Life In Thailand As An Expat

Some of the challenges I’ve faced: obviously I can speak a fairly decent level of Thai now because I’ve been coming out here for a lot of years. I’ve lived out here, but I won’t lie I’m not fluent, and sometimes I do struggle. If it’s very, very simple day-to-day things ordering my food, telling a taxi driver where I wanted to go no problem at all. But when I’m dealing with, say, a lease on my apartment my landlady speaks English but if she didn’t, or if I go to the Honda shop to buy a motorbike for instance, if the people don’t speak a little bit of English, it’s very hard to get your point across sometimes. So that can be a challenge coming out here.

As I said, I do speak quite a lot, and I am now actively teaching myself to learn even more Thai. I’ve bought cards with Thai language on I’m trying to learn the Thai alphabet, but it’s very, very difficult. It’s not an easy language to learn. I’m coming up to my 65th birthday in a few months’ time. I know young guys who come out here they pick up the language like that 6 to 10 months and they’re speaking at a fairly decent level. When you’re older, you lose you don’t remember things quite so easy. So that was a challenge.

Managing Thailand’s Heat, Humidity, and Everyday Dress

The weather is very, very hot and very, very humid here. When you go about your everyday life here in Thailand, you can’t always go out wearing a vest. You have to dress to a kind of reasonable level a polo shirt or something like that. That was always a bit of a struggle. The humidity it’s great this time of year because it’s the low season, but it still gets very, very humid. 82% I believe is the humidity level 82 to 84%. So it gets very, very humid here in Thailand.

But on a personal level, I think I’ve pulled through quite well. I’ve got a number of friends here now.

Coping with Loneliness During the First Six Months

If you’re one of those people who are thinking about coming out here, there’s a lot of things you need to think about before you come out here a lot of planning to do. I won’t get into everything today it would be far too long. I just want to touch on how it’s gone for me.

I’d say the first 6 months I came out here, I was quite lonely. That might be a strange thing to say, but don’t forget I spent a lot of years with my family. I was used to having the noise in the house, and when you’re suddenly living on your own, even though you’re in the middle of a vibrant city, you can feel a little bit alone at times. The first two months out here were terrible for me because I was living out of a suitcase in a hotel in Pattaya. I eventually got my apartment here in Bangkok, and things have been getting better.

One of the things I’ve got on my side is having a I do get recognized by people, and I have become friends with quite a few people out here, and I’m in touch with a lot more. I was coming into the park to make this video today, and a guy stopped me on the bridge. He didn’t recognize me at first, then he recognized me. We had a 20 minute conversation. I’ve now taken his number, and we’ll hook up and go and have lunch one day and probably become friends. It’s that easy out here. It’s a lot more difficult in your own country especially in the UK to meet people like that.

Spending Less on Nightlife and Building Healthier Habits

Generally speaking, life, budgets, things like that I try not to… I don’t go out to bars very often now. When I was here when I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time in Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy, I’d be in the bars. I’ve been trying to… I’ve stopped drinking for a number of weeks. I’m trying to cut it right out of my life. I don’t really need alcohol anymore. I’ve kind of grown out of it. I stopped smoking. I’m trying to live a much healthier life here than I was in the UK. I’d put on weight not being very happy in my marriage at the time, you turn to food. I’ve now lost about 10 or 11 kilos. I gave up smoking a number of years ago. So I’m trying to live a much healthier lifestyle out here in Thailand.

There’s a lot more to do here, especially if you’re an older guy. You know, when you’re in Europe for instance, once you’re over 60, there’s not a lot to do. I used to walk my dog I used to enjoy taking my dog out for long miles every day. That was one of the things I really enjoyed doing. I learned to fly in the UK I was lucky enough to have the funds to be able to do that but I don’t do that anymore. Other than that, I didn’t go out to bars in the UK or anything like that.

