Anyone else decided that Thailand is no longer the place they fell in love with and will never return?

[jwest10]

On 11/2/2021 at 8:47 AM, Lite Beer said:

The Land of Smiles has unfortunately become The Land of Noise.

Such a shame as the village I live in used to be so quiet and friendly now it is just non stop noise.

Lite Beer You are right but one has to have work on the bikes but frankly those who have pets ie dogs do not look after them or rather let them (only 2 but seems like 10) barking at all hours of the night and very early mornings and yes they are relatives of my wife but again don't dare tell them they are wrong but all they do is laugh. Note they bark for hours and no one comes out and infuriating.
But not everyone and he majority are very pleasant and yes have a wonderful family and even the youngest Granddaughter did say it is their living but then sometimes goes a little mental on the loud revving of bikes and cars and either side.
Everything else is good though!! And no intention of leaving any time soon.

[jwest10]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

My life, as a retired guy in Thailand, is way better than any dreams I ever had at any time in my past. So far today, I've walked around the moobaan a few times with my woman in the early morning sun. Just had a wine cooler, stroked the rabbits, and a boiled egg is on it's way to me.

 

PS. I've never bothered to waste my money on medical insurance, not worthwhile IMHO.

BritMan Too  Yes the medical insurance premiums way too high and yes even if one has no preconditions  and if one does the premium would rise so much and it would then be a pre condition and just have a little reserve so to speak. 
Everything else is fine and just try to enjoy and do my best for my family and yes not got a pot of gold.

[jwest10]

1 hour ago, Simple Jack said:

Same here mate.

 

I think after all these years. The U.K would be as foreign to me now. As Thailand was when i first arrived.

More so for me after 14 years here in LOS

[Simple Jack]

18 minutes ago, jwest10 said:

More so for me after 14 years here in LOS

 

Yea man.

 

I last wen't back for 30 days in 2010. It was a weird experience. When you see a teenage mother. Telling the auld folks on the street to get the ***** out the way? That's when i decided. Yea. Better off in Thailand.

 

Came out here after my service. Almost 16 years. It's been a roller coaster. But the way things are going in the U.K right now? There has never been a better place to live imop ???? Eg. I don't have to be worried about being arrested. For upsetting someones feeling on the internet. Cough. Scotland. 55+

 

Take it easy mate & all the best.

 

 

[473geo]

You guys make me laugh, I'm living in Thailand because right now for the foreseeable future it is where I want to be 

I am not here because I think I might be worse off elsewhere ????

[KhunLA]

54 minutes ago, 473geo said:

 right now for the foreseeable future it is where I want to be 

 

Yep, no regret or desire to leave.  Can't think of any place I'd rather be at the moment.

[zzaa09]

Giving too much thought towards most everything of trivial consequence. 

Bigger pictures are being missed. 

Which shouldn't surprise.

[Will B Good]

4 hours ago, jwest10 said:

BritMan Too  Yes the medical insurance premiums way too high and yes even if one has no preconditions  and if one does the premium would rise so much and it would then be a pre condition and just have a little reserve so to speak. 
Everything else is fine and just try to enjoy and do my best for my family and yes not got a pot of gold.

Just thought......these health insurance requirements are becoming a serious filtering mechanism to put off the old and the poor.....all part of the strategy to only have millionaires???

[ChaiyaTH]

10 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I used to fly to Saigon to get my VISA .......

But now with COVID there are no customers and you can just walk into CM immigration and get served instantly. As for the photos, I always take an envelope full, and let them pick the ones they want.

Lol I did the same before having yearly visa, I just made 10 photos with white/grey background, 10 with blue and a few other formats. I use the no longer used onces at cambodia/laos borders on trips to get rid off.
 

Other paperwork I have 10 copies each, walk in there prepared and just hand my agent the stack of papers and sorted.

[Tony125]

25 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Just thought......these health insurance requirements are becoming a serious filtering mechanism to put off the old and the poor.....all part of the strategy to only have millionaires???

