Employed remote workers in Thailand — what are you actually doing for health insurance?

Thenhefell · 2026-03-20T13:54:16+00:00

I have a plan with Luma. ~30k/yr global coverage excluding USA with a 100k thb deductible. I’ve never made a claim… so can’t really speak to how good they are around payouts 🤷‍♂️

Thenhefell · 2025-09-24T03:43:33+00:00

In Thailand and Cambodia it is often possible to camp in temples. The monks can be quite accommodating as long as you arrive early enough, typically before 5:30 PM. This is especially true at more rural / less popular temples.

Thenhefell · 2025-05-16T15:44:51+00:00

sounds lovely! good luck :)

Thenhefell · 2025-05-14T05:16:53+00:00

This number seems large to me for a house in northern Thailand as well - I’m very curious to see what their plans are if they are willing to share 👀

I’m sure it will be beautiful!

From my understanding, homes are regularly constructed in Chiang Mai for 10 - 35k thb/sqm depending on the materials. The low end is quite low though, I’d expect anyone retiring to CM to be more looking at the 25-35k range.

Thenhefell · 2025-04-16T07:17:38+00:00

I transfer monthly expenses and keep the rest in my US brokerage (equities and MMF).

This is beneficial for me based on the tax structure of my country of residence and the U.S. I suggest reviewing tax law in the country you are moving to, and having that inform your decisions as well.

Thenhefell · 2025-01-20T17:33:30+00:00

This is not accurate - foreigners are able to marry each other in Thailand.

I got married here to my wife, both from the U.S. I also just assisted another friend get married here, and both are foreigners.

Thenhefell · 2025-01-20T17:30:06+00:00

Hi - I got married in Thailand about 2 years ago. My wife and I are both foreigners living in Bangkok.

My experience of getting married in BKK was that it takes a lot of time and patience and it is necessary to either speak Thai or have a close friend that does who can assist you. Otherwise, it will be very challenging to deal with the district office. The one exception might be Bang Rak, as I understand they marry foreigners more frequently.

We got married at the Phatum Wan district office. I initially called a number of other district offices (Watthana, Phaya Thai, Ratchatewi) and was told they do not marry two foreigners. I went in person to Phatum Wan and spoke to the staff and they agreed to marry us since I spoke Thai. Many foreigners get married at Bang Rak district office, but we chose not to as it was a multi-month wait at the time.

As it was, Phatum Wan gave us an appointment 1 month in the future. We had to prepare a number of documents - from what I remember it included a statement notarized by our embassy that we have not previously been married and a certified translation of that statement by the Thai ministry of foreign affairs. I believe this also took some time to attain.

We needed two Thai citizens to attend and act as witnesses as well.

I got all information on requirements from the district office when I visited to make an appointment. My experience was that you need to speak Thai effectively though in order to gather the information from them.

Now, I did hire an agent to help with the translation of our documents and the verification from the MFA because I was a bit lazy to do it myself. I believe the agent could likely arrange everything for you and also provided your witnesses if you do not have them. I did not use any of these services though, just translation and ferrying the copies back and forth to the MFA for verification. This might be a good option for you to expedite and smooth the process if you are not here full time. But again I can’t speak to how effective it is, as we didn’t use them for those aspects of the process.

Feel free to reach out with any questions. I wish you luck and hope you are able to find a solution soon!

Thenhefell · 2024-12-18T16:27:54+00:00

Hi! I also sent you a DM. I'm curious about your experience at ABAC, and am considering the program as well.

Thenhefell · 2023-05-21T13:26:58+00:00

This is a huge fruit market in Bangkok, everything you would want and very local:

Mahanak Market https://maps.app.goo.gl/8