Moving to Thailand? Can I do it?

Welcome to the forum Chillman 

Take the time to read through the many informative posts on this section of the forum.

You can Easily live in the North of Thailand, in Chiang Mai province with what your earning, but there are no beaches though. Instead its Waterfalls and Mountains. Renting apartments in Chiang Mai costs around $100 per month excluding water and electricity bill. Food in general costs less than $2. If you plan on Buying a Condo as a vacation home, for 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom it costs around $90k to $120k with nice security, gym, and swimming pool included. If your lucky and do enough searching for a condo it can be as low as $60k or even less.

If you have a Thai wife then you can search and buy a house with 4 bedroom and 3 bathrooms outside the city, costing around $90k less or more depends how hard you search.

The way people drive cars and motorbikes here can be quite dangerous. Just make sure to Honk at them and stay focused at all times when your driving.

It can get pretty tough to dry your cloths in the rainy season. The worst season in Chiang Mai is what they call "The burning season". It's where all the farmers for 3-4 months (Before rainy season), they burn their old crops in order to plant new ones quickly, other reason would be such as growing rare mushrooms to eat, and chasing away snakes in swamps and forests so people can safely hike.

But the smoke becomes just almost as bad as Beijing. The Government tried to put regulations to stop the burning but no one listens. So if you have Heart or Lung problems I advise you to stay away from Chiang Mai in those 3-4 months. Or stay inside as much as possible with air conditioning. Make sure to wear masks for extra safety inside and outside.

Everything else is awsome in Chiang Mai after that. I hope this advice helps.

Regards,
Pon

Looking at your profile, you have a pension of $850 USD a month. If that is your income then living in Thailand would be very challenging. You could live in Thailand on that income. As a 26 year old you probably wouldn't be happy living that life style.

Having the income of $41 k a year would be very helpful and make your life enjoyable. However chances are that you would not be hired in Thailand, at that salary, because you would be doing a job that a Thai could do. The only way around that is to be hired by a company outside of Thailand and be placed in Thailand.

Then there's the issue of visa's. Unless you have a particular circumstance you would have to come in on a tourist visa, I believe that is 60 days, with a border run, for an additional 30 day stay. I'm sure others can correct me if I'm wrong. You can look up Thai visa's on line.

My age is considerable more then yours, so I have a way of thinking. At 26 it might be a very good idea to put your financial life in order. This would give you decades of compounding dividends and interest. Whatever the case working on a more concrete play would be better then wishful thinking.

Oh yes, ALWAYS ALWAYS come up with a plan B. It's much too easy for plan A not to work.

Have you considered Peru?   dcb

How about you rent somewhere cheap to keep your overheads down, enrol at a real language school and learn Thai, which will get you a visa to stay longer and also enhance your experience of living in Thailand.

See if Thailands for you. If you like it and want to live and work here then there's always the option to open an air-conditioning company (as that's your field of expertise), employee a minimum of four Thai staff and get a work permit.

Regarding work permits, the devils in the detail when specifying the role you will undertake. Many occupations/businesses are prohibited for foreigners but look around any of the big cities and you will see many foreigners running companies that are involved in construction, real estate, media, property development etc. The vast majority of those foreigners are working legally with work permits, many are directors of Thai Ltd Companies, of which they are minority (no more than 49%) shareholders.

A more expensive option would be the Thai Elite Visa, for which there are links on this webpage.

Good luck!
Tuenchai

Tuenchai;

That's an excellent scenario, truly.

My wife and I are wanting to retire in Chiang Mai.  We have a good natured Labrador Retrieve dog who is like family to us.  Are dog pets accepted by the Chiang Mai residents, and can we find a stand alone home that will accept our pet?  We are prepared to spend up to USD $750 per month for rent.

In Chiang Mai it's an individual question, some will and some won't. I understand that categorically speaking Vet's do not accept euthanasia, But there's always the Existentialists. From my understand large dogs are preferred. I don't recall hearing any qualifiers relative to anything.

I could go further with this topic but I have some matters to attend to.

Later,

We have dogs and cats like most of our neighbors and we have friends in rental houses with dogs too, so I don't expect that you will have any problems.  You will need to get acquainted with the local dogs which may be running loose in your area.  It can take some time to get them used to your new dog but it can be done.

Hi, I am so glad to hear that you can bring dogs with you. We would be absolutely distraught if we had to leave South Africa without our dog and there is not much information on the internet that is up to date with regards to the reality of doing it. How did your animals react to the heat? We have a 4 year old cocker spaniel we would like to bring with us.

Hello.

Try contacting Rescue Paws in Hua Hin.  They might be able to help.

All of our animals are local so I don't know about the moving process. As for the heat our golden retriever spends most of her day in an air-conditioned room.

No problem to emigrate you dogs. You need to have all the official inoculation documentation, upon their arrival. They will be examined by the state vet, and if found to be well cared for and disease free, they will be released to you.

You will then undertake to quarantine them, for a period of three months, isolated in your own premises.     

There are two ways that they can be shipped:

As hand luggage on your flight. (Qatar being the best.)
Shipped by a professional pet immigration service. (This is probably the best way.)

