The "leavers" that can't leave.

[Max69xl]

21 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

why do people project their own circumstance and assume it applies to everyone?

 

a person always talking about leaving and not acting is a sign of depression.

 

 

 

 

How many expats do you really know in Thailand? There are MANY where I'm staying with financial problems because of weak exchange rates, loss of income letters and new requirements from Immigration. They are talking about this every day. So problems do exist even if some of you are living in a bubble. Many posters here doesn't even live in Thailand long term.

[NCC1701A]

2 hours ago, crazykopite said:

Next on my bucket list is to buy a wide beam and sale the waterways of Europe just need to sell my beach villa and separate apartment if anyone’s interested and has 25 million baht pm me

is this really your place? i thought everyone on TV lives in a 5000 baht room in Thailand. 

[mrmicbkktxl]

1 hour ago, Just1Voice said:

Leaving is not really an option fo me. I have a good wife of over 10 years, an adopted son who is closer to me than most biological sons, and a niece who is more like a daughter, who tells everyone I’m her dad.

 

I have no family or friends left back in the States, so there is nothing back there for me. Leaving Thailand, even for Vietnam, is not really an option for me. I’m over 70, and have had a minor stroke, which makes getting around difficult at best most of the time. You could say I’m “stuck” here, and in some ways you would be correct. But with an income more than double needed for retirement here, it is a comfortable “stuck”.

If they up the anti again, I’ll just switch from Retirement extension to Marriage, A bit more of a hassle, but not unbearable,

Sounds good,but still  I  don't like the feeling they want me out,and like I said before I feel tired with all the immigration BS.Besides that in 20 years many things changed to the negative.If I could leave I would be gone probably to VN or Spain

[Max69xl]

1 hour ago, Xaos said:

Isn't it Vietnam a better option now? Apparently visa hassle free options long term. Pretty woman etc. Not an Vietnam expert but would like to hear from one. 

I think you have to leave the country when the 1 year visa expires,and then enter again. Someone mentioned it in a thread.

[Number 6]

On 8/30/2019 at 10:42 AM, simon43 said:

I left 2 weeks ago ????

You left to Myanmar as well. See how that worked out. Lao is a lovely place but I could never live so far from the ocean personally. Then there's the Communist thing. 

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

I think you have to leave the country when the 1 year visa expires,and then enter again. Someone mentioned it in a thread.

Most nationalities will need to leave several times annually! I think there is a business option for Americans that gives a full year. But if you don't have a business, that's a scam. Surely they'll crack down someday. People are glossing over the visa issues in Vietnam unless you're really legit -- working, married to a local, etc. Not a serious option for most retirees long term. Plus the medical care is horrible. 

[Max69xl]

40 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

If you go marriage visa the problem will be if your wife snuffs it. What visa would you have to apply for?

He just needs >400k instead of >800k if he changes from a retirement visa to marriage. That's what he's talking about.

[Number 6]

With a Thai wife, the only place we can really go is back to states. There's no state I want to live in. Florida is best option I'm looking at. Still, its a weird place.

 

I don't like the fact real estate is such a horrible value. Nothing to call my own. If I weren't married it wouldn't bother me. I'd like to be more settled into my elder years.

 

Think it's a bloody crime I can't get PR after a few years. Even the Japanese are ok with this.

[Bullie]

On 8/29/2019 at 11:31 PM, RichardColeman said:

If the Uk would relax financial laws on visas for my wife and child today, I'd be on the 0.01 am flight out tomorrow. And it really annoys me to think that as a UK Brit of 55 years that worked all their life, an unemployed EU citizen can bring their unemployed wife within hours !

Not to their own country they can't!! As a Dutchman it was also virtually impossible. But EU law dictates that you are free to bring your family to ANY OTHER EU-memberstate, with as the only pre-requisite that you will not become a financial burden on that state. Until the Brexit you are FREE to bring your family to Europe, just take recidence in any country apart from the UK.

 

However, if you have children under 18, with a UK passport your wife IS allowed to come under the Chavez rule, no financial laws on visa's. etc.

