He Lives On 28000 B Per Month

[actiondell4]

well,im posting in the Pattaya section as this topic is set in Pattaya.

Last year I posted about a elderly man I had met whilst holidaying in Pattaya,actually Jomtien.He is 72 yo.

Well I have just come back from my holidays to Pattaya and I bumped into the old bloke again.

He lives in Jomtiem ,and receives the Australian old age Govt pension .

He gets around 28000 baht a month he says.

He was horrified on how much money I spent on things.\

He says he is lucky to spend half that.

I was very interested how he survived on that amount.

Well this is what he told me and what i observed over the few weeks.

He only pays 10 baht for a baht bus from Jomtiem to Pattaya,i thought it was 20 however he told me that he pays 10 baht and walks away saying khob korn kup.

Another thing is he knew of all the buffett all you can eat places and he told me of Leks hotel for 110 baht.He doesnt eat at places over that amount.

He was surprised i pay 60 baht for a coffee and stold me at flanagans i can get it for 40 baht plus a newspaper.

Better still you can get it for 12 baht at a 7 eleven he said.

He however drank tea and he buys his own and mostly eats at home.

He always drank tea in the same bar as me however he knew the bar owner where he drank everyday and they charged him 20 baht as he was a regular.

I told him I was staying in a 600 a baht a night place in Jomtiem and he was horrified and took me to his apartment building where I got a studio room for 6000 for the month which included electricity and water.

He pays 5000 baht in the same building but he lives there.

Anyway I asked him if his room was the same as mine so he took me there,his room was a bit cleaner,had one of those portable hotplate stoves and a microwave .

The room is a studio,with balcony,includes electricity and water,it was in jomtiem in soi 4 i think it was.It was pratically the same as mine with double bed,wardrobe etc however he had bought his own cooking equipment.

The place was great and i couldnt believe i didnt know about it.

Anyway he told me you can get monthly rooms cheaper than 5000 a month !!!!

I was shocked,he pointed over to another building in Jomtiem which looked like it had no windows nor any lights,it was all boarded up,apparently they pay only 1000-2000 b a month to live in there.Not a place i would live.

Now i told him about the high cost of Laundry ,funnily enough i took my clothes to the same laundry as his and guess what !

They charged him less as he was considered a local or regular.

Towels they charged me 25 b,he is charged 15 baht etc.

However he told me to soak/wash my own clothes and hang them on the balcony.

But its very hard to wash a towel in the bathroom sink and i like most people use a clean towel to dry everyday.

He uses the laundry once a week and washes mostly his own clothes in the sink i presume such as underpants except large things as sheets.

But they(businesse)do seem to charge farang locals less than tourists,some do anyway.

Another place i didnt know was a 30 baht rice and pork place that i took him to as i paid for him.

However it didnt fill me up so in reality i could NOT live only on Thai food.

He pays 15 b for a loaf of bread and 25 b for a can of tuna for dinner.

But he is something like 60 kg so he doesnt eat much unlike me.

He mostly buys tin tuna but says he buys steak from the supermarket and cooks it in his room.

Im thinking to myself half the sttuff in supermarkets is more expensive than eating out.

He would have to get a baht bus from Jomtien to a big supermarket,do his shopping and a baht bus back and then start cooking !!

I would prefer just going out to a restaurant,still if i lived there i may think different.

He didnt drink alcohol,BUT he smoked ,however he says he can afford it in thailand.

He use to live in Government housing in the notorious crime ridden Sydney suburb of Redfern in a apartment,a bit like the Bronx,probaly a bit worser.

I never saw him take prostitutes so i dont know about that but he told me about the beach in pattaya ,the street girls there.

He said he is far happier in Jomtien than living in Govt housing in Sydney.

Apparently the final crunch came in 2005 when he was mugged and bashed for groceries and he said he had a small dog and when he went to walk it one late night he was bashed by several teenagers who were using drugs outside the apartment building so he thought one day just to pack up and leave for Thailand.

He lived on his 28000 baht a month in Sydney so he said its no different in Thailand.

He has a few thousand dollars in his Thai bank account,just enough to get back to Australia BUT no home in Australia,so if he went back he would have to pay the high rents or try to share a small room somewhere until he could get Govt accomodation again.What a scary thought.

