Expat Poll: Top Country Choices For Leaving Thailand

[buksida]

Following on from our first expat poll on 'would you consider leaving Thailand?' I have started this one which will hopefully offer some ideas and options to the 40% of respondents that are considering a move.

Please let us know why you have made your choice, what attracts you to this country over Thailand, etc. If your choice isn't listed please post here. If you have already moved, please vote also - it would be interesting to hear the advantages of life elsewhere, and whether you regret leaving Thailand.

You can select up to 3 options.

[laphanphon]

Didn't vote, as not in the 40 %. Though if I did, for reason stated in other thread (wify crapping out) then home country (USA / Americas), as would probably get very bored any place else. If leaving Thailand, as this is a great place to be a sexpat....555

Or, where ever my daughter landed after done Uni.

[lomuamart]

As a clean slate, I'd be off to India.

Why? Just the vastness and variety of the sub continent - and I know it a bit. From hills to mountains to beaches. There's so much contrast there, many times more than Thailand.

I've got no idea about visa requirements there but I think they could be tough in the long run which would scupper any pipe dream I may have.

However, to relax on the beaches of Kerala or Goa (and there are many other places), or to stare out at the foothills of the Himalayas, well that would be peaceful.

But, it comes back to one's security, visa wise, and I have a horrible feeling that India could be right up there with Thailand's draconian stuff. Out of the frying pan...?

[buksida]

Right. That is part of the wider issue - visa security: ''can I stay here for the foreseeable future without some xenophobic regime moving the goal posts?"

I've been to Vietnam and enjoyed it there but have yet to research long stay visas, likewise with the Philippines. A friend in Bangkok who has taught at international schools for years is considering Uruguay which is worth a look. More research to do it seems ...

As for the criteria, for me it would be the same stuff that attracted me to Thailand two decades ago:

• Low cost of living (equal or lower than Thailand)
  Laid back lifestyle, welcoming locals
  Freedom of travel
  Easy long stay visas
  Foreigner friendly government
  Decent schools that don't bankrupt you
  Low crime rate
  Favourable climate for most of the year
  Working and business opportunities without living in fear

As far as I see it, over half of those factors no longer apply to Thailand.

[centermid7]

As I mentioned earlier I am outta here in about three weeks and I'm going back to my home country. It's easy to live there and I'm pretty sure I speak the language. I certainly don't understand what is going on with my country but then again I don't care much any more. TBS I will miss this place a lot as I now have more friends here than I do back home.

I am looking forward to a change of seasons, good steaks, good wine, and an overall healthier life style. I probably won't be getting laid any too often however. Ya gots to take good with the bad.

[dundrillin]

Costa Rica seems to tick a lot of boxes

[Spitfire]

Panama often comes up close to top of the list too as to where is cool.

[handdrummer]

Cuenca, Ecuador, for all the reasons buksida listed, plus:
Easier to speak Spanish than Thai.
US dollar is the local currency.
Temp. in the 70's F. year round.
Free public transportation and concerts for people over 65.
I prefer the food.
Why am I still here? My wife and daughters are Thai & my wife won't go to a country where she doesn't speak the language and at age 70 she isn't about to change. If she died I'd be on the next plane out of here.

[buksida]

Be interesting to see what countries the 'other' votes were for. Maybe should have included a Central America category.

Vietnam is popular, surprised there are no votes for Cambodia.

Poll is also open to those that have left, please let us know where you went and if it is an improvement.

[hin]

Am financially and deeply dug in but would gladly write it off and move on if not so close to needing the services of the monk’s cooker.

I would definatrly choose Central or S America. My research is not currant = 10+ years back but at the time would have chosen Chile or Panama, maybe Ecuador. You can own your house and property. The food is good. The language is easy to learn and read and write - can look stuff up in the dictionary too. In Panama you are eligible for a wide range of senior citizen benefits, same as locals and there is easy path to actual ‘residency’. Same in Chile if I remember correctly.

Cambodia is not it. Spent lots of time there. Downside is the rampant graft and corruption. Any time you are on your motorbike you are a target for any cop who wants a bit of pocket money - no violation necessary. Any govt paperwork, like visa extension = dito. There are no rules, everything is made up by whoever is in control of whatever service you need and engineered to yield profit to whom you are dealing with. In varying degrees isn’t that par for anyplace in SE Asia..?

