Harry Tuchas

Lately I’ve also noticed how much energy other people spend stressing out. They’re always tired, frustrated, pissed off, burned out, or chasing something new. I don’t get it. I just don’t seem to struggle with everyday life the way most people do. Nothing really bothers me anymore. Why do some people seem to treat peace of mind like it’s a threat?

Every morning I wake up well rested and clear-headed. I move through the day without pressure, without debt, without anyone’s approval hanging over me. I don’t need to work, yet I stay busy and physically active because maintaining a routine and sone functional strength feels better than just lying around. Social life is fine, my body lean and hard, and my mind stays calm. I’m not chasing anything anymore. I feel like I’ve already caught it all. But lately I wonder if that’s the real problem. When everything is effortless, does life start to look like a game I already finished? Or is this just what happens when you stop pretending you’re a race car driver speeding around the track trying to win?

Simple question: which is the most ideal lifestyle from these 12 common archetypes that foreigners can live out in Thailand, or is there a better one? 1 - Married and rural. Get a Thai wife, settle in the countryside on a decent plot of land with privacy, plenty of space between you and your neighbors and enjoy a quiet life away from the hustle and bustle. 2 - Married and urban. Same as above, but live in a big city like Bangkok, Khon Kaen, or Chiang Mai. You still have a family life, but with easy access to restaurants, nightlife, and modern conveniences. 3 - Single with relationships. Stay unmarried but have a girlfriend or a few casual relationships. Live in a city or rural area. If things become too serious with one partner, separate and take a time out before starting again. 4 - Busy social life. Stay single, live in a lively part of Thailand, socialize a lot, do activities, go out often, and live it up in the expat or local social scene. 5 - Quiet solo life / The Lone Wolf. Keep social interactions minimal, don’t get too involved with women, friends or anyone in general so as to avoid problems, but go out as needed for paid casual encounters with women or short social outings. Enjoy a peaceful routine the rest of the time. 6 - Digital nomad or semi-retired. Work remotely or live off savings/pension. Move between cities, islands, or rural areas depending on what suits your mood. Life revolves around flexibility, travel, and experiences rather than routine. 7 - Island life. Live on a tropical island like Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, or Phuket, often working online or on small ventures. Focus is on a relaxed, beach-oriented lifestyle with occasional social interactions. 8 - Business or community-focused. Run a small bar, café, guesthouse, or other local business, or live in an expat-focused community. Life revolves around work, networking, and building connections, but with some structure and stability. 9 - Spiritual or wellness seeker. Base yourself in quiet or nature-focused areas, do temple stays, meditation, yoga, or wellness retreats. Social life is minimal, and focus is on personal growth, health, and reflection. 10 - Corporate expat. Work for an international company in Bangkok or another city, enjoy a structured life, stable income, and benefits, but also navigate expat social circles and city life. 11 - Go full native. Rent a small apartment, live modestly, eat local food, use inexpensive transport, and enjoy a simple, affordable lifestyle immersed in Thai daily life. 12 - The party retiree. Don’t work, live off savings or pension, spend a lot of time socializing and drinking, go out frequently, enjoy big nights out, and prioritize fun over health or routine.

Some people might think online shopping is too much hassle and that it's just easier to go to the store to buy something. But here is a classic example of the online cost savings. This same exact liquid laundry detergent on Shopee is about half the price of Tops. The cost savings of buying online from Shopee can really be quite a lot.

I don’t ask for refunds very often, so I can’t say I have much experience with it. But if you pay by bank transfer using a QR code, they should just refund it directly to your bank, which shouldn’t be a problem. As for the wallet, I used to have that working before, but then they started asking for pictures of people holding up their passports to continue using it, and I decided not to go through with that. Same with True Money Wallet, I closed that down too when they started asking for photos of me and my passport. In the past, I think Lazada refunded to my wallet once or twice, but that was a long time ago. I can’t even remember what I ended up doing with the money. Maybe I convinced them to refund it another way.

