Are you content living in the land of smiles ?

[unblocktheplanet]

I’ve been here more than three decades. Bangkok is home but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

 

I have good days & bad days. Good days I notice the tropical flowers, bad days I notice pungent tropical garbage. BK is far different than village life. While I like having everything easily available, I rarely take advantage of most of it. Shopping malls are soulless places.

 

The pollution is really getting to me. And govt inaction, but that’s everywhere. Things will only get worse as all those new condo towers get filled with car owners. But it’s much the same in first-world LA (NOT Roi Et!)

 

As  well-read academic and omnivorous autodidact, I’m weary of not being able to voice my opinions. In other places, people have a choice to not listen. Here, speaking out could rub somebody powerful the wrong way and there would be personal consequences to one’s safety & freedom.

 

The impossibility of health insurance past age 70 is also of great concern. We don’t have a big enough bank balance to cover enormous hospital bills.

 

Pessimistically, I think things here will get worse—way worse. Perhaps they will soften eventually but I’m too old to wait.

 

We’ve told our Thai daughter to make a life for herself somewhere else. For us, though, there’s nowhere else to go.

[kuzie57]

Now 7 years full time and still love the place. The burning season is a definate worry as we all saw earlier this year. I think all our dollars , pounds , euro etc are taking a heavy hit which makes it more difficult for a lot of people here. Have a nice house a girlfriend of 8 years (been coming here since 2002) and live in the suburbs so don't have to worry about traffic too much. So yes am happy here.

[emptypockets]

5 hours ago, Kurtf said:

NO. And if I could sell my house and furnishings, I would be gone in a flash for reasons too numerous to list but driving on roads with idiots is among the top2 or three. The government and their regulations is number one.

Put the right price on the house and furnishings and it will sell in a flash.

[emptypockets]

4 hours ago, ragpicker said:

Thailand has not been the "Land of Smiles" for at least 20 years.

Your Thailand maybe. Not for everyone else.

[emptypockets]

4 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

I'm very content living here because I like spicy.My wife is spicy and more of a trictator than the trictator ruining the country,Thailand is spicy with spicy politics.Thais have a spicy sense of humour that I enjoy and they drive spicy and I must be the only falang that enjoys driving in Thai traffic very spicy.I can cook just about anything I want and have just found sausages that I can enjoy that are not spicy(sorry Rooster I don't like spicy sausage).I live in the only Thai province that has nothing in the ways of tourist attractions but the country side is very beautiful with humungous trees especially the drive to Yaso from Patiew and we don't seem to suffer the smoky air so much which is just bloody marvellous and better and cheaper internet than I ever had back home and can order anything in the world delivered to my door and they legalised cannabis!Brilliant! 

Who legalised cannabis?? Not in Thailand, unless you mean the medicinal stuff that wouldn't get you high even flying at 40,000 feet.

[Alex2554]

  As no other country in the world Thailand performs an excellent balance between order and chaos. Enjoy it or hate it depending on mentality

[fittobethaied]

During my business career I traveled all over SE Asia and lived in Taipei for 3.5 years and Manila for 11 years. When I moved to Thailand in 2010 I expected to assimilate as easily here as I did in other countries, but it has been an uphill battle ever since. I gave it a year before I invested in a home and I figured I was just a little slower than most people at adjusting and over time I would be okay, but that hasn't been the case. I know there will be some that will say "if you don't like it here why don't you just leave". That's oftentimes easier said than done. First off, my wife would never move away from her adult kids. I had a one time health event 4 years ago that scared me so badly that I liquidated all of my assets back in the US and transferred everything here in an attempt to make things easier on my wife in the event that I passed away sooner than I expected, so I have essentially "mopped myself into a corner".

 

I am OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), so I don't thrive well around chaos, disorder, people that don't obey basic rules and regulations, people who say one thing and mean another, people who's smile can mean 20 different things...and I could go on and on with a list of things that rob me of my contentment. Thailand is all of those things that rub me the wrong way. "Just change your attitude" you might say, but if you know anyone with OCD you will understand that is has nothing to do with attitude and more to do with just being wired differently than most people.

However, in spite of all of the things that I dislike about Thailand I have managed to carve out a fairly nice existence for myself. I spend a lot of time at home where I can control my environment and I try to avoid as much contact with the locals as I can. The females are tolerable, but the males are totally toxic to me and I have nothing to do with them. Life could be better, but I have learned that we humans can adapt to most any circumstance that life throws at us. I never thought I'd say this, but with all that's going on back in the US right now, I think I'm better off here in Thailand.  