[buksida]

Downside is the rampant graft and corruption. Any time you are on your motorbike you are a target for any cop who wants a bit of pocket money - no violation necessary. Any govt paperwork, like visa extension = dito. There are no rules, everything is made up by whoever is in control of whatever service you need and engineered to yield profit to whom you are dealing with.

That sounds very familiar and maybe why this poll exists in the first place! ...

[nanyang]

I moved to France in 2013 as I could afford a house there but not in the UK - my roots.
The main reason for leaving Thailand was my two daughters needed a decent education.

I spent some time back in Thailand earlier this year, for personal reasons, and it was abundantly clear that my decision to leave was correct - for many reasons.

A huge, and pleasant, surprise was that if you have car and or house insurance in France you are covered for international health care, including repatriation!

Bizarre, but a weight off of my mind.

I'll still return to escape the European winters - unless the baht reaches parity with the pound .

[Homer]

I left Hua Hin and Thailand in March, 9 years to the month after arriving. My decision had nothing to do with money. My Social Security yearly benefit is my travel budget, the value of year-to-date dividends in my retirement accounts this yearis more than my yearly SS benefit.

I left for a better quality of life. I can handle a tropical climate, but I don't thrive in it. A mild four season climate like that found in the southern end of coastal central California is my ideal. Found it in the southern end of the central coast of Portugal.

I considered and visited several countries over the last 4 years, combining travel with evaluation as a place to live. Portugal finished on the top of the list for various reasons. In no particular order, some with comparisons to Thailand, the reasons:
- Friendly, helpful people
- Compared to Thailand, health insurance costs half as much for better coverage, prescription drugs are far less expensive. Non-prescription meds are more expensive, sometimes much more.
- Doctors don't preform walletectomys by over prescribing meds and unnecessary procedures.
- Roads and rails, the amount of country they cover, their speed, and the public vehicles traveling on them are excellent. It's more expensive than in Thailand.
- Product labels here are as accurate as the Thai ones are deceptive.
- Produce is more varied and of higher quality than in Thailand, as is meat and poultry. It's a tie for freshness of fish, though there is more variety here. Compared to the bread and pastry here, the western versions of both in Thailand aren't fit for anything but pig feed.
- The twice yearly 7 timezone travel from Hua Hin to Europe for my long (5-6 week) spring and fall trips left me wiped out for weeks after returning. Now if I want to get that wiped out I'll have to visit the Americas.
- USD - THB exchange rate has been less variable than the USD - EUR rate.
- Low crime rate.
- For travel to Lisbon there is a choice of express buses ending at a regional bus station adjacent to one of 2 metro stations on different lines. One of those metro stations is underneath a train station. Buses take 75 or 80 minutes.
- Portugal has a 10 year tax break for 'own income' (pension / SS) foreigners on some income sources besides pension.
- The language, but not the pronunciation, is as easy as the other Romance languages. And much easier for me because I know about 1500 words in Spanish. Learned those when I thought Spain or a Latin American country would be my next home.
- No online reports of having to bribe officials to do their job, though you may need a lawyer to cut through the official red tape.
- Visa wasn't easy, renewing my residence permit will be. Only proof of income I'll need is the SS benefit statement, and bank statements showing the SS deposits.

[laphanphon]

"- The twice yearly 7 timezone travel from Hua Hin to Europe for my long (5-6 week) spring and fall trips left me wiped out for weeks after returning. Now if I want to get that wiped out I'll have to visit the Americas."

Hmm....is it just me, or is another poll needed.....555

One that distinguishes living here, 24/7/52w/365d vs occasional or very occasional visitors. If I needed or wanted to make 2 trips a year back to the homeland, I certainly wouldn't live in Thailand....or anywhere outside a 1 or 2 hr hop.

[B6PTW]

Seriously looking at KL. Both my wife and I considered it before but we opted for Thailand.
10 yr visa on buying house using MM2H offer. 350000 ringitt in bank required.
We would keep our home here as a vacation home and the flights to Hua Hin from KL are a bonus as long as they survive,