BuckleUp

OP, as both foreign nationals, your life here will be complicated Visa wise. Very complicated.

My wife is Thai, we have 2 girls born in Thailand  (now 7 and 8), and a new baby born in Australia (1 1/2 - we got her Thai citizenship, birth cert and passport in Australia). 

When the kids were 3, we carefully evaluated our choice concerning their education.

Any way we sliced and diced it, researched it, it was MUCH cheaper and MUCH better education going back to Melbourne.

2 kids at $20k = $40k/year. Maybe in high school it's worth it, in primary school that's a serious cash burn.

The standard of education you get is still below free public education in Australia.

You may want to compare educations standards of Italy vs Thai then decide if paying here is worth it for the returns.

"Local" Thai schools. I don't want to make blanket statements, do your own Due Diligence. Note that there are/have been several high profile cases of teachers sexually abusing children. One is on this message board now. It's the tip of the iceberg. This problem may be very prevalent, very very prevalent.

With the lack of safeguards such as a Working With Children police check, I think the risks are too high. You make your own judgement. Talk to Thai people, who have gone through local schools, especially younger women. Almost everyone has a story about a "too friendly" male teachers. Up to you what level of risk you want to take with your kids.

Visa wise, get ready for many documents, many bank account printouts, always proving you can stay here. I've got a Thai wife, 3 Thai nationality kids, yellow tabian baht book, car in my name, 2 bank accounts with cash here, and still need visas, reporting, printing bank statements, proof of where the money comes from, even the boss of the village going down to immigration for police interview to say I don't deal drugs in the village. I can't imagine 2 foreign nationals with off-work for 6 months. Check the conditions on work permits, can you be employed only part-time of the year?

You also got to decide, you want the kids educated Australian/European/American or Chinese or Thai? Consider open-mindedness versus closed-mindedness. Individuality and creativity versus indoctrination into a culture/religion/way of thinking. Another huge reason for us going back to Australia was I wanted the kids to be mentally free, not be brain-washed into a religion or culture. When they are free and older and see ALL perspectives, they can make their own minds do they want be be Buddhist, Christian, Nothing, or any mix they want. If they go to a Thai local school, they will not have that choice. It is highly regimented. they will have no choice but to buy into the monarchy and religion here. Is that what you want? Or do you want them free to make up their own minds? Up to you....

Good luck!

8 hours ago, KarminLine said:

If you get sick bad, there is international hospital next to the airport they fly you out straight to bangkok is only 40 minutes to get to bangkok in their emergency medical plane. So you might want insurance for that. I have not checked that out because I am immortal.

Sounds like you found PARADISE in Cambodia.

I'd keep it on he low down if I was you.

Do you really want 100,000 westerners all heading over there, creating the same problems as Thailand?

Just like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach, if you talk about it they will come and destroy it. 

On 7/21/2018 at 9:38 AM, Weasel100 said:

All of this discussion I think has been useful and I've followed it for the past day since I appear to have kicked off a lot of it with my long and hopefully not uninteresting post yesterday morning about my experiences in Thailand since I moved here nearly seven years ago.
What it all comes down to is that some falangs appear to be very happy living in Thailand while others, like me, have a hard time here but just IN SOME WAYS.
Most of my problem is with the attitudes that most Thais appear to have to life and money and basic honesty. Their religion, like most other religions, teaches them good ways to live a life and five basic things that they should not do:

• harming living things.
• taking what is not given.
• sexual misconduct.
• lying or gossip.
• taking intoxicating substances eg drugs or drink.

I may be wrong but I suspect that something around 80 to 90 per cent of Thais would, if asked, claim to be good Buddhists. If I am right, this to me illustrates huge hypocrisy as I believe that probably 80 per cent of Thais routinely lie and gossip, 50 per cent take intoxicating substances such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, most Thai males at least could be said to lead sexually dissolute lives and a significant percentage of Thais appear to have no trouble with taking money improperly through scams and dishonest business dealings. The only one of the five basic tenets that, to me, appears to be observed by a large proportion of Thais appears to be that dealing with not harming living things. But, even there, there are problems.
A few years ago, a falang friend near where I live had a dog that developed a nasty and obviously cancerous tumour on its side. It had been confirmed to be malignant. The tumour grew to such an extent that it ruptured one morning so I loaded the dog and my falang friend into my car and drove to a Veterinary Teaching Hospital near where we live. They recommended treatment despite the fact that the dog was clearly suffering and was about to die. Not even the staff at a Veterinary Hospital were prepared to do what was necessary and put the poor dog out of its terrible distress. And no, this was not a case for treatment; it was a case for euthenasia. So, that's where the one tenet of the Buddhist religion which appears to be followed by most Thais can also cause a bad result.
And, please, I am well aware that quite possibly the majority of professed Christians don't follow the good things that whatever their brand of Christianity demands or recommends. There is hypocrisy everywhere.