I'm an American and not a millionair but after being in the US Military when I started working a Gov job I made sure I was covered by a good health policy that would even cover me overseas so I would never have to rely on Medicare/Medicaid. Still pay less than $200 a month for it and can never be cancelled except for non-payment.    Just need to plan ahead. I knew in my early 20's that I might want to live overseas so made sure I had a policy to cover me.

[spidermike007]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:29 AM, BritManToo said:

Yeah, but most of your 'issues' are a bit woke, and don't actually affect you at all.

And now you've left the county you're still posting here ......... why?

Nobody asked you to wring your hands on behalf of the Thai population.

Certainly not the Thai population, most of whom are probably happy another foreigner has left.

Not sure where that is coming from, except perhaps the recesses of your mind and your fears. I am probably the least woke and least PC person I know! 

 

Perhaps you are confusing me with some liberal. Not me! 

[richard_smith237]

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Not sure where that is coming from, except perhaps the recesses of your mind and your fears. I am probably the least woke and least PC person I know! 

 

Perhaps you are confusing me with some liberal. Not me! 

Thats a normal accusation by anyone out there on the fringes.

 

I can see how someone of balanced mind and opinions would seem ‘woke’ when not taking up the flag of some of the more extreme right wing or extreme ideologies. 

 

 

 

 

[Lite Beer]

10 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

Yes Thailand has changed but at least it is still full of Thai people,my old home town in the UK was once a nice working class town with a few factories and a few immigrants ,now no factories ,the town is full of women covered all over ,men in clothes i only used to see in Bangladesh when i visited. There are drug gangs from places like Rumania and African countrys ,hardly any of the old indigenous people . To be blunt its now a well starts with sh and ends in hole,and that was over 2 years ago when we went back for a few weeks.

The way things seem there now you dare not say most things in case your classed some sort of " ist" no thanks i will end my days here where things are still normal.

Also in the last month a boy was stabbed to death outside my daughters old school and a drug gang fight ended in a death .

Oh how Britain has changed.

Nothing like a good old zenophobic rant.

[EVENKEEL]

4 minutes ago, Lite Beer said:

Nothing like a good old zenophobic rant.

Nothing like telling it the way it is.

[Will B Good]

5 minutes ago, Lite Beer said:

Nothing like a good old zenophobic rant.

Have you got something against the letter x?

[Oblomov]

As a very keen swimmer and beach lover, I don't think anywhere beats Thailand, Bali and other places in the region I've lived for extended periods.  I've got a lot of Thai and Indonesian friends, whom I've known for many years, and I'd have to say it's them and the beaches that draw me back numerous times in the last 30 years.

 

I certainly enjoy a lot when in London in the summers and I'm productive but the winters are long and gloomy in the northern hemisphere, so always get back to S E Asia between Sept/Oct - Mar/Apr. When younger I lived in the middle of Silom in BKK and right in Kuta on Bali. Now I'm older I found a very quiet dead end soi in Phayathai BKK and always find a quiet little villa on Bali.

 

I know I've changed over the many years in Asia and every country here has also but it's still possible to feel very relaxed in S E Asia and find a great place to live without the huge cost.

[2009]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:24 AM, Berkshire said:

Yes, Thailand has changed.  But I'm pretty sure the place you're returning to has changed as well.  No place ever stays the same.

Funny, cos I just recently asked my mom about that. I asked, "Is xxxxxx different now?." And she replied, "No, it never changes".

 

Some places don't change.

 

Bangkok, however, has changed a lot.

 

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Thats a normal accusation by anyone out there on the fringes.

 

I can see how someone of balanced mind and opinions would seem ‘woke’ when not taking up the flag of some of the more extreme right wing or extreme ideologies. 

 

 

 

 

That is simply his M.O. He is constantly accusing me of being woke. Not a particularly creative mind. If I gave one iota about what a stranger thought of me, I might be offended, but since I don't, I'm not! 

