Why do you live in Thailand?

[AlfHuy]

I only came for the smell of freshly cut Durian.

Lovely.

[ronaldo0]

I’m here for the chaos and carnage ! Women , food and weather ain’t too bad either ! ????

[Kanada]

1 hour ago, CharlieH said:

What I have found interesting over the years is that those with "problems" invariably live in well trodden tourist type areas. Whereas, those that live in more rural areas seldom do.

So is the atttitude of Thais therefore actually a refection of the people they have encountered in those well trodden areas ?

That is to say the "farang" are actually victims of their own behaviour and attitudes ?...possibly.

100%

[Nemises]

23 hours ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

Nonsense, I retired in Australia have great life, free health care collect my pension every 2 weeks and still have plenty leftover at the end of the months

“Plenty” leftover because you’re not paying for rental accommodation in Australia. 

 

Rental accommodation costs in the non-tourist parts of Thailand are a fraction of those in Australia. 
 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Nemises

[Nemises]

23 hours ago, madmen said:

Agreed. With a pension card and rent assistance it's doable if you don't smoke $50 per 100 gram of tobacco and don't drink beer $50 for a case of 24 bottles. 

I'm on the gold coast right near the beach and Cavill Ave paying $800 /month rent minus $280 rent assistance but I have to share with 2 others! I'm looking forward to heading back though to my condo and for me Thailand is a better lifestyle and never boring in Bangkok 

Have to share the rent with 2 others (!) to be able to live in Australia on the pension. Noted ✅

[Locked in Oz]

Everything except the spider thing.  There is an absolute freedom in being almost invisible.  Flying under the radar is an essential part of this autonomy as is good manners and civility.

I agree with your sentiments.

[vandeventer]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:58 AM, ezzra said:

If you like Thailand now, you would have gone Gaga over being here 20-30 years ago when this country was the dream place to be in any way possible and especially for the single young man that i was, but as times and things turns, so did the viability of living here, this is not to say that it has become unpleasant but one can say it has become less fun and more mundane living...

I have been living here for 20 years and not much has changed where I live which is good. The people are great and the weather is hot. What more could you ask for, maybe after living here 10 years or more the Government could make us permeant residents free to come and go as we please to buy land or build a house in our names. You know, to feel human again.

[cliveshep]

My wife is half my age, we've been married 10 years, nearly 11. We fight a lot lately - hot weather and covid stress combine to keep us on edge. Why here? Well, in the UK where I lived and worked and she lived and worked she needed to do one of those "Life in the UK" tests, you know the ones, where highly intelligent and qualified English people failed.

 

But when you get questions like "how many golf courses are there in Scotland?" then you know that the odds are weighted and that the test is designed for failure but it was Theresa May's intent to offer a sop to those who were outraged at her banning all incomers who were not EU citizens, including fee paying students. So she went for soft targets, fiancees, spouses, dependants of citizens settled here with the intent to prevent them coming. She set a financial burden of a minimum of £18,500 pa income because foreign wives are more expensive to feed than English ones allegedly, check what the Government consider to be a living amount for a married couple needing Income Support.

 

So we talked about it, made our decision, liquidated or sold everything including the house, gave away most of the furniture, bought our own "ready for sea" shipping container and loaded it to the hilt with a couple of outboards, a couple of dinghys, all the white goods, dining suite because it was wrought iron and not wood, bags of bedding, camping gear, 5 bicycles and the contents of my workshop including metal stock, a boat trailer, luggage trailer etc. The last a waste of space - should have sold it in the YUK as we wound up dumping it - Thai laws on trailers make no distinctions on size vs brakes and licensing. 

 

We ordered a large (80 tonne crane) Hiab truck as we knew darn well that container would defeat a conventional truck and arranged collection, transport and shipping to Lam Chabang - later changed to Bangkok Port. We arranged and agent to facilitate customs and forwarding - a mistake in choice meant we paid a massive premium to customs plus tea money all round - corrupt Thailand! We booked the first available flight, got a certificate from Defra for the dog after all it's jabs, notified Thailand about exporting the dog to them, got a multi-entry visa for me and her sisters in Thailand to rent a house for us and look around for land or house to buy once we arrived.

 

Once here we immediately bought an MPV 7 seater and cruised around looking for houses. Time running out with the container arriving imminently we bought a 3 bed detached older village house in a gated village, one on enough land to extend, hired a builder and added an extension, 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms kitchen extension, re-doing the two disgusting existing bathrooms, added air-con to all 5 bedrooms and lounge, mosquito screens and security bars to every window and moved in just under 3 months after landing. The crane hire for the container and 5 big trucks to shift it's contents paid for by selling the container to the crane company and giving us money left over.

