The Real Reasons Expats Decided Thailand (And What They Think Now)

By Dan Cheeseman

 

 

In many instances there is a stigma regarding becoming an expat in Thailand, stereotypical images of old men with vests, slugging away on a can of Singha beer and ogling the young Thai women spring to mind. In my mind this is hugely misleading and in the majority of cases not true.

 

You certainly have your areas in Thailand more befitting of such views, like Pattaya, but it’s far more marginal now than its ever been in these locations. Trust me as I live in Pattaya with my family.

 

But it did get me thinking. What was the primary reason for people deciding to come and live in Thailand in the first place, if stereotypes was to be believed you’d assume ‘women’ to rate fairly highly.

 

So using the various media at my disposal I did a simple online survey and in a matter of days had an interesting – if not huge – 89 replies back from Expats living in Thailand. At the core to this survey was the question ‘What was your primary motive for becoming an Expat in Thailand?’.

 

You can see from the chart below that ‘Women’ most definitely was not the driving force. In fact almost 1 in 4 of the replies was a financial reason – ‘Cheaper to Live’.

 

 

1 in 10 cited the reason that they had friends living in Thailand already, so friendships and bonds were a far stronger rationale than sexual relationships – which would have come through from ‘women’ being selected. A further 1 in 10 came to Thailand more to leave their domestic country than the attraction of Thailand itself.

 

1 in 5 were work motivations whilst 15.87% was due to the warmer climate – and after a recent trip back to the UK in February of this year I can be reminded of how lucky we have it living in Thailand with almost year round sunshine.

 

All very interesting information.

 

Full story:  http://danaboutthailand.com/2018/02/19/the-real-reasons-expats-decided-thailand-and-what-they-think-now/

well, curiously enough my main reason for wanting to live in pattaya as oppose to isaan nowhere
is that i'm longing for western food, especially caviar, but really its the huge selection of everything that makes pattaya superior to anything else. bkk could otherwise compete but 1] i dont like big cities, and 2] temperature are not as evenly smoothen out as a city at sea

 

the downside with pattaya is traffic jam, pure and simple

Interesting, I fit in multiple categories.

1. Already had a Thai wife - OK that's a new category (Other?).
2. To Work - and I get a better salary and pay less tax than back home.
3. Cheaper to live - no way I could afford a home on 1/2 an acre a 40 minute drive from the CBD of London.
4. Warm climate - what's not to like after Belgium?
5. Had friends already in country - already had a good Far-East network in place, so 2. was not too fraught. Walked into a job within a month of arriving.

 

 

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Walked into a job within a month of arriving.

I hate you.

 

Granted, you had the degree/certifications and live in/near BKK where all the work is located.

Still... 

Certainly didn't come for "The Women" but for one particular woman who's now my wife. Of the options given in the Pie Chart, "Cheaper to Live" was a much lesser reason. Certainly not a reason to come here if not for my wife, but a reason nonetheless. None of the others apply to me. Warmer climate? No, I like cold weather.

 

I'd never visited Thailand and had absolutely no desire to - too hot and nothing I wanted to see. But I met my wife when she visited her friend - my friend's wife - in UK, kept in touch and the rest is history.

 

Work in an engineering consultancy was not as interesting as it had been - too many planning meetings and too much people-facing for me and not enough engineering. Retirement age was 10 years off. I was fed-up with nearly 20 years of having a laugh & biking with my mates and wanted more. A typical mid-life crisis, I suppose.

 

Anyway, Mrs. L (now) suggested I come to Thailand. Private pensions were pretty good but taking them 10 years early would have an effect but not so much that they wouldn't provide a reasonable income when combined with my wife's income. Icing on the cake was that, just before I arrived here to stay with her, my wife told me she'd built a house for us using her own finances - a perfectly adequate house for a couple approaching retirement and with no extravagant tastes, too. Nearly 9 years later, we're both now retired and enjoying our life together. 

