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Photo: Description What's On This Page? |
Thailand - Retiring in ThailandThe concept of retirement nowadays is very different to how it was perceived in previous generations. No longer does retirement mean working to the statutory government retirement age and then relocating to Bournemouth to sit on a freezing beachfront wrapped up in blankets. People are generally living longer and giving up full-time employment at an earlier age. In good health, and with their minds still alert, there are a lot more options in life now than there were, for example, for my grandparents generation. The world (if you will forgive the cliche) has also become a lot smaller in the last 30 years. Not only is it possible to travel around the globe very cheaply but the Internet allows us to carry out lots of day-to-day tasks transparently from wherever we are in the world. As developing countries continue to develop, this is probably a Golden Age for many Westerners of a certain age who want to enjoy the rest of their lives elsewhere in the world. Thirty years ago it was difficult to do, and in another 30 years time - when the cost of living differentials between developed and developing countries in narrower - Westerners will not have the financial advantage they have now. Some of what I have written on this page is replicated on other pages. This page was written purely for people considering retiring in Thailand. If you are such a person, I would suggest having a quick scan below and then - if you want to find out more - taking a look at my Site Map for any other topics that may interest you. All monetary values are given in Thai baht. To work out how much they are in your own currency, you can use the XE - Universal Currency Converter.
Last updated: 14th May 2008 Nowhere is perfect but Thailand comes quite close and provides almost the best of all worlds. If you want to experience vast expanses of classic Southeast Asian rice fields, Thailand has them - lots of them. If you want tropical beaches and island, no problem. If you want Western standard living and Western style shops and restaurants, there are plenty. You can live a life as simple or complicated as you want, but even if you opt for a simple life you will still have access to things in life that many Westerners regard as essential. Medical care is very good, ATMs are abundant, Internet access is widely available, and Western food is available. Many Thais speak English and written English is fairly widespread except in rural areas. Culture shock can be a big problem but in many parts of Thailand where there are lots of foreigners, it is hardly noticeable that they are in a foreign country. The Thais are a charming and friendly race of people who are very welcoming to foreigners. The friendliness may not always be as sincere as it appears to be at first but friendly smiles and a culture of non-confrontation make for a pleasant atmosphere. Without beating around the bush, Thailand is also a popular country with single males from other countries for the ease by which they can meet long term partners or just have casual sex. The country is home both to many women from poor, rural backgrounds who are looking for a foreign husband primarily to support them and their families; and also to huge numbers of prostitutes. From what I can make out, the male sex drive appears to remain undiminished right up until death but in many Western countries, older men can't do much about satisfying their natural desires. I apologise if this has offended anyone but it is a fact.
Last updated: 14th May 2008 This is a very personal choice. It is not unusual for Thailand expats to tell me that where they live is the 'best' place in the country. That may be the case for them but not for everyone. Asking someone else where you should live is like asking someone else what you should eat for lunch. It depends on your preferences and what is important for you. I will not, therefore, provide a list of locations but will instead provide a few of my own thoughts on the subject. There are so many factors involved that I would never presume to tell someone else where they should live, neither do I take kindly to people telling me where I should or shouldn't live in Thailand. I am not them and they are not me. Do you have a dream about the kind of environment you want to live in? My dream has more to do with mountains and rice fields than bustling streets, and - for me personally - islands and beaches come very bottom of the list. I realise though, that I am an exception. Thailand can offer all of these environments but which one is important to you? You also need to be honest about how easily you find it to adapt to new countries and new environments. Do you have what it takes to learn to get by in a new language? Would you be happy in an environment where you are effectively deaf, mute, and illiterate - not being able to talk to anyone, and not being able to understand anything that is said to you or written down? Do you want to be surrounded by Thai people in Thailand, or exist in the artificial bubble of an expat community? Be honest about your true motivations for wanting to live in Thailand. Do you really want to experience Thailand or do you want things to be as similar to home as possible but, additionally, with the obvious attractions that Thailand can offer? Honesty is what it is all about. It's perfectly OK to want different things but if you want Patong don't go to live in Phattalung because the difference is night and day. How are your finances? One of the major benefits of retiring in Thailand - if not the major benefit - is the low cost of living. However, this really only applies to areas where there are more Thais and there is a potential conflict with the point I made previously. If you need to live in a fancy Bangkok condo or Phuket villa, and your taste in food is more suited to Keith Floyd's restaurant in Patong rather than the stall selling fried rice for Bt30, living in Thailand isn't going to be particularly cheap. Thailand is a wonderful country for people with enough money for their needs and desires but it can be a pretty miserably place if you want a Mercedes lifestyle and can only afford to run a Proton. The choice of where to live may be easier for people who come to live in Thailand to enjoy a hobby. Scuba divers will obviously go to the best places to scuba dive and golfers will find more golf courses in certain areas than others. The great thing about Thailand is that with so much cheap accommodation available to rent, there is no need to make an immediate commitment. My advice - if you aren't sure - would be to travel around for a while to find where is best for you personally.
