How Did You Decide

[malct]

Hi all you Expats.

Moving to thailand and setting up home seems to be heaven, but how did you decide where to live, if to buy or rent and mptives for moving.

I have been lucky to find a very cute girlfriend who i have known now for over 2 years and she is now in her 3 month on a Holiday Visa in the UK and to be hinest, she never stops looking after me which can be too much at times, but she loves cooking and looking after my home.

Looking to the future, I would love to move to thailand and my idea place would be close to the sea but not bothered if its a resort or not, i live in a village and i like the village life.

speaking to my girlfriend, she would like to life close to her parents home in Yasothon but says that Ubon Ratchathani would be ideal for us. (she doesn't like the sun or beaches ;-( )

I know that i cannot buy a house in my name in thailand and i would really need to get to know the GF before putting a house in her name, but then there is the option of renting a house.

I am 48 years young and i am looking at retiring in the next 7 years unless i loose my job and with 28 years with the company, it would be a nice retirment come early present.

would like to hear other people stories and experiances.

Malc

[dumball]

Life in a Thai village is a far cry from living in an English village , a very far cry , especialy if you "Dun spika da lingage ".

[siggie2]

I retired at 49 and headed to Pattaya as some friends were retired there too.Been there 7 years and no regrets,dont even get bored as the alternative is working me knackers off,which i had done all my life.Maybe one day i will go to live a different part of Thailand but the place suits me and i have many many wonderful friends who make it like a big family.

[londonthai]

do, what you want to do, and not what your girlfriend wants - and you have at least 7 years to make any decisions.

around cha am (a thai resort, before hua hin - going from bangkok) you can rent or later buy some houses for a reasonable price. You are still close by to hua hin, where a lot of foreign pensioners do live, and only 2h drive from bangkok

Edited December 7, 2009 by londonthai

[Ruperts]

You should definitely spend at least a year in total visiting the country before you commit to moving.

[malct]

I am thinking about going to cha am for a holiday, I did hua hin 18 months ago and enjoyed it.

The Gf says, if i want to life close to a beach, then i will be going only... i think she wants to be close to her family.

i think i will be doing whats best for me..

Malc

[lannarebirth]

I usually recommend one live 500 km or more from family. If they're really nice folks maybe 300km.

[londonthai]

while on holidays in cha am, you can check some new developments and talk to the estate agents about other ones, coming within next 5 years.

some 7 years ago there were basic 3 bedroom houses for 750k baht, at least twice that now, and severel times more on the seafront - but it's worth to have a fresh breeze from the sea than bake in some mooban inland.

cha am is up and coming with thai and foreigners, as a cheaper alternative to hua hin - it has clean and wide bitches, without those underwater, dangerous rocks like in hua hin.

[Maizefarmer]

malct

There are so many issues to consider, and for each person the issues are both different and have different relivance/priority - whats an ideal set of circumstances for one, may not be an ideal set of circumstances for another - there's no right or wrong, but I wil share this with you: for most fo the ex-pats I have known who settled in Thailand (with the intention of staying out the rest of their days - whether they were retired or working), the primary motive was their relationship with a Thai girl. When the relationship brokedown, they had nothing to stay for - the motivation had gone, and they moved on - Thailand became just another of lifes' experiences.

Fair enough, nothing wrong with that, but I can't help feeling that an intention to emmigrate to live in another country, let alone one so diversly different from Western culture, should not be undertaken at the exclusion of the other criteria folk usualy take into consideration when making such a big desicion - considerations like those related to career, pension, health (we all get old), family & relatives back home, and last but not least, ones fiinancial circumstances if after 10 -15years one decides to go back "home" (???).

Spend as much time as you can in Thailand over a period of a year or 2 - do half a dozen trips or so, spend time living in "the sticks" (rural village enviroment - it's very different to living in a town/city) - for some the novelty wears off after a few years, for others it's exactly what keeps them in Thailand ...... spend as time as you can in Thailand before making the decision.

