What is the good news about living in Thailand now?

[overherebc]

4 hours ago, blazes said:

I'm still waiting (for many years) for the good news that the ridiculous tax on imported red wine be dropped to something that does not threaten bankruptcy.

Getting a bottle of wine here without having to search the label for the print, that requires a magnifying glass, saying 'Fruit Wine' meaning it's up to 15% added fruit juice or whatever is the most annoying thing about wine here. And nowadays it's not much cheaper than a half decent real wine.

[Nemises]

3 hours ago, Sparktrader said:

200 baht massages

200 baht? You’re being ripped off. 

[Sparktrader]

1 minute ago, Nemises said:

200 baht? You’re being ripped off. 

Sign says 250 oil

[spidermike007]

I was recently in the US for a few months. Mom people are fairly sour, and bitter these days. No humor, serious, downcast, and they just do not look like their lives are particularly fulfilling. And hyper inflation is out of control. They are admitting to over 7%. It is likely closer to 20%. Prices are stupid. And between me too and Covid women have basically shut down. Good looking, successful friends of mine there cannot even get dates. 

 

Here, some people seem to be struggling. But, they are still somewhat even minded, and many are quite pleasant. Many have maintained their light heartedness, and their sense of humor. And I can walk into a restaurant and (harmlessly) flirt with a gorgeous 23 year old waitress, and she is all smiles. And the restaurant does not cost me an arm and a leg. Life here is just so much more pleasant. As long as I keep my head in the sand over politics, the extreme over reaction to Covid, and the major issues here caused by the goons shutting down the economy over Covid. 

[Sparktrader]

8 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I was recently in the US for a few months. Mom people are fairly sour, and bitter these days. No humor, serious, downcast, and they just do not look like their lives are particularly fulfilling. And hyper inflation is out of control. They are admitting to over 7%. It is likely closer to 20%. Prices are stupid. And between me too and Covid women have basically shut down. Good looking, successful friends of mine there cannot even get dates. 

 

Here, some people seem to be struggling. But, they are still somewhat even minded, and many are quite pleasant. Many have maintained their light heartedness, and their sense of humor. And I can walk into a restaurant and (harmlessly) flirt with a gorgeous 23 year old waitress, and she is all smiles. And the restaurant does not cost me an arm and a leg. Life here is just so much more pleasant. As long as I keep my head in the sand over politics, the extreme over reaction to Covid, and the major issues here caused by the goons shutting down the economy over Covid. 

Biden 7% inflation disaster

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, bang saen guy said:

The only upside to living here is cheap rent and readily available sex.

The only foreigners that survive on Thai food are skint or too lazy to cook for themselves

I like Thai food, about 80% of my diet. I cook for myself the rest of the time.

I have calculated my assets apart from my pension will run out when I am about 106, so I don't consider I am skint.

I agree on the upsides you mention; however, there are more than two for me.

[The Oracle]

Warning:  text wall.  ????

With fewer tourists, their are fewer tools. 

Aside from the recent dramatic increases in fuel and pork prices, everything has remained pretty much the same.  

I live in a village.  I'm single.  There are no English-speakers and, as far as I'm aware, no foreigners for about 40km.   I have friends in widely-strewn provinces which take at least five hours to get to from my place in the sticks.  Due to these distances, I eat at the roadside Mum and Dad restaurants quite often.  Prices haven't changed in the almost five years I've had the car.  The differences in prices and quality of the fresh fruit and veg I buy from roadside and market stalls varies depending on the province I'm in.   People going on about strawberries obviously haven't eaten the spectacular varieties from Chiang Mai.   While I'm at it, there are several varieties of banana, mango, and papaya, too.   I'm going out on a limb - which one should never do on the internet - and suggest people go to the markets as well and not leave it up to their other half.  And don't buy from the supermarkets; they're flavourless due to cold storage.  The only vegetable I buy from Lotus is potato.  Everything else is from the market.

As for "what's it like" here?  As I said, I'm rural.  Nothing has changed here since I first moved here coming up to six years ago.  But I have driven across a lot of the country - of course, since January 2020, I think I've only taken four or five inter-provincial trips to see friends.  I can't speak for the poor sods that put their life savings into businesses in tourist areas but I sympathise with them in this difficult time.

I drove to Pattaya late last year - as I had in July and October 2020 as well - and enjoyed being able to walk around without the slow-moving or steroid-pumped masses blocking the way, being able to get a seat in a bar or restaurant, and being able to identify and avoid the various lethal objects and holes on the footpaths before treading on/in them.  The June re-opening of restaurants lasted until the Delta variant hit in December 2020 and businesses were shuttered again in April 2021.  It was bad in 2020 when I went to a retirement party, very slow and lots of businesses closed but when I went back in December 2021, it was horrific.

