GinBoy2

This is the problem for a sub section of us. I retired at 55. We were in Singapore at the time then we moved to Thailand, against my wife's better judgment. She said I'd be bored within 10 years, she got it right by 11 months. I couldn't stand not having a reason to get up in the morning by the end of it. I would have just been happy to be able to go volunteer at the local school to teach English if they would have let me. There is only so much TV you can watch, books to read, I basically went stir crazy

Well that's the issue for many of us. You read many a thread from American Vets who have Tricare, and that's great it covers them in Thailand. But for most without that safety net, private health insurance spirals out of control at 60, 70+. That's when old and getting sick gets real, real fast! Health care in Thailand can be as good as it gets, but it comes at a price, and for some that's a price too far! It's at that point, well maybe higher housing cost, but I get medicare flips the equation somewhat

Well if you are wedded to dry and hot in California, your options for affordability in Southern California are going to be pretty limited. The only places I could think of that probably are still affordable are those around the Salton Sea, but that comes with it's own baggage!

That is a terribly sad story. Thankfully my Mother got to have a relationship with all her grandchildren before she died, my American kids and my Thai son. She was never judgmental, and as much as she loved my first wife like a daughter she embraced my Thai wife just the same. Maybe because of how my first marriage dissolved helped. I still love my first wife as my best friend, we probably talk at least once a week and as weird as this may sound, we go on vacations together, me, her and our partners. The kids love it, causes endless laughter with their friends when it comes up. But for my Mother it gave her joy in her final years that everyone was at peace and happy

So I'm gonna step out on a limb here, But I think most of us are some shade of white male, some of us darker than others. For whatever evolutionary reason many white guys seems highly attracted to asian females. Spend a day in San Francisco and probably 50% of the couples you see will be white guy, asian woman, and thats not a power/money thing which is often the case in Thailand, but just regular folks, same age, attracted to each other. So beauty as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder, why I have no idea, maybe we should call it a fetish, or maybe just Mother Nature mixing up the gene pool

Oh Dear God lol

Interesting comment. I kinda agree with the majority of what you say. My Thai wife is close in age to me, and since she grew up in Chicago we share a lot of social and cultural stuff. I'm not sure if I would have been able to deal with a real cross cultural relationship It wouldn't be language, I speak Thai and Lao, but just the shared values that folks have. We lived for years in Singapore before moving to Thailand, and for our son that was really hard, something which I will forever be sorry for, since he never really adjusted to the Thai culture until he moved to the US

I'm in no way trying to be smug. But I come from a very poor immigrant Hispanic family. I know what it's like to be poor. Both my parents were farm workers in the CA Central Valley, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. I was lucky, I went to college, first one in my family and I made a good life, and eventually was able to provide for my parents in their later years But I never lost that feeling of the fear of the insecurity of losing your home, ability to feed yourself and family if things turned South. So please don't see what I say as smugness, but it's more a case of I know from family experience what the alternatives might turn out to look like

Oh Dear, this is the cr%%pist of them all. As @sirineou rightly points out the assumption for the CO will be that you will try to circumvent the immigrant process by applying for an adjustment of status while she is in the US on a tourist visa. The way to alleviate that is probably trying to convince the CO that YOU have a compelling reason to return to Thailand, but good luck with that. Tourist visas for married Thai's are a cr%%p shoot. Immigrant visas, CR-1 IR-1 are 100% a go, just check the boxes But I have no idea what the processing time for any of them are nowadays. Sorry to sound so vague, but in truth none of us can give solid advice, only speculation

My wife works for the Feds so is required to wear a mask on Federal property , but as soon as she's in the car on the way home, it's gone

I always maintained a home back in the US, and in the crazy days of 'leverage' I was an outlier in the fact that I used every bonus $ I got to pay off equity, since I always thought, if push comes to shove, if I'm debt free and I can flip burgers to survive. Ended up, we own our home and and a few rentals for income with zero debt. The fact that we own rentals I know what the cost is and I feel for you, but unfortunately at, what I think is the age of most of us, this is the end result of many years of misjudgment.

Apologies if this has already be mentioned. My daughter and son came up to visit us last week and got us hooked on this. Hilarious, in my opinion at least

Maybe we should just concentrate on movies and TV, not delve into politics, many other places to discuss that

Without going down a rabbit hole here. As much as I agree about the denial about Jan 6, I don't think those idiots engaged in the murder of millions!

Well this is a bit of a sobering movie to watch, Final Account I have to say I was a little shocked by a lot of the denial, and sometimes pride that is still left in some of this final survivors of the Nazi horror. Maybe some of our German contributors can comment more. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12789212/

Except with most airlines the seats are removed for cargo only operation. There is a reason aircraft seats are basically slotted on to a rail and secured, it means they can easily be removed or replaced. You then use cargo straps which secure to the former seat rails, it's not rocket science, just standard industry practice. But this is TG, and always the maverick of the industry! LOL

My wife has been wanting to visit family for over a year, with multiple aborted plans. It also follows a very familiar pattern. "OK I'm going to take vacation and go visit for a few weeks" 30 minutes on her laptop "Screw this, I'm not doing this cr#$p"

Never realized that. I've used my Thai license to rent cars in the US, mainly because for some of the 3rd party companies using your Thai address and license gets you a better rate. I was once stopped by the cops in California, and when I showed my Thai license, the cop just laughed and said, "now show me the real one"

Our son was born in Singapore to me an American and his Thai Mom, and we lived there until his early teens when we moved to Thailand, then he moved to the US for college. I've heard him describe himself as Singaporean, Thai and American, sometimes all in the same conversation. Doesn't seem to bother him much, so why should it bother anyone else

Well I wouldn't worry about it. USCIS has ground to a standstill, thanks to Trump's desire to stop all immigration, legal and illegal, and the double whammy of covid. They are working through an enormous backlog thanks to both of those facts. My wife came to the US on a CR-1 in 2018. The interview for removal of conditions after the 2 years prior to 2016, usually took about 4-6 months. Here we are in 2022, she's on her second extension notice and we are still waiting for an interview . At this rate the extensions will equal her 10 years card!

We used Asian Tigers too. The packing service was great, very efficient. On the other end, depends where you are in the US, but use the steamship line to transport it bonded to the nearest port of entry, to minimize trucking costs, which can spiral out of control if you are a long way from the port

glad I met my wife the good old fashioned way before online dating became the norm; a tawdry work affair. Furtive kisses in the back stairwell during a coffee break seems a lot less stressful than creating an online profile!

Well was a verbal diarrhea thread. But to bring it back to reality. All my kids are polyglots. My two American daughters speak English & Spanish, and my eldest daughter is in the process of learning Mandarin from her half brother. My Thai son speaks, English, Thai, Lao and Mandarin . Has it made their lives better, Hell Yeah. Learning languages, as hard as it can be is never a bad thing. You will in later life never learn a language like you did when you were a child. My head swirls in a mix of English and Spanish, yet I never have those head conversations in any of my later in life learned languages. But that doesn't mean that I don't love the fact that I can interact and understand everything around me in those learned languages

Come on get real. How many 60-70-80 year old farangs have you seen slopping around Centan with a couple of rugrats with a woman half, third of their age and thought, that just ain't right. Medical miracles we may have, but in general we don't live much past 80ish, pretty much a bell curve when it comes to life expectancy, regardless of how much wheat germ you consume!

I really hope Seal team is renewed for season 6 If not, that's a horrible way to leave it, won't give any spoilers to those fans who haven't seen the final episode