https://livingcost.org/best/thailand

 

1 bangkok

2 chiang m

3 nonthaburi

4 pattaya

 

You agree?

 

Chiang Rai 30!

 

Islands down low

Udon rates low but one of cheapest.

Nonthaburi? What's behind that recommendation?

Subject done to  death to the point of pointlessness

2 minutes ago, jaywalker2 said:

Nonthaburi? What's behind that recommendation?

Gdp per capita i guess

Best of what?

Best for what?

??????????

2 minutes ago, sawadee1947 said:

Best of what?

Best for what?

??????????

Read the link

https://nomadpub.com/chiang-rai/

 

Chiang Rai rates high here

As far as cities are concerned, it's still Pattaya (including possible "fringe benefits", if desired). Still best value for money.

Amazingly: I am still in contact with Farangs  in "the Sticks", living comfortably on less than 16K Bht/month. "Fringe benefits" cost extra, and cost more than in Pattaya.
It's a matter of "priorities".

11 hours ago, swissie said:

As far as cities are concerned, it's still Pattaya (including possible "fringe benefits", if desired). Still best value for money.

Amazingly: I am still in contact with Farangs  in "the Sticks", living comfortably on less than 16K Bht/month. "Fringe benefits" cost extra, and cost more than in Pattaya.
It's a matter of "priorities".

I live in one city (not 16k, but definitely far cheaper) I have about 8 holidays a year, best of both worlds. JMHO

Every city in LOS is wonderful. Why? Cause I can get a cold beer cheap AND I get called 'hansum man' everywhere I go .... = paradise lol ????

Bangkok number one for sure......anything else is a poor imitation of a city.

1 hour ago, Will B Good said:

Bangkok number one for sure......anything else is a poor imitation of a city.

Having been raised in the Philadelphia area, the lure of big cities is lost on me. I'll take the second tier. Smaller, easier to get around, can still find everything I want/need. Of course we all have different tastes. Big cities out, especially in retirement but then so are the villages.

10 minutes ago, Wrwest said:

Having been raised in the Philadelphia area, the lure of big cities is lost on me. I'll take the second tier. Smaller, easier to get around, can still find everything I want/need. Of course we all have different tastes. Big cities out, especially in retirement but then so are the villages.

Agree, and also a Philly area boy.  Philly actually a small-big city, 5-6 m metro area, I think.

 

Bangkok is great, but yea, it's overkill, and also prefer smaller.  Bigger metros here are 200-500k folks, with a good mix of everything; hosp, shopping, public trans, entertainment ?

 

No real need for a car, if actually in the city.  My problem is, all larger ones in TH, are subject to smog season.  Hat Yai maybe being the exception, though unfamiliar with AQI there.

Nothing like a naive newbie to suggest what is what....

40 minutes ago, Wrwest said:

Having been raised in the Philadelphia area, the lure of big cities is lost on me. I'll take the second tier. Smaller, easier to get around, can still find everything I want/need. Of course we all have different tastes. Big cities out, especially in retirement but then so are the villages.

If CM was in Krabi be ideal

Bangkok is Thailand's only real city and cannot really be compared with any provincial towns. So yes, it would always be #1, which makes it kind of pointless to even include Bangkok in any such list. 

2 hours ago, Wrwest said:

Having been raised in the Philadelphia area, the lure of big cities is lost on me. I'll take the second tier. Smaller, easier to get around, can still find everything I want/need. Of course we all have different tastes. Big cities out, especially in retirement but then so are the villages.

Ha...raised on the barren N York moors in the UK......so anything that twinkles catches the eye.

1 hour ago, Caldera said:

Bangkok is Thailand's only real city and cannot really be compared with any provincial towns. So yes, it would always be #1, which makes it kind of pointless to even include Bangkok in any such list. 

A city to me, would be self sustaining; hosp, trans, shopping

If having to leave the 'city limits' for any, then simply a town/village.

 

Appears to be more than a few definitions with different criteria. 

