habuspasha

I compared Thailand with the U.S., not Manhattan.  I was rounding off the figure of 38% which I saw recently in global comparisons of countries.  Manhattan might be close to 10 times the cost of Thailand is some areas like rent (average in Manhattan now $5,000) and labor (massage, construction?).  Good dental work is 4-5 time more.  Food varies enormously.  I recently paid more for a mango in Patong than I do in Manhattan. (Actually my GF did so it wasn't the full falang mark-up.)

I agree with the consensus that the physical decline described by the OP is abnormal enough to likely have a cause beyond aging.  In fact, I would like to argue against our normal assumption that ageing inevitably equals decline. 

My own experience is that at 81 I feel at least as fit as I did at 41.  My chiropractor agrees. How is this possible?  Well, I can think of various interventions that might have brought this about, starting with the chiropractor who I started seeing 40 years ago.  She cured my lower back pain almost immediately and then by showing me exercises and by monthly visits maintaining my flexibility.  Then about 30 years ago, she finally got me to make exercise a constant part of my life.  About the same time (30 years ago) another professional, my psychiatrist, prescribed testosterone, which has boosted my vitality since.  The last ten years have been especially important.  Since 2013 I have dropped 40 of 200 pounds and fallen in love with a beautiful Thai 40 years my junior.  Another factor over the last year has been following the Metformin and supplements regimen advocated by David Sinclair in Lifespan: Why we age and why we don’t have to (2019).

I have been very pleased with the doctors at BIDC (Bangkok International Dental Center) at 157 159 Ratchadaphisek Rd where I have had everything from cleanings to almost a full mouth of implants and caps.

33 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Statistically, the more often I fly, the more likely I am to be in an air crash.

I'm not a statistician but I don't think that is true.  Maybe the odds that you will have been in an air crash, but the odds that the plane will crash remain the same.

I don't remember anything from my first flights in 1941, but flights I remember from 20 years later were much more turbulent than today. The planes were smaller and flew closer to the ground.

Just turned 81, but my 40 yr old Thai GF keeps me under 50.

Kissing, foreplay, flirting, dating only make sense in societies where sex has to be won.  Where sexual access can be taken for granted (because of one's status, commercial payment or parental/official arrangement), there is  likely no interest is tentative, experimental steps.

What does one do over 85?  (Hold the ageist slur please.) 

4 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Just what you need after spending six hour sitting down , sitting down for a bit longer on a bus  

It's a welcome alternative to a very long walk followerd by a very long line at immigration/transfer.

I like QR a lot.  Doha terminal is huge, bur Business Class usually offers bus ride from plane to arrival area.

Again I find my experience very different.  I was going to start a forum with something like "We not too mut talking" to ask how many of you had wives or girl friends who did NOT talk a lot. My partner goes days, maybe weeks, without talking to her mother who lives in the same house.  This may be because of a different Thai trait: fear of words leading to fighting.  

5 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Why do you think your wife chose you over a Thai man her own age?  Is it just that you have more money than she could hope to find in a Thai guy?  Or is there something in how you treat her or something you bring into her life?

My response wouldn't be too different from Will B. Good's; she too chose a chance to break free from constricted life.  She also knew nothing of my modest but comfortable financial status.  She didn't know and wouldn't care about status points in the West (a college professor and author).  She was and is a simple, honest, private girl.  And she also has no piercings, tatoos, toxic habits, or promiscuities.  

I want to correct two prejudices, however.

1.  She was a bar girl.  At least I met her in a period in her life when she was working in a bar.  To support a son, of about 5 when we met.  Early on I asked her if she ever thought of getting married again, thinking she had been married to his father.  She answered "who would marry me?" with a son to support.  A voice inside me shouted "Me, Me, Me."  It still does.

2.  It is also racially prejudicious to say "There is one upside for the Thai lady to have a foreigner (even an old one) and that is to have a kid with the western genes, light skin, curly hair and all that."  Some Thais may think so unfortunately.  She did not.

I feel I should say something on this thread since I am something of an outlier--about to turn 81, GF just turned 40.  We met 8 years ago so there's some continuity and stability to rely on.  We live apart except for my visits every few months.  I expect them to become longer in the following years.  Eventually we will probably establish a home together in Thailand.  Now she lives in a house I bought for her in Bangkok and I live in New York, caring for my dying wife.

