Prubangboy

Long may your blissful union run. Does she have Thai female friends where you live? That seems to be the common denominator for relationship longevity. Poss harder for her to find on an island.

Finally, a monger with a vision and a plan. Sir, I salute you. Problem: They've seen plenty of your game-type before. And you're new to the rodeo. I don't see how you keep the plates spinning without regular cash infusions. In which case, game over. I have a 52 year old friend with a similar problem in America. He'd like to have 3-4 monogamous relationships a year via Tinder. The percentage of 40-52 year old women who think similarly is bumping along zero, And the rare few who on that same page have plenty of better options. Game that worked for him even 2 years ago is now falling on deaf ears. The women have gotten shrewder from being strung along by his smarmy ilk and he has no further game to bring to bear to offset that. His solution: Go fatter. They've been passed over, so have been less gamed. I hope this is helpful to your noble mission, which I 100% support.

It's the cruise demographic that kills the cruise as an entertainment option. It's like being trapped with GeorgieGeorgia in a small space. That and going to very interesting Carib islands and seeing only fake villages selling fake diamonds. I did a cruise and could discern no diff between fake Haiti and fake Jamaica. Tho fair play, the old guys playing music at the fake Haitian buffet on the fake Haitian beach were killer. It turned out they were Tabou Combo, who are the equivalent of being the Haitian Beatles. Did anyone even bother to look up from their hamburgers?

As a certifiable retard, it is your privilege to run away from yet another comically veiled threat. How many of these retard-blustery he-man moves have you made here? I'm going going to put the number at about 6. What gets into you?

Seinfeld said, "An old guy need a place to go to". I go to the gym, the pot store for a little hang, and then to a we-work space. If I were staring at the sea all day, very little book-reading would occur.

If you're ceaselessly prone to repeatedly challenging strangers to fights in foreign countries, is that not the very definition of a retard?

I don't have the wisdom to glean between people with real problems and the people who have made-up problems, so I don't try. If they say they have a problem, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Or just go along with what is usually their self-diagnosis that seems to suit what they want to do anyway. It's just easier to treat the fake-crazy and the real-crazy the same. If they don't go on and on about it, we can be friends. I get off the train when they start to diagnose others. Narcissism affects merely the tiniest sliver of the world, and yet every third person claims to have been massively affected by it. If I disagree with them and they tell me I'm gaslighting, as a "toxic" person, it's time to hard-next them. A lot of people who say they're depressed are simply unhappy. A shrink can't cure unhappiness. That said, I know a fair few depressed people who are alive today due to antidepressants. That women over 40 are the big users makes me sad. I am def skeptical about the out of nowhere epidemic of ADHD. I have taken those people's drugs recreationally and loved them, partic when mixed with pot.

'"I went there. It was bad. I stayed one night. I saw hookers. Just standing around". -This from someone who aspires to his own Youtube Channel.

Perhaps the trickiest, thorniest life style enhancer to line up. My long ago time on Ko Chang often had a guy move into the hut next to me with a girlfriend du jour. I'd ask to move or check out. That lady wants to be back with her friends, not trapped with horny, bored Farang Curuso and nothing to do. Loud fighting ensuing no later than the morning of day 2.

If you can't make a structure for yourself and stick to it, that's where you're headed. Say what you will about booze and drugs, they are very effective and wonderful time fillers. Prob not even one person in a hundred can live an un-externally motivated, unstructured life happily or productively (me neither). In a place where everyone else is either adrift or on vacation (means: temporarily very happy adrift), motivation and traction will be hard to find. Since I moved to Chiang Mai 15 months ago, I've done about a third of what I thought I might do. So a fair bit better than average. But on a less stimulating, less stuff to do-place like the beach? The people who don't go mad there came with a purpose like yoga-teaching or having a business. The golfers here take some stick, but showing up for the golf game is a very useful way to structure your day or week.

Typically, it's our standing res. at Umai Sushi, about 100 steps away from our Nimman condo. Pop in around 3, kill a bottle of sake, that's my booze for the week. It's a good day for the gym first, past 1 PM, there might be half a dozen people there. This last Sunday, we tried to see the Napoleon film, but it was booked out. They were offering 5 oysters for 1,500 baht at an average-ish Jap restaurant on the top floor of Central Festival Mall. J-oysters are the best in the world, and never less than 300 baht per, piece but at a chain restaurant the mall, we were skeptical. In fact, those oysters were almost fist-sized, properly briny, covered in monkfish liver and passable caviar. It was hard to eat them all. Almost too much to bear.

Agreed. I had a funny bit about Black Trumpers, so I tossed it out. Black Trumpers would be the supreme example of turkeys voting for Christmas. En masse, on a boat? Def some hilarity to be had. My larger point remains: Cruisers are mostly hidebound, drunken dullards (of all political stripes, but mostly rightward). They are led by the nose by staff to buy stuff at Cruise-owned stores. They tell them that buying $40 tee shirts will "create memories". So black, white, Trash or not, they are just too stupid to live. The number one reason people give for cruising is "to meet people". So we're talking about the biggest collection of Johnny No-Mates on earth. Upside, lots of fatties traveling together. Send one to the ice cream soft serve station, and shag the other.

