Living the (genuinely) high life in BKK ...

[sdanielmcev]

You could just become a musician. Live the lifestyle, never have a dollar. Booze, broads, and %&$# thrown at you.

[SoiBiker]

TL:DR

Nothing duller that talking about money, especially money you don't even have.

[simon43]

Well, I'm a poster who is prepared to 'own up' to say that I've done that in Bangkok, and didn't find it a satisfying lifestyle at all, but everyone to their own.

Prior to moving to Bangkok from the UK in 2002, my monthly income was typically (let's put it in THB), 2.5 million THB.

(No, I wasn't a drug dealer, but a software guy with a mobile phone apps business - Google me if you want proof).

After moving to BKK and trying to enjoy the high life, I found it was the same as the high life that I had encountered in Europe ==> full of shallow, vain and generally obnoxious people.

The old adage that money doesn't bring you happiness is true in many cases. (Those who deny that there is truth in this saying are those who have never been rich).

I gave up the software for a more 'simple' lifestyle in Phuket, not in some penthouse overlooking Patong Beach with a luxury yacht and Mercedes, but in a nice little, single-room hovel that I built in the middle of a rubber tree plantation

I still earn about 400,000 baht each month from my hotel businesses and live here happily with my Thailand Elite card. I give myself the luxury of a new Toyota pick-up.

What I did learn from my previous lifestyle is that everything is transient - you might think that your high income and lavish lifestyle will go on for ever, but factors outside your control are almost certain to change that, and your fall from grace can hurt!

[JohnnyJazz]

This thread is an eye opener. At least it should be for this country rulers.

What will you do if you have a lot of money ? It seems answer #1 is "I wouldn't be here if I had a lot of money". In short Thailand is boring place. Good for a couple of weeks at the beach, cheap for retirees who don't want to do much anyway. But if Thailand wants to attract the serious players there is a lot to be done.

[Lucifer]

If you had that kind of money, would you really live in Thailand?

[MrWorldwide]

TL:DR

Nothing duller that talking about money, especially money you don't even have.

You've taken this thread far too seriously, as have a few others. If I see a thread in GT that holds no appeal for me, I move on - simple. This was meant to be nothing more than harmless escapism - clearly, that's not your thing.

[kannot]

Thanks for the entertaining read Mr Ww.

If I werein the position to throw 6xx k away each month at life I wouldn't do

It in the fashion you so describe, mainly because I have no

Desire to go drinking nor chase local tail in Bangkok, so I guess my waY if doing things would be different and I wouldn't fall into the 'baller' category. For example, whilst I find the Audi R8 (2015) an extremely attractive vehicle, I have no desire to own one & if I did, I'd get one, in fact, I own 2 vehicles presently and one of the cost me significantly more than what the V10 5.2 litre variant of the Audi would cost me ($AU) price....... I actually shudder at the Thai price. So if I had the desire, I could of but just wouldn't and I imagine there's enty of wealthy people around in the same thought pattern as myself.

Anyway, I digress. My point is, whilst I loved your thoughtful thread, if I were to be BALLING IT, I would be back living on another yacht, maybe 10 foot longer than my last one, and I might be sitting on the deck eating seafood (purchased rather than caught....can't be raising a sweat de-shelling my lobster) & I'd either be floating around the Whitsunday Islands, Maldives, Greece Coastline or Fiji etc. THAT WOULD BE really balling it in my world. There wouldn't be a bottle of wine, a nightclub or ho anywhere in sight! 555555

I guess that puts me out of the baller category on more than one level. ?

Anyway, ROCK ON and enjoy you life, kudos to you for living your own balked lifestyle, even if it's not the 600k per month one you describe in this very entertaining thread.

In a side note, imagine parking ur R8 in bangers, only to come back to it and find som chai's Honda wave rest up agains the rear bumper and his helmet sitting on your roof turret while he fumbles through his pockets looking for his keys ???

stop stealing my fantasy u ole fart. ................my idea of bliss would be big f*** off boat and to disappear round the world, sadly many parts of the world are now to dangerous to do this in............dont worry Id lend u me dinghy

[kannot]

Well, I'm a poster who is prepared to 'own up' to say that I've done that in Bangkok, and didn't find it a satisfying lifestyle at all, but everyone to their own.

Prior to moving to Bangkok from the UK in 2002, my monthly income was typically (let's put it in THB), 2.5 million THB.