 

Life with my wife is great although I still have no great love for Thailand. Love her and her 2 sons & their wives, love our 2 grandchildren to bits. Life's pretty good - because of the good Thai people I've found in Thailand (I only really know one other foreigner here but that suits me fine), not because of Thailand itself.

Edited February 20, 20188 yr by MartinL

You can almost set your watch by the regularity of these sort of posts.

 

After reading them you could understandably think that Thai women were not attractive and had no appeal to westerners.

 

Why ? Because hardly anyone wants to confess that the sexual connection was a consideration.

 

And yet almost every poster is either shacked up with a Thai woman or else bedding one regularly.

 

But....hey ho , it's always something else that is the main attraction. It's like the TAT claiming that the attraction of Pattaya is that it is a sporting hub.

1.59 % because of woman? I am rolling on the floor!
Possibly accurate, if the Farangs polled live in a Buddhist-Temple.

Over the years, I came up with a different statistic:
-  5% work (I always wanted to be an English Teacher in Thailand).
- 10% climate (I always wanted to live in a finnish-sauna for 9 months out of the year).
-  5% wanted to go out of my home-country (the FBI and Europol are on my tail).
- 40% Thai Woman. (Farang Woman won't look at me no more).
- 40% Cheaper to live ( I hate those bedsits).
  ---
 100%
Notice: Woman/Cheaper to live make up for 80%.

"I never trust no statistic unless it's my own statistic that I have falsified myself". Winston Churchill.
Cheers.

I came here for the temples ??

For me, I was already in the region having previously lived and worked in Hong Kong for seven years I knew Bangkok quite well. I'd just returned to the UK with the idea of settling and walked straight into a divorce/asset grab so I couldn't see the point of setting up home all over again from scratch in a cold climate, this was in February. So I returned to SE Asia and rented in Chiang Mai, I thought it would be a fairly inexpensive place to spend 6 or 12 months until my divorce was finalised and I could figure out a plan. Somewhere in that year I realised I didn't have to work any more and that I didn't really want to live back in the UK, I always was a warm weather person, eventually, I made some friends and the rest is history. Women? They weren't a part of my motivation to be here or not although at times they were a nice to have fringe benefit. 

Yeah, folk always come for the culture and the temples :)

I came because I wanted an escape from the rat race of corporate banking. I stayed because of a mixture of the following:

 

I knew Thailand well from many holidays

I loved the warmth

Thai food is my favourite

There was (then) still an edgy feel to the place, a bit of a lack of a rule of law which I liked

The expat lifestyle is a great leveller (this is also a huge downside later on)

Women were available, whether honest or morally corrupt. Back in the UK, they were only interested in how much you earned and wanted you to pay for everything. No change there with Thai women you might say but the numbers are so much lower that you can play the game and not get burned

 

I left because of many reasons but when looking ahead to retirement and where to go and live, I find Thailand is not an automatic choice now. It would have been a decade ago but not now. Not least is the thought that I am older but more so because many of the friends I knew have either moved on or died off and the newcomers are not as pleasant as we were.

I came for sex and beer. 

I came for a holiday and impregnated a local girl so just never went home. Absolutely no regrets except the missis is a Junta lover!!!

Quote

...And yet almost every poster is either shacked up with a Thai woman or else bedding one regularly.

Love living here and am thankful  each day here that i have a Khmer gf NOT a thai one   :-)

34 minutes ago, phuketrichard said:

Love living here and am thankful  each day here that i have a Khmer gf NOT a thai one   :-)

what is good about khmer woman ?

1). Favourable tax treatment

2) Easy visas for prolonged stay (elite, retirement)

3) Warm climate

4) Access to great diversity or imported food / goods

5) Western standard health care

6) Good location for visiting all of Asia

 

Women are not the deciding factor.

