When you visit Thailand, one thing you’ll find is that there is a strong ex-pat community. Moving to any new city or country can be lonely, especially when you already built a life in another country. But in Thailand, there are hundreds to thousands of groups that will make you feel at home. From all ethnicities, interests, and locations within Bangkok.
There are various ways to find these communities, whether starting at the bar, on apps like Meetup or Eventbrite, or traveling around.
In the beginning you might find yourself only making foreign friends, but the longer you live and integrate into society, you’ll find more native friends.
The cost of living in Bangkok is relatively affordable. From accommodations starting at 5000 baht, low monthly transportation costs, cheap doctor visits, and more. And no, the cost doesn't reflect on the quality.
When retiring, an important factor is taking care of your health, both with exercise and what you eat. For many countries, eating healthy can cost you hundreds of dollars monthly, but when it comes to Thailand, you can have fresh vegetables and food for an affordable price.
You’ll find many stores like Lotus’s and Tops Supermarket, and many large markets provide several options when it comes to healthy eating in Bangkok. And despite it being a major city, the prices aren’t inflated.
You can find fresh seafood or meat for only 200 baht or less, and tons of vegetables under 300 baht.
Alongside the opportunity to get access to better things, the cost of transportation and health care is affordable for everyone.
You can live in Bangkok with just 25,000 BAHT alone.
When obtaining a retirement visa, if you are not putting 800,000 BAHT into a Thai Bank, you will have to have a minimum of 65,000 BAHT of monthly income. Check out our Retirement Article to learn more about the requirements of a obtaining the O-A Visa.
When retiring, it may seem like you are just going to be stuck with one type of environment, but that’s not the case. Yes, Bangkok is a city, but it also is the hub to accessing other parts of the country with transportation. You can still get around to beaches, mountains, northern and southern parts of Thailand, and rural villages through travel agencies, buses, and taxis found in Bangkok, Thailand.
Living in other parts of the country makes it slightly harder to get a large range of accessibility in travel transportation.
When it comes to living in a city, there is nothing worse than spaced-out facilities and concrete neighborhoods. Not only does it make communities less close, but makes it harder to go out without a vehicle.
Getting fresh air and daily exercise is important to maintain your health. The great thing about Bangkok Is that you can walk almost anywhere because of the many small side roads, paths, and sidewalks that allow you to easily get from place to place.
Another benefit of the city is having the BTS, which can take you around the city for 60 baht or less.
One of the more touristy pros is the food. You’ll find that food is not only very accessible but delicious. From thousands of food carts, tons of hidden restaurants, and markets. If you don’t enjoy cooking, or it’s too tiring, getting cooked food daily for less than $10 a day will be easy. Just look around.
As well, ordering food online won’t run you a lot of money, most good meals cost between 50-300 baht to order, depending on the restaurant and order size.
As you get older, you may need assistance getting around. This can be amongst many other things, very affordable. You can find a 24/7 live-in qualified nurse with good English around about $12,000 USD per year, and a full-time carer as little as $3,500 per year.
Let’s face it, the cold isn’t that great. One thing Thailand provides aside from the warmth is the promise of no cold. There aren’t any winters in Bangkok, just a yearly summer.
Avoiding the cold is not only for personal pleasure, but can help to keep you safe. For older people, a body temperature of 95°F or lower can cause many health problems, such as a heart attack, kidney problems, liver damage, or worse. Staying in warm climate areas lessens the chance of these ailments happening to you.
The only thing to note is that the summers do get hot.
Of course, you can find many of these kinds of things in other parts of Thailand, but Bangkok provides an abundance of resources in one central location. If you are looking for more information on rural living, let us know in the comments. If you are interested in getting a retirement visa, contact us at hello@baansmile.com to get in-person one-to-one help when you get to Thailand.