He doesnt have medical insurance,however i was very surprised when he told me that a farang living in Thailand can visit a Thai Public Govt hosptal and he has done so?

How does he hace fun,well his fun it seems is doing the same things pratically everyday.

He gets up at 7am,makes his bed and cleans his room and then has a cup of tea and muesli and goes for a walk and goes to a gym.

He meets the same guys everyday plays cards and darts.

When he told me he went fishing,i was shocked as i just went fishing at a private fishing pool on jomtiem where you pay 200 b to fish but must throw the fish back.

He told me why would you go there then.

Anyway this old guy is very smart with money,so i really wanted to ask where his money went in his life .

He apparently use to be a alcholic,he was dovorced and had 2 daughters he hasnt seen for 20 years and use to be a worker in a factory in Sydney.

Anyway this old bloke was very shrewd,he even haggled prices he told me ,which i cannot do.I get embarrssed haggling.

Another thing i really wanted to know is if he gave tips which he does if he goes to the same place all the time but doesnt for baht buses etc.

I did see him give a tip one night after his checkbin,he gave 10 baht.

He can live on his aussie pension quite well.

However im pretty sure but im not certain that he may not have "ladies of the night" everyday,if at all,i dont know, ,however im not certain as i he didnt tell me,only the told me that he hasnt been in a go go bar for years.

Anyway he told me of a lot of other cheap savings and i will post a bit more later.

Im not his age but i suppose its no different living in the West as it is in Thailand.at his age.

Some people cant even live on 60,000 b a month .

Now he told me he knows of at least 5 other farangs living on 35,000 or less a month from pensions.

But the strange thing is,he said hundreds of farangs who own businesses and are school teachers are living on 20,000 baht a month.!

Anyway i post more of his savings tips later.

-

Edited May 2, 2008 by actiondell4

[hanibal7]

And i bet he is very happy without the big house/car/swimming pool etc etc.Makes one feel warm inside to see the old guy is living well and fairly healthy,good un i say.

[jonniebkk]

Good post. Points out that you can live a good life in Pattaya on not much money. It all depends on your lifestyle...if you don't have a car and don't have to eat fancy farang everyday it's very cheap to live in Patters. If you cruise the bar areas every nite you can eat all you want for free at all the birthday and engagement spreads for the price of a Happy Hour beer.

[Jingthing]

Oh geez. Most people in the world live on under two US dollars a day. This man isn't poor by any means.

Now a story of how a farang lives in Pattaya on 3 or 4 thousand baht a month, that might be unusual. This one is just a typical frugal pensioner, a dime a dozen really.

Your comment about it being cheaper to eat Thai street food versus buying food in supermarkets has some truth to it.

BTW: the standard baht bus fare (Thais and farangs) from inner Jomtien to Pattaya as far as Pattaya Klang and usually as far as Big C is 10 baht! Standard. No thank yous needed.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Jingthing

[lazeeboy]

if we had to live on 28000b a month we would,thank god we dont

[colino]

Fair play to the old bloke ,

when i lived down there i payed 2.500 baht for an Apartment but had to pay extra for a TV and Fridge 700 baht extra , as for the laundry most places i went charged by the Kilo 35-50 baht i rented a moped for 1,200 a month , and yes 10 baht for a coffee in 7-11 why pay 40+ baht in a bar overlooking the beach when you can pay 10 and sit on the beach

Edited May 2, 2008 by colino

[actiondell4]

Well your probaly right JingThing that its not unusual to live on that amount per month.

I personally thought it was,as some on this forum over the years have said its hard to live on 60k a month and known to have to go back to Farangland.

Now it obviously would be much cheaper if he owned his own studio,however he still would have to pay strata fees as a owner.

The thing in this old guys favour is his rent includes his electricity and water AND the room is A/cond BUT he doesnt use it.

I HAVE to use mine there.he told me he uses the fan and opens the balcony door.

Apparently if you dont use A/con you get use to the heat.

The apartment is around is in one of the Sois in Jomtiem,I have nnever heard of rent including electricity before? I always thought it was separate.

Also can anyone tell me about those slum apartments at the end of the soi 3 and/Or 4 in Jomtiem,are they rented,or are they squatters?

Now this old guys life more or less revolves around the same bar everyday where he pays 20 b for a cup of tea and to talk about gossip with likeminded farangs.