1st came here in 2006 and travelled far south, fell in love with the place back then, returned in late 2007 fell in love with a gal, married her shortly thereafter, now have two kids, and am retired here.

 

Cost of living is cheap as we live in rural Thailand, apart from the smoke, I love it, summer can be HOT and annoying, but hey, it is what it is and that's what fans and A/C's are for.

 

Mix it up with farangs at local waterholes couple of times a week which is a little bit of a drive but worth it.

 

As my Mrs is not possessive or jealous, she is woman enough to accept that I travel to Phuket or Pattaya and meet up with the boys when they come over, and to have my cake and eat it too, some rules apply, and I follow some of them 555

 

Would I return back to Australia, maybe as I get closer to retirement age, i.e. if I qualify for the pension through the assets test, but as soon as I get it, I would be back here, because life in the slow lane here for me suites me down to the ground, no traffic, simple people, no speak Inguish, and me no speak Thai, wife happy to be in her garden, no stress, perfect ! 

Edited February 21, 20188 yr by 4MyEgo

1 hour ago, poanoi said:

what is good about khmer woman ?

it's not thai

In that pie chart diagram , the section marked 'other'  should have been marked ' bit of the other '

 

This would encompass not only sex with women but also with men and the ones who aren't quite sure.

 

That little change would give the whole cart a bit more credibility.

16 hours ago, poanoi said:

well, curiously enough my main reason for wanting to live in pattaya as oppose to isaan nowhere
is that i'm longing for western food, especially caviar, but really its the huge selection of everything that makes pattaya superior to anything else. bkk could otherwise compete but 1] i dont like big cities, and 2] temperature are not as evenly smoothen out as a city at sea

 

the downside with pattaya is traffic jam, pure and simple

The biggest downside of Pattaya as I see it, and just about everywhere outside of Bangkok, is limited public transport.   If Pattaya, Phuket, Samui etc all had properly regulated taxis with meters then they'd all be worth considering, as it is none of them do, so unless you have a car and a driver, life in those places must be a right pain.

 

I love the Thai people, their attitude towards life, Thai food and the wonderful friendships I have made with them. They are loyal and always very helpful. What I don't like about the country is the hordes of lowlife foreign trash living here now. I luckily don't have much to do with them and avoid them.

I lived in LoS for 2 years, on back to back postings with the Army in the mid 70's and loved it. 

 

Holidayed on and off there over the years, fast forward to 2005, I married an Australian woman 12 years younger and in private practice,  then the usual farang program of separation, divorce and property settlement (thankfully my loss was minimal) in 2014. 

 

So back to LoS for recovery R&R and 3 times a year since then.

Just over a year ago met a lovely 37 year old (I'm 65) Thai lady on Thai Friendly,  fully employed (not a Freelancer or Bar girl) owns her own House in Pathum Thani and late model Car;  no kids or siblings and only an elderly mother to care for. 

IMO she's a good proposition and we're in a serious relationship now. 

 

I'm proceeding cautiously with an intention to relocate to LoS and try the live in relationship thing with her,  but I've much here in Australia to sort out before then;  I expect to be resettled in LoS by late 2019. 

 

I did the Pattaya playground thing for 3 years, and it no longer interests me;  yeah plenty of fun and good for the ego but no future in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, gamini said:

I love the Thai people, their attitude towards life, Thai food and the wonderful friendships I have made with them. They are loyal and always very helpful. What I don't like about the country is the hordes of lowlife foreign trash living here now. I luckily don't have much to do with them and avoid them.

Ouch that hurt.

17 hours ago, Crossy said:

Interesting, I fit in multiple categories.

1. Already had a Thai wife - OK that's a new category (Other?).
2. To Work - and I get a better salary and pay less tax than back home.
3. Cheaper to live - no way I could afford a home on 1/2 an acre a 40 minute drive from the CBD of London.
4. Warm climate - what's not to like after Belgium?
5. Had friends already in country - already had a good Far-East network in place, so 2. was not too fraught. Walked into a job within a month of arriving.

