What to do in Bangkok when you retire.

[Davis Knowlton]

So, to sum it up. Retirement seems to be an indeterminate amount of difficult to fill time, between when you stop working and when you die?

Well, if you had a job like I did in which I travelled a lot, and worked six days a week, generally 10-12 hours a day, to go from that to a dead stop does indeed leave a lot of unfilled hours in the day. There are certainly positives - but there are also negatives, especially if you retire young.

[VocalNeal]

OT

Hash Harrier. I think they jog from bar to bar then get a taxi home.See Vocalneal.

Yesterday we were on Phrapadaeng. On all those klong paths that people are swooning about on a cycling thread. Except we did find quite a bit of , well , jungle-type territory with the odd hand made palm frond bridge over ditches.

Only one guy lost but he eventually found his way back. By going across to Klong Toey pier and running to where we were on Rama III

I didn't see anyone with a camera but...

[Perota]

So, to sum it up. Retirement seems to be an indeterminate amount of difficult to fill time, between when you stop working and when you die?

A good definition.

Basically it's the first of your life for most when you don't have someone (parents, teacher, boss ...) to organize your day for you. It may take time for some to get used to it

[MeMock]

Get fit. First and most important.
Volunteer somewhere.
Books and movies.
Plan a trip away once a month.

[Perota]

Get fit. First and most important.
Volunteer somewhere.
Books and movies.
Plan a trip away once a month.

Agree 100% with you.

Getting fit is my top priority and the main reason for my early retirement. In my case getting healthy will be the first step

Traveling. Yes definitively. Having a wife working for an international airline has its advantages. But there are other alternatives. We also belong to a group of around 15 friends whose leader works for a travel agency. Every 6 month she organizes a trip somewhere. We've already been to all the countries around Thailand. Now we are expanding. Last trips were to India, China (I passed) and next one is to Buthan. For the future people expressed interest for Europe but when it's too expensive some friends can't join which is a shame because part of the pleasure is to be together trips after trips.

Books and movies. More a problem. I've a few hundreds DVD and I really don't know what to do with them. When I've more time, I'll try to work on a video jukebox.

Volunteer job. Definitively. I believe in getting even. When you get, you should give. And also when you start crying on yourself working with less advantaged people makes you shut your mouth.

[Necron99]

I think the answer is, unless you are fascinated with some obscure regional passion like civil war reenactments, that you do in BKK, whatever it was you planned to do anywhere else.
Hobbies are affordable, there is a club for everything..

[natalie8]

Living in the 'suburbs' of BKK, such as Nonthaburi, where Perota and I have our homes, makes things really easy for day trips or weekend getaways. Perota, if your wife works fro an airline and has days off in the week, then you're both lucky as you won't need to fight the weekend traffic.

You can easily go to Kanchanaburi or Ayutthaya for a day trip, or somewhere like Petchaburi for a couple of nights.

[VocalNeal]

Most people I know who are retired can't imagine how they ever found the time to work.
I don't think filling the days will be a real problem.

[klong toey]

When i retire will move to Bangsean and rent out our condo in Bangkok,we have already got a condo in Bangsean which we use as a getaway.Can't imagine spending more than a few days a year in the city once i am retired.

[natalie8]

Most people I know who are retired can't imagine how they ever found the time to work. I don't think filling the days will be a real problem.

I'm not retired, but I took a year off for health reasons. Most of my days were full, and it was the same. You can always find things to occupy your time, and you can choose what you want to do rather than what you have to do because someone is breathing down your neck.

[natalie8]

kt, that sounds like the perfect scenario.

[Seekingasylum]

If you are content to live in a country without any meaningful culture, where it is uncomfortably hot most of the year, where most of the population including farang are drearily predictable in their idiocy and ignorance and where time slips by without any sense of achievement or meaning then I'd suggest you live in Bangkok where you can at least quit the country easily for other parts where the locals have more of an affinity with the human race as we know it.

[SpicyMartin]

I work month on month off, and the month when I am at home in Thailand my days can be filled with.......
absolutely nothing to do whatsoever! I have a salary coming in and a roof over my head.
Therefore, much as if I was retired, I find things to do....... I read a hell of a lot, I love going down to the pool in the morning (way too early for the brats to appear), I potter around in the garden a wee bit, I go for motorcycle rides, I visit various different eateries, I meander the markets flirting with stallholders, I plan my evening meals for when the missus finishes work...... my days are never boring, and after 4 weeks...... back to work, do it all over again!

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

Perota. Can't you retire and remain at Discovery Bay? If you are in your early fifties, it's really quite young to be heading off to Bangkok.

How many times does one have to go by bike to Kanchanaburi ? - About once!

You'll be housebound a lot of the time. (The heat itself will be a disincentive to go outside)

When one is arthritic and unable to move comfortably from the computer chair to the toilet, (like the Gent), then that is the time to relocate to Thailand.

[Seekingasylum]

The balmy zephyrs currently wafting my nethers as I disport myself on Budleigh Salterton's beach have me much restored as indeed did the pints of Doom Bar which refreshed my way around the strands of North Cornwall last week whilst sporting my Panama hat and rather fetching cut off Camel breeches.

Bangkok is receding into the mists of forgetfulness like a bad dream.

Ice cream here is damned good too. Some of the indigenous fillies quite take the eye but in this delightful sun most of them seem passable. Well, all except the tattooed heifers that is.