This is a thread about retirement destinations. It's not another thread where you talk about your bike rides and say things like, "it had nice scenery, it did -'loved my cold Leo." It's a thread, very unfortunately, that is somehow not about you. When people retire, they want a little comfort. In which case the 3 entrees on your list cost money. This thread is about places where that money might go a little further. Interrupting constantly to remind us that you're a common sense blokey-bloke who challenging the status quo is just more pathetic leg humping.

It's great that a zillionaire like yourself can just have the pick of the litter of such places. Switzerland next for you?

Looked in last Oct. Nicer apartments for about a quarter less. Food about the same. Booze too. Medium bad traffic, but you wouldn't leave your little enclave much. Prob: The Muslim thing -not that I think they're terrorists, just that they are def. lacking in the sanuk department. They are crazy-friendly; I prefer the more medium-cool Thais.

You are prone to dissing places for not being what you want, when such places are super-explicit that they're not what you want. I'm more a neurotic weigher. "I could live in Ekkamai in a heartbeat, BUT....... If you can only pick 3 attributes, and then you HAVE to live in that place, what are the 3 attributes? I listed mine above.

Thanks for the recco's. I've spent maybe 2 hours in The Dark Side, long ago. A proper survey of Pattaya awaits. The outliers like Jomptien etc. also makes the short list of such places. My superficial takeaway is that Pattaya is basically smaller Miami on a budget. 'Can't fault it. Having a mix of walkability, gym, and idiosyncratic restaurants means being adjacent to a tourist zone. Thai people alone can't keep a vegan-only Mexican restaurant open. In Nimman, I'm a poor prospect for buying a Durian ice cream cone, but a place like that will also have six different ethnicity restaurants on either side of it. Some people move to Thailand for cheap sex. We moved here for cheap sushi.

I might eventually have to agree. This next smoke season is said to be running March to June due to El Niño -so a little worse than last year. A place I love is def less lovable if I have to rearrange my life 25% of the time. We've re-signed for another year (no rent raise). If Smoke Season '25 looks dire, we're gone. In which case, The Dark Side of Pattaya starts to make sense (not into the beach partic) for having the mix of whitie pleasures and services; not to mention other whities. Close to Bangkok one way, lots of lovely towns like Chantaburi the other way. Nonthaburi BKK is another option. I'm going to look in on Phuket this year for the first time since '99. Unless you have a GF who's putting out sex, going to No Whitie-Land is self-flagellation (and not the good kind). Reports here say that that the ardor cools substantially around month 5 in Roi Et.

Sorted: https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive/dp/B01I29Y344/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3RV8MKLT2FKSK&keywords=how+to+not+give+a+fck+book&qid=1701562079&sprefix=how+to+not+give%2Caps%2C642&sr=8-1

Contra-view: 1) The vast, open sea is one the greatest sights in the world and on a cruise ship you'd see plenty of it. 2) The food is like a Marriot buffet. Other than it always being warm, not hot, you'd have no complaints. 3) Unlike solo travel, you could calibrate how much sociability you'd have in your mix. lone buffet table or group dinner? 4) Possible sex adventures. People put pineapple refrigerator magnets on their front doors -indicating swinging interest. You're welcome to come on in. Life's a box of chocolates....... -I still wouldn't do it. The demographic leans too heavily Trump Trash. Not so in Ubud or Paris. My one time I did it, it was swarming with Black Trump Trash. They kept getting in my face about "I'll bet you're surprised that a black man likes Trump". I just waved them off: "Your gullibility is about you being upset that the Mexicans who swum the Rio Grande last week are zooming past you economically today". To get on a cruise with sensitive, non-bonehead liberal people who want to explore Greenland or go to vineyards, you're talking about about $1,000 a day, not $82.

300 baht a day is the whitie expectation, but they'd be very forgiving. A desk clerk in MHS drove us there for free. Due to our sack of rice, she piggy backed on our merit (and brought a big box of laundry detergent herself). It's very unstructured. Consider downloading some guided meditations. Joseph Goldstein (my fave teacher) has some good ones for free. Or just go to Youtube a see what one you like.

You can keep your phone and you don't have to be silent. That's as lax a retreat as you can get. You can also opt into silence by wearing a Silence-badge (no one will talk to you or talk near you). A silent retreat with no phone is at least 10 times more impactful, but whatev's. The food is veg. curry with a lot of cabbage in it and rice. Not much food after lunch. Downer: the chanting (long and dull). But Asians love a good, long vibrational chant. If you try to dodge the chant, they will come knocking on your little kufti-hut door. In the west, it's either chant-lite or chant-optional.

It's a forest retreat between MHS and Pai. Grab Cab-able. https://www.wattamwua.com The English-speaking Abbot gave us amulets and had a little chat with us (we donated a big bag of rice). As per the custom, the abbot passed the amulet to an assistant to give to my wife -lest he inadvertently touch a woman. In Laos, The abbot of Luang Prubang had never touched a woman in his entire life (he was 80). It was a matter of great local pride.

Had one ND and my wife had one. Verdict: a very blanked-out sleep, live 5 mg of Xanax. Maybe we were too baked from pot to find the tunnel of light.

Def has the hottest women in Buddha-dom, plus the Boheme glamor of The Beats. BUT: Numerically tiny, like sub-Quaker. Prob 90% of them world wide are in N. California. And like you said, just too hard. I did a week in Mount Koyasan in Japan. The hard mat was part of it. No thanks.