Quality of life in thailand for expats

[Tornado]

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I didnt realise that Chon, Im glad to hear that mate. Make sure we meet up when your here.

Hey Torny, did you check the date/time stamp on Chon's post?

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wow, thats and old thread. It obviously didnt work out for our mate Chon.

what happened Chonabot?

[TizMe]

I think you need to make a distinction between "quality of life" and "standard of living".

"Quality of life" is pretty much up to you and depends almost entirely on your attitude. You figure out where you are, what you can do and then go about the business of making yourself and those around you as happy as possible.

All of this is quite independent of "standard of living". Clearly, one can have a high standard of living in Thailand for much less money than a similar standard would take in the West.

But, it's easy to have a high standard of living and still have a low quality of life.

Up to you.

Totally agree.

I resigned from a high paying job 1 year ago in the middle east and am now retired at the age of 45 and living in Thailand.

My "standard of living" is lower than it was when I was employed. But my "quality of life" has definately improved.

[Khun Larry]

I'm moving to Thailand next month

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Good opportunity for you to buy me a few selections from that beer list

[Tyree D.]

I'm moving to Thailand next month

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Good opportunity for you to buy me a few selections from that beer list

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once again, look at the date of the original post

[Khun Larry]

<font color='#000000'>I'm moving to Thailand next month with my Thai wife of 6 Years ( Marriage not her age )

and son of 5, leaving a life of stress and grief, mainly from the IT sector, and Uk in general.

Looking forward to doing very little for 6 months, and when the dust has settled, hope to help the wife run the family business and whatever else happens.

We'll be living near Kalasin, my son already has Certificate of Identity etc for schools. I'm 37 and hope to have a few answers to your question myself in a few years

btw this website is great!</font>

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I didnt realise that Chon, Im glad to hear that mate. Make sure we meet up when your here.

re quality of life - Im never satisfied with my living situation. Some days here its great and then you can have major problems for no apparent reasons. Nothing wrong with Thailand, it has so much to offer everybody, but Im not sure if I will live here for more than a couple more years. I always have had itchy feet and I like the "newness" of places when you arrive and set up - thats a great feeling!

I might end up moving to the country for a while or maybe even another area of Thailand - not sure.

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Itchy feet ... same here, not sure why but I seem to like the newness also

ditto for the ladies after a few years

newness dee gwa

[Voo Doo]

<font color='#000000'>Once you have somewhere to live, a reliable means of transport and enough income to live in whatever style suits you, then lie back and enjoy Thailand, get off the beaten track, there is plenty to see and do.

Most important thing is good health!! Failing that a damned good health insurance and that is not cheap.</font>

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Perfect answer!

Good health to enjoy what we got here.

Do we need an extra cabinet for winter clothes...?

[ProThaiExpat]

The underlying theme to this thread is "stress management".

Health professionals have told me that what is stressful for one person is not necessarily stressful for another. Those who have "handled" their stress by moving to Thailand, and found living here less stressful are success stories.

Those who have not, should move on, as stress is very deleterious to your health, and without health, life is not fun.

Thailand had a positive effect on me when it came to my perfectionism. There is a large crack in my living room ceiling due to poor new home workmanship. Who knows when it will be repaired. I just "accept" the imprfections in Thailand, that I couldn't live with in the west.

I can't imagine Bangkok as an optimal place to live and work at a company job. The old wisdom was to get a countrywide salary base and get transferred to the boonies where your money goes further and the actual physical difficulties of performing your job are less, ie. commute, infrastructure, etc. Isn't BKK a hostile enviroment like New York?

[ray23]

The underlying theme to this thread is "stress management".

Health professionals have told me that what is stressful for one person is not necessarily stressful for another.  Those who have "handled" their stress by moving to Thailand, and found living here less stressful are success stories. 

Those who have not, should move on, as stress is very deleterious to your health, and without health, life is not fun.

Thailand had a positive effect on me when it came to my perfectionism.  There is a large crack in my living room ceiling due to poor new home workmanship.  Who knows when it will be repaired.  I just "accept" the imprfections in Thailand, that I couldn't live with in the west.

I can't imagine Bangkok as an optimal place to live and work at a company job.  The old wisdom was to get a countrywide salary base and get transferred to the boonies where your money goes further and the actual physical difficulties of performing your job are less, ie. commute, infrastructure, etc.  Isn't BKK a hostile enviroment like New York?

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HMM!!! I would say that my standard of living eventually went up, didn't start that way, had to learn first, the same with the qaulity of life

[Khun Larry]

<font color='#000000'>Once you have somewhere to live, a reliable means of transport and enough income to live in whatever style suits you, then lie back and enjoy Thailand, get off the beaten track, there is plenty to see and do.Most important thing is good health!! Failing that a damned good health insurance and that is not cheap.</font>

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Perfect answer!

Good health to enjoy what we got here.

Do we need an extra cabinet for winter clothes...?

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Plenty to see and do? Some things to do for sure, but they seem to get old fast. If you are making a comparison to a nursing home then sure, I agree. I would be very interested to know what "plenty to do" is all about, without some putz being critical.

[ray23]

<font color='#000000'>Once you have somewhere to live, a reliable means of transport and enough income to live in whatever style suits you, then lie back and enjoy Thailand, get off the beaten track, there is plenty to see and do.Most important thing is good health!! Failing that a damned good health insurance and that is not cheap.</font>

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Perfect answer!

Good health to enjoy what we got here.

Do we need an extra cabinet for winter clothes...?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Plenty to see and do? Some things to do for sure, but they seem to get old fast. If you are making a comparison to a nursing home then sure, I agree. I would be very interested to know what "plenty to do" is all about, without some putz being critical.