He does apparantly play Lawn Bowls somewhere.

A boring sort of life i think.

-

[hanibal7]

If its a boring life for you doense mean it is for hm.would he be happier in oz,i dont think so,he has everything he wants.

[glaitong]

Super Cool! Love this kind of budgeting.

See so much money wasted by people who do not take time to look around.

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

28,000B/month is more than what most Thais live on. I admit, its harder living on that kind of fixed income in Pattaya/Jomtien than other parts of Thailand (excluding Bangkok). However, I think the old man is doing quite well, and seems to like his routine, as well as the company of his friends in Pattaya. Eating at home (including coffee and tea), doing laundry at home, and refraining from alcohol are great ways to keep within a budget.

[cudaproject]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

[Jingthing]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

In the interests of truth telling, I own a nice place so no rent (and no car/moto) and do manage to spend a bit more than 28K baht a month here as I have some expensive vices (like Grape Nuts cereal). I also count in the costs of buying things like new furniture, electronics, and travel. It all adds up. I would have a hard time living on 28K total and wouldn't like what kind of place I could rent in that budget, but oh wll, I can see how it would be better than living on the same amount in faranglandia.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Jingthing

[cudaproject]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

In the interests of truth telling, I own a nice place so no rent (and no car/moto) and do manage to spend a bit more than 28K baht a month here as I have some expensive vices (like Grape Nuts cereal). I also count in the costs of buying things like new furniture, electronics, and travel. It all adds up. I would have a hard time living on 28K total and wouldn't like what kind of place I could rent in that budget, but oh wll, I can see how it would be better than living on the same amount in faranglandia.

Who cares how much you spend?!?! I think that was the most uninteresting thread ive ever read

[Ulysses G.]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

Most normal men desire sex and they will do almost anything to do it - including pay for it - no matter what they say. A "whoremonger" is just an average man with an average sex drive in a place where safe pay-for-play is available who is not afraid admit the truth and rather be honest than a hypocrite.

Everyone else is either impotent, a rapist, completely broke or sneaking around hiding and lieing about it (or maybe married).

Edited May 2, 2008 by Ulysses G.

[Woofer]

well,im posting in the Pattaya section as this topic is set in Pattaya.

Last year I posted about a elderly man I had met whilst holidaying in Pattaya,actually Jomtien.He is 72 yo.

Well I have just come back from my holidays to Pattaya and I bumped into the old bloke again.

He lives in Jomtiem ,and receives the Australian old age Govt pension .

He gets around 28000 baht a month he says.

He was horrified on how much money I spent on things.\

He says he is lucky to spend half that.

I was very interested how he survived on that amount.

Well this is what he told me and what i observed over the few weeks.

He only pays 10 baht for a baht bus from Jomtiem to Pattaya,i thought it was 20 however he told me that he pays 10 baht and walks away saying khob korn kup.

Another thing is he knew of all the buffett all you can eat places and he told me of Leks hotel for 110 baht.He doesnt eat at places over that amount.

He was surprised i pay 60 baht for a coffee and stold me at flanagans i can get it for 40 baht plus a newspaper.

Better still you can get it for 12 baht at a 7 eleven he said.

He however drank tea and he buys his own and mostly eats at home.

He always drank tea in the same bar as me however he knew the bar owner where he drank everyday and they charged him 20 baht as he was a regular.

I told him I was staying in a 600 a baht a night place in Jomtiem and he was horrified and took me to his apartment building where I got a studio room for 6000 for the month which included electricity and water.

He pays 5000 baht in the same building but he lives there.

Anyway I asked him if his room was the same as mine so he took me there,his room was a bit cleaner,had one of those portable hotplate stoves and a microwave .

The room is a studio,with balcony,includes electricity and water,it was in jomtiem in soi 4 i think it was.It was pratically the same as mine with double bed,wardrobe etc however he had bought his own cooking equipment.

The place was great and i couldnt believe i didnt know about it.

Anyway he told me you can get monthly rooms cheaper than 5000 a month !!!!

I was shocked,he pointed over to another building in Jomtiem which looked like it had no windows nor any lights,it was all boarded up,apparently they pay only 1000-2000 b a month to live in there.Not a place i would live.

