Thailand Health Travel and Risks

I’ve sent a few stories in the past and thought this experience may be of interest to some, inspired by a few of your recent videos on expats making it or not. My Thai wife and I visited our house in Thailand for 2 weeks last March (2025).

To recap, construction was completed last year at a cost of 3 million Thai Baht, including all the extras aircon, furniture, water tank with pump to give us pressure on the second level. It is a five bedroom, two bathroom house with two communal living areas. In short, it has everything we need.

My wife’s family lives in the house, but we have a separate living area with our own bathroom, fridge, microwave, and a large balcony with separate entrance. It is much like a large hotel room.

It was a brief trip, pretty much spur of the moment, but it was nice to just spend time in Isan country with my lovely wife and enjoy the house. Nothing though could have prepared me for what happened upon our return to Australia.

The Health Scare

I am 60 and normally physically fit for my age. Once we got home to Australia, I had mild swelling to my left leg and put it down to the flight. I have had it before, so thought nothing of it. Over the next few days, the swelling increased to my thigh, and eventually I could no longer walk. The pain was excruciating.

We called an ambulance, and I was transported to hospital for tests. I was not there long before I was put into the ICU ward, the Intensive Care Unit. After a CT scan, it was revealed I had major blood clots in my leg which had already spread to my lungs. In other words, I had deep vein thrombosis.

I asked the doctor to give me the facts without the sugar-coating. He informed me that they were working hard to break up the clots, but if they moved to my heart, I could die. Not good news.

The situation was so serious that all of my family members were outside the ward and rotating through just in case it was a final farewell. I was already talking to my wife about steps she needed to take to access my private pension and asked my son to help her. It was difficult because the restricted blood flow meant it was hard for me to concentrate, and the strong meds did not help.

I was in ICU for 48 hours, and luckily I pulled through. I spent the next 6 days in an observation ward, most of the time under heavy sedation. Recovery time is about 6 months. I’m still having regular CT scans and ultrasounds 6 months later. I was already on strong blood pressure tablets, but now I take blood thinners twice a day. I’ve been unable to work since.

The Wake-Up Call

I mention this because it was a wake-up call to me that I could not have afforded the level of care in Thailand I required. I have pre-existing heart conditions, so it’s unlikely I could get good health cover of any worth in Thailand. I am extremely glad I did not put all my eggs in one basket and make the move to Thailand earlier.

These things are unforeseen, but as I get older, my priorities are shifting. I do not romanticize an idyllic life among the water buffalo and rice paddy fields now as I did for several years. I will of course continue my yearly trips to Thailand as I have for the last 15 years. The difference now is I will not be able to remain seated for extended periods and must regularly do a lap of the aisles on the plane to keep my circulation regular.

My backup plan is simple: to keep the house in Australia and not move permanently to Thailand. My wife is happy about this. I do not need to sell it. My wife is 17 years younger than me. Her income in Australia has more than covered our daily needs without eating into our savings.

This could happen to anyone, but thankfully it does not, and most people can look forward to a happy retirement in Thailand, providing they have a plan B. My case is an exceptional one, and the jury is still out on whether the flight caused it as I had hardly experienced mild swelling in my left leg prior to the trip. I used to put that down to tight socks. Like many men, I ignored the symptoms and took the point of view it would fix itself.

Family Dynamics

The other reason for not making the move on a permanent basis is my wife’s age. She’s only 44 and after 14 years in Australia has a large network of Thai and Australian friends. She works hard and makes excellent money in Australia. It would be selfish of me to try and push her to move back. I am sure though when I am no longer here, she will retire to Thailand.

She has since my health scare confided she wants to stay here in Australia for now where I get the best medical care with no out of pocket expenses. This is worth remembering when you marry someone 17 years younger they have different expectations and are at a different stage in life. This becomes more important as you age at different rates later.

My wife is the most loving and caring person I could have hoped to meet. You will remember, Peter, my first story a couple of years ago was about my meeting a freelancer, and we did an interview about it in Bangkok. This is still that girl 14 years later together now. I met her online, and she was looking for a nice foreign man to be her partner for life. She, like many Isan girls, wanted out of the poverty that plagued her life.

She was not born to be a freelancer and was sold into it by an unscrupulous auntie who was being paid money by various bars to recruit northern Thai women with a promise of easy money in Bangkok or Pattaya. She left the bar a few months after arrival. She is not a drinker and hated the amount of alcohol she was expected to consume daily. Freelancing according to her was the easier option, but that is another story.

Anyway, she has turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. Far better than any Western woman I’ve ever been with. But that is just my opinion, and maybe I was unlucky in the past.

