On 1/2/2026 at 1:53 PM, save the frogs said:

Bad news for Pattaya haters.

Chris ranks Rural Thailand lower than Pattaya as best place to retire.

Who is Chris and what the heck makes Chris "the expert?" Obviously Chris, like most expats, has never been outside of the main tourist areas in Thailand. My guess is that Chris is just a tourist.

Talk about keeping it simple a choice of 2 islands, 3 cities and the rest is 'rural Thailand' - guy needs to get out more

2 minutes ago, connda said:

My guess is that Chris is just a tourist.

No, he's a long time resident.

He has lived in 3 of the places on the list I think.

Don't 90% of expats live in places on this list?

8 minutes ago, connda said:

Who is Chris and what the heck makes Chris "the expert?" Obviously Chris, like most expats, has never been outside of the main tourist areas in Thailand. My guess is that Chris is just a tourist.

Most expats here live in a baan karnkanok stacked concrete type box and rarely ever get out.

17 minutes ago, novacova said:

Most expats here live in a baan karnkanok stacked concrete type box and rarely ever get out.

where are you gonna go? apart from daily exercise outdoors.

you end up spending a ton of money going out all the time.

the video i just posted, the guy got sick of living in Hua Hin because he would go out to play pool at 1 pm and stay out until 1 am drinking. he got sick of it and decided to go for the rural life.

On 1/2/2026 at 1:53 AM, save the frogs said:

Bad news for Pattaya haters.

Chris ranks Rural Thailand lower than Pattaya as best place to retire.

I can't rank Koh Samui as number one. Bangkok could be number one.

On 1/19/2026 at 7:44 PM, henryford1958 said:

Samui is nice but too difficult to get to/from and too crowded.

Bingo!

1 minute ago, Effective altruism said:

I can't rank Koh Samui as number one. Bangkok could be number one.

some people prefer nature. bkk has some nice parks, but the rent in the city center is high to be near the parks.

and pollution and traffic issues, but bangkok has a lot to offer.

11 hours ago, Stocky said:

Talk about keeping it simple a choice of 2 islands, 3 cities and the rest is 'rural Thailand' - guy needs to get out more

Well that covers about 90% of where expats live.

16 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

some people prefer nature. bkk has some nice parks, but the rent in the city center is high to be near the parks.

and pollution and traffic issues, but bangkok has a lot to offer.

The traffic in Bangkok is terrible, but the public transit is excellent. The idea of not owning a car is liberating. There is so much to do in Bangkok that it would keep me occupied.

On 1/20/2026 at 12:07 PM, Patong2021 said:

His hairdo was enough to tell me all I needed to know.

Says more about you than him, buddy.

12 hours ago, save the frogs said:

Watching this now.

This UK guy built a nice house in the sticks.

Both he and his wife seem to enjoy spending a lot of time gardening.

With some passion, dedication and positivity you can make anyplace your thriving home, but if negativity is your thing, then nothing is possible.

And as said many times, every place becomes boring, if you can not cope with it, and you got to have a reason and cause to live to be happy.

Find a good reason to get up in the morning and say to yourself, this is the place I want to be! Every day mantra

On 1/19/2026 at 7:07 PM, Celsius said:

He's also from Toronto

No hes not. Hes from peterborough.

2 hours ago, Hummin said:

Find a good reason to get up in the morning and say to yourself, this is the place I want to be! Every day mantra

He is in the middle of nowhere.

So it's all about the house, the wife, and in-laws.

I want to get back into sports. I want to be somewhere that has sports leagues. Too isolating for me.

2 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

Well that covers about 90% of where expats live.

Sad but probably true.

On 1/20/2026 at 7:44 AM, henryford1958 said:

Samui is nice but too difficult to get to/from and too crowded. Chiang Mai is again isolated and impossible in the burning season. Phuket is FAR too crowded and now a Russian enclave. Bangkok is OK IF you like city life. Pattaya and Hua Hun imo are the only viable options.

