GinBoy2

Now it was about 5 years ago when we went through the process, but it's quick. It took exactly two weeks. Applied on May 30th 2018, and it was received on June 14th 2018 Not sure how long it's valid for, but she had her interview on June 21st, so it's not like you have to get right before the interview

Hows the once wonderful South China Morning Post doing? Don't think their editorial freedom is quite what it was!

So back to ACA... When we first moved back to the US, and before we both got jobs, I enrolled us both in a health insurance policy through the ACA marketplace. Wasn't the greatest, high deductibles, but we could both get a Doctor visit for a $30 copay and it was a safety net should something bad happen. As soon as we got jobs, dumped it for employer benefits. But it allowed us that piece of mind while we were getting settled. So no complaints from me, works as it should

I've lived in both Taiwan and mainland China, late 90's early 2000's. When I was in Shanghai it was just as China joined the WTO, and the consensus back then was that would make China look more like Hong Kong. Then at the time when I lived in Taipei, a lot believed that they could unify and would have the same one country two systems like Hong Kong. Well fast forward 20 years and how things have changed. Rather than China looking like Hong Kong, Hong Kong looks an awful lot like any other Chinese city. In Taiwan friends that used to believe in the one country two systems myth, have pretty much done a 180 and now are firmly against any settlement with the CCP, they saw how that panned out in HK, and the idea of Taiwanese identity has solidified. I'm hoping that Xi departs this world before his desire for 'a legacy' comes to pass and tries to take Taiwan by force

Well if you think it's a beach paradise the bar is pretty low!

Lets get real about Pattaya It's not exactly a beach paradise, there are many other places in the world 100% more beautiful so we can rule that out For the majority of expats, it's older males who are there for cheap sex, you just can't get around that For a female expat with a partner, well I guess access to western products in the grocery store might be a lure, but can't think of much else

I miss my Mom every day. I was closer to her than my Dad, it was her will that drove to excel at high school and on to UC Berkley My Dad was a great guy, but he would have been happy if I just followed him in the fields. It was my Mom that saw a better future for me, better than my family past. So yeah I did love my Mom more, but it's complicated and I loved both my Mom & Dad in very different ways

Even in the midst of Alien Invasion, I think I'd rather eat grass!

Never underestimate the desire for profit over doing what's right. Green Hydrogen is on the horizon, and it provides an energy source as flexible as gasoline. But the current 'green' generation can't see past the bumper sticker politics, let alone fundamental science!

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