5 hours ago, Maradona 10 said:

Haha. That actually took a bit longer than expected. Nobody up's sticks gives up everything at home if they are happy with everything and absconds to Thailand. End of chat.

you can't speak for everybody. and for many, it's not absconding

3 minutes ago, AYJAYDEE said:

Haha. That actually took a bit longer than expected. Nobody up's sticks gives up everything at home if they are happy with everything and absconds to Thailand. End of chat.

I'm not saying they headed for Thailand, but there have been articles where Specialists in their field & top Executives have thrown it all in

We find it best to divide our time between Thailand and Canada. That way we enjoy the best of both countries.

6 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I resemble that remark but I'm getting to the place where I'm almost fully resigned to the fact that it's extremely unlikely I'll ever have a better setup than I have now in Thailand either back in the USA (too expensive, reverse culture shock) or in a Latin American alternative (I suck at foreign languages). Actually, likely not even close to as good.

 

Maybe that can change on a dime (like some crap happening here forcing me out and that's always possible, expats are generally NOT secure here).

 

So Thailand, deeply flawed as it is, may indeed be the best of all possible worlds for me.

 

Yeah if I won a big lottery, ba-bye.

And just imagine all the spare time you'd have back at home that you normally devote to Thaivisa. You'd have to find a new hobby.

3 minutes ago, tropo said:

And just imagine all the spare time you'd have back at home that you normally devote to Thaivisa. You'd have to find a new hobby.

What? between you and Jingthing there would be no Thaivisa

39 minutes ago, roo860 said:

If your mum is struggling to make ends meet on her pension why not help her out? I would not have had second thoughts about helping my mum out financially.

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

I helped my folks even though they were far from struggling.

 

Maybe it could be considered partial  payback for all they good things they did for me.

 

2 hours ago, altcarrbob said:

Use vpn with specialty server

Thanks. Will look into it. My nightmare would be to win millions then they find out you are not resident and get out of paying you because of a loophole.

10 minutes ago, geordiel said:

Thanks. Will look into it. My nightmare would be to win millions then they find out you are not resident and get out of paying you because of a loophole.

There is VPN detection software available. Pretty sure the lotteries are fully aware about dodgy payments from OS also they could request your passport stamps if they suspicious

1 hour ago, altcarrbob said:

What? between you and Jingthing there would be no Thaivisa

Check the post counts, and calculate over 12 years. 

Many expats stuck in Thailand. Pity!

6 hours ago, grollies said:

Nice post.

Thx, Maradona10 is wanting to taste the fine graded coffee and watch the butterfly's but I think he's too busy to see the bigger picture ?

6 hours ago, roo860 said:

If your mum is struggling to make ends meet on her pension why not help her out? I would not have had second thoughts about helping my mum out financially.

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

Good man, always help your mum out is she will accept it.

 

There is a saying, it goes like this. "you can only help those that are willing to accept your help"

 

Unfortunately mum is proud & fearlessly stubborn, her journey in this life has been very difficult, however one cannot alter a person's makeup,  we can try to make their journey more comfortable,  if they are prepared to accept a little payback, but pride and stubbornness, I suppose can be as bad as jealousy ?

 

While I did say "she struggles to live off the pension", she does have reserves, she is not wealthy by any means, however she would rather eat canned food and miss her meds so that she can pay rent for her feril grandchildren who keep getting evicted so that they can use the government welfare on drugs and partying, and her remaining son's trying to milk her for what's she's got left, me being here making it all that more difficult, but she is slowly starting to see the picture that I had been gently telling her, towards the end of her life, sad really, but it is, what it is, and I accept that I have no control over it.

 

Fortunately for me, I have a beautiful butterfly who also loves my mum dearly, its part of the Tha culture, we built her a granny flat which is bigger than her little apartment, its attached to our house, it was built in the hope that mum would one day say, you know what, I am over this, I am just going to learn to relax and not fight it, my son and his beautiful Phillipino wife, as she has referred to her as, can now look after me, but unfortunately, that isn't going to happen, I have learned to accept that we have no control over choices that others make, we can only try to make their journey more comfortable, if they allow us, sad as it may be 555.

 

Coffee's good, butterfly's are beautiful and the air is fresh ?

 

 

This topic has come up before so I will just repeat what I wrote last time. I lived in LOS for about 2 years and left because it was just not for me. No "woe is me" or regrets in going or leaving. Just another adventure in another country. A mixture of good things and bad. Same as life itself really.

I swore I’d never leave. I’d never felt so at home in such a faraway place. I learned the language. Had a great job. Had/have the best friends of my life.  But after 12 years I did go back to the states. 