But, my friends, here's the difference. In Western countries, dishonest people who go into business are not allowed to deal with their clients dishonestly or, if they do, they will find themselves in trouble with Police and Government regulatory agencies that do actually give a shit about shady businesses and prosecute them when they're found. There is little if any protection at all for people in Thailand who find that they've been ripped off by Thais as happens so very often here in my view. The Police are corrupt and useless and no Government agency wants to get involved in such things particularly when there's money to be made through back-handers.

I MUST STRESS that these are simply my observations of Thais and Thai society after having lived in Thailand for close to seven years. If others have had different experiences and do not agree with anything I've said, then that's great and fine. Everyone is entitled to an opinion so please don't seek to deny me mine.
I confess that I am a loner by nature; I always have been, even as a small boy. I cope with the problems that I have living in Thailand by keeping very much to myself. I see my one local falang friend for a few hours every week or ten days but otherwise I spend the great majority of my time at home alone.

I have plenty to keep me amused with a very large collection of DVDs and Blu-rays (I don't have TV service because I don't want any possibility of getting Thai TV shit in my house), and I have books and musical instruments that I fiddle about with.

This may sound like a pretty sad sort of life to many others but it works for me so that's all that really matters. It's fine for me and for my Thai wife whom I love to bits and who I'm quite sure loves me too (and not just the money that I have).
Am I (un)happy in Thailand. No, not really.  It's just that there are so many ways in which Thailand could be much better if it really wanted to be.

for you my friend, it's a simple toss-up. Each place has good and bad things. For us, it's Melbourne vs Chiang Mai. There are many points for CM, such as as 3 rai of land/gardens, 400sqm paid off house, rice fields all around and quiet, lots of peace and quiet. The negatives are education - I don't trust Thai schools nor education standards. Western ones, not sure you get value for money for the crazy fees. So with 3 kids, Melbourne wins out. Kids go to one of the top primary schools in the state, government run so it's free. But traffic is bad, house prices expensive, cost of living high, too many people overall the government keeps pushing migration, the city infrastructure can't take it. Public transport overcrowded, racial tensions flaring up, some suburbs are no-go, lots of African violence. Definitely lots of negatives in Melbourne. But food that I like is cheaper (sushi, smoked salmon, avocados), less chance of dying on the road by being cutoff, you can walk on footpaths, and you get 4 seasons not always hot and sweaty. And kids get a great free education and lots of after-school activities, which here are seriously lacking. So it's a toss-up, it's life. Melbourne wins for us. CM is 1-2 months every year for a holiday.

Chiang Mai is great for 2 months every year. More than that, no thanks. Too many hassles here long term. Too expensive too. 3 kids, education in Melbourne completely free at one of the top govt schools in the state. Here, what, $50,000/year for 3 kids at International school? And although Thai food is delicious, eating in restaurants every night is not sustainable nor healthy. 35 baht noodles and various dishes get boring as well, the outside 7-11 cart variety.

Buying foreign supplies runs expensive, 100g of smoked salmon was 180baht at Rimping,  Coles back home $5 for 200g. I think for a family, education and all up wrt to kids safety, thing to do, free activities, it's definitely Melbourne for us. I mean just playgrounds, in the last year we've been to a dozen or more playgrounds on the weekends in the parks. every park has a playgrounds, some amazing. Where are the playgrounds here? You have to pay for artificial plastic play-center in Big C or similar with flashing lights - where's all the natural playgrounds that blend natural landscape?

Other thing i'm amazed by is the lack of education. where are the libraries? Where are the community centers? The play groups? We're in our local library every week, kids borrow all sort of books. Libraries and community centres hold group activities. Here, apart from Kumon (and that's paid per hour), there is nothing to stimulate the young minds. Only more Big C style play centres.

I guess it's different for everyone. Great place for a month or 2. Anyways, another 3 weeks for us here, and back to Melb.