Prubangboy

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.

Because spiritual practice is no guarantee of anything. Are catholics saints? They have a lot of exemplary saints to point to (many of them made up), and yet, on average, catholics are nice people who are trying to lead a better life and like that particular lifestyle brand. I live next door to an advanced Hindu meditator who has a scholar level knowledge and deep connection about Shiva-worship, both as a Jungian icon and diety. When we moved in, he asked us, "I hope you don't mind a little Vedic chanting". We told him that we'd pay extra for Vedic chanting. He took us at our word, It's been a wailing, glottal-stopping journey. He's going home soon, we're crushed. We talk about meditation a bit, he's def hit the Jhana states. On the other hand, he recently warned us to buy Crypto because Biden will soon be faking an alien invasion (like the moon landing) to take over the world (via Ukraine). The worth of meditation is mostly interior for the meditator. Whether that work makes you a more evolved or loving person is on you, not meditation. That's why I, who love meditation, almost always urge others not to do it. The guy who said it makes him nap needs to take the cosmic spiritual lesson that he needs more rest in his life and maybe a bit more hydration. He's good to go. As to the Thai aspects, I see those as more poor person in poor places behavior issues. You'd find the same defensiveness and worry about status in Cancun or Bradford.

"Why is MY gene pool so bad? I think that cousin was really my aunt."

I love that guy. Has the deets, will engage. A solid must-click when I see his name.

I'm 71. And said so a couple of times in this thread. This is another thing you do after, I....I....don' unnnerstan..... ("help MEEEE"). You pretend to misremember things to strengthen your non-arguments. But since your own age seems to be on a sliding scale (along with your sex count), you may indeed be as genuinely confused as you front.

"World Rated" art galleries? Pretty goofy. A lot of people here are Brit or commonwealth. Famous around the world for their odd, fusty, sexual squeamishness. Until they get in a room with a 1,000 baht new friend. Then the creepiness seems to just evaporate. Like magic.

Amongst the legendary imaginary internet hard men, one particularly hilarious poseur shows some mercy in altercations that happen only in his own head.

Man, I would love that. Anal dilation width details? Sign me up.

Further thought from my wife, just now: "He thinks art galleries are posh" -followed by snort of derisive laughter.

Def get in touch for a meal. Status update: I'm on a weed fast. Maybe for good. My wife looks in here and won't meet you. As she put it: "He's no StickyRiceBalls".