 

Later we bought a couple of motor bikes, sold one that was getting a bit tired, sold the MPV and used the money to buy a small car and a drop-side truck.

 

So we live here very comfortably, support her two disabled sisters, bought one a car, and have now been here 6 years.

 

Long story - but as to why - I hate it so hot, long for the end of the year and rainy season when it is cooler but we got fans, air-con for the hottest days. living is far cheaper especially as i bought the house for 2.3m and spent probably 0.5m extending and modernising it. I've since with my wife carried out as a DIY project (I was a Construction Management professional skilled in building having come up from the ranks as it were))designed a steel frame and built an extension all down one side installing a couple of 1000 litre tanks and a high volume pump as mains water pressure is pathetic. The extension houses a lounge room for one downstairs bedroom and has half the front garden fenced in creating a private apartment for one of the sisters and her little dogs, it also houses our freezer or one of them and a new washing machine for the sister's use alone.

 

My wife and I did ALL the work ourselves, welding the frame and chem-fixing down the stanchions and doing walls and roof.  We also embarked on a very ambitious project, now completed, of changing all the old teak windows in poor condition for modern aluminium sliding windows. These off-the shelf are about 90mm shorter than the old ones and 10mm wider, no matter, we bought a 9 inch diamond saw, cut down the walls, built up the bottoms, fitted and silicone mastic pointed in the windows, fitted security grills and re-decorated the rooms again. So up yours Theresa May because we now got two cars, 4 dogs, a motor-bike, a fully air-conditioned 5 bedroom detached house and all on an old age pension because my wife looks after me full time.

 

So why here then?

 

We now have no bills, loans, mortgage or other debts. We are careful with money and owe no-one!

 

It has proven far better for us in my retirement. No Council taxes, police cameras, lower bills for almost everything.  An incompetent Government it is true but in many ways that is good because they leave us alone apart from annual extensions and the futile 90 day reports.

 

And Covid - we take extreme precautions, sanitise everything and mostly don't go out. I'd say we made a good choice! I chose a lovely good-looking Northern farm girl who is caring and loyal and together we do everything. Smart and competent and stubborn to a fault - she teaches herself to make foods we cannot buy, like UK pork sausages and burgers, I make our own bread, she makes cakes and all manner of things she has learnt. She can use my sewing machine to good effect, and can do woodwork - made a lovely varnished front palisade fence and gate, and I taught her to weld and do tiling including using a diamond saw.

 

I fell head over heels for her, falling head first and landing on my feet!

[1FinickyOne]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:40 AM, clivebaxter said:

Last in a long list of mistakes in life, I don't like the government, the corruption, the heat, the insects, the food or the driving. If not for the mrs I would be off home. UK has nice seasons, better shops, free healthcare, driving not insane and the food does not stink the house out ????

but besides that.. everything is good - right?

[Thingamabob]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:40 AM, clivebaxter said:

Last in a long list of mistakes in life, I don't like the government, the corruption, the heat, the insects, the food or the driving. If not for the mrs I would be off home. UK has nice seasons, better shops, free healthcare, driving not insane and the food does not stink the house out ????

Poor you-if you're serious, that is.

[EVENKEEL]

I knocked up my ole lady and I'm skint.

[abrahamzvi]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:40 AM, clivebaxter said:

Last in a long list of mistakes in life, I don't like the government, the corruption, the heat, the insects, the food or the driving. If not for the mrs I would be off home. UK has nice seasons, better shops, free healthcare, driving not insane and the food does not stink the house out ????

As much as I would love my wife, or partner, if I hated everything in Thailand, as you seem to do, I  wouldn‘t ‘ spend even a week here. As far as I am concerned, I love Thailand, as it is and that‘s

the reason I live and am happy here.

[Thingamabob]

1 hour ago, bwpage3 said:

Contrare.  You can take the girl out of Thailand and she may on her own want to take the Thai out of herself by getting a western education, much more than any retired farangs have ever had. The ones than settle for a much older husband and small pension, being uneducated and can only aspire to Thailand are the ones I would worry about.

 

 

Why would you worry about the ones who prefer to live i their own country ? 

[ianwheldale]

I had to double check I didn't write this in my sleep last night. Perfectly sums up why I am here and never intend to leave.

[Speedhump]

Cheap, hot and the healthcare is acceptable standard. My wife and I are both British and in our 60s, and had to leave the UAE when I stopped working. Our adult kids still live there so it's not too far away from them. 