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Actually Larry the times I don't have something to do are usually because I have put forth no effort. So I have my times of boredom, but if I do more then get on the bike and go somewhere I haven't been before it helps. If I spend a day at home without going out, I get nuts. So I don't care if it's jut to go to lunch I do it.

I have been here for three years and there are still tons of places I haven't been. The best time for me is the cool months then I can take off for a fwe days on the bike and explore.

I think it can be tough on us who have worked all our lives to find activities on a full time basis to keep the mond functioning. But the truth is it would be no different anywhere else. Altouhg maybe in the right part of the worls a guy could work a part time job or something, to get out and about, feel like you have a purpose. Here even volunteering requires a work permit, not a problem unless you anger the wrong person, then it can be a real problem. So I don't do that.

You know maybe the way to approach it would be to decide if you were in your home country, what is it that you would like to do. I'll bet you can find a way to do it here as well.

Good Luck a real challenge at times

[patricktan]

If you leave in another country will the people trip you as second class?If know why?(What benefit do we have by the goverment?)

[Khun Larry]

Actually Larry the times I don't have something to do are usually because I have put forth no effort. So I have my times of boredom, but if I do more then get on the bike and go somewhere I haven't been before it helps. If I spend a day at home without going out, I get nuts. So I don't care if it's jut to go to lunch I do it.

I have been here for three years and there are still tons of places I haven't been. The best time for me is the cool months then I can take off for a fwe days on the bike and explore.

I think it can be tough on us who have worked all our lives to find activities on a full time basis to keep the mond functioning. But the truth is it would be no different anywhere else. Altouhg maybe in the right part of the worls a guy could work a part time job or something, to get out and about, feel like you have a purpose. Here even volunteering requires a work permit, not a problem unless you anger the wrong person, then it can be a real problem. So I don't do that.

You know maybe the way to approach it would be to decide if you were in your home country, what is it that you would like to do. I'll bet you can find a way to do it here as well.

Good Luck a real challenge at times

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Ray, you provide good inspiration.

For now I am on the 50 - 50 plan. More than a 3 month stretch in Thailand is simply too much for me.

[richard10365]

I was a soldier stationed in Los Angeles for 4 years. I was working with the recruiting battalion.

Life in the high pressure job in recruiting for the US Army in the big city of Los Angeles is not something I would wish on my enemies. Working 12 to 15 hours a day 6 days a week wore me down to almost nothing.

My monthly paycheck was almost $5000 US dollars.

In December, 2003, I retired from the US Army. Now I make a little over $1300 a month.

In the USA, I had a 3 bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood. I had high speed internet and cable tv.

In Thailand, I have satelliete tv, dsl, and live in a studio apartment.

In the USA, I had a nice SUV with pleanty of power. I drove it all over Southern California. I probably spent a good portion of the 4 years I was in So Cal on their freeways.

In Thailand, I have a little 150cc motorcycle. I ride it through the country side. It's incredibly bueatiful and the countryside is mostly traffic free.

In my opinion, I have went from no quality of life to a great quality of life. I am finally happy.

Next year, where I live in Thailand, I will build a house for less than $300,000.

For me, the trade off of living in the USA and Thailand is a no brainer. I would much rather live here than anywhere else.

20 years in the army was pretty rough at times, but now I can see, it was worth it.

[billd766]

I first came here in 1993 for about 3 months to work, then returned in 1994 to work with Motorola and DTAC for about 4 years in Issan putting in the DTAC system. I loved it then having met a nice girl who worked in a bar. Eventually as all fairy stories do, the hero rode off into the west, (actually to a few other countries) to work leaving the girl behind. I n my last year (1997) I divorced my UK wife but still kept the girl in the East and in 2000 we married in the UK. In 1999 I quit working for a company and went contracting ending up back in Thailand again in 2001 working around Bangkok for 18 months after which the contract came to an end and I was out of work for a long while.

We had enough money and my wife had some land and we bought some more to build the house on. We now have about 15 rai we own, another 10 we rent, and we are looking at a bit more to buy.

After a while not working and after accepting that I would probably not work again my stress levels was way down and my "give a sh1t meter" barely moved and I was as happy as I thought I could ever be.

August 1 2004 my wife gave me the best present that I could ever have and it wasn't even my birthday. In 20 days our son will be 1 year old and now now quality of life is almost at the top of the scale being lowered by working and getting stressed again in Pakistan. On the other hand what I earn goes on improving the life we have out in the boonies 400 km from Bangkok and at least 45 km from the nearest farang fast food (KFC). The nearest western supermarket is in Nakhon Sawan 125 km away and if I don't have what I used to crave for then I can do without it until the next visit.

We live on the edge of the Mae Wong national park with my nearest farang neighbour about 12 km away (until my friend finishes his house and even then he will only be a part time neighbour).

I am working again in Pakistan this time and I find that after a couple of months my stress level goes up and my "give a sh1t meter" bends the needle but I come back home and unwind again.

Life is not always perfect and I do get frustrated when I want things done NOW and have to wait a week or two but life is really what you make of it.

Sign me as Mr Happy (most of the time)

[ThaiPauly]

Kayo, that was just AWESOME,

It made my morning, so many similarities about the bridge, it was the war graves that got to me, I found young guys dead 60 years to the day I visited, had to go buy flowers as no-one else seemed to have 3 lads no older than 30, no life-no luck.

WE should be so thankful.

Sorry its a bit sloppy but its how I feel right now

Cheers for that Kayo

TP