It's not cheap, but certainly is worth the additional expense.

The heat can be problematic to long haired dogs. In general, they will acclimatize over a period of time. The rule of thumb is that if it is too hot for you, it will be too hot for your dogs. Head for the air conditioner!

Dear Jim

Thank you for the advice, yes we will be using a pet courier company as we will come through first and find a suitable dog friendly and gated home to rent.

He is long haired, but we keep him shaved during summer, so we will just maintain this and he will stay inside with the air conditioner whenever we are home. We will probably have to get him a little splash pool lol that he can laze in during the day when we are teaching....

It was good to hear a positive response though and the expense is worth it as we consider him part of our family.

Kind regards, and have a super fabulous day.
Rene

Thanks to all for the info about immigrating with pets.  We have begun plans to transport our Labrador Retriever "Archie".  Again, thanks for putting our minds at ease.

Hi Rene , came across you question . My wife and I are also planning to make the move to Thailand so your question was relevent to us . Apparently it is a fairly easy matter of just making sure all the pets fill the requirements . Then go to the flight and you meet them the other side . Get permission to take your children out and off you go . I am headed back to Thailand in a few months to do some infrastructure work before making the big move .

Thank you and the best for your move.

[link moderated] for you..
My partner and I moved from Australia to Chiang Mai 2 years ago in November.. 02/11/2016...we have been at the same accommodation for that time, we stay here because we have a dog, and few places take dogs, we pay 15,000 a month plus electricity and water, the way I would use power 1500-2000 a month, but because my partner like it cold it costs 4,000 a month, in the next couple of months I will be moving out to take a place on my own, my partner has started an online fashion business with a 46 yr old American lady partner,  who has the business skills and my partner has the fashion skills.
So, I have been looking at quite a few places to rent, I prefer an apartment as the houses tend to be out of town necessitating buying a car, Uber sold out to competitor Grab a few months ago, so taxis are affordable..or there is the Red bus, Red busses are everywhere, you stick your hand out and they stop...ask if the are going near where ever you want to go...costs anything from 20bt each to over 100bt...there is a large American community here who would give you support and advice..
We have lunch at a place near us..for two it costs anywhere from 150b to 200bt, depends on what you have...there is literally 100's of such places....some of the guys I have spoken to are paying 3000bt a month for a room with a bath/shower TV, bit of a kitchen...but quite honestly, I don't know why anyone would bother to cook, it is so cheap unless you want to go mad....sometimes we get Thai-ed out and want Western...but even then we manage to have meals for two for about 230b -450b...  here are a few useful links:-
http://chiangmaiproperties.co.th/EN/con … ;max=10000   ask for Sai

https://perfecthomes.co.th/property/2-b … gIT1_D_BwE 

[link moderated]   ask for Amp

Things to watch out for...electricity....make sure it is directly with the power company at around 3,5 bt a unit...which will increase the more you use, this is to give poor people a leg up...some landlords will charge you 7-8 baht a unit, that is what we are paying...water is about 200-400 baht a month..
Someone mentioned Krabi...Ao Nang is next to Krabi and is beautiful, but that is where it stops....
Ao Nang geologically is fantastic, but we grew very tired of being pestered by vendors, either trying to get us to visit their shop, or bar, restaurant or....massage parlor..I'm 80...gimme a break...we thought, if this is Thailand you can stuff it...but, we had also booked to go to Chiang Mai, we thought, it can't be worse than this...anyway, we left Ao Nang early...when we had landed in  Chiang Mai, I was struggling to get my stuff out of the overhead locker, a young steward saw me struggling and helped me, he also organised a wheelchair for me (I was having a hipopp when we returned home.)...the young guy took us to get our bags then ordered a cab and spoke to the driver, he said "Don't pay him more than x amount"
Upon arrival at the hotel, and they are worth a mention ..the Victoria Hotel in Chiang Mai...they treated us like Royalty...after 1 day, they organised a corner suite for the same price, fantastic service...
After 2 days in Chiang Mai, my partner and I looked at each other and said...this is where we should live, with these beautiful, friendly people, who always have a smile on their face, can't do enough for you...so, we went back to Australia, sold what we could, and gave the rest away and 7 months later were were landing in Thailand for yet another chapter in our lives...

I was on a recent flight  with Qatar to Cape Town and after the flight had taken off  I looked to the back of the plane as I was in one of the front rows and I  at first thought I had too much to drink, though I do not drink .In the row behind me and the centre row a lady was seated with her dog next to her.It was a Chihuahua and was as good as gold until 2 am when it decided as it was awake it why should it not  wake up everybody on the plane and started barking with the shrill bark they have ( Have  two here in Thailand)
I wish you could have seen the faces of some of the passengers.Most just laughed and wanted to pet the dog
Qatar send me an email about a year ago and mentioned that they could fly your dog on the same flight as you would be travelling on for 450 USD if the dog and basket weighed less than 20 KG
A Jim has said you need to keep them in quarantine for a few months but I actually think it is to keep them away from the diseased  dogs in the streets.
Barry
Thailand

I loved reading your story! It makes me want to move to Chiang Mai even more! First we need to visit this beautiful country!