[BoganInParasite]

Well the Thai wife was kind enough to live with me in Singapore, Dubai, Brisbane and Phoenix so we decided we would give northern Thailand a go for initial retirement. Been here three years now but for multiple reasons we no longer see Thailand as a medium, let alone long term option to grow old in. We'll head to Australia in 2-4 years.

[lazygourmet]

2 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

Did my reading about the traditional culture before retiring to Thailand. 1. age is respected more than US culture. 2. If you have steady income ... taken care of in order to live a comfortable working middle class life (not possible for me on the same budget in US). 3. World class medical care available at reasonable cost. 4. Status partly based on previous occupation. Been here a decade. Only real issue has been immigration issues threatening long stay status (and thus threatening Thai family stability)

555!!!

Culture, what culture?!?

I've been living here for the last twenty years and spent all 90's in Indonesia.

So more and less +30 years around SE-Asia.

Regarding culture : I will get it back when I will move to Europe for a well deserved retirement.

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

Did my reading about the traditional culture before retiring to Thailand. 1. age is respected more than US culture. 2. If you have steady income ... taken care of in order to live a comfortable working middle class life (not possible for me on the same budget in US). 3. World class medical care available at reasonable cost. 4. Status partly based on previous occupation. Been here a decade. Only real issue has been immigration issues threatening long stay status (and thus threatening Thai family stability)

1. No respect for elderly foreigners.

2. I agree.

3. Second rate medical care, you'd have to be insane to let a Thai doctor cut you open.

4. No status for foreigners.

[richard_smith237]

22 hours ago, BritManToo said:

22 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Compromises exist in both places and cannot directly translate - but for what my Wife and I have paid for a house in Bangkok we could get something bigger and better with more space in the UK. 

 

Interesting though: How do you get Healthcare for 1000 Baht per year (and 50 baht per visit) and what is the quality of that care ?

Not in London, my pals very small bedsit beside Hyde Park cost 600,000GBP.

 

Health care, as good as I received in the UK.

Main differences, here I can walk in on any day (I do get a dated appointment letter, but can go another day if I feel like it), and park outside free of charge, although I need to queue 8am-2pm.

In the UK I'd need an appointment made months in advance, and pay a fortune in parking fees.

50bht to use the hospital services, itemised fees for any pills (1bht/pill) or consumables used (250bht xray/blood test). My usual bill is 50bht hospital services plus 200bht for 200 pills (3 months supply).

 

What happens if you have something serious and need major treatment ?

 

ICU etc ???

 

 

[Kanada]

1 hour ago, cliveshep said:

My wife is half my age, we've been married 10 years, nearly 11. We fight a lot lately - hot weather and covid stress combine to keep us on edge. Why here? Well, in the UK where I lived and worked and she lived and worked she needed to do one of those "Life in the UK" tests, you know the ones, where highly intelligent and qualified English people failed.

 

But when you get questions like "how many golf courses are there in Scotland?" then you know that the odds are weighted and that the test is designed for failure but it was Theresa May's intent to offer a sop to those who were outraged at her banning all incomers who were not EU citizens, including fee paying students. So she went for soft targets, fiancees, spouses, dependants of citizens settled here with the intent to prevent them coming. She set a financial burden of a minimum of £18,500 pa income because foreign wives are more expensive to feed than English ones allegedly, check what the Government consider to be a living amount for a married couple needing Income Support.

 

So we talked about it, made our decision, liquidated or sold everything including the house, gave away most of the furniture, bought our own "ready for sea" shipping container and loaded it to the hilt with a couple of outboards, a couple of dinghys, all the white goods, dining suite because it was wrought iron and not wood, bags of bedding, camping gear, 5 bicycles and the contents of my workshop including metal stock, a boat trailer, luggage trailer etc. The last a waste of space - should have sold it in the YUK as we wound up dumping it - Thai laws on trailers make no distinctions on size vs brakes and licensing. 

 

We ordered a large (80 tonne crane) Hiab truck as we knew darn well that container would defeat a conventional truck and arranged collection, transport and shipping to Lam Chabang - later changed to Bangkok Port. We arranged and agent to facilitate customs and forwarding - a mistake in choice meant we paid a massive premium to customs plus tea money all round - corrupt Thailand! We booked the first available flight, got a certificate from Defra for the dog after all it's jabs, notified Thailand about exporting the dog to them, got a multi-entry visa for me and her sisters in Thailand to rent a house for us and look around for land or house to buy once we arrived.

