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

[Max69xl]

1 hour ago, ThomasThBKK said:

 

Maybe because it's just a random survey?

Most other "lists" look different: https://nomadlist.com/

 

Canggu, Bangkok, Budapest, Chiang Mai, Seoul are the top 5 here, Seoul is like bottom in your quoted listed.

 

As someone who has an office in Seoul - i absolutely can't comprehend why South Korea would be on bottom of such an expat list, Korea is a very well functioning country for business and living, and you can stay indefinite with visa runs and you can get permanent residency after 3 years easily.

In my opinion, it's how serious the survey is and how you answer the questions. You can get a totally wrong result if you're not answering the questions 100% seriously. When some people answer the questions in anger because they have had problems here and there, you'll understand the result of the survey will be totally useless.

[Destiny1990]

2 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

In my opinion, it's how serious the survey is and how you answer the questions. You can get a totally wrong result if you're not answering the questions 100% seriously. When some people answer the questions in anger because they have had problems here and there, you'll understand the result of the survey will be totally useless.

It was a random survey amongst Expat communities  living  in Various Countries.

 

[lambchops]

On 9/6/2019 at 3:45 PM, dbrenn said:

Best country rankings like these are so subjective. One man's meat is another man's poison.

Lower than Kazakhstan I tell you haha

Met an Irish guy in Soi 4 that reckoned Turkey was a great place to live. Had a Thai  female friend fly over without trouble apparently.

Bank interest rates so high that caution should be exercised though.

[ThomasThBKK]

1 hour ago, Destiny1990 said:

Yes I noticed after clicking on them that you put lots of meaningless links in most of your posts.

 

That's called sources, but some people here seem to prefer made up stuff instead.

[DrTuner]

3 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Most other "lists" look different: https://nomadlist.com/

That one's got a handy filter, thanks. After putting in basics like freedom of speech, ease of doing business, non-arctic climate .. it gave the usual suspects, US/CA (South)/OZ/EU (South). Not a lot of choices, the whole earth has gone down the tubes. When are the Mars trips due again?

[Max69xl]

30 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

That's called sources, but some people here seem to prefer made up stuff instead.

Made up stuff= TVF posters sources. ????

[Destiny1990]

5 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

Made up stuff= TVF posters sources. ????

What he does is insert some link and then mixes in his own biased interpretation of it.

One of his inserted links was about  A you tube blogger who  was denied access in Vietnam. He then adds with that link how difficult immigration is in Vietnam for foreigners!..But i clicked on his link and read the whole story about the blogger had received the wrong dated visa stamps in his passport from the Vietnam Embassy in Laos dated  the year 1900 !

Of course with such wrongly dated visa stamp you have a problem to enter any country  duhhhhh.

[ThomasThBKK]

4 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

What he does is insert some link and then mixes in his own biased interpretation of it.

One of his inserted links was about  A you tube blogger who  was denied access in Vietnam. He then adds with that link how difficult immigration is in Vietnam for foreigners!..But i clicked on his link and read the whole story about the blogger had received the wrong dated visa stamps in his passport from the Vietnam Embassy in Laos dated  the year 1900 !

Of course with such wrongly dated visa stamp you have a problem to enter any country  duhhhhh.

Biased because i dealt in that hole before, oh did you know that recently after the new election a lot of foreigners lost all their money in vietnam because the building companies who where building condos where ordered to stop from the new el presidente because they didn't pay him enough? 

 

Go ahead, go there, invest some Money, lose some money, report back. 

 

Ps: Why you aren't busy on the vietnam visw forum, which doesn't exist, is beyond me. 

PS2: of course my opinion is biased, opinions are always biased. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by ThomasThBKK

[Selatan]

On 9/9/2019 at 11:35 PM, Max69xl said:

Even if you can gamble and drink beer it's a truly muslim country.

You're a bit naive. Stay there long term if you want. Up to you.

Doesn't have to live in a muslim country to have a muslim problem. Look at Thailand and the Philippines with their muslim insurgency problems down south.

[Ron jeremy]

50 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Biased because i dealt in that hole before, oh did you know that recently after the new election a lot of foreigners lost all their money in vietnam because the building companies who where building condos where ordered to stop from the new el presidente because they didn't pay him enough? 

 

Go ahead, go there, invest some Money, lose some money, report back. 

 

Ps: Why you aren't busy on the vietnam visw forum, which doesn't exist, is beyond me. 

PS2: of course my opinion is biased, opinions are always biased. 

Vietnam happens to be the fastest growing economy in SEA, business owners speak of the ease of doing business there, it does have an expat forum, and I do recall so many retirees losing their shirts on the Bali hai pier condo debaucle in pattaya.