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Split knee ........ 350bht, cleaning, stitching, meds and stitch removel.

Gallstones infection, 4,500bht ....... 1 night in the ward, 1 night in a private room.

Broken jaw and teeth, 5,000bht ....... 2k for the stitches, 3k for setting my jaw rebuilding 2 teeth, 5 visits.

Prostate problems, 1,000bht at the start, than around 200bht/month for meds, tests and doctor appointments.

 

An elderly pal (70+) had a m/c accident (toppled over in his driveway), broken hip......... his m/c government minimum insurance paid direct for all the hospital care, and he paid 25kbht for a month in a care home while he was immobile and in plaster.

 

All very reasonable IMHO.

 

You were driving an uninsured m/c?

No idea, as it was the wife's and she never said, but I had travel insurance anyway, so why not use it.

[thaibeachlovers]

11 hours ago, Tony125 said:

so you could still sit and play connect 4  while you drank enough to get the courage up to ask her to acompany you.

LOL. Never needed "courage" to take a girl out of the bar, and don't need alcohol for anything anyway.

 

11 hours ago, Tony125 said:

Mostly about your poor choices of picking women overseas and in Thailand  as well as searching for info from posters on if they know were to  get  uthenasia drugs.

Making stuff up, I see. I don't only post on The Pub, and I've never asked where to get euthanasia drugs. Bet you can't quote me doing that.

 

11 hours ago, Tony125 said:

When advised about exercising to improve mood you say cannot. Told me rippped rotator cuff so can;t do pushups when I and others stated you can't train like you did when young you say too late now. When I told you about ways to repair damage to shoulder you just ignor. 

You're confusing me with someone else. I've never had a ripped rotator cuff.

I do plenty of exercise, including digging tons of dirt, which I couldn't do with a damaged shoulder. I have mentioned the digging, so you must have missed those posts.

 

11 hours ago, Tony125 said:

Now basillly say your too old to do anything , except come on AN  and gripe,

Oh the irony of someone coming on here to gripe about someone else griping. 55555555555

 

Feel free to not read any post I make, and you can put me on ignore, but I think you like making personal attacks, so you won't be doing that.

[n00dle]

16 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Only thing that has changed about me in the past 30 years is that my body got old and decrepit. Mentally unchanged, except for the short term memory loss.

Right.

[Benmart]

Acceptance, tolerance and a strong belief that I'm not in charge has brought me a peaceful life here in Thailand. 

[Fat is a type of crazy]

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Thats a normal accusation by anyone out there on the fringes.

 

I can see how someone of balanced mind and opinions would seem ‘woke’ when not taking up the flag of some of the more extreme right wing or extreme ideologies. 

 

 

 

 

Woke can be out on the fringes or in the middle in my opinion. It is those that talk about how bad and corrupt others are while inadvertently making themselves seem good and relatively pure. Talking about stuff that doesn't really affect their lives. Making unwanted judgement calls. Sometimes it's good to be a bit woke. Caring about others and all that. 

[Jeffr2]

10 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

That is simply his M.O. He is constantly accusing me of being woke. Not a particularly creative mind. If I gave one iota about what a stranger thought of me, I might be offended, but since I don't, I'm not! 

I'm guessing he reads only right wing media sites.  Another grade school term used by them to rile up the masses.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2020/jan/21/how-the-word-woke-was-weaponised-by-the-right

 

How the word ‘woke’ was weaponised by the right

The term is meant to denote an attentiveness to important issues.

 

Like “politically correct” before it, the word “woke” has come to connote the opposite of what it means. Technically, going by the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition, woke means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”, but today we are more likely to see it being used as a stick with which to beat people who aspire to such values, often wielded by those who don’t recognise how un-woke they are, or are proud of the fact.

 

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

I'm guessing he reads only right wing media sites.  Another grade school term used by them to rile up the masses.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2020/jan/21/how-the-word-woke-was-weaponised-by-the-right

 

How the word ‘woke’ was weaponised by the right

The term is meant to denote an attentiveness to important issues.

