Shall We Say Goodbye to Isaan?

[Guest Isaanlife]

My wife and I have been talking lately about moving on from Isaan.

 

We will always have the farm (26 rai) attended to by family and a place to come visit if we ever decide to and maybe come back to die?

 

Also own 2 properties in the USA. One in NH and one in Florida.

 

But we are thinking about moving on to someplace like Spain, The Caribbean, Latin America, South America or other, that has more to offer.

 

Warm climate by the sea, vibrant expat community, culture, dining, more things to see and do.

 

We have previously done a lot of international traveling together, wife is a US Citizen now, and she enjoys the different locations and travels.

 

A nice sea-side community with shops and restaurants that you can walk to everything would be ideal.

 

All this talk kind of feels like moving away from home, which I am sure it really is.

 

No exact timeline, but am sure it will be sooner than later. 

 

Isaan will always be here and probably never change, but we both feel it is time for a new adventure somewhere else.

[fredscats]

Spain ,vibrant expat community,       Does not exist in Thailand

[The Hammer2021]

The Portuguese Algarve Coast

[clivebaxter]

Spain or Portugal, booze is far cheaper!

[HashBrownHarry]

7 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

Spain or Portugal, booze is far cheaper!

A massive consideration when selecting where to live.

[Chris.B]

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Chris.B

[GrandPapillon]

8 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

brilliantly British ????

[cobra]

2 hours ago, Chris.B said:

 Easy to rent mobility scooters ....

 

A motor bike yes, but if a mobility scooter,

you 've waited to long to leave, 

Edited January 31, 2022 by cobra

[alextrat1966]

3 hours ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

As a Spaniard myself I can confidently tell you Benidorm is the <deleted>tiest place in all of Spain, lol. 

[carlyai]

Have you tried the Gold Coast in Australia?

 

[Hummin]

4 hours ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

Albir better than Benidorm in my opinion, but to cold in the winter.

 

BTW my father selling his apartment there now, 450k euro.

[Pique Dard]

Shall We Say Goodbye to Isaan?

 

...i've yet to say good morning!

[mrwebb8825]

5 hours ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

You DO realize that "Sand" is a requirement for a "Beach", right? Otherwise it's called a "Coast". 

5 hours ago, GrandPapillon said:

brilliantly British ????

Too funny ????

 

OP - You should tweet the Kardashians. 

[fredscats]

6 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

The Portuguese Algarve Coast

No good,it p.issess down most of winter months,seas too cold for swimming any time of year and spoken language too damned difficult,plus more exp than Spain

[fredscats]

6 hours ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

Well you could ask for more,but there are vibrant ex pat communities,lots of them.   Live outside of Benidorm,good places not far off,easy language to pick up,not squeaky pitched one, couple of hours from UK,but trains ,boats available too....Beam me up Scotty,....its got four legs and a tail that keeps me here

[JayClay]

52 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You DO realize that "Sand" is a requirement for a "Beach", right?

Never heard of a stone or gavel beach, then?...

[jerrymahoney]

I don't know what is a "vibrant expat community" but I might think of my late parents. Both were +/- 10 USGA handicap golfers and Life Master ACBL bridge players. They had instant social acceptance by these virtues just about anywhere they went whether on various moves in US or on vactions domestic or international.

 

Me? I inherited none of these social skills.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

I recommend Valencia in Spain. I spent 2 months there teaching. Beautiful, long stretches of beach. Bicycling gets you around the entire city, with dedicated, separate bike lanes. They've really relinquished their reliance on cars. Several streets closed to pedestrian traffic for street fairs and activities. A real model for the world. Expat communities, frequent meetups in pubs for informal clubs to chit chat about various interests, practicing languages, discussing travels. I miss it. Well, this was years ago, not sure how they've recovered from Covid as of yet.