Look what happened to blogger Richard barrow after speaking out about the tm-30, sudden visa issues.

never seen a military takeover in Vietnam, terrorist bombings in Thailand since 2016 total 6543 deaths and 11,919 in njuries, never seen a terrorist attack in Vietnam, no airport takeovers, no riots in the streets. No bombings in the tourist areas like erawin shrine and hau hin. 

Maybe not so bad after all. 

People are happy there.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Ron jeremy

[ThomasThBKK]

35 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

Vietnam happens to be the fastest growing economy in SEA, business owners speak of the ease of doing business there, it does have an expat forum, and I do recall so many retirees losing their shirts on the Bali hai pier condo debaucle in pattaya.

Look what happened to blogger Richard barrow after speaking out about the tm-30, sudden visa issues.

never seen a military takeover in Vietnam, terrorist bombings in Thailand since 2016 total 6543 deaths and 11,919 in njuries, never seen a terrorist attack in Vietnam, no airport takeovers, no riots in the streets. No bombings in the tourist areas like erawin shrine and hau hin. 

Maybe not so bad after all. 

People are happy there.

https://tradingeconomics.com/vietnam/ease-of-doing-business

 

yeah....no.

[bigginhill]

On 9/6/2019 at 8:05 AM, Old Croc said:

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

Been expat in Italy for 38years. The country has everything going for it. But it's so widely mismanaged, it would be hard to pull us up now. Also we are now held ransom by Merkle, and her hench men Standard and Poors, Moodies. If we choose a government that doesnt suit  the EU, or approve regulations they don,t like, the spread goes through the roof and we are indebited even more. They have us by the short and curlies. 

There is no way out.  

[bigginhill]

On 9/6/2019 at 12:52 PM, 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.

This is so true. It makes it so frustrating that we are in an economical nightmare. So it,s a great place to visit, but the working and living it made extremely hard. 

Add better health care than in the Uk. Not the structures but the health checks. At an older age I wouldn.t trust the Uk, here they will definitely look after you no matter your age. However, I wouldn,t advise being alone in hospital. You need "family". 

 

[lkv]

11 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

What he does is insert some link and then mixes in his own biased interpretation of it.

One of his inserted links was about  A you tube blogger who  was denied access in Vietnam. He then adds with that link how difficult immigration is in Vietnam for foreigners!..But i clicked on his link and read the whole story about the blogger had received the wrong dated visa stamps in his passport from the Vietnam Embassy in Laos dated  the year 1900 !

Of course with such wrongly dated visa stamp you have a problem to enter any country  duhhhhh.

Not to mention he eventually got in, after paying USD 25.

[White Christmas13]

On 9/10/2019 at 11:47 PM, Selatan said:

Doesn't have to live in a muslim country to have a muslim problem. Look at Thailand and the Philippines with their muslim insurgency problems down south.

correct they have more problems with Muslims in non Muslim countries

 

[Redline]

On 9/6/2019 at 1:43 AM, 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.
   

      


 

 

I’m not going without AC in BKK 

[Jingthing]

I would separate working expats and retired expats for determining the best.

 

For working, Taiwan and Vietnam seems about right.

 

For retired, Portugal and Mexico seems about right too. But health care is an issue so Portugal would be better for E.U. people and Mexico would be better for retirees without preexisting conditions (can't get into their national program with them and a private plan if you can get it would be very expensive with exclusions similar to the situation in Thailand).

 

I would also rate Ecuador and Colombia highly because they offer health care system buy in for retired expats regardless of age of preexisting conditions.

Edited September 13, 2019 by Jingthing

[Penefattore]

On 9/6/2019 at 1:05 PM, Old Croc said:

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

just stay there long enough to have to do your first tax report and you will understand

[CaptainNemo]

On 9/6/2019 at 11:30 AM, 3421abc said:

Not surprised Thailand is just above Morocco. However I am surprised VIETNAM is NUMBER 2!!!!!!!!! My rental contract ends in mid February and I am seriously thinking of moving to HCMC. Great to see Vietnam rising to the top. I tried to move to Taiwan 2 yrs ago but visa was difficult and I am not a fan of earthquakes.

The criteria they are using don't necessarily apply to most people who like living abroad.

Vietnam, like lots of places, has pretty girls; it has nice food; but all the practicalities of life might start to get you down. I think Japan is very underrated for actual quality of life, and for being somewhere you actually want to be.

Some of these places seem good on paper, like in Malaysia you can own land, or in Singapore there's lots of high paying jobs, or in Cambodia it's easy to get visas and set up a business, or in Korea its so high tech, or in Bali it's so cheap etc... but when you're actually there, do you actually enjoy it? Is it boring? Is it fun? Can you get the things you really want? A nice place, a hot girl, good food, a decent gym, no visa or money dramas?

I can imagine Czechland and Portugal are genuinely nice places to be, and I have a friend who's been in Taiwan for years and bought a place there, but Bahrain? really? you wanna be there? Mexico? enjoying it, are you? Hmm... lots of these are specific to the kinds of income streams you can have there, being a professional teacher, or being retired, but not always great for other options.

