What's life like for a single older expat in isaan?

[georgegeorgia]

Very rarely do you see or hear of older expats single retired moving to isaan ,they all mostly choose Pattaya or Bangkok

 

But there must be older single guys who live in isaan cities  Udon or Khon Kaen etc who choose to be there ?

 

What about older expats single who live in isaan country areas ,is there any ?

I mean it would be a lonely life living by yourself on a farm or house in Nakhon nowhere 

 

Of course I would be prepared to live in a condo in a isaan city like Udon Thani because of more amenities so do any of you and why did you choose those areas ?

Is your life just as fulfilling as a single expat say in Pattaya?

[youreavinalaff]

I knew a guy who lived out in the sticks in the Sakeaw area. He was 84. He loved his life. He was still healthy and able to drive. Didn't speak Thai but managed well. He'd drive up to see me and a couple of others in Buriram every couple of months. I've moved so haven't seen him for a few years.

[KannikaP]

It could be OK for you as long as you get your testosterone jabs! 

[LaosLover]

Solo life is good if you're comfortable alone. I just killed a week in Hua Hin 100% solo. Nice people in the office at the condo rental, the odd convo over breakfast, a bit of banter at the gym.

 

If I was in Saraburi or Roi Et, it wouldn't be any difference. I might not have the same vast choice of pizza outlets, but everywhere has a farang-ish little pub, sushi, and a decent gym (prob at the mall, which everywhere also has).

 

I'll be railroading my way back to Chiang Mai in a month, making a few stops. Unless I'm out in a field with cow, it will be the same. If that happens, it's no diff from the cow in a field I left behind in the states.

[OneMoreFarang]

Why would you even think about that?

[georgegeorgia]

14 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

I knew a guy who lived out in the sticks in the Sakeaw area. He was 84. He loved his life. He was still healthy and able to drive. Didn't speak Thai but managed well. He'd drive up to see me and a couple of others in Buriram every couple of months. I've moved so haven't seen him for a few years.

Unless he had a carer 

That would be very hard but he may have been a loner type 

[youreavinalaff]

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why would you even think about that?

Why not?

[youreavinalaff]

2 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Unless he had a carer 

That would be very hard but he may have been a loner type 

Why would he need a carer? I've stated that he was healthy. He loved his life. Obviously comfortable with his own company. As I said, he ventured out every now and then for a meet up and chat.

[OneMoreFarang]

15 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

26 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why would you even think about that?

Why not?

Ok, would you think about living somewhere in the desert? Probably not. Same same... 

[LaosLover]

Rural life is the same everywhere; either you love watching that pumpkin grow and having a lot of quiet or it drives you mad. I did it for 12 years in Appalachia. It was great, but eventually it did my head in. 

 

Most people who like it were raised in it, like my wife (who had to chop wood for a hot bath in her lifetime). I'd be interested in the accounts of people who came to rural living late in life cold and loved it.

 

I'd had an intermediate phase of a few years in a small English town. But to go from Manhattan to the rice paddy? 30 days would have been the absolute outside estimate. Me and my wife are relieved to see  a little traffic and sushi every day of our lives. 

[Keep Right]

I knew a guy that was very happy to live in Issan. He bought a house for his tee luk and even started farming with a water buffalo.

[georgegeorgia]

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Ok, would you think about living somewhere in the desert? Probably not. Same same... 

It depends, I think I would like to try out living say in Udon Thani in a condo for say 6 months

 

What would life be like ,well I have been to UT but only for short duration, living there it's a city now so has big gyms the only thing missing is sex workers as much anyway 

 

Probably financially it would be the same as Pattaya renting a condo in Udon Thani 

 

As for being a single expat in rural isaan I'm too scared to try it , I mean if I was use to the country feeling and maybe a loner I could do it 

Rent a house in a village,is that even possible being a single old farang?

 

 

[youreavinalaff]

6 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Ok, would you think about living somewhere in the desert? Probably not. Same same... 

Isaan is not a desert. An inane comparison.

[georgegeorgia]

1 minute ago, Keep Right said:

I knew a guy that was very happy to live in Issan. He bought a house for his tee luk and even started farming with a water buffalo.

But he doesn't look single or living by himself 

[Keep Right]

1 minute ago, georgegeorgia said:

But he doesn't look single or living by himself 

Single and unmarried and also not living with his tee luk but committed.

[Will B Good]

I live here with the wife.......if I was here alone I'd need something sharp to play with.

[georgegeorgia]

So so far no one knows any single older retired expats living by themselves unlike Pattaya where we could all name thousands.

 

I guess there must be some on the larger rural cities 

 

[chalawaan]

Lonely? 

Issan would not be my pick for a single OLDER guy moving to Thailand. 

I'd pick Chiang Mai, take burning season jaunts to the coast.

Or Hua Hin, maybe the higher cost there is offset by having to flee CM annually, the air over South East Asia is unlikely to improve in our lifetimes. 

Pattaya paradoxically, is not recommended if you like that sort of thing unless you have serious money, you'll just destroy yourself there, a case of too much of a bad thing, it's a trap for elderly dreamers.

 

Chiang Mai has plenty enough action for an old guy. And the food options are far better, Pattaya farang food is mostly guys hoping to get rich quick with high turnover meaning mediocre food will always have dumb tourists paying too much. 