In the beginning, everything is new. Interesting. Fun. You are no longer bound by the mental or physical rules of your home country. You are defying gravity. All worries are gone. You delete all old mental files like the erasing of a memory stick. 

I never thought it would happen, but the fog of paradise eventually lifted. Maybe it’s because I began caring more and more about Thailand. And when care about something, you are vigilant of it, you want to protect it, fix it. Alas you notice that Thailand, like every other country in the world has its problems. Problems that you just can’t fix. 

So we speak up about those, and sometimes whine. Admittedly I have done both. When the latter became enough, I left. Not out of anger, but for perspective. 

Been back in the states 4 years. It’s true- the reverse culture shock of coming back is much stronger than any culture shock of moving to Thailand. That’s because upon arrival, Thailand is all smiles, and you’re up for anything. Upon returning home you expect familiar comfort. But you’ve changed too much and it feels foreign. You’ve gone backward. 

I don’t think any one place is the answer. I hope to get to a situation where I can spend part of the year in Thailand and part outside Thailand. One will make you appreciate the other. 

Im bored out of my tits in the states. It’s hard- almost impossible- to make new friends. It’s hard to relate to people who have never left the ‘village’ here. And they’re not interested in your stories of elephants and crickets. 

We return for 3 week vacations to Thailand, but it’s not enough. I need to live there, unrestrained by return flights to enjoy it. 

I’m optimistic I’ll figure out how to enjoy the best of both parts of the world someday. I hope you all do too. 

7 hours ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

There is VPN detection software available. Pretty sure the lotteries are fully aware about dodgy payments from OS also they could request your passport stamps if they suspicious

Rubbish. Aware of VPN but not p2p,passport check? again rubbish.Win it?  go to Watford or Liverpool claim in person 2 IDs needed .but you can obtain fresh passport in one day whilst in UK.

 

  Wot keeps me going doing the lottery,up to 50.000 gbp auto put into bank,won 47000 once, not enough tho..great escape will happen soon   i know

11 minutes ago, chivo said:

I swore I’d never leave. I’d never felt so at home in such a faraway place. I learned the language. Had a great job. Had/have the best friends of my life.  But after 12 years I did go back to the states. 

In the beginning, everything is new. Interesting. Fun. You are no longer bound by the mental or physical rules of your home country. You are defying gravity. All worries are gone. You delete all old mental files like the erasing of a memory stick. 

I never thought it would happen, but the fog of paradise eventually lifted. Maybe it’s because I began caring more and more about Thailand. And when care about something, you are vigilant of it, you want to protect it, fix it. Alas you notice that Thailand, like every other country in the world has its problems. Problems that you just can’t fix. 

So we speak up about those, and sometimes whine. Admittedly I have done both. When the latter became enough, I left. Not out of anger, but for perspective. 

Been back in the states 4 years. It’s true- the reverse culture shock of coming back is much stronger than any culture shock of moving to Thailand. That’s because upon arrival, Thailand is all smiles, and you’re up for anything. Upon returning home you expect familiar comfort. But you’ve changed too much and it feels foreign. You’ve gone backward. 

I don’t think any one place is the answer. I hope to get to a situation where I can spend part of the year in Thailand and part outside Thailand. One will make you appreciate the other. 

Im bored out of my tits in the states. It’s hard- almost impossible- to make new friends. It’s hard to relate to people who have never left the ‘village’ here. And they’re not interested in your stories of elephants and crickets. 

We return for 3 week vacations to Thailand, but it’s not enough. I need to live there, unrestrained by return flights to enjoy it. 

I’m optimistic I’ll figure out how to enjoy the best of both parts of the world someday. I hope you all do too. 

we did but had to retire first

 

10 hours ago, impulse said:

More like the minimum safe transport for those who don't choose to live in the middle of a city where amenities are within cycling distance. 

I class 20Km round trip as 'cycling distance'.

No excuse for living further than 10Km from shops in the UK.

10 hours ago, impulse said:

Edit: And there is no "free health care".  Anywhere.  It may be "included" in the services you pay taxes for, or paid by others if you're destitute in a civilized country (which excludes the USA).  But it isn't free.

Nobody is forced to work or pay taxes.

In Thailand, my next door neighbours (single mom and her daughter) haven't paid tax or worked a day in their life (as far as I can ascertain), free healthcare.

In the UK, I know plenty of people in 'social housing', no need to work or pay tax, everything free.

 

Too many old (I worked hard all my life) dinosaurs posting on ThaiVisa, that isn't the way the western world works any more.

I was in danger of joining you (worked hard 20 years), then looked around, saw nobody else was, stopped working, and joined the modern world.

11 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Nobody is forced to work or pay taxes.

