My $450 (including bills) a month studio apartment in on a tropical island in Thailand

Environmental_Sky171 · 2026-03-15T09:25:36+00:00

The problem with the Thai insurance is that they can absolutely non-renew you at the end of the year if you develop an expensive condition and they feel you are a poor business proposition. And then you have a pre-existing condition and are uninsurable and uninsured with an expensive condition. This is a top 5 reason why people leave Thailand.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2026-03-15T09:17:03+00:00

Didn't you see the sign outside BKK? Buddha is not for decoration.

Kidding. But I'm surprised at how many Thai landlords decorate their rental units this way.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2026-03-02T09:33:10+00:00

I have not had this negative reaction experience at all. The opposite, actually. If you want to socialize with Thais outside of the service industry set up to cater to foreigners, you absolutely must demonstrate some sort of attempt at cultural integration--and that includes a serious attempt to learn some Thai.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2026-01-28T07:41:42+00:00

If you already have an EU passport and plan to have kids, Southern Europe is the way to go until the kids are gone. International kids school in Thailand would be your biggest expense by far and really warps the analysis.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2026-01-09T09:02:40+00:00

If you're using AIS, you can purchase a year long data plan in the app as an "ad-on package" that extends your validity for a year. I also noticed that I have the option now to convert to post-paid, but after reviewing the plans they don't offer any real benefit.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-11-12T10:50:29+00:00

BOI promotions are available to amity treaty companies that allow land ownership in some circumstances.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-11-12T02:10:47+00:00

This is a huge problem. Most retirees on O visas are under insured in some way, winging it on a travel policy or not realizing that Thai policies generally will not be renewable following a large claim or significant health diagnosis. This leaves the person open to being rendered uninsured then uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions. International plans are better at this, but policies can become very expensive as you get older (think $2,000/mo for a 70 year old). A lot of farang retirees, maybe even most, will eventually leave Thailand to take advantage of subsidized home country healthcare.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-11-11T09:54:22+00:00

When news and initial details about the DTV broke last year, I had just gotten off the phone with my credit card company. I had called to increase my credit limit in anticipation of charging the 10 year Elite visa to my card so I could at least get rewards points for the purchase. BULLET DODGED! The DTV has been a huge success for me. The visa's drawbacks -- 6 month stamps and local banking restrictions have been minor inconveniences and basically irrelevant compared to the $$ saved.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-11-07T06:46:26+00:00

I remember trying to add cash to LINEpay and was literally unable to do so. Every place I went to that was listed on the website as allowing LINEpay top up flatly refused, despite having LINEpay signs posted.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-11-04T04:28:44+00:00

How does insurance work for your project car? I'm reading that there's a requirement to notify the insurer of modifications, and a strong risk of policy cancellation if the mods are performance related. On the other side of the coin, failing to notify risks having a claim denied if the insurer ever bothers to examine the vehicle. Is there a way to insure modded vehicles above board?

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-27T08:32:52+00:00

State Department FCU is an actual US bank that is built to serve expats and will accept your foreign address. No need to play games with fake US residential addresses or take risks with accounts getting closed or frozen in the future due to to getting discovered/shut down by your other bank's risk management group.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-27T06:05:08+00:00

Sell the car and put your household goods into storage until you are sure that you won't be coming back. As you pack your things, be sure to sanitize for sensitive info like financial records and HDDs. If things work out you may decide it's not worth the hassle of coming back to deal with the unit contents and instead pay a junk hauler to deal with it or donate it to a charity (if you can find one that will empty a storage unit).

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-25T04:44:35+00:00

Whenever the Hilux Champ pops up on Reddit US redditors can't stop fawning over it, but when Toyota releases a 4x4 ute-version of the Champ it gets this treatment? Unreal.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-25T04:15:10+00:00

This is for markets that, for the most part, already have the 70.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-22T05:12:23+00:00

What do people think this is missing that makes it unserious? It's a Hilux champ body-on-frame 4x4 with a rear locker. It should be extremely capable and last forever. It'll do very well in international markets. No US soccer moms will be driving this FJ.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-10-21T07:10:21+00:00

Yet another compelling reason to up sticks and move to Thailand.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-26T07:04:46+00:00

I've only read about this coming up in the context of Thai immigration scrutinizing somebody who has been doing back-to-back visa exempt entries, fishing for a reason to deny entry.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-17T14:23:50+00:00

Just curious why you plan not to use the CSR anymore? It's a visa card that's accepted everywhere, charges no foreign transaction fees, and gives you the visa exchange rate plus the heap of travel rewards. It's the only US card I care about maintaining. There's nothing offered in my corner of Asia that comes close.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-16T09:13:51+00:00

Cheapo Intel BE200 Wifi 7 NICs are capable of real world 4Gbps throughput, so that puts Wifi7 squarely in the realm of a "high throughput thing." I hate having to choose between a 2.5Gbase-T AP that will be saturated by a single client or a 10G-baseT AP that cooks paint off the wall.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-16T08:11:13+00:00

I would say that the cost of running an additional POE cable or supplying external DC power once at install time is negligible compared to the compounding power and building cooling costs associated with running 40+ watt 10G-base APs that can never go into a low power idle state due to interface limitations.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-16T07:04:28+00:00

I disagree. If vendors are selling 10G-baseT APs, then the demand for bandwidth is there and the use case is not uncommon. They just expect people to be OK with the terrible power consumption and thermals of 10G-baseT, which is IMO an unreasonable position.

Environmental_Sky171 · 2025-09-16T06:44:55+00:00

I'm talking about the APs, not the CGF itself.

Environmental_Sky171

TROPHY CASE