 

Once here we immediately bought an MPV 7 seater and cruised around looking for houses. Time running out with the container arriving imminently we bought a 3 bed detached older village house in a gated village, one on enough land to extend, hired a builder and added an extension, 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms kitchen extension, re-doing the two disgusting existing bathrooms, added air-con to all 5 bedrooms and lounge, mosquito screens and security bars to every window and moved in just under 3 months after landing. The crane hire for the container and 5 big trucks to shift it's contents paid for by selling the container to the crane company and giving us money left over.

 

Later we bought a couple of motor bikes, sold one that was getting a bit tired, sold the MPV and used the money to buy a small car and a drop-side truck.

 

So we live here very comfortably, support her two disabled sisters, bought one a car, and have now been here 6 years.

 

Long story - but as to why - I hate it so hot, long for the end of the year and rainy season when it is cooler but we got fans, air-con for the hottest days. living is far cheaper especially as i bought the house for 2.3m and spent probably 0.5m extending and modernising it. I've since with my wife carried out as a DIY project (I was a Construction Management professional skilled in building having come up from the ranks as it were))designed a steel frame and built an extension all down one side installing a couple of 1000 litre tanks and a high volume pump as mains water pressure is pathetic. The extension houses a lounge room for one downstairs bedroom and has half the front garden fenced in creating a private apartment for one of the sisters and her little dogs, it also houses our freezer or one of them and a new washing machine for the sister's use alone.

 

My wife and I did ALL the work ourselves, welding the frame and chem-fixing down the stanchions and doing walls and roof.  We also embarked on a very ambitious project, now completed, of changing all the old teak windows in poor condition for modern aluminium sliding windows. These off-the shelf are about 90mm shorter than the old ones and 10mm wider, no matter, we bought a 9 inch diamond saw, cut down the walls, built up the bottoms, fitted and silicone mastic pointed in the windows, fitted security grills and re-decorated the rooms again. So up yours Theresa May because we now got two cars, 4 dogs, a motor-bike, a fully air-conditioned 5 bedroom detached house and all on an old age pension because my wife looks after me full time.

 

So why here then?

 

We now have no bills, loans, mortgage or other debts. We are careful with money and owe no-one!

 

It has proven far better for us in my retirement. No Council taxes, police cameras, lower bills for almost everything.  An incompetent Government it is true but in many ways that is good because they leave us alone apart from annual extensions and the futile 90 day reports.

 

And Covid - we take extreme precautions, sanitise everything and mostly don't go out. I'd say we made a good choice! I chose a lovely good-looking Northern farm girl who is caring and loyal and together we do everything. Smart and competent and stubborn to a fault - she teaches herself to make foods we cannot buy, like UK pork sausages and burgers, I make our own bread, she makes cakes and all manner of things she has learnt. She can use my sewing machine to good effect, and can do woodwork - made a lovely varnished front palisade fence and gate, and I taught her to weld and do tiling including using a diamond saw.

 

I fell head over heels for her, falling head first and landing on my feet!

Great story....using your head and your heart along with trust and hard work and then enjoy your new life 

I did same thing...sold my house (kept a couple revenue properties) and vehicles sold a few things but gave majority away to charities!

I came here with three suitcases and moved into the house we already had her

reno’ house and all plumbing and electrical....hired men to help clean up our four rai etc.

we owe “not one baht” as my wife says...we have no worries and live together with our two dogs and three cats in harmony with the jungle and the people of the dmall town two km’s away!!

We are together 24 hours a day and life is good!

 

for those who will say and said...oh you haven’t bee. Here long enough...you’re a novice...you’ll learn in a couple of years how bad it is here I say “I feel sorry for you”!

we have built a good life and don’t care about you and your misery “not one bit” as I say

[charliechoc]

On 5/16/2021 at 9:04 AM, Ralf001 said:

Being able to drive my car/ride my bike like an absolute lunatic with little to no repercussions.

I have to agree with this. Theres a long stretch of road near me with little or no traffic and I can go 150 to 160km per hour and never get a ticket. Gotta love that...

[MadMuhammad]

I travelled to 25 or so countries in 6 years Or so but still returned to Thailand 30+ times in that period. 
I initially moved her because fo the freedom from over policing (political correctness & road rules especially, the weather, the food, cost of living and at first the stress free approach to sex and relationships (compared to back home) 

 

I sold all my worldly possessions, and gave a bunch to my mum and came here to create a life. I’m now married and own a home so I doubt I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. Suits me just fine as the positives far outweigh any negatives I can think of

[berrec]

C'mon man!

