GuestHouse

I've used Schenkers (sp) several times and have been very happy with their service.

If you wife is Thai ensure that the delivery is registered as her household goods which she is shipping to Thailand as part of her return. That way you'll avoid taxes.

Like I say, the anti immigration brigade ranting again and doing so from the country they chose to emigrate to. A Joke.

Britain needs, and has for a long time needed immigrants. Any job center you visit in the UK right now has lists of unfilled jobs. And it’s not just low skilled work, doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers any and all of the professions, need and are accepting immigrants.

The company I work for would collapse if the immigrant staff left overnight, as would our local hospital.

My experience has been the total opposite.

The nastiest women I have known have been pretty ordinary looking, more than that, they had a real overdone belief in their own looks/value.

Whereas the three nicest women I have known have been real stunners. And, I might add, have had very few male partners.

I put this down to most blokes will not hit on a pretty girl where as plain looking women get lots of dates.

Beautiful women scare some blokes, so the statement that beautiful women are nasty, vain etc is probably based more on those fears than reality.

I don't recall anyone whinging that they could not survive. I do however remember the discussion on the long term impact of currency fluctuations on people living on fixed incomes.

As the OP says, a week is a long time in the currency markets... 30 years or more of retirement on a fixed income is even longer.

The underlying problems with the Dollar, the Euro and the Pound have not changed.

Those who are budgetting their retirement based on a Bht50/BGP are making a sound finacial plan.

The same discussion included consideration on the impact of inflation... and that is not getting any better.

Brtish people living in Thailand, perhaps moving to the UK with Thai wives complaining about foreigners coming to live in Britain.... Surely a joke.

As for worries about foreign criminals in the UK... Not been to Pattaya then?! Thailand, and Pattaya in particular is fast gaining a reputation as the replacement Costa Del Crime.

I think it is fair to say that anyone of the LHR terminals deals with more passangers than all the passangers going in and out of all Thailand's airports.

Terminal 5 is under construction and, since 9/11, there has been significant progress in redistributing flights to other airports around Britain. My home town has had a nearby RAF airport transferred to Civil usage for that purpose providing me with a huge increase in the value of property I own there.

Again, go to your lease. Does it give you permission to build on the land and use all that is on the land? If so then the lease defines your rights to live in your home.

I'd still go and make a cash offer to have the right to take water from one of these other wells. Alternatively, consider rain harvesting.

If it's consultancy work, is it necessary for them to be in Thailand.

I'm consulting to three engineering projects right now, two of which I have never visited the offices where the work is being executed.

Similar powers exist in the UK. A judge, a doctor and social worker can sign your liberty away for your own good.

Until relatively recently women were more likely to suffer miss use of this: There are women who have spent their whole lives in psychiatric hospitals for nothing more than having been found out having sex when they were teenages or getting pregnant outside of marriage.

You can in fact present your British Passport at any desk, you have the right under Magna Carter to come and go "Without Let or Hindrance'.

Offer an additional payment. A) He may take it and save problems later. If he refuses seek good legal advice regarding the issue of has he broken your lease agreement with him. You will have demonstrated that you are being reasonable which can go a long way when settling a dispute in Thailand where the 'middle way' is valued.

DO NOT seek advice from local lawyers who may have connections to the land owner, or may hope to make connections with the land owner, and grass your plans up to him.

Taking the events as told at face value my advice would be that he aproaches the girl's family and asks for their guidence.

If they have made their daughter apologize in such a manner it is clear they see her at fault and respect him as the 'husband'.

As for extrapolating these things to other deeds this woman may have committed. Well, unfounded, and not at all helpful really.

And when you get your credit card, you have a pittiful credit level, nearly non existant purchase protection, no fraud protection and annual fees.

Whereas a card from back home provides all the benefits with no charges, and if you choose your card right you can get several months intrest free credit.

Why any foreigner would want a second rate Thai credit card is beyond me.

I found not being able to get my daily TV fix almost as disturbing as that feeling when you wake up on your first day back home after a holiday in Thailand....

I think some of the advice you have been given is excellent, in particular advice to spend more time in Thailand before you decide if it really is right for you.

I'd start your preparation at home by going to see a financial advisor and getting a full check of pensions, savings and investments. If you do not have a private pension ask for advice on investments that can give you an income. This could, for example, be renting out your house in the UK.

One think to be very careful of is not burning your bridges. Selling up in the UK might seem an easy way to raise capital, but if you then decide Thailand is not what you thought, going back home can be impossible.

The golden rule, and you will hear this time and time again, is 'Do not invest money in Thailand that you cannot afford to loose'.

There's also been a lot of discussion these last few weeks on Thai inflation rates and how that impacts people on fixed income. If you are, as you say, looking to be spending around GBP120 a week, then I would suggest that you are in real danger from inflation. You might get by on that this year, but two or three years from now you'll be struggling.