 

Like “politically correct” before it, the word “woke” has come to connote the opposite of what it means. Technically, going by the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition, woke means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”, but today we are more likely to see it being used as a stick with which to beat people who aspire to such values, often wielded by those who don’t recognise how un-woke they are, or are proud of the fact.

 

There is little doubt people are slowly waking up to the fact that the whole "woke issue" is a rightwing construction designed to deflect, confuse and divide..........and it is very, very successful in achieving those aims.

 

People have been hoodwinked!

[Jeffr2]

We're debating on whether to leave or not.  Been here permanently for about 13 years, and semi-permanently for 7 years before that.  We love Thailand, but it has changed a lot.  Some for the better, some for the worse.

 

Weather is an issue for me.  It's just too bloody hot to do outdoor activities for a good part of the year.  And where I am, South of Pattaya, swimming is dodgy and riding a bike can be suicide. I'm an outdoor person.  So, we're looking at climates a bit more moderate.  Seriously considering Mexico where we've spent a fair amount of time.  But not 100% sure about that.  Still deciding.

 

Another issue is health care.  I'm not there yet, but in the US, medicare kicks in after a certain age.  And some policies here kick you out after a certain age.

 

It's also become very crowded compared to when I first came here.  Traffic is really bad and many of the lovely islands are now just overbuilt.

 

And lastly, there's immigration.  Having to do 90 day reports, yearly visa extensions, re-entry permits, etc, is just no fun.  It's a ridiculous process.

 

We still love it here and haven't decided what to do.  But it might be time to move on and explore other parts of the world.

[Jeffr2]

7 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

There is little doubt people are slowly waking up to the fact that the whole "woke issue" is a rightwing construction designed to deflect, confuse and divide..........and it is very, very successful in achieving those aims.

 

People have been hoodwinked!

School grade words that rile up the masses.  They fall for it.  Snowflake, cancel culture, woke, etc.  Childish.  But yes, it's working.  As shown above.

[Will B Good]

Just now, Jeffr2 said:

School grade words that rile up the masses.  They fall for it.  Snowflake, cancel culture, woke, etc.  Childish.  But yes, it's working.  As shown above.

Parliament prorogued illegally

Manifesto promises broken

Judicial reviews to be prevented in future

MP's whipped to allow paid lobbying (retrospectively) 

Sex pest MP allowed to go unpunished.....(can't change the rules retrospectively)

 

Oh! Look over there ...........people taking the knee.... terrible. Someone has pushed over a statue....OMG is this the end of civilisation? 

[Fat is a type of crazy]

29 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

School grade words that rile up the masses.  They fall for it.  Snowflake, cancel culture, woke, etc.  Childish.  But yes, it's working.  As shown above.

Where's there is smoke there is a bit of fire. Sometimes I wonder why the lefties, many of whom I know are well off, fight so hard for many of the poor who are republican poor and who hate them. Enjoy the rising markets and let the poor fight there own fights. If they don't care up to them.

The heat in Thailand is something that makes it difficult to think of retiring full time in Thailand. For the first time in 20 months the doors are opening up. First flight is to Phuket - haven't been there for 8 years - got sick of it - hopefully fun. Might just bring my Thai girl here and that gives me a touch of Thailand in my Australian life. 

[Jeffr2]

15 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

The heat in Thailand is something that makes it difficult to think of retiring full time in Thailand. For the first time in 20 months the doors are opening up. First flight is to Phuket - haven't been there for 8 years - got sick of it - hopefully fun. Might just bring my Thai girl here and that gives me a touch of Thailand in my Australian life. 

Was just in Phuket.  It's pretty quite, and a bit depressing seeing soooo many businesses shut down.  Like you, I got sick of it also.  Especially after our last trip just after the Tsunami when a baht bus driver almost attacked us for laughing at the rate he wanted to charge for a 1km trip.  They really don't know how to treat tourists properly.  Or just don't care.  Money, money, money...