Last updated: 15th May 2008 Up until 2006, it was possible to effectively emigrate to Thailand without having to submit a single piece of paper or to have any checks done. It sounds unbelievable, but it is true. A foreigner could arrive in the country and get a no-questions-asked 30 day stamp to stay for the purpose of tourism. This was as a result of the Thais wanting to make it easy and convenient for genuine tourists to enjoy their country. There was one drawback though; a little loophole whereby no limit was placed on how many times foreigners could obtain back-to-back 30 day stamps. It goes without saying, that the system was abused by many. When their 30 day stamp was about to expire, they would leave via the nearest border, return immediately and get another free 30 day stay. Some foreigners lived in Thailand that way for 30 years and a huge industry sprang up organising so-called 'border runs'. The only downside was that passports got filled up very quickly and needed to be replaced often, but it was all perfectly legal. As you can imagine, this ability to be able to live in an easygoing country almost anonymously appealed to a lot of the wrong kind of people and Thailand started to become a popular refuge for all sorts of undesirable foreigners. It wasn't unusual for these people to find work as English teachers even though they weren't qualified and may have had criminal records, including previous convictions for child abuse. In 2006, however, there was one story too many about yet another child abuser who had been discovered in Thailand teaching English and the net came down. I suspect that as well as Thailand wanting to clean things up, the Thais had probably been subjected to a lot of pressure from the international community to act against the perverts. The first major change was that a limit of three back-to-back 30 day stamps was introduced. Later, changes were made to the tourist visa process whereby tourists were asked to show details of hotel reservations and onward flights. In a nutshell, the door was still very much open to genuine tourists but closed to people pretending to be tourists who were living permanently in Thailand. Changes were also made tightening the processes for other types of visa application. The obvious choice for a person wishing to retire in Thailand is a non-immigration category O-A retirement visa. The basic requirements are actually straightforward:
The Thai Visa forums are a good source of information for current visa information if you can get past the bitter and twisted comments from disaffected farangs who hang out there. A retirement visa isn't the only option to 'retire' in Thailand though, depending on how you define retire. Completely off the wall, you could ordain as a Buddhist monk. Not so off the wall, you could enrol as a student to learn Thai and get an education visa. If travel around Southeast Asia is going to be a part of your retirement and you only plan on spending half your time in Thailand, you can stay that amount of time just on 30 day stamps. If you take a Thai wife, you can then apply for a non-immigrant O marriage visa. The financial requirements for this kind of visa are lower than for a retirement visa but choosing the wrong girl to marry could be a very big drain on your finances. There used to be a few other options, such as buying a condominium for Bt3 million or more and then being entitled to an investment visa, or buying a Thailand Elite card which gave the holder special visa privileges, but I don't believe these exist any longer. The bottom line is that there are a number of options open and some will be more suitable than others based on an individual's personal circumstances.
Last updated: 14th May 2008 Thailand is a hot tropical country. As most people get older, their tolerance for cold weather decreases so this is a good thing. There are times when it can get uncomfortably hot but it is easier to cool down in hot weather than it is to get warm in cold weather. The southern region has just two seasons: hot and dry, and hot and wet. At no time of the year does it cool down enough to warrant the use of any warm clothing. Northern regions have three seasons: hot, wet and cool. The cool season can actually mean nighttime temperatures of 0°C with very pleasant daytime temperatures, but the hot season in these regions gets hotter than the south and can be quite oppressive. In the wet season, expect sudden, frequent and torrential downpours that can cause flooding and flash-flooding.
