Help needed: Newcomers to Chiang Mai

[Asparutta]

Hello all,

 

we are a small family - myself, my wife - both in our 30's.... and our son 9 years old.

 

This June we are coming to Chiang Mai for 3 months (90 day tourist VISA - probably Multiple entry). We already have tickets.

 

This is a holiday, but more so we can say.... a scouting mission to determine whether living permanently in Chiang Mai.

 

We just need answers to some pressing questions, if someone could help it would be much appreciated:

 

1) During the 3 months - do we need to rent a car? (scooter is out of the question as we are a family) - if we do need to rent a car - is our local Maltese driving licence (in English, EU certifiied / accepted) valid? Is it easy to get a licence there for a foreigner who does not have one? (my wife drives but I do not!)

 

2) we wanted to check about sending our son to Ambassador's school - we found out this is in , or near to Hang Dong.... should we live in Hang Dong or Chiang Mai? If we live in Hang Dong, is there transport to Chiang mai which is easy and frequent - night and day?

 

3) If we live there, we would finance our life through the rent of our properties, from which we can generate roughly 1,200 Euros / month - is this good enough? We have checked retirement VISA and we can satisfy ALL criteria except that we are not 50+ .... is the age criteria so important? Anyway we have the option of Guardian VISA and educational VISA for our son.

 

4) How do we go about renting a place which is not a rip off - we only need either a small comfortable 1 bedroom flat in a good, well connected area, OR a very small house would be enough. Keeping our costs low will increase our spendable amount of money per month and we prefer to do so. Is something like 150-200 Euros monthly realistic / possible? (I have heard there are even cheaper - but on the other hand we do want a nice area and decent living conditions).

 

5) Where should we stay for the 1st week or so until we get things sorted?

 

Please do help us, I realize some or all of this info may already be out there, but I'm really hard pressed to get things sorted and while I'm still in Malta, I am extremely busy and barely have any time at all to look up things online.

 

Many thanks to all those who offer a helping hand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shoeless Joe]

Hi, please check your messages.

 

Joe

 

[daveAustin]

^^ You could always post in the open forum; that's what this site is for after all.

 

Op, believe you'd need an IDP (int driving permit), which should be obtainable in Valletta and you'd show along with your regular license if stopped. Unless you're into your booze and your wife likes to spend, those funds should be doable.

 

Dunno about digs, always harder to get a good price short-term. I'd stay somewhere like Sakorn Residence while looking around (on the right side-ish for the school at least). That school looks to be a fair way from Hang Dong btw, which itself doesn't have much going for it. One thing CM does have a lot of is moobaans (housing estates) where - if you decided to live there - you should be able to pick up a reasonably priced place within reach of the school.

 

No mass rail transit or decent bus service; so unless you have wheels, you'd need to rely on the local songthaew/tuk-tuk transport, which ain't the best.

 

Can't do retirement visas under 50. Tougher to stay on for young uns if you don't have a job or your missus/kid isn't Thai. Could do education visas (enrolling in a Thai course) or go for Thai Elite visa (expensive).

 

All the best.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Many on here don't hesitate to tell a foreigner that you can't live well on 30,000 per month.....family of three on 43000?  With visa hassles?  Kids cost more than adults for living expenses...the schools get expensive....western food is quite expensive here.  15000 per month to own and operate a modest car would not be far off.  Medical insurance?  You should have thought about all this before you acquired so much baggage.

[CharlieH]

"I am extremely busy and barely have any time at all to look up things online"

 

And yet you are taking your wife and child to a 3rd world country with no apparent plan and on a shoestring budget?

Disaster waiting to happen in my opinion.

[transam]

OP,  you sound a bit clueless from what I have read...That is not a state of mind to be in coming to LOS......

[Greenside]

Your income isn't enough to make a go of it unless you're prepared to accept a very, very basic standard of living.  Forget it.

[canthai55]

“Act In Haste, Repent At Leisure”

[Asparutta]

1 hour ago, KhonKaenKowboy said:

Many on here don't hesitate to tell a foreigner that you can't live well on 30,000 per month.....family of three on 43000?  With visa hassles?  Kids cost more than adults for living expenses...the schools get expensive....western food is quite expensive here.  15000 per month to own and operate a modest car would not be far off.  Medical insurance?  You should have thought about all this before you acquired so much baggage.

Ah, I am budgeting 1,200 Euros as spending money. School fees I will pay from other savings - I know that these can be around 3,000 Euros a year. So around 43,000 Baht a month for life / rent etc... 

 

As for Medical, I have an international European medical insurance coverage, but have to check if this is accepted in Thailand as it was mainly intended for EU but has also agreements with some 3rd countries, 

 

In fact we are coming for 3 months, and if we feel we can live well on that budget and everything is to our liking, we would make the move

[Loaded]

2) we wanted to check about sending our son to Ambassador's school - we found out this is in , or near to Hang Dong.... should we live in Hang Dong or Chiang Mai? If we live in Hang Dong, is there transport to Chiang mai which is easy and frequent - night and day?

 

It's located along the superhighway. It's not near Hang Dong.

[CharlieH]

That school is in excess of 70k per semester.

 

The insurance you speak of is useless here, you would need adequate private insurance for all the family.

[Asparutta]

56 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

"I am extremely busy and barely have any time at all to look up things online"

 

And yet you are taking your wife and child to a 3rd world country with no apparent plan and on a shoestring budget?

Disaster waiting to happen in my opinion.

