I think i've found my new home! (Thailand)

[tamdrin12]

Yup,
Been here in Northern Thailand for about a year now and absolutely love the place. In Chiang Mai there is everything you need in terms of material conveniences, food, shopping malls, international airport, massage, etc but just 10 minutes from my apartment I can be in beautiful mountains with pristine fresh air. The weather is not really that warm here either. There are three seasons, hot, rainy, and "winter". Winter is actually the nicest season but I am actually enjoying the rainy season. The hot season only lasts for about 2 months in May and June.

I went through a bunch of girls here. Using Thai friendly it was very easy to meet girls, and honestly some will put out on the first day you meet them. If it gets boring here in Chiang Mai I can easily fly to the south and I had a great time at Koi Samui. I am also looking forward to checking out Issan, the northeastern province famed for producing a lot of the bar girls in BKK and Pattaya.

I lived in Taiwan before and taught English for a year, and let me tell you I like Thailand 1000% better than Taiwan. Taiwan is so bland and dull in every respect compared to Thailand. The only reason to be there is if you wanted to learn Chinese.

In addition to teaching English I started a little online store for selling items from here in Thailand. Check it out! And I would be happy to fulfill any requests.

http://thailand-treasures.myshopify.com/collections/all

Peace!

[Yohan]

Nice to hear from you and that you found a comfortable place in Thailand.

Thailand is functioning fairly good in most parts of the country, it's also safe and moderate in pricing with a comfortable climate.
Basically all what you need for your daily life is available.

For me and family Thailand remains our second home, for vacation and later on for retirement, we like it in the Pattaya area and our condominium unit is a good place to stay, also airport connection/flight connection is very convenient, with airport bus near to our home in Jomtien and several flights daily straight to Tokyo/Haneda near our house in Southern Tokyo.

[tamdrin12]

Thanks for your post Yohan.

The weather is even better in Chiang Mai than it is in Pattaya.. Not so hot up here, plus I have air conditioning in my classroom. Even now I don't need air conditioning in my room it is fine with a fan.

You are right Thailand is comfortable and has everything you need. I haven't been to the Philippines but here certainly sounds much better in terms of food and development of the country.

I have a bit of a different perspective, because I have got to meet some pretty cool people by teaching English at a government school here. The boss of my school invited me for hookers on a school trip at his expense, anyway I didn't end up going on that trip but its still pretty funny. Pattaya has conveniences but so does Chiang Mai. Personally I don't want to live fulltime at the sex tourist capital of the world. But I know there is other stuff around there. I think Phuket would be more my style. I still want to visit Krabi, Phuket, Ko Chang, Hua Hin, and some of the other Islands.

How much time do you spend in Thailand a year?

Take Care

[drronnie]

Thailand is a nice place to live. Chiang Rai is even better than Chiang Mai because it's not so big. I enjoy pretty much the climate and there is lot of activities going on. One never gets bored in Thailand and in the bottom line I am glad I moved here. I may have not been lucky in the live life but does rreally matter at this point. Enjoy the good food and indulge in activities and traveling. That's why it Happier Abroad

[Yohan]

Thanks for your post Yohan.
.....
Personally I don't want to live fulltime at the sex tourist capital of the world. But I know there is other stuff around there. I think Phuket would be more my style. I still want to visit Krabi, Phuket, Ko Chang, Hua Hin, and some of the other Islands.

How much time do you spend in Thailand a year?

Take Care

We spend now only about 6 to 8 weeks per year in our second home in Pattaya, this will change after my retirement in 2017, we expect to be there about 3 months during winter time and 2 months during summer time.

I personally find Phuket not even worth a visit, it's a rip off, full with cheaters and whores, unfriendly police and also location is not very much convenient. Everything is dispersed there on hills, taxis a rip-off.

Krabi area is much better.

Long time ago I spent most time in Songkhla, in Southern Thailand, but it is somewhat dangerous now.

I found Chumphon a good place, not so far down to South,
http://www.chumphoncabanaresort.com/
http://chumphon.sawadee.com/beaches.html

Keep in mind, if going to the South, it is really very useful, if you rent a car, public transport can be a problem with long waiting time.
You miss a lot of sightseeing and waste a lot of time if you do not drive your own car. Distances can be long, you cannot do this with a small Thai motorcycle.
If you don't like the place, just move on by car, in my case Phuket, not only because of the way they do business there, but also because all is rather dispersed in that area and I had bad weather experience too.

If you have your own transportation and like silence, diving etc.
http://thailand.sawadee.com/suratthani/

http://www.khanomgoldenbeach.com/location.php
Khanom Beach, but you nust drive yourself!
http://www.guidetothailand.com/beaches- ... ch-nst.php

You can see Koh Samui from there, it's a ferry nearby, no need however to move over to Koh Samui!

