Expats in Thailand considering moving to Latin America prompted by Thai visa changes

[ShortTimed]

Miami is arguably part of Latin America in culture.

It's not really on topic for obvious reasons.

For Americans it would be repatriation rather than expatriation.

For others it would be migration to Latin American micro region of a mostly non Latin American nation.

Also the USA does not offer a retirement visa.

Puerto Rico could be viewed in a similar way.

That said the Spanish I'm learning is useless in Thailand but would be vital to living in Latin America and also very useful and rewarding if repatriating to many areas in the USA.

 

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I am sorry.

I never thought about US requirements on visas. Most snowbirds from Canada only go for winter months and then return home.

 

Best wishes on your travels.

[Jingthing]

 
I am sorry.
I never thought about US requirements on visas. Most snowbirds from Canada only go for winter months and then return home.
 
Best wishes on your travels.

Yes you can stay for 6 months out of any year on a tourist visa but after that bye bye. I think that's similar to Colombia. Neither place supports visa runners.


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[Jingthing]

Thanks for your input. How is the cost of living? I hear Mexico is becoming quite expensive. Despite what the leaders are telling us, inflation seems to be a real issue everywhere now. But, Thailand is still fairly reasonable, when it comes to thing like rent, outside of the big cities. 
 
I do like the culture in Latin America. Dance, jazz, theatre, fine art, poetry, literature, film, and the list goes on. Thailand can be quite a wasteland when it comes to real culture.
 
Yes, the army has been a complete failure, on nearly every level. And their fear of foreigners is astonishing. Says alot about them. None of it is good.

Different cities different price levels in Mexico like pretty much anywhere.

Places like Mexico City and beach resorts like Puerto Vallarta and Playa del Carmen would be higher. Still good values in colonial cities inland, etc.

Latin America is a big place.
As I've said before I'm particularly interested in the coffee region cities in Colombia. My current information says high level quality modern apartments (bigger than a studio) with security doormen in higher end neighborhoods can be rented there for 300 to 400 a month. Places where you don't need a car, don't need heating or aircon because of the mild weather,and you can drink the tap water. That sounds Thailand level value or better to me.

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[spidermike007]

On 3/18/2019 at 9:35 PM, Jingthing said:

Yes, the exploration phase is important for most people. For people already living in Thailand the logistics and expense can be daunting as Latin America is a big place with lots of options.

That's a reason I think it is important to do screening of all the choices beforehand. 

The easiest way to narrow down possible nations is to learn about their visa requirements. Starting with the basic ones, financial requirements. If you can't meet them for a particular country, think of that place for potential tourism only. However, Latin America's programs mostly have lower level financial requirements, so the majority of people that can financially qualify for Thailand, can also qualify for most of the Latin American programs.

But it's a start.

So then you have your initial list of possible nations.

From there, you get into evaluating your personal priorities.

So many categories, many mentioned here before.

Such as --

Do you need a beach?

Do you need there to be a large English speaking expat community?

Can you really learn enough Spanish to be functional?

Do you value security and safety over hot nightlife scenes?

Do you need the country to offer access to their national health program?

 

Then you can really narrow the choices so that a targeted exploration becomes more realistic and much more affordable. 

 

Quote

 

Learning Spanish is infinitely easier than learning Thai. First of all, none of the difficult tonal qualities. Secondarily, Latinos seem to not only be more linguistically inclined than Thais, but they are infinitely more creative intellectually, so even when you get the tense and grammar wrong, many can figure out what you are trying to say. The Thais simply do not have that capacity, as creativity was drummed out of most, at the school level, unless they went to University, where is seems you are allowed to question your teachers. If you mess up the pronunciation here, nobody has any idea what you are trying to say, their brains seem to freeze up, and they are not able to dance around in circles within their minds, to try to surmise the idea you are trying to get across. In Latin America they are able, and willing to try to figure out the idea you are trying to express. 

 

If it were me, I would be looking at Colombia. The areas with a higher elevation offer great climate, so to be able to avoid the stifling heat of Thailand, and have the relatively clean air, would be a real plus. Also, it is more reasonable than Mexico, and the crime situation is more manageable.

