When Will You Call Thailand Your Home?

[Flashermac]

Malaysia may be multi-ethnic and multi-religious, but it is definitely a Muslim nation - and the others are not allowed to forget it. I remember protests a few years back, when the government decided to bulldoze a century old Hindu temple in Georgetown to build something else. They would not dare touch a mosque. Malaysia also has a bizarre "affirmative rights" policy to protect the majority! There are quotas on university admission, with the bulk of the places going to Muslims. A few years ago the teenager who score highest in the country on the university entrance exams was denied any place in a medical faculty because his ancestry was Chinese. That is why so many non-Muslim Malayans study in Australia. Malay national ID cards clearly state your ethnic background and religion.

 

A Chinese-Malaysian friend commented to me on his surprise when he met Thai students in Australia. He would ask them what they were, and they would invariably say, "I'm Thai." "You look Chinese," he would comment. The Thais would reply, "Oh, my grandparents were from China, but I am Thai." He said a Malaysian would never say neglect to state his ancestry.

 

I've met than one Chinese-Malaysian who has moved permanently to Australia. They said to me they didn't feel Malaysia was their country anymore.

[Flashermac]

I wonder how many Pattaya Thais spoke Southern Thai in 1975 and how many can speak it today ? How many could claim 3 generations of their family born and raised in the area ? What percentage of Thais are supporting families in Isaan ?

 

Its a city of transplants - the new arrivals just don't recognise that the Thai people around them caught an earlier bus. Happy to hear otherwise.

 

Pattaya was a village in 1975, a quiet Thai resort that had started growing during the VN War days. Phuket looked about like this too.

 

 

Old Pattaya

 

 

1969

 

 

Walking Street - 1979

 

 

Beach Road - 1980

[radioman]

Think I would have liked Pattaya back then.

[Flashermac]

It was a quiet little resort, with BGs available of course. I remember Patong when it didn't look much different from the Pattaya photo at the top.

 

[gobbledonk]

Malaysia is okay but I always sense an undercurrent of socio-religious straitjacketing whenever I go there. I spent almost 2 years there at one point and found Thailand a welcome relief, as it still is, from almost everywhere else. Something about the grass always being greener maybe.

 

I would have expressed it as 'any port in a storm', but I believe you are 100% correct. The 'where to next' debate has been waged for as long as I've been here - very few have actually relocated AFAIK. Carlton posted something about Uzbekistan and never posted again, but I dont want to read too much into that ......

[Mekong]

 

 

very few have actually relocated AFAIK.

 

I must be one of the very few then I am back in the UK now riding it out and working at the same time.

 

Got a 2 bed apartment in rural South Manchester 2 minutes walk from the train station on the Airport line ( 13 minute Train Ride into the city) and only 10 minutes walk from the office, for what I was paying for a 1 bed in BKK.

 

Got myself a used European Car for less than 350K Baht in Thailand it would have been 2 Miilion, I am paying 88 Baht for a Pint compared with 240 in BKK. Basics such as bread milk eggs etc are about the same price and luxury goods are cheaper

[radioman]

Does the apt include utilities, community charge, or whatever they call it these days? What are you losing in tax and NI? I can see some of the attraction but would never be enough to make me feel happy living there again, I can manage about 2 weeks before the nanny state creep starts to annoy me.

 

You say riding it out so I guess it's not a permanent return. Even with the cost variations I find I have more in my pocket living in Thailand than I ever did in UK.

 

Just my 2p worth

[Mekong]

Includes Community charge and communal utilities own utilities are additional same as Thailand.

 

I am operating as a LTD Company so pay myself £500 / Month ( the minimum acceptable to HMRC) and pay corporation tax on profits at 20% Directors dividends are paid into my Caymen Island Company and no income tax on them. Is it illegal NO, is it immoral hell yes but morals don't save you money.

 

I am actually banking more per month in UK than I was in Thailand but that is probably related to my line of work and my experience rather than an across the board statement, not saying it would be the same for everyone.

 

I will stick it as long as I can still pick up work and there is plenty going on at the moment within a 30 mile radius of where I am living, so make money whilst I can, I still have another 6 years before I hit 55 and start thinking about retirement

[gobbledonk]

Flasher, you were right - I have created another thread in the visa forum so we dont have to keep revisiting this.

 

http://t2.thai360.com/index.php?/topic/59245-malaysia-indefinite-stay-without-mm2h-or-other-visa-details/

 

As I said at the top of that thread, we need to keep any discussion of Malaysia's relative pros and cons to threads like this, but it's good to see folks who claim to have been taking 90-day 'holidays' without issue for up to 10 years - Johor being the only possible fly in the ointment, but Johor is a dump I have no interet in revisiting. The rest, particularly for KL residents, looks good.

[gobbledonk]

Mekong, that's one of the hundreds bitching about the GBP-THB exchange rate on TV atm - seems it wasnt so hard to wind up those extensive business interests in Thailand after all.