Australian, usa expats, what is your plan?

[Don Mega]

36 minutes ago, justin case said:

great news...I have my child that cannot leave Thailand, thanks to ex-wife

 

I really would LOVE to leave this crazy country WITH my child, but will have to wait till child is 20 years old ... mother is nowhere to be seen since more than a year... but ex-wife knows how to be a pain ...

Fantastic to hear you have children, Such a thing has been going on for a while now as many other than yourself also have children

 

Not sure why you qouted me though.

[Don Mega]

25 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

The best place to be for anyone would be the USA

I'd prefer my Home country (Australia) or Thailand than that cesspit.

[from the home of CC]

3 hours ago, donnacha said:

The girl in the couple posted about it on Facebook, said that she and her partner were cycling in the old city when she felt something wet hit her back. She was confused and stopped, only realizing that it was this Thai guy, also on a bike, when he came up and spat again, this time at her face, luckily only hitting her helmet, before cycling off. Her partner chased the guy and, furious, knocked him off his bike. In the comments, her partner expressed regret that he had reacted violently but, honestly, I think he was pretty restrained.

She posted in one of the Chiang Mai expat groups. I had a quick search but could not find it for you. In itself, as an incident, it is not such a big deal, could happen in any city at any time, but it strikes me as out-of-character for Chiang Mai, and makes me somewhat uneasy.

 

Some nutter on bicycle doesn't indicate that foreigners will be targeted, mental illness is treated here about as well as it in the west, basically poorly. I read of a lot more anti Asian actions in the UK and the rest of the west than anti foreigner actions here by far. Good luck to you though but personally the west is the last place I would head during something like this.. 

[Nyezhov]

7 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

I'd prefer my Home country (Australia) or Thailand than that cesspit.

That "cesspit" keeps your kids from learning Mandarin. 

[Don Mega]

3 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

That "cesspit" keeps your kids from learning Mandarin. 

Both my "kids" are 26yrs old and they have a decent grasp of the English language... Not that butchered language spoken in the USA but actual proper English.

 

Amusing though the only time Ive been to the USA was to Washington DC, most people there speak Spanish !!

 

FWIW one of my "kids" is fluent in Mandarin as well, as a second language, The other is Fluent in Italian.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Don Mega

[Don Mega]

20 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

fine with warm water , its when the water is cold the contraction of the sphincter muscle makes me jump

its like kegel exercises for men !!

[watthong]

26 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Why use it?

Bum gun wipe off with towel.

 

fine with warm water , its when the water is cold the contraction of the sphincter muscle makes me jump

 

You miss the whole point. Exactly the bodily reaction required to propel "a clean exit", if you catch my drift. Warm water produces the opposite, thus averse, effect. The Thais they have thought of everything in this regard (while westerners were too puritanical to ever venture that far, hence the invention of toilet paper that leaves unintended consequences...)

Edited March 22, 2020 by watthong

[ThaiBunny]

1 minute ago, watthong said:

(while westerners were too puritanical to ever venture that far, hence the invention of toilet paper that leaves unintended consequences...)

You're including the French with their bidet are you?

[moontang]

I was just reading a post from a foreign teacher in Honduras...they were given 6 hours notice that the border was closing.  We are much better off here, and in neither case would lining up at the embassy for evacuation do us any good.  The curfews in the States might be more strict, than here.

[luckyluke]

6 hours ago, glegolo said:

quite annoying that you are ONLY interested in a specific group of peope i.e. coming from USA and Australia. Does the rest of us not count? Any specific reason for you to mention just AU and USA - guys??? Or just ignorance??? 

This forum was a swedish forum from the beginning, maybe giving you a hint that there might be some more nationalities represented here...

 

glegolo

Rather current here,

how many times one can read :

"Embassies don't issue letters of income anymore"

When in fact only 3 don't do it anymore.

 

 

 

 

[Olmate]

5 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

Rather current here,

how many times one can read :

"Embassies don't issue letters of income anymore"

When in fact only 3 don't do it anymore.

 

 

 

 

And that’s the main reason Thailand is loaded with expats with no kanga/cash. The (other than the 3) Embassies issuing letters.

[donnacha]

32 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

Some nutter on bicycle doesn't indicate that foreigners will be targeted, mental illness is treated here about as well as it in the west, basically poorly.

Agreed. I was not suggesting it as anything more than a canary, something to add to the picture if more such incidents start to accumulate.
 

