Thailand drops in ranking of best places for expats - but which country is number 1?

[Mavideol]

1 minute ago, Destiny1990 said:

Yes i be curious how they will explain and or defend  this significant drop in their ranking and also how all of a sudden Vietnam is shining so brightly with their second place.

you and all of of us will be surprised with the BS coming but it will come... same when they said ""TM30 not that bad..."'

[Percy P]

5 hours ago, alex8912 said:

Why in the real world are expats hard working , high salary people living abroad and in Thailand many think a down and out guy in Isarn is one? 

 

What is a down and out.  

[Dr No]

This will surely keep some bar room boyz chatting until the water buffalo comes home.....Zzzzzzzzz

[whitemouse]

50 minutes ago, Duck J Butters said:

Lol. What an absolute load of rubbish. More “cancel culture“ “Safe space” “fake news” “Political correctness” propaganda being pushed by Thai Visa.

 

Actually, as far as Safe Space culture, Cancel Culture, and Fake News,  Thailand is world leader, and not counting North Korea and worst Africans dictatorships, Thailand is No1 in the world now. 

[jondoe18]

9 minutes ago, 4675636b596f75 said:

Or perhaps being held hostage and made to post a ridiculous face saving  message.

maybe beaten wife syndrom 

[DUNROAMIN]

5 hours ago, WeekendRaider said:

Thailand wins hands down.  rural Thailand.  show me where I am wrong.  aside from having to acquire the lower diglossia, the pluses outweigh all comers even if you have plenty of money by western standards and can choose where to live such as maybe rural Vermont, places like that.

self sufficiency.  food.  self policing.  a sense that folks treat everyone as family, generally.  where the village takes care of just about everything.    

water.  we will be okay for consumption, even during more pervasive and intense ENSO conditions.  no journal literature I have seen is not optimistic overall for northern Thailand and maybe Issan too, in a general way versus the rest of the........ planet.  to top it off,  where I live the Thai government just announced a new reservoir.  and except for the klong in my village that is lower than the exit pipe that heads out to the paddy, in recent years many improvements.  

housing is DIY or local labor, and we are able to quickly adapt for Climate Change.  no ridiculous permits needed.  and doing projects to get ready for what will come soon enough is really important now.  in 2019.  it's getting real obvious.  Rosenfeld et. al. in February Science, Mandy Freund et. al in Nat Geosci May 2019 and that July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded, and 2019 was barely above a neutral ENSO condition.

the only serous minus is that the grid probably won't hold up in any kind of serious heat wave.  what was true for Chicago in 1995, New York City in 2019 and Texas in recent weeks is likely to also unfold anywhere else.  and in my village we drop down to 170 volts quite often and have almost daily blackouts.  that's now and notwithstanding it is a local political thing and merely a new transformer is needed, it doesn't ring very good.  but grid failures are a different thing entirely. in heatwaves they could last for days or weeks and today everyone uses electric water pumps.  and fans and water will be critical.  critical.  but this one for your own family situation obviously can be mitigated.  it's that it may be a larger issue for many other folks that it becomes the only warning light I see going forward, even if we face the worst situations quite readily such as a recurrence of the 2015-2016 ENSO.  but the Thai government has done quite a few projects where I live to prepare for most of that, just not how villages will power the water pumps that fill the towers.  solar of course.  

 

and one trap for the unwary (unread).  air con is not an answer.  get along without that one.  it is not a good thing to lean on at all.  we need to adopt to higher temperatures.  solar and batteries drop performance wise in 40 plus C temperatures.  and the other solutions are more resilient and helpful for surviving heat.  and to be ready for both dry heat waves and wet bulb ones.  different problems and different solutions.   but those can be covered... and we will need to do that almost anywhere you live even if The Woz is your neighbor down there in whatever that island is off of Australia.
   

      


 

 

Self policing, Mmmm, average road toll each year 25,000 plus, yep, good self policing there. No rules or regulations for building, no control on sewage run off into the underground water and rivers, yep, Thailand leading the way forward, not.

[joecoolfrog]

5 hours ago, BobbyL said:

As a real expat that is living and working here legally then it offers a lot of positives. My salary is higher here than in England and I get extra benefits that I wouldn't get back home (bonus, flights, housing allowance etc).

 

For people who are retired or trying to wing it here on tourists visas then this study isn't really for you. The only thing that has massively annoyed me over the last year or so has been the TM30 nonsense, whereas the high BHT and low GBP has been great for me. 

Good for you but it isn't an ' im ok Jack ' survey. It is a comparative and in this respect Thailand is clearly slipping , not least in a regional aspect.

