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ignorami
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Hi,
decided to go for it. Been to Thailand a couple of times lately and for whatever reason Thailand makes me feel good. Very good. Alive. Heart rate decrease, apetite increase, I smile more during a day than in a year in my present abyss.
No family, no social life, nothing alive to cut ties with, leave behind. So get rid of all material stuff and travel to where I can hopefully spend a few years with a smile.
There is so much knowledge and experience in these forums, in you people, on how to get by in Thailand.
I have looked through various threads up and down, back and forth.
My first choice of stay, after just doing some minor research, hmm like a couple of days.., is The House by the Pond. The name alone... Any input? I will spend some 3 weeks in Bangkok during November and hopefully I have a list by then of apartments to visit.
And choose from. What I'm looking for is a home.
Some place I can live in and add a touch to it. Furniture, paintings, most of it from local sources. The things I might bring with me from here is not all that much.
I'll be moving out/in during the beginning of 2005 so time is running short. I can deal with pretty much of the red tape over here but am still so much a virgin when it comes to dealing with a life in Thailand.
So now comes the questions that might make you guys
go nasty on me or aiding me. Maybe going nasty is aiding me? Do I need to roughen up to survive in Thailand? Nah!
Anyway,
a. Plan to stay for 1- many years
b. Banking? Should I transfer funds to a Thai bank or let them weather away over here? Big blank here...
c. I might perform some kind of work in Thailand that might add to my bank account. Which is where? Tax issues? The work I might perform is purely done over the net. Couple of hours a day.
d. Insurances of all kinds. Health, property.
e. Visa. There's the 30 tourist one that somehow can be
extented to 60 days and renewed when necessary. Or?
After all a major decision is done. And I do feel good about it. Tomorrow I'll contact a real estate broker, an auctioneer, might even land a deal with my employeer, and heaven knows what else. Burning all those bridges that aren't really there. And in just a few months from now I will be breathing/living Thailand. Hmm, good.
Ignorami
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:23 pm on Sep. 6, 2004
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Mr Alan
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Living in Thailand is not as easy as you think. At a minimum (unless you are 50 or over) you will have to do a visa run every 60 days (maybe every 30 days), which may violate the spirit of the Thai immigration laws (they seem to be cracking down on the laws recently).
You can't legally work in Thailand without a work permit, and they are not easy to come by, although if you teach English it is usually easy get a work permit and visa. But teaching English is not a particularly easy job, the pay is not particularly good, and you probably can't find a job where you can only work a few hours a day.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 4:25 pm on Sep. 6, 2004
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TJ
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Quote: from Mr Alan on 1:25 pm on Sep. 6, 2004
Living in Thailand is not as easy as you think. At a minimum (unless you are 50 or over) you will have to do a visa run every 60 days (maybe every 30 days), which may violate the spirit of the Thai immigration laws (they seem to be cracking down on the laws recently).
Regarding ignorami's list of questions:
a) banking: keep your money in your own country. Thailand isn't first-world. Who knows if they would decide to "nationalize" (seize) funds from foreign nationals? You can't open a bank account (in general) without a work permit anyway.
d) The results of my search on BTF (as they so often say, use the damn search engine) indicate that Blue Cross is the way to go: http://www.bupathailand.com/
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 6:52 pm on Sep. 6, 2004
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jack attack
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Ignorami,
At the risk of sounding like a new age beatnik guru (which is turning out to be a very good profession for many people) do a quick check of the reasons you are leaving and make a list of what you are looking for in Thailand.
It would be terrible to get here and find that you suddenly have a recurrence of those feelings you thought were left behind.
Thailand is a great place but often it can be hard work for falangs. No place is eternal paradise or non stop vacation. Right now it rains everyday in LOS and that gets boring in a hurry.
Starting anew and leaving the past behind is always a case of the grass being greener. Life's miseries don't get checked at the border or if they do, they have a better visa system to catch up.