As for the women, well SaoThai has given very good advice on that front. I'd add that 33 year old women are indeed lovely, but they come with the needs and ambitions of a 33 year old woman. Many a man has retired to Thailand in his late years believing he's done his bit, only to start a new family and a new family responsibilities - The snip might be the kindest cut.

I'm where I want to be right now.

I gave up a very good salary in Thailand to go do other things, see other places. My wif and I still have property in Thailand and we plan to retire there some day, but we are in no hurry to get back.

I'll retire in Thailand because that is where my wife is from, if she decided she'd like to retire here in Italy (Also renowned for culture, food, great life style and far better weather than Thailand), well I'd be happy to retire here.

Money is not the question, being where we want to be and being together is.

In the two years before I married my wife I was almost destitute, totally broke and facing bankruptcy.

We were in the UK, I was busting my backside paying off business debts and my wife was working two jobs, in the office 9-5 and waiting tables four nights a week.

We lived hand to mouth and every penny we both earned went to paying off a business rip-off.

We never went out, no holidays no car, nothing but work and debt. We are through that now. But if she had been with me for the money I figure she'd have left in those two years - A lot of other women would have, regardless of where they came from.

For the number to have any real meaning you need to know the basis of the calculation.

Given that foreigners have different spending patterns that Thais it follows that the inflation rate effecting foreigners is different than that effecting Thais.

As discussed in an earlier thread I believe the actual inflation rate for foreigners to be around 7.5%

An example of a significant inflation figure is the cost of building and building materials. If, like me, you have bought your building plot, but have yet to build your house in Thailand, you are facing an increase in the cost of around 10%.

Add to that the gains made by the Baht against western currencies and the picture is not a happy one. I figure the cost of the house we want to build has risen around 20% this past year. While I hedge that against the fact we bought the land when the Baht was cheap, it nevertheless is a significant cost increase.

Worse still for people living on a fixed income from overseas.

Advice #1 Blood is thicker than water.

If you can’t trust your girlfriend’s family then you are kidding yourself that you can trust her.

Advice #2 Don’t dip your bread in your gravy

If you tie your business and investments to your love life you’ll loose both if your love life fails.

The unquestioning praise of all things Thai is as deserving of examination as the unquestioning criticism.

Neither is the product of a healthy mind.

Thinly veiled homophobia doesn't help either.

Don't swim with the sharks if you have soft skin

Perhaps there are times when there is no alternative.

TV is the leading site for information on moving to and living in Thailand. Whenever I come across people asking about moving to Thailand or very specific questions about living in Thailand I direct them to TV, I’m sure that is true of most of us.

Very useful information is available here on almost any topic, any topic it would seem except one; that being the ‘Down Side’ of life in Thailand and the problems people genuinely do have.

Someone considering a move to Thailand is going to be far better prepared to do so if they have the chance to read both sides of life in Thailand. Flaming people for expressing a negative view of Thailand drowns out that discussion and, I argue, denies us all valuable insights.

I agree whole heartedly that he OP may have prompted some of the response by his earlier negative posts, but that neglects the consideration I think we should all make when responding to posts. ‘Is the discussion useful to other readers, not necessarily a response only to the OP?’

I think the problem resides with the OP, not Thailand. I think its safe to say he will find fault where ever he lands.

While not wanting to pick on the OP, I think there is a lot of sense in the view that the reason for moving to a place/from a place determines your experience when you arrive.

Moving to Thailand for possitive reasons as opposed to negative reasons, ie you have particular possitive reason why you want to be there, rather than a negative reason why you do not want to be the place you are leaving implies a possitive outlook.

My wife and I left Thailand for what we regard as possitive reasons, better pay, to maintian and better my employment conditions, for new experiences - By my arguments that is perhaps why my wife and I enjoy where we are.

I do still question the need for hostility towards people who make different choices for their own personal reasons.

And there is of course a salutary caution here, someone moving back home, we don't hear of this often, but that is not to say it is not common. Hence the value of the advice, do not burn your bridges.

Someone returning after an unhappy experience in Thailand is not half as bad as someone else stuck there, unhappy and unable to go elsewhere because they blew their life's savings on a whim.

Hence the reason why I think this topic is deserving of reasoned discusion.

I'm puzzled by the hostility some show to the OP because of his decision. His personal choice might not be the same as the one you or I would make, but surely that does not warrant hostility.

I'd be genuinely interested to hear some background.

For example, I presume at one time you did enjoy living in Thailand (BKK) and what brought about the change.

We hear lots of stories about coming to live in Thailand but very few about why people leave.

Having left Thailand myself I find the whole topic very interesting.

Moreover an issue too often scoffed at.