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by fittobethaied

[Cheesekraft]

no, I find it miserable now. I am struggling financially now, but it is also much more expensive, less friendly, far more polluted, and more difficult to stay. I would take my family back to the States if I had the means to do so.

[Peterphuket]

1 hour ago, emptypockets said:

Put the right price on the house and furnishings and it will sell in a flash.

When it is in BKK, I agree with you, but upcountry, it is much, much more difficult.

I have in Hua-hin an apartment for sale for an affordable price for over 2 years, but still for sale.

[DJ54]

Yes like it very much and body preforms better in a hot climate...

[SteveK]

54 minutes ago, Cheesekraft said:

no, I find it miserable now. I am struggling financially now.

If you are having money problems, then Thailand is the worst place in the world you can possibly be.

[sanemax]

Just now, SteveK said:

If you are having money problems, then Thailand is the worst place in the world you can possibly be.

I do disagree , in Thailand you stay warm and clean for free and can always sleep outside .

  Much worse in cold climates to have fianacial problems 

[mngmn]

It seems to me that posters in threads like this trend to focus more on the fact that the UK/USA are awful places to live rather than how good Thailand is. Also puzzled by the comments on PC in Australia. Thailand has the strongest PC in the world. Discussing many topics there will get you incarcerated for life. I can pretty much say what I like in Australia providing it's not racist or inciting crime, violence etc.

[Speedhump]

Nice to see so many positive replies, it almost doesn't look like a TV thread. 

 

I agree, life is good, my only worry (and it is a worry), is my reducing pension. Otherwise I'm happy as a pig in what they like rolling in. I was 13 years in Dubai, with an incomparable lifestyle, spending like a fool, but I'm happy now with my quiet and cheap life. Small house, small car, wife and dog. Bliss, I just hope I can make the money stretch for another 15-20 years. 

[Nemises]

Warm weather all year. Cheap accommodation. Cheap local

food costs. Cheap whiskey. Cheap foot massages.
Retired, single, financially-secure, healthy with a late model car to travel safely all around the country continuously visiting gorgeous, happy, smiling, young, slim, sexually-giving girlfriends in many different provinces. 
There’s no other place on the planet that offers all of the above. 

So yeah. I’m very content thanks mate ✅

And thank you for making living the dream possible  Thailand ????. God Bless You. 
 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Rimmer

[SiSePuede419]

Depends on the individual.

 

If you're not happy before you moved here, Thailand ain't gonna make you happier.

 

If you are happy before, you will be happy here.

 

Any more questions? ????

[Drax]

19 hours ago, Yinn said:

Oh, is that why I wait so long?

 

 

I think you only only think about emergency road accident. 

Hospital do many other problem.

 

Better to have insurance IMO. 

Don’t ask me. In Bangkok usually I go to the ones next to icon Siam or clinic in srinakaharinwirot university. Never waited over 15 min. 
 

Oh and I have insurance for accidents & death (free at that). Just not general health. Then again most insurances don’t even cover that. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Drax

[ICELANDMAN]

14 hours ago, fittobethaied said:

During my business career I traveled all over SE Asia and lived in Taipei for 3.5 years and Manila for 11 years. When I moved to Thailand in 2010 I expected to assimilate as easily here as I did in other countries, but it has been an uphill battle ever since. I gave it a year before I invested in a home and I figured I was just a little slower than most people at adjusting and over time I would be okay, but that hasn't been the case. I know there will be some that will say "if you don't like it here why don't you just leave". That's oftentimes easier said than done. First off, my wife would never move away from her adult kids. I had a one time health event 4 years ago that scared me so badly that I liquidated all of my assets back in the US and transferred everything here in an attempt to make things easier on my wife in the event that I passed away sooner than I expected, so I have essentially "mopped myself into a corner".

 

I am OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), so I don't thrive well around chaos, disorder, people that don't obey basic rules and regulations, people who say one thing and mean another, people who's smile can mean 20 different things...and I could go on and on with a list of things that rob me of my contentment. Thailand is all of those things that rub me the wrong way. "Just change your attitude" you might say, but if you know anyone with OCD you will understand that is has nothing to do with attitude and more to do with just being wired differently than most people.

However, in spite of all of the things that I dislike about Thailand I have managed to carve out a fairly nice existence for myself. I spend a lot of time at home where I can control my environment and I try to avoid as much contact with the locals as I can. The females are tolerable, but the males are totally toxic to me and I have nothing to do with them. Life could be better, but I have learned that we humans can adapt to most any circumstance that life throws at us. I never thought I'd say this, but with all that's going on back in the US right now, I think I'm better off here in Thailand.  