Now i told him about the high cost of Laundry ,funnily enough i took my clothes to the same laundry as his and guess what !

They charged him less as he was considered a local or regular.

Towels they charged me 25 b,he is charged 15 baht etc.

However he told me to soak/wash my own clothes and hang them on the balcony.

But its very hard to wash a towel in the bathroom sink and i like most people use a clean towel to dry everyday.

He uses the laundry once a week and washes mostly his own clothes in the sink i presume such as underpants except large things as sheets.

But they(businesse)do seem to charge farang locals less than tourists,some do anyway.

Another place i didnt know was a 30 baht rice and pork place that i took him to as i paid for him.

However it didnt fill me up so in reality i could NOT live only on Thai food.

He pays 15 b for a loaf of bread and 25 b for a can of tuna for dinner.

But he is something like 60 kg so he doesnt eat much unlike me.

He mostly buys tin tuna but says he buys steak from the supermarket and cooks it in his room.

Im thinking to myself half the sttuff in supermarkets is more expensive than eating out.

He would have to get a baht bus from Jomtien to a big supermarket,do his shopping and a baht bus back and then start cooking !!

I would prefer just going out to a restaurant,still if i lived there i may think different.

He didnt drink alcohol,BUT he smoked ,however he says he can afford it in thailand.

He use to live in Government housing in the notorious crime ridden Sydney suburb of Redfern in a apartment,a bit like the Bronx,probaly a bit worser.

I never saw him take prostitutes so i dont know about that but he told me about the beach in pattaya ,the street girls there.

He said he is far happier in Jomtien than living in Govt housing in Sydney.

Apparently the final crunch came in 2005 when he was mugged and bashed for groceries and he said he had a small dog and when he went to walk it one late night he was bashed by several teenagers who were using drugs outside the apartment building so he thought one day just to pack up and leave for Thailand.

He lived on his 28000 baht a month in Sydney so he said its no different in Thailand.

He has a few thousand dollars in his Thai bank account,just enough to get back to Australia BUT no home in Australia,so if he went back he would have to pay the high rents or try to share a small room somewhere until he could get Govt accomodation again.What a scary thought.

He doesnt have medical insurance,however i was very surprised when he told me that a farang living in Thailand can visit a Thai Public Govt hosptal and he has done so?

How does he hace fun,well his fun it seems is doing the same things pratically everyday.

He gets up at 7am,makes his bed and cleans his room and then has a cup of tea and muesli and goes for a walk and goes to a gym.

He meets the same guys everyday plays cards and darts.

When he told me he went fishing,i was shocked as i just went fishing at a private fishing pool on jomtiem where you pay 200 b to fish but must throw the fish back.

He told me why would you go there then.

Anyway this old guy is very smart with money,so i really wanted to ask where his money went in his life .

He apparently use to be a alcholic,he was dovorced and had 2 daughters he hasnt seen for 20 years and use to be a worker in a factory in Sydney.

Anyway this old bloke was very shrewd,he even haggled prices he told me ,which i cannot do.I get embarrssed haggling.

Another thing i really wanted to know is if he gave tips which he does if he goes to the same place all the time but doesnt for baht buses etc.

I did see him give a tip one night after his checkbin,he gave 10 baht.

He can live on his aussie pension quite well.

However im pretty sure but im not certain that he may not have "ladies of the night" everyday,if at all,i dont know, ,however im not certain as i he didnt tell me,only the told me that he hasnt been in a go go bar for years.

Anyway he told me of a lot of other cheap savings and i will post a bit more later.

Im not his age but i suppose its no different living in the West as it is in Thailand.at his age.

Some people cant even live on 60,000 b a month .

Now he told me he knows of at least 5 other farangs living on 35,000 or less a month from pensions.

But the strange thing is,he said hundreds of farangs who own businesses and are school teachers are living on 20,000 baht a month.!

Anyway i post more of his savings tips later.

-

Yes, you can live on 28,000 baht a month, but for myself I would not want to live this lifestyle. I wonder how he obtains an Australian pension when you are not suppose to be out of the country more than 11 weeks a year to receive it?

[Jingthing]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

Most normal men desire sex and they will do almost anything to do it - including pay for it - no matter what they say. A "whoremonger" is just an average man with an average sex drive in a place where safe pay-for-play is available who is not afraid admit the truth and rather be honest than a hypocrite.

