Thoughts about returning to Southeast Asia

[jerryrigged]

Well, as I've decided to be innoculated with the Sinovac vaccine in Mexico later next year, Southeast Asia will no longer be an "unreachable" destination for me in life. The question is now how do I go about doing that? They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well every time I went to Thailand in the past I parked myself in Bangkok and lazily moved around all of the places that start with "Koh" and the big four cities in Isan. Bars and nightlife were an important part of my stays in Thailand during my first 2 years visiting Thailand. After that, I was mostly there for the Thai Cupid dating scene and low cost of living. I like living in hotels personally, as I find them accommodating and convenient for a person who doesnt "settle" well for very long. However, I'm no longer involved in night life, and really, I've moved on from Thai Cupid to meeting women by greeting them and speaking Thai. With a grim outlook for the Thai baht, the exchange rate just might make Thailand a good choice for me again. Or, if not, perhaps Cambodia. One thing I think I will do is park myself in a nice hotel in Korat. There are beautiful women working in the Big C and in the mall and market. I am definitely not getting married again, but I would like to find a woman with a family background in farming (easy to do), and willingly fund their farming operations, just to have a convenient place to retire, enjoy the SEA farm lifestyle, and just chill. I couldn't care less if Soi Cowboy never sees the light of day again. The farm life is where it is at.

[Yohan]

..... With a grim outlook for the Thai baht, the exchange rate just might make Thailand a good choice for me again. Or, if not, perhaps Cambodia. One thing I think I will do is park myself in a nice hotel in Korat.

To consider to move on to Nakhon Ratchasima after arrival in Bangkok is a good choice I think. The city and area around are not underpopulated (totally more than 400.000 people) and all what you need, like some kind of food for foreigners, a large shopping mall, medical assistance, immigration office, daily connection straight to Bangkok etc.

Why not? At this moment however Thailand is pretty difficult to enter without paying various expensive requirements like multiple testing/quarantine and I guess you will not be able at this moment to get more than a 2 months tourist visa.

If this is not enough for you expect additional payments like for full health insurance (and not only for covid19 insurance) and various other requirements like bank deposit etc.

About quarantine, there is no approved quarantine hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima I think, you might have to stay in Bangkok, but quarantine might become soon obsolete or at least will be shorter than 14 days, maybe 10 or only 7 days. Maybe not required past 1st November 2021, but nothing is really decided.

[jerryrigged]

..... With a grim outlook for the Thai baht, the exchange rate just might make Thailand a good choice for me again. Or, if not, perhaps Cambodia. One thing I think I will do is park myself in a nice hotel in Korat.

To consider to move on to Nakhon Ratchasima after arrival in Bangkok is a good choice I think. The city and area around are not underpopulated (totally more than 400.000 people) and all what you need, like some kind of food for foreigners, a large shopping mall, medical assistance, immigration office, daily connection straight to Bangkok etc.

Why not? At this moment however Thailand is pretty difficult to enter without paying various expensive requirements like multiple testing/quarantine and I guess you will not be able at this moment to get more than a 2 months tourist visa.

If this is not enough for you expect additional payments like for full health insurance (and not only for covid19 insurance) and various other requirements like bank deposit etc.

About quarantine, there is no approved quarantine hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima I think, you might have to stay in Bangkok, but quarantine might become soon obsolete or at least will be shorter than 14 days, maybe 10 or only 7 days. Maybe not required past 1st November 2021, but nothing is really decided.

'
Thanks for this. I don't think that I will need to worry about much. One thing I have learned from all of my years in Thailand is not to plan for anything. The only thing I will be planning for is my visa, which I'm going to let the law firm I normally allow handle my affairs take care of for me there in Bangkok. Apparently retirement visas are still being done, and thats what I guess I will have at the end. I may start with a special tourist visa or even a medical visa, but at the end, it will be retirement. I may need to go in through Phuket, or some other sandbox, but really, whatever. Eventually I will make my way to Bangkok. Eventually I will make my way to Korat. These things take time. I have an investment I'm working on here right now thats going to ride out at least another year. The key importance for me is just not to get this sinovac too soon, too. Because they may say it has "lost its effectiveness" after x amount of months. So I'll want to vaccinate soon before heading out to Thailand, and maybe even head out to Thailand through Mexico City -> Doha, etc. I understand the cost for my initial entry maybe high, but I intend to stay for the indefinite future, so it is really no problem. I am sure that Thailand will have totally different rules a year out from now. And I think things will become easier, not more difficult, for people who have had Sinovac to travel there. I love Esan in general. I love picking up Lao and just the easy going, sweet nature of most of the people there. I love Udon Thani the most of all but Udon is simply too small to avoid my ex in. So I will need to go to Korat or Ubon or some place else this time. Esan is also a great place to meet REAL Lao girls since they often come down for the day to work....