It can be a bit tedious going through all the sites trying to find what you want, and then, once you find it, you still have to compare it to ten other sellers offering the same thing to figure out which one is the best option. But when I think about how I used to shop for things in Thailand, it’s a huge improvement. Back then, I could waste half a day just trying to track something down, and now I can get it done in about fifteen minutes online without ever going outside or dealing with the heat, traffic, or crowds. Hard to really complain. Plus, online shopping has definitely been a big cost saver compared to what I used to pay retail. My basic consumer product costs are probably less than half of what they used to be.

Recently, any request to cancel or return an item on Lazada has resulted in the money being refunded directly to my credit or debit card (that was used to make the purchase) within 4-5 days. I have not had them try to refund money to my Lazada wallet in a very long time.

Great list! Thank you!

What are the 12 best things that your mother taught you which you remember until this day? 1 - How to sew a button, save a shirt, avoid swearing. 2 - How to cook, and with love, especially if it’s lasagna or chicken cutlets. 3 - Be on time, or at least look like you are. 4 - Take care of yourself, buy good clothes, appearance matters more than you think. 5 - Dress for the weather, even if it ruins your hair. 6 - Save money, don’t blow it on nonsense. 7 - Love animals, and avoid eating too many of them. 8 - There’s usually a right way to do things, learn it, trust it. 9 - How to treat women with respect. 10 - Be cautious, think first to avoid doing something stupid. 11 - Knives don’t need to be scary-sharp, life doesn’t either. 12 - Follow your heart, chase happiness, embrace joy.

Ok, that’s it, I’m done with Tops water. Finished! They’ve changed their bottle design and they’re just not what they used to be. Sure, the label still boasts about their fancy micro filter system that purifies down to 0.0001 microns, but honestly, that’s where the good news ends. The bottles themselves are a mess now. They don’t keep their shape anymore, they crumple and warp like they’ve been through a wrestling match before they even get to me. Some of them arrived looking like they’d survived a mild car crash and now refuse to stand up straight on the counter. This never happened with the old design. And the caps?. Don’t even get me started. They’re barely half a centimeter tall, that's half the standard height (or less) and when you screw them on, it feels like they’re just pretending to close the bottle. Then when you try to open a new bottle, the cap doesn’t even come all the way off. It stays awkwardly attached to that little plastic band around the neck like it’s hanging on for dear life. You have to yank it to separate them, which usually ends up tearing the cap (because they are too thin) and leaving it looking like it’s been chewed on. After that, good luck getting it to close properly again because it barely has any threading on it to begin with. How do you mess up something as simple as a water bottle? It wouldn’t be such a big deal if these were the small half-liter bottles you drink in one go, but these are one and a half liter bottles. You open and close them multiple times before they are empty, and now every single one is a small exercise in frustration. I hadn’t ordered Tops in a while, so I had no idea things had gone downhill like this. But after this last delivery, I’m out. I’m switching to Arow water from Makro next time and hoping for a better bottling experience. Because at this point, it’s not even about the water anymore, it’s about the bottle surviving the day.

It is hard to say what might be the issue there. I just realized I was not running the latest version of the app either. I am updating it now, but I do not think that is necessarily the issue, unless you are using a very old version. One thing I always do before making a purchase is go to the Home tab at the bottom of the app. Then, at the top, I click the icon that says “Free Shipping + All Vouchers” and claim everything in the first four or five groups. I do not even read the details, I just click “claim all” for each group. Maybe you are not getting all the free shipping vouchers that are available? I could be wrong though of course. You could also create a second account on Shopee and purchase from that other account when you run out of vouchers for free shipping on your main account. The Shopee app allows you to have at least two different accounts connected to the app at all times and there's an area in the app settings where you can easily switch between two accounts with a click of a button. I cannot say I have had many problems getting what I need online. Occasionally, I bought some small inexpensive items that I was not satisfied with, so I just threw them away and ordered from a different vendor. It does not really bother me. These instances are rare, and it is still far more of a time saver to lose a little money online on rare occasion than to run around trying to find things in stores. In general, I am always way ahead of the game with cost saving by buying online anyway. So even with a few occasional dud online purchases, you are probably still way ahead of the game on cost. I agree, I do not really buy fresh food online except from the small company that delivers prepared meals to me twice a month, which covers much of my food. But that is different. For fresh items like fruits and vegetables, I always go to the supermarket or Big-C. What I mainly buy online from Tops or Makro are things like water, chocolate, or other packaged items that I prefer to have delivered rather than spend the time going out to buy somewhere and have to carry home myself.

