2.5 Minuses of Thailand
We are looking at countries for life in retirement — for the age when healthcare and legality of stay are important, when it matters whether the country has accessible, convenient, good-quality housing, a lot of sun… and definitely the sea, a suitable climate.
… and another 333 wants.
Work and income, the education system and many other things that are important in youth do not interest us at all.
And the evaluation of the minuses and pluses of each country is exactly from our basic requirements and wishes, starting from our current age, understanding of quality of life and assessment of possibilities.
It seems to me that everyone should define for themselves their own list and their own important criteria depending on personal background.
We defined ours.
Besides that, we divided the minuses for ourselves into 1. real factors, which we in principle are not able to change, and 2. seeming minuses — in fact annoying / unpleasant little things, which we can easily or without too much strain remove, move away from ourselves or completely exclude.
We know how to create our own little happy world and enjoy life.
| Minus #1 | The impossibility of getting residence permit / permanent residence / citizenship. |
|---|---|
| Minus #2 | Climate and ecology. |
| Half Minus | The Dark Side of Thailand. |
Minus #1
The impossibility of getting residence permit / permanent residence / citizenship and the problems in the present and future that come from this.
First, we can live here only on temporary visas. Now they are given for one year.
Extending them is easy, our visa paperwork is more connected with experiments than with real problems.
But this is ALWAYS a visa. Which can simply be cancelled. In one minute.
A new government, some friction between states, additional requirements — in one instant life here can be destroyed and Thailand will painfully kick you “in the backside”.
When a year ago Thailand stopped accepting affidavits from the USA, Great Britain and a number of other countries, there was an article on ThaiVisa about an old man, if I remember correctly — about 90 years old.
And a photo of an elderly person who understood nothing, with dropped shoulders.
It was painful.
Painful from the outside… and even more my breath stopped when I imagined — what if we also live here to very old age and then like this we will be thrown out of the country?
What will we do? Weak, helpless… at 80-90 years old start building a new home in another country from zero? Drown ourselves?
How can you really change everything at such an age?
Better not to live that long, it turns out…
Second, living here even a hundred years on a temporary visa, we will never be brought closer to the state healthcare system. NEVER.
There are no programs for money either (for example some amounts every month, like contributions), and of course not for free. There is no free medicine here, simply no.
And the older we will be, the higher the price of insurance packages will be.
In the photo below I compared insurance packages for NON-OA visas, for which medical insurance became mandatory from last year:
How do you like the price tag with the years? Does it make you happy? And there are simply no other options! They will oblige you and there will be nowhere to go.
And in the example the MINIMUM allowed coverage is 400,000 baht.
!!! For a minute — any travel insurance for Thailand starts from 25 thousand dollars and this is considered very, very little.
Why?
Do you know how much a stroke in Pattaya will cost you?
A stroke is a very common nasty thing, unfortunately. According to information from different sources: from 2 to 4 million baht depending on the necessary measures, their completeness, required operations, the level of the hospital.
This is without the following mandatory rehabilitation!
400,000 baht is a runny nose, a cold, even appendicitis.
God forbid heart, vessels or oncology — THAT IS ALL.
Either sell your property and become homeless, if you do not have spare millions — or die. There are no other options.
You can reduce costs if you go to a state hospital (from this year prices for foreigners were officially increased 3-4 times! And the former “freebie” is already not at all so sweet).
And who said that you will get there? Will the ambulance take you there, especially in a serious condition or unconscious? Believe me — straight to Bangkok Hospital — this is 99%!
We do not want this.
Today we spend from 5 to 8 thousand euros per year on medicine and medical insurance products (insurance by countries, oncology insurance, annual checkups).
It is absolutely not a fact that if we are alive in 20-30 years we will be able to afford such and especially bigger amounts. Absolutely not a fact.
The other goodies of Thai citizenship are not very important to us and we do not see advantages in them. They can easily not be taken into account.
Unreliability and uncertainty about tomorrow — how in this case can you build your future in the country?
P.S. I am sometimes asked — why “bother” so much with insurance?… we all will die someday….