Just wanted to offer a different perspective to the move. If you go for it, Godspeed! (Do you think I could start a business like Dr. Phil?)
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 7:34 am on Sep. 7, 2004
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CiaoCiao
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Forget House by the Pond. When I saw their promo I thought, "Hey this looks like a neat, romantic, quiet little place to stay, in the midst of all the chaos." Fortunately I checked it out first and found that it is a dark, run-down, has-been from yesteryear - not at all like their ad.
Might make a good movie set, like the Atlantic, for a low budget horror flick.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:11 am on Sep. 7, 2004
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MaximusNaughtinus
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Ignorami, well as for somewhere to stay and doing the search. By far the best thing to do is your own research. You can call a couple of the realestate agents in the Bkk Post and use them to take you around and show you exactly what they have, stress to them the area and exactly what you are looking for, budget etc. They will then get back to you with a list and arrange a day to take you around, their car, your time, no problem. Then, if you see something you like, great, if not, it has cost you nothing, but you have seen a lot and got some valuable info. Anything you see you like but is to expensive, there is no harm in putting in an offer for what you are happy to pay, nobody loses. Remember that real estate agents for rentals get paid by commission, usually the first month is paid completely to them, so they will want to keep it high, but do not be embarrassed or afraid to offer low, as I said, you do not lose anything, but you just may win.
As for doing your own research, the absolute best way is to hire a motorbike taxi guy for the day. I arranged this once for 500baht and told him I wanted to go up and down every soi along Sukhumvit from the lower sois, up to around Soi 50 or so. Then just casually ride up and down slowly checking all the apartments you like the look of, get there numbers, check availability, have a look at the ones you can as you go. Buy the driver lunch and a few drinks and even throw in a 80 baht bottle of whiskey from the 7/11, for consumption after the job is done of course. That is the best way to find a place in the area that you like, also the cheapest, this way you will find the realistic priced apartments, not just the farang priced ones.
As for your own furniture, it will be hard to get a place that has furniture for you to start with and then get the owner to remove stuff as you don’t need it. They usually are either furnished or not and most are. Owners do not want the hassle of having to store their furniture elsewhere if you don’t want it. The other option is for a place with storage and you just jam it all in there as you require.
The best place to go for your own furniture and great stuff, is Chiang Mai.
As for bank, where is ‘HERE’ if you get good interest rates, leave it there, in fact even if you don’t, leave it there, interest rates are poor here. Only bring enough with you that you will need for immediate setup and any visa requirements for income etc.
Make sure that your accounts are in order in your home country before you leave. For example, make sure you can get ATM cards mailed to you anywhere if you should lose yours or it becomes defaulty. Or make sure your bank address is somewhere with friends or relatives that will forward it onto you. Also make sure the PIN number stays the same, otherwise you are rooted. Check that the bank and ATM is usable overseas and you can withdraw anywhere, check the fees for withdrawals, overseas charges etc. I have been living here 2 years, I have an account here, but I never use it, I use an ATM card for withdrawals from my home country. I also time withdrawals for the best use of exchange rates and always withdraw the maximum amount each time, this reduces the frequency of ATN withdrawal fees with your home bank.
You can open a savings passbook account with the Bangkok Bank without a work permit, just an address and a passport and use it to put your money in if you wish, but a in house safe would be better.
You also need to keep enough cash here that will see you through an emergency, for example, how long will it take to get your new ATM card sent if you need it, hospital. It is near impossible dealing with banks here unless you speak thai and are very patient.
If your working over the net, you will not need a permit, if anyone says you do, tell them to pull their head in. Tax issues will be with your home country, not here unless perhaps you change when and how you are paid for this income.
