While I was retired in Thailand, we decided to give Greece a try, I got as far as getting a Greek passport and ID card, but then I got to registering my wife and daughter and this was my second marriage, so I had to  register the first marriage first , have my daughter from the first marriage register , then  have the first marriage divorced , then register my current wife. 

To do all these I had to get long form marriage and birth certificates and have them apostle Certified by the US goverment)  . 

Then transfer my pension to Greece which allowed me for 6% of it to enrollee in the national  health system .Which wouldn't have been bad. 

    In retrospect it would had been easier if I went in as A US citizen under an financially independent visa, but i went the citizenship route and now I had to build a family profile in Greece as a citizen.

A lawyer would had done all this for me , but I still would have to get the documents and get them apostille.

So I gave up thinking that Thailand was fine , and easy , and we can spend summers in Greece. 

But now things in Thailand might be getting complicated, so depending how things play out, we were talking that we might have to rethink the Greece option.  

Personally I don't think it will be that bad here in Thailand with the new tax law,, I don't think they are about to kill the golden goose  so let's wait and see. 

Retired to Paraguay. Many previous holiday visits and to other South American countries too. Knew about the poor infrastructure but thought I could tolerate it. The frequent outages of water and electricity (especially water) got to me. Temperatures, mosquitos and ants similar to Thailand but when you can't take a shower, wash your clothes or flush the toilet it all seems much worse. Beer and especially wine were bargains. They don't like spicy food which suited me too. Old, clapped out buses are dirt cheap but not something you would wish upon your worst enemy. No railways, trams or Metro system. Rush hour traffic in/out of Asuncion is horrific. If you never need/want to go anywhere you'll be fine!

On 12/25/2023 at 3:46 PM, HappyExpat57 said:

Time to dust off this ol' tale:

 

Got the seven-year itch after living in Thailand. Having grown tired of all the bureaucratic nonsense, I pulled up stakes and moved to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It is NOTHING like that depicted in "The Shawshank Redemption." Six weeks later I was back in LOS with a renewed appreciation.

 

And every time I visit family and friends in the US, I am reminded why I could never move back there.

 

Gawd bless LOS.

Same thing here. After 10 years I left. I hated all the places I went to. You get accustomed to Thailand. But, I decided to give it time, and now? I would never go back to live in Thailand. I flip flopped for 3 years, and now the thought of heading to Thailand is agonizing. I have to force myself to go back for a few months to visit friends. 

5 hours ago, Gknrd said:

Same thing here. After 10 years I left. I hated all the places I went to. You get accustomed to Thailand. But, I decided to give it time, and now? I would never go back to live in Thailand. I flip flopped for 3 years, and now the thought of heading to Thailand is agonizing. I have to force myself to go back for a few months to visit friends. 

V

I see you are in Columbia

Seems Mexico was the place for Americas and Spain was or still is for the English 

As for Paraguay , very interesting

They say Chile is  upcoming though ,crime free cheap 

On 12/25/2023 at 4:46 PM, HappyExpat57 said:

Time to dust off this ol' tale:

 

Got the seven-year itch after living in Thailand. Having grown tired of all the bureaucratic nonsense, I pulled up stakes and moved to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It is NOTHING like that depicted in "The Shawshank Redemption." Six weeks later I was back in LOS with a renewed appreciation.

 

And every time I visit family and friends in the US, I am reminded why I could never move back there.

 

Gawd bless LOS.

 

That's because you went to the wrong place. The scenes were shot in St. Croix 😊

1 minute ago, Centigrade32 said:

 

That's because you went to the wrong place. The scenes were shot in St. Croix 😊

I've been to St. Croix. Nice place to visit but . . .

22 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I've been to St. Croix. Nice place to visit but . . .

 

I too have been there.

26 minutes ago, Centigrade32 said:

 

I too have been there.

Then you know real health care is sketchy at best.

As I said, nice place to visit but . . .

26 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Then you know real health care is sketchy at best.

As I said, nice place to visit but . . .

 

I have no idea about the health care. Thank goodness. I was just on holiday. Taking in both the British and US Virgin Islands amongst other places.