Hi Nettie 1313...That is the sensible thing to do Nettie, I would leave you my email address..but they say that is dangerous on public sites.
and it wouldn't be right in my mind to recommend any accommodation on a public site.....If you wish, I can recommend you to stay where I live, at the moment at 800bt a night if short term. monthly 15,000 bt.....and if that didn't fit the bill, I would recommend elsewhere....Nov-Dec-Jan hotels are very busy...try to stay as long as possible, a month if you can..the longer you stay, the more you get the feel for the place...it is one thing to fall for a place when on holiday, but staying for a month would give you a better idea of what it is like to live in a place..."warts and all" as Cromwell said to the artist when having his portrait painted ... you get what you see ... but you don't 'see' for the first two weeks ...we loved it from the time we arrived.......
Mid March and April are the smokey season, by that I mean when the farmers burn off their crops....then the smoke falls into the valley, because CM is in an ancient alluvial valley, very sandy soil.... but this year they started to burn off earlier and continued later, consequently, being spread over a longer period it wasn't bad this year, in fact I forgot about it...the real villains are the large corporations, not the subsistence farmers.
Cost of living here varies according to what you can afford, if you are single and don't mind going without a few things you could get away with 8000 a month..($333AUD) even less...
But if you like the odd lunch on the town 750bt for two with wine, as I said, you can go mad and spend 1500bt...and if you are open to 3 days of 200bt for lunch for two and a 3 lunches in the mid range including taxis you would comfortably do it on 30,000 a month for two.. ($1250AUD) .....I bet you pay more than that in rent...I know I did...quite a bit more...lol..that you could do comfortably...... Chiang Mai is the cheapest city in S,E, Asia.

Wine is expensive, a 3 ltr cask of "Gossip" will (if you can get it) cost you 850bt for a wine that you would turn you nose up at in Australia that is $35...we bought some in Aus for $5 a bottle...oh!...don't think you can waltz in to a Dan Murphy's and have a wide selection at silly prices...duty here is 500%..and the other day I spent $80 on taxis going from place to place...eventually we found stocks...but we had forgotten the time....you can't buy a drink after 2pm you must wait until 5pm....so being about 2:30pm we went home...then went out again to the same place, the other side of town..after 5pm....we have a 2pm to 5pm rule when you cannot buy alcohol .......don't ask me .... it'll give you a headache....I drink OJ plus water, and a dash of Vodka...Thai Vodka is 145bt ($5.70) a bottle, and quite good. Thai beer is very good 52bt a large (a smigin over $2)

Anyone else considering a visit to CM, feel free to contact me through expat.com if you can... I'm not sure if there is a safe way to pass on email addresses.....by the way, that's James Dean in the Photo, not me...I figured people would rather look at him than me...lol
cheers bryan

Hi Dog owners
We had a firm of specialists advise us, they also organised the documentation....the cost for our dog was double the cost of our air tickets..$2000aud..then, if you want to go to Vietnam to escape the smoke, going out was ok, the Thailand Animal Quarantine officers thought that PARVO shot included Rabies, so, because the Vietnamese quarantine officers saw the Thailand stamp, they accepted it, but coming back I discovered the mistake 3 weeks before we were due to return, so we rushed around to get someone to vaccinate and document our pooch..then we had to defer our return another 2 weeks, 30 days must pass after the Rabies shot before you can enter Thailand...so, 32 days after the injection we returned....we didn't need it to enter Thailand when coming from Australia, Australia is a Rabies free country, and a Rabies shot is not necessary, but, it is worth remembering, if you intend hoping over the border with your charge....have your dog inoculated for Rabies at least 32 days before your departure...

Leaving Australia
You will need to have your dog examined 7 days before you leave, then a final examination hours before your flight, to find out more, ask  your vet, it must be a specialist vet,  and the lady vet who examined the dog just hours before we left, came from the airport, these are vets who are accredited for this task, your vet should know this. if they don't and start to look on the web, seek another vet that does know....get this organised weeks before your departure, don't leave it until the last minute...you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself, but dot all the i's and cross all the T's well in advance. otherwise it could be costly.

Regulations
Thailand's pet import regulations require that your dog or cat be microchipped with an ISO 11784 pet microchip that is a 15 digit and non-encrypted, for all animals entering or transiting Thailand.
We had a virtual passport for our dog, with records of every inoculation that he ever had....at the other end in Thailand, they take more notice of big blue stamps, I don't think they understand a lot of it, but because it had been stamped by Australia, they accepted it. so get it chapter and verse from one of these specialist vets.

Carriers.
We were told that this particular crate was large enough for our dog, but it wasn't, fortunately they swapped our new one for a second hand crate that was larger, they must be able to stand up in the crate with the bedding in the crate (Which was at least an inch thick) and he was bumping his head on the roof, width and length were ok, just the height...so make sure you have plenty of clearance for his/her head, with the bedding .....

https://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-thailand-tv   This is a useful link for anyone considering moving to beautiful Chiang Mai....