COVID-19 and expatriation in Thailand

I've lived and worked in Thailand now for 10 years on and off.
Several things resonate, personally, and professionally, at this time:

Too slow, too soft
The government was way too slow and not harsh enough about introducing a lock-down (and still isn't compared to many others). The on-going fight for tourist $$$ can only be to blame as 2019 was a tough year before the virus arrived - the first 'carriers' were the Chinese at CNY (not their fault but nonetheless)

Baht way too high
* the baht has continued to remain way too high, even in dire 'lack of tourists' circumstances

Outrageous school fees even now
The cartel that excuses itself for running the majority of international schools here (and most likely elsewhere) are facing a dilemma regarding how they can charge their outrageous fees (finally!!) and yet are still trying to rip parents off and charge huge money for their 'virtual classrooms'.
Virtual schooling is far from being ideal anyhow, but most teachers are not experienced enough to better understand how to keep children of all ages entertained and engaged and many parents actually doing the educating. And many classes are just not suitable (art, drama, PE, some science) without much better preparation.
Many schools are now publishing their 2020-2021 fees yet still demanding high costs, with little or no discounts or refunds (10% anyone??!!) for 2019-2020 Term 3.
And some are attempting to lure parents with small discounts on Term 1 (of 2020-2021) if they pay soon.

Selfish Individuals with renovations quandaries
Individual whims, and selfishness, regarding others health and safety is a topic of huge discussion, and frustrations, where some tenants are bringing in groups of outsiders (labour) each and every day to renovate their condos and risking spreading the virus (despite being asked not to) as they are all unchecked and yet use the exact same elevators, stair wells etc as many tenants and maids etc.

Government support?
It'll be interested to see how Thailand gets back on it's feet and what the Government does to support all those businesses that will have gone under (particularly those businesses the tourism industry relies upon) - and boy will it need it

I am into my 20 years and 4 months, I have 2 businesses and employ several staff. We maintain 2 offices. My planning started years ago where I bought the building offices, the reason being is that if things ever turned sour, then we could sleep on the floor as we didnt have to pay rent. This turned out to be good planning, not that we sleep on the floor but that we dont have to pay rents. Rents are the killer, after the standard 3 years lease, the rents more than ever go up as there is no loyalty between the lessor and lessee. ie please stay at a fair rent for a long time.  Not here. This is a main reason that many businesses have failed, usually within 12 months.
When a bright eyed bushy tailed confidence man walks in my office with there big plan for how successful they will be I simply ask if they could survive the first 12 months with no income, could they pay staff, elect, water, etc, as thats how long it takes to win clients at a minimum. So if you decide on Thailand then this may help.

We dont have kids and so I cannot comment on costs however I know international schools are expensive.

We live relatively comfortably. We eat out most days for breakfast lunch and dinner, however if you hired a cook you would save a fortune. We like to drink out as well. All this adds to the monthly budget.

When things are normal in Thailand you can live well, if the above doesnt impact on your income too much. Plus theres always the family needing things as they get older and Thais put looking after the family in a high priority. So factor this in if you have a partner.

Now to the CCP Virus. I work in an analytical field and when i first heard of this and figures started to trickle in it never made sense compared to the myriad of things that can kill you in this world.

I feel that the media has blown this way out of proportion with inaccurate figures. ie. In my work I need to see the death certificate and the cause of death listed as this effects many things including insurance, the estate, beneficiaries, court probate approval. However, all of this has been ignored by the media and the numbers do not show the true cause of death. This fans the hysteria.

Dont get me wrong, I feel for the people that get sick, die, however i was also concerned about the financial impact of this and now this is confirmed that things are going to get very bad. Many Thais were already low income and now its worse.

There are many condo's here, under development, built, unsold and this was before the CV19 issue. This situation is now worse than that and many properties will not be sold or sold at a greatly reduced price. Many businesses were closing before CV19 as the exchange rates favoured the Baht and Brits USA and Australia lost big time on the exchange rates. The baht is strong.

