Life in Thailand - Test Results

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Great synopsis Dodger,

I would say that your expatriation into Thailand success is a model to us to aspire towards.

I am 18 months into my new expat life here in Thailand (Jomtien) and I only prepared 2 years prior for my retirement and move to Thailand.

Some general comments and observations:

1.) What is really needed is a how-to-retire successfully blog for Thailand with a specific section for Pattaya. The Supertown web page has a blog section but it has not been updated since June 2023 https://gaysupertown.blogspot.com/ it would be great if there could be a sub-blog section within this blog for retirement and which discusses how to become a successful expat in Thailand.

2.) What is missing is a type of "Welcome Wagon" system https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic.../welcome-wagon that would be for the newcomers to meet with the already existing expats who live here - to help integrate into their new expat daily life and to make some new friends. Once a month would probably be a good idea. Many of the expat heterosexual groups here in Pattaya have these in place (PCEC, PEC, Buzzin Pattaya bar crawl, etc.) and they seem to function very well - as they make the newbies to Pattaya feel welcome and accelerate the process to find like minded friends.

--> many times some of the visiting forum members have requested for a meetup but it seems that it is difficult to find the right time and/or meeting place for many of us to agree to meet

After 18 months here, I see that it is fairly easy to make Thai friends but very difficult to make farang friends who have common interests. I have been invited to hang out with some farangs - but there was more often than not a BIG emphasis on drinking and staying out late - which unfortunately I am not really into. So, I still try to find farangs that don't put so much pressure on having to drink and to do things outside of the bars.
Unfortunately, after a while, the Jomtien Supertown Complex mantra of "farang sit and farang drink" gets real boring because the minute that I sit down I become lethargic and then add alcohol into the mix and I become sleepy and bored. If only there was a place in the Supertown complex where we could stand up and dance before midnight to classics from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2,000s.
I have been taken to the weekly Bingo on Wednesdays - but I find it really boring - so hopefully somebody will invent something more exciting to do in the Supertown complex then the current "farang sit and farang drink" business model.

I would be interested to hear what others think ?