One small point to keep in mind is that on iPhone, you cannot download the Shopee app onto your iPhone in Thailand unless you are logged into the Thai App Store. Lazada, on the other hand, is more international. If you are logged into a different App Store, you will usually be able to find the Thai Lazada app, as it is not limited to the Thai App Store. So if you are using an iPhone connected to the App Store in a Western country like the UK, Canada, the US, or elsewhere, you may not be able to find the Thai Shopee app. The Thai Shopee app may be available on some of the other regional App Stores like Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam, but I'm not sure. Perhaps it's a bit different downloading the Shopee app on Android though, but I can't say for sure about that either.

You can now use multiple vouchers at the same time on Shopee as well. It didn’t work before, but now I often see at checkout that I’m automatically getting free shipping from one voucher and a discount from another at the same time. So it’s pretty much the same now across the board. For me, it’s reached the point where I use these two sites, along with Tops, Makro, and a meal delivery service to purchase so many of my everyday essentials that they’re no longer just places for occasional purchases or a bit of window shopping like they used to be. Online shopping in Thailand has now become how I get most of my food, water, household supplies, and pretty much anything else I need delivered to my door, adding convenience and improving lifestyle while also saving both time and money. It really makes sense to put in a bit more effort to cross check things on both of those portal sites now to find the best option, something I didn’t really do before. At the moment, Shopee seems to be winning for me though.

You’re welcome, and I hope it does help. It often depends on the item, but I’ve generally gotten better search results and sometimes better prices on Shopee. What’s kept me using Lazada more often has been the payment convenience with my overseas debit card. For smaller, low-cost items though, I’m leaning toward buying mainly from Shopee for now. For larger purchases like home appliances or electronics, I’ll be doing a much more careful comparison between the two going forward. It takes a little more effort to search on two sites and comparing before making a purchase, but in the end I think the financial benefit helps make it worth it.

Regrettably, I have to say my experience has been quite the opposite on this point. When I search for something in English on Lazada, the results are usually mixed. However, when I search in English on Shopee, I get much better and more relevant results. What I often do with Lazada is use Google Translate to convert my search terms into Thai and then search using the Thai written language. It’s an extra step, but it tends to produce better results on Lazada. The bigger issue for me though is that Lazada often seems to intentionally manipulate or even game the search results, as I mentioned in my original post, while Shopee doesn’t seem to do that.

