living in phuket

[summo]

My wife and I are thinking of moving to phuket, I am a trainer in fitness and also workplace training and assessment, oHS and security.

My main aim is to move to phuket and train at tiger with ray elbe and muay thai instructors.

I am semi retired and receive a pension of about 50000 baht a month.

Is this enough to live on, we are simple people and i will be training much of the time and then relaxing in the evenings.

Cheers Paul and fu

[oddball]

Originally Posted by summo

My wife and I are thinking of moving to phuket, I am a trainer in fitness and also workplace training and assessment, oHS and security.

My main aim is to move to phuket and train at tiger with ray elbe and muay thai instructors.

I am semi retired and receive a pension of about 50000 baht a month.

Is this enough to live on, we are simple people and i will be training much of the time and then relaxing in the evenings.

Cheers Paul and fu

Well , you should do a lot of searching on conditions for expats in Thailand , to retire there you have to show proof of B800,000 in a Thai bank account , the equivelent in guaranteed income or a combination of both , If you qualify for this on arrival and later drop below these requirements , you can be immediatly expelled from the country .
B50,000 is an okay sum on which to live , provided you live a reasonably conservative life , Thailand is not cheap any more and there are many pitfalls you will need to look out for until you learn the ropes , your training with Ray Elbe will be the easier of the two .
Amongst the expats , Pucket is known as the armpit of Thailand although it has its good merits also , it tends to be dirty with polluted beaches because the Thai tend to throw their garbage all over the beach and it is mostly only Farang who cares about cleaning it up .
It is very dificult to get a work permit in Thailand because Thailand is for the Thai , you cannot own a house or land and the story goes on , been there , done that . Oh , the Thaiwise will paint a different , picture so do a lot of research , better to be disapointed than thoroughly 'P'd off .

[summo]

Thanks for the info,

I like hua hin and anywhere close to the beach, any suggestions, we are not into the night life, just training and living quietly.
I wint retire maybe just live there for a while, I understand that i can apply for visa s 3 months at atime, boarder runs .
Any suggestions?????


thanks paul and fu

[frogblogger]

50,000 is ok, but very tight for two people if your wife doesn't have a separate income. Oddball paints a slightly pessimistic picture, but on the whole it's better safe than sorry. Yes you can get a 3 month tourist visa, but the double tourist visas (giving you two successive 3 month tourist entries) are on their way out, if they haven't gone already. Worth checking with your local Thai consulate to see if they are still issuing them, but I doubt it. If not, after the 3 months is up, the only possibility is fortnightly border runs, which is a real pain. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Thais don't crack down on this practice more in the near future - they've already reduced the validity of border run stamps to two weeks from the previous month.

You can still fly out of the country a get a 1 month entry stamp on the way back in, but that's going to start working out expensive for two people, even using cheapo flights to the likes of Phnom Penh.

Otherwise as OB suggests you have to find a way to get a non-immigrant 1 year visa. Not easy, although some consulates are more flexible than others. Perth was once, don't know about now.

[oddball]

I think your choice of Hua-Hin as a place to live would be a far better choice , I have only been there a few times but found both the beach and the town to be very clean , the people seemed pleasant and I did not notice lots of noisy bars . I have heard it can be expensive , but that can be interpreted many ways according to circumstance and personal preferences , I did not find it so and I live off a small pension . A good guest house I stayed at if that is what you need on arrival is 'Limelight' , discounted meals for guests , sports oriented TV and a short walk to the beach and a good fish

Yes another fad of Thai , visa rules are Ín flux' AGAIN , need to look that up on Thai web sight or maybe some-one else on the forum is up to date . Colin .

[oddball]

Some of my post 'Disappeared' ? a good fish and chip shop nearby . E-mail dwyer1961@hotmail.com . 23 soi Salakam .

[frogblogger]

Originally Posted by oddball

Some of my post 'Disappeared' ?

The mysteries of forum posting - no, no mod had a reason to edit anything of yours (the reason for any editing is always entered at the bottom of the post concerned...).

[oddball]

Thanks for thay frogblogger

[Anna French]

My husband and I have lived and worked here legally for more than five years and we love it. It all depends on the type of lifestyle you want as to whether you have enough money or not. If you want to eat Western food every night then it may be tricky but of course most of us are here because we love the local Thai food which is great and inexpensive. Likewise with accommodation.

If you are bringing kids with you then check out the website Phuket 4 Kids which is a great site for expat families.

Hope this helps!