Are you a permanent resident in Hua Hin?

[BaaBaa.]

Well I do two trips a year, staying in Hua Hin about 2.5-3 months overall.

I feel more at home there than in England, which is like Purgatory.

I'm only a young'un though so it's going to be a long wait before I can settle permenantly.

[STEVE G]

I'm the same, I spend between three and four months a year in Thailand, but seeing as I spend the rest of the time working out of hotels I consider it as my home.

[smiles]

Voted with the 6 month option, but it's actually 8 months out of the year rather than 6 (no better time option).
My dear old folks are getting pretty old (and more than half-way ~ but charmingly ~ insane) so I have to be back in Canada for at least 4 months out of any year to help out with their care. But if that was not the case, I'd be able to click on the permanent 12 month option.

Cheers ...

[acerockolla]

My dear old folks are getting pretty old (and more than half-way ~ but charmingly ~ insane)

Cheers ...

That's how I hope to end up! - In the cold UK now, Hoping to be in Thailand for Christmas but will probably have to go to Pattaya to Visit my Son who is on a 4 month Diving internship.
We would like to live in Hua Hin, as we had a great time there this summer but the monthly Visa run would just kill us. We are going to look at malaysia for a few months, and if all else fails the Philippines. Anything except bloody miserable England.

[smiles]

" ... We would like to live in Hua Hin, as we had a great time there this summer but the monthly Visa run would just kill us ... "

Have you taken a look at the 12-month Non Imm Long Term (Multiple Entry) Visa ... often refered to as a 'Retirement Visa'? This is the visa I hold now.
You can probably get one if you are 50 or over, and can hop through the financial, medical, and police record hoops. None of these requirements are particularly onerous.

There are 2 ways to apply for it: (1) from your home country (UK qualifies), in which case you'd be looking for a Non Immigrant Type O-A Visa. Or (2) from within Thailand, in which case you'd be looking to change a 'regular' 90-day Non Imm Visa into the Retirement Visa.

The beauty of the Retirement visa is mainly that there is no need for visa runs of any kind ... just a regular in-Thailand extension/permission-to- stay once every 12 months.
On the Retirement Visa you must check in with local Immigration Office in Hua Hin every 90 days to confirm your address ... but it's a painless and quick operation.

You may already know all this, but this post on the off chance you do not.

Cheers ...

[Cowtown Comedy]

Smiles,

You're from the nicest area in Canada. I'm sure you must miss it at times. I love the Valhalla area neat New Denver.

[Procyon]

Half and half - but it gets stranger evry time I come!

[Randy Cornhole]

Half and half - but it gets stranger evry time I come!

I'm curious now...

[anothermug?]

I used to live there and thought I was going to be very happy, but circumstances changed and I had to move away, that said I hope to return one day.

I am out but not down.

[interested]

I have lived full time in Hua Hin for the past 4 years ......and I can not wait to get out!
My advise to anyone wanting to live here full time is to first RENT for a year or so.
If I had done that I am pretty sure I would never have settled permanently here, there are far nicer places, this is just my opinion.

[Super Joe]

I have lived full time in Hua Hin for the past 4 years ......and I can not wait to get out!

Interesting alternative view on the subject, what do you not like about HH ? and where are you going ?

For me I like it here a lot but love Phuket.

SJ

[hhfarang]

SJ, I don't know where interested is from, but I feel the same way. There can be a very different perspective depending on where you came from.

Why do you think most of the expats here are from Britain and Scandinavia? Because the climate generally sucks in those places and people love this hot weather, and the taxes are exorbitant in some of your European homelands so you get a big economic break here. One of the reasons that you don't see many Americans here is that in most of the U.S. the climate is generally better than it is here as are living conditions.

I came here after living twenty years in California/Florida where the climate was near perfect, the water was clean for diving/swimming/snorkeling, the beaches were uncluttered with no hawkers bothering you, and it wasn't too hot to ride a bicycle for long distances. There weren't many insects bothering you (especially in California). Golf was just as available and cheaper in both places. When I lived in California I could go snow skiing on Saturday and go lay on the beach on Sunday on the same weekend in the springtime.

There were comfortable campgrounds everywhere and beautiful mountain streams to fish in for trout. If you wanted a vacation to a different climate and surroundings all you had to do was get in your car and drive. Tropical beaches, snow covered mountains, beautiful desserts, wonderful cities like New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Francisco, L.A. and many more ... all there for the enjoying without ever getting on a plane or going through immigration.

That's the reason only ten percent of Americans have passports. There is no need to ever leave because everything you could ever want to do is right there in the country. I don't think anywhere else has such variety of things to do and see (easily) all within its own borders.

The U.S. is bigger than Europe and has anything one could want in climate, and more (arguably) to do than anywhere else in the world in the way of sports and outdoor activities.

So for me and some other people this is the worst place I've ever lived (with the exception of four years in Saudi Arabia).

Now you will ask, so why the hell are you here... The answer is stupidity! I fell in love with and married a Thai and over a period of years and lots of arm twisting, she got me to sell out in the U.S. and invest my life savings here. Now the economy is such that I can't get my money back out so I'm stuck.

I understand how life is very much better here for some people and I'm happy for them but my life here sucks compared to the life I had before. So it's all a matter of your own personal history and perspective.

[Cowtown Comedy]

HH, I appreciate your honesty. I think there are many expats like yourself that have come to dislike it here, but refuse to admit it. But I hope you don't see it as a mistake. Look at it as another chapter in your novel of life.
The only time I've come to dislike LOS is when i was bored to tears, and only enough money to get to get completely wasted on cheap whiskey every afternoon, and a stroll around Bindtabaht every night. My daily shift started about 3 Pm and ended about 4am...and this cycle continued for a very long time. My life is completely different now! I am a civil servant to the Thai government 5 days a week, and i have a wonderful girlfriend that i truly look forward to seeing every night. I work hard 8-10 hours a day, sleep well, and look forward to the weekends. Time can be an evil thing if it isn't occupied.

[Wanderlust]

Somehow I get the feeling that interested's reasons for posting what he/she did are very different from hhfarang's. Everything is relative, but after I spent a long time visiting and travelling around the States I came to the conclusion that I would hate to live there although short visits were fun; I was always glad to return to the UK afterwards, but I can't say the same now about trips home from Thailand. It is hard for me to put my finger on exactly what it is/was about the US that I found off putting as a place to relocate to so I'll just have to cop out by saying it just didn't feel right for me. On the other hand, Thailand and Hua Hin felt right almost immediately.

[hhfarang]

I've been visiting Thailand since 1981 as a tourist for up to a month at at time and loved it, but living here for years has ruined it for me. If I ever do get out, I doubt I'll ever come here again.