pimmmm

Full of eastern promise

How do you cope with the toxic pollution for all that time? How's your cardiovascular and respiratory health, if you don't mind me asking? (hopefully great but I would worry personally) Maybe the air wasn't so bad years back? Genuine question, would likely move there if it wasn't for the poisonous air for a third of the year. Countryside is great in that area, a nice-sized city, decent mix of people

I really like Chiang Mai, see why it's rated, Just if you live there long enough your heart is gonna be ruined from the pollution, and you'll go retarded from all the pm 2.5 in your brain. If it weren't for that I'd move there.

Great example, meaningful activities that are also social. You'll be less bored if you have more meaning in your life. Boredom is a state of mind too; others are right. I used to be big into meditation, did short retreats with the monks, since then, never gotten bored anymore. Does the OP have friends or close people you do stuff with? Most people are dissatisfied when they don't have at least one or two like-minded people to chat and do stuff with.

Anyone know where I can get my old Duke 200 serviced in Pattaya? also fix an intermittent indicator switch failure. Think I need a proper service place with the KTM diagnostic systems, does Mityon have a place that does this? I know there's there service center on South Pattaya rd? or they have another bike service center? Can't see the KTM store on South Pattaya rd, went looking today? someone said it's closed on their google page. Thanks

This is good advice. It's helpful to focus on the most important areas to you too, like content about your work, or daily life stuff, whatever. I was recently shopping for a car so I watched and read lots of Thai car content. you see the same words repeated so it helps you remember them. Nowadays, there are a lot of subtitles on YouTube too, so you can look up words you don't know easily. I like the Language Reactor Chrome extension, it lets you auto-pause after each subtitled line, and replay. You can hide and show the subs too, so you can practice listening and/or reading alone. It has an included dictionary feature as well think it's based on Google Translate so far from perfect but it can help.

For you, try advanced beginner or early intermediate material like the comprehensible thai channel, pickup Thai podcast, self-study- thai.com, maybe คำนี้ดี podcast, it teaches English to Thai people, so it is easier to understand. This can build your vocabulary, improve your reading fluency and listening comprehension, and assume you know how to read; this is a priority. Learn to read properly, too, so you can accurately pronounce the written words (tone rules). Do a class with a good teacher who will correct your pronunciation, and avoid the "it's ok, I can understand you" thing you need some correction. Of course, keep using it in day-to-day life, read everything you see in the world around you, ask Thai friends/partner to explain words, etc.. If you want to cram vocabulary like someone suggested, spaced repetition software like Anki is the most efficient, but a bit of a boring slog.

Yeah, that all makes sense. I've lived here for few years too, just not into the Thai small town life so much, but I see the appeal to some. The few Thais I know well tend to be a bit westernised, well-educated or have done their education abroad. It's easier to relate. Wife is great no complaints. But not sure I could get a sense of community and acceptance like I had in my small town UK life before, because of being a foreigner here, but who knows. Not enough experience to tell right.

You're making progress if you're practicing, but progress from the intermediate to advanced levels takes ages in languages, especially Thai. Reflect on progress every 200 hours or so of practice. If you've not done it yet, improve your pronunciation through good teaching and serious practice. When in doubt, read and listen a lot to build your vocabulary.

People mostly don't care . They might gossip behind your back about some stuff, certain % of people love to gossip everywhere Thais no exception, I speak thai and hear it all the time. But farang-thai age gap marriage by itself is common and not that interesting, unless you're both sleeping around or something. Bigger question is whether farang generally are "accepted" or not? most people are fine with your, nice people are nice, bad people are unfriendly. But genuine acceptance into the community? Not sure? Not enough experience. I'm 48, wife 27 from the outskirts of a smaller city. Never had a problem in plenty of time I've spent up there, but wouldn't want to live there permanently myself.

Yes, good point, they track these things, don't they. Thing is, I don't have a relative I can use; I am using a friend who is fine with it at the moment, but it's not really ideal. I do use mail forwarding for receiving any mail on redirect for me from my friends house. I didn't think of switching my bank to the mail forwarding address, as not sure if they'd flag that, no idea, it's a street address.

Yeah, it's a tricky one with investments and the like. I have Vanguard and Trading212, still linked to the UK at the moment. I know their policy is to maintain accounts for expats but freeze further investing when you're officially non-resident, thinking about using IBKR for investments going forward, as they are very expat-friendly. Still need UK banking though really, because I need more fairly liquid savings just in case, and I'm planning on buying a car soon, etc. Don't want to keep millions of baht in Thailand sitting around, as you never know here. Will have a look into Standard Bank, be nice to have an account that just accepts we are living abroad for an period, but want to bank savings in Sterling.

I have very little in my co-op account, actually might try moving that to this address as a test.

I read a couple of old threads on what people are doing with their UK accounts and money while living here. I'm living here, not fully retired, and don't want to move all my money here. I have accounts in the UK, Halifax, Nationwide, Co-op, and Starling, all registered to my friend's address. It's okay, but far from ideal, no other options there. I have an expat mailbox and forward letters from my friends house to there. I looked at the expat accounts like HSBC and Lloyds, but they no longer accept new accounts from Thailand. What are people doing or using? I haven't tried to change any of my UK accounts to my Thai address, because I'm concerned that if they then refuse and try to close my accounts, what will I do with my savings in there. I read some people on here have their UK bank registered to their Thai address? Any advice welcome, thanks.

USA prefers to let them be born then shoot them while they're at school.