Health insurance is same same anywhere, I don’t know what you are used to paying, can you keep your current insurance for overseas. If not, I have found most funds here are a little more expensive than my one back home was. It all depends on what coverage you want. Don’t forget that if you come here and get new insurance, you will have to go through the 12 months of waiting for prevailing conditions and a short waiting period which varies between companies. I have recently joined a fund here which seems on the outset very good, but they all have there drawbacks and it only covers some things. So you have to make the enquiries and choose for yourself. The Bangkok Post has a lot of ads from time to time for health companies. The other way is to go to the 2 or 3 main hospitals and get their list of approved insurance companies, then call them and get their emails and do the work from home before you move here.
Property insurance is the same, but you wont need it unless you buy, if you are renting, content insurance may be applicable, up to you.
Visas depend on your own circumstances, your situation, what your age is etc, so more info is required for this, but there are plenty of websites around and plenty of info in here, btf, to help with that one. Again, it is not straight forward, this is Thailand, nothing is, just do what you have to to get what you need to.
Hoep that helps a little.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:21 am on Sep. 7, 2004
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ignorami
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Dear all,
the respons to my post was overwhelming. To say the least. Each and everyone of you have helped me a lot on the way to my goal. Perhaps one day I will be able to do the same for someone. Hope so.
I have had a busy day contacting real estate brokers, auctioneers and so on. Amazingly enough everything
seems to fall into place. Bound to be a setback within short. Hmm. Or perhaps this is the first major life decision of mine that will actually work out. The only thing that is a bit uncertain is how the company I work for will react. Doh! Moving abroad! But? What? How?
The game has begun and great minds are at work.
Mr Alan: Thank you for bringing the 50 year aspect
to my attention. As a matter of fact I turn 50 fairly soon.
And I would like to spend that day in Thailand. With a retirement visa of sorts.
BigDUSA: Good info? Excellent I would say. Spent hours already searching the forums and will most likely spend endless hours to come.
TJ: Similar stunt *smiles*. Studying the Thai language. I would like to do that as well. But I am the guy that sits at the Bkk airport enjoying the voice that announces arrivals/departures. Poetry to me! Learning the Thai language presents some kind of threshold to me. Silly, I know, but there it is.
Since we're aiming at doing the same stunt it would be nice to hear from you now and then. Posting here perhaps?
Banking and Blue Cross info appreciated of course.
jack attack: you are definitely Dr. Phil material!
I can assure you that I have gone through all options available to me, or at least the ones I imagine are there, and if all goes terribly wrong I always have a backdoor, a retreat plan of sorts available. Life miseries at the border. Hmm. Food for thoughts. Will be with me for ever. But easier to handle with a smile, eh?  =
CiaoCiao: Ha! How can it be that you quote more or less exactly my thoughts seeing their add? Then perhaps a run-down, has-been from yesteryear (love that) is just me?
MaximusNaughtinus: What can I say? You filled in more blanks that I could ever hope for. And took your time doing so. Helps a little? Helped more than you might know.
To all of you that have contributed in making my journey so much smoother, thank you. You are great.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:15 pm on Sep. 7, 2004
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scobie
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If you're turning 50 soon, you're laughing. The retirement visa requirements are incredibly lax.
As for deciding whether to do it or not, just do it. Sure it will be different. Sure you might regret it some days. But the one thing you never regret on your death bed is going out of our comfort zones.
The worst that can happen is you hate it and leave after a few months.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I arrive on 16 October. I can't wait.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 11:15 pm on Sep. 7, 2004
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CheshireCat
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Have been most of the last 2 or 3 years in Bkk and never been bored. Decided I might stay permanently and co-incidentally arriving 2 days after Scobie.
Personally am really looking forward to the move. Have always wanted to kick my feet up at an early-ish age (36) and thought no time like now. really do feel more at home in Bkk than where I live and it's literally half a day home if I feel the need for a few weeks or so.
My advice, you don't know until you try. I thought I might change my mind after so long but in fact it's the complete opposite.
I bank in Ireland and have kept my account. They're cool with it. Can use an ATM same as at home and can cash advance on credit card if you want a few quick bahts.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:15 am on Sep. 14, 2004
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