 

As for the guy who brought up retiring in Miami? Part of the reason for retiring in Thailand was to get some value for my dollars. Miami has become very expensive. If you have $3,000 a month to spend on a decent apartment, in a nice area, and then another $4,000 a month to spend on food and drink, etc, Miami might be a good spot for you. For most of us, it is not only relatively joyless, but does not have any of the qualities we are seeking here. I just got back from a short trip to Miami. I enjoy visiting, as I love my Latino friends there. But, it is not someplace I would want to live. Frankly, I do not think I would want to live anywhere in the US, at this point in time, for less than a $200,000 a month salary. It is a bitter, cold place, and most Americans are a very disenchanted lot. And we do not even have to get into the women. That is a whole different topic. Difficult would not even begin to summarize that.

Edited March 29, 2019 by spidermike007

[Jingthing]

Si, Colombia!

But a certain line in their national anthem might be a problem for me.????

 

 

 

Much better in Spanish.

"They" say that Colombian women are exceptionally beautiful, but hey. the men ain't chopped liver either.

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Jingthing

[CaptainJack]

Good grief! Need to go buy some breathing masks today just in case. Geez....

 

PS. I'm in a 2 story apartment building so I don't have as bad a risk of there is an earthquake. Just another aspect of considering where to live if leaving Thailand. 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by CaptainJack

[tutsiwarrior]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Si, Colombia!

But a certain line in their national anthem might be a problem for me.????

 

 

 

Much better in Spanish.

"They" say that Colombian women are exceptionally beautiful, but hey. the men ain't chopped liver either.

 

 

the chilenas reckon that they got it all over other Latin american women as from the heavy western european heritage they are more light haired and light skinned...middle aged women in tight clothing fancying themselves as 'ninas'...gotta admit that I saw some nice talent in the main shopping precinct in Providencia in Santiago...I was just an itinerant engineer and a bum but I had lotsa money and pleasured myself with women from the escort services, USD100 a pop in 1996...even got friendly with one and we would hang around, I had a nice ground floor flat with a garden in Las Condes but sex was the usual price...she had a nice culo...

 

 

[observer90210]

Spain also for me....to make it short, plenty of food, booze n'pussy for less or equivalent the price then in Thailand. And no corrupt cops, rude immigration red necks or red tape and faster to reach. But taxis would be more then Thailand as well as getting yer laundry done.

Edited March 29, 2019 by observer90210

[tutsiwarrior]

13 minutes ago, CaptainJack said:

Good grief! Need to go buy some breathing masks today just in case. Geez....

 

PS. I'm in a 2 story apartment building so I don't have as bad a risk of there is an earthquake. 

 

 

eeeyow! imagine living in Cuernavca 'Under the volcano'...Geoffry Firmin looks up from his glass of mezcal and 'mutters 'sheesh, what next?'

 

 

 

[Jingthing]

OMG.????

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

Spain also for me....to make it short, plenty of food, booze n'pussy for less or equivalent the price then in Thailand. And no corrupt cops, rude immigration red necks or red tape and faster to reach. But taxis would be more then Thailand as well as getting yer laundry done.

Spain isn't in Latin America. 

[observer90210]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Spain isn't in Latin America. 

No it is not, but they do speak Spanish in Spain I think 

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

No it is not, but they do speak Spanish in Spain I think 

 

This is a good time to state the obvious. For those trying to learn Spanish for Latin America, don't infect yourself with too much exposure to old world usage and dialects. 
It's hard enough to deal with the different dialects in Latin America! 

Mexican Spanish and Argentinian Spanish sound like totally different languages.

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Jingthing

[watcharacters]

On 3/26/2019 at 12:54 PM, Odysseus123 said:

I have one request of the prolific poster...can you kindly stop posting photos of yourself?

 

We have got the message.

 

 

You and the poster above you have a wonderful way of encouraging an exploring member to share the information he garners.

[marcusarelus]

With all of the potential Mexican/Trump border problems is this a good time to be in Mexico?

[Cryingdick]

10 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

With all of the potential Mexican/Trump border problems is this a good time to be in Mexico?

 

Good ideas are not with in the equation of this thread.

[Jingthing]

16 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

With all of the potential Mexican/Trump border problems is this a good time to be in Mexico?

Mexicans in Mexico are smart enough and fair enough to differentiate between the rhetoric and actions of that or any U.S. president and individual Americans visiting or living there. But I wouldn't wear the red hat in Mexico for the risk that you may be seen as a walking piñata.

