madmen

When I was at the jomtien markets I found everything to be more than Tesco lotus but no doubt it's because I'm a white boy and no prices visible

After a week of buying there and getting ripped off twice by incorrect weighing I gave up. A few had their scales hidden behind the last row of Veges.. Errm no thanks

I live in bangkok and just order on line Tesco. A bit more but I don't have carry 10kg of bags

Experience what luxury?  If I buy a condo will it come with a DWR furniture set? 

I have no idea what your on about. You said you were a renter. My reply was to that post

I can understand love for chairs.  When I’m back in Los Angeles taking care of my elderly father (who also rents), I love reclining in my Cassina LC4.  But what would I know...I’m just a filthy renter.

Your being to hard on yourself. Renting in Thailand simply means you will never experience that luxury again in your lifetime.
That's the price you pay for your "freedom"

I know quite a few guys that have a empty big suitcase by the door ready to go bolt at a moments notice. Strangely enough they still here after 10 years

A lazy boy?
 
Thats like a guy in a double wide bragging to the guy in a single wide.

2 + a 3 seater but can't sit in all of them! , love the smell of leather. Worst part of spending 2 months a year by the sea every year is leaving my chair behind!

The Queen needs to go somewhere safe, Thailand would be perfect. Not Bangkok with its pollution or Pattaya with its dodgy reputation, but Issan with its fresh air and very pleasant temperatures at this time of year. My wife makes a cracking somtam.

Been plenty posts of burning and poor air around isaan and her motorcade ain't gonna help

God Save the Queen!

God save the sterling $$$!

This wouldn't be front page news if it wasn't for Brexit. The plant in Sunderland produces the Juke which is a successful car sold across Europe and as I understand it no jobs are being lost. Am I missing something ?
 
 

So many warning signs reminds me of the 2008 stock market crash where everyone sat on their hands saying.. "it's all good" untill it was to late.


Sell your homes, liquidate your stocks and exchange your currency to thai Baht

Or sit on your hands untill it's all gone

Anybody with half a brain would be aware that common area fees are not paid by the renter

However this is thailand and a fool and their money soon parted

'Absolute waste of time, most of them wouldn't even let us in to see a doctor even if we got heated and insisted.
Also went to the police station. Also a waste of time."

Why. Just book your self in and talk about your friend. They don't care as long as you pay the fee

Maybe try another hospital with this approach

Don't worry, the smog in Bangkok is doing that for you.

At least I will die in comfort reclined in my lazy boy chair and sleeping on a soft high end mattress

Dying on a vinyl lounge would be a bitch [emoji16]

Just gets worse

Nissan cites Brexit 'uncertainty' as it scraps plans to build model in Britain

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/03/business/nissan-sunderland-scraps-plans-gbr-intl/index.html

   Spot  on ,  if i was not in a relationship , involving a loving  child ,
     i would  be out of this anti farlang regime . asap. 

All bashers have an excuse. I would leave except.. Blah blah blah

Why not be an amazing dad and give your child a first world education?

To many dead beat dads here more interested in a cruzy lifestyle and their happy hour circle of mates

I own my condo on lower Sukhumvit Asoke for 13 years off the plan 78sqm sub 5 million baht. Best buy of my life as condos popping up near me are multiples. European furniture, lazy boys, and great art on the walls

I have friends that rent in Pattaya. rabbit holes with cardboard furniture, a TV from the 80's and concrete block mattress.

How do you people live like that? Your in your golden years in a 3rd world country and surviving like a peasant. I would kill myself!

Don't see the difference between a 7 million or 10 million baht condo for investment visa.

Both are useless if money is needed desperately
. So just another figure pulled out of immigration backside

I popped into Villa today and couldn't believe some of their prices. 320 baht for 2 lemons (8 GBP) 240 baht (6 GBP) for a small bottle of HP sauce. OMG who shops there, the Queen ?

And staff is rude. First thing they do if you dare pull one over is roll their eyes and give you the w.. T.. F.. You want look.

 

Villa survives because they are convenient being prolific farang areas with higher rents that Tesco don't do

 

Easy solution - don't get involved with drugs and drug-dealers.  As I have told others, Latin America is the place to live if one is into that.  They don't care down there.  I felt a bit "out of place" with the expats there, by not being into getting high all day and night - but to each their own.  The Filipinos are not going to SWAT-kill foreigners (USA term), as that would cause an international incident.
 
I don't think my wife would like the food in the PI, but thanks.

Don't forget certain visas will require a "mental evaluation" in front of a dude in a white coat flipping through strange pics asking you what they mean

Most of us would be deported on the spot [emoji23]

He likes to post that list over and over, even though it amounts to:

• Your PR for being married to a PI gal goes away if you stop supporting her and your kids.
• If you mouth-off to Authorities or falsify documents, they can wreck your world (same in every country on Earth)
• If you are crazy, they won't let you stay
• If you run out of money, they won't let you stay
• If your whoring around is sufficiently blatant, they won't let you stay
• 7 days (vs 24 hrs here) to notify of change of address
• The "tax clearance" thing takes a few minutes to fill out a form, done at the same time as your last extension - easy.