 

I also don't get how Italy could possibly be lower than Nigeria... the points scoring on this seems inferior to a site like nomadlist for instance.

[CaptainNemo]

On 9/13/2019 at 11:27 AM, Jingthing said:

I would separate working expats and retired expats for determining the best.

 

For working, Taiwan and Vietnam seems about right.

 

For retired, Portugal and Mexico seems about right too. But health care is an issue so Portugal would be better for E.U. people and Mexico would be better for retirees without preexisting conditions (can't get into their national program with them and a private plan if you can get it would be very expensive with exclusions similar to the situation in Thailand).

 

I would also rate Ecuador and Colombia highly because they offer health care system buy in for retired expats regardless of age of preexisting conditions.

Depends what you do.

 

I mean if you mean like a proper professonal job, then Singapore and Japan have proper salaries, but you might not like the work culture in Japan. You wouldn't like the wages in Portugal, but it's nice there.

If you work online (e.g.: coding; trading; webdeveloping; ecommerce), you want infrastructure. If you work offshore, then it doesn't matter so much, you're always just visiting. If you're retired you prioritise healthcare and golf; if your teaching, you might prioritise visas and partying.

[CaptainNemo]

On 9/10/2019 at 11:21 PM, Ron jeremy said:

Vietnam happens to be the fastest growing economy in SEA,

I've seen big growth numbers posted for Indonesia too, but have you ever been to Jakarta?!

On 9/10/2019 at 11:21 PM, Ron jeremy said:

business owners speak of the ease of doing business there,

LOL

On 9/10/2019 at 11:21 PM, Ron jeremy said:

it does have an expat forum, and I do recall so many retirees losing their shirts on the Bali hai pier condo debaucle in pattaya.

Look what happened to blogger Richard barrow after speaking out about the tm-30, sudden visa issues.

never seen a military takeover in Vietnam,

They took over in the 60s and 70s...

On 9/10/2019 at 11:21 PM, Ron jeremy said:

 

terrorist bombings in Thailand since 2016 total 6543 deaths and 11,919 in njuries, never seen a terrorist attack in Vietnam, no airport takeovers, no riots in the streets. No bombings in the tourist areas like erawin shrine and hau hin. 

Maybe not so bad after all. 

People are happy there.

People are boring there, and not as friendly, lots more petty crime, it's not <deleted>-ri-la.

[CaptainNemo]

On 9/9/2019 at 10:35 PM, Max69xl said:

Even if you can gamble and drink beer it's a truly muslim country.

You're a bit naive. Stay there long term if you want. Up to you.

Not as cheap either. Even in Indo, boring Bintang is 50,000 Rupiah+ a bottle at the cheapest places, what's that? 100+THB? You can get two bottles of Leo for that in Big C, and a lot less restricted, especially in countryside. You have to pay like a 200,000+ for a bottle of Duvel in a tokobahagia in the middle of Jakarta.

[DrTuner]

37 minutes ago, CaptainNemo said:

Depends what you do.

And where you are from. Portugal has the added benefit for EU citizens that you don't need any visas at all.

[Destiny1990]

1 hour ago, CaptainNemo said:

The criteria they are using don't necessarily apply to most people who like living abroad.

Vietnam, like lots of places, has pretty girls; it has nice food; but all the practicalities of life might start to get you down. I think Japan is very underrated for actual quality of life, and for being somewhere you actually want to be.

Some of these places seem good on paper, like in Malaysia you can own land, or in Singapore there's lots of high paying jobs, or in Cambodia it's easy to get visas and set up a business, or in Korea its so high tech, or in Bali it's so cheap etc... but when you're actually there, do you actually enjoy it? Is it boring? Is it fun? Can you get the things you really want? A nice place, a hot girl, good food, a decent gym, no visa or money dramas?

I can imagine Czechland and Portugal are genuinely nice places to be, and I have a friend who's been in Taiwan for years and bought a place there, but Bahrain? really? you wanna be there? Mexico? enjoying it, are you? Hmm... lots of these are specific to the kinds of income streams you can have there, being a professional teacher, or being retired, but not always great for other options.

 

I also don't get how Italy could possibly be lower than Nigeria... the points scoring on this seems inferior to a site like nomadlist for instance.

Sure some what you say is correct for example i could feel happy in Japan while you don't feel comfortable there. There are no guarantees before trying it out in person however if one country shoots to the top of such list and another country crashes its ranking down the list that is usually for valid reasons !

[rott]

On 9/6/2019 at 1:00 PM, alex8912 said:

You lost me at rural Vermont. 

He lost me at diglossia.

 

But a least now I have not only heard of it but know what it means. Possibly I can score with educated women now.

 

Thank you weekendraider.!!!!