madmen

2 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

It's all a very mixed bag of stuff.

 

Even for us Americans with our bizarre health care system, when you retire, it all stabilizes with medicare. The reverse is true in Thailand and becomes increasingly unaffordable, if you can even get an insurance company to write a policy for you.

 

Many of us just tire of Thailand, and repatriation is easy, and often in my case at least it's just easier to be around folks whose brains work on a similar frequency.

 

Now my wife is Thai, she often remarks when we are at restaurant, how the wait staff are actually happy, they smile, they laugh, they engage with you. That used to be the case in LOS 10, 15 years ago, but no more. Those days are long gone.

 

So as a vacation destination, fine. Live there full time, nah done with that

This is true at small thai mom n pop restaurants with the 16 year old daughter waitressing or slightly bigger restaurants with several younger girls waitressing who dont really wanna be there and get overwhelmed when its busy and your not gonna get hugs and kisses in 70 baht/meal restaurants.

Now go to an upmarket restaurant and you will get treated  exactly the same as in the west

You can buy a new mattress at IKEA for under 4000 baht. Western standard , will save you money and give you a better sleep. 
 
First thing I did when I moved here.
 
https://www.ikea.com/th/en/catalog/products/30272301/#/00272312
https://www.ikea.com/th/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/24828/
 
 
 
 
 

No need to rehash why. I left my short first attempt at becoming an expatriate in Thailand on January 8, 2019, after 9 months.  On the way out, I stopped in the Philippines and visited a fellow retired police detective who moved there with his Philippines wife.  It was not for me.
 
A week break exploring Sydney and the Blue Mountains,  then 3 weeks on the south island of New Zealand, and back to the USA,  rest, recover, rethink and Monday I fly first to Mexico for a few weeks or month to see how it feels compared to 100's of trips and vacations there, now as a possible retirement place to call home.
 
Then to Costa Rica, Columbia and Panama.  I have researched the visa requirements, costs, hoops to jump through and I easily can meet them all. 
 
 I board my flight Monday, March 11th and fly to Merida, Mexico, my first stop.
 
I picked Mexico first because it is only a 7 hour flight with a connection in Houston.  That, and I get a 6 month tourist visa on arrival.   That is included in my airfare. I can fly direct to Costa Rica too.
 
As I explore the possibilities,  I'll drop in and report on anything I think is useful. 
 
Captain Jack.....

I used to live in Buenos Aires. Fascinating place with gorgeous women, and some of the best cuisine on the planet! Highly recommend.

24 hours is coming up soon. Will the police actually do anything though? 

Why is the GF's age relevant? Strange

It's 24 hours after you filed in a missing person report at the POLICE STATION not when you posted on TV

Sex bomb? ahahahaha 10 times better at baccara soi cowboy !!

38 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

That's a kinda common theme unfortunately

 

Never a good plan to sink everything into Thailand, especially not real estate.

 

The used housing market, dependent on where you are really doesn't exist, like you would know it in the West.

 

We thought about trying to sell our house, but just concluded better to just keep it a vacation home, because trying to sell it was probably impossible

no different to selling a house out in the sticks in the west. Same same your village . Now if you had a house in asoke bangkok a developer will come knocking .. or chinese or wealthy thais etc   same as the west no different. Strange how farang "splurge " 2 million baht in nahkon nowhere and then cry when they cant sell

48 minutes ago, CGW said:

One thing I am certain off - I place a lot more value on a good, restful nights sleep than the OP 

The joys of cheap rent 

A lot of east European countries are the similar or just a bit more expensive eg Serbia

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Serbia&country2=Thailand

I know you hate cold but it's doable If you split between the 2.

Thats what I'm doing this end of this year

5 minutes ago, Jimbo2014 said:

Its getting very expensive and the reasons to stay are becoming less.  The pollution mess has really got us thinking about moving back.  Free education/health care back home as well.

can you expand on whats getting ..very expensive?

How about getting an agent to handle it? No idea if its possible but worth a try

stick it on Air BNB and have it working to generate $$$ while your away. Thats what I do

Most effective for those living in a shoe box.

Poor OP moved to Thailand and was silly enough to think land of smiles = land of no violence . Talk about rose colored glasses..welcome to the real world !!

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

In the West 90% of anger comes from the lack of readily available sex at a reasonable price.  Not so in Thailand.  That is why most men come here.  Thai men have it even better with the culture of mia noi and gik.  Generally speaking Thais have giant egos that are reinforced since birth - best country, best food, best climate and on and on.  Many Thai monks isolate themselves to meditate and they are universally admired in Thailand (forest tradition).  Thais think the Lone Ranger is a nut case and social cooperation is valued.  

"In the West 90% of anger comes from the lack of readily available sex at a reasonable price"

????

The broken leg seemed rather insignificant and did we really need to know her face was ripped off?

Decapitated kind of covers everything. 

I wonder if somchai thought of using the horn all the way down? doubt it.

The lifts dont go to street level but to the first floor. Completely useless for wheelchairs but at least the elderly only have one flight of stairs to tackle

Wonder why people don't research before commentating? This a/c only has ONE engine.