 

 

Interesting; I too have a different reasons for coming to Thailand.

 

Never had a Thai wife; although I have been coming to Thailand for 50 years.

Only worked in Thailand temporarily as part of a contract in another country--could not find the pay I received as an expat in other places or the salary I could earn at home and I was retired when I came here to live.

Much cheaper to live; housing, insurance, utilities, medical expenses, local foods all cheaper.

I am from Florida, so climate had nothing to do with it.

I did already have friends here, but it was my wife who wanted to stay.

 

Now, after almost eleven years, she is ready to go; I've always been ready.

What do I think now, well with what l see that's happened to my home country l think l made the right choice. Some stuff I miss but overall l would not change what l have now..

Though my singing engagements seem to have dried up of late, strange that...

19 hours ago, webfact said:

I did a simple online survey and in a matter of days had an interesting – if not huge – 89 replies back from Expats living in Thailand.

Why do I get the impression that "Expats living in Thailand" is defined as white, English speaking, delusional, straight males with so little to occupy their time that they responded to a poorly written, oddly phrased (a kind way of saying "functionally illiterate" or written while inebriated) survey.

 

"their domestic country??"  

 

" bonds were a far stronger rationale than sexual relationships – which would have come through from ‘women’ being selected."

 

"stereotypical images of old men with vests"

 

This is even worse than the typical TV survey and no more enlightening.  

 

Edited February 21, 20188 yr by Suradit69

2 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

Why do I get the impression that "Expats living in Thailand" is defined as white, English speaking, delusional, straight males with so little to occupy their time that they responded to a poorly written, oddly phrased (a kind way of saying "functionally illiterate") survey.

 

"their domestic country??"  

" bonds were a far stronger rationale than sexual relationships – which would have come through from ‘women’ being selected."

 

This is even worse than the typical TV survey and no more enlightening.  

 

How boring....

I came for the girls and i stayed because i'm too old and worn out to go anywhere else,

and that's the truth of the matter...

40 minutes ago, seancbk said:

The biggest downside of Pattaya as I see it, and just about everywhere outside of Bangkok, is limited public transport.   If Pattaya, Phuket, Samui etc all had properly regulated taxis with meters then they'd all be worth considering, as it is none of them do, so unless you have a car and a driver, life in those places must be a right pain.

 

well, you can buy an mc, but regardless of transportation, its traffic jam in pattaya,

there is no way around it and there wont be without some drastic measures,

or if by a miracle half the population just leave.

15 hours ago, Denim said:

You can almost set your watch by the regularity of these sort of posts.

 

After reading them you could understandably think that Thai women were not attractive and had no appeal to westerners.

 

Why ? Because hardly anyone wants to confess that the sexual connection was a consideration.

 

And yet almost every poster is either shacked up with a Thai woman or else bedding one regularly.

 

But....hey ho , it's always something else that is the main attraction. It's like the TAT claiming that the attraction of Pattaya is that it is a sporting hub.

well here's a surprise for You: i was very hesitant to move to pattaya,

but a friend had arranged a room for me and it was my first trip abroad on my own,

so that is how i ended up in pattaya.

now 17 years later, its the only place i can call home or will ever call home,

no other place in asia can ever be an alternative, and due to back pain, i also cant move elsewhere

1 hour ago, seancbk said:

The biggest downside of Pattaya as I see it, and just about everywhere outside of Bangkok, is limited public transport.   If Pattaya, Phuket, Samui etc all had properly regulated taxis with meters then they'd all be worth considering, as it is none of them do, so unless you have a car and a driver, life in those places must be a right pain.

If thats the biggest downside its easy to overcome as I see it. I have never relied on public transportation wherever I have lived preferring to be self sufficient, I lived in Pattaya for 15 years never had a problem with transportation, traffic wasn't as bad obviously but that seems to be a universal problem these days.