[Pedrogaz]

I have a pal in his 70s.....he cannot afford to go out for a beer with the other English speakers anymore due to the weakness of the pound. What a sad state of affairs. He stays home and drinks himself into oblivion every afternoon.

He is also too poor to move anywhere else.

As they say, when poverty comes in the door, love flies out of the window......he and his wife are estranged but cannot afford to separate and so remain in the same house. He lives on about 30,000 baht a month and pays 25000 to an agent each your for an extension based on marriage or retirement (I don't know which).

What a tragedy after a lifetime of working hard to end up like this. He has mentioned suicide several times. Tragic.

[Pedrogaz]

27 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

is this really your place? i thought everyone on TV lives in a 5000 baht room in Thailand. 

He's a scouser so you never know.

[Bullie]

4 hours ago, justin case said:

an illegal in EU can bring not only his whole family, but also grandparents, uncles and aunts, they never have to work one day and get everything for free...

 

compare that to thailand:  you have to prove you have money and nothing is giving, quite the opposite... more bullcrap every day/week/month...

.

Utter cowdung, my dear sir. Only after one has been granted asylum (no easy feat, only 35 % succeed, it takes several years) they may be given the right to let their immediate family (parents and siblings up to 18 yrs old). For this they will have to pay themselves. Also permission will NOT be granted if they don't integrate sufficiently (learning the language, finding a job etc.).

[Max69xl]

9 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

With a Thai wife, the only place we can really go is back to states. There's no state I want to live in. Florida is best option I'm looking at. Still, its a weird place.

 

I don't like the fact real estate is such a horrible value. Nothing to call my own. If I weren't married it wouldn't bother me. I'd like to be more settled into my elder years.

 

Think it's a bloody crime I can't get PR after a few years. Even the Japanese are ok with this.

You always have the investment option if you want to go for the PR.

But it will cost a few million baht,I guess.

[Essex Reject]

I admit I'm stuck here and admit I'm bored to tears, and not too proud to admit that to people in real life or to weirdo's on here. I'm getting immune to it now and console myself in the fact that life could be a lot worse. I live in a nice house with family and have all creature comforts I need and am not poor. Just biding my time now before I finally leave this place behind. I won't be looking back either.

 

Also couldn't care less if I'm booted out either, and will never file a TM30, whatever that is.

[Number 6]

1 minute ago, Max69xl said:

You always have the investment option if you want to go for the PR.

But it will cost a few million baht,I guess.

I just don't want to be here bad enough. Further, if Japan can give it away why not Thailand? Finally, wife can be IR1 in three months so why even bother? Condo on the coast of southern Florida.

 

When recession hits and housing drops it will be a less difficult choice. Holding pattern till 60-62 but there's nothing keeping me.

 

Coral is gone, beaches are polluted, air is polluted, footpaths are smelly and broken. There's no government. The nation is at best moving sideways. Real estate...can't own a home. Condos are dreadful and 45-70% overpriced. Alcohol overtaxed.

 

TM7, TM27, 90 day, extension... it's a gulag of my own choosing.

[Bullie]

1 hour ago, Max69xl said:

There's no requirement for an invited Thai to the NL on a tourist visa to learn to speak Dutch. That's BS. Maybe if she applies for a permanent residency or want to become a naturalized NL citizen. Otherwise,no! And with a Schengen visa she can visit other countries. I said visit.

What don't you understand about " If I want to come to the Netherlands with my wife and live together" ? No mention was made of tourists or tourist visa's. As you say, utter cow manure - on your part.

 

And there is no "maybe" about having to learn to speak Dutch if you apply for permanent residency: it's a pre-requisite, and we call it "inburgering".

 

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Bullie

[Essex Reject]

13 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

I just don't want to be here bad enough. Further, if Japan can give it away why not Thailand? Finally, wife can be IR1 in three months so why even bother? Condo on the coast of southern Florida.

 

When recession hits and housing drops it will be a less difficult choice. Holding pattern till 60-62 but there's nothing keeping me.

