GinBoy2

That's the fundamental issue. In Thailand 'expats' aren't ever anything more than long stay tourists, with the same rights, or lack of than any joe smo that flies in for a two week vacation, regardless of whether you are married to a Thai, have kids, own a condo or whatever. Now we all moan and whine about immigration in home countries, but in reality you pay the fees, file the paperwork and your wife gets residency, after which she in all cases looks just like any citizen of said country, just can't vote. My wife has now been a permanent resident in the US for 3 years, and last weekend we filed the paperwork for her to become a citizen, because she's married to me. That's just not a scenario that's going to play out in Thailand!

Yeah the lack of traffic here is a real plus. As much as we'd like to move to Colorado and be closer to the kids, cost and just the general peaceful living here kinda clouds our decision.

Definitely days long gone

I lived in Mission Valley but worked in Rancho Bernardo, so had a reverse commute. As I crossed the hill on I-15 past Miramar I'd see 8 lanes of practically stationary traffic headed south into the city. Don't miss that for a second. I miss lots of other things about San Diego, the beaches, the food, the weather, but definitely not the traffic

Hmm, traffic don't miss any of that. I lived in San Diego for years, where when you looked at Google maps the traffic algorithm would show red when traffic was backed up for 10 miles. Here in Rapid City, 5 cars stopped at a red light is enough to generate a red on google traffic maps! No, i'm happy with South Dakota traffic 'backup's'

Thing is I could live in The Springs, Boulder, parts of Denver, Breck, Vail, all of them fantastic places. it's just could I justify the price? We live in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Driving distance to Denver, equally stunning landscape at a fraction of the price. Every time we go to Boulder my wife and I have this battle over whether we should move there. It's fabulous, but 4x expensive from where we live

Not sure about that. My daughter lives in City Park and our son lives in RINO. They would both like to buy something in City Park, but it's super expensive. My son and his girlfriend are ready to start a family, so they wanna move out of the apartment world of RINO. Fort Collins ain't cheap, but equally it's not Denver, or worst still Boulder, which I must admit, I've contemplated cashing out my rentals and buying something there. Fort Collins is turning into a Denver commute hub. Yep it's getting pricey, but we were looking at what they could afford for a young family, better than Denver, and you suck it up and do the I-25 commute. After that you're pushing it up to Cheyenne, which is very affordable but a commute too far for most into Denver. But as a retiree, Cheyanne ain't a bad choice either

Let's put this into some sort of perspective The red hot markets tend to be where job growth is going through the roof, Coastal California, NE Coast, Denver, NW, TX etc. But for a retiree you aren't looking for somewhere with hot job possibilities. That's where the likes of Wyoming come into play. As I mentioned earlier a guy from this group moved to Wyoming, Gillette to be precise. The average house price is $278K, so obviously there are homes way below that, in a smallish city, but pretty nice with an airport and decent infrastructure. So you really can't have a one brush approach to this. It's a little but like saying all of Thailand looks like the downtown Sukhumvit housing market!

I know nothing about the Seattle market, but Denver I do. My eldest daughter and my Thai son both live there. My son and his girlfriend have been trying to buy something for months and it's damn hard. They are down to the point where they are thinking about moving up to Fort Collins just to be able to start somewhere

Well maybe this is a ship that has sailed for many, but maybe a lesson for the newbies. Never ever burn bridges with home. At the end of the day you are nothing but a long stay tourist in Thailand with little to no rights. Make a good life for yourself in Thailand but always have a backup plan if things go south. I'll never understood those who sell up everything at home and go all in. Keep your house in the US, rent it out that'll give you the income to survive in Thailand and it's the ultimate bolthole if things go tits up, which lets face it is not uncommon for aging expats

I think you nailed that. In terms of 'things to do'. My God, Spain boring, I don't think so. Comparing what 'things to do' are available in Spain versus Thailand it doesn't even compare. Now if you mean 'can I have sex with women a third of my age for money' as things to do, well of course Thailand will win hands down. I'm an Hispanic American and I've been to Spain many times over my lifetime, and I can tell you I have never once been bored, whereas living in Thailand for over a decade, yep I've been bored!

In general in most asian languages the use of surname or forename is pretty fluid. I think most of us have experienced the fact that even in the likes of English speaking Singapore you will be greeted, in my case as 'Mr Peter'

You make mountains outta molehills. We have two homes one in Thailand one in the USA, neither in some crime infested hellhole which you like to imply. All I was trying say, in response to the OP was that, Yes housing has gone through the roof, but in a huge country there are still places, maybe not ideal, but affordable where you can live a decent life at low cost. There is a member on here who recently moved back to WY who I'm in contact with. Decent place, very cheap and he's happy. You don't need to hate one to love the other. I like both our homes but for different reasons, but the idea that it's impossible to return to the US under any circumstances, I'd dispute that.