There are always current events political factors in the choice of any country. Mexico definitely has them now. I would argue that the transition to the new leftist populist president there is much more significant in Mexico than border issues. But I don't know of any issues from that that would make any real difference to expats though. But it might. 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Jingthing

[ThaiBunny]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Mexicans in Mexico are smart enough and fair enough to differentiate between the rhetoric and actions of that or any U.S. president and individual Americans visiting or living there. But I wouldn't wear the red hat in Mexico for the risk that you may be seen as a walking piñata.

I'm not sure what evidence you can put forward for the supposed intelligence of entire populations. Spending more than 5 minutes on TV surely is evidence for the contrary

[Jingthing]

11 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

I'm not sure what evidence you can put forward for the supposed intelligence of entire populations. Spending more than 5 minutes on TV surely is evidence for the contrary

Well, my personal experience among Mexican people on both sides of the border. I don't think American expats in general there are likely to experience hostility based on nationality even from those hostile to the U.S. president which would be the majority. There are issues with moving to Mexico. I would put that concern at basically nonexistent. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Jingthing

[BritManToo]

9 hours ago, Jingthing said:

 

This is a good time to state the obvious. For those trying to learn Spanish for Latin America, don't infect yourself with too much exposure to old world usage and dialects. 
It's hard enough to deal with the different dialects in Latin America! 

Mexican Spanish and Argentinian Spanish sound like totally different languages.

 

Coffee with a scent of woman?

I'll give the fish sauce a miss, just plain old 'Cafe con leche' for me.

 

I learn all my Spanish from pop songs ......

'Te extrano me amore', 'yo solo quiero darte un beso', 'Vente pa ca'

(to quote a few words from Maluma, Prince Royce, and Ricky Martin)

Edited March 30, 2019 by BritManToo

[zydeco]

Aguascalientes might be a real alternative. 

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Aguascalientes

https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/in/Aguascalientes

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Aguascalientes

https://en.climate-data.org/north-america/mexico/aguascalientes/aguascalientes-5528/

 

[zydeco]

On 3/4/2019 at 4:48 PM, Nyezhov said:

And I dont understand why except that it is close and we all speak some Spanish. Unstable, vicious governments both left and right, high crime rates, antipathy towards gringos, poor driving, lousy infrastructure, inferior medical care, high costs, high poverty, primitive and violent culture. Earthquakes too.

But there is also this: I simply like Mexico and Latin culture. I've been going to Mexico since I was 10 years-old. I am fully aware of the difficulties, drawbacks, and dangers. But I still like the people. They are in fact easier to get to know than Asians. I love the architecture and the pace of life. Enjoy the food, the climate, and I know and find interesting the culture. Medical care is probably on a par with Thailand. Costs are okay. For a sedentary lifestyle, it's quite good. And that is where I'm at, now. Also easy, quick, and low cost flights to Texas and home. 

[Odysseus123]

13 hours ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

You and the poster above you have a wonderful way of encouraging an exploring member to share the information he garners.

You think that he is garnering information?

 

Kinda like a Martian trawler?

 

Both of the main posters here have utterly ignored any information proffered by TV posters who may have been in the region.

 

It's just a little me,me,me travel show.

 

The last thread of this nature "retiring to USA" died of boredom and inanition due to exactly the same problem.

 

As I mentioned before "Dead Man's Gulch,Arizona won the last one.

 

I am willing to bet that La arroyo de Hombre Muerte ,Durango,Mexico wins this one

Edited March 30, 2019 by Odysseus123

[Jingthing]

35 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

You think that he is garnering information?

 

Kinda like a Martian trawler?

 

Both of the main posters here have utterly ignored any information proffered by TV posters who may have been in the region.

 

It's just a little me,me,me travel show.

 

The last thread of this nature "retiring to USA" died of boredom and inanition due to exactly the same problem.

 

As I mentioned before "Dead Man's Gulch,Arizona won the last one.

 

I am willing to bet that La arroyo de Hombre Muerte ,Durango,Mexico wins this one

If the thread doesn't interest you or you have nothing constructive to add to it except for personal attack mockery, you are most welcome to not read it or post to it.

