Looking for stories from British expats living in Hua Hin

[migrant]

Looks like Kate made it over

http://andrew-drummond.com/2012/09/11/t ... -thailand/

[Pleng]

‘In some cases Britons in Thailand are worse off than the poorest of Thais’ – British Honorary Consul

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok September 11 2012

Just... what?

[Siani]

Looks like Kate made it over

http://andrew-drummond.com/2012/09/11/t ... -thailand/

Yes looks like she did. Did anyone meet up with her?
I also read the above link. I think that insurance seems to be the big issue with living in Thailand. The people who retire there are mainly over 50 years old, so insurance for them is not cheap. Those on repeat medications can expect quite a heafty monthy bill for their medications. I think that most people do not realise this or are maybe content to take the risk that "nothing hopefully will happen to them".

For me, I did consider living full time, but now think it is better to come out for periods of time every year. For example you can get holiday insurance for the over 50, even if you have a few mediacl issues. It is just a little more expensive. I think I paid £100 for 3 months insurance when I last came over.

In Anddrew Drummonds report he said

"Coincidentally I had a meeting this week with a post grad researcher from Loughborough University at ‘Cheap Charlie’s in Sukhumvit to talk about the plight of British pensioners in Thailand.

Kate, from Somerset, now living in Edinburgh, is being paid by the British government to study expatriate lifestyles. She chose Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand as the place to spend a large part of her time and one of her major concerns was Britons of pensionable age.

The British Embassy/FCO is doing its own study and obviously wants to see her results. The gist of our conversation is that she thought the situation was also alarming.

Many elderly British ex-pats have already become part of a prisoner society in Thailand, unable to go home, unable to meet the costs of staying.

Hua Hin, she thought, seemed to have been as good a place as any (although I feel she may find some more desperate cases elsewhere), and she found a mixed bag, some realists, some not.

Most preferred the life-style to back home, which is not surprising at the moment. The most alarming was the fact that many did not have health insurance. They expected, they said, their Thai family would look after them in the normal way.

Funnily enough in the course of her research she seemed to discover equally as much about who murdered who in Hua Hin."

What do you think of this report?

[richard]

Yes I spent a very pleasant 3 hours with her and she was indeed shocked about the treatment of expat pensioners by our government in the UK. I think the murder info will have come from Drummond though

My understanding from Kate is that a copy of the final report will be available but not for some while. Perhaps the funder (British Government) will have to massage it first. Oh I am a cynic

[Big Boy]

What do you think of this report?

Rather than respond to that question, I would prefer to wait for the real report. However, it would be very disappointing if Kate had leaked her findings to the press before publishing.

[GLCQuantum]

In Andrew Drummond's report he said...

Most preferred the life-style to back home, which is not surprising at the moment. The most alarming was the fact that many did not have health insurance. They expected, they said, their Thai family would look after them in the normal way.

Funnily enough in the course of her research she seemed to discover equally as much about who murdered who in Hua Hin.

Richard said...

Yes I spent a very pleasant 3 hours with her

[lomuamart]

What a load of general tripe.
People make bad decisions about their lives all over the world.

[Siani]

What do you think of this report?

Rather than respond to that question, I would prefer to wait for the real report. However, it would be very disappointing if Kate had leaked her findings to the press before publishing.

Looks like she has already spoken BB to Andrew Drummond (the press)...so some of it will have leaked out like......

"The British Embassy/FCO is doing its own study and obviously wants to see her results. The gist of our conversation is that she thought the situation was also alarming.

Many elderly British ex-pats have already become part of a prisoner society in Thailand, unable to go home, unable to meet the costs of staying.

Hua Hin, she thought, seemed to have been as good a place as any (although I feel she may find some more desperate cases elsewhere), and she found a mixed bag, some realists, some not.

Most preferred the life-style to back home, which is not surprising at the moment. The most alarming was the fact that many did not have health insurance. They expected, they said, their Thai family would look after them in the normal way."

What a load of general tripe.
People make bad decisions about their lives all over the world.

Quite correct

[Vital Spark]

For any research project to have accurate results a large number of people need to be interviewed (in person and/or on-line). I do hope that Kate manages to get a balanced view of expats living in Thailand, and not a handful of interviews with those that have a story to tell (no offence intended).