This is not to say that it wont recover however where is the money coming from as most countries are broke trying to shore up the impending depression/recession. We are talking trillions in their own currencies.

Now we come to weather and climate change/for want of a better word. At the moment Chiang Mai in the north is number 1 polluted place in the World, due to burning off sugar can or other crops. There are also droughts and in Chonburi Pattaya the dams are almost empty and water has not been flowing to the city for 7 days. Water is trucked in. This should be a priority to fix.

I can see a significant change in the oceans water. It is clear today as no 2 stroke jet skies, boats. It would be good to see a change in the motors that are allowed back in the water when the tourist resume. Less pollution.

Lastly I can say that I am front line for people to contact me when a family member dies in Thailand. My company is listed on the Embassy websites and we have a large presence in Thailand. However, I did not and have not received one call regarding death by CV19. Not one funeral. However we did receive many clients to update their Wills and affairs. Strange that!

This post is not to dissuade anyone as Thailand is a great place and doing what it can with what it has to fight this introduced pandemic. Where is goes from here we dont know. Goodl uck all.

Stay hot 🥵 and stay healthy, Thailand!

For me, being in Thailand through the global Covid-19 shut-down is very fortunate. At the onset, I was awaiting paperwork from my new school, and planning a trip to Laos for a new non-B visa. When a pandemic was declared, plans unraveled. At that time, there were as many reported cases of infection here as back home in the United States, but I knew things would get worse. I had no idea that things would get as bad as they have in New York and New Jersey.

After weighing options, and reading the US State Department alerts, I decided to stay here with my beautiful girlfriend, and ride out the storm, here in our Pathum Thani townhouse. While I certainly remain concerned about family and friends, especially those in my home state of New Jersey, I am quite happy to be locked up in an air-conditioned house, eating delicious Thai home-cooking every day, learning Thai and preparing lessons for the next school year.

I am not a rich person, but I have enough for us to eek by, and the US stimulus check will keep us eating delicious  through July. Since borders are closed and I have a legitimate end-goal of returning to teach English here when schools re-open, we're confident that Thailand will continue to keep us protected. I am very lucky to be here, and I hope you are staying safe and healthy too.

Michael Ryan
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HI ALL, I HOPE YOU ARE WELL.
I WANT TO SHARE MY STORY WITH YOU .
I AM PAUL, A 59 YEAR OLD RETIRED TRAIN DRIVER FROM LONDON,ENGLAND.
I SOLD MY HOUSE IN ENGLAND AND MOVED TO THAILAND 13 YEARS AGO,
I HAVE BEEN LIVING ON THE MONEY FROM THE SALE OF MY HOUSE, AS MY ONLY SOURCE OF MONEY, I AM MARRIED WITH 2 CHILDREN.
THE POT WAS GETTING A BIT LOW, AND BEARING IN MIND I HAD NO OTHER INCOME, I DECIDED TO INVEST IN A CONDO WITH NEW NORDIC 4 YEARS AGO, THEY GUARANTEED ME AN INCOME OF 10 PER CENT FOR 10 YEARS, AND THEN BOUGHT MY CONDO BACK FROM ME AFTER 10 YEARS, AT THE PURCHASE PRICE, SO A VERY GOOD DEAL FOR ME, AND MY FAMILY.
I SPENT NEARLY EVERYTHING I HAD LEFT ON THE CONDO, THINKING THAT IT WILL SEE ME OVER TILL MY PENSION ARRIVES IN LATE JUNE OF 2020, ON MY 60TH BIRTHDAY.
THEN THIS MONTH DISASTER STRUCK, I RECEIVED A LETTER STATING THAT THEY WOULD SUSPEND ALL PAYMENTS TILL FURTHER NOTICE, DUE TO COVID 19.
IT NOW LEAVES ME  MY WIFE AND 2 KIDS WITH NO INCOME TILL LATE JUNE 2020.
ITS ONLY ABOUT 10 WEEKS AWAY, SO I THINK WE WILL BE OK, AS I STILL HAVE SAVINGS OF APPROX 500 POUNDS IN THE BANK,OVER AND ABOVE THE MONEY TO SHOW FOR MY MARRIAGE VISA, SO IM HOPING IT WILL LAST US.
I WAS SO SURE THIS WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, LIKE MANY EX PATS, I HAVE ALSO ENDUERED THE HIGH BAHT FOR MANY YEARS, AND WILL NOW LOSE ON THE PENSION, AS IT IS INDEX LINKED AND THE FOOTSIE HAS TOOK A HIT, MAKING ME LOSE MONEY WITH JUST 10 WEEKS BEFORE PAYMENT.
I NEVER WANT TO BE WITHOUT MY WIFE AND KIDS , SO RETURNING TO ENGLAND IS NOT AN OPTION FOR ME.
WE WILL SIT THIS OUT AND SEE IF WE CAN GET TO THE END OF JUNE, I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED.
TAKE CARE.
PAUL GARNER.

