So You Think You Can Handle Paradise?

So you think you can handle Paradise, well unfortunately if the statistics are to be believed you are going to be the exception and not the rule. Maybe it's for this very reason that when to two farangs meet each other, the first thing the want to establish is your residency credentials. Whether or not you're made of the right stuff to be considered a long stayer, or that you just might be another potential time waster passing through.

If my own little area around my Soi down here in Chalong, Phuket is any guide to go bye, farangs are checking out in droves. Sure some could argue that this is the seasonal time of year when contracts come up for renewal, but somehow I just cannot see their annual replacements deciding to stay on this year. The writing is no longer on the wall, it's very much off the the wall, in print as official government policy on a daily basis for all to read.

For all intensive purposes gone are the days you could earn a crust or scratch a living here, to the degree that the authorities are now laying down so many new rules and regulations that it will soon be difficult to loose even invested money here, as the chances and opportunities are rapidly diminishing.

For those intrepid pioneers who still fancy the chance of losing their shirt through the thought of working, they've got twelve months to wonder each year if the Sword of Damocles will drop on them when renewal time comes round, especially when the goal posts concerning suitability, eligibility and acceptability are being moved each year.

So under this present regime and discriminatory environment, in the event you have to work you should discount immediately any thoughts of settling down here on a permanent basis. What that means in practice is that you may well have to return to your beloved homeland at a moments notice, but this time with the excess luggage of a wife and kids.

So my advice to you is this. Work your buts off in the West or inherit until you can retire here and live like a king, which isn't difficult as the cost of living is a fraction. Thailand for the time being still welcomes the old rich, which their current definition is 13,000 pounds in their account once a year and 50 years of age.

Stickman says:

This is article is awfully representative of a lot of conversations taking place in expat circles at present. A lot of people are concerned about buying or building a house for fear that the ability to stay on might be taken away from them. Some might consider this article as optimistic, but believe me, it isn't. This is the reality of the present regime.