Old Curmudgeon

I hope I can change the course of this thread slightly. Instead of who is doing what behind the scenes, instead of how much you pay monthly for your expenses, what I think would be of benefit here is what are your thoughts about how to survive -- as expats in Thailand -- when that airplane runs out of fuel?? Anyone??

@newnative seems to trust his government and a pension plan. I don't. I think both are fragile. Thinking about Weimar hyperinflation in 1922-1923. What if similar happens everywhere in the world, at the same time?

I don't believe it. Sure, on a price chart looks good. But in a real life situation, I wouldn't count on gold (or silver) as a safe haven. More likely to be a tempting target for thieves: both private thieves and thieves in uniforms with badges. @farangkinok I hope you can counter my disbelief with further thoughts.

Probably correct (I don't know), but missed the point of this thread. Posts just above from @Peterphuket and @john donson explain it clearly. I hope @Jenkins9039 will think a bit more and post further thoughts.

Right on target. Thank you, @john donson for posting that here.

Excellent. Really excellent summary. Wish I'd thought of that. Thank you, @Peterphuket

Well said, @timendres. Thank you for taking your time to explain that. And what frightens me is there is no safe haven. Not financially. Not in location. At least, I don't see any safe haven.

Yes, there is another option: Ignore User. Cheers, @UWEB, I won't see any more of your posts. (And, I hope you'll ignore @Old Curmudgeon, in return. Save a lot of time, eh? I'm always looking for more to add to my list of Ignore User. Anyone else?)

Thank you, @timendres for taking your time to write and post. However, the topic here is NOT USA social security. That might be a big topic and worth some discussion, but this not that topic. What my original post suggests is that all Western currencies, everywhere in the world, and going to zero value.

Yes, another likely problem, and very serious. But the OP on this thread goes much, much deeper than that.

Yes, yes, I expect all of the sober readers here already know that. So, @Chris Daley, what are you planning to do?

Sorry, @Smokin Joe, I appreciate your effort, but the original post is the correct presentation for money dying. This topic is about money dying before we old expats die. The funny chart is merely a visual indicator of that. The chart isn't the topic.

It IS the right way !! Took a bit of effort to make it like that. Think about it. If still un-clear, ask here. I or someone else will explain to you.

Ah, @JimTripper clearly understands the basic culture. Thanks for that post.

Thank you for posting that warning, @LTHAI Very helpful.

When Our Money Dies Our money is dying: Dollars, Pounds, Euros, Loonies, Shekels, Rand; all of it. Here's a health chart: Health chart is US Dollars, but similar decline for all Western currencies. I'm not worried about me dying. What worries me is my money dies before I do. Bank account will still have some numbers. Pension will transfer in every month. But won't buy much of anything here. Or anywhere. Among my fellow Americans, a "last ditch" job for oldsters is working as a "greeter" at Walmart. Big-C doesn't have greeters. Retired expats can't work anywhere here. Not even poke-poke sohm-dtam at a little market stall. So, as our fiat money dies, buying less and less of life's little necessities -- like food -- what will expats do? Comments and critique welcome.

"Home-Style" farang food ... here's more, especially for my fellow Americans. In my opening post, I emphasized "hole-in-the-wall" garden-style restaurants. Well, the food is more important than the surroundings, right? I think so, too, so I'm going to add another restaurant to this topic. Not hole-in-the-wall. Not garden-style either. But excellent, home-style, farang food, mostly American, including Tex-Mex, but also a full-English, complete with a bottle of HP brown sauce. Newly opened, just 3 months ago. And apparently independent, owner-operated ... NOT a chain. NOT in a mall. Route 66 is an American diner-style restaurant. On the outside, a non-descript building on the edge of the highway behind Payap University. On the inside it looks like a real diner from 60-70 years ago in the USA. (I'm thinking of Mel's Diner in San Francisco and countless others scattered along the highways of the USA in those days.) But who cares about the decor? I certainly don't. Let's get to the food! And that will take some explaining ... When Thai cooks try to replicate Western food, they usually get the appearance right, but, they almost never get the taste or the texture right. If pastries, too sweet or not sweet enough. If meat, over cooked, or not cooked enough. If bread, too soft and squishy. etc., etc. Would be a similar result if I tried to make som-dtum. But Route 66 gets the tastes exactly right. And I mean, exactly. That tells me there's an American with lots of restaurant experience in the kitchen. He gets it right. Plus, whenever I walk into any restaurant for the first time, I'm looking for indicators of quality and careful management. Is it clean? ✓ Are things generally neat and in order? ✓ Is the place free from any bad smells? ✓ And there's another way I look for indicators of quality: the brands of products. At Route 66, ketchup was Heinz. (NOT Rosa). Butter packets were Anchor. (Not Imperial or Allowie). My tea bag was Twinings (English). (Not some anonymous food service label). So we're off to a good start at this new restaurant. I'll let you dig through the menu yourself. I ordered American-style breakfast: pancakes, link sausage, eggs. Generous servings and arrived at the table hot. Well, whether they know it yet or not, our venerable favourite, The Duke's, is in for some serious competition. Except for location -- Route 66 is far out on the Eastern edge of town. But plenty of parking right in front. And motorcycles welcome. In the opening post, I mentioned a Thanksgiving dinner at the old Garden Cafe near Thapae Gate. What do you know: On the table at Route 66 was an advertising card for their Thanksgiving dinner! And a Christmas dinner, too. I'll put a map and several photos below. (Seems there's another branch in Pattaya, but I don't know anything about that.) I have no connection with this restaurant in any way, other than as a satisfied customer. (Photos below stolen from Google maps. Not my photos.) .