 

34 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

Good luck to you though but personally the west is the last place I would head during something like this.

Thank you. Yeah, I think I would be okay in Thailand, but my gut instinct is that the social and governmental infrastructure is more robust in Europe than Thailand.

Having said that, I definitely would not wish to be in London or Paris, the lack of social cohesion could be a real problem at times like these.

[Don Mega]

19 minutes ago, moontang said:

I was just reading a post from a foreign teacher in Honduras...they were given 6 hours notice that the border was closing. 

OMG what ever did they do............other than carry on as normal.

[from the home of CC]

7 minutes ago, donnacha said:

Agreed. I was not suggesting it as anything more than a canary, something to add to the picture if more such incidents start to accumulate.
 

 

Thank you. Yeah, I think I would be okay in Thailand, but my gut instinct is that the social and governmental infrastructure is more robust in Europe than Thailand.

Having said that, I definitely would not wish to be in London or Paris, the lack of social cohesion could be a real problem at times like these.

I think it 'was' more robust prior to this, but I believe now all bets are off..

[Nyezhov]

43 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Amusing though the only time Ive been to the USA was to Washington DC, most people there speak Spanish !!

well thats illustrative of your lack of knowledge about the USA. There is life outside a barrio.

[luckyluke]

9 minutes ago, Olmate said:

And that’s the main reason Thailand is loaded with expats with no kanga/cash. The (other than the 3) Embassies issuing letters.

Gossip/urban myth,

mostly spread by the ones who can not obtain a L.o.I. anymore.

But of course anyone is free to believe what he wants.

[Nyezhov]

29 minutes ago, moontang said:

The curfews in the States might be more strict, than here.

Depends on where you are in the States.

[Don Mega]

3 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

well thats illustrative of your lack of knowledge about the USA. There is life outside a barrio.

Whats Barrio ?

 

Edit:.... hahahahahah thats Spanish... ironic you chose Spanish over English but iam not surprised !!

Edited March 22, 2020 by Don Mega

[donnacha]

3 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Whats Barrio ?

 

Edit:.... hahahahahah thats Spanish... ironic you chose Spanish over English but iam not surprised !!

That's a word most English speakers would know, it crops up in culture frequently enough.

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, donnacha said:

That's a word most English speakers would know, it crops up in culture frequently enough.

Barrio is not a common word in English, I doubt many if any know its meaning unless they lived in the USA and were exposed daily to the Spanish language.

 

Moot point though as English is not spoken in the USA !!

[donnacha]

2 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Moot point though as English is not spoken in the USA

It might be worth researching that.

[sqwakvfr]

A “Barrio” would be in East LA and a Ghetto would have been in South LA.

 

These were the particular terms used in the past.  Of course both are not PC.  If I uttered these terms now I would be accused of being the usual things that POTUS is accused of.

 

As for the topic of this discussion, I would stay here in LOS for the time being.

I actually do not have a place to return to in Sunny California.  So the logistics of going back and staying for an extended of time would take some arranging.

 

The entire world seems to be in the same boat so I will just monitor.  Also, as an American currently I do not have US. Health Insurance(( have been out for so long that I did not renew it) so getting medical care would be a problem.  On a positive note my Pacific Cross Health Insurance will cover for Covid 19.  I was rathe upset when I was forced to buy the PCL policy last year but at least I found a silver lining.

 

Stay safe, keep your distance and always wear a mask and have hand sanitizer.

[Ron jeremy]

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Most countries won't be able to cope with medical treatment anyway, flying back may be worse than Thailand.

 

I'm staying in Thailand

Certainly you don’t believe it’s better in Thailand than the US???

[totally thaied up]

Yesterday I went to BigC in Chiang Mai to get some supplies. Plenty of meat was on offer as well as all the normal staples of daily life. No one was pushing and shoving over toilet paper or any other object. The Thais were just maybe buying a little more (lots of water) and just about everyone one in my small village has stocked up a 50Kg bag of rice for 'just in case'.

 

In my hometown in Australia, my parents are living off basics and they cannot currently get any meat. They have been buying frozen fish. They said they have never seen such foolishness in there life. Our Prime Minister says they have enough food for 75 million people and people just need to go back to buy how they did before and all would be right. Brains gone out the window it seems.

 

My parents told me to stay in Thailand with my Thai family in our village and just to self isolate and sit things out. After having our house on the market for two years in Australia, we sold it three weeks ago but we have a Condo on the Gold Coast being built at this time and at this very time, I have nowhere to go till September. So I will just sit in our small village and sit things out and hopeful not get sick.

