GinBoy2

So I'm gonna stir the pot between my Brit and Aussie friends. One of my favorite Aussie foodies; Marions Kitchen, does some great Thai food, but delved into the Brit vs Aussie fish n chips, plus something that I have never found anywhere outside of the UK, chip shop curry sauce. https://www.marionskitchen.com/british-fish-and-chips/

Now I'm a bit of an American Anglophile, and often British food is unfairly castigated as awful. I've had some wonderful meals in the UK, but then came Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney pie. A friends wife cooked this many years ago when I was in the UK. To this day I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I'm Hispanic so the idea of offal doesn't worry me, liver, kidneys all good. But this meat concoction was one of the most terrible things I have ever experienced. Then we get to the pastry topping. It starts off on the top as a flakey pastry but the underlying layers are some slithery goop, I really don't have the words to describe it. Not one of the export products to be proud of Gentlemen

There are two types of men in this world Masturbaters and Liars!

I'm not convinced that EV's are the future, I've always been convinced that Hydrogen is the real longterm solution. Maybe EV's are fine in certain locations, Singapore springs to mind since can drive across the whole island in less than an hour and charging mid journey isn't an issue. But live anywhere where long distance trips are the norm, EV's just don't work. I can fill my car in 5 minutes max, in an EV you might as well go get lunch while your car is re-charging! If I had an EV here in the US and I was to drive to Denver, six hours through basically the nothingness of Wyoming, couldn't do it on a single charge. There is one charging point half way, and I watched a BBC show recently about how unreliable those charging points can be, so if that's down, you are well and truly f???ked in the middle of nowhere. You can carry a can of gas in your car, can't take a spare battery with you

Maybe, but we're both fine a lot of cuddling as a part of intimacy. So, we're all different, that is our prelude to sex, doesn't need, it appears, a lot of mouth to mouth contact

I like others are calling a little BS on this one. No country requires an national ID card of the person entering the country, all the immigration officer wants is a valid passport and visa

Well my reasoning was complicated. I had been living with my Thai wife for many years, in Shanghai and Singapore. I was then posted to my company office in Taipei which didn't thrill my wife. So we(I) decided that moving to Thailand, since I was getting close to retiring was a good idea. We'd visited Thailand a couple of time and thought it was a good idea, fairly cheap and my wife would be close to family. I must point out that my wife was strongly against this idea and wanted to move to the US, but I prevailed. She said prophetically that I be bored with it within 10 years, and she was right. Damn I hate women always being right! I commuted between Thailand and Taiwan for a couple of years before I finally retired. It was good for the first few years, but then I was just bored outta my skull. It didn't turn out as cheap as I thought, and yes we lived the same lifestyle we had in Singapore, not living in a Thai shack, and not being able to do any work was a bummer. In hindsight, I wish we had moved back to the US from Singapore. I would have worked in Taipei until I retired, and I think it would have worked out cheaper. But hindsight is always 20:20

So, if I interpret what the OP is saying, i think there is a difference between family relationships in a Thai or 'foreign' family. My wife grew up in the US, and may well have been contaminated there, but we always, and still do hug our son even though he's a grown man now. When we moved to Thailand when he was 12, Mom always gave him a hug and a kiss as he left for school, much to the amusement of classmates who walked to school with him. He always brushed it off, which to this day I think made him a better man You rarely see Thai's give open expressions of physical love or feelings to their kids, which I think as someone who came from a loving family is sad. They may well love their kids, but those physical moments we have with our children help cast the die on how they turn out as grown men and women. Hope I understood the OP's basic opinion for the thread

I suspect it's a tiny percent of one percent of farang men are in Thailand with a farang spouse, and all of them are probably in BKK for work. For disclosure my wife is Thai We lived in Singapore and Shanghai, and it was very common for expats to have their foreign wife with them, be they farang or asian, but those tended to all be working expats, as I was at the time. When we moved to Thailand I never met a single farang wife. Now we didn't live in BKK, but it was a far cry from our life in Singapore and Shanghai where it was a true melting pot of married couples in the expat community we socialized with.

Thats an interesting point. On my xray there was a pretty obvious infection going on. Now how you can determine where the infection is coming from, that I don't know. But after several days I just wanted the pain to stop, and I probably could have bought in to anything. The tooth was already crowned and in pretty decent shape, apart from the unholy infection and pain, so I was pretty motivated to save it

If they show you the xray it's pretty easy to tell if you have a root infection. From my xray I could see a large shadow at the base of the root which was the source of my pain I would also agree that a proper endodontist is a must, or you're probably throwing away money

Exactly my point. We're all different, and what we want or need in our lives isn't static, it can change over time. 30 years ago my travel lust was satisfied by my work, today the idea of spending a night away from home is awful, don't want or need it. It's an illusion created in your mind that what you have today is what you will want forever. Always be prepared that down the road wants and needs may change. Who knows if health issues raise their ugly head and your by the book Thai health insurance drops you like a pair of dirty underwear. Or family want you closer. For us it was grandkids, those rugrats are a pull So it's very complex what the pulls are in our life, but you navigate it the best you can