If you just need a place to live, there are thousands of small towns that you can live really cheaply. It may be a one horse town, but i'll be pretty much crime free ( let's excuse running the one stop sign in town) and generally folks are just down to earth. Now maybe you won't have a Starbucks, but there will be a bar, general store and equally you aren't going to get shot by some gangbanger

First time I ever went to Pattaya I was horrified by the sight of 60ish guys with 20ish women. My always pragmatic wife just shrugged her shoulders and said; "They are poor no education, they have to earn a living and if sleeping with old guys pays the bills and provides for family, so be it"

Rather sad how this whole process has gone down the crapper with covid and the closure of USCIS field office in BKK as part of the Trump anti-immigrant push. Back in the day this was a 100 day process, and just to show how it was versus today, here's a timeline I posted before when my wife got her GC. At some point I hope USCIS field office in BKK will be reopened to make this possible again

I wasn't meaning your 'pie in sky'. More the nonsense coming outta TAT. Sorry if you mistook my comments wasn't directed at you

All I can see are Delta booked codeshares on Deltaterm. When I go back to work next week I'll have a look on Aero to get some United numbers But you can extrapolate and add Oneworld (American which I can't see) & Star Alliance (United), but I bet the number ain't so much different to Delta's. So maybe it adds up to a couple of thousand. Either way we're not getting into the 10's of thousands travelling from North America this year

To put this perspective. I work work for Delta Airlines, and I just did a search. From now until 12/31 the total number of passengers booked to BKK from all US hubs on Delta and Skyteam was 274 So good luck with pie in the sky projections

Isn't this the kinda chicken and egg many tourist destinations are facing? You can't afford to open when there are no customers. Customers won't come unless venues are open. Who blinks first? But on the dark side, regardless I just don't see long haul passengers getting on a plane for at least the next 12 months

Hmm interesting question. I'd kinda agree with the general assertion that if money is no object Thailand would be well down the list. I maybe a bit of an outlier in as much as I didn't meet my wife in Thailand, but at our work in Singapore, and I, against her better judgement wanted to retire to Thailand. So the basic question are expats tempted? I was tempted at the time by the thought I would lead a wholly Farang life at a fraction of the price. Over the years, that didn't really pan out, and I found cost of living, for the lifestyle I wanted to live was actually costing more than in the US, without the conveniences of living in your our country. So I'm not exactly sure what the marketing hook would be for expats? Unless we of course delve into the pants of aging farang males mesmerized by the Maidens of Isaan

Well, men will always be horn dogs, that ain;t gonna change. Now I've always specuted the percentage of horn dogs to the general tourist population. I suspect it's actually quite small, which doesn't bode well for the likes of Pattaya. So if and when Thailand opens up the horn dogs may well return, but whether or not the maidens of Issan return to service said horn dogs is an open question

I was just thinking about this a little more. In my life I've lived in 8 countries either because of work or just by choice. But now I'm kinda done. I like being home, things I know and the stability which as we all do, I approach the final chapter. Travel is great, but I always know I have homebase to return to. So I think there may be two stages to that 'retirement' phase. The first maybe the fun phase, but you then rapidly run into the reality phase. That latter phase is the one that really needs to focus the mind

We go round and around on this thorny topic. My own take, and I've been blasted multiple times for my cost comparison, between a non coastal US location and our home in Khon Kaen is this. If you want to live like a farang, food, utilities more expensive in Thailand Medical Insurance, as you get older in Thailand it becomes prohibitively expensive, even compared to the much maligned US system after 65 Transport; gas about the same, cost of buying a vehicle in Thailand crazy expensive Housing is the big plus for Thailand compared to almost anywhere in the West. So balance all that and pick your poison

There is a dirty rotten truth to this whole discussion. There is no such thing as a retirement visa in Thailand. You are merely a long stay tourist on an annual extension of a non immigrant visa, coupled with the 90 day reporting nonsense. All of that could change on a dime, who knows. So then you ask yourself where are you in life? Well the late 50's early 60's guys, life is still good, who cares. But get to late 60's, 70's and maybe that uncertainty is a little bit more worrisome. This uncertainty is acute for those who burn all their bridges and go all in. In all my time in Thailand, and SE Asia I never fooled myself that I didn't need an exit plan. Thailand may or may not change the rules, that's up to them, it's their country, but if you are not a citizen or a permanent resident of any country don't assume you are safe. Thailand appears at least for now heading down a more restrictive road. So good place to retire? Buckle Up and prepare for Plan B just in case