Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Thailand News and Discussion Forum | ASEANNOW

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Would you do it again?

Would you do it again? 251 members have voted

  1. 1. With all your knowledge from now, looking back at the time when you decided to live in Thailand, would you do it again?

    • Yes, sure, all was perfect and I still love it
      13%
      30
    • Yes, I am still happy in Thailand. In the hindsight maybe I should have done a few things differently, but not much
      48%
      110
    • I am still here but in the hindsight I should have done lots of things differnetly
      20%
      46
    • I like to leave but don't know where to go
      2%
      6
    • I left Thailand already. I am a lot happier in my new place.
      5%
      12
    • I left Thailand but in the hindsight it wasn't so bad. I should have stayed
      0%
      2
    • Other
      8%
      19

Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Featured Replies

  • Replies 206
  • Views 12.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Most Popular Posts

  • The positives far out way the negatives, learnt a lot along my 16 yr journey and yes I would have done some things differently, but hindsight has 20/20 vision.   I have a much better lifesty

  • richard_smith237
    richard_smith237

    Arrived (with work) at 22 yrs old - spent most of my Adult live in Thailand.  Now I have a child there seems more to do in the UK - there is a temptation to move back.    I like Bangkok

  • Currently being anywhere else would be hideous. I can't understand why people talk about leaving...I believe they would only take their misery with them

Posted Images

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Needs another category

 

I had to leave Thailand already. I am unhappy in my new place and wish I was there.

 

When all this Corona malarky is over, then why not come for a long holiday? You know the ropes here, & you'd be able to find somewhere inexpensive to stay, I'm sure.

12 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

How did U support yourself?

 

Presumably he had a job. I moved here when i was 25, now fast closing in on 40.

Like anywhere there are good days and bad days- but overall i have a fantastic lifestyle over here. When i 1st came like many i drank to much and all that goes with it.

Now still like a drink but much fitter, healthier and enjoying life.

Would it be better elsewhere and would i do things differently. Possibly and not really.

18 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

That's interesting. I met my gf when I was 30 and she in her teens. Perfect. We both never grew up. ???? 

I'm old now (a pensioner), but it was always my dream to go back to South Asia or SEA to retire here. And here I feel well, may these Germans back in the EU say what they want. 

The thing is either you regret or not, you really do not how life would have been if you choosed different. Quite possible you would have made the same success or same mistakes somewhere else, felt the same of different reasons, but no matter what, Im happy I choosed to stay last year when coronna started to appear and take grip on the world. Only lived in thailand for 4 years now, but have travelled asia and thailand for 20 years. 

  • Author
  • Popular Post
13 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

cannot imagine living elsewhere.

I can. That is one of the reasons I live here. ???? 

  • Author
13 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

How did U support yourself?

Working, IT. And I am good at it. ???? 

 

  • Author
13 hours ago, Ventenio said:

i'm hoping the pollution won't drive me crazy again.

Buy an air-purifyer. I bought one recently and it makes a BIG difference. I should have bought it years ago.

And before someone tells me it does only work indoors. Yes, I know that. I sleep indoors and getting that sleep without coughing all the time is the biggest improvement.

  • Author
13 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

3 phones is hectic, Ive manage to control my appetite to one dual sim phone.

And I thought the idea is that you can show your main phone to your wife and keep the 2nd phone hidden.

It doesn't work like that with dual-SIM. ???? 

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Working, IT. And I am good at it. ???? 

 

So did I. And since I'm an experienced senior IT Professional in a Global Data Warehouse, I guess it would be quite easy to get a job as a Digital Nomad or something like that. 

19 hours ago, Nout said:

Currently being anywhere else would be hideous. I can't understand why people talk about leaving...I believe they would only take their misery with them

Correct,  they could live anywhere and have everything and still would be in misery. Seems they are misfits, you see them everyday at the local expat bars, looking like they have not had a bowel movement in 2 weeks, or on here bashing everything  about Thailand. 

  • Author
24 minutes ago, micmichd said:

So did I. And since I'm an experienced senior IT Professional in a Global Data Warehouse, I guess it would be quite easy to get a job as a Digital Nomad or something like that. 

I have a "normal" job with work permit and all that. That makes it a lot easier to stay here permanently. 

Just now, OneMoreFarang said:

I have a "normal" job with work permit and all that. That makes it a lot easier to stay here permanently. 

I have a pension, that makes it very easy to retire here permanently.

My biggest regret, is that after retiring at age 45, I waited until I was 52 to move here.

I WASTED 7 years of my life living in the UK for NOTHING!