So, setting aside the monetary stuff, isn't it always the sentimental stuff that we give each other that means the most? I've already told you i made a photo montage of us and our son before he went to college, made my wife very emotional. Few years back she gave me a ticket for a concert we went to in Singapore long before we were married. Hadn't thought of it for 20+ years, yet the fact that she had kept it for all this time made it special

Actually I do have a Thai child with my wife, although not exactly a child anymore all grown up and his wife is about to give us our second grandchild

Nothing wrong with hedging your bets. A Thai who gets permanent resident in <insert western country> is essentially treated the same as a citizen As a foreigner in Thailand, with the exception of a tiny percentage of one percent who get permanent resident status you will always be nothing more than a long stay tourist, extending that annual visa and those 90 day reports. The Thai government could click their fingers and change the rules overnight. So that escape plan shouldn't be viewed as fanciful, but more of an essential part of living in Thailand

To bring this back from the gutter I made a montage of us and our son before he left for college in the US. Never seen my wife cry like that when I gave it to her

Well thats a lazy answer to a complex question. We all have different things that engage us. We're not all addicted to Golf or to the Bargirl scene. So, have to figure out what works for you, and for some of us, you go through boredom to figure out what does work for you!

Very true Contrary to what many keyboard warriors on here think, we all live different lives. What may work for some doesn't work for others. As in my case family was a major force in my life, but I don't regret anything in the past. What many on here fail to understand is that some of us can change the direction of our lives, not being bound to something you are determined to see through to the end even if it makes you unhappy. I'm now happier then I was in full time Thailand. We have my daughter and Thai son in Denver, my son's wife is about to give us our second grandchild. My other daughter is in San Diego, grandson is about to be one year old in December. Life's pretty good.

As I think back on it, I'm glad my son gave the the 'excuse' to make the move It would be so easy to simply float along as the years go by and that sense of hopeless boredom just becomes normal. I think I came close to that, and my sons decision saved me

Depends what you mean by 'seek it here' I met my Thai wife in Singapore, she grew up as a teenager in the US and went to university in Chicago. But she's Isaan though and through, and we can still have drop down knock out arguments, and not just about what we're having for dinner! That Isaan feisty streak on top of an intelligent mind, powerful combination and after 20+ years I know when to pick my battles and when to capitulate lol

Be very careful with root canals, especially if it's a molar. I had just gone through this in the US, and with molars you have four canals which need to be cleared out and properly filled, or the initial infection will just rear it's ugly head again and you're heading for extraction. Make sure they show you the post op xray, where you can see that they totally filled the root

Hmmm, my wife is from Isaan, but she was raised and educated in the US. Yeah, she's as feisty as it gets and in an argument will give as good as she gets. Not sure its anything to do with her being from Isaan, but more the fact that she's just a strong confident woman. I think there is a perception with Western men that believe Thai women are a throwback to the last century and in someways beholden to 'their man' Not a bit of it. I wouldn't want a woman who couldn't hold her own against me in an argument. Strong, Feisty, and Spicy thats what I look for in women

I was bored. Didn't admit it to myself until we decided to move back to the US after our son told us after graduating college he wasn't coming back to Thailand. It was only after going back home where I could get a little retirement job, that I realized how bored I had been in Thailand In my career I travelled a lot, probably spent more nights in hotel beds than my own bed, so travel doesn't interest me at all anymore. Don't play golf, not a barstool guy, and there are only so many books to read or TV to watch. So yeah I was bored. When we were building our house it was good, gave me something to focus on, but after that I kinda fell into the doldrums after a few years. Now we spend a few months in Thailand every year and it gives me the same thrill it did when I first visited

Burning Bridges comes in various forms. There is the financial one, where you sell up everything and go all in money wise. Then there is the trickier one, where folks burn bridges with family. There have been threads where guys get estranged from their kids and really are alone if things turn south. On both counts I always kept up a US house and loving relationships with my kids, even with my ex wife actually. Never quite understand why guys chuck up everything to move to Thailand when at the end of the day you are nothing but a long stay tourist. When the end comes, as it will for all of us sooner or later, I want to be in a place where family will be there for me

I've actually had good success with rentals, both in Thailand and the US. I rented out my house in the US while living full time in Thailand, I didn't have a mortgage so it was all paid off and I very willingly paid a property management to take care of it. I also had some rental condo's in Bangkok, and when I sold them, didn't make any equity gain, but the rental income was solid. When we moved back to the US, sold them and bought in the US. Unlike in Thailand where I managed them myself due to a lack of property management companies, I pay to have someone else take care of them, which is a Godsend, just send me a check every month