Retirement: If Not Thailand, Where?

[Jbax]

To All;

I'm just curious as to where everyone's Plan B retirement country might be and why? In other words, if Thailand suddenly became impossible, where would you land?

[robertthebruce]

I would be wiling to try most Asian countries, for various reasons, but main reason, is cost of living and the climate..

Would i ever go back to 'Scotland'' ??? wild horses could not drag me back there..

TOO COLD.. and yes i am a WIMP..

[Jingthing]

When my pension kicks in, I would consider Ecuador, Chile, or Panama. I wouldn't consider any other country in Asia right now. Burma 10 years from now might get interesting though! Or of course for me back in the U.S.S.A. would not require a visa.

Edited February 22, 2014 by Jingthing

[thrilled]

South American countries.If ya have the money maybe Newzeland,Australia.

[Bpuumike]

Spain for me.

Winters get a bit cold (4-5C) but can live well on my pension and I already have a comfortable enough apartment there.

[Pinot]

You guys all read the same things I read. I was planning on checking out Ecuador and Columbia on my next trip back to that side of the world. Spain is the list. Croatia is possible.

[moradave]

Manila, Phillipines or Penang, Malaysia.

Edited February 22, 2014 by moradave

[Jingthing]

You guys all read the same things I read. I was planning on checking out Ecuador and Columbia on my next trip back to that side of the world. Spain is the list. Croatia is possible.

Croatia has just hit my radar.

What's the deal with residency there if not a EU person?

The cost for a typical small apartment in Zagreb?

[Jingthing]

Manila, Phillipines or Penang, Malaysia.

I like Malaysia too but the retirement requirements rule it out for me.

Philippines is similar to Thailand's levels but that place freaks me out!

[ccarbaugh]

If Thailand became "undo-able," I would have to research the plusses and minuses of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philipines. I also am spoiled by the climate, cost-of-living, and infinite "eye-candy." (My pension is so small that I wouldn't be able to be retired anywhere else!)

[David48]

Manila, Phillipines or Penang, Malaysia.

I like Malaysia too but the retirement requirements rule it out for me.

Philippines is similar to Thailand's levels but that place freaks me out!

JT, what is it in particular about the Philippines that dissuades you from contemplating living there?

[cassde]

I would definitely go to the Philippines, although far wetter climate than Thailand.

[stoli]

Manila, Phillipines or Penang, Malaysia.

I like Malaysia too but the retirement requirements rule it out for me.

Philippines is similar to Thailand's levels but that place freaks me out!

JT, what is it in particular about the Philippines that dissuades you from contemplating living there?

This question was not posed to me, but I feel compelled to answer. One trip to the Philippines was enough for me. I have never seen a country that does so little for their people. The graft & corruption is far beyond what I expected. That is a country sorely in need to a takeover by its citizens. It is terrible how they treat their own people. (Yes, I realize that a lot of foreigners enjoy Angeles City, but not me.)

[fvw53]

..we have discussed this so many times and came to the conclusion that with all its ups and downs, Thailand is still the best country to retire compared to all others mentioned in this topic.

[thailampang2012]

I was ready to move to Indonesia from Chiang Mai..... but I met my wife...and change plans. Cambodian beaches were in my mind too. Closer to the US???....the East Mexican beaches like the ones close to Cancun are wonderful...just minutes fly to Miami, Cuba and Puerto Rico..... A little further option?...Brazil small towns beaches...Low cost of living, very friendly and beautiful people, a lot of good jobs for native English speakers, easy immigration rules.....not so much corruption or violence. May be the same in other countries too..but ONLY..in SMALL towns were you can become another "local" very fast. Again...Thailand is not just Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin and Phuket........

[craigt3365]

We also talk about this all the time. Not worried about Thailand collapsing, but just thinking about some other place for a different experience.

We love Spain, but have only spent about a month there. Croatia is interesting. Might get a bit cold for me, especially the Northern part.

Colombia is an up and coming place. We loved Chile, probably liked Argentina even better. Uruguay is quite nice. Ecuador was a bit too impoverished for me, but a nice place.

So far, with all it's flaws, we like Thailand best. But won't be here forever.

[Showbags]

Bali for us...

[Lancelot]

For me I will return home (Is Texas a foreign country? ) No more dealing with Immigration, cheap grain fed steaks and reasonable wine prices

I'm thinking its preferable to split my time between the US and several countries

Gotta think outside the box here...

[craigt3365]

For me I will return home (Is Texas a foreign country? ) No more dealing with Immigration, cheap grain fed steaks and reasonable wine prices

I'm thinking its preferable to split my time between the US and several countries

Gotta think outside the box here...

Yes, Texas is it's own "country"! 555555

Your comment about staying in 2 different places is what we are also looking at. There are many places I'd like to experience, but the weather is only good part of the year. Kinda same with here in Thailand. Would be nice to be away during the hot months.

[Lancelot]

For me I will return home (Is Texas a foreign country? ) No more dealing with Immigration, cheap grain fed steaks and reasonable wine prices

I'm thinking its preferable to split my time between the US and several countries

Gotta think outside the box here...

