JB300

The isis threat all throughout Indonesia is real, and in time, we will see terrorists commit crimes involving heavy loss of life and casualty. They blew Bali up once, and it was done by somewhat amatures. Times have changed, threats are more real, the means by which threats can be acted upon are much more sophisticated, and it is only a matter of time before another bomb goes off, or a westeners head is cut off in the streats of Indonesia. It is a muslim country, and they have many numbers of citizens that have taken up arms and are fighting for Isis. It may be a great destination for two or three years, but we will see a huge swing of indoctrinted Jihad movement in the not too distant future. At least in Thailand, at this point, I dont have much to fear other than my wifes constant nagging.

The post is about Bali, not the rest of Indonesia which is vast in comparison. Bali is not predominantly muslim but Hindu. There are more muslims in Thailand than in Bali and certainly many more in most western countries.

Yes, understand that, but the bombs that were planted and detonated in the sari club and surrounds were planted by radical Muslims if you remember rightly. The ability to infiltrate, and if in the fact of a radicalised Jihad, Bali could be swarmed with tourist killing terrorists within hours. Not saying it will happen, just saying that there is a highly condensed Muslim epicentre just a short boat trip away from the island. They could set off a raft of terrorist attacks, closely co-ordinated against westerners and cause mass destruction within hours. Our world is changing, religions are radicalising people, and the rise of the caliphate is becoming more real each day. Would you know the difference between a Muslim Indonesian and a Hindu Indonesian if they were sitting behind you in a restaurant with a carving knife devouring a steak?

I wouldn't say that necessarily condo investment is a bad deal. You have to buy right and treat tenants well furnish nicely and take care of problems.

Infinat we how one can invest in a single unit and try to rent it for 10k a month. Waste of time really.

The best returns are typically off plan. So that's not an option except from reputable establaihed companies.

Problem is, I don't believe I could get anywhere near 10,000THB from a place costing less than 3-3,500,000 THB so unless I could see myself living there for 3+ years, I'll be sticking to renting.

JB300, on 16 Mar 2015 - 09:58, said:

laubau" data-cid="9192031" data-time="1426483912" data-date="Today, 13:31 said:

Have a clue! For the same reason, only while people are called Farangs by Thais, Kwai lo by Chinese, Orang Bulleh by Indonesians, Masaleh by Malaysians, Orang Puteh by Singaporeans and Haole by Hawaiians!!

I thought I was "Bule" to Indonesians, "Ang Moh" to Singaporeans & "Kano" to Filipinos.

Oh & apparently, being a white guy, it's impossible for me to be an ethnic minority!!! This from a serious conversation with (supposedly intelligent) Indian colleagues whilst working in Singapore who told me they were ethnic minorities (Indians are the 3rd largest ethnic group in Singapore) but I couldn't be one as I was white/British [emoji15]

Sorry for the spelling mistake. It is either Bule or Bulek in Indonesia. If you want to get technical, Kwai Loh or Gwai Lo is used by the vast majority of Chinese & Singaporean-Chinese and it is offensive! The Cantonese in Malaysia & Singapore use Ang Moh but they are still a minority in Singapore & China for sure. I do not care what Wikipedia says!! (Do not forget the old speak Mandarin campaign). I have lived and worked in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China & Thailand for about 30 years. For your info, I was married to a Singaporean-Malay, speak fluent Malay/Indonesian and lived in Singapore for about 10 years. If you only hang out with Cantonese...

I'm not saying that I'm right & you're wrong, just that my experience has been different... Maybe people are just being polite (I don't find the term Ang Moh offensive though Singapore is fast becoming much more xenophobic so it may well become).

Cheers

JB

Edit: Quick google search shows that you are correct and Gweilo is the correct term, as it seems Ang Moh is more of a Singaporean (Hokkien)/Malaysian thing which could be why it's what I'm used to hearing there http://www.angmohdan.com/8-ang-moh-adjectives/

Have a clue! For the same reason, only while people are called Farangs by Thais, Kwai lo by Chinese, Orang Bulleh by Indonesians, Masaleh by Malaysians, Orang Puteh by Singaporeans and Haole by Hawaiians!!