Last updated: 15th May 2008 After getting a visa, the least of your worries in Thailand is finding somewhere to stay. I am told that it is a nightmare trying to find a place in India these days because supply just doesn't meet demand and, when you do find a place, rent is very expensive plus you have to pay a huge deposit. It is the other way in Thailand. There is an abundance of cheap and comfortable places to rent all over the country. Prices are higher in Bangkok and those locations where there are lots of Westerners, such as Pattaya, Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai but even in those places there will be cheap places available. For some things, Thailand has a dual pricing policy where foreigners are charged more than locals but this doesn't apply to rented accommodation. What you should realise though is that some places target foreigners because of their ability to pay higher rents. These places aren't interested in poor locals and are the ones most likely to have fancy web sites. Any place that has a web site is bad news. It means that their target customer is foreign and not Thai, and therefore it means their prices are higher than can be afforded by local Thais. Don't panic about finding a place to stay and don't try to arrange this before you arrive. Just turn up, check into a hotel for a few days (hotel rates are also cheap in Thailand), put on your most comfortable walking shoes, and hit the streets. As a rough guide, Bt2,500 in the provinces will find you a basic room and Bt6,000 will find you a very nice room. There will be small, additional charges for water and electricity based on usage. Some rooms come with a TV, fridge, and Internet access while others can offer these for a small charge. If you are wealthy and want to live in luxury in the provinces, the problem you may have is finding somewhere suitable. This won't be a problem in Bangkok or other tourist areas. What you will never have is the problem of finding somewhere cheap enough.
Last updated: 15th May 2007 On the basis that people looking to retire - or semi-retire - in Thailand will likely be over the age of 40, healthcare is an important consideration. Apart from age-related conditions, there are lots of physical hazards in Thailand. In a Western country there might not be much chance of falling down an uncovered manhole cover, being bitten by a venomous snake, or being run down by a teenage motorcyclist who ignores red lights, but that is not the case in Thailand. Thai roads are extremely dangerous. In addition, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other nasty micro-organisms thrive in the hot and humid conditions. Some years ago, well known Thai pop singer drove his car into a canal where he contracted a particularly nasty fungal infection which killed him a couple of years later. I almost lost an eye due to a fungal infection and even though I kept my eye, the cornea is permanently scarred now giving me poor vision. The public health system is excellent. Not only are there lots of hospitals, but lots of private clinics too. Pharmacies in Thailand can sell lots of drugs over the counter that are normally only prescribed by doctors in Western countries. For minor ailments, the drugs and care provided at pharmacies, clinics, and public hospitals needn't necessarily be expensive. Thailand also has many world-class private hospitals and encourages 'health tourism'. The doctors and staff can speak English and the hospitals have all the latest equipment. Most Thai doctors have worked or trained abroad and can up to date with industry developments. Although cheaper than hospitals in Western countries, a lengthy stay at a private hospital in Thailand will still result in you being presented with quite a hefty bill. If you need major surgery or expensive chemotherapy or something, the bill could be significant. If this is a concern, the obvious option is some kind of an insurance policy, and there are international companies operating in Thailand which provide such cover. I have a policy with Axa which works very well and enables me to get the best healthcare at the best hospitals (with the prettiest nurses). Premiums are based on age (normally in five year bands) and the amount of in-patient and out-patient cover you require. For the Axa policy I referred to above, the maximum age at which you can apply is 59 and the policy can subsequently be renewed until age 65 but after that the company won't insure you.