[Yohan]

..... The only thing I will be planning for is my visa

About visa, I can only comment how are the requirements for me (Japan, Osaka Thai Consulate) but maybe it is informative for you too.

See English pages below/check out for yourself.

http://www.thaiconsulate.jp/en/visa-top/

and also the Thai Embassy in Tokyo
http://site.thaiembassy.jp/en/visa/type/

What is requred is exactly listed for any kind of visa available in Japan (for Japanese and permanent resident like myself)

You also have to consider now the CoE (Certificate of Entry) another hassle....and quarantine, covid-19 insurance, (costs money...)

About myself, it is easy, next trip will be merely a tourist visa (and not retirement visa multiple entry as during the last years)
2 months is OK for me, there are regular flights Japan/Thailand, not a long distance 5 hours or so, return fare not over USD 400,-

To prove accommodation in Thailand is easy for me as I have my condo-unit in Pattaya, with land-title and only my name in it.
Financial requirements are also easy for me to prove, as I receive a monthly EU-government related good retirement allowance.

About retirement visa, the problem for me is only about Thai local health insurance, it is very expensive, because I am now 69 years old. While I have full health cover in Japan for life, it covers only tourist stay while overseas for 2 months, same with my credit card travel insurance.

[jerryrigged]

..... The only thing I will be planning for is my visa

About visa, I can only comment how are the requirements for me (Japan, Osaka Thai Consulate) but maybe it is informative for you too.

See English pages below/check out for yourself.

http://www.thaiconsulate.jp/en/visa-top/

and also the Thai Embassy in Tokyo
http://site.thaiembassy.jp/en/visa/type/

What is requred is exactly listed for any kind of visa available in Japan (for Japanese and permanent resident like myself)

You also have to consider now the CoE (Certificate of Entry) another hassle....and quarantine, covid-19 insurance, (costs money...)

About myself, it is easy, next trip will be merely a tourist visa (and not retirement visa multiple entry as during the last years)
2 months is OK for me, there are regular flights Japan/Thailand, not a long distance 5 hours or so, return fare not over USD 400,-

To prove accommodation in Thailand is easy for me as I have my condo-unit in Pattaya, with land-title and only my name in it.
Financial requirements are also easy for me to prove, as I receive a monthly EU-government related good retirement allowance.

About retirement visa, the problem for me is only about Thai local health insurance, it is very expensive, because I am now 69 years old. While I have full health cover in Japan for life, it covers only tourist stay while overseas for 2 months, same with my credit card travel insurance.

Yeah this is my first real retirement visa there. I used to just do 60 day tourist visas and do extensions and border runs in the day. Then I was briefly there on a marriage visa.. This time, I was thinking it might be easier to enter on another visa and then "switch" to retirement once there. But I'll just let my lawyer know what my plans are and I'm sure he'll know what is best for me at that time. Of course, I intend to stay single. Either way, it will just be nice to return to my old standard of living I was used to having there. I understand that a lot will be changed, but out in the farms, its not like that matters much. Time stands still on those farms. They instituted the health insurance requirement while I was there last time. I remember my insurance seemed to "qualify" even used in Thailand. The difficulty was obtaining the documents proving like how much I am insured for, and so on. That had to be translated into Thai and legalised at the US embassy, also, of course, probably. Yeah I'm no good at this stuff. I hope it is still good enough, and if its not, I'll just buy some insurance there. Either way I'll be living a lot better and a lot cheaper than I am here.

[Yohan]

@jerryrigged

https://www.thethailandlife.com/retirem ... ance-guide

I think there might be some useful information in this blog. Link above.

[jerryrigged]

@jerryrigged

https://www.thethailandlife.com/retirem ... ance-guide

I think there might be some useful information in this blog. Link above.

I appreciate this. It's "an avoidable expense" if not for the rules, but not totally unaffordable for me at all either when you consider I might spend 15-20k baht per month for my place tops. You can't get parking garage spot in some parts of boston for that.