(No, I wasn't a drug dealer, but a software guy with a mobile phone apps business - Google me if you want proof).

After moving to BKK and trying to enjoy the high life, I found it was the same as the high life that I had encountered in Europe ==> full of shallow, vain and generally obnoxious people.

The old adage that money doesn't bring you happiness is true in many cases. (Those who deny that there is truth in this saying are those who have never been rich).

I gave up the software for a more 'simple' lifestyle in Phuket, not in some penthouse overlooking Patong Beach with a luxury yacht and Mercedes, but in a nice little, single-room hovel that I built in the middle of a rubber tree plantation

highlife.jpg

I still earn about 400,000 baht each month from my hotel businesses and live here happily with my Thailand Elite card. I give myself the luxury of a new Toyota pick-up.

What I did learn from my previous lifestyle is that everything is transient - you might think that your high income and lavish lifestyle will go on for ever, but factors outside your control are almost certain to change that, and your fall from grace can hurt!

Well said Simon...........my Wife has zero interest in the money she earns but loves the thrill of the chase, money does not make you happy but it does give you options.

I seriously doubt Thailand is a patch on some other " paradise" places and big spenders would go elsewhere.

Paradise these days though is often frequented by a lot of " undesirables" really the only paradise would be Bransons idea of buying an island

[simon43]

...really the only paradise would be Bransons idea of buying an island

Ha - tried that once about 10 years ago. Saw a small island for sale just off the Aegean coast for about $20,000, about 200 metres across and perfect to build a little hideway. My offer to buy was accepted, but it was then 'trounced' by someone considerably richer than me who bought the little island and several larger ones as a $5 million job lot....

[kannot]

...really the only paradise would be Bransons idea of buying an island

Ha - tried that once about 10 years ago. Saw a small island for sale just off the Aegean coast for about $20,000, about 200 metres across and perfect to build a little hideway. My offer to buy was accepted, but it was then 'trounced' by someone considerably richer than me who bought the little island and several larger ones as a $5 million job lot....

Cheapskate

[ryanhull]

ryanhull, on 27 Mar 2015 - 15:35, said:

are your balls any bigger from this post? have a word with yourself

Again, its a fantasy thread - I dont need to have a word with myself. I know what I can spend and it has absolutely nothing to do with the usual cost of living threads here, which are inevitably a race to the bottom. Did you spend your entire working life dreaming of the day when you could retire in Thailand ? I did from somewhere around the age of 40 and it took me 15 years to achieve that - I'm dreadfully sorry if that makes my balls somehow smaller in your opinion but I guess that's a cross I'll have to bear.

No I don't, I am 31 so not thinking about retiring yet, I run a company that is doing well yet I am not a millionaire like you, I earn enough to support my family, that is my priority and puts a smile on my face.

As others have said, family/friends is more important than money, maybe you have not worked that out yet... in the past I have lived in central London spending obscene amounts of money each month in the past.. was I happy? was I hell. If you do truly have so much money my advise not that you should care or take it is to do something good with it and help others, enjoy your life, don't waste it on a fake lifestyle drinking 250k a month in so called 'hi so' places.

One day when your well of money has dried up, you will find your 'hi so' friends long gone.

Not a dig but just my opinion.

[MrWorldwide]

One day when your well of money has dried up, you will find your 'hi so' friends long gone.

Not a dig but just my opinion.

And you are 100% welcome to your opinion, but its clear you didnt read my OP. I live in a 10K a month apartment in Pattaya, manage to chew through 120-130K a month and have been repeatedly accused of being a barfly whose sole companions are whores and other misfits. My hi-so friends are, indeed, long gone : other than a Chinese-Thai lady who gave me a lift in Bangkok one afternoon in her spanking new Beemer back in 2010, I expect that I've had a whole lot less to do with that end of Thai society than yourself or many of the others in this thread. Even the Chinese-Thais I know here who do belong to wealthy families clock on for their 12-14 hours a day in the bar the same as everyone else - not a club hopping trendsetter among them. I'm reasonably confident, however, that they could all give me a better estimate of what it would cost to live the 'high roller' lifestyle in Bangkok than 99.99% of TVers.

Anyway, back to the cold, hard reality of another evening in Pattaya. My shift starts soon and it's sheer hell from the time they blow that whistle till dawn - wish me luck.