Yes, data hacking is a risk everywhere online. For all online purchases I use a digital debit card. And I lock the card in the app when not being used. This way if sites get hacked the hackers can't use my card data. And also prevents vendors from charging you again later for something you don't want. I also cancel my existing digital card and replace it every so often for added security.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve done most of my shopping in Thailand on Lazada. Great prices, good savings when compared to retail stores, no need to run around malls or markets looking for things, plenty of coupons and vouchers to knock a bit more off the total, some very decent extra discounts on larger electronic items too, and usually a good supply of free shipping coupons, often several every week. But over the last week or two, I haven’t been able to find some of the things I wanted on Lazada, so I popped over to have a look at Shopee instead. I do make the occasional purchase there anyway, but normally it’s for things I can't find on Lazada and works out to less than 10 percent of what I buy on Lazada. The main reason I’ve stuck with Lazada is that I can use my overseas debit card, which means I don’t have to physically bring money into Thailand first just to make an online purchase. With Shopee, none of my overseas debit card payments ever go through. It always looks like the transaction is approved, then I get a pop-up saying it was blocked at the last minute for security reasons. So with Shopee, I eventually have to pay by QR code through PromptPay using my local bank. It’s not a big deal, but it adds a few extra steps: generate the code on Shopee, download it, then open the banking app, upload the saved QR code, preview the payment, then approve the payment, then go back to Shopee to confirm it. Plus I have to use up local Baht reserves I already have in Thailand to buy things on Shopee, which I rather keep on hand for other things I am forced to pay for in Baht locally. Lazada’s one-click checkout with my saved overseas card in the account is also just simpler and faster. That said, because Lazada hasn’t had what I’ve been looking for lately, I’ve been searching and purchasing things on Shopee more often as of late. I’ve also noticed Shopee is offering better discounts and more free shipping at the moment. Over the past week or two, most of my purchases have been on Shopee and hardly any on Lazada. In the past, I’ve never checked Shopee first when wanting to purchase an item; I normally just go straight to Lazada and buy what I need. But now I check both sites before buying anything, and I’m starting to wonder if I could have been saving more money all along by purchasing on Shopee. A good example was yesterday with some paper products from Scott. Kitchen towels and facial tissues. Lazada has the Lotus’s store, but some items like this aren’t so competitively priced in their store on Lazada, so I usually would buy the Scott towels from smaller vendors on Lazada. Yesterday, the same items on the Lotus's store on Shopee were lower priced than anyone on Lazada and came with free shipping too. Items I order once a month, now cheaper on Shopee. It makes me think some of these big local retail chains might offer better prices through Shopee than Lazada in general? One thing I’ve always disliked about Lazada is the search results. You get a few relevant items at the top, then a bunch of half-related suggestions. It feels like they’re trying to tempt you with other products to cross sell you something slightly different instead of showing everything that actually matches your search up front. Usually, I have to click one item that matches on Lazada and then scroll down to the “similar items” they are showing below that item to find a good selection of what I actually was searching for. So it's there and they have it, but you need to dig deeper. Shopee, on the other hand, seems to give more accurate results up front, from the start, which saves me time searching and comparing. At the moment, nearly all my shopping is on Shopee. I don’t know if this will be permanent, but for now it’s easier to find what I want and at the right price. Delivery times also seem a bit faster on Shopee these days, though that probably depends more on the vendor than the site. Also, anything automotive part related is much easier to find on Shopee. I'm curious if anyone else is noticing the same thing or experiencing something different.

I once visited a local delivery shop that supplied the glass bottles to restaurants in the area because I was considering joining their glass water bottle exchange program. They had Burmese delivery guys riding three-wheeled motorcycles making the delivery rounds. Old school. The owner pretty much talked me out of it though. He said he doesn’t recommend it for home use, inevitably you’ll break a few bottles here and there, have to clean up the broken glass, and pay for replacements. That was enough to convince me not to go ahead.

I just checked the Makro site. Right now you can get a pack of eight 1.5L bottles for 39 Baht, which is pretty good value. Thanks. I’ll probably go for that when I need to restock next month. I avoid those filter machines though. Feels like playing water roulette. I do wonder if filtration standards vary from factory to factory though or maybe they don't. Almost 30 years ago, there was a scandal in the local papers about one of the biggest factories at the time being caught having filthy filtration systems. I think it might have been Polaris or maybe Singha, but I can’t remember exactly. Back then, I was also told that most water production factories were along a pretty dirty part of the river in Pittsanalok and were using that river water as their source for bottling. That’s some “mineral water” for you and isn't quite the natural spring water you see flowing on the label. I assume standards are much higher now in Thailand, so worrying about filtration reliability and what’s in bottled water is probably water under the klong bridge these days. But who knows?

I see people, both locals and foreigners in Thailand, get so worked up over which brand of bottled water everyone should be drinking because it’s “the best of the bunch,” and it’s exhausting. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference between Singha, Crystal, Nestle, Minere, Pura, Namthip, Mont Fleur, Chang, Aura, et al., nor could I give a toss. As long as it’s cold, that’s all that matters. When I first came here, it was mainly Polaris delivery in glass bottles and various brands of 5 Baht water in those big, squishy, frosted, plastic bottles. Now Thailand has moved on from that, and suddenly everyone thinks brand matters. The big packs of Singha used to have an onboard carry strap, which was useful, but that’s gone, so they’ve fallen out of favor. If anything, I just go for Tops house brand. Easier on the wallet and the big bottles are a little thicker and don’t collapse in your hand like some of the others. That’s my only “preference.” Sometimes I wonder if the whole thing is just a bunch of petty snobbery over something as common as H2O.