The Separate Bedrooms Discussion

One of the unfortunate side effects of my illness, which thankfully seems to have passed, is that I was randomly passing out. The last time that happened was as I was entering the chemist shop, and I just collapsed on the floor. My wife was by my side, and she tried to support me, but given her small size it was impossible. Had she not been there though, I may have well gone through the glass sliding door. That event resulted in another hospital trip.

All of this has really tested our commitment to each other. My wife told me the other night in bed that she wants me to live to be 100. Haha, I wish. The only problem there is I would have given up my gym membership by then. Not a happy thought. I like my aerobics.

One of the topics we have discussed lately is the number of couples who have separate bedrooms. I may have been living under a rock, and perhaps this is common knowledge, but not to me. My wife works with many Thais, all of whom are married to Western men. Thai women love to gossip, and my wife is no exception. One of the topics happens to be separate bedrooms.

Together we know 12 other mixed couples. Only one couple apart from us still share a bedroom. I was shocked at this statistic. In most cases, the Thai women are in their early to mid 40s, and the men range from early 50s to mid 60s. The length of the relationship is between 10 and 20 years.

The reason seems valid, but most commonly: the husband drinks and smokes too much, or the husband is now in need of care due to either mental or physical disability due to age. In that case, the wife technically still in her prime has become a carer. In other cases, it is the wife who wants to sleep separately, usually because the gym membership has expired, and she can stay up all hours online to her friends and family in Thailand without disturbing the husband.

In our house, this has become a bit of a joke. And if one of us does something wrong or forgets to do something, then the other will sometimes make the comment, “Do you want separate rooms?” Naturally, we don’t. It would just be weird to contemplate, and neither of us have put so much effort into our relationship to then sleep at opposite ends of the house. Maybe some of your subscribers can comment or have experience of this separate bedroom issue.

Health and a Return to Isan

Health wise, things are looking good for me now, and I should soon be able to return to work and begin planning another trip to the wonderful landlocked Isan country, where the water buffalo roam free, and the beer is still cheap at 7 Eleven as long as you don’t want it between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

You still have the original and the best story channel. Cheers.

Story 2: A 1989 Pattaya Port Visit by a US Sailor

“May trip 1989 5 days Pattaya port visit story.”

The previous trips with Rob in 1984 and 1985 had given me perspective and important information about visiting Thailand during that period of time. And it’s important to remember that things were very different then. When Rob and I visited, we were very careful to visit during a slower part of the season. So we went in August each year and made certain never to visit when US Navy sailors had ships moored out in Pattaya Bay and on liberty in Pattaya.

We had seen all the sailor hats and memorabilia in Pattaya bars in 1984 and 1985. And when we told ladies we were Americans, they would ask, “Where’s your ship?” and they would peer out into the bay. It was like they dreamed of those ship visits and waited anxiously for the US Navy. Back then, Pattaya was a common port of call. However, the discovery of AIDS and the concerns that it caused cut way back on the US Navy visits to Thailand in the 1990s.

So this trip is from the perspective of a US sailor visiting Pattaya during the hot May time frame. Pattaya was populated with around 800 or more sailors every night.

Arrival by Liberty Boat

The ship moored out in Pattaya Bay pretty far out to sea at about 9:00 a.m. Sailors began to assemble to depart the ship in civilian clothes. The Thais had a group of liberty boats hired to transport sailors about 30 minutes into Pattaya from the sea. The liberty boats were quite slow and traveled in pairs. I always managed to be in the slowest boat.

The boat drivers informed us that they could only take us to a certain area and we would have to wade ashore. They told us to roll up our pants, take off shoes, use the laces to tie shoes around our necks, and hold our bags and backpacks up high. We did not need to worry about the water in the bay being cold. The outside temperature in May around noon was easily 95°F with humidity.

We got to a certain point, and the boat captain signaled us to disembark. Sailors leapt over the sides into the water. The water was not deep, and luckily the bottom was soft. There were some bar girls in the water to greet us, and some even helped sailors carry their shoes and packs. We never expected that.

Once on the beach, it was a mad scramble as these lunatic sailors wanted to race to the bars.

The Ladyboy Joke That Backfired

I had always dreaded to see what a nice place like Pattaya would be like with 800 screaming idiot American sailors in the streets. But looking at the town, there was no reason to dread. Businesses were booming. There were many more bar girls in town than we had ever seen in 1984/85. It was like they had been bussed in from all over Thailand for the 5–6-day stay. It was really an electric atmosphere.

I thought I would play a joke on some sailors who asked to hang out with me. From our trip in 1985, Rob and I had learned where the ladyboy hangout was. There was a bar in the back of Soi Diamond, and from the Carousel Bar I could see it. So, as a joke, I told the sailors that I knew a place where the women were especially hot and to follow me.