Yes, Texas is it's own "country"! 555555

Your comment about staying in 2 different places is what we are also looking at. There are many places I'd like to experience, but the weather is only good part of the year. Kinda same with here in Thailand. Would be nice to be away during the hot months.

I knew I'd be flamed about Texas

Thailand has been good for me and yeah, no place is perfect, but setting up a "home base" is beginning to appeal to me. My original plan was to retire to Mexico, but ended up in Thailand instead.. Now that I have the "Thai T-shirt" I'm looking for a new location. I'm hearing good things about Colombia, its safer now, etc. I have friends around Lake Atitlan, Guatemala; and they love it there. Eastern Europe is a draw as well

For me Thailand has become over visited and this causes some "misunderstandings" between locals and more recent arrivals. Just my two satang

[Jbax]

To all;

So, what I'm hearing is Ecuador seems to be #1, Philippines, Laos and Cambodia (Texas is just too foreign for me, but I doooo like my steaks).

For me personally, it was a struggle between Thailand and Ecuador. Siam won because I'd been here 8-10 times before, dating back to washing up on a barren Pattaya Beach in 1979 in the Navy (it was just a handful of open air bars, and a dozen hookers that were outnumbered by Germans who all seemed to have month-long vacations working for Bosch. Acht du leiber, what a bunch of pervs).

I do think it's important to always have a Plan B and C rattling around in the back of your head. Personally I retired early from the Treasury Dept., I'm not wealthy by any means but in Chiang Mai I feel like Scrooge McDuck. I rent a new condo (a glorified Marriott Hotel type of room, but what passes as a "condo" in the kingdom), have a maid, wifi, cable (sadly sporting only one English-language channel that seems to show the latest installment of DIE HARD on an endless loop)... I've fallen into a lifestyle routine that can easily be handled on 35,000 baht a month (including rent, which the women I've dated complain I'm being ripped off but it a laughable 9000 baht a month)--- I have a so-called retirement visa and scored Thai drivers licenses (why they don't just do MC endorsements is beyond me, but oh well... when in Rome) and am able to travel on a whim. The sum of which is life is probably pretty damn good here compared to most of the rest of the world.. I couldn't live like this in Portland or Denver.

Ecuador still looms as Plan B. Esmeraldes or Cuenca. Higher crime, cheaper gas. I could bone up on Espanol by watching Telemundo,

The Philippines? I was stationed there for 3 years in the Nav... Higher crime, even more trash, weaker infrastructure (depending upon where you live, none). I love remote beaches but get sand crazy eventually. Anywhere undisturbed in PI is far, far away from anywhere. The peso goes as far on a sawbuck as does baht, but it has a completely different vibe and everyone seems to be out to rip you off. I don't get that in Chiang Mai. And go too far south and you've got issues staying alive.

Plan C: Malta, specifically, Gozo. Safest country on the planet. English is widely spoken (most flats are owned by UK'ers and subleased), Beaches, scuba diving, bicycles, jugs of wine, loaves of bread & thou me. I can't afford it year round, but it's do-able 4-5 months out of the year.

Australia: wildly expensive. I love it but I was in Perth in December and paid $11.50 for a Big Mac (not a combo meal mind you... just twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheeseonaseasameseedbun). Outrageous. Gas was 6.50 a gallon (yes, an Imperial Gallon, but c'mon....). The cheapest hotel I could find was $125 a night. A can of Coke was $4..50 at a gas station (I was looking for "aine" at that price). Aside from the fact that Australia doesn't want anyone with less than a gazillion dollars retiring there, anyone could live cheaper on Maui.

I've been all over Thailand... next year maybe Chiang Rai. I love the beaches but the high season hordes of ever increasing numbers of Russian party animals is insufferable.

Do I have complaints? Sure... Thais drive scooters like Ty fighters defending the Death Star. I'm convinced Tuk-Tuks are operated by retired Somalian pirates. The sidewalks in Chiang Mai are something out of the last reel of an Irwin Allen disaster movie. And much of the food seems to contain napalm left over from the Vietnam war... (Kaw Soi will surely be the focal point of my autopsy).

I am now, at heart a farang.

[JLCrab]

For me I will return home (Is Texas a foreign country? ) No more dealing with Immigration, cheap grain fed steaks and reasonable wine prices

I'm thinking its preferable to split my time between the US and several countries

Gotta think outside the box here...

Yes, Texas is it's own "country"! 555555

Your comment about staying in 2 different places is what we are also looking at. There are many places I'd like to experience, but the weather is only good part of the year. Kinda same with here in Thailand. Would be nice to be away during the hot months.

Texas is a world all of its own --

[Jingthing]

OK, I looked into Croatia a little bit and it's still interesting. Would like to know more but more because I'm just a curious person than it's a serious choice for me.

Some pros:

Zagreb is a small scale walkable big city. Excellent public transport. Relaxed cafe culture. Very Euro-civilized.

Fresh food markets.

Good food, cheaper than countries like Italy, but not cheap cheap.

