The reasons why Chiang Mai is the most popular retirement destination in Thailand and also SE Asia are many and include:
Low cost, effective health care and the ability to speak English to the doctors many who were trained overseas and the ability to see a specialist promptly unlike Canada where AFTER your family doctor decides he has milked the system for enough money and cannot determine what ails you FINALLY makes an appointment for you to see a specialist in 3 MONTHS.
The foods are delicious and not affordable but downright cheap as many fruits are grown locally including strawberries. Year around enjoy bananas, mangoes, pineapples, watermelons, apples, durian, and many fruits that I do not even know the name of but which are absolutely declious.
The cost of living in Chiang Mai from accommodations, to dining, to sightseeing is cheap compared to North America and Europe. Comfortable accommodations for 20-25% of the cost of equivelent accommadations back in North America yet with all the amenities you could want and ask for. Cable tv includes English movies and about 55 channels, hi speed internet even wirless in your room, balcony, mini fridge, dvd, swimming pool, and even kitchenettes.
Chiang Mai is a very safe city to live in and I can walk safely at night anywhere in the inner city without any fears whatsoever, and just outside of the city I have to ignore the dogs that protect individual properties. The dogs will bark to alert the owner and that is it.
There is an abudance of things to do in Chiang Mai, a city that is the second largest in Thailand, home to thousands of foreigners who have discoverd that this is the place to retire to, and also Chiang Mai is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Chiang Mai zoo, temples, man made lake, golf, biking, shopping, massage, to relaxing at the local pub and shooting a game of pool or talking to some expats.
You can live here and communicate in English and not have to learn how to speak Thai. Many Thai's here speak some English and English is spoken at banks, Government offices, and in health care facilities as there are many foreigners living here and also it is a tourist city as well.
It is cooler in Chiang Mai as compared to Phuket or Pattaya. Also safer and lower costs of living here in Chiang Mai compared to Phuket or Pattaya.
and the KEY reason why Chiang Mai is the number one place in Thailand to retire and also the most popular place in all of SE Asia. Over 18,000 foreigners are living here in retirement and happily from what I can tell.
Attractive, attentive and caring Thai women make for great companions, girlfriends and wives and are the main reason foreigners have selected Thailand as a retirement destination.
All the foreigners that I have met here have a Thai girlfriend or wife and All are perfectly happy.
So there you have it from someone who considered retiring to the Domican Republic but found that it was unsafe there, without prompt medical access and the idea of constant power failures and requiring one to get up in the middle of the night to turn on the back up generator did not appeal to me as a retirement haven.
I have lived in Chiang Mai for about 3 years now and find that if you know how to live here as I do now that you can reitire comfortably from $400 U.S. a month. That includes accommodations, renting an automatic motorbike, eating well includes snacks and the ocassional rum and coke and entertainment.
For someone who does not know how, they may end up spending 5 x that amount to live on comparable terms.
Should you decide to come to Thailand to see for yourself contact us for information.
We suggest staying for one month if you can as the cost of accommodations booked in advance is the same for 2 weeks as for one month.
Also you should try to live in accommodations that you would live in if you were retired here so that you can see for yourself that the accommodaitons are comfortable and very affordable.
Our tips of retiring to Chiang Mai from Visa information, accoommodations, travelling about town, dining, healthcare, and other topics including how to find a nice Thai girlfriend save our clients thousands of dollars and also give them the peace of mind that they have done everything that was required properly and promptly.
So hope to hear from you, and remember that you can reside here long term without being 50 years of age or without having a large nest egg.
We explain the visa options to our clients and so far all have been successful in obtaining the visa which suited them. Find out why we feel that Chiang Mai is the number one place in the world to retire and why many retiree's see it as a retirement hotspot.
Cost Living in Chiang Mai
This is what I view as the one of the best features of living here.
Just imagine going to a 7-11 convenience store and buying a can of Coke, a package of Clorets, a bottle of water, a Nestles ice-cream and many more items for a quarter of the price you are accustomed to paying in North America or less.
Just imagine going to one of the finer restaurants and selecting two large bowls of soup with shrimp, chicken or beef, then ordering 2 delicious dishes, topping it off with a decadent dessert for each of you, and during the meal enjoying a chilled Singha beer and perhaps a mixed drink for your spouse/date and listening to music that you enjoy
Imagine yourself in this outdoor restaurant in the evening with your spouse/date. As the time nears to head back to your hotel you ask for the check and to your amazement the total with taxes and tip is less than $20 US dollars.
Better yet go to a Thai restaurant that is popular with the locals. A large, clean restaurant and select dishes that are already cooked and which you see through a glass partition.
Start things off with a delicious large bowl of soup which may be identical to that served to you in a more expensive restaurant, select a cooked dish to your liking with bottled water and ice-cream for dessert and get a check for $8 US for the two of you. You may find that the large bowl of soup alone is enough to fill you up.
The hundreds of hours of research on the internet that I did prior to moving to Chiang Mai did reveal some of the costs of living here but it did not reveal that there are at times two prices.
One for foreigners (farangs) and one for Thai’s. In some cases you have to pay the farang price and in some cases you do not. We will show you how best to deal with the two price system in Thailand.
This is another reason why for the single, heterosexual males it is a good idea to have a Thai g/f as she will get you the best price from transportation, groceries, and even household items such as furniture.
If you are a farang couple and retiring here then trust your maid or Thai friends to advise you on the best places to shop.
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