  • Author
1 hour ago, Tagged said:

The thing is either you regret or not, you really do not how life would have been if you choosed different. Quite possible you would have made the same success or same mistakes somewhere else, felt the same of different reasons

At least for me life in Thailand is a lot different compared to life back "home". And the biggest difference are probably the girls. I always liked pretty young (legal) girls. Back "home" a 30 year or "older" guy has almost no chance to have a pretty 20 year old gf. It just doesn't happen. If I would have stayed back home then probably single or with a woman who was not really what I wanted but the best I could get. And then imagine kids with such a woman. And then imagine coming with 50 to Thailand and seeing what I missed. No thanks, too many others made that mistake.

  • Author
3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I have a pension, that makes it very easy to retire here permanently.

My biggest regret, is that after retiring at age 45, I waited until I was 52 to move here.

I WASTED 7 years of my life living in the UK for NOTHING!

I am sure those 7 years motivated you for the rest of your life to not waste another day.

Carpe diem!

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I have a "normal" job with work permit and all that. That makes it a lot easier to stay here permanently. 

I still get pensions, and I will get them life-long. So I would take a job as a Digital Nomad as a nice add-on. Getting a work permit in Thailand would only be possible if there's no Thai to do the job. Which would probably mean to work on a Mainframe computer with VPN. Im used to that. 

not surprisingly, the vote reflects the posts in a recent topic, now closed, on peoples level of satisfaction with living in thailand.

 

how many times a month do we have to rehash this issue on here?

Voted ....other...because

Left Thailand in 2016 after 2 years of Junta thinking this one looked like it had staying power...We were right ????

 

Go back to our home there for 2-3 months every year (except this past one of course )

We are fortunate as our home here outside of Thailand is very nice & perfect for us too nice weather/good air year round etc

In many ways actually better in lifestyle/health/services/lack of corruption

 

But....in many ways I wish we had stayed as we do really miss that side of our family. We live in the country there (same as here) so it was never a matter of night life etc

In any case the future is never set in stone & "if" things ever change again we can always move back to our home there in Thailand

But it does have uncertainties such as immigration/health both insurance & generally speaking it is not as healthy as here

 

If not 2-3 months a year is fine too ???? We are happy in both spots

 

Only 4 years retired permanently in Chiang Mai (so far), and stranded in New Zealand all of 2020, but I'm heading back soon and cannot wait. I love Thailand. It's unlike anywhere else.

  • Popular Post
1 minute ago, poskat said:

not surprisingly, the vote reflects the posts in a recent topic, now closed, on peoples level of satisfaction with living in thailand.

how many times a month do we have to rehash this issue on here?

Nobody is forcing you to participate.

26 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

At least for me life in Thailand is a lot different compared to life back "home". And the biggest difference are probably the girls. I always liked pretty young (legal) girls. Back "home" a 30 year or "older" guy has almost no chance to have a pretty 20 year old gf. It just doesn't happen. If I would have stayed back home then probably single or with a woman who was not really what I wanted but the best I could get. And then imagine kids with such a woman. And then imagine coming with 50 to Thailand and seeing what I missed. No thanks, too many others made that mistake.

If it was only for girs, I would have stayed in Brasil, hands down to my taste the most sexy girls on planet, and less complicated than any other girls I have met. Just add a note, and that is the girls I was lucky to meet over there compare to here. 

 

I choosed thailand because of easy to travel back and forth to work  with direct flights, and also the reason I did not choose Phil as well before Thailand. 

 

However I tend to equal Thai and Phil for different reasons to be a place to live for future, and Brasil as well. Hard to choose for me between those three, if the travel distance and it was direct flights between them. 

 

But when it comes to girls, Brazil is above any other place I have visited and which is my experience. 

  • Author
  • Popular Post
10 minutes ago, Tagged said:

If it was only for girs, I would have stayed in Brasil, hands down to my taste the most sexy girls on planet, and less complicated than any other girls I have met. Just add a note, and that is the girls I was lucky to meet over there compare to here. 

 

I choosed thailand because of easy to travel back and forth to work  with direct flights, and also the reason I did not choose Phil as well before Thailand. 

 

However I tend to equal Thai and Phil for different reasons to be a place to live for future, and Brasil as well. Hard to choose for me between those three, if the travel distance and it was direct flights between them. 

 

But when it comes to girls, Brazil is above any other place I have visited and which is my experience. 

I was lucky enough to experience a few Brazil girls back home. Yeah great. They know how to have fun and party. When I was young I could handle that. I guess if I would have continued with Brazil girls I would have had a few heart attacks by now.

Brazil has obviously another advantage:

e3c10fae8ac5a23822ef47a25e5b9d84.jpg

 

21 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Often we read about unhappy farangs. Some think their wife planned already 10 years ago to get all their money. Other are just not happy anymore. How about you?

 

Personally I am living since > 20 years in the middle of Bangkok and I still like it a lot. In all that time I never thought about moving to somewhere else.

Same here! I am all happy, and will probably never move. However, I do not understand how you can continue stay in Bangkok with all the bad air.