[moontang]

I have been looking at buying a second home.  There is still some affordable real estate left in the US.. but how about 72 usd for sewer, and 30 for trash? Also, electric can cost you 30 before you even use any.  My Spanish is way better than my Thai, but Mexico is scary.. the real cops are worse than the imposter.  Not a fan of that church 98% go to either.  With a little diligence, I have no problems with a lot of the stuff that fills pages here.. living and working here on TR. and then screaming bloody murder when you get called out a year or two later.  my biggest gripe is with the way they unfairly play the trade game.. It causes their own to suffer much more than me, though.  The places in the US that actually have a strong job market have a brutal cost of living, and often have terrible schools and serious crime problems.  Was reading earlier about deportees committing rapes in very affluent Montgomery County MD.. they shouldn't have even been in the country, and had been deported before.  It represents a serious deterioration in the Rule of Law.  

[Deli]

6 hours ago, WeekendRaider said:

Thailand wins hands down.  rural Thailand.  show me where I am wrong.  aside from having to acquire the lower diglossia, the pluses outweigh all comers even if you have plenty of money by western standards and can choose where to live such as maybe rural Vermont, places like that.

self sufficiency.  food.  self policing.  a sense that folks treat everyone as family, generally.  where the village takes care of just about everything.    

water.  we will be okay for consumption, even during more pervasive and intense ENSO conditions.  no journal literature I have seen is not optimistic overall for northern Thailand and maybe Issan too, in a general way versus the rest of the........ planet.  to top it off,  where I live the Thai government just announced a new reservoir.  and except for the klong in my village that is lower than the exit pipe that heads out to the paddy, in recent years many improvements.  

housing is DIY or local labor, and we are able to quickly adapt for Climate Change.  no ridiculous permits needed.  and doing projects to get ready for what will come soon enough is really important now.  in 2019.  it's getting real obvious.  Rosenfeld et. al. in February Science, Mandy Freund et. al in Nat Geosci May 2019 and that July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded, and 2019 was barely above a neutral ENSO condition.

the only serous minus is that the grid probably won't hold up in any kind of serious heat wave.  what was true for Chicago in 1995, New York City in 2019 and Texas in recent weeks is likely to also unfold anywhere else.  and in my village we drop down to 170 volts quite often and have almost daily blackouts.  that's now and notwithstanding it is a local political thing and merely a new transformer is needed, it doesn't ring very good.  but grid failures are a different thing entirely. in heatwaves they could last for days or weeks and today everyone uses electric water pumps.  and fans and water will be critical.  critical.  but this one for your own family situation obviously can be mitigated.  it's that it may be a larger issue for many other folks that it becomes the only warning light I see going forward, even if we face the worst situations quite readily such as a recurrence of the 2015-2016 ENSO.  but the Thai government has done quite a few projects where I live to prepare for most of that, just not how villages will power the water pumps that fill the towers.  solar of course.  

 

and one trap for the unwary (unread).  air con is not an answer.  get along without that one.  it is not a good thing to lean on at all.  we need to adopt to higher temperatures.  solar and batteries drop performance wise in 40 plus C temperatures.  and the other solutions are more resilient and helpful for surviving heat.  and to be ready for both dry heat waves and wet bulb ones.  different problems and different solutions.   but those can be covered... and we will need to do that almost anywhere you live even if The Woz is your neighbor down there in whatever that island is off of Australia.
   

      


 

 

Your name must be Tarzan. That's no quality life for me

[ICELANDMAN]

6 hours ago, Old Croc said:

I have trouble understanding how Italy is ranked second bottom, just below Nigeria.

I think you've never lived in Italy

Edited September 6, 2019 by ICELANDMAN

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand is less popular as a destination for expats compared to one year ago, according to the latest Expat Insider survey

Treat expats who have lived here as a potential criminal element, impose ridiculous annual checks, keep 90 day monitoring and now TM30 reporting should we go visit another province what do you expect?

[Deerculler]

For those thinking of Vietnam

Thete is a big difference between North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

If I was thinking of VN. 

I would go north.

The people are very different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Parsve]

A bit of strange that Thailand is strongest on "easy girls" and the gouverment do what they can to stop that, and of course also to make expats and tourists to not feel velcome.

[ICELANDMAN]

2 hours ago, Thainess said:

This is a joke, obviously. They've actually put the ones that are the worst at the top. Italy is said to be almost the worst, but it has just about the best food culture and, in many places, the best climate in the world, as well as the world's best fashion and design, some of the best-looking women, and the best fast cars on the planet. This survey is either a joke, or they only interviewed morons.

I went to Italy many times and thought I had the wrong country, on the streets I didn't see an Italian only a multitude of foreigners, I not sure If I no make mistake travel????

[DrTuner]

2 hours ago, Percy P said:

Listen to China Radio International ( CRI ) English . On Short wave. radio programme ang learn Chinese.