I thought I was "Bule" to Indonesians, "Ang Moh" to Singaporeans & "Kano" to Filipinos.

Oh & apparently, being a white guy, it's impossible for me to be an ethnic minority!!! This from a serious conversation with (supposedly intelligent) Indian colleagues whilst working in Singapore who told me they were ethnic minorities (Indians are the 3rd largest ethnic group in Singapore) but I couldn't be one as I was white/British [emoji15]

75k is sufficient in any country.

not with children in private schools and sky high rents as in Singapore, London or Paris.

Some caveats about the above budget:-

- No car (waste of money/time in Singapore)

- Not Married, son is grown up & has a very nice lifestyle of his own

- No Debts/Obligations anywhere (though I do support my Fillipina gf from funds outside of the s$8k)

- Pension already covered & earning much more so was saving the remainder to fund my early retirement (which I've just taken)

- Had passive income coming in from my house/stocks in the UK which funded a couple of trips a year back to the UK & any "Splurge" urges I had.

As a few posters have said, your biggest challenge is probably what you're going to do with your time & are you really mentally prepared to go from working 60,70,80+ hours a week to working zero hours a week... I'd recommend "Stepping Down" gradually if you can, ideally part time over less days.

Good luck with your move, I know it's hard to give up a well paid job early & "Go for it", the temptation to do "One more year, save s$x,000 more"'is very hard to resist but you're a long time dead so (IMHO) if you're equipped (financially & mentally) to do it, go for it... I am at 49.

McDonalds coffee is expensive tourist price?

My sesame bagel is unhealthy?

The seafood lunch was at a Thai place. No English menu.

My laundry lady charges me tourist prices?

You don't shop at a supermarket for household supplies?

The Mexican dinner was cooked by a real Mexican by the way. Delicious. Actually I went back 3 hours later for another round of tacos. Add 320 more.

You want me to walk all that way in the Bangkok heat. Taxies are cheap.

I don't need a Ducati?

1500 for a pat pong hose monster is a bargain.

I forgot to mention the hotel 3,200.

This is not living large. This is how the average working person with a decent job lives. No?

Some here are happy living like an inmate. Have fun.

3,200 Baht for a hotel room? do you really need airconditioning? wouldn't a minimalistic fan room for 385 Baht been adequate? think of your carbon footprint!

I am sure a tent would also work just as well, but sometimes we like and deserve to spoil ourselves a bit.

There's a difference between "Sometimes" & "Lives There"... I thought this Thread was about "Living" on a minimalistic budget, not being on holiday & staying in an "expensive" hotel for a day or 3.

@JB300, I'll get back to you in April after my trip to Cambodia. I was going anyway, regardless of the situations with the Aussie.

Have a great trip, if you're going to PP check out Jerry's & KBAgent's threads about life there [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

Thanks Paz.... I seemed to recall people having to go to Swampy to clear their overstay when the changes to overstaying were being muted but could well have got it mixed up with something else.

2nd point, I was told that I could only use the ETD once by the British consulate in Singapore so assumed this was to fly back to the UK, but thinking about it, I'd explained that i had a full passport (no blank pages left) & couldn't wait 2 months for a new one as I travelled 1-2 times a month... She must have meant I could only use the ETD for one trip so wouldn't have been suitable for me.

She also mentioned that you're only allowed a finite (iirc it was 3) ETDs so I ended up going back to the UK & using the one day service in Liverpool.

Cheers

JB

Edit: Coincidentally there's another thread on ETDs... http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/807947-Travelling-to-Malaysia-and-back-to-Thailand-with-an-Emergency-travel-doc%2E where the UK passport holder needs a pre-approved visa for Malaysia (usually get a 90 day exempt) & Thailand (usually get 30 days exempt) if traveling on an ETD.

Apologies to the OP for wandering off topic [emoji4]... Please do update us on how you get on

It's natural for your weight to fluctuate a couple of pounds (I find its most often due to how much water I've drank) so nothing to worry about unless you find you've lost another .8kg tomorrow & the day after.

Why should he stay in Thailand to study English?

The visa Aliens are granted is based on their reason for being here..... tourism, work, marriage, retirement, study.