 

Sex, Booze and Rock & Roll ..555555

 

Seriously, married a great Thai girl 20 years ago.

 

Spent 15 years back in my home country and had a great lifestyle together there; took the girl out of Thailand.

 

Decided 4 years ago time to put the girl back into Thailand; still leading a great lifestyle together here in Thailand.   

[Kanada]

12 minutes ago, MadMuhammad said:

I travelled to 25 or so countries in 6 years Or so but still returned to Thailand 30+ times in that period. 
I initially moved her because fo the freedom from over policing (political correctness & road rules especially, the weather, the food, cost of living and at first the stress free approach to sex and relationships (compared to back home) 

 

I sold all my worldly possessions, and gave a bunch to my mum and came here to create a life. I’m now married and own a home so I doubt I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. Suits me just fine as the positives far outweigh any negatives I can think of

You should be proud to be another success story with your life ????

sounds like so many are not

[chilly07]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:51 AM, Kwasaki said:

If I retired in England I would be poor.

Here in Thailand I have comfortable life.

Exactly-there is no way I could live on my pension in the UK!

[Kanada]

1 hour ago, lazygourmet said:

555!!!

Culture, what culture?!?

I've been living here for the last twenty years and spent all 90's in Indonesia.

So more and less +30 years around SE-Asia.

Regarding culture : I will get it back when I will move to Europe for a well deserved retirement.

Seriously....You really don’t see the “culture” in Thailand or you can’t see it because it’s not what you’re used to?

[ChrisKC]

I like the Thai people and they like me

 

Like the warm weather and it likes me

 

Back in the USSR.. Oh, sorry, got distracted.

 

I adore my Thai wife and she adores me!

 

Very happy with Doctors clinics and Government hospitals

 

Whatever Government or Immigration does, good, bad or indifferent - it is only a mild irritation

 

I will burn here

 

But hopefully not until I die

 

 

[4MyEgo]

Long of the short.

 

I am here early because I wanted out of the slave trade and paying high taxes.

 

I managed to retire here 12 years earlier than I could have back in my country.

 

Built a dream home four times the size of the one I had back there for 1/10th of the price and have gotten to enjoy it every single day since I have been here, even not wanting to go out most times because it is so comfortable in every aspect, especially when it is hot, it's cool in the house.

 

Living here has allowed me to think, to read, to watch and listen to music video's and watch shows on TV, a luxury I didn't have back there working 6/7th of my life.

 

I eat better, sleep better, and feel better, I am more relaxed than I have ever been except when some a.. hole upsets me on TVF....lol.

 

Don't get me wrong, Thailand has it's warts as much as back in my home country, but it's all about letting go because you can't change things, so accept it and move along, as sad as it is, that said, life is short, so I choose to enjoy my life here or what is remaining of it, Covid and all, and not get involved with allowing thoughts to run wild in my mind about the wrongs and the bad, well I do my best anyways.

 

I am free here, I have money which goes a long way further here and I also earn money from investments which when you work it out, is about half of what I would be clearing after tax and Medicare levy back home, and I don't have to work in the slave trade, of which I hear all of mates complaining how life is back there.

 

So when and if I get upset about something here and think about how good it would be to return, I have to stop, look around and think that, that could be going from the pan into the fire, e.g. I almost did it when the Covid lockdown kept us in for 3 months in the beginning, fortunately I didn't, so I move along and rid of what thought has made me think this way as soon as it comes to mind.

 

Bottom line is Thailand is not perfect, there are xenophobic and racist people here, but then again, nowhere is perfect, and I remember it was pretty much the same back in my home country for migrants, so if it works better where you are (here), then just keep swimming, and be careful not to get any cramps (thoughts) along the way, that could make you drown.

 

 

 

 

[MadMuhammad]

1 hour ago, Kanada said:

You should be proud to be another success story with your life ????

sounds like so many are not

Thank you, I’m very proud of where I’m at. I had an horrific motorcycle accident 7 years ago and being on the edge of death and fighting my way back through life long disability and brain damage gave me a new perspective on life. 
Since then, in my experience many people that complain the loudest have never had to endure true suffering and/or loss.  I was the same until I had to look life in the eye and decide which path to take. 
Through all it’s up and downs, culture shock and the locals ‘not doing it the proper way’ (tongue firmly in cheek) my life in Thailand is exceedingly positive.

 

[Pilotman]

5 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

Where else would you be and why..always open to other options on the horizon... ???? as Britman stated his reasons

I would base myself in the UK and travel extensively.  But as it is, unless Mrs P agrees, which she may well do at some point, we are here, temporarily.