Insurance is not against death, it is insurance against life.
I am not afraid of death. Not at all. I understand that life is a moment, and death is eternity. And this is inevitable and it is stupid to be upset.
I am afraid to live as a helpless vegetable, I am afraid to become a living rotting corpse on the shoulders of relatives and I am ready to pay any money to avoid such a situation.
Minus #2
Climate and ecology.
I am asthmatic and so far I have not made friends with Thailand in this sense at all.
Stuffiness, humidity — sometimes I cannot even go outside or simply open windows.
Life under air conditioning. All year round.
Only in the evenings by the sea — more or less. That is how I live, like a night butterfly.
Ecology. Before, when we came to Thailand for rest, it seemed to me that this was a super ecological place. How wrong I was!
It is better not to enter Bangkok at all — there even a healthy person has nothing to breathe, and for asthmatics — death.
Air pollution in Thailand in real time, called “find the green zone”: Thailand air quality map
They write a lot about this, but so far, alas, reality is not beautiful.
Phuket is still more or less acceptable. But after 2004 we do not consider islands for living. To hang out temporarily — excellent, to live — not for us.
Uncontrolled use of pesticides and agrochemicals.
Past studies showed that 41% of 15 popular vegetables and 9 fruits of the country contain toxic chemical residues above the safe level!
Zero — none.
Everything is allowed, even what is banned everywhere in the world. Because here cheap price is above safety.
We buy beautiful vegetables in supermarkets — we poison ourselves, at the market we take durian — death. Rice is generally a separate “song”.
Some information from last year and rather old information (negative things are clearly hidden in the country) — for whom the topic is interesting, search and you will find more:
To leave a suffocating metropolis and low-quality products for an analogous or even more dangerous place in this sense? Agree — strange.
Half Minus
The Dark Side of Thailand
Do you think that Thailand is only eternal sun, sea and palm relaxation? 😎 Alas, the country has ANOTHER, really scary Dark Side of Thailand….
My husband and I live calmly, enjoying paradise, by the principle “we will not get into anything — we will not be caught in anything”, but every day, in Thai groups, we read about nightmares which careless people face:
- someone ended up in hospital and the bill is a million baht, and there is no insurance, and there is no passport either, because it is held in the hospital as collateral;
- someone got into an accident on a bike and now he owes millions to the injured side, because he is guilty — and it does not matter whether this is really so or not, prove that you are not guilty!;
- …and so on and so on — the number of stories is endless…
Today in one group I read a remarkable recommendation, I copy:
The same warning should be issued monthly regarding Thailand: three times deny yourself the desire to go to this country, because the authorities of Thailand guarantee you a guilty verdict, long prison sentence and unbearably heavy costs of money, time and health in any conflict with Thais regardless of the event and circumstances of the conflict, not excluding deception, forgery, provocation and even suicide.
Never, NEVER should you come here for rest:
- without medical insurance (= sell an apartment to pay the hospital bill from a million baht to infinity)
- with the intention “to take a bike — ride around Thailand fast”
- with the desire “to relax — drink alcohol (= get into something)”
- with compassionate help to a stranger “take a small package of buckwheat in luggage for acquaintances” (= become a drug traffic mule)
……
In the country there is presumption of guilt.
No one will help.
Right now we have some direct fear of the Thai justice system: crazy prices, laws unclear to us, disproportion of crime / punishment in our understanding — if for a couple of days of visa overstay you can rot in prison, not having money for tickets home, what can be discussed further?
We cannot influence this in any way. And so far we are not ready to accept it for ourselves — perhaps we never will be able to, still different mentality, everything is different…
This is not bad and not good — it simply is so. And our task is to evaluate our life in such conditions.
Of course, we are not alcoholics or drug addicts, we do not get into trouble, but no one cancelled the folk wisdom: do not swear off poverty and prison.
Fear is already inside us.
The rest of the minuses for us are not minuses at all. There are much more pluses. In general Thailand is gorgeous.
But are we ready to accept for ourselves only 2.5 negative points?
Not yet. And it seems to me, we will not be able to at all. There is no future here for us.