Udon Thani was similarly quiet in February 2021but everything seemed open.  The bar owners and their punters, like Pattaya, were generally welcoming, happy to see a new face after months of travel restrictions. 

A single White male walking down the strip of Khon Kaen at 4 PM?  Not so much.  I really felt like I was encroaching on some tribal turf by the looks of the expats' faces staring out from the bars so I continued walking past, noting that many places were shuttered.  After a half-hour or so, I ended up at a bar-restaurant overlooking a lake.  I was driving back home from Sakon Nakhon and dropped in for a night to break up my journey.  Might try Nong Nua Lamphu next time.  At least until there's enough of an increase in tourist numbers in KK that someone under 60 doesn't stick out as much.

The other major thing I saw during the Delta wave was a lot of 25-35 people returning to the village. They had obviously been away a long time because they were surprised to see me walking around the market.   And what they brought back to the village was the *open* racism.  I'm used to a snide remark here and there, usually because I misunderstand a word.  A couple of tattoo-thighed ladies were getting off their motorcycle and one asked of the other, "what's that [very bad word] doing here?" The old duck selling the fish looked at me, shocked, embarrassed and possibly horrified as to what my response was going to be.  I didn't disappoint.  "I'm buying breakfast.  You come from Pattaya to give your vagina a holiday?"  Auntie almost blew a valve laughing.
Another group were whingeing that their boss stopped paying them and shut his bar permanently in Bang Lamung.  I didn't respond to that, as I'd overhead them talking to a vendor, not to me.  To put this into context, he'd been paying these two (and I assume others) from April to October 2021 while not getting any business until he ran out of money.  
There's one fried chicken seller here that used to switch to Lao when I went to buy something, pretending he couldn't speak Thai.  Needless to say, I haven't bought anything off him since 2016.

[jak2002003]

6 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Hardly a plus. Thai strawberries are tiny and goppin. Big red juicy English strawberries can’t be beat. 
For sure, Thailand is better than some other places but with a big dark cloud over it in the form of an autocratic gov… not far off tyrant. Putin. 

Dont agree with you about the strawberries....I prefer the Thai ones...green and dipped in the salt.  

 

The huge tasteless red ones in UK supermarkets just taste like sweet water.

 

But the wild strawberry are very good 

 

Agree about the rear of your post 100 percent though. 

 

 

 

 

[grain]

7 hours ago, Tom H said:

Good is, that Russia wont attack Thailand.

Just remember the true story about the man who sensed that WW2 was about to start and he searched the map of the world for the safest place to hide out until the war was over, and after much research, just a few weeks before Germany invaded Poland, this man relocated to a remote little island in the Pacific named Guadalcanal.

[Charlie Halliday]

Thailand probably one of the best countries in the world to live in the past 2 years of covid. Leadership aside, we are very free to enjoy life, move around the country and enjoy quality food produce. Can't grumble. Those that do are generally miserable people who would complain wherever they lived. Not much hope for that category. 

[Nemises]

57 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

Sign says 250 oil

You never mentioned anything about oil.
 

Photo of sign showing 200 for oil?

 

Didn’t think so. 
 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Nemises

[David T Pike]

It's true!

I just spent a night in a room at the Conrad Hilton in Bangkok for $100 which would cost me at least $500 in NYC!.  Love it! ????

[VocalNeal]

Sunshine and palm trees.????

Edited February 25, 2022 by VocalNeal

[ChrisKC]

5 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I agree with most of what you write. But strawberries in Thailand are just not what strawberries are supposed to be.

Where in Thailand can you get strawberries like this?

 

It is true, English strawberries beat everything else. But every year in Thailand, I have absolutely lovely strawberries that I am very happy with. The photo above shows no better than I have been eating as little as two weeks ago. I would add that I wont buy from the supermarkets - stupidly expensive and never look very nice. When I go away towards the mountains where they grow, I buy for B100 that would cost B250 in the towns.

[thaibeachlovers]

The good news, as always, would be that it's not back in the country we want to leave.

I'd go back to live in LOS in a heartbeat if it were possible, but I'll never qualify for a non O again unless I win lotto.

[Sparktrader]

15 minutes ago, Nemises said:

You never mentioned anything about oil.
 

Photo of sign showing 200 for oil?