What's missing is:

• Authorities are friendly and respectful - both beat cops and immigration officiers
• No agent "fixer" crap (they are illegal)
• No "extra requirements" for anything, ever (since, no agents, and don't hate foreigners)
• Marry a local and you can get PR easily
• Out/In Visa runs for Tourists every 3 YEARS
• Never, "You stay to long, we reject entry" then make up a lie about you not having money when you do to cover their backside for rejecting-entry illegally. 
• In general, their IOs seem to have some sense of moral principles, so do not fabricate lies to shaft people who have Done Nothing Wrong. 

 

You will be DEPORTED if you are rude! Think about the implications of that and how broad the term rude is.

Please supply a link in the immigration act if you claim being rude to any official in Thailand will get you deported. Nope your just talking BS again

Deported for renting a girl? Why else would you go to the Phillipines.. It's an arm pit!
Good luck if you upset a girl and she goes to the authorities saying you offered to pay for sex.. Welcome to a new level of Blackmail and extortion

Just the fact that the president has authorized the public to kill drug dealers makes you a blackmailing target.

Enjoy! Let us know how it pans out for you [emoji16]

There are a fair few opinions mixed in with those facts, and I'm not surprised some of us beg to differ.

No problems with that obviously you can have your point of view . The suggestion I shouldn't have made that post and used Google instead I do have a problem with.

For all those disgruntled OPs here on retirement extensions of stay and thinking about fleeing to Vietnam  (as many in these related threads have alluded to recently)...I suggest do some serious study of this option, as various Vietnam Expat forums will confirm, it is just as difficult,  just as messy and just as mind numbing as doing it here.
In common with TH.
30 day tourist visa...with possible extensions available in certain locations,
 
Immigration there prefer you use agents.
 
NO RETIREMENT VISA
 
Visa runs normally required every 30days.(usually to Cambodia )
 
Longer visas:  (sponsored business visa 1yr) 90 day reporting to Immigration.
 
Imm .rules constantly changing.
Different interpretation of the rules in different provinces...depends where you apply..and how that IO wishes to interpret the rules!!
Etc etc etc
 
So don't think you're evading the hoops and BS here by going to VN!

Good post. All of SEA is making it tough

Phillipines only welcoming crazy people who can never be rude to a government official or solicit a hooker if these reforms get through.

The best option for those running would be south America or eastern Europe or best of all your home country where you will be cuddled until you die!




 

New Philippines Immigration Reform Act filed. If the recent price increases, violence escalation, infrastructure or lack thereof, and general lack of fair and due process doesn't convince you to go elsewhere, the new Philippines Immigration Reform Act will. It gives wide and vague latitude for Immigration and Police to basically do whatever they feel like with you. Here are a few new highlights:

● Exit Clearance will now be required after 60 days - [MTV] Essentially if you stay in country for > 60 days you need Tax Clearance before you can leave, even if leaving for a holiday - IIRC this is currently 6 Months
● Foreigners Permanent Residency will be cancelled on divorce, relationship abandonment, or failure to provide support for Filipino spouse and family(does not disclose as what extent of her existing family). - [MTV] Scary 
● Foreigners Permanent Residency will cancelled if outside the Philippines more than 1 year.
● Foreigners will no longer be allowed to establish any type of business under a visitor visa.- [MTV] One of the major selling points of PI over TH
● New visa applicants will be required to have a physical and mental evaluation prior to getting an immigrant visa. - [MTV] Speechless
● Entry into the Philippines will be denied for those believed to arriving for the purpose of getting prostitutes or showing "disrespect" to any government official or employee. - [MTV] Some may guffaw at this but anybody who's visited the Philippines for the past 10+ years can tell you about clampdowns in Manila & (especially) Cebu 
● Deportable offenses: engaging in prostitution,  being deemed a public charge, being deemed undesirable, and being "rude" .- [MTV] Speechless
● Foreigners must register within 60 days of arrival and update any changes in said registration within 7 days. - [MTV] TM30/TM28 anybody?
● Also states that the immigration agency can start requiring cash bonds on demand to ensure immigration adherence. Provision perhaps for longer stays?- [MTV] at the moment the only cash requirement outside of visa expenses is if you go for an SRRV Visa, this sounds more like they're going to want to see Funds in the Bank for people who are staying longer on any kind of basis
● Imprisonment offences of not less than 5 years: falsely claiming to be a Filipino citizen, pretending to be someone else or using false documents, making a false statement in any immigration matter,   

I lived in Thailand for 10 years but moved back to NZ and will be here till the kids are through school. I am off to Bali in a few months to see if it is a good alternative to Thailand for after the kids finish school.

Depends how long until they finish school. All of Asia is making frequent changes for visa rules.

Yes, they are very welcoming and their retirement visa program might be the best on the planet (and MUCH MORE affordable and MUCH LESS onerous than Thailand's program) but I've ruled it out because the area I'd want to live there Panama City has high housing costs and not thrilled about the very hot and humid weather either. But for middle to higher budget people, sure, it can be like living in South Florida. 

What about Eastern Europe. I'm serbian and the cost of living is actually cheaper than thailand. I would imagine all of them would be cheaper or the same as Thailand

So much beautiful architecture and the best food.

To many visa variations to list though.

Next year its Europe and Thailand for the winter