Wine!

Good medical care. Not sure about costs for non-Croatians.

Over half the people speak English, younger people probably more.

Some cons:

Croatian is a difficult language.

It's sound doesn't really appeal to me much.

You would need to learn Croatian to really be happy there I think and oddly, this is probably the biggest negative to me, not the learning another language thing, but that particular minor world language. I wouldn't feel the same way about Spanish.

Of course one would have to visit to get a better feeling about that.

They have winter.

The summers are super hot, a pro if you're at the beach.

Housing costs higher than Thailand.

Forget about Asian food in Croatia.

I know a lot of people would choose the beach towns to live, but to me, Zagreb seems the place to be in Croatia.

Superficially, residency seems possible.

Would like to know more about residency and actual housing costs for real people, not expense account type expats.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Jingthing

[craigt3365]

5555 Little Feat. Wow. That brings back memories. Played in a country rock back in the mid 70s. Lots of Little Feat, Marshall Tucker, Allman Brothers, Charlie Daniels, etc. Great stuff.

Never been to Guatemala, but recently visited Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. We absolutely loved it. Relatively cheap, but COLD winters! Beautiful countries.

Cuenca, Ecuador, is a very small town. Great outdoor activities, but not a lot of things to do other than that. And crime is definitely on the rise. The weather isn't that great, especially if you are use to shorts and t-shirt living here.

http://voices.yahoo.com/top-three-reasons-why-expats-leave-cuenca-ecuador-10793689.html

P.S. As that article states, be careful with anything International Living prints. They are incredibly biased, and are into the real estate game big time.

[Jbax]

In total agreement about International Living. They're mostly real estate touts that also have apparently discovered a lucrative fee-based retirement seminar sideline. Unfortunately they have grown so influential in certain circles that they have the ability to screw up the small cities/communities they promote. Thanks to them, I doubt you can find a $300 month condo in Cuenca today. Granted, Ecuador's a large country with lots of other cities, but still...

[Jingthing]

The weird thing about Cuenca is the non-South American expat population is actually tiny, perhaps one percent. It's true there has been housing inflation but much of the buying has been by returning Ecuadorians from the USA. I've read housing has been going up about 20 percent annually for some years now so probably due for a correction. Interestingly, Quito is now being mentioned as more affordable than Cuenca.

[Jbax]

I've never been to Ecuador, but looked at it seriously before Thailand became irresistible. I've hear crime in Quito is bad (worse in the southern city of Guayaquil) and have read of wild tales of the difficulty of just getting out of the airport without being victimized. Yeah, that may be overblown. But the roads are terrible and the government restricts the importation of used cars, which combine to mitigate the cheap Venezuelan gas. Spanish would definitely be easier than learning Thai, but that's the benefit of being attractive to Thai women. I get along pretty well in Chiang Mia despite only being able to count to 4 and saying thank you.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[Jingthing]

Good points. A plus about Chile even though higher cost overall is that cars are not heavily taxed there, so lots of new cars on the roads. Santiago though is reportedly VERY polluted.

[Jbax]

Again, outside of the US I can only speak first hand about Thailand and the Philippines--- and offer pithy, whiny, superficial observations about Perth, Australia (damn! If only it were far, far cheaper and had a cheap-charlie retirement visa program! There's so many things to love about Australia, it's just you'll go bankrupt trying to do them).

On a certain level I'm comfortable in the Philippines. Tagalog is somewhat similar to Spanish and would be far, far easier to learn than even basic Thai. The cost of living is similar to the interior of Thailand. But the Philippines is more Third World than Thailand. Higher crime rate, even more trash, and zero infrastructure outside of the cities. Manila is a mess on every level.

Life is just better in Thailand...

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[craigt3365]

I've never been to Ecuador, but looked at it seriously before Thailand became irresistible. I've hear crime in Quito is bad (worse in the southern city of Guayaquil) and have read of wild tales of the difficulty of just getting out of the airport without being victimized. Yeah, that may be overblown. But the roads are terrible and the government restricts the importation of used cars, which combine to mitigate the cheap Venezuelan gas. Spanish would definitely be easier than learning Thai, but that's the benefit of being attractive to Thai women. I get along pretty well in Chiang Mia despite only being able to count to 4 and saying thank you.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Crime in Quito is bad. We went to the main square knowing pickpockets where all over. We were super alert. Guess what? They still slashed the pockets of 2 of our fellow travelers. A couple who were holding hands the whole time trying to avoid this. During 3 months of backpacking around S. America, I'd say well over 50% of the travelers I met had something stolen from them one way or another.

My backpack was rummaged on the flight into Quito. Luckily, all I had in there was t-shirts and underwear!! 55555

We took a bus from Quito down to Cuenca. I thought the front 2 seats next to the driver looked great! Wonderful view. At one of the pit stops, we were talking with some locals and found out why nobody was sitting in them. They call them suicide seats.

Spanish is mandatory in CA and SA. No way around it. Most don't speak any English. Unlike here. But yes, Spanish is way easier to learn than Thai. At least you can read things.