Why would I want to do that, none of the mandarin speaking countries are on my list, not even in the "maybe" section.

[mok199]

8 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Both nice places.

Vung Tao...lived a year, loved it...now doing 20 to life in Thailand with no chance of parole...

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, Percy P said:

What is a down and out.  

Broke arsed.

[PatOngo]

18 minutes ago, mok199 said:

Vung Tao...lived a year, loved it...now doing 20 to life in Thailand with no chance of parole...

Better than Pattaya!

[Ketyo]

The UK is at 58. Just 4 places above Nigeria. How did such a sh*t country even get on the scoreboard?

[Shalom]

9 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

That is you talking about you.

It has become too expensive for you, the guest.

I still find it quite inexpensive 1/4 of my home country costs.

Where you came from? Monaco?

[Shalom]

36 minutes ago, Ketyo said:

The UK is at 58. Just 4 places above Nigeria. How did such a sh*t country even get on the scoreboard?

Because now UK is full with Nigerians. 

[kevin612]

I am not surprised because the   90 days reporting is really getting on my nerve.

[holy cow cm]

6 hours ago, wisperone said:

If you can't afford it, it's not for you. Joke is on you.

You're out of line. Rethink your comment and be nicer. If you have any clue about anything here. 

[Scot123]

10 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

That is you talking about you.

It has become too expensive for you, the guest.

I still find it quite inexpensive 1/4 of my home country costs.

Well last October my wife and I started thinking about leaving Thailand and returning to the UK (best move we ever did) I started comparing prices when shopping in Tops and big C and comparing prices to Tesco UK and nearly all our shopping was going to be cheaper in the UK. I looked at fuel and the fact that I would not be driving as much and in a 3lt SUV means I am now spending a third on fuel. I was worrying about gas/electric bills KI am shocked) but only a little more expensive @ £60 a month. We no longer have to pay school fees and are no longer worried about having to go see a doctor or hospital the big relief for me is not worrying about dengue again. Things that were always cheaper in Thailand no longer are like clothes or vehicles. I love Thailand but greed has destroyed itself. 

[Brickbat]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand still affordable and good for those looking for love

Quite a joke! Maybe good for those willing to gamble their life savings. There will certainly be the odd success, but on the whole, it’s fraught with many dangers. Be vulnerable and you end up on the chopping board. 

[whaleboneman]

2 hours ago, Ketyo said:

The UK is at 58. Just 4 places above Nigeria. How did such a sh*t country even get on the scoreboard?

I guess many people still find the UK attractive - so that's how it got on the scoreboard.

[Lokie]

27 minutes ago, whaleboneman said:

I guess many people still find the UK attractive - so that's how it got on the scoreboard.

Free Healthcare to all plus all their extended families, easy access to government help and handouts free accommodation arranged pretty easily yep not a bad place to get the family over too and reap the rewards...

 

Can then send money back home via all the Western Union places that have opened up in last few years Great Britain Yes!!

 

 

 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

You guys realise this whole thing is only for WORKING expats?

 

Whos surprised here that working in Thailand isn't that great?

 

If you don't have to work as most people here prolly or work offshore it all looks different...

 

That whole thing is so absolutely weird.

Denmark is second last place in personal happyness?? https://www.thelocal.dk/20190321/denmark-now-worlds-second-happiest-country-after-latest-report

Quality of Life in Thailand is better than in the USA?!

China is last place for digital??

Childcare and Education - germany, switzerland, uk, japan, USA BEHIND thailand, south africa, mexico and philiphines - good joke.

Quality of education USA behind Thailand... for sure. 

Personal finance - Vietnam first and the UAE (DUBAI!!),UK, Canada, New Zealand at the bottom, are you kidding? 

Edited September 6, 2019 by ThomasThBKK

[Bangkokazy]

12 hours ago, ThailandGuy said:

I can only second this. 10-15 years ago everybody I know still would advice Thailand. Now the opposite is true. They don't even think about mentioning it.  Negativism about Thailand is getting the overhand. Thailand the land of smiles lost its smile or at least showing it's smile of the worst kind.

????✈️

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by Bangkokazy

[Percy P]

14 hours ago, the guest said:

Nobody is recommending Thailand at all. The country has become too hostile towards foreigners, and it's too expensive. 

 

Please stop spreading fake news that Thailand is popular, its not !

It only expensive if you rely on foreign money to finance yourself. If you are working earning Baht ok.

My money supply is £ sterling. 2008 the pound was worth 178/£ now 37.422B/£ so l am now having to pay twice the amount in Pound's Sterling than in 2008 but this has nothing to do with Thailand. Its the collapse  of western money, If the Dollar decreases in value against the Baht the Baht will increase in value.  

Edited September 6, 2019 by Percy P