Plenty of men marry later in life hoping for someone to look after them when they get old or sick. But what if it goes the other way? What if you stay healthy and end up caring for her instead? Was it really a good choice then if you were content being alone but gave it up for a benefit that never arrived? Nothing is guaranteed. Maybe the wiser path is to always marry for genuine happiness, not just as a safety net that might never hold.

Sadly that is true. AI is the only major growth story fueling the US economy right now. At least 90% of these AI companies aren't making any money. But there's lots of money being pumped in on hopium. The only company really making money from it is Nvidia and they are not an AI company, they're just a chipmaker. MarketWatch also published an article about it yesterday titled "The AI trade increasingly hinges on OpenAI — and that’s a big risk for the entire market". https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai-trade-increasingly-hinges-on-openai-and-thats-a-big-risk-for-the-entire-market-aef0cf3c And Fortune published a similar article earlier this week about the Deutsche Bank predictions titled "The AI boom is unsustainable unless tech spending goes ‘parabolic,’ Deutsche Bank warns: ‘This is highly unlikely’". https://fortune.com/2025/09/23/ai-boom-unsustainable-tech-spending-parabolic-deutsche-bank/

It feels like we’re already reaching the over saturation point where people just tune out on anything they see that was made with AI. The timing is almost ironic. Just as the technology becomes better, smoother, and more realistic, the appetite for it seems to be fading fast. The real problem for me is the flood of synthetic voices, auto-generated music, and endless AI videos and images that all blur into the same thing. It creates a kind of “hyper reality” that feels more draining than captivating. Honestly, AI seemed more useful when it stuck to being a smart text editor or research tool. Beyond that, do we really need it trying to replace everything?

If my assumptions are correct about the number of bad actors having increased rather than decreased over the years, then the next question is how and why? The only answer that makes sense to me is looser visa requirements, particularly for Chinese and Russians. As for the West African criminal element, I would presume many of them are getting in with fake passports from East African countries or South Africa. In my view, this could all easily be reduced and clamped down on, but it isn’t. So it seemingly comes back to corruption. I’m not bashing anyone, just pointing out what feels like obvious facts. The large scam centers tied to human trafficking along the Burmese and Cambodian borders with Thailand are run by organized Chinese criminal groups. The reason they thrive so close to Thailand is because Thailand provides access to utilities, infrastructure, and services they need to operate. At the very least, more could be done to shut them down too. Instead, the local law enforcement efforts so far look more like optics meant to pacify the media when the subject heats up in the news, rather than any real, tangible action. There also appears to be more, and in larger quantities, illicit drugs in circulation than in the past, much of it now made from cheap and easy-to-source synthetic chemicals produced in China. A lot of this is likely being processed and manufactured into drugs in Burma before making its way into Thailand. That flow has clearly made Thailand an increasingly attractive base for traffickers. Maybe it’s impossible to point to one root cause, but there is clearly a shift in the situation, and it seems to have gotten worse. Nothing serious appears to be happening to turn things around either. Whether this will hurt foreign investment, tourism, or other aspects of Thailand’s economy and long-term stability is hard to say, but from where I stand, it does feel like things are moving in the wrong direction.

After many years here, I can’t help but feel like the number of rough and dodgy characters in Thailand has grown. With the influx of Russians and Chinese, plus the ease of buying cheap cannabis and the temptation to traffic it out, the place feels heavier with criminals than it used to. Back in the day, there were always shady types, seemingly more in Pattaya than Bangkok, but it didn’t feel so widespread. Then Covid cleared a lot of them out for a while, but since the borders reopened it feels like they’ve come back stronger. Add into it the rise of Africans running drugs, scams and other dodgy business, and it seems like the landscape has shifted further. Maybe it’s just perception. More media coverage, more stories online, and more people sharing their experiences could make it seem worse than it really is. For all I know, things could actually be better now than twenty years ago. Hard to really say with certainty. Anyone who’s been around a while has probably thought about this too, from time to time. Though no way to be sure if Thailand’s underbelly is actually growing, or if we have just become more acutely aware of it now.