 

Coral is gone, beaches are polluted, air is polluted, footpaths are smelly and broken. There's no government. The nation is at best moving sideways. Real estate...can't own a home. Condos are dreadful and 45-70% overpriced. Alcohol overtaxed.

 

TM7, TM27, 90 day, extension... it's a gulag of my own choosing.

Yep, how i feel. Done with this place and just biding time now.

 

My 7 year old son said to me just yesterday 'Daddy when I'm grown up I don't want to work in Thailand as only get little bit money' I need to get him out.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Essex Reject

[NightSky]

The op has what I call verbal posteriaitis 

 

another person who thinks everyone travels to Thailand for one thing only

 

i can’t even be bothered to explain how long it takes to wind down a business, sell a house and prepare visas for family to travel and settle elsewhere 

 

i bet the op doesn’t have any of these responsibilities to manage and I bet he/she thinks that is cool. An adult with a child’s mindset.

 

 

[malibukid]

On 8/30/2019 at 4:14 AM, Cryingdick said:

They continuously run the math and realize it's still the cheapest place to get drunk and screw.  Every three months there is a wishful thinking thread about Mexico or Cambodia that has already been done before. The math is gone through over and over and the conclusion is that Thailand is the best place for the down and out. Another theme is there are better places but if you are already settled in Thailand it is too costly to move. It's a money thing and nothing more.

maybe some of us with money just like Thailand for other reasons.  ever thought of that?  America is a S**thole now.  and i am from Beverly Hills.

[GinBoy2]

28 minutes ago, Essex Reject said:

I admit I'm stuck here and admit I'm bored to tears, and not too proud to admit that to people in real life or to weirdo's on here. I'm getting immune to it now and console myself in the fact that life could be a lot worse. I live in a nice house with family and have all creature comforts I need and am not poor. Just biding my time now before I finally leave this place behind. I won't be looking back either.

 

Also couldn't care less if I'm booted out either, and will never file a TM30, whatever that is.

I must admit when I finally called it quits, boredom was apart from all the other niggles that build up over time, a biggie.

 

Wasn't that I don't speak or read Thai, I do, so I understand everything around me. But eventually I just found everything around me banal.

 

Conversations with Thai's seemed to lack any depth, and since I couldn't work, nothing much to stimulate me.

 

Going back now on a couple of months snowbird vacation every year, I'm perfectly happy to interact on a superficial basis, since I know it ends in a few weeks! 

Edited August 31, 2019 by GinBoy2

[malibukid]

On 8/30/2019 at 10:42 AM, simon43 said:

I left 2 weeks ago ????

i left when Bush was elected, but i had the means to do so.  can not blame the people who stayed and had to work or had family ties.

[Max69xl]

21 minutes ago, Bullie said:

What don't you understand about " If I want to come to the Netherlands with my wife and live together" ? No mention was made of tourists or tourist visa's. As you say, utter cow manure - on your part.

 

And there is no "maybe" about having to learn to speak Dutch if you apply for permanent residency: it's a pre-requisite, and we call it "inburgering".

 

 

You normally always start with the invitation on a tourist visa,right? Then I guess it will take a while until time for applying for PR. So, you're actually already living together.

[simon43]

59 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

You left to Myanmar as well. See how that worked out. Lao is a lovely place but I could never live so far from the ocean personally. Then there's the Communist thing. 

I absolutely loved living in Myanmar!  Happy as a pig in sh*t ????  The only reason why I left late last year was because I switched from teaching in the classroom to teaching online.  Although Myanmar has a fast mobile network, the gateway to the international www is a bit of a bottleneck...  So I relocated back to Thaiand and now to Laos, where the internet gateway is faster.

 

When I lived 1 km from the beach in Phuket, I rarely went to sit on the sand.  Too boring....  As for the communist government, like Vietnam, it seems in name only.  The only contact I've had with the 'commie' government is getting my ham radio licence and the staff at the government office in Vientiane couldn't have been more helpful ????