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

....
which refreshed my way around the strands of North Cornwall last week whilst sporting my Panama hat and rather fetching cut off Camel breeches.
.

I thought I saw you in Dawlish a couple of months ago. Wall Streetr language School t shirt, cut off trousers, ice white socks with go-faster stripes and sandals.

I thought 'that is how the Gent must look' .....l'homme sportif.

[Butterfly]

why would anyone want to retire in Bangkok or HK ? this is quite sad on so many levels,

living in solitaire, abandoned in a place you do not belong

vision of living like an old prisoner, like Papillon on that island at the end of his jail breaking adventures, beaten and old

[Perota]

why would anyone want to retire in Bangkok or HK ? this is quite sad on so many levels,

living in solitaire, abandoned in a place you do not belong

vision of living like an old prisoner, like Papillon on that island at the end of his jail breaking adventures, beaten and old

Where a person has lived in Asia for the past 20 years, most of his adult life, where does that person belong ?

[Perota]

Perota. Can't you retire and remain at Discovery Bay? If you are in your early fifties, it's really quite young to be heading off to Bangkok.

How many times does one have to go by bike to Kanchanaburi ? - About once!

You'll be housebound a lot of the time. (The heat itself will be a disincentive to go outside)

When one is arthritic and unable to move comfortably from the computer chair to the toilet, (like the Gent), then that is the time to relocate to Thailand.

There are many reason to move to Bangkok.

The first one is a change of pace. Hong Kong is a fast city, when you want to cool down it's not the right place. There are no more places in Hong Kong, except maybe for a few outlying islands, when you can enjoy a leisure life style. The city is not organized for that and the people are not in the mood for that. Hong Kong is a place where you make money and when you're done you f_ck off. There are a lot of "young" Hong Kong expat retirees in Thailand, Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai ... There should be a reason. And I believe the first one is the more relax life style.

And among the perks of Bangkok, you can afford to live in a much nicer place. In HK we live in a 3 bedrooms apartment, which is quite nice by HK standard. In Bangkok our house is 4 times the size. And most important for me who as a child used to spend my life in the garage fixing first my motorcycles then my car, in Bangkok I will have a real "man cave".

And to finish with Discovery Bay, when we first moved in it was like a little piece of paradise. After 10 years it looks now more like the village of The Prisoner.

[Perota]

A question for the smart members, what is the best forum to ask information and advises about moving fm HK to Bangkok. We will probably have a full container of personal belongings including furnitures like beds, cabinets ... ??

[natalie8]

You could try this forum: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/tha...ving-thailand/

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

Perota. Can't you retire and remain at Discovery Bay? If you are in your early fifties, it's really quite young to be heading off to Bangkok.

How many times does one have to go by bike to Kanchanaburi ? - About once!

You'll be housebound a lot of the time. (The heat itself will be a disincentive to go outside)

When one is arthritic and unable to move comfortably from the computer chair to the toilet, (like the Gent), then that is the time to relocate to Thailand.

There are many reason to move to Bangkok.

The first one is a change of pace. Hong Kong is a fast city, when you want to cool down it's not the right place. There are no more places in Hong Kong, except maybe for a few outlying islands, when you can enjoy a leisure life style. The city is not organized for that and the people are not in the mood for that. Hong Kong is a place where you make money and when you're done you f_ck off. There are a lot of "young" Hong Kong expat retirees in Thailand, Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai ... There should be a reason. And I believe the first one is the more relax life style.

And among the perks of Bangkok, you can afford to live in a much nicer place. In HK we live in a 3 bedrooms apartment, which is quite nice by HK standard. In Bangkok our house is 4 times the size. And most important for me who as a child used to spend my life in the garage fixing first my motorcycles then my car, in Bangkok I will have a real "man cave".

And to finish with Discovery Bay, when we first moved in it was like a little piece of paradise. After 10 years it looks now more like the village of The Prisoner.

Yes, it is rather Port Meiron-like !!!

However, it is also rather quaint, whereas Bangkok is pretty brutal.

If you want space at home, then yes, you get more in Bangkok. However, once outside the confines of one's estate (even if thats a multimillion-dollar condo in Sukhothai Residences) , there is Thailand in all its hell. Holes in the pavement, protruding iron bars from shop awnings. Death from below and above !

I believe that beyond Mongkok and Wanchai one can cool down in Hong Kong. Its one of the few cities where one can be out on a leafy trail to a beach 15 minutes from the hubbub.

However, Hong kong is expensive ! That's why its tricky to retire here.

I think you're exactly right in trying to figure out what you will do in Bangkok. You have to be disciplined to do the hard stuff - learn how to sail, to read Thai, to write your memoirs etc etc, and not to fall into the lowest common denominator, watching endless foreign television, or yakking with other farangs who have 30 years to kill, marking time before the grave, ...or as others mention turning to the gin bottle at a slightly earlier time every day !

Best of luck !

[Perota]

You could try this forum: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/tha...ving-thailand/

Thanks for the link.

I was actually asking which section of this forum but this link will do too. I really appreciate this forum (TD) but one thing still confuses me, it is its organization.

[CNF55]

A question for the smart members, what is the best forum to ask information and advises about moving fm HK to Bangkok. We will probably have a full container of personal belongings including furnitures like beds, cabinets ... ??

I think you need to make sure is that you have a proper visa (e.g. Retirement Visa) before the container arrives here otherwise you'll probably have to pay import duty.

[Breny]

The poster could take up a spot of fishing.