 

Sorry for your OCD, maize I think Udon Thani city is not the best place to live, I lived 2 years in Udon and it was a bad experience for the chaotic traffic and the pollution, to continue living locked up in the house with the air conditioner it seems to me that what is not expected of the LOS, there are many more healthy and pleasant places to live in Thailand the only reason and that in Thailand and the wife who takes the lead which seems to me your case.

 

 

 

[BobbyL]

I am happy here in Bangkok now, but I am not sure if that will change in the future. I am 30 now but I do wonder what it might be like here in 5 - 10 years.

 

The lifestyle is very good and working in an international school in central Bangkok is literally a world apart from teaching in England. I earn more, have less work, the kids are a dream, get longer holidays and have a far more enjoyable day to day work life. My wife went to university in England and has said at times she would like to move back there, but I don't think I could if it meant teaching there again.

 

I would possibly be interested in trying another country at some point in the future. However, the inevitable starting of a family one day in the near future will most likely mean that won't happen as my wife's family are all in Bangkok.   

[smutcakes]

Love it, job i like, condo i love, friends, fun, golf, do what i want, when i want.. Whats not to love. In central Bangkok.

[Number 6]

On 12/16/2019 at 7:28 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Seems Bkk is your problem. Solution easy, but if you choose to remain there.........…............…...........

Very much so. Five years. Wrap up wife/self job and move south.

[Number 6]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

Love it, job i like, condo i love, friends, fun, golf, do what i want, when i want.. Whats not to love. In central Bangkok.

It's become grubby and smelly. I mean beyond the usual atrocious street smells of decades past. I'm not living in a dump, I'm 650m from a central MRT station.

[Number 6]

On 12/15/2019 at 8:07 PM, JAFO said:

While I agree on the smells of BKK, have you ever been to NY, SF or Philadelphia? Same smells, filth and garbage. Each of our experiences and comments are completely based on where each of us lives. So it goes back to choices of location. Would I live in BKK, NY or SF....No and for the reasons you stated. 

 

While I do not know the demographics of the posters, It always appears to me that a large majority live in Pattaya, CM or BKK hence their dissatisfaction living here.

 

 

I'm not big on city life. I'm not afra6of it at all but rather be at the beach. That can't happen for five years due to decent jobs and good cash flow.

 

But swear it wasn't like this years ago. Vendors very callous about waste disposal, leaky garbage trucks...

[donnacha]

The burning season, which has now expanded into "high season" for the first time, is the final deal-breaker for me. I have been here long enough, and seen enough Thai government committees formed, to know that it will not improve in our lifetimes. It is only going to get worse, and fast.

Earlier this year, I was surprised to realize that, when you add up the immigration hassles, the increasing cost of many goods, and safety concerns (everything from driving to pesticides on food), the ridiculous excise taxes, it turns out that various locations in Europe offer a far better quality of life.

The EU is not a democracy, but you at least have some rights within a reasonably functional, reasonably uncorrupt system (at least at the level at which individual citizens interact with it).

 

S.E. Asia is certainly better for partying, especially access to young women on easy terms, but I see it all as an illusion now. The main benefits of Thailand appear to be cheap pork cooked in a variety of entertaining ways, cheap hand jobs, and accommodation which is currently cheaper (but we may all soon be priced out by Indian millionaires).

I would much rather live a simple life in a country with slightly better infrastructure and regulations around air pollution and food safety. I like the idea of a small detached house or villa in a small town within a few miles of the coast, high-speed Internet so that I can work from home, and a car to get me to the beach or local gym. I like the idea that I could even own that house in my own name if I wanted to buy rather than rent.

And to be able to breath deeply, or run outside, without doing damage to myself. Chiang Mai is currently around 100 AQI - or "not bad today" as the locals cheerfully call it. Bangkok is roughly the same, Hua Hin is less but still dangerous at 86 AQI.

For comparison, even the worst parts of London are half that today. The sunny Mediterranean town I plan to move to is around 25 AQI. Even my rainy auld hometown of Dublin is 24 AQI today. Much as I detest rain at times, at least it doesn't increase your chance of heart attack, cancer, and stroke.
 

Edited December 17, 2019 by donnacha

[Nemises]

49 minutes ago, donnacha said:

 

The burning season, which has now expanded into "high season" for the first time, is the final deal-breaker for me.

 

Oh, so ALL of Thailand is affected by the “burning season” ..... or just the part where you (mistakenly) chose to reside?