 

I would go with pop. @ 100k+, but powers to be ...

 

 

1 minute ago, KhunLA said:

A city to me, would be self sustaining; hosp, trans, shopping

If having to leave the 'city limits' for any, then simply a town/village.

 

I would go with pop. @ 100k+, but powers to be ...

 

200k city

Under town

 

2,500 is tiny

 

2550 people city lol

29 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Ha...raised on the barren N York moors in the UK......so anything that twinkles catches the eye.

Must be somewhere near where I was born also

17 hours ago, swissie said:

As far as cities are concerned, it's still Pattaya (including possible "fringe benefits", if desired). Still best value for money.

Amazingly: I am still in contact with Farangs  in "the Sticks", living comfortably on less than 16K Bht/month. "Fringe benefits" cost extra, and cost more than in Pattaya.
It's a matter of "priorities".

sorry mate but less than B16k per month ain't living, that's existing. that's only 533.33 baht per day. my breakfast costs more than that!

5 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

sorry mate but less than B16k per month ain't living, that's existing. that's only 533.33 baht per day. my breakfast costs more than that!

600 baht on breakfast? Lobster?

 

Hotels charge 100 baht lol

4 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Bangkok number one for sure......anything else is a poor imitation of a city.

LOL. are you #Bangkok4Lyf? I'm living here now (Lumphini) and loving every minute of it. but if/when I get bored with it I'll just ask Sparky if I can sleep on his couch for a bit.

 

by the time he finally gets his RS into gear any gets over here he'll know THE perfect place to live. 

 

c'mon Sparks mate, book that damn one-way ticket already! ????

1 minute ago, Sparktrader said:

600 baht on breakfast? Lobster?

 

Hotels charge 100 baht lol

truffled scrambled eggs and a couple coffees at the Anantara. 

 

or fish 'n chips and a couple pints of draft Asahi at Roadhouse Barbecue ????????????

Thailand only has one city Bangkok, it's bigger than all the rest put together. Most of them look and feel exactly the same. Pattaya is best by far with so many western facilities. You can live there just as cheaply if you want.

26 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

sorry mate but less than B16k per month ain't living, that's existing. that's only 533.33 baht per day. my breakfast costs more than that!

Yup, looking at those figures there are not many expats living here anywhere near as cheaply as that. Most would struggle to get by on less than 20,000 and even then only if they owned where they lived and were paying no rent.

We move around between our house in Udon, condo in Pattaya and house in UK.  I tend to get tired of Udon after a couple on months. Our house in the UK is in a nice village but I find it a bit too quiet.

Pattaya is an easy place to live and makes a great base for travelling around Thailand and SE Asia. I never really get bored there. As Samuel Johnson famously said, ' when a man is tired of Pattaya, he is tired of life; for there is in Pattaya all that life can afford.”

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Hat Yai maybe being the exception, though unfamiliar with AQI there.

Hat Yai has good air quality most of the year. Except when the burning season in Indonesia goes wild, then we can sometimes get the 'Haze' on days in August through September. Generally anywhere on the peninsular has reasonably good air quality because there's usually a breeze of clean air coming off the sea.

 

BTW those city population numbers are only part of the picture. Hat Yai for example, the figure of 157K is for Mueang Hat Yai, but the city in reality includes several adjoining districts; Khuan Lang, Kho Hong, Klong Hae, Ta Chang, Ban Phru. So the actual population of greater Hat Yai is over 400k. The same is true of Chiang Mai, Korat etc. 

 

.

27 minutes ago, HauptmannUK said:

We move around between our house in Udon, condo in Pattaya and house in UK.  I tend to get tired of Udon after a couple on months. Our house in the UK is in a nice village but I find it a bit too quiet.

Pattaya is an easy place to live and makes a great base for travelling around Thailand and SE Asia. I never really get bored there. As Samuel Johnson famously said, ' when a man is tired of Pattaya, he is tired of life; for there is in Pattaya all that life can afford.”

I got tired after 1 day