Everyone else is either impotent, a rapist, completely broke or sneaking around hiding and lieing about it (or maybe married).

Hmmm.

Seems like I struck a nerve with you.

Perhaps whoremonger wasn't a polite enough word for you.

Alls in I am saying is being in Pattaya, there is an obnoxious assumption that even as an expat you are offing boys or girls every night.

Do expats in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, Ayathaya suffer from this stereotype? No. they don't.

I never said I have anything against whoremongers, but I am against a public perception that there is requirement to be one.

There are lots of other options you didn't mention for people to not be whoremongers: people in relationships, older people with a natural low sex drive who don't wish to enganger their health with Vitamin V, onanists, religious fundamentalists, people with STDs they don't wish to share, and I am sure many others. I really don't like the oppression of expectations of what an expat in Pattaya, or anywhere else, should or shouldn't be.

Who cares how much you spend?!?! I think that was the most uninteresting thread ive ever read

Point taken. Mea culpa.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Jingthing

[Heng]

Plenty of falangs living on less in Pattaya. There are all types. Folks living in XX million Baht villas and driving cars from that Ferrari-Bentley-misc. import dealership on Sukhumvit.... and guys living in 1 room leased apartments who have to borrow their visa collateral (and who knows what else) funds from local money lenders.

[ilyushin]

Budgeting is my specialty. Always broke, but make ends meet with the following budgetary policy.

I spend less by eating at other people's houses, drinking their booze and smoking there smoke. Get tea and coffee in the office or visit a supplier or RFQ a company ( dinner and the works). Shake down a tourist for a lunch, read newspapers at libraries and recycle other people's for transport or jump the back bumper of buses when I can't walk.

Women ask me for dates and ....... because the feel sorry for me. Guess you could say I have it all on less than baht 28k per month. I am just pulling your chain ( attached to your wallet).

Actually, I think the fellow is doing well with a little and we should all learn to be better with our money. it is not the best lifestyle for sure, but he loves it.

Last of the big spenders.

[colino]

Don't forget this is Pattaya and Jomtien and as he lives's there and is treated like a local

he will without a doubt know most of the local kerb crawlers that stroll the beach road so he could pay very little for company (slow night = 200-300 baht ) especially when the rents due

[ThaiBob]

I don't understand how he would qualify for a retirement VISA.

[Jingthing]

I don't understand how he would qualify for a retirement VISA.

Easy, just combine pension with Thai bank account to be over 800K baht. So he would have to have some savings.

[ZZZ]

A quote from Bangkok post reporting on the current minimum wage discussion in Thailand:

"Ms Wilaiwan said the increment in every province should be at least five to seven baht. She insisted the minimum wage that allows workers to live without difficulty is 233 baht a day"

Ms Wilaiwan is the president of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee.

That amounts to 7000Baht per month if you work everyday, that is 25% of the 28k this guy is living on!!!!

The new minimum wages for 2008 was set to 203Baht for Bangkok and nearby provinces down to 148Baht to some of the more remote provinces.

Edited May 3, 2008 by ZZZ

[Ulysses G.]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

Most normal men desire sex and they will do almost anything to do it - including pay for it - no matter what they say. A "whoremonger" is just an average man with an average sex drive in a place where safe pay-for-play is available who is not afraid admit the truth and rather be honest than a hypocrite.

Everyone else is either impotent, a rapist, completely broke or sneaking around hiding and lieing about it (or maybe married).

Hmmm.

Seems like I struck a nerve with you.

Perhaps whoremonger wasn't a polite enough word for you.

Alls in I am saying is being in Pattaya, there is an obnoxious assumption that even as an expat you are offing boys or girls every night.

Do expats in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, Ayathaya suffer from this stereotype? No. they don't.

I think that you are wrong there, most people around the world, think that every man in Thailand is a sex maniac, and they are probably right. However, because you are in Pattaya - and have much more to choose from - it is assumed that you are doing it more often than those of us who are not so blessed with choice.

Night life in Chiang Mai is a snooze compared to the big P.

[ThaiBob]

I don't understand how he would qualify for a retirement VISA.

Easy, just combine pension with Thai bank account to be over 800K baht. So he would have to have some savings.