 

I am just worried about the fact we have no welfare here in Thailand and if this drags one for too long, we may have desperate people. Most people in my area live either on pay check to pay check or many of the poor, day to day on selling at the local markets. It all will depend if this goes exponential. The numbers are starting to point to this and if fear creeps in, I do not know how this could end. Just looking at Italy and Spain and seeing how we let the hoards of Chinese Tourist in during January, I cannot see how Thailand cannot miss being hit hard. 

 

Either way, I think this is going to be messy, so I have enough food for a few weeks, cash on hand and will lay low in my village. Everyone knows me here and I have never had a issue with anyone. I did think to go home to Australia with my wife three weeks ago when the sale of the house was finalized but I love my wife's parents very much and they just live day to day. They both have medical issues and are not young. If anything goes wrong here, they are going to need looking after.

 

So as you can see, if you do have family here, going back home to your home country has many variables. My variables were more so on the side I would be most likely better off here due to the fact I have good family and a house in a small safe village. I am lucky that my health insurance covers covid-19, so that took a lot of pressure off me. My wife is also covered.

 

Best of luck to everyone. The following weeks I fear at going to be very stressful but like a passing storm, this time will pass but I think the world has changed and things for maybe a long time, will not be the same. Even maybe not the same ever. I suppose I am a bit of an alarmist but I spent a long time working in China and saw the live markets. I believe something nasty could have come from them and I believe we don't know half the story about what really went on in China. Only China could pull off such a effective lock down and I fear other places in our world have not taken this seriously enough and may pay with a high price.

[Don Mega]

3 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

 

 

In my hometown in Australia, my parents are living off basics and they cannot currently get any meat. They have been buying frozen fish.

 

Do they shop outside of the colesworth  circle jerk ?

[Ron jeremy]

9 hours ago, donnacha said:

I got out, too many variables.

My chief concern was low-level societal breakdown, with foreigners being a likely focus of anger. The young Canadian couple in Chiang Mai who were repeatedly spat at by a hostile Thai male, I worry that might be an early sign of shifting attitudes.

When the true scale of the hidden outbreak becomes clear - and I think most Thais already have a dawning horror at what has been allowed to happen - there is going to be a lot of anger. Combine that with the knock-on effects for the rest of the economy of the sudden collapse of the tourist industry, and the massive reductions in international orders for factory goods, and record high levels of consumer debt, most Thais are going to be under a lot of pressure.

I'm not saying that I was likely to be in danger, I live in a wealthy gated community, but we have neither rights, respect, nor affection from the authorities. If there is even a small chance of problems, it simply makes more sense to wait it out somewhere else.

 

I’ve stayed before on previous threads 

thailand is not where you want to be in this crisis 

thais are just starting to show their love of falangs 

jyst wait 

[scubascuba3]

12 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

Certainly you don’t believe it’s better in Thailand than the US???

Has everyone got access to medical care in the US? when the beds are gone they are gone in any country

[ICELANDMAN]

2 hours ago, AussieBob18 said:

If you wish....not you will

[Snow Leopard]

9 hours ago, donnacha said:

I got out, too many variables.

My chief concern was low-level societal breakdown, with foreigners being a likely focus of anger. The young Canadian couple in Chiang Mai who were repeatedly spat at by a hostile Thai male, I worry that might be an early sign of shifting attitudes.

When the true scale of the hidden outbreak becomes clear - and I think most Thais already have a dawning horror at what has been allowed to happen - there is going to be a lot of anger. Combine that with the knock-on effects for the rest of the economy of the sudden collapse of the tourist industry, and the massive reductions in international orders for factory goods, and record high levels of consumer debt, most Thais are going to be under a lot of pressure.

I'm not saying that I was likely to be in danger, I live in a wealthy gated community, but we have neither rights, respect, nor affection from the authorities. If there is even a small chance of problems, it simply makes more sense to wait it out somewhere else.

 

I think society will break down in the western world first. No food in the shops, No cash in the ATM's. At this point revolution would break out quickly and flat screen TV's would be the first thing to be liberated. 

[Don Mega]

Just now, Snow Leopard said:

I think society will break down in the western world first. No food in the shops, No cash in the ATM's. At this point revolution would break out quickly and flat screen TV's would be the first thing to be liberated. 

when the internet goes down there will be rioting in the streets.