Sure enough, when we walked in, we were quickly surrounded. The ladies were extremely aggressive, and one of them took off everything she was wearing immediately and showed off her outstanding figure and her female parts. I knew something was wrong, but that’s why we came to experience the wild side. The guys paired up quickly and found out that the lady’s drink prices were nearly double what I recalled. That was another red flag for me.

I went to the toilet, and I decided I had to get my friends out of there. There were just too many red flags. I needed to tell them the joke of showing them some ladyboys was done. But when I came out of the toilet, all of my friends were gone. I questioned the waitress as to when they left and where they went, and she told me they went to the rooms.

I raced to find them, but I could not find a single one. There was something like a fire escape that led to the rooms, and it was a maze. My guys were gone. I was shaking, and I went back to the Carousel Bar to see who turned up.

At the bar, I asked a girl if that bar still had some ladies and ladyboys. She looked puzzled, and after some back and forth she squared up to me and said in good English: “All men.” I gulped. How could those have been all men? I saw female parts. And then it hit me. Those were ladyboys, and they wanted us to see their parts as the come-on. Oh boy.

Finding My Friends Again

I did find my friends, and two had left on their own put off by the prices and aggressive nature. But the third, my best drinking buddy, was not so fortunate, and he had a wonderful time with his ladyboy. I was forced with a situation of having to tell him that who he was with was not originally female. The news sent him into a tailspin, and it was hard to get him out of it.

A day or so later, word got back to the ship of the antics. One guy asked me to take him there to see for himself. I took him in there, and he was quickly surrounded by ladyboys. I started to wander off, and he shouted over, “Don’t leave me here.” I assured him he was in no danger. He said, “That’s not it. I’m afraid that if you’re not here, I will go to the room with one of them.” Well, they were aggressive and persistent, but we got out.

Dan Quayle and a Speedboat Escape

During the visit, we had been informed that the final day of the Pattaya port visit would require all of the crew to stay on the ship because US Vice President Dan Quayle was in Thailand doing whatever, and the fleet volunteered our ship to host him for a day. The crew was disappointed. This wasn’t how we wanted to spend our last day in Thailand.

But then the vice president’s visit was cancelled, and we now had one more day and night to stay in Pattaya. That night was a giant party because so many guys had told their ladies goodbye already. Lots of reunions occurred.

The morning arrived, and we had to leave. I got to the beach with a younger shipmate, and we just missed catching a liberty boat. As the boat pulled out, shipmates laughed at us standing on the beach, worn out, broke, sweltering already at 10:00 a.m. But I would have the last laugh.

The visits in 1984 and 1985 gave me inside information on just what to do. I went along the waterfront and found a speedboat driver who I negotiated a fast ride to the ship for 250 Thai Baht. I split the fare with my shipmate, who was stunned that getting a speedboat for hire was possible. Off we went at high speed. We blasted past the bobbing, slow crew liberty boat and cursed our dumbfounded shipmates.

The high speed boat took us right up to the temporary ladder, and we beat their boat back to the ship and got fed.

Final Observations

Some final observations. The expats and the other European visitors stayed clear of most sailors. That was easy, as the north end of Pattaya had plenty of places where our guys never discovered. There was of course no Soi Buakhao or LK Metro or anything much over on Second Road. Much of it was vacant land and fields. There were also no buses of Chinese, no Korean visitors, and hardly any Indians.

There was some effort to rip off sailors. Sometimes the mamasan would bring over a lady with a drink in her hand that you were supposed to pay for. I was able to beat that trick back, but you can see where there can be conflict. Generally, however, the crew was treated with great hospitality.

I believed after that trip that the working girls prefer younger guys if they are spending the same. Now that I’m older, I have my doubts, but times have changed, and nowadays there is more of a business atmosphere.

Story 3: A Father Takes His Shy Son to Pattaya

I’ve enjoyed listening to your stories for a few years but never took the time to share mine with you. I have been visiting Thailand with friends for many years. On one occasion, I decided to take my son. He was 19 at the time and extremely shy. He had never dated or had any relationship.

We flew to Bangkok and stayed overnight in a hotel, and in the morning took a taxi to Pattaya. He had never traveled overseas before, so he seemed uneasy since we landed. In the evening, we went to Walking Street, and he looked like he was scared of all the noise from the bars and the big crowd of people.

We went to Insomnia and walked around, having a few drinks. Very quickly, two women approached us. One of them did all the talking and seemed to have a nice personality, and she was pretty. The other one did not speak any English and just smiled. I decided that for my son’s first time, I would have him go with the pretty one so he could communicate with her.