Hmmm, we went to Hungary (Eger) for the past 3 summers, and in each case we rented out a small but nicely furnished flat for 3 months (200 Euros monthly) and living expenses were around 700 Euros monthly. 200 Euros monthly were spent on kids activities. so 1,200 was easily doable in Hungary. When I checked Numbeo.com - Eger seems to be more expensive than Chiang Mai. The only reason why we never moved to Hungary was schooling, which is impossible to get in English....... in Chiang Mai it seems to be the same concept as Eger - but with English schools available. We even managed 2 months in Budapest with 1,200 monthly however, that was stretching it a bit as Budapest is slightly more expensive. Even in Malta (which is a lot more expensive) there are many people living on 1,200 Euros a month - although here that would be a basic living. Maybe, where I am coming from, the concept of "living well" is also different from the US and UK etc... basically if we have a small, but safe, clean, comfortable appt  + money to each out at nice cafe's + are in an area where we can walk about, go to parks, find kid's activities + take part in occasional local activities such as sports events - then that is a good nice life for us.....not much more needed! Yes of course having a night out once in a while and having a few drinks is nice, does not have to be a daily occurance though!

[Asparutta]

10 minutes ago, Loaded said:

2) we wanted to check about sending our son to Ambassador's school - we found out this is in , or near to Hang Dong.... should we live in Hang Dong or Chiang Mai? If we live in Hang Dong, is there transport to Chiang mai which is easy and frequent - night and day?

 

It's located along the superhighway. It's not near Hang Dong.

OK, so might as well just live in CHiang Mai old city or near Night bazaar area I guess? especially for the beginning , as the school thing is an intention / something we are looking into but that would be the only way we would be able to live there long term.

[Asparutta]

6 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

That school is in excess of 70k per semester.

 

The insurance you speak of is useless here, you would need adequate private insurance for all the family.

I looked up things very well, other schools are 70K + per semester, but Ambassador has a program for 45K / semester which is what I pay here in Malta for my son's private schooling and I have money set away for that - not part of the living budget. If you know of any other EP / semi-international schools (not very high budget ones!), closer to Chiang Mai Old city (or easier to get to), please let me know.

[CharlieH]

2 minutes ago, Asparutta said:

Hmmm, we went to Hungary (Eger) for the past 3 summers, and in each case we rented out a small but nicely furnished flat for 3 months (200 Euros monthly) and living expenses were around 700 Euros monthly. 200 Euros monthly were spent on kids activities. so 1,200 was easily doable in Hungary. When I checked Numbeo.com - Eger seems to be more expensive than Chiang Mai. The only reason why we never moved to Hungary was schooling, which is impossible to get in English....... in Chiang Mai it seems to be the same concept as Eger - but with English schools available. We even managed 2 months in Budapest with 1,200 monthly however, that was stretching it a bit as Budapest is slightly more expensive. Even in Malta (which is a lot more expensive) there are many people living on 1,200 Euros a month - although here that would be a basic living. Maybe, where I am coming from, the concept of "living well" is also different from the US and UK etc... basically if we have a small, but safe, clean, comfortable appt  + money to each out at nice cafe's + are in an area where we can walk about, go to parks, find kid's activities + take part in occasional local activities such as sports events - then that is a good nice life for us.....not much more needed! Yes of course having a night out once in a while and having a few drinks is nice, does not have to be a daily occurance though!

This demonstrates you have no clue about Asia and specifically Thailand.

You are approaching it from a European stance and thay wont work. One relatively "minor" health issue could wipe you out financially. Your budget and expectations are not realistic for this country. Stop being so nieve.

[CharlieH]

2 minutes ago, Asparutta said:

I looked up things very well, other schools are 70K + per semester, but Ambassador has a program for 45K / semester which is what I pay here in Malta for my son's private schooling and I have money set away for that - not part of the living budget. If you know of any other EP / semi-international schools (not very high budget ones!), closer to Chiang Mai Old city (or easier to get to), please let me know.

Then you read it wrong, you are missing the 15k entrance fee and 10k  money for books etc as stated on their chart which incidentally is years out of date.

 

[Asparutta]

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

This demonstrates you have no clue about Asia and specifically Thailand.

You are approaching it from a European stance and thay wont work. One relatively "minor" health issue could wipe you out financially. Your budget and expectations are not realistic for this country. Stop being so nieve.

In this case I will get private international health family insurance in Malta which will only 100-150 Euros monthly, not that much of a big deal. Not sure it's necessary during the 1st 3 months though, do you recommend it?

[CharlieH]

Yes I do recommend it because its absolutely essential to have adequate Insurance.

 

I wil not participate further, you seem to have ALL the answers so go ahead.

 

In my opinion its a huge mistake you are contemplating.

 

Wish you well, best of luck.

[rhodie]

Good luck OP. You seem to have an adventurous spirit. Can be done and you may like it, but it is very different to the other countries that you have travelled to. You don't really have much to lose as you can always bail after 3 months.

[Sheryl]

I would say quite impossible for a family of 3 with a child (attending a private school) to manage on that income.

 

I am single, living way out in the countryside  in a less expensive province than CM, and living pretty simply, and I spend more than that.

 

Be sure to factor in private health insurance for all 3 of you and it will be costly. Health care is not free for foreigners. And yes, you would need to buy a car - and insure it and pay for its mainatainance etc.

[chickenslegs]

OP - your wife's full Maltese Drivers Licence is valid in Thailand for 90 days from the date of entry, as both Malta and Thailand are signatories to the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. Some people get the IDP anyway as it's cheap enough and sometimes is more easily accepted by police, insurance and car hire companies.

 

Even though you have explained that your 43,000 baht per month is spending money (i.e.-does not include insurance, school fees and such) I think you may struggle. But I am certain that there are people here that get by with less.

 

Just come for your 3 month holiday, you will soon find out whether Thailand is affordable for you and your lifestyle. Be prepared to leave early if funds expire more quickly than you expected.

[oldgent]

good advice has been given to you but you tend to ignore it, I say go for it

come back in 3 months and let us know how you got on.