SF, I am thinking of visiting Thailand on holiday. Where is best to meet guys?

Most of the reasonably-priced new housing is in suburban-type developments where you will be surrounded by families. For some odd reason, a lot of gay men who are fixated on the idea of buying a house in Thailand actually buy a house in one of these places, move in with their boy “wife,” and begin to plan a life which revolves around associating with similar couples.

If I may be frank, I think this idea is fraught with problems. First, a 20-minute commute into downtown Chiang Mai, each way. Many farang do not enjoy driving in Thailand, but this way they get a double dose of it almost every day.

Second, you obviously need a car (or cars) to make this work, unless you are just aching to become a statistic.

Third, your neighbors will spy on you and comment on you and gossip about you. If you ever had an idea of bringing some fresh talent home, you have to be PARANOID about it.

Now, if you decide to rent a “used house,” you could wind up with what I have — a centrally located townhouse, 3 stories all, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a short walk or motorbike ride (on side sois) to Central on Huay Kaew — all the entertainment and night life within 5-15 minutes — for the “exorbitant” price of 12,000 baht per month.

And one other thing. I live in a nice section of town, and the empty lot across the street was once offered to me for 3.5 million baht. By the time I decided to pursue this (acting like an idiot), the offer was withdrawn. Now, this lot was being held for a child. The “child” is now married and raising a family in Bangkok, so the plot changed: the lot is being held for HER child. As a result, the owners were delighted to rent the land to me for 3,000 baht per month.

Now, ask your financial advisors about that! The price of the land is 3.5 million, and yet they rent it out, for many years, at 3,000 per month. That’s 36,000 per year, and represents a return of something like 1 percent on the alleged value of the land.

I have no idea which number is right, but I am pretty sure that land worth 3.5 million should rent for about 350,000 per year — and that land which rents for 36,000 per year is worth around 360,000 baht.

Which is cheaper, and safer? Seems clear to me!

The point is they want you to prove you won’t be a burden on Thai society (which is sort of funny given how it works so much the other way for farangs).

With this visa you are good for a year at a time, and I think you can renew in bangkok.

All the details are on ThaiVisa.com.

I agree with the advice not to sell one’s house in Farangland. Besides the practical point of keeping the nest-egg locked up where you can’t blow it in a moment of passion or insanity, it gives you a place to go back to should the political situation go into the toilet (or if the difference between being a tourist and resident isn’t something you can adjust to), and it gives you a place (if it has an attic or basement) to store some things that you dont want to get rid of and you don’t want to take with you on your one-way trip.

I agree with the advice to rent in Thailand. Thai’s have a bias against living in a ‘used house’. Those that can afford to own nearly always build their own house new. When they want to move, they rent out the old one, because there’s almost no market for ‘used’ houses.
The impact of this is a relative disparity in the cost of renting versus buying that favors anyone willing to live in a used house. So it would be cheaper to buy a used house — if you could find one to buy — but its both cheap and easy to find something to rent. And Thai real estate (land) deeds are a complicated mess with multiple types and many of them not really giving the ‘land owner’ much in the way of rights. Renting lets all that be someone else’s problem.

Caveat/disclaimer: this is all regurgitation of stuff I’ve read, I’m still in the planning stage myself.

The big thing for me has been trying to cultivate Thai friends, plus learning the Thai language. Just last year, I was sitting in my own school (!) studying written Thai with 2-3 Shan boys, and we went all the way from first grade to sixth grade!

It was extremely important for them (Shan boys = Burmese refugees), but I had no idea that it would turn out to be such a pleasure for me! I can now TEACH Thai to Burmese refugees, at least at 1st-grade level — and it turns out that this is a skill in hot demand! Of course I need the right kind of student, who cannot distinguish between s/sh/ch, or between p/f, or of course between r/l. But believe me, I am doing it: I am teaching Thai to Shan refugees, and I’m doing it because one of my best friends (Thai/Shan) insisted that I could teach Thai to his younger brother. And I could! His Thai is abysmal!

Bored in Thailand?? Not me! The place where I WAS bored was Farangistan, where you could be as nice as possible to all the handsome guys running around, and get spit on in return. I exaggerate, I suspect you take my meaning.

Two different things here: visa run and border run.

The border run every 30 days is dead as a sole means of living in Thailand. They only accept 90 days of this (visa exemption on arrival) for every six months. Once that is used up you must get a proper visa from a Thai embasssy or consulate.

The visa run as such (to Thai embassies and consulates abroad as opposed to just doing a border hop) is not dead yet.

If you want to have intellectual chats in Thai (and this is possible) then you have a task cut out for you which is going to take many years.

But I hope you didn’t come here for intellectual chats!

By the way, as a note to Mr. Real Thailand, it is always helpful (obviously) to speak, read, and write Thai. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade by admitting that I know some farang who are darned near fluent in Thai — and who have remained truly objectionable people.