We got them some drinks and went to the hotel. We went to our separate rooms. I had fun with my girl, and I was waiting for my son to knock on the door and tell me that he was done and to pay them. After a long period of time, I went to his room and knocked on the door to see if he was done.

The Hotel Room Problem

He opened the door and seemed upset. I asked him where she was. He said that he had gone to the bathroom when they first got to the room, and when he got out, he saw her sleeping and snoring. He did not know what to do or if he should wake her up.

I was very upset and tried to wake her up. She woke up after I shook her a few times and started screaming that she wanted 2,000 Thai Baht and then she would leave. I told her, “No, you did not do anything, so why should I pay you 2,000 Thai Baht?” She started screaming louder, and security showed up as she picked up the TV to smash it.

The security guard said that we still had to pay her for her time. I paid both of them, and I promised my son to get him another better lady the next night. We never went back to Walking Street or any other bar the whole time that we were there.

Story 4: A Blue Pill Nightmare in Pattaya

“I’m a 38 year old guy from the UK. I’ve had eight previous trips to Pattaya. Not sure this story is applicable, but might be a worthwhile cautionary tale for fellow travelers.”

On my recent trip to Pattaya, I spent the night on Walking Street visiting go go bars but didn’t bar fine. I got back to my room, but I had the urge for some aerobics. I started messaging girls on Thai Friendly. I finally got a girl to agree to visit. She said she would be arriving in 10 minutes, but I know I’m likely to be waiting 30 minutes if I’m lucky. I’ve had quite a bit to drink, so I decide to take a blue pill to help things along.

The lady arrives, and we complete a sweaty session of aerobics. She leaves, and I get some sleep.

I wake up an hour later feeling not too good and lightheaded. I go to the toilet in case I need to vomit. I’m standing looking in the mirror. Next thing, I’m face down on the floor, not remembering why I decided to lie down on the floor in my bathroom. I came to the realization that I’ve passed out.

I slowly stand up, leaning on the sink, feeling numb. Things go black, and again I wake up on the floor passing out for a second time. But this time my face is wet with my blood. I lay on the floor. I slowly drag myself into my bedroom and lay on the floor. After an hour, I have the strength to pull myself into bed. All I think about is not getting blood on the white bed sheets. I can barely sleep. I have pain through my whole body and feel incredibly groggy and shocked.

Passing Out in the Bathroom

After rest, I’m able to get out of bed. I inspect the damage. Not much sign of blood on the bed apart from some smears. A lot of blood on the bathroom floor, but luckily the bum gun is shockingly powerful and makes quick work of blasting it down the drain.

I check myself in the mirror. I have a small gash on the right side of my head, a couple of inches above my temple. I have five large bruises on my shins. On my shoulder blade, I have a large friction burn. I most likely have a broken tailbone due to a dull pain in my lower back, and I cannot sit straight. I feel like I’ve been beaten and kicked all over.

I go back to bed. I was trying to figure out what happened, and it suddenly hits me. Something similar happened on my last trip 6 months ago.

On my last trip, I was spending the night at a girl’s apartment. That night we ate a meal together. I bought some blue pills from a guy on the street on Soi Diana, and we enjoyed an evening together. I woke up in the night with my stomach gurgling and rushed to the toilet. I had diarrhea and then vomited while I was collapsed on the toilet. I blacked out but luckily didn’t fall to the floor instead, I fell against the wall.

I stood to wash my face at the sink blacked out again. Woke face down on the floor, confused, not remembering making the decision to sleep on the bathroom floor. On this occasion, I only had a bit of soreness on my ribs and hip from the fall. Luckily, my Thai girl slept through the whole thing. I had food poisoning that lasted a few days, so I put the fainting down to that and not the medication I had just bought from a guy on Soi Diana a product that I had used before with no issues.

Not sure why this has happened. Not sure whether it’s from a dodgy batch that the pills come from. I have lost 85 lbs in the last year, so not sure if this means the dose was too much for me now.

Why I Stopped Taking the Risk

I’m going to play it safe and stop using this kind of bedroom medication. Even though I don’t need it since my weight loss, I still liked to take it as a guarantee and it clearly made me stronger in the aerobics department. It’s not worth the risk. I feel very lucky I didn’t hurt myself worse considering the situation. All the falls happened in bathrooms, and the falls could have been much worse I could have got a serious injury from hitting my head on the toilet or bath.

I started going out after two nights after the incident. The girls were impressed with my leg bruises, and all were adamant it must have been a bike accident and showed off their own scars.

3 days later, I caught an STD while getting a special massage. So, no more aerobics for the rest of my trip. Not much success on this trip, but this player is no quitter, so I won’t let this put me off. And I’m planning my next trip to Pattaya in 6 months.