VS

[margaretcarnes]

This was also my main concern VS. Especially given the length of time allowed for the visit, which to her credit Kate realised and managed to extend her stay a little. She also very sensibly began making contacts before her trip. Unfortunately I also fear that there could have been an unbalanced result. It's the nature of the beast. I did send E mails to several long term expats I know who don't use the forum, explaining what Kate was doing, and giving them her contact details. The last I heard none of them were in touch with her. From which I can only conclude that the survey will have likely been biased towards those expats who are more involved in the HH centre bar scene, and/or on this forum. In other words the ones who are more up front and opinionated (aka gobby!) - no offence guys but let's face it we are aren't we?
There's nothing wrong at all with that, but it isn't truly representative. Nor is HH truly representative of expat life in Thailand. Yes - there is a lot of poverty within the expat community. But in HH there is now much more wealth - which comes back to what I have said on other threads - the more wealthy expats do tend to keep themselves to themselves now.
I do hope that if nothing else the survey will serve to highlight the inequality of the UK pension system. But I also know damn well that nothing will change that, and it only affects a minority of Thailands' expats so is of little consequence to the world at large.
At the end of it all - and pending the findings of Kates' survey - I am disappointed to hear that she has apparently chosen to sit and talk at the one Bangkok bar where it is not wise to sit and talk - only to sit and listen.

[Big Boy]

I have moved the discussion on pension rights for UK expats here viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21722

[sargeant]

I may have derailed this thread inadvertantly it should have a seperate thread for pensions

I was mainly trying to understand Drummonds "worse of more than the poorest Thais" statement

I just do not see it if they are here illegally ie do not qualify tuff is my initial thinking but i can see possibly where it comes from but i would like to see if others know of it

as i say i qualify every time and as said before i live on 20,000 a month quite nicely and save 30,000 a month

[Big Boy]

No problem, we all do it. Please continue the 'very valid/relevant' pension discussion on the new thread.

[margaretcarnes]

I'm sure there will still be some expats living in the LOS illegally. Maybe not so much in HH these days, but out in the sticks. And as we know from the forum there is certainly a feeling of relative poverty for some now. Maybe compared with when exchange rates were more favourable. But there does always seem to be a general assumption that all expats should make insurance provision. What we tend to overlook is the fact that some expats honestly want to end their days there without any fuss, while spending their money on maintaining visas and general living costs.
Yes - to an extent many of them will rely on their Thai family to help them, and sometimes that goes pearshaped in the end - but there have been plenty of cases where an expat has simply drifted away at home without intervention or fuss, and in the way they wanted to. In some cases that is even the reason they are in the LOS.

[KB_lboro]

Dear all,
Apologies for not replying sooner to your comments, I have been away and only just back online after returning from Thailand. I have only just read the article by Andrew Drummond and the associated posts today.
Firstly, I want to reassure everyone who took part in the research and those following the posts that throughout this project I have maintained the researcher’s code of ethics and have not (and would not) disclose any information about the individuals I have interviewed to any other person.
My conversation with Mr Drummond came about when I contacted him for an interview in order to find out about press freedom in Thailand and also his own experiences as a British national having lived in Thailand for over 20 years. The piece he wrote about British pensions, which included a section about meeting me, was his interpretation of our meeting. From my perspective it was a research interview in which I asked him questions similar to those asked of everyone else who took part, including those on healthcare, pensions, and crime. I also want to assure everyone that I did not relay any findings on these issues, but rather asked him to tell me his opinions about certain issues which may have resulted in this interpretation.
At this stage I haven’t made any solid conclusions about the data I have collected since it has not yet been fully analysed. Having just returned to the UK I am really looking forward to analysing the data in order to produce rigorous findings about the experiences of British nationals in Hua Hin. We are also still collecting statistical data on other parts of Thailand which will continue in an online survey for the next 3 months. When all of these findings are fully analysed and cross referenced with our other research in Malaysia and China we will be writing the report, which will be publically available. We are also producing summary booklets for all our participants which I will send out with the utmost priority when available. As well as this, we are posting up thoughts from the research on our project blog. This is mainly about some of the key issues coming out of the research and intended as a space for open discussion – at the moment the posts are mainly about Malaysia but I will be posting about Thailand soon. These posts will not be about particular individuals but more about the expat infrastructure.
I am genuinely very grateful to all those who shared their thoughts with me. I spoke to many different people with different opinions, lifestyles and ages and have been struck by the generosity of those who spent considerable time talking to me. The intention of the research is not to generalise about people’s experiences but rather to collate these different experiences and find common themes relating to particular lifestyle factors (e.g. health and wellbeing, safety, culture, leisure). It is unfortunate that this post is in response to the article by Andrew Drummond as I wanted to write a fresh post upon my return to thank all the participants and update on the progress of the research. If people are still interested I will continue to post with updates on this site so that people are kept fully informed of the research.
Many thanks for your concern and comments,
Best wishes,
Kate