.  Only 11 people have seen this tree, with footprints tracing back to a small city deep in Siberia.  The man actually thought he was going to sign contracts for an oil development property deep in the mountains of Laos.  The woman spoke 13 languages, and only appeared short because she hypnotized the staff.

ebook..... $9.99

14 minutes ago, CMNightRider said:

Wow, thank you for your input, lol.  You just can't make stuff like this up. ;-(

Only the broke farang in his room with a large Leo beer will think and convince himself life is rigged by 2 people and there is no hope for him.  so they bash and complain, giving them more reason to do nothing.  then they blame someone else for their lack of doing anything.  then they just say it's all a conspiracy against them....and then back to the Leo beer.

i blame the kid.  and maybe his parents.  17 should not be unsupervised with a motorbike in the LOS.  too young.  parents should set the bar at 25.  parents should have researched how dangerous it is here.....really, it's really easy to find how many die on the roads.  but, oh no, it won't happen to me....let my kid have some fun in LOS and experience life.  no, bad.  

if you had a kid and they said, 'parents, i'm 17...gonna rent a motorbike in LOS... ok?  we cool?'   no, we are not kool.  lol

it's a dangerous behavior, and all parents know 17 is very, very, very young.    maybe i sound bad, but i actually want this to stop.  

when i was a child, i dreamed of a retirement with bad air.  pollution.  black lung.  problems for life..... someone asked me, "why go there if so bad?"  i said, "ah.................."

sure, your money can stretch a little farther.... but at what cost?  20 years of problems, or 15 years of much less problems?  if you retire in pollution, well, life is pretty bad....i feel bad for those who are afraid to move.  

1 hour ago, BobbyL said:

Apart from a round of golf yesterday I think I spent about 3000b last week. That included going to work Mon - Fri and dinner and a few beers out on Saturday night. I certainly don't call that expensive in Bangkok. 

budgets don't work "apart from a round of golf.....".  LOL>  if you spend money, you spend money.  Apart from eating....apart from traveling, apart from buying a car, apart from a new computer....LOL

7 hours ago, HuskerDo said:

TTU - I hate to hear a comment like "I will be long gone by 75 I think. I am 49 now.". DON'T do that to yourself. It will become a self-fulfilling  prophecy. You have the means to take better care of yourself. Plan on sticking around until your money runs out. Perfect time to leave this earth. ????  

 

Best wishes to you!!  

and i hate to hear comments like, "plan on sticking around until your money runs out...."

what?  so no money, kill yourself?

OMG.....i'm afraid to ask what you think of the world's poor, as you live around the poor.  

21 hours ago, BritManToo said:

The more money you spend on your kids, the less they like you, and the less they visit you as you get older.

That seems to be a universal rule I've noticed in my lifetime.

It's probably because they need and want your money as a child.  When older, they have more money so they need you less.  

and then they play games to "get money for love."  

and then, not surprisingly, everyone hates everyone over money.

how i think it works:  play with your kid.  chess, sports, travel together, go eat together, experience life together.....that costs money, but you aren't just giving the kid money.

what about the farangs NOT wearing a helmet on a motorbike, are they not risking more lives than a bicyclist?  or the farang who drinks and gets on a motorbike?  

usually people are fat, lazy, and mad at someone being fit.  there are no laws for cyclists going through a red light, so farangs want to make up laws to suit them.  then they get mad inhaling the smoke as they don't have insurance, a helmet, and a big beer belly.

figure out how many cyclists die a year on their pedal bike.  come back to me.....

a farang on a motorbike......i've seen hundreds who come to CM to learn how to ride, and put everyone in danger.  cyclists?  almost nobody.  

and cyclists, i'm sure, have a higher IQ than drivers.  and don't get me started on the farangs who walk in the road when they could be on a sidewalk.  or the farangs who walk in groups on the road.  or ones who go see bar girls with no protection....now that is stupid.  

who are you spelling farang for?  you really only say it...... FaLang.  nobody uses the "r" anymore.....ok, maybe a few in BKK for show.  

tell them you have a big nose, hair on your arms, fat, can speak bad english, and like beer and potatoes.  they will figure it out...

bpen falang.....chai laow.  of course, please don't type Thai like this, it's really bad.  lol.  

and remember, 

2 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

how do you prove a pension when the embassy won't/can't do it?  how do you certify a diploma?  if they go that route, most would have to, or want to, switch to money in the bank.

great, now i want to eat some choudoufu......tell some chinese friends to open a store.  it's not smelly, and quite tasty.  

I would phrase the question, "Do you regret staying in Thailand longer than you want?"

Of course, never regret coming to LOS.  Never regret one year.  2 years, ah, ok... 3 years, about enough time.  Not yet 4 years, but i would like to check out other countries (japan for sure).....ask me in one year.....if i'm still hear, then i might regret staying and being too lazy to check out other countries.  

I'm pretty sure Thailand is about the easiest country to initially visit.  people super friendly (rural settings) and after a year you start to sort-of understand how it works and when not to care.  couple years to learn simple conversation and how to read, understand people in a relationship, and then have a more open mind to things around you.  i just think the quality of farangs here are about the worst, so then i have to look in the mirror and wonder.....lol.  met a 60-year old yesterday, and first thing he told me was to go to Pattaya for sex.  i cry inside.  lol

as a math reminder......paying off the house isn't the same as saying, "no rent, so zero per month."  one month (day) you paid say 5,000,000 baht, so it would make sense to average that out.....  if you live in the house for 15 years, then we are still talking about 2,800 per month.  and we all know there are many, many, many more expenses with a house.

then we can talk after you sell the house....er, i mean your wife's house.  lol

CM after one year.......so i have some numbers to work with.  i consider myself on the "almost semi-frugal" scale.   

rent average is about 5000

water and electricity is about 500

food about 10000

massages about 2000

no beer, no smoking

fruit shakes, impulse buying stuff.....usually 1500

Usually i buy 1-2 new items every month.  usually it comes to about 2500 baht.   one phone at 8000, new shoes, computer at 25,000, etc.....average is about 2500

transportation maybe 200

21,500 including rent

add in visa stuff over two years might push it up to 22,000

oh, i spent maybe 20,000 on Thai classes.  maybe up to 23,000

buying dinner for friends, which i do quite a lot (a few months i spent 8000 doing it)

...maybe up to 24,000

24,000 a month for a year.  not including airfare

on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as the most luxurious, i give myself a 5.5.