Hello,

Yes, the situation has changed our plans for being an Expat in Thailand. 

I guess there are two types of Expats, retires with regular income and business ex-pats or Travelling Nomads.    We put ourselves in the business/nomad class, we still need income and to young for the pension.

We had just set up a company and had jobs lined up,  We had flown to KL got our 3-month business visa and then everything started shutting down.  We just had to apply for work permits next. 

The company that was going to employ me said they would pay my costs only paid half of them.  Said no money now have to shut down. 

My wife also had the same thing happen but they did not pay any of the visa costs. 

We have decided it is best to leave and come back and do our own thing when we have more cash.  But now we can not leave. 

Flight planning is very difficult, which we understand, but the problem is no protection, insurance companies do not want to protect us if flights are cancelled, if we get stuck in transit, no one can help us. 

We can not continue to live here with no income.  We had spent money to set up life here.  But now with no guarantee of when jobs for ex-pats will be available again, we can not afford to hold on, I wish we could, we love Thailand. 

The biggest for us is cash flow, we have assets back home, but can not sell them at the moment, but nothing can be done with these assets in this market, so cash flow is getting tight. 

I think Thailand is dealing ok with the matter.  But the information to ex-pats is so unclear, and so much confusion out there.  And some people are so rude to the innocent people on Facebook, I am scared to post something in case I get the ongoing sly remarks many demoralizing.  I am embarrassed for some of the people.   

We should be posting clear information and use Facebook to communicate this clearly.   Or sites like this.

Yes, we helped a girl who was an Airline hostess on a holiday who got stuck here as well, also only come one week and found out she can not get home, she has come a great friend to us.  And we support each other.

We plan to go back home for 5 years or so then come back again, the timing was not good.  We just pray we can get home before the cash flow stops. 

I believe Australia and New Zealand have not done enough for the people here.  If Russia and Germany can fly planes in to pick up their people, Then Australia and New Zealand can do so easily. 

I know it is not the countries responsibility to run after people, but the people can not control how quickly things shut down, it was literally overnight.   And not everybody has the money that second to run out and buy the expensive flights. 

The governments can choose to shut things down overnight, but the mess and lives in ruin left behind has to be dealt with.

This has been a test on everybody and there is a lot of people doing it tough.  No one asked for this, but we must face together. 

Thank you
Love being an Expat

Hello,

I live permanently in Bangkok.
For me the government did things correctly about the virus crisis. Despite the number of tourists, there are not so much contaminated people.

But the major problem now is the economic consequences of the virus. For my opinion the government should allow the authorization of casinos, that would increase tourism in the future, especially in Patong and Pattaya. Because thai people are crazy with gambles, the casinos should be forbidden for them or limited to rich thai people, even bets should be limited.

Hallo
I am living in Thailand in full compliance with the rules imposed for the good of all.  I am very pleased with those who govern this country for the way and the clever procedures adopted.  I have no movement plans except for the renewal of the visa (when will allowed). Regards

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