In Thailand, my next door neighbours (single mom and her daughter) haven't paid tax or worked a day in their life (as far as I can ascertain), free healthcare.

In the UK, I know plenty of people in 'social housing', no need to work or pay tax, everything free.

 

Too many old (I worked hard all my life) dinosaurs posting on ThaiVisa, that isn't the way the western world works any more.

I was in danger of joining you (worked hard 20 years), then looked around, saw nobody else was, stopped working, and joined the modern world.

so youre on welfare?

 

14 hours ago, kurtmartens said:

Why is it that so my expats point to "scheming wives"?  If someone is stupid enough to marry someone without knowing the person or eyes wide open then it is really the "scheming" wife  to be blamed?  Bad wives and and bad husbands in every country; seems expats are quick to blame their bad luck on others when they have only themselves to blame.  (Sorry, bit of a soapbox I know.  Just find the blame game all too easy here.)

 

Funny enough, we (Thai wife and 2 wonderful kids) are moving to Texas this year as well.  

i will give this example:

a would be neighbor and retired norwegian doctor

on his last legs kept coming to me wanting to

borrow a few baht for some rice.

i kept meeting him so soon enough the image

became clear:

his wife had his visa card and would not

argue about who should have the visa card,

she threatened divorce if he took it back.

my answer was that would be the best thing that could ever happen,

he could easily afford 2 young chicks and on top of that save money

that was now wasted on his aggressive old and fugly wife.

his response was that he didnt want to get through it,

later on i suspect he felt too old to combat his wife

i would go live in a warm plot of land belonging

to EU if my back was up for travel,

but alas, this will be my grave

5 minutes ago, AYJAYDEE said:

so youre on welfare?

1

Almost everyone in the UK claims 'welfare'.

(State pension, single occupancy council tax, housing supplement, tax credit, child benefit, etc.)

Just now, BritManToo said:

Almost everyone in the UK claimes 'welfare'.

as me old mum used to say: "If everyone jumped off a bridge......"

My son is 3 and I'd prefer him to have a UK education, but I can earn significantly more teaching here than back home. So I guess we'll be staying for the foreseeable future.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

18 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

Happy here....

We travel + also RV around my birth country 2-3 months a year....

 

Always good to come back....

One of those roads not taken. I had a 38 ft diesel pusher, American Tradition. We had traveled across the US and Canada as a family. Considered a retirement in the states....work Disneyworld in the winter months, A Rocky Mountain nat’l Park/forest in the summer. In the end, sold all and moved to Chiang Mai. Seven years and counting, quite happy.

15 hours ago, Maradona 10 said:

I have always believed that all of us given the choice would rather have a great life back in one's own land, if money was no object and had family etc.

 

What person in their own country who had everything a man needed and was happy with his lot woke up one morning and thought 'I think I'll move to Thailand'?

This generalization does not apply to all. You're assuming everyone has a natural bias to their birth country and this is not so for various reasons. I know several people who were delighted to leave 'home' with no desire to ever go back. I count myself among them.

 

I left Canada in September 2005. I have never been back. I will never set foot on Canadian soil again and I haven't missed 'home' for one single solitary second. There are several reasons for this. I was born in Canada but grew up in Germany, completing all of elementary school there. My earliest solid memories of Canada start in middle school. Thus my formative years, psychologically speaking, were spent in Europe. I never developed an emotional attachment to Canada.

 

There's also the issue of weather. I despise, with a vehemence shown only by people's loathing of Trump, cold weather - winter. Canada = winter

 

There are more, but suffice it to say, not everyone longs to go home. I would rather live in Laos having my life as I do, which is comfortable, than return to Canada for a 7 figure salary watching sports on TV as a couch tester for a furniture manufacturing company.

In 2014 I got fed up with all the "Thainess" so I pulled up stakes, sold most of my worldly possessions and moved to Zijuatanejo, Mexico (remember "Shawshank Redemption?").

 

I was back in Thailand 6 weeks later with a whole new appreciation.

53 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Almost everyone in the UK claims 'welfare'.

(State pension, single occupancy council tax, housing supplement, tax credit, child benefit, etc.)

 

There's a big difference between "something for nothing" and getting something back for the money you've paid in.

 

I live life one day at a time. Each day I review my situation and ask myself if there is anything I can do this day to improve the quality of my life....I am still here after 18 years. If I think some day leaving would be better for me ...I will buy a ticket and leave (I always have enough money in reserve to accomplish this). 

9 hours ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

There is VPN detection software available. Pretty sure the lotteries are fully aware about dodgy payments from OS also they could request your passport stamps if they suspicious

If you set up a Direct Debit whilst in the UK, or get someone else to do it for you,  you can play legitimately wherever you are. Read the rules.