[donnacha]

19 minutes ago, Nemises said:

Oh, so ALL of Thailand is affected by the “burning season” ..... or just the part where you (mistakenly) chose to reside?

I included today's AQI levels for not only Chiang Mai but, also, Bangkok and Hua Hin. That's a pretty wide geographic spread. I would not want to be exposed to any of those levels for too long.

Many decisions can be judged to have been a mistake after the fact, but the reality is that pollution has been getting steadily worse in every part of Thailand and S.E. Asia for years.

When I moved here, Chiang Mai was pretty fresh. True, the burning season was always a thing, but you would just get out of town for a few weeks. Only in the last few years has it expanded, first to a month or two, now to a half-year monster.

You, obviously, being perfection incarnate, make only the right decisions ... although I'm pretty sure that today's AQI score for your corner of Thailand is not so tasty either.

So, yes, if me taking a liking to Chiang Mai a decade or more ago was a mistake, there's an excellent chance that wherever you think is so great now will be just as bad in a decade's time, if only because the whole region is getting worse.

[sirineou]

On 12/15/2019 at 9:09 PM, TPI said:

21 years in, 10 dogs, 3 buff, thousands of fish (neon's), 10 rai, a half kilometre of klong, a "folly", a half crazy wife...very content!

Wife only half crazy? You lucky slob !!! 

On 12/15/2019 at 9:43 PM, Yinn said:

Hmmmm. Maybe.

But immigration not the owner of insurance company. Immigration will not win from that. The insurance company be rich, not immigration that rule.

 

The owners of the insurance companies have a lot of influence over the politicians that control Immigration, and make immigration policy.

  If they were really concern about Farangs having medical insurance they would had made it so that we can buy into the Government system and be guaranteed coverage . the insurance we are forced to buy is expensive, becomes even more expensive as you get older, and imposible to buy after a certain age,

 excluding pre existing conditions, so by a certain age would pay nothing anyway, and would not protect Farang or Government from unpaid bills. It is a scam designed to increase the profits of the Insurance companies and make the Rich friends of the politicians even richer.

  I love Thailand, the Thai people , my Thai wife and her family, At this point I don't have to buy medical insurance, but if I was forced to buy it , it would be the end of long term stay in Thailand for me. Even as it is it might be over anyway, because I don't trust the system with my life. Who knows what they will decide next year? No decision yet but I am thinking about it.

[Yinn]

7 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Wife only half crazy? You lucky slob !!! 

The owners of the insurance companies have a lot of influence over the politicians that control Immigration, and make immigration policy.

  If they were really concern about Farangs having medical insurance they would had made it so that we can buy into the Government system and be guaranteed coverage . the insurance we are forced to buy is expensive, becomes even more expensive as you get older, and imposible to buy after a certain age,

 excluding pre existing conditions, so by a certain age would pay nothing anyway, and would not protect Farang or Government from unpaid bills. It is a scam designed to increase the profits of the Insurance companies and make the Rich friends of the politicians even richer.

  I love Thailand, the Thai people , my Thai wife and her family, At this point I don't have to buy medical insurance, but if I was forced to buy it , it would be the end of long term stay in Thailand for me. Even as it is it might be over anyway, because I don't trust the system with my life. Who knows what they will decide next year? No decision yet but I am thinking about it.

I think if get new government like Future Forward, thailand will be less stupid plan.

[sanemax]

16 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Wife only half crazy? You lucky slob !!! 

The owners of the insurance companies have a lot of influence over the politicians that control Immigration, and make immigration policy.

  If they were really concern about Farangs having medical insurance they would had made it so that we can buy into the Government system and be guaranteed coverage . the insurance we are forced to buy is expensive, becomes even more expensive as you get older, and imposible to buy after a certain age,

 excluding pre existing conditions, so by a certain age would pay nothing anyway, and would not protect Farang or Government from unpaid bills. It is a scam designed to increase the profits of the Insurance companies and make the Rich friends of the politicians even richer.

  I love Thailand, the Thai people , my Thai wife and her family, At this point I don't have to buy medical insurance, but if I was forced to buy it , it would be the end of long term stay in Thailand for me. Even as it is it might be over anyway, because I don't trust the system with my life. Who knows what they will decide next year? No decision yet but I am thinking about it.

Could you name the owners of those Insurance companies that have influence over the Politicians, and name those Politicians whilst you are at it 

[sirineou]

9 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Could you name the owners of those Insurance companies that have influence over the Politicians, and name those Politicians whilst you are at it 

No I could not, can you please help me?