His reason for staying in Thailand is to study and learn English? I've heard it all now!

English is one allowed subject of study allowed by Ministry of Education and Thai Immigration for the purpose of a obtaining a Thai visa and related extensions.

If you have an issue with that, complain to them.

I'm curious as to what language they use to teach English... Obviously English, but what language do they use to explain things if you don't understand... Thai?

In a similar vein, I'm interested in learning Mandarin & was considering doing it in Thailand (also looking at doing it in China but it's a lot more expensive) would the same immigration ED Visa checks/processes apply?

I use thevideome, bestreams, filenuke, godvilla.in (I think it's called that, traveling at the moment so can't check) & sharerepo in that order.

I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought for that length of overstay you'd need to fly out of the country from one of the major airports.

Re the "Temporary" passport, it's actually an emergency travel document aimed at getting you back to your home country so you can get a new passport, so no chance of getting a UK Visa with one or using it to fly to the UK (unless you're from the UK )

One thing to be careful of if you go down the new passport route is she may have a problem leaving the Philippines (my Filipina had to spend 20 minutes in the immigration office explaining that we'd been together for over 4 years & regularly travelled with me to stay in Singapore) I would imagine it would be even harder if there's a child involved so do make sure you have plenty of evidence to support your relationship (in our case she had a phone full of photos going back 4 years & was able to show immigration details of our previous trips together).

Do let us know how you get on, I'm planning on taking my Filipina on a trip to the UK later this year so would be very interested in hearing about your experiences in getting a Visa.

Have you considered The Open University?

Most of us did spreadsheets when we moved here with our home currencies. Despite having transferred significant AUD parcels at anything from 29.8 to 27.5 baht over the last 10 months, my 'cut and run' figure was 23.5 baht when I did my crystal balling in April 2014. The Aussie dipped below 77 US cents yesterday and the TT rate at my Thai bank is below 25 baht - I'll give it a couple of days to settle down but right now that 23.5 figure is a lot closer than I thought it would be this quickly, if that makes any sense.

I am under no illusions re Cambodia or anywhere else in the region - it's often swings and roundabouts when you start looking at prices - but at least if I'm buying USD I should be buying into a currency that's on the way up. I guess the continual doomsaying re property and household debt here have eroded my confidence in the baht. Still, at this point in time 100K baht will get me ~3K USD and that's looking awfully good right now.

Of course, said doomsayers are heppy to predict the demise of the world economy, but if that happens we're all screwed anyway. Think happy thoughts.

If the majority of your funds are in THB why would the currency fluctuations affect you & why would you want to take a hit on changing it to USD to live in Cambodia?

If the majority of your funds are in AUD why would you want to move to a country that uses a currency that the AUD is dropping against?

FWIW, I did my spreadsheet calculations when the GBP:THB was around 45:1, I then re-did it when it was 55:1 & now redoing it at 48:1.

I'm trying to look at it like I'm getting an extra 3THB (approx 7%) to my GBP but it's hard not to look at the 2nd spreadsheet & feel that I've lost 7THB (approx 14%) to my GBP

The glass is 1/2 full JB, glass is 1/2 full [emoji106]

As a UK guy not going to get the state pension until I'm 67 (2035) what kind of income do UK people get living in Thai.

I'm not interested in people telling me they were millionaires by the time they were 20 or the many many BA pilots or countless SAS in the coming country.

I know that by the time I'm 60 my personal pension will be only about £5k per year. At 67 I'll get my state pension.

What do others survive on?

I've got a house in UK and a flat I rent out that'll be paid off all being well in another 10 years giving me another £6k per year.

Few quid savings, not loads.

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm 49, just taken redundancy after 6 years working in Singapore & decided to use the approx 1 year package to retire 1 year early (planned to retire at 50 anyway).

Income wise, target is £2,000 per month, made up of...

- Rent from my house in UK - £600 (I receive £748 but allowing some wiggle room for expenses...)