Maybe I can help clear up some misconceptions about the age difference.  First, we rarely talk about it.  She said in the beginning that it didn't concern her: what mattered was whether I was a good person. 

Second there is clearly an unspoken contract of exclusivity for security.  Even when I just started supporting her, her mother shooed other guys from snooping around on the grounds that I supported the whole family (which I didn't).  Her father told her she should be prepared to care for me when I become unable to care for myself  (i.e. she couldn't leave me).  She says she wouldn't want to.  I put her in my will.

But this is not just an insurance policy.  For me, and I think for her, it is a love match.  For me based initially on her stunning looks.  For her, I don't know.  I'm no Cary Grant, but I lost my belly and kept my hair.  She sometimes says I look handsome.  I'm her best friend.  She talks to me more than everyone else combined.  We enjoy each other's company.

Finally, sex is not over at 80.  I look forward to many more years and increasing activity.  She worries more about  "not being a young girl anymore" at 40.  But we're both in it for the duration.

Falling in love over 50?

I was 73 when I fell in love at first sight.  It hadn't happened since I had been about 30.  Then she had been 18 and that one lasted about ten years.  This time she was 32. Since I felt like I did in 1969, I hoped this girl who wasn't born until 1981 felt the same.    When someone says she loves you, it's hard to realize she may not mean what you mean.  How much is support?  How much is chemistry?  What is hansum worth?  

On 4/1/2022 at 5:34 PM, LaosLover said:

BA Courier flight.

 

Anyone else take a courier flight back in the 90's? Never a super-deal from New York, but I did BKK roundtrip for $399. Did London for $49 RT once. Lima, Peru, $199. The problem was that you had to come back when they said so. So that London $49 was just for 3 nights.

 

Women are stuck unhappily in the same web of delusion as men. Both men and women seek to profit individually from gender norm dysfunction when what they should be doing is running away from it.

I remember cheap courier flights from New York to Hong Kong and to Mexico City in the eighties.  Great way to travel light; you could only take a carry-on.

Your last sentence above reads like it might be interesting, but I don't understand it.  Explain?

2 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Pro tip: You don't actually need to marry them. The majority are very happy if you just "take care."

I'll bet my forty year older and 40 yr old GF/Wife will eventually take more care of me (but I hope to never know).

I'm here for another quarterly real estate retirement survey.  Where to put down roots after retirement this year?  December was examining Phuket, now Pattaya, June will be either Hua Hin or Phuket again.  Today an ad for a reduction at Patong Tower (I like views) caught my attention and I seemed to remember a high Russian ownership?  So I'm asking if there are places that might currently be better deals because they were once great locations in Russian.

8 hours ago, BritManToo said:

The only 'private' money involved was 1,000bht for the private room for a night.

Everything else was free for my Thai woman and our Thai child.

You make my point about the two Thailands,  1,000 baht is not much more than 30 baht to you or me, but try telling that to someone who is living on 5,000 baht a month as many in this thread have said is sufficient.

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

My son was born in a government hospital (NakornPing CM) around 11 years back. We couldn't fault their treatment in any way, I paid 1,000bht for her to have a private room for 1 night and 250bht for my blood tests (as a foreigner). The nurses treated new (extremely white) baby like a little prince,...

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Sometimes I think I'm living in a different Thailand to other posters.

I don't doubt your experience OR that of my GF.  Interesting comparison:  The White Prince on private rate and the dark Isaan mother on 30 baht.  They are two different Thailands.  But likely the same Thai nurses.  All white foreigners with money welcome!

11 hours ago, PFMills said:

A guy around the corner from us has lived with his ‘wife’ but in law only GF,for many years and they have a twenty four year old daughter. No will, he died, almost no money in this country. She now has nothing but memories. His family took it all, she just got the furniture to sell in their rented house.

 

That's a heart-breaking story, but nothing prevents a man from having a will and putting the GF in it.  I have.  Of course he could still die poor.  Marriage adds legal obligations that might over burden either party.  Is mutual aid, sacrifice, or care-giving stronger or more certain when it is obligatory?  Is love stronger?