No, that's not an accurate answer. Must keep in mind the difference between private hire and using a service. Maid herself likely received only about 100-110/hour for her work ... about 50% split is usual on such services. Plus another factor: Maid from a service serves two bosses, the customer and the service. That can be awkward. I'd prefer to be the only boss, so I get exactly what I want. Don't want the maid telling me, "Well, sir, this is the way we are told to do it!" So, if I could find a maid and hire directly, 100/hour or so, is likely a reasonable rate.

Maid came in today. Here's a brief report -- perhaps useful to others wanting to hire a maid. Asking friends and neighbors for referral did not get results. So decided to pay higher price and use a maid service. Paid 220/hour to the service for 4 hours. (I just moved into a 3-bedroom house: 4 hours was just right amount of time.) Plus I tipped the maid 150 extra that she does not share with the service. She seemed happy to have the work. And extra happy to have extra tip. She arrived with collapsible broom & mop, lots of cleaning supplies, plastic trash bags, cleaning rags, etc. in a large backpack. Very well organized. Even a small vacuum cleaner on the back of her motorcycle. I didn't have to prepare anything. Last time I used a cleaning service (different service), maid was Burmese. Difficult to communicate. And she was not as careful with details as I would have liked. This maid was Thai, 100%, so no problems with language. Her work and attitude were excellent. Paid higher price for convenience of the service. Would do that again. Already scheduled same maid, same service, next week. I won't mention name of service here, because your mileage will vary. Simply used Internet search. Called a few and selected one. Got lucky.

Thank you, @Mahseer, for your post. Is this current location for Bake&Bite?

I'm going to follow up on @sappersrest's post about Sausage King garden, because I was there just a few days ago. The full English, of course. With eggs poached and fried bread instead of ordinary toast. Mighty tasty. Plus a large bag of frozen sausages to take home. For any of my fellow Americans reading this, the Jimmy Dean "replica" sausages are very nice. For some reason, waitress didn't automatically bring HP brown sauce. They've got it ... just ask for it.

Thanks for that report, @TaaiTaai. But I don't have a car, so probably would not go all that way just to eat. Sad. But, if you have photos or a more detailed review, @TaaiTaai I encourage you to post about The Garden.

About Omelette Bakery Cafe, suggested above by @Bill97, reports from experience, please. I've never been, so can't review myself. Pictures look pretty "hi-so" to me, but that's not a critique of the food. I'm only middle-so, so probably would not make the long drive. Should I correct that and make the effort to go to Omelette Bakery Cafe?? Comments??

. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next up: Gekko Garden suggested above by @FolkGuitar This is exactly the kind of food I had in mind when I put up the original post. Exactly! I've never been to eat at Gekko Garden, but after seeing their menu, it won't be long before I correct that mistake.

I want to support small, independent, restaurants around here, especially those serving farang food (especially those with American food and/or Full English you-know-what), so I've decided to put more effort into this thread. I have no personal connection with any of these places. Here's more about Bake and Bite, a restaurant I personally enjoyed many times when it was in Nimmanhaemin Road and I was living just around the corner. Here is the current location -- according to TripAdvisor -- although I have not yet been there: Any errors, corrections quickly please.