Totally agree. I would rank Pattaya #1, though, as it's an easier, faster drive to Bangkok now on a good 4-lane road. We can be at out Bangkok condo in about 2 hours. Plus, only 1.5 hours to Suvarnabhumi airport vs. over 3 hours from Hua Hin. Huge selection of housing in every price range, a wide variety of neighborhoods to choose from, excellent health care, restaurants galore, all sorts of recreation, very good shopping for just about anything you might want, large expat community, etc., etc. Checks more boxes than about anywhere else--at least the boxes on my list.

Chris who?

On 1/20/2026 at 6:41 AM, trucking said:

Yet another Johnny come lately expert trying to eek out a living on youtube.

I'm not a huge fan of his. but to call him Johnny Come Lately just shows your ignorance of who he is; and what he's achieved with his channels (note channels not just channel).

His main channel was started in March 2020, he's got 543 videos on there, 457,000 subscribers and has generated 56,786,743 views on those videos.

That is an phenomenal achievement.

5 hours ago, Hummin said:

With some passion, dedication and positivity you can make anyplace your thriving home, but if negativity is your thing, then nothing is possible.

And as said many times, every place becomes boring, if you can not cope with it, and you got to have a reason and cause to live to be happy.

Find a good reason to get up in the morning and say to yourself, this is the place I want to be! Every day mantra

I agree 100%

I have been living in a lovely condo in the centre of Bkk for some time and the party lifestyle is tiring after a while

Now in a stable relationship I leave Bkk in May to build a home with my gf near her village in rural Thailand

IO crave the peace and quiet that I once had in rural England - but with Thai weather and Thai costs!

Flying to Bkk once every 2 months will be easily paid for and will ensure we get the best of both worlds- I hope

On 1/20/2026 at 11:34 AM, BritManToo said:

I'm living rural life 12Km from the moat in Chiang Mai.

Fields and lake on 2 sides of my home, 200m from traffic free rural roads, cows, chickens and Buffalos everywhere I go. You don't have to live far from civilisation to enjoy the countryside.

Out cycling ...........

Either your eyesight is terrible, or mine is. That cycle you are standing next to is not exactly a "racer".

On 1/20/2026 at 8:11 AM, Purdey said:

I wouldn't want to live in the countryside because of the lack of facilities. Northern Bangkok is peaceful yet has cinemas, shopping and some quiet local restaurants in Nonthaburi.

I would Love to hear about the quiet peaceful restaurants you are talking about in Nonthaburi. I live behind the Mall, next door to Home Pro on Prachachuen and I can’t think of any restaurants near by, all of them are 30 minutes away or more.

5 hours ago, newnative said:

Totally agree. I would rank Pattaya #1,

Pattaya is not a real city. It's an artificial construct.

Most girls work in bars or massage and come from Isaan, so if you're single and want to get hitched up, that's the majority of your dating pool and there is a high chance you will end up in Isaan back in her village. Many guys are ok with that, but then it was only a transitory place, not a place to settle.

If you're one of the 5% of outliers to this rule, good for you. But you are an outlier. Apart from guys who want to stay single.

I even spoke to a laundromat owner and two cafe owners and they are both former bar girls. No big deal maybe what someone used to do for a living? Just saying. The whole city revolves around the bar scene.

1 hour ago, save the frogs said:

Pattaya is not a real city. It's an artificial construct.

Most girls work in bars or massage and come from Isaan, so if you're single and want to get hitched up, that's the majority of your dating pool and there is a high chance you will end up in Isaan back in her village. Many guys are ok with that, but then it was only a transitory place, not a place to settle.

If you're one of the 5% of outliers to this rule, good for you. But you are an outlier. Apart from guys who want to stay single.

I even spoke to a laundromat owner and two cafe owners and they are both former bar girls. No big deal maybe what someone used to do for a living? Just saying. The whole city revolves around the bar scene.

Utter nonsense. Of course Pattaya is a 'real city'-and growing. Are there 'bar scene' areas? Yes. Does the 'whole city revolve around the bar scene'? No, of course not. More clueless nonsense. As I've said many times, almost all the new, big development is not 'bar scene' related at all. And, most of it is far from the 'bar scene'. You need to remember that Walking Street, Soi 6, and so on make up just a tiny part of Greater Pattaya.