 

Yes, in another recent thread I mentioned how the expat community has cleared out of Issan since about 3 years ago. That's when the embassy income verification letters stopped, and immgration got a lot tougher about this and that. My favorite bars got quiet, and when asking about this bloke or that was told they'd simply gone home.

 

Yup, I really misses the beaches, the missus and I are about a 10 hr drive from them here. We've made do with some beach-like recreation areas at lakes and rivers, and the pools at resorts. Someday I'll show her Spain, and back home in the States.

[Chris.B]

9 hours ago, cobra said:

A motor bike yes, but if a mobility scooter,

you 've waited to long to leave, 

"I wanna a motorbike" - What are you, 12 years old?

Edited February 1, 2022 by Chris.B

[Chris.B]

9 hours ago, alextrat1966 said:

As a Spaniard myself I can confidently tell you Benidorm is the <deleted>tiest place in all of Spain, lol. 

As a Spaniard, your views don't count when it comes to Benidorm!  

 

[IanDelMar]

13 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

As a Spaniard, your views don't count when it comes to Benidorm!  

 

Why? He's absolutely spot on

[JustAnotherHun]

12 hours ago, Chris.B said:

Try Benidorm in Spain, good weather and sandy beaches. Hotel staff speak English. Cheap booze, full English breakfasts, English pubs. Easy to rent mobility scooters. What more could you ask for? ???? 

 

Sounds like a place to avoid under all circumstances :-).

If Spain, then Andalusia. Malaga is a nice place.

But when I leave Thailand I'll go to Southern France (Montpellier) or Toskana in Italy.

 

[konaboy]

Kona coast. Hawaii

[Chris.B]

16 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Sounds like a place to avoid under all circumstances :-).

If Spain, then Andalusia. Malaga is a nice place.

But when I leave Thailand I'll go to Southern France (Montpellier) or Toskana in Italy.

 

Bye!  ????????

[JustAnotherHun]

1 minute ago, Chris.B said:

Bye!  ????????

Not yet

[Chris.B]

39 minutes ago, IanDelMar said:

Why? He's absolutely spot on

Newbies don't count as well!  

[Hummin]

6 hours ago, JayClay said:

Never heard of a stone or gavel beach, then?...

Benidorm the worst steaking baking overcrowded beach I ever been to. Where children run around on the hot sand (can not walk to hot) and wind up sand on you and everything around you. 
 

Albir nice chill stone beach with less people. 
 

Have to aggree Valencia is a great city if ypu choose Spain, but still to cold in the winter, and to hot in the summer. 

Denia is another great fishing village between Valencia and Benidorm, but 30 years to late if you ask me, to expensive to invest in something that could be of interest.

 

I stayed quite alot up in Sella in the mountains climbing. Nice area as well, and not to far from the beach. Quite few of those who first bought summerhouses in that area in the 80`ies, did move om to the mountains when they retired. 

 

[JustAnotherHun]

Just now, Hummin said:

Benidorm the worst steaking baking overcrowded beach I ever been to.

...but the booze is cheap and you get english breakfast. For some .this seems to be paradise ????

[alextrat1966]

56 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

"I wanna a motorbike" - What are you, 12 years old?

Seriously - that city is designed mainly by greedy British entrepreneurs and some greedy Spanish entrepreneurs as well to rip off British tourists (and the occasional Spanish tourist who may visit there)! 
 

It’s cold in winter, prices are artificially inflated way above what real estate there should be worth, and in the end it’s just like any other city in the area, nothing special. 
 

I guess the only good thing about Benidorm may be there’s lots of Brits, so it may be easier to be around your country people… but still, hardly worth it paying those astronomical prices… 

 

[Hummin]

23 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Sounds like a place to avoid under all circumstances :-).

If Spain, then Andalusia. Malaga is a nice place.

But when I leave Thailand I'll go to Southern France (Montpellier) or Toskana in Italy.

 

France is a great choice, except the french. After 3 months you got free social security and It could be a future destination for sure. Italy, not so sure, maybe Croatia?