SURVEY: What Is the Main Deterrent to Living in Thailand?

[maidee]

i would say

you cannot buy land, you cannot own your own house

you might get ripped off at any time from all your life savings

your life is cheap & so is a hitman

[quandow]

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Thais, mostly utterly stupid with no sense of responsibility, honesty or integrity,

I have to disagree with the "utterly stupid" part. I have found them quite cunning and shrewd in coming up with ways to screw over the farangs. The rest I couldn't agree more.

You forgot one other characteristic: Hubris

[soalbundy]

Thainess

[Siriam]

Difficult choice... I chose the first only because I couldn't do multiple choices... the 3rd and the last are my second and third choice respectively.

[BudRight]

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All of the above.

Agree. But I opted for the last one, they do not really want us here.

But does that really matter ?

It's the motivation for laws that ban most employment, restrict ownership of property and require police notification of whereabouts, all based on nationality.

That in turn causes economic hardship, so these reasons are all very mixed together.

[Saan]

There are two areas I find difficult. One is the ever lengthening period of smoke haze in Chiang Mai.

The second is the is the lack of certainty as to whether or not I will be still acceptable to immigration next year, or the year after that. I have my Thai family to look after but there is guarantee that I can remain here and do that. In many countries, as a spouse, I would be able to gain permanent residency or citizenship after a period of time. There is no real chance of that here.

[nikmar]

cockroaches and the bastard mosquitos.

[neilyboy]

All of the above.

One price another price for foreigners a different price for Thais,, Thai drivers, dogs to be culled if found in the street.

[neilyboy]

All of the above.

One price another price for foreigners a different price for Thais,, Thai drivers, dogs to be culled if found in the street.

Why can't own more than 49% of house land business etc?

[micmichd]

for a retiree the biggest deterrent is the lack of income tax levied on his worldwide income. the joy and intellectual stimulation of three weeks preparing a tax return is missing

Guess I can help you out if you need some intellectual stimulation, my tax declaration in Germany is overdue.

[splodger]

LOL,LOL.

Balconies!

[roath]

Corruption has to be the biggest problem as it underpins almost everything done here

[soalbundy]

for a retiree the biggest deterrent is the lack of income tax levied on his worldwide income. the joy and intellectual stimulation of three weeks preparing a tax return is missing

Guess I can help you out if you need some intellectual stimulation, my tax declaration in Germany is overdue.

Get an ''Unbedingt Steuerpflichtig Form'' It has to be confirmed and stamped by the Thai tax office, which if you aren't employed here they wont do but the German embassy will give you confirmation of that fact. I now don't have to do a Steuererklaerung for the German state and pay no tax. A bit off topic i know but, wenn es schoene macht.

[DP25]

By far the biggest drawback to living in Thailand is the weather. The weather here is god awful. I know for those of you from dreary rain soaked European islands and frozen northern tundra it is an improvement, but for someone from California it is horrible here.

Of the issues listed in the poll, the visa rules are the biggest drawback. Traffic safety is a concern as well. But the weather is the by far the worst thing for me.

[DP25]

Regards the Visa if you have the right amount of monies and requirements all is easy.

A trip once a year to the office how simple can that be.

If you're not married or not retirement age it's not so easy.

[Srikcir]

I considered unrestrained environmental pollution to be included in #1.

[razer]

Currently the economic factors in Thailand are favorable, but that is changing.

The condition of streets in Bangkok are 100 times better than the condition of sidewalks.

The government should launch an intensive ad campaign for safer driving ,,, considerate driving, respecting others and drunk driving.

[Monkeyrobot]

Tuk tuk and taxi drivers

[teddysbuttons]

Do the survey again and ask the members in 10 words or less what the main deterrent is ........

[granuaile]

I can't really say any of these... The biggest difficulty would perhaps be visa issues, but compared to most countries in the region it is easier or balances out. It would be nice if more like Ecuador in terms of property ownership, having a business, length of stay, etc but as i said easier than other countries in Asia... And the rules haven't changed for me.

I don't feel unsafe.

Economic factors are OK, I have health insurance that includes local providers in their network.

Political matters are not an issue.

Lifestyle issues are OK for me, .... I don't think Thailand has an obligation to cater to others, and there are plenty of opportunities.

I haven't found either a lack of acceptance or xenophobia... I find myself well accepted by Thai people...

[natway09]

Is this survey really necessary?

And does it have any purpose?

[BudRight]

Is this survey really necessary?

And does it have any purpose?

Maybe like anything else in life, it's what you put in.

[romeijoe]

none of the drawback . the only thing i find is that living on the out skirts of a small city, dosent allow me to meet expats that often ; sometimes just sometimes its nice to speak english with a fellow farang, locals are mostly very excepting got to say though if i felt about this country the way some expats do , i would go else where why would you stay some where when all you do is dislike it all day ? buggered if i know me i love it here and would like to stay for good ------ heres hoping

,

[northernphil]

The general unavailability of intellectual stimulation.

There's also the extreme version of Face, and it's attendant racism.

Agree with this. If I moved back to the USA I'd come back to Thai Visa and post every day just to show people how intellectually stimulated I was since leaving Thailand.

.

Perhaps you misread the title of the thread. It says Poll, not troll.

Even you, HJC, have to admit that there is more than a little irony that someone who found Thailand intellectually unstimulating, upon returning to his more intellectually stimulating home country, can't seem to find a better source of intellectual stimulation than revisiting a forum filled with expats who, according to you, must be suffering from the same lack of intellectual stimulation that you experienced here.

Excellent comment , more stimulating than listening to someone rabbiting on from afar about how boring those that still reside here are.

[DrTuner]

Main deterrent is Thailand is being run down, while the neighbors are coming up. Betting on a loser is risky.

[micmichd]

Too much alcohol.

[smotherb]

for a retiree the biggest deterrent is the lack of income tax levied on his worldwide income. the joy and intellectual stimulation of three weeks preparing a tax return is missing

Well, well, yet one more reason why America is best. Amerians still have the luxury of income tax, and even if we have no income to declare, we still have the benefit of preparing tax returns.

[smotherb]

Thais, mostly utterly stupid with no sense of responsibility, honesty or integrity,

Try a step up from that gutter.

[thedivezone]

Sexpats!

Don't like the competition ?

[wil_he]

I have nothing to gripe about.However,I would like the phone number of the gentleman who managed to build a large house for one million bht.I would surely like to talk to the builder.As you may have guessed I am having problems finding a reasonable building contractor.