 

Everyone and anyone that does have anything CONSTRUCTIVE to post about the actual TOPIC (as opposed to snarky commentary about posters here) is very welcome.

 

Personally, given my specific and personal set of criteria and also my high priority to ease of visa issues and a path to residence and/or citizenship, my focus now is on Colombia.

Others have their own specific priorities and interests as far as destinations in Latin America. 

Cheers.

[Odysseus123]

9 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

If the thread doesn't interest you or you have nothing constructive to add to it except for personal attack mockery, you are most welcome to not read it or post to it.

 

Everyone and anyone that does have anything CONSTRUCTIVE to post about the actual TOPIC (as opposed to snarky commentary about posters here) is very welcome.

 

Personally, given my specific and personal set of criteria and also my high priority to ease of visa issues and a path to residence and/or citizenship, my focus now is on Colombia.

Others have their own specific priorities and interests as far as destinations in Latin America. 

Cheers.

Oh..but I enjoy reading it...it will go on forever thus offering me a stab at the afterlife.

 

Looking forward to the time that you climb on to that big bird and leave Thailand to explore pastures new..

 

Best Wishes,

 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Odysseus123

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Coffee with a scent of woman?

I'll give the fish sauce a miss, just plain old 'Cafe con leche' for me.

 

I learn all my Spanish from pop songs ......

'Te extrano me amore', 'yo solo quiero darte un beso', 'Vente pa ca'

(to quote a few words from Maluma, Prince Royce, and Ricky Martin)

Songs and video entertainments are a way to supplement more formal language study. As I'm focused on the coffee region in Colombia, watching telenovelas made in that region might be helpful to pick up the local dialect. 

 

I don't know if I can stomach such cheesy telenovelas though. Much like I'd rather not watch kid's shows in any language.

 

Here is a widely recommended show for beginners, but it uses Spain Spanish.

 

Something I've started to try is when watching English shows when they have Spanish subtitles, that's a way to pick up some new words and phrases too, although obviously no pronunciation. 

 

I was skeptical about free Duolingo before but even though it's clear using that alone will never lead to fluency for anyone, I'm starting to appreciate it more.

It has brought me to a place where I'm starting to feel a kind of passion for the language. Like "Spanish world" is a place I want to visit every day, by doing my duolingo dose and supplements as well. Not work really. It's fun! Even though I've traveled in Latin American and successfully used rough tourism Spanish before, I've never felt as close to the language before thanks to Duolingo. Typically if I hear Spanish now or see it in an sentence I generally know at least some of the words, can usually guess some of the structure, and can then look up new words, etc. 

That said, I think realistically to get to intermediate level conversational fluency, could easily take 5 years living in a Spanish environment. 

 

There are so many resources online and in apps these days that it's actually hard to choose which to try out and use.

 

For example, there are multiple apps where you can meet language chat share partners. 

 

I found this radio station in Pereira that is useful to hear the local pronunciation. There is music too but it's the talking that is most useful.

 

https://tunein.com/radio/Caracol-Radio-(Pereira)-950-s268197/

 

For others that are focusing on other regions, you can find similar for those regions. 

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, Odysseus123 said:

Oh..but I enjoy reading it...it will go on forever thus offering me a stab at the afterlife.

 

Regards..

Sounds like you enjoy playing the role of disruptive pest, more like.

[Odysseus123]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Sounds like you enjoy playing the role of disruptive pest, more like.

Well..Michael Palin you ain't.

 

However there have been a number of excellent posts on this thread..all totally ignored by you and the major protaganist.

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Well..Michael Palin you ain't.

 

However there have been a number of excellent posts on this thread..all totally ignored by you and the major protaganist.

OK, I'll play. You're talking about content now in addition to your insult game.
Please LINK to those valuable posts.

If you do, I will have another look at them and respond with my opinion on their value.

Cheers. 

[Odysseus123]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

OK, I'll play. You're talking about content now in addition to your insult game.
Please LINK to those valuable posts.

If you do, I will have another look at them and respond with my opinion on their value.

Cheers. 

Insulting you..no never..

 

Very good posts on Chile,Brazil,Uruguay,Argentina and Mexico..hmm also Belize and Mexico..

 

I am very sure that you can find them as,no doubt,you were paying close attention.

 

My humble posts were about Argentina and Chile.

 

Best of luck in finding your new habitat.