Andrew65

I holidayed 3 times in Thailand in 1985-86. I also lived there from 1998 - 2018. During the years living there the first 16 years were where I was working overseas for 6 weeks, and then 3 weeks in Thailand. I used to dream about being able to be full time in Thailand, but when I could it turned out to be not quite as good as I thought it would be. Looking at naked girls in go-go bars is good, except that what I really want is to drink in peace, and maybe have a bit of decent conversation. Also, frequenting go-go bars can be expensive. I will admit that I don't have any hobbies, but when you have 24/7/365 with nothing much to do, it can become a bit boring. I got to the point where I was sitting in bars every day drinking, which ain't a good place to be.

I remember about 5 years ago being stuck in Bangkok-style traffic in Pattaya.

For me, boredom's the same in any language. I got bored after 3 years in Thailand.

Just the cost overrun on the F-35 program was more than the entire defence budgets of France & Britain combined. When my fellow Brits ask why Britain no longer builds such jets on it's own, we just can't afford to.

In the tropics it's possible to 'catch the sun' on a cloudy day.

Back in '97-2000 I worked in the Sahara in Algeria. Every day outside around 50C 'in the shade', except that there is no shade in the desert. Also, none of the a/c's worked in any of our vehicles. Horrendously hot.

When I worked in Saudi I was in Bahrain for a day or 2 when it was 43C - 45C with horrendous humidity. The condensation was running down the outside walls of buildings. (The middle east doesn't always have dry heat, as some people think).

Remember also that for Chinese and Indian people Thailand is a short-haul destination, they can probably get an airline ticket for $100. Thailand is to them as the Mediterranean is to northern European people.

"Independent travellers"????

Actual temperature 36C, "Real Feel" 43C????

Three of my friends who lived in Thailand now live in Cambodia.

Maybe Ya-Ba had something to do with it?

Depends what the "Real Feel" is, 34C with high humidity can be quite miserable. I was in Bahrain/Saudi many years ago when it was around 45C & high humidity. After many years of living in Bangkok, and now living back in the UK, 23C is just right for me. Why? Because in the UK so many places don't have air conditioning.

When I was in Bangkok in 1985/86 there was always a power outage when it rained, not so nowadays.

I remember 8-10 years ago, when I lived there. In Bangkok we never had a drop of rain from November until May. As long as it didn't flood, I used to love a good downpour, it would seem like the temperature had dropped 10C in 10 minutes, not so stinking hot, nice and 'fresh'.

STD - Subscriber trunk dialling????

One thing being, for a long term resident of Thailand, it's impossible to know how their health would have been if they hadn't been living in Thailand.

My point being, my old friend doesn't need to do, or want to do those things. (Different strokes for different folks).

Further to what I mentioned about my old friend and his lack of Thai language skills. He's been retired in Thailand for many years now. He doesn't have a wife/girlfriend/partner, as far as I know. He's never worked in Thailand, and he doesn't 'hang-out' socially with Thai people. From his point of view he muddles-along ok regardless of that. He occasionally goes dinking with farang friends, and heads to the supermarket for his weekly food shopping. He seems happy enough with his life, and can get along ok without speaking any Thai. It's dependent on what we're actually doing in Thailand, how useful the language is to us.

Years ago I used to read "The Economist", not all of it, but sometimes there were some interesting articles there. They have criteria for assessing how credible/strong a country and it's economy is. One such thing is a "strong rule of law", Thailand falls down badly on that one, IMHO.

I've now been living for over 3 years in the UK, after 20 years in Thailand. One thing I'd say is that Thai women tend to have better figures than farang women

I can speak a smattering of Thai, some useful phrases, numbers etc. I know someone who has spent 16 years living in Thailand and his entire vocabulary consists of sawadee khap. His attitude being, it's much easier for him if the Thais learn to speak English. One thing being, especially in later years, I never hung-out with Thai people, also, I never worked in Thailand.

OK, thanks. I no longer live in Thailand, not for 3 1/2 years now, so no longer an issue. (If I win the lottery, I'll be back!????).

I lived in Thailand for almost 20 years. I also visited the Philippines, which I would say rivals Thailand where beautiful women is concerned. (Another thing being, they're more likely to speak English to a reasonable standard, one thing that lets Thailand down. My impression was that amongst ordinary people, the standard of English speaking is better in Cambodia than in Thailand).

That was what I was saying in my other comment. In many ways we have to jump through similar hoops to get a credit card in Thailand as we do in many other countries. One thing with my latest Bangkok Bank debit card is that it's Union Pay (Chinese), not Visa or Mastercard. Many western banks ATM's don't accept Union Pay cards, although that's no longer an issue for me.