Everyday Differences Between Thailand and the UK

Now, you will notice things here that are different for the better part, I should say. A lot of things I’ve seen in the UK I don’t see here. For instance, if I was out late at night in the UK and I popped out to get some food, quite often you’d see couples fighting in the street the guy drunk, the girl drunk, they’re fighting. You go to a kebab shop there’s fights in there. There’s road rage. You accidentally cut somebody up on a junction, and they’re sticking their fingers out, they’re tooting their horns. There’s none of that here.

I mean, I’m not naive of course there’s crime here in the Land of Smiles. I don’t see any of it, but there is. There’s a lot more scamming goes on here than there is kind of like… you’re unlikely to get hit on the head with a brick or held up with a gun, put it that way. So that’s kind of nice.

People’s attitude: it’s a very face-conscious country. Everything goes on face. People don’t like to embarrass each other. They don’t talk badly to each other as a rule. Of course Thais have arguments with each other, but generally speaking, society-wise, people walk around with a smile on their face. And when I’m walking around a park like this for instance, if I smile at 10 people, guaranteed nine people will smile back at me. In the UK, nobody would smile back at me in fact, they’d probably say something not very nice.

Why Health Is the Biggest Concern About Growing Older in Thailand

So where do I see the future? My biggest worry, of course, is health. As I say, I’m coming up to 65 in a few months’ time. Right now I’m kind of healthy. I’ve had all my tests done at the hospital. But of course with age comes concerns about my health, and that probably for me is the biggest worry. How long will I be able to carry on as I am now? I hope to get at least another 15 or 20 years out of it. If longer, then that’s a bonus. If shorter, then obviously that’s a negative. But at the moment, without wanting to sound all doom and gloom, everything’s pretty good.

Maintaining a Social Life Through Friends, Lunches, and Driving

So what’s sort of a social life do I have? Because I don’t sit in my apartment 24 hours a day of course I don’t. I’m lucky enough to own a car here. I bought a second hand car, and I also own a scooter, so that gets me about. Now, what I like to do is I like to get out of Bangkok and travel in the car. I’ll go to Hua Hin for a few nights, I go to Cha Am. I went to Bang Saen not so long ago. I’m often in Jomtien or Pattaya. I don’t generally go out for the nightlife in Pattaya I like the beaches. I spend a lot of time on the beach relaxing. I like the food options down there. So that’s what I like to do I like to get away.

When I’m in Bangkok, I generally try to keep myself busy.

So yeah, it’s been a pretty good two years. I can’t think of anything that’s come along that’s thrown me a blindside “I’ve made a mistake, I need to get back to the UK.”

How Retirees and Tourism Are Changing Thailand

I’ve noticed more and more people are retiring out here than they were 20 or 25 years ago. I remember the expat community wasn’t as large as it is now. Tourism is getting back to normal now COVID’s gone not quite to the levels pre-COVID, but there are a lot of people coming out here now from different countries. There’s a lot more wealthy Indians who come out here, there’s some big Chinese tour groups that come out here. There’s a lot of people from all over the world that visit here.

But I’m also noticing a lot of Europeans and Americans and Australians actually have made the decision guys especially to retire out here because they’re just fed up of what’s going on in their own country.

There’s a lot of bad things going on in the UK now, but one day who knows I might need the UK for whatever reason. And if you retire out here, you might need your own country. So it kind of annoys me when people come out here they’re living a nice life and they’ve got nothing good to say about their own country. I don’t do that. Of course I think the lifestyle here is much better than my own country else I wouldn’t be here.

The Quiet Routine of Cooking, Friends, and Local Life

Other than that, there isn’t really a lot more to tell you. I’ve made friends, as I say. I go out for lunch quite often with friends. I do a lot of my own cooking. I’m still in the same apartment I’m paying now 21,000 baht per month. My electricity is a couple of thousand baht a month. The water’s a couple hundred a month nothing much really. And I manage to pay my bills. I’m having quite a good life out here.

I don’t really go out at night too much. If I meet friends and we go for a drink, generally speaking we’ll meet early 6:00, 7:00 I’m back home by 10:30, normally 11:00. I put it down to age now I’m getting a little bit more tired. I can’t stay up and do the late nights anymore. Very, very occasionally.