 

Didn’t think so. 
 

 

Expensive oil

[Sparktrader]

4 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

It is true, English strawberries beat everything else. But every year in Thailand, I have absolutely lovely strawberries that I am very happy with. The photo above shows no better than I have been eating as little as two weeks ago. I would add that I wont buy from the supermarkets - stupidly expensive and never look very nice. When I go away towards the mountains where they grow, I buy for B100 that would cost B250 in the towns.

English is better than French or Aussie?

[Thingamabob]

8 hours ago, timendres said:

The good news for me is that I am surrounded by Thai people.

Well said.

[moogradod]

5 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I agree with most of what you write. But strawberries in Thailand are just not what strawberries are supposed to be.

Where in Thailand can you get strawberries like this?

 

You can get strawberries like this on a market in our vicinity. And they taste better than the ones I used to eat in Switzerland (both local and imported). And they are not even overly expensive. Thailand has made a huge step forward as strawberries are concerned. The times of the half-white-tasteless-hard ones are over. They used to grow them in the Chiang Mai area I remember, but I do not know where the really sweet and full tasting ones are grown that my wife buys now (if they are available and not sold out) but almost 100% they are not imported.

 

So it is a question of knowing where to buy the right stuff only.

[Norvabc]

7 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Hardly a plus. Thai strawberries are tiny and goppin. Big red juicy English strawberries can’t be beat. 
For sure, Thailand is better than some other places but with a big dark cloud over it in the form of an autocratic gov… not far off tyrant. Putin. 

Tyrant? surrounded by US bases, that have killed more people than any other county, laid was to Iraq.Afghanistan Lybia the list is endless. And we are conditioned to believe Putin is a Tryrant. We bomb Syria because they are said to use barrel bombs, we are so much more civilised we use cruze missiles Assad was the Tyrant. Omar Kadaffi, Sadam and all the rest were Tryrants when we bombed Noe Putin give me a break

[Cherrytreeview]

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

There have been restrictions on flying back into Thailand... certainly did not wish to get stuck in the UK. My home is here now.

Stay in Thailand.

You wouldn't know what freedom looks like here in the UK.

Give me four seasons, a fresh breeze on my face  any day of the week over the oppressive heat and humidity in Thailand.

"Get stuck in the UK".

You mean you couldn't afford to come back permanently?

Let's see how Thailand works out for you when you can't get insurance over 70.

Enjoy mucking out the buffaloes and i'll make a donation to your Go Fund Me page to get you a flight back to the UK.

 

 

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, Cherrytreeview said:

You mean you couldn't afford to come back permanently?

Let's see how Thailand works out for you when you can't get insurance over 70.

I could, but I'd have to work, and I'd be cold all the time.

I don't expect to live past 70 ...... no need for insurance when you're dead.

Edited February 25, 2022 by BritManToo

[sirineou]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The good news is at least Thailand produces masses of its own fresh fruit and vegetables.

The good news is that with all the chemical pesticides found in the wonderful Thai fruits and vegetables that you ingest, you will never be eaten by bugs.  

Edited February 25, 2022 by sirineou
typo

[SunsetT]

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Yeah, but Xi might !

No need. Thailand would just roll over with its feet in the air!

[Forza2002]

The current good news about living in Thailand is that there are no longer hoards of Chinese tourists, long may it continue...

[trainman34014]

3 hours ago, vandeventer said:

It makes us realize that we are so lucky to be living here. For now the only thing we have to worry about is covid and the mad drivers on the roads. Unless the Chinese have other idea's, lets hope not.

China doesn't need to Invade Thailand; in many ways it already controls it with around 95% of the so called 'Elite' being Sino-Thai !

[Cherrytreeview]

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I could, but I'd have to work, and I'd be cold all the time.

I don't expect to live past 70 ...... no need for insurance when you're dead.

This is exactly what I mean.

So many here have burned bridges, no plan B and hope that it all works out.

It's all a joke until it isn't.

Rising inflation, strengtening baht, frozen UK state pension and a never ending cycle of cheaper places to rent as your savings are eroded.

You don't decide how long you live unless you jump off a balcony.

Best of luck to you, your going to need it.

 

 

[FritsSikkink]

8 hours ago, Albert Zweistein said:

None.

So don't ever come here again please.

[Sparktrader]

4 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

It appears strawberries have become the default "quality of life" indicator.

I remember the good old days when it was hookers and beer.

Easy life

[phetphet]

2 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

crystal clear beaches.

Not so many of those nowadays unfortunately. Still a few, but not many.