NB NB - learn to speak, read and write Thai - a lot of folk don't bother with the reading and writing part (and learn to speak only so much as the need to get by with) but I can assure you, learning to read and write makes a big big difference - and a very positive one at that, not least of which is how Thai's will relate to you and deal with you.

I wish you all the best - it's a great place to live in.

[Naam]

I usually recommend one live 500 km or more from family. If they're really nice folks maybe 300km.

:D

[Maigo6]

I usually recommend one live 500 km or more from family. If they're really nice folks maybe 300km.

You lived 500Kms from your family in your own country ?

Or do you give this wonderful advice only for people married to Thais ?

Your Thai wife lives 500Kms from her family. and she's happy ?

In the situation your long suffering wife would be in, I'd advise her to be 500 Kms away from a control freak like you.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Maigo6

[mca]

but I can assure you, learning to read and write makes a big big difference - and a very positive one at that, not least of which is how Thai's will relate to you and deal with you.

Too right. Saves some embarrassing situations when you accidentally stumble into the ladies bog already undoing your kecks.

[lannarebirth]

I usually recommend one live 500 km or more from family. If they're really nice folks maybe 300km.

You lived 500Kms from your family in your own country ?

Or do you give this wonderful advice only for people married to Thais ?

Your Thai wife lives 500Kms from her family. and she's happy ?

In the situation your long suffering wife would be in, I'd advise her to be 500 Kms away from a control freak like you.

No, not 500 in my case, but 1,500-2,000 km. Always a pleasure to visit. My wife's nearest relative is her sister who lives 700km away. Her other siblings live outside the country and her mother lives with us as she needs ongoing medical care.

Contril freak? Would that it were true

Edited December 8, 2009 by lannarebirth

[Tod Daniels]

After residing in a plethora of pissant shit-hole third world countries on many different continents I finally threw a dart at the map of the world. Unfortunately with the earth being over 2/3 water, not surprisingly, I hit an ocean, but it was closest to the glorious "Land 'O Thais" so I moved here.

I've found for the most part it's no better or worse than any other pissant shit-hole developing third world country. The thais ignore me just as I ignore them, it’s a mutually beneficial, intricately symbiotic yet somewhat parasitic relationship for all of us.

Before some witty economic pundit weighs in to erroneously point out thailand is a "second world country"; please realize second world countries were the former Soviet bloc countries, and there is NO such thing anymore. The choices are first world, developing third world, or third world.

[givenall]

do, what you want to do, and not what your girlfriend wants - and you have at least 7 years to make any decisions.

around cha am (a thai resort, before hua hin - going from bangkok) you can rent or later buy some houses for a reasonable price. You are still close by to hua hin, where a lot of foreign pensioners do live, and only 2h drive from bangkok

I agree and never so what the GF wants unless you want too. Especially do not live near her parents. Chances are they will move in and then you will be ………..

I recommend visiting her as often as you can and find out the local condition before you decide. I personally get board in a village and I live in Bkk for 3 years. I have found a very nice accommodation and near everything. Hardly have any time to get board, even though I am retired and retired folks are supposed to get board.

[Meridian007]

I usually recommend one live 500 km or more from family. If they're really nice folks maybe 300km.

You lived 500Kms from your family in your own country ?

Or do you give this wonderful advice only for people married to Thais ?

Your Thai wife lives 500Kms from her family. and she's happy ?

In the situation your long suffering wife would be in, I'd advise her to be 500 Kms away from a control freak like you.

I doubt that he only meant Thai. I wish I'd followed his advice with my ex wife (Canadian, not Thai), we'd probably still be married if I had. With any in-laws you have to be very firm about boundaries or they'll try to take over your life. Then they become the out-laws...

In order to keep good relations with my potential in-laws, I'm planning to have us stay in a different city about a 100-200Kms away. They can come to visit, but not to stay. my "long suffering wife" understands that my almost 14,000Km distance from my family is much further.

That being said, to answer the OP, he should plan to live here not because of a particular person, but for many different reasons. If one reason doesn't work out, you should have many other reasons to stay. A life-long decision shouldn't be made on one point.