[tamdrin12]

Hey Yohan,
I am headed to Krabi with my gf in a few days. Seems like a nice place to spend a week. Gets better reviews than Phuket, although I can't believe Phuket is worse than Pattaya. It is a more laid back atmosphere, which will be good for me just chill on the beach and do some work on the computer. Also a cool temple I want to visit up there and do some photography as well This will be her first time flying ever so she is pretty excited . I decided to change my job because the boss has turned into an unreasonable prick and the school is very mismanaged. They aren't budging about my request for a raise. Not sure whats gonna happen after this.

Wish me luck,
and take care.

[pete98146]

Thanks for your post Yohan.
.....
Personally I don't want to live fulltime at the sex tourist capital of the world. But I know there is other stuff around there. I think Phuket would be more my style. I still want to visit Krabi, Phuket, Ko Chang, Hua Hin, and some of the other Islands.

How much time do you spend in Thailand a year?

Take Care

We spend now only about 6 to 8 weeks per year in our second home in Pattaya, this will change after my retirement in 2017, we expect to be there about 3 months during winter time and 2 months during summer time.

I personally find Phuket not even worth a visit, it's a rip off, full with cheaters and whores, unfriendly police and also location is not very much convenient. Everything is dispersed there on hills, taxis a rip-off.

Krabi area is much better.

Long time ago I spent most time in Songkhla, in Southern Thailand, but it is somewhat dangerous now.

I found Chumphon a good place, not so far down to South,
http://www.chumphoncabanaresort.com/
http://chumphon.sawadee.com/beaches.html

Keep in mind, if going to the South, it is really very useful, if you rent a car, public transport can be a problem with long waiting time.
You miss a lot of sightseeing and waste a lot of time if you do not drive your own car. Distances can be long, you cannot do this with a small Thai motorcycle.
If you don't like the place, just move on by car, in my case Phuket, not only because of the way they do business there, but also because all is rather dispersed in that area and I had bad weather experience too.

If you have your own transportation and like silence, diving etc.
http://thailand.sawadee.com/suratthani/

http://www.khanomgoldenbeach.com/location.php
Khanom Beach, but you nust drive yourself!
http://www.guidetothailand.com/beaches- ... ch-nst.php

You can see Koh Samui from there, it's a ferry nearby, no need however to move over to Koh Samui!

JC at RetireCheapAsia.com did these two vids on Chumphon. As always, he goes into great detail including costs of long term rentals and food:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAWN9HhJ1d4

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bM_0FEG1g0

[Yohan]

Hey Yohan,
..... I can't believe Phuket is worse than Pattaya...

Well, this is more or less a question about personal opinion, everybody thinks differently about that.

I think, Pattaya is much better than Phuket, Pattaya is cheaper and it's a wide area - if you don't want to be with nightlife and do not want to stay in the city center you can easily escape from there with cheap and frequent public transport to a silent place not far away.

Pattaya is very convenient to Bangkok International Airport, while Phuket is still far from Bangkok.

If you don't like it in Pattaya out of whatever reason, you can transfer to nearby cities like Sri Ratcha or Sattathip. There are hotels everywhere.

Pattaya is not an ordinary city of course, it is a holiday spot, but nearby cities are like any other Thai city, for example Rayong etc.

The main problem I found in Phuket is that everything is dispersed and all is located on hills, with very unreasonable transport between and not cheap at all taxi services, I did not find it to be a friendly place. Phuket is a rather irresponsible holiday spot and into cheating people, and of course also into offering far overpriced property.

Krabi is much smaller but I found it to be a good place with nice scenery nearby, quite different from Phuket.

Have a nice trip,

Yohan

[tamdrin12]

Hey Yohan,
This teaching English gig has turned out to be not too bad. In addition to not having to work very hard, on my meager salary of 900 a month I have managed to do a lot. I have had some outside help, gifts from relatives, some money coming from my translation work, and some online sales.. But not a ton. Within the last 3 weeks I managed to travel to Malaysia and now I am going to take my girlfriend on a week trip to Krabi. She is excited as it will be her first time in an airplane . Its amazing what you can do in Thailand on very little money, once you get established here and know how to budget.

For example I spent now only $3500 baht per month on the rent for my room. I own a second hand motorbike so I only have to pay for gas for that. My only other real expense is food and I can find a satisfying meal for 30 baht, although I do most of the time spend considerably more.

Its really nice not having this huge economic burden over your head, with bills and endless expenses for things that don't even make you happy. I'm sure its my personality type but I much prefer the free life of a somewhat minimalist, and using the money to travel and gain new experiences.

Cheers,
S