Iren1cuss

I know most people on this forum don't care about a country like Chile but as a Chilean, this is the first time in my 33 years of life that something like this has happened. It's awful and everyone should take notice. This is a quiet country with stable institutions and a decent quality of life, and yet this happens for a measly 0.042 USD increase in the cost of public metro. 

To everyone reading this, be careful in how the media will try to spin this. This was a concerted effort by left-leaning parties to destabilize the government. They will try to blame this on income inequality, abuse by the rich, discrimination towards minorities, and all the reasons left-leaning individuals use to justify acts of violence. There is no justification for what's happening in Chile right now. These criminals destroyed years of work and millions of dollars invested in transport infrastructure.  This will mostly affect the poor and middle class since they depend on public transportation to reach their jobs.

22 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

Hi Jinghthing,

 

I was being light heartedf but in my travels thru' South America my impression was that the middle-class Spanish speaking inhabitants would eat -in terms of culture and education-the average "Farang" living in Thailand for breakfast.

Let's face it-most of them are blue collar industrialised serfs,obsessed with purchaseable sex and cheap food and housing.

 

Chile,for example,has an extremely robust culture which would eviscerate the average American fom Alabama,the Brit from Manchester or the Aussie from Blacktown-leaving them no alternative but to stick with SE Asia,which is sick of them anyway.

As a Chilean, I would agree to some extent. Having said that I think the reason most foreigners with little education would prefer Thailand is because It's a country that's made for tourism(Hot weather all year round, beautiful beaches, kinda cheap housing/food as you said, "special" nightlife, etc.). Most countries in South America are not catered towards western expats or tourists as much as Thailand, so in the long term, it would be harder for them to adapt if they don't speak Spanish. 

Latin America, in general, is also not nearly as cheap as Thailand(I've been to Argentina, Panama, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Uruguay). I can't talk about Colombia or Ecuador but I would guess that they shouldn't be much cheaper than the countries I mentioned. One of the reasons I travel so much is because it's cheaper for me to travel outside of my country than to vacation in it(even going to Europe or the US can be cheaper than visiting San Pedro de Atacama if you want any decent accommodations these days). 

To anyone thinking about moving to Latin America, I would recommend to make some deep research on the real cost of living here(if you want any kind of decent life). Learning Spanish would also help as most people won't speak English outside of Hotels or tourist areas, and they are not expected to do so either.

1 hour ago, SteveK said:

I can fully understand why some people have become bitter about Thailand. When they first visited many years ago, it was welcoming, friendly and easy going, so much so that they decided to up sticks and move here and basically invested a huge amount of their life and finances into the country.

 

Slowly but surely, things have gradually shifted, so that any foreign income they once had has been massively eroded to the point where they can no longer qualify for a long term visa and are effectively being forced out by increasingly heavy handed and callous immigration policies, with constant, upsetting grillings from IOs, plus outrageous and draconian hoops to jump through for anyone who insists on staying.

 

The once carefree, friendly and cheap tropical paradise has thus become an expensive, xenophobic headache - if you came here and built a house, got married and had kids, immigration will still want to boot you out if you haven't got 400k in the bank. I can't imagine being separated from my wife and kids and being forced to go back to a country which is no longer your home because of Thai immigration policies, and can fully understand how awful that must be, and don't blame anyone for being bitter about the current state of things here.

 

For me, Thailand is still a paradise compared to my home country and being forced to go back would be devastating. Like you, I was lucky enough to have a little bit of money to start a new life and now live here with my Thai wife and her family, sure I don't like having to keep going to immigration all the time as it's a 200km round trip for me, but it's still worth it on the whole. I would say go for it, if you find no joy in your home country (sounds exactly like me), don't stay there, life is short, grinding away in a place you hate for years on end is not what I would call living. You get one chance at life, don't forget that.

 

One word of advice - make sure you read as much as you can about Thai immigration & visa policies and why people are being rejected. Also be cautious of the threads on here about people being refused entry, sometimes it seems like there are other factors which influenced the IO's decision which were not mentioned in the post, but obviously it's impossible to be sure. If you are from Chile/Argentina/Uruguay, they aren't going to be the most well-known places to Thai IOs so make sure you get yourself the correct visas and do everything you can to make sure you don't get refused entry - for you it's a long way home. For long-term stay your best options are Elite visa or to get married to a Thai lady. Good luck!

 

 

Thank you, Steve,  for the well written, thought-provoking response. I guess I would also be <deleted> off if I moved to another country and found that everything changed in a couple of years in terms of the policies/regulations and also my money influx became less valuable because of the currency.  

One of the reasons I don't like my country is similar. Latin America is a very unstable region in terms of politics, and even though Chile has strong institutions and seems like the safest option in the region, you never know in this political climate(my parents already dealt with a communist revolution in the 70's. I'm scared to death of the government taking away everything I've worked so hard to obtain, and extreme, left-leaning parties are gaining strength again, while the tax system is already brutal and unfair for small or middle of the pack entrepreneurs like me). Any owner of a business in my country is viewed as someone who only takes value away from the working class and the poor, it's freaking insanity. 

Sorry about the rant. I'll make sure to take notes from your post and this thread in general. So far the advice has been great, so thanks to everyone for the replies!

Cheers!

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I guess I can understand why some people have changed their perception of Thailand with the recent changes to their immigration policies and regulations. Regarding the strong Bhat, I just came back from a one month trip to Thailand, and to be honest I didn't feel it was that much more expensive than the last time I went(about 5 years ago). To be fair my country(Chile) is much more expensive than Thailand in almost every regard, so I guess it didn't bother me that much.  

Regarding a longer stay, there is a bilateral agreement between Chile and Thailand, it allows Chilean citizens to stay up to 90 days with no visa required. Supposedly there are also no restrictions for new entries to the country, meaning that when I leave the 90 period starts over. It seems too good to be true but I'll make my research before trusting this information. So far I've had 0 problems with immigration in Thailand.

First I would like to say hello to everyone in this forum. I've been a lurker for some time and even though the content of my thread can be constituted as a critique, I've found the information on these forums invaluable, so thanks to everyone for that.

After reading some posts I'm just baffled at the amount of negativity around the topic of visiting/moving to Thailand in recent times. Granted, I've only been there twice and as a vacation, but I'm considering moving there(not full time but maybe 3 to 6 months each year) in a couple of years after having a passive income that allows me to live anywhere(I've worked hard to be independent and having my own company). The thing is, I loved Thailand, the vistas, the food, the culture and traditions, the weather(I'm from a very distant and cold country in South America), and I find people to be friendlier than in western countries. There is a sense of adventure that I haven't felt in other countries I've visited. Even though I have a good life in my home country I just can't seem to find any joy here anymore. 

Back to my original question. Has it always been like this? I was so pumped about the idea of spending more time in Thailand but the amount of negativity surrounding the idea on these forums has me thinking twice about it. Maybe that's a  good thing, who knows. Some genuine input would be really helpful. Thanks!