[morqai]

On 8/29/2019 at 11:26 PM, Kenny202 said:

What a nasty lot of people on here. Why would you talk so badly about people you dont even know or that you perceive to have less than you? Who is they and who said "they" havent left for anywhere else? Do you have any numbers or stats to back up this nothing post?

ohhh man, I could not agree more with you, just afraid this is going to be more and more "normal" .... actually that is a bad choice of words, it is all ready "normal" sadly.

[Bundooman]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 4:14 AM, Cryingdick said:

They continuously run the math and realize it's still the cheapest place to get drunk and screw.  Every three months there is a wishful thinking thread about Mexico or Cambodia that has already been done before. The math is gone through over and over and the conclusion is that Thailand is the best place for the down and out. Another theme is there are better places but if you are already settled in Thailand it is too costly to move. It's a money thing and nothing more.

Presumably, you're not one of the above described, "down and outs" in Thailand then?

 

So please explain why you, oh chosen one, are still here yourself.

 

Or are you just an armchair "smug one" in another country just spouting off?

[simon43]

He stays home and drinks himself into oblivion every afternoon.

 

Rather than p*ssing his baht away, he could change his lifestyle for the better.  Cut down on the booze ciggies etc, eat healthy food and do some exercise.

I know it's easy to suggest these things, but often difficult to break out of a monotonous existance.

 

 

He lives on about 30,000 baht a month

 

I live in a relatively expensive house-rent (15,000 baht/ month).  I pay just under 5,000 baht a month for medical insurance.  Since moving from Thailand to Laos, my daily food bill has reduced from under 300 baht to under 200 baht. I eat fresh and healthy food, as well as the occasional beer.

 

30,000 baht is easily enough to have an enjoyable life if you're not an alkie.

 

 

[MadMuhammad]

55 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I have a pal in his 70s.....he cannot afford to go out for a beer with the other English speakers anymore due to the weakness of the pound. What a sad state of affairs. He stays home and drinks himself into oblivion every afternoon.

He is also too poor to move anywhere else.

As they say, when poverty comes in the door, love flies out of the window......he and his wife are estranged but cannot afford to separate and so remain in the same house. He lives on about 30,000 baht a month and pays 25000 to an agent each your for an extension based on marriage or retirement (I don't know which).

What a tragedy after a lifetime of working hard to end up like this. He has mentioned suicide several times. Tragic.

Maybe he should consider giving up drinking if he can’t afford it? Do people really need the dots connected for them that badly.... 

[from the home of CC]

On 8/30/2019 at 4:14 AM, Cryingdick said:

The math is gone through over and over and the conclusion is that Thailand is the best place for the down and out

Unfortunately for some those times are almost over due to when the embassies decided not to aid and abet in the lying about financials. I believe Thailand realized this and that's why they asked the embassies 'do you guarantee this citizen of your country really does have the money?' they wouldn't do it. When the embassies wouldn't guarantee this to Thailand that marked the beginning of the end of 'down and out tourism'. 

[Letseng]

On 8/30/2019 at 2:51 AM, aqua4 said:

You:

1. They are poor; OR

2. They like the nightlife;

 

Maybe:

1. The cost of relocating is a pain; (sell house/condo into a soft market)

2. Too old to move and start again;

3. Procrastination and gotten used to the uncertainty;

4. Hoping it changes; (which I doubt)

5. What to do with Thai wife and/or kids; (they are now a liability)

6. Just to lazy to do anything other than moan;

7. Hoping it does not affect them later as they can still wiggle for now.

 

 

Not to forget learning a new language e.g. Spanish.

[Max69xl]

28 minutes ago, malibukid said:

maybe some of us with money just like Thailand for other reasons.  ever thought of that?  America is a S**thole now.  and i am from Beverly Hills.

If you got 60-65 baht for the £ for a decade,and then 2016 (Brexit or not) it really started to drop,now you get around 37 baht for the £. It's a major drop. That's what he meant by doing the math every day. If the UK leaves without a deal in October, you "might" get around 30 baht for the £. About same as for the $.