the realities of a westerner living in Thailand

Most tourists visiting Thailand, whether it be a backpacker, a package deal tourist , or regular visitor leave Thailand with many endearing memories, the excitement of Bangkok, the fabulous beaches and islands, the whole laid back attitude that is a world away from the life most have in the western world.

Of course Thailand has another allure, that being the warm, friendly, gorgeous and readily available Thai ladies. Although this side of Thailand is frowned upon by many, it still attracts millions of single men from all over the globe to the kingdom every year. Most of these guys would do anything to spend more time in Thailand, its heaven on earth for the 2/4 weeks they spend there every year. Most are not in the position to leave their respective countries and “move” to Thailand as job and family commitments don’t allow such a radical change in life.

Some do make the big plunge and relocate there, whether on a retirement visa, business visa, or indeed marrying a Thai lady and gaining a spouse visa. Then there is the dreaded visa run every month to Cambodia or Laos, which until late in 2006 was a popular way of being able to live in Thailand but not actively (read legally) working there. Now this loophole has been closed and a tourist entering on a 30 day visa can only spend 90 days out of every 180 days on this visa. I.E.. after using 3 / 30 day visa’s up consecutively you may not enter the country again for another 3 months.

The way around this is to get a 60 day tourist visa issued outside of Thailand, then apply for a 30 day extension in Thailand once the 60 days have expired, hence giving you 90 full days without leaving the country. Once the 90 days have gone by, then the 30 day visa runs can start, in total giving you 180 days legally before repeating the whole process again. This is a real alternative if your situation doesn’t allow you to go down the retirement visa, or business visa route.

A popular way for a single guy to get to live in Thailand is to get a job teaching English in one of the many schools there. This involves getting a teaching qualification which is a fairly simple thing to do, then go hunting for that perfect job. In reality teaching is not an attractive proposition to many as salary’s are notoriously low, leading to a poor standard of living.

If anyone of retirement age wishes to spend his/her twilight years enjoying the delights of Thailand, then it is perfectly feasible, albeit expensive. The Thai government has recently announced that anyone wishing to apply for a retirement visa must have on deposit in their bank account 800,000 baht for a minimum of 3 months prior to the application and subsequent applications. This new rule will put many retirees in possible financial difficulties, having a large portion of their retirement fund effectively unusable.

It seems at the present time the Thai government is deterring foreigners from investing in Thailand’s substantial “ex-pat” community, which injects a huge amount of revenue into the economy each year. In due course these rules will have a big impact on many businesses and the regular Thai, (who is already fairly poor to start with).

The realities of living in Thailand full time are now very complicated for the average person. If you are wealthy and do not need to work for a living Thailand is still one of the best propositions in the world, it has so much to offer. A regular joe who’s dream has been to live in Thailand and really enjoy life the way they want now find it next to impossible.

Unless the Thai government relax the rules in the near future, the “regular joe” who has provided an essential flow of cash to a large percentage of the population will be packing his/her bags and heading to one of Thailand’s neighboring countries who will be welcoming them and their money with open arms.

The author lives in Thailand for 6/8 months a year, legally, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, details of his life in Thailand on http://www.mythaiparadise.net