Last updated: 15th May 2008 For older people, or those with severe medical problems, who cannot take care of themselves, there are different alternatives in Thailand. Some men simply take a wife who is willing to help them. These are normally women from the lowest social backgrounds in Thailand; they normally have a fair amount of 'history'; and they are not normally young or attractive. However, will an 80 year-old man really care about any of this if all he needs is someone to change his adult diapers? I have met and spoken with such men. They may not have the most romantic marriages that can be imagined, but they have something that works for them and works for their wives. The women get money to send back home to their families and they will probably inherit their husband's estate when he dies. In Thailand, a country that still has an enormous population of poor rural people, there is no shortage of such women - poor, unmarried, and past their prime - who would be happy to enter into such an arrangement. A rich, old man could even get a young, attractive, poor girl but he should be careful if he has any heart problems. On a more professional basis, care homes are springing up all over Thailand specifically to take care of ageing foreigners with degenerative diseases. This report by The Nation describes a facility in Chiang Mai that has been set up specifically to take care of Europeans suffering from Alzheimer's. A woman once got in touch with me who works for an organisation in the UK that takes care of the needs of thalidomide victims. One of the men she looked after had relocated to Thailand. Facilities for the physically handicapped are very poor in Thailand, generally speaking, but it is always possible for a foreign man to find a Thai girl to be his right hand.
Last updated: 15th May 2008 For financial or other reasons, you may wish to work in Thailand. What this means, effectively, for the vast majority of foreigners working in Thailand is teaching English. I have covered this subject elsewhere but will add a few key points here. To work legally in Thailand requires the foreign employee to be in possession of a valid work permit. A work permit does not act as a general licence to do any kind of work anywhere. It is very specific and entitles the employee to perform a specific kind of work at a specific location. The work permit can be amended and I have had additional locations added to mine to allow me to teach English at various places legally. You need a work permit to work in Thailand and a visa to stay in Thailand. There is a very clear distinction and the two things are handled by different government agencies. However, I still see the term 'Work Visa' used occasionally which indicates that some people do not understand this. There is no such thing as a 'Work Visa'. A work permit will not be issued to someone with a retirement visa. These visas - as the name implies - are granted for people to retire, not work. If you wish to obtain a work permit and work legally in Thailand, you will need to get another type of visa. This can be a non-B business visa or a non-O dependency visa if you have a Thai spouse and/or children. You should also be aware that because of all the problems in the past with foreign paedophiles living 'under the radar' in Thailand and teaching English to support their lifestyles, the Thai government is introducing all kinds of additional requirements for those wanting to teach English in the Kingdom. That's the official line, anyway. Unofficially, thousands of people still teach illegally; there are very few checks; and in some cases it seems to be a surprise to both employers and employees that these requirements actually exist. I have spoken to people who freely admit they are teaching without a work permit, while staying in the country on tourist visas. I also see a lot of older guys who look like classic 'retirement visa' retirees but dressed in a way that shouts 'English teacher'. There is evidence to suggest that spot checks are performed in Bangkok but not once have I heard of any such checks being carried out in the provinces. Small language institutes have a desperate need for native speaking teachers and, to avoid paperwork, prefer everything to be done on a casual basis so they actually encourage foreigners to break the law. It is always me that has to tell Thai employees what the situation is and then assist them to provide the paperwork I need. Presumably though, most people don't bother. Technically, the penalties for working illegally can be severe. The Thai authorities can throw anyone working illegally into a detention centre, fine and deport them. To be blacklisted this way means a permanent ban from Thailand. Because of the potential severity of being caught, I would never recommend to anyone that they work illegally. However, the chances of getting caught are remote and it is a personal choice. While on the subject of teaching English in Thailand, here is another point to ponder. Speaking English and teaching English are two very different things. A bit of extra money might seem to be attractive but can you teach English? Thai students pay out what equates to a lot of money for them and it is only fair that they get a teacher who gives them value for their money.
Last updated: 20th May 2008 One of the major reasons - if not the major reason - for Westerners choosing Thailand as a retirement destination is the ease with which it is possible to find wives and girlfriends, or simply with the ease it is possible to engage in casual sex. I have covered this extensively elsewhere and the Internet is full of stories about farang men meeting Thai women. (The vast majority of expats in Thailand are men.) I won't go through it all again but will make the following points:
Thailand is not the sexual paradise that some men imagine and there is no such thing as a free lunch. Unless you want to be ripped off, or simply end up being an ATM for a poor rural girl and her extended family, finding a good Thai girl can be a difficult task which requires time and effort.
Last updated: 15th May 2008 Please feel free to let me have any feedback about anything written on this page. If you can provide some useful information, I will be happy to add it. If you have questions, I will be happy to research and add my findings here.
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