  • Author
37 minutes ago, meechai said:

Voted ....other...because

Left Thailand in 2016 after 2 years of Junta thinking this one looked like it had staying power...We were right ????

Thanks for your comment.

But really, how much difference did that "Junta" make to your life up country in Thailand?

 

I live in the middle of Bangkok since 20 years. Two coups, the yellow shirts, the red shirts, and much more. I was here and I saw it all. Mostly life continues as normal all the time. I remember the soldiers on Sukhumvit singing karaoke songs according to the request by tourists. It was fun to watch but few people will believe it happened.

I think the most annoying time for me was when the red-shirts thought they own the city. All those aggressive guys looking for a fight. Luckily Abhisit ended that protest. I heard the guns for a few days and I saw the fires. I just had to look out of my window. Good riddance!

 

Since Prayut is in charge life is back to normal again. 

 

  • Author
1 minute ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

Same here! I am all happy, and will probably never move. However, I do not understand how you can continue stay in Bangkok with all the bad air.

The air quality, at least on street level, was worse 20 years ago. So in comparison I guess now I think it's not so bad.

And as I mentioned earlier: An air-purifyer is a very good investment.

31 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks for your comment.

But really, how much difference did that "Junta" make to your life up country in Thailand?

 

I live in the middle of Bangkok since 20 years. Two coups, the yellow shirts, the red shirts, and much more. I was here and I saw it all. Mostly life continues as normal all the time. I remember the soldiers on Sukhumvit singing karaoke songs according to the request by tourists. It was fun to watch but few people will believe it happened.

I think the most annoying time for me was when the red-shirts thought they own the city. All those aggressive guys looking for a fight. Luckily Abhisit ended that protest. I heard the guns for a few days and I saw the fires. I just had to look out of my window. Good riddance!

 

Since Prayut is in charge life is back to normal again. 

 

 

Well it is true that personally it was not a direct difference but now looking at what has happened in the years since? It is not good for the Thai people or the country as it slips backwards. There is more to a government than just keeping the reds from fighting with the yellows which to be honest was basically let happen as yet another excuse for overthrowing an elected government. Same as Prayut letting mobs overrun government house etc & then instead of protecting the country they swore to protect ...then acting like it is them that need to save the country both they & the police neglected to protect from the mobs initially...They are for all intents guilty of treason

 

Personally we felt staying was supporting this Junta...which is basically what money spent in Thailand at places such as immigration is doing even now as the pigs have their snouts firmly in the trough & things that tax dollars should be going towards are being let go. Instead bogus marked up invoices for various military toys being used to bilk ever more of the Thai Peoples tax dollars. It may seem/be quiet but bigger companies have been leaving for awhile now. Takes time to deflate the accordion as they need to relocate & it will be doubly slow to reinflate

 

Again perhaps no prob for a retired falang sitting in a condo or bar but will not be fun for the Thai's themselves...and this will have a knock on effect

 

But not out country ...not our concern/vote/choice...It is the Thai's themselves that will need to stand & take back what is theirs...It will be the young that do so as the older generations are sadly too well programed to question insinuated authority

 

Just now, meechai said:

Again perhaps no prob for a retired falang sitting in a condo or bar but will not be fun for the Thai's themselves...and this will have a knock on effect

Doesn't affect my Thai misses or my Thai kids at all.

Did add a few extra 'booze free' days to my life, well it would have if I hadn't kept a backup stock.

Yes, without a doubt I would do it again, but not with the country in the control of an unelected "PM" and his soldiers.

Under the same conditions, visas etc that were in place 15 years ago, as I said, I would do it again.

  • Author
  • Popular Post
22 minutes ago, meechai said:

Personally we felt staying was supporting this Junta...which is basically what money spent in Thailand at places such as immigration is doing even now as the pigs have their snouts firmly in the trough & things that tax dollars should be going towards are being let go.

Ok, yes, in principle.

So how about before Prayut took over? Were the previous governments not corrupt? Did much change?

 

Personally when I came to Thailand I was aware of their "reputation" for corruption. Do I like corruption? Of course not. Does it affect me personally? Very little. Over the years the traffic police stopped me probably a hundred times (for not riding on the left lane with a motorcycle). 100 stops and every time paying 100B. 10k for bribes for 20 years in Thailand. I can live with that.

And let's look at so called developed countries were the politicians regularly give huge contracts to their friends. Of course they make sure it's all legal...

53 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

The air quality, at least on street level, was worse 20 years ago. So in comparison I guess now I think it's not so bad.

And as I mentioned earlier: An air-purifyer is a very good investment.

Ok, it was? I guess you learn something new every day. ???? Have lived about 20-25 years in Thailand too, but didn´t know that it was worse that long ago.

Maybe we are just fed with a lot of rubbish too, and it ain´t as bad as it leads us to think.

Create an account or sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.