- income from UK Dividends - £500

- Draw down on savings £900 (planning this for a few years now & have been saving around 1/2 my salary + the income from the house/dividends so can cover it until I'm 60 when my private pension kicks in)

Everybody's budget/needs/circumstances are different and I'm sure people will say they can live on a 1/4 of this / couldn't live on twice that much, but £2,000 feels about right to me & if it's not, I'll just have to adjust or go back to work (IT Consultant) again.

My problem is what do I do for the next 10 1/2 months until I'm eligible for a retirement visa, but that's one for a different thread.

Cheers

JB

Somebody mentioned using a U.S. Address, I believe pensions are frozen for UK expats living in the U.S., but not for ones living in Canada.

No, you've got that the wrong way round, pensions are frozen if they live in Canada but not if they live in the US.

Thanks for correcting my misunderstanding [emoji106]

Back to the subject of "Minimalistic Living", I enjoyed this documentary... http://m.imdb.com/news/ni56987329

"Synopsis: After breaking up with his girlfriend, Petri embarks on an experiment. Noticing that he is unhappy despite his wealth of possessions, he decides to place everything he owns in storage for a year, allowing himself to remove only one item per day, in order to determine the true value of his material possessions",

When it says "Everything he owns" it means "Everything he owns", didn't even have a stitch of clothes to wear.

Angkor Wat is amazing, but if you're asking "where are the bars/birds", try Pub Street

Absolutely agree with above comments - say nothing.

I made the big mistake of being open and honest ten years ago and I'm still paying for it!

NO entitlement to ANY benefits whatsoever - no free NHS health care, nothing in return for all the tax I still pay, and my state pension frozen.

I even had to battle with my bank to get my credit card renewed, in spite of being a solid and reliable customer for 50 years!

Thankfully, I can use my brother's address in UK and just updated my UK driving licence which I am not supposed to have either!

Hindsight has 20/20 vision as they say!

OK lets put some old wife's tale to bed (UK only):-

1/ It's almost impossible to emigrate to Thailand as it's very difficult to obtain permanent residence or citizenship.

2/ Should you choose to permanently live abroad you no longer receive the annual increase in state pension - true if you inform them that you decided to do so but if you're not sure yet then you are not obliged to tell anybody. I used to work for the government and I can assure you the separate departments do not talk to each other unless its an investigation. Not having a UK address need not be a problem as long as you can provide an address within the EEA - this basically is the EU plus Switzerland and Gibraltar. Anybody living within the EEA gets annual pension increases.

3/ You are a British citizen but if you choose to live abroad you lose access to the NHS - true but the powers to be are discussing changing this for people who have contributed more than 35 years NI contributions. Also, if you return to live in the UK you automatically gain access to all benefits including the NHS. So just turn up and say "I used to live in Thailand but I live here now".

4/ As a British citizen you are free to travel where ever you like and stay as long as you wish. You are not obliged to inform anybody or make any decisions about how long you will be there. However, if you decide to permanently live abroad then you are obliged to inform the International Pension Office. That decision does not stop you from choosing to return to the UK or any where within the EU.

5/ The border agency does not record you leaving the UK. The information you give the airline is for security services only (API). This fact was raised on Question Time TV last week as the Border Agency do not know if people who arrive on a visa do actually leave. No check is made. So the UK government does not know when you travel abroad.

6/ Every piece of information you give the embassy is kept on file so they know everything about you (including the Thai phone numbers you give them) but as previously stated this information is only disclosed when subject to an investigation. You could try using the data protection act to see what they know about you.

7/ You can usually vote in UK elections if you move or retire abroad.

8/ For people who have to send in a tax return this can all be done online.

9/ Your UK citizenship will not be affected if you move or retire abroad.

To add to point #2, pensions are not frozen if you live in a country that has reciprocal benefit agreements with the UK (e.g. UK Pensioners living in the Philippines continue to receive the annual increase).

Somebody mentioned using a U.S. Address, I believe pensions are frozen for UK expats living in the U.S., but not for ones living in Canada.

I have no problem using my Singapore Citibank card in any of the Thai banks (same can't be said of the banks in Singapore) but might be worth having a different banks ATM card in case of problems.

I can't recommend any particular bank, but would have thought you'd have no problems opening one as you have a work permit.

Looking at their mobile app, those are the only 3 ATM locations