True, but I believe the OP said he had just a few thousand dollars in a Thai bank account to get him back to Australia if necessary. 12 x 280000 = 336000THB, so it appears he is far short.

[NanLaew]

Fair play and all that and each to their own... couple of major points though... He doesn't drink and doesn't take girls (from what you could see)..

Need we say more?

Sure. Say more. Is being a whoremonger an unwritten requirement of residency here?

Most normal men desire sex and they will do almost anything to do it - including pay for it - no matter what they say. A "whoremonger" is just an average man with an average sex drive in a place where safe pay-for-play is available who is not afraid admit the truth and rather be honest than a hypocrite.

Everyone else is either impotent, a rapist, completely broke or sneaking around hiding and lieing about it (or maybe married).

Hmmm.

Seems like I struck a nerve with you.

Perhaps whoremonger wasn't a polite enough word for you.

Alls in I am saying is being in Pattaya, there is an obnoxious assumption that even as an expat you are offing boys or girls every night.

Do expats in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, Ayathaya suffer from this stereotype? No. they don't.

I think that you are wrong there, most people around the world, think that every man in Thailand is a sex maniac, and they are probably right. However, because you are in Pattaya - and have much more to choose from - it is assumed that you are doing it more often than those of us who are not so blessed with choice.

Night life in Chiang Mai is a snooze compared to the big P.

Ooooo noooooo.... not the old the social stigma of saying your are from Pattaya again? I think some are too worried about what other people think. There was a thread last year with various people telling their friends and relatives that they live in Jomtien or Pong or Mabrachan to avoid some weird guilt trip about being associated with the biggest beach side cat house this side of... what's that island near Venezuela? The general perception of the average westerner is that Thailand is just that - sex 24/7. If you have friends or relatives who are so ignorant as to make an issue of it, there's always better friends and relatives who don't.

Regarding the OP, why don't the Thai authorities wake the <deleted> up and realise that for every unqualified teacher, criminal on the lam or average sexpat, there's probably a whole raft of genuine potential retirees who wish to eke out their pensions with a fairly decent lifestyle here in Thailand? Maybe Immigration are cleaning up after too long asleep-at-the-wheel and we are paying the consequences now. BTW, how does he manage his visa runs and stay legal and above board with those chaps in Jomtien on B28k/month?

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

It seems that some of you are missing the point that he is 72 years old. At 72 you don't stop thinking about sex but it is not something you are going to be active in like a 30 year old. Even viagra only works to a point.

So I doubt if he spends much on the girls.

[Jingthing]

It seems that some of you are missing the point that he is 72 years old. At 72 you don't stop thinking about sex but it is not something you are going to be active in like a 30 year old. Even viagra only works to a point.

So I doubt if he spends much on the girls.

True, and those drugs only work on performance, not desire or appetite. This area is as good as any beachy place to relax and there is no law saying you must be a full time sexpat to live here. Regarding the visa, I have already explained, easy for anyone who can show such a 28K pension and rather modest savings, no visa runs needed.

Edited May 3, 2008 by Jingthing

[ozsamurai]

I spent alot of time on this forum before moving here, listening to all you talk about how much was needed for a 'resonable lifestyle'. Its all subjective, I have found that 30,000 is ample for me and my other half. I live in Khlong Toey, very central, studio apartment, including cable TV, air con, gym and internet. Close to MRT and BTS, minutes walk from Tops, Foodland,Tesco and Carrefour. We go out for a slap up meal every week usually, choosing to stay away from 'farang slanted' prices. The rest of the time, we cook simple stuff or buy off the street. Petrol for the bike is no more than 300baht. I get a thai massage every week without fail, 200 an hour. I study Thai, learn guitar, and all the normal things that I would do in the West. I am lucky if I go through the 30,000 a month, in fact more times than not I have 10,000 left over! I can't understand why this is unusual, its a sad thing that we in the West always tend to want to live beyond our means, and then complain about the debt and cost of it......

[philliphn]

I think that this person has made a very wise choice.

I am certain that he has a much better life in Thailand then he would with the resources he has in Australia.

Also, I for one find this post interesting!

I am curious to hear more about his life.

[naka]

Like Woofer said, how do Aussie pensioners cope with their government's draconian

requirement to front up every three months or so ?

And geeeze ... Why do they care ?

Naka.