In any case, most residents don't live in the tourist/entertainment areas--the vast majority of the housing is eleswhere. And, it's not a 'transitory place', any more than any other place in Thailand. Most of our friends have lived here for at least 5 to10 years or more.

There's tons of new development in Jomtien, Cozy Beach, North Pattaya, Wongamat, and the Darkside, none of it that I can think of related to the 'bar scene' or to single males specifically.

Do you really think Central Festival was built for single men? Terminal 21? Centre Point Space Resort? Centara Grand Resort? The massive new third Centre Point resort going up that will be even bigger than CP Space? All the many new car dealers, at least a dozen or more in the past few years, just for single men? All the new condo projects? The new hospital? Mega Home? Universal Studios Aquaverse?

How about all the hundreds of new housing developments on the Darkside? Single men buying all those 3 and 4-bedroom pool villas? Not in my experience. I've lived in 4 different housing projects so far on the Darkside and I don't think there was a single male living in any of them. That's not to say that there aren't any, of course there are, but they are definitely not the majority, by any means.

Finally, if Pattaya is not a 'real city', why in the world does it have 19 international schools? And, yet another one, Highgate, opening later this year. Hmm. There's a mystery.

14 hours ago, TimBKK said:

Says more about you than him, buddy.

Buddy? I am not your buddy.

The man is unqualified to offer advice on the subject. The takeaway from his promotional content is that he is trying to sell real estate on Koh Samui. A person who presents as an unkempt slob in need of basic grooming, does not convey an image of being attentive to detail. Why would anyone of some semblance of intelligence need his "guidance" ? If I need real estate advice, I will use a qualified person. If I need specific business advice, I am going to seek it from someone who has a track record of success.

His pros and cons breakdowns are good.

His rankings are only based on his own subjective priorities. We all have those. They're all DIFFERENT.

The former has value. The latter is click bait which he had to do for commercial reasons.

So he ranks Pattaya/Jomtien (very different experiences of places to live actually) so low after having spent a grand total of 2 nights there at the sex tourism tourist trap hub. That would be like rating San Francisco based on a few hours at Fisherman's Wharf. Silly. No cred.

Again, it's personal.

For example, I visited his top pick Samui for about a week one time and no desire to go back. It was certainly fun for me as a tourist, but for my priorities it rates a NO WAY for actually living there, though I completely understand that for others it would be THEIR number one.

An unimaginative list from someone who needs to travel more.

But real 'old hands' don't need to scrape a living from YouTube click bait.

3 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

Buddy? I am not your buddy

Very interesting you say that to that poster who called you that

The word "buddy " seems to be more American slang from the 1970's ,you rarely hear it now

Nowadays it's the word "bro " ....bro this ...bro that....please can we introduce the word "buddy " again

Encourage this please !

Only one of those locations (other than rural) I would consider is Hua Hin - but even that is more of a holiday place than a place to live. Udon Thani isn't perfect, but it has most of everything. I live one kilometre outside the city. away from most of the pollution large towns and cities get in Thailand; but have easy access to all its amenities. It has good travel links (airport, train station, roads), plenty of shopping choices, many restaurants (have an excellent one only 200 metres from home as well) and an all-in-one entertainment centre in UDtown (live music for free, good quality food court, shopping and pretty amazing landscaping). Adequate hospitals and schools. Live in the village with farm and fish ponds 100 metres away, same distance to lake full of red water lilies. Farangs have been part of the community for a long time, never had a problem with the Thais. Very little "Farang price". And the cost of living is good.

There may be better places to live in Thailand, but they are not on that list. For me, Bangkok and Pattaya are definitely out, and islands to expensive and tourist traps.

On 1/22/2026 at 11:17 PM, save the frogs said:

No, he's a long time resident.

He has lived in 3 of the places on the list I think.

Don't 90% of expats live in places on this list?

Worst accent on Youtube.

On 1/22/2026 at 11:43 PM, save the frogs said:

where are you gonna go? apart from daily exercise outdoors.

you end up spending a ton of money going out all the time.

the video i just posted, the guy got sick of living in Hua Hin because he would go out to play pool at 1 pm and stay out until 1 am drinking. he got sick of it and decided to go for the rural life.

So he went from 2 hobbies to 1.