You can extrapolate all those issues to the islands to various degrees. Bangkok is for young guys with plenty money and swollen nuts. 

[youreavinalaff]

11 minutes ago, chalawaan said:

Lonely? 

Issan would not be my pick for a single OLDER guy moving to Thailand. 

I'd pick Chiang Mai, take burning season jaunts to the coast.

Or Hua Hin, maybe the higher cost there is offset by having to flee CM annually, the air over South East Asia is unlikely to improve in our lifetimes. 

Pattaya paradoxically, is not recommended if you like that sort of thing unless you have serious money, you'll just destroy yourself there, a case of too much of a bad thing, it's a trap for elderly dreamers.

 

Chiang Mai has plenty enough action for an old guy. And the food options are far better, Pattaya farang food is mostly guys hoping to get rich quick with high turnover meaning mediocre food will always have dumb tourists paying too much. 

You can extrapolate all those issues to the islands to various degrees. Bangkok is for young guys with plenty money and swollen nuts. 

Your comments are fundamentally flawed. You are comparing the largest region of Thailand with single provinces or towns.

 

Isaan is huge and very diverse. Anything from large towns with big expat communities to smaller towns and countryside villages with a small amount of expats nearby.

 

The choices of food, Thai, Isaan and Western, are abundant.

 

 

[youreavinalaff]

30 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

So so far no one knows any single older retired expats living by themselves unlike Pattaya where we could all name thousands.

 

I guess there must be some on the larger rural cities 

 

Other than the guy I mentioned.

 

I do know a couple of guys who made bad choices with regards to marriage. Their wives are absent so much they may as well be single. Both of them actually enjoy the single times more than when their wife decides to make an appearance.

[LaosLover]

29 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

So so far no one knows any single older retired expats living by themselves

 

So as an Australian, how many people from Sydney do you know who eff off to the outback, or even Adelaide? Adelaide would be like Manhattan compared to Udon. Even factoring the language difference, what you'e describing is rare the world over.

 

In my former Appalachia, I was the first person to move to that (English speaking) town in memory. Memories that went back to at least the 40's. My wife's family had been on the land since 1820. What did I have to say to those salt of the earth Lord-lovers? Really, nothing.

 

So I did what you're saying, under super-ideal conditions (interest in bluegrass music, no hangups about them all being crazy-racist), and I would never do it again. 

 

To do this in feudal, Animist/Buddhist, non-English speaking Issan? I would want a Noi assigned to me right off the bus. You notice there's a very important 3rd sentient being in that classic pic of the guy with the water buffalo. 

 

And do what? would be the big question. How much do you LOVE fish-farming? Partic without a Noi in the picture?

[youreavinalaff]

10 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

To do this in feudal, Animist/Buddhist, non-English speaking Issan? 

 

10 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

And do what? would be the big question. How much do you LOVE fish-farming? Partic without a Noi in the picture?

Your knowledge of Isaan is clearly lacking.

[LaosLover]

Yeah, of course. I don't live in Issan. A few visits there have confirmed these impressions. Love Issan. Loved Mississipi too.

 

Rural places tend to follow the ol' religion and be hierarchal. You are bending over backwards to take offense when no disrespect at all was given.

 

What's "clearly lacking" from you is any inclination to share anything beyond your sniffy, superior, passive aggression. English, am I right?

So what exactly would Joe Blow do all day in the moo ban? This oughta be good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hummin]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why would you even think about that?

Exactly my thought to! If single again, I would be touring a few Asian and South America destinations again, and Im not sure I would live a life alone anywhere to be true. I just cant see myself as alone at all, I enjoy female company to much.

[whereyougo]

Your doing it wrong. Go to pattaya and find a tattooed girl and build a house wherever her daddies farm is located. From what I read guys on here that have followed this path are all deliriously  happy

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, Keep Right said:

I knew a guy that was very happy to live in Issan. He bought a house for his tee luk and even started farming with a water buffalo.

I met her just after her buffalo got sick 

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

Very rarely do you see or hear of older expats single retired moving to isaan ,they all mostly choose Pattaya or Bangkok

Plenty of expats living alone all along the coast from Ban Chang to Koh Chang, social life is good if that's what you want, Bars and Restaurants and near the sea. 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, youreavinalaff said:

Isaan is not a desert. An inane comparison.

As far as I am concerned the only reason to move to Isaan, or the desert, would be an exceptional woman.

But then, which exceptional woman would want to live in such a place? 

[bignok]

Udon is a sizeable city not small. Plenty of traffic. Rather ugly place. Plenty of bargirls there but low quality. Really can't see the appeal. Nongkhai is ok but limited. The other places get boring quick. If single all these towns in Isaan are fine for short trips but long term rather average. Korat has some appeal but no airport which is strange for a large city. Khon Kaen is ok with airport links to north and south.

 

I think Chiang Mai, Rai, Phitsanulok or a beach town is the go. Apart from the smoke the north is very good. The food is better, airports (huge plus), pretty girl. Lots of road trips.

 

Beach areas - anywhere from Hua Hin to Nakhon Si is good. Jomtien to Chantaburi is good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bignok]

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

As far as I am concerned the only reason to move to Isaan, or the desert, would be an exceptional woman.

But then, which exceptional woman would want to live in such a place? 

Mine is 9.5.