[mahtin]

it has clean and wide bitches

Interesting, but I'm not sold.

[GuestHouse]

Moving to thailand and setting up home seems to be heaven, but how did you decide where to live, if to buy or rent and mptives for moving.

Simple, when the 'Deal' reached the right number I said 'OK I'll do it'.

[KhunDave]

A very, very personal decision obviously, but for my tuppence I wouldn't/couldn't do the village life. I have a main home in CM and another place close to my partners' hometown near Det Udom, south of Ubon Ratchathani.

We go to stay in the second home for maybe four or five weeks out of the year. I enjoy it at that level - a change of scene and pace of life, wonderfully warm-hearted and genuine people. But the cultural change is huge, and I for one couldn't cope with it on a permanent basis. Many times I've sat out on the front porch in Isaan with a nice cold one, and wondered how long it would be - if I lived there full time - before I was crazy, alcoholic or both!

Edited December 9, 2009 by KhunDave

[flemmie]

Funny post, I think it is time to read Private Dancer by Stephen Leather again...

After residing in a plethora of pissant shit-hole third world countries on many different continents I finally threw a dart at the map of the world. Unfortunately with the earth being over 2/3 water, not surprisingly, I hit an ocean, but it was closest to the glorious "Land 'O Thais" so I moved here.

I've found for the most part it's no better or worse than any other pissant shit-hole developing third world country. The thais ignore me just as I ignore them, it's a mutually beneficial, intricately symbiotic yet somewhat parasitic relationship for all of us.

Before some witty economic pundit weighs in to erroneously point out thailand is a "second world country"; please realize second world countries were the former Soviet bloc countries, and there is NO such thing anymore. The choices are first world, developing third world, or third world.

[David006]

Funny post, I think it is time to read Private Dancer by Stephen Leather again...

...or Sleeping Dictionary....

[anothertorres]

i live here because my dog lives here.

[lazygourmet]

do, what you want to do, and not what your girlfriend wants - and you have at least 7 years to make any decisions.

around cha am (a thai resort, before hua hin - going from bangkok) you can rent or later buy some houses for a reasonable price. You are still close by to hua hin, where a lot of foreign pensioners do live, and only 2h drive from bangkok

I love Cha-Am...

Please do not spoil it!

[villagefarang]

In the beginning, I'm quite sure it was my hormones that did the deciding. It wasn't about one girl, however. It was more than twenty years before I settled down with one.

[Penefattore]

Your Thai wife lives 500Kms from her family. and she's happy ?

Provided she did not make to mistake to give them her phone number, she will be quite happy to be the sole beneficiary of her husband's money, believe me

[Penefattore]

The Gf says, if i want to life close to a beach, then i will be going only...

Excellent ! Send her back to her family and spend your money with beach whores !

[kikoman]

I came here for a two month vacation, that never ended, I was very happy in the bar scene but that did not last long, I move out of Pattaya to Sattahip and rented an apartment for 2,000 baht a month, close to Pattaya but far enough away from its madness.

I met my GF lived with her for a year, we made a visit to her home village and I totally liked her family, and the people of the Village, My GF owned 11 rai of land in the village given to her by her mother.

when we returned to Sattahip, we discussed moving to the village, my GF was against it as she thought I could not be happy there. I told her I could be as the whole Pattaya life style was not for me.

Four years ago we moved to her village, found out it was to expensive to run the electricity to her land and purchased a rai of land for 100,000 baht, across the street from her family. We built and paid in full our home in 3 years.

As per Thai law , I know I cannot own land in Thailand. As all I have given are for my wife and her girls.When I am gone to that "Big Taco Factory in the Sky" I see her family moving in with her after the girls are gone.

People always ask us why did you built such a big house, for only a family of 4.

I know why and It is a gift from my heart to my loving wife.

Even if things do not go as planned and we part, I still will just walk away, leaving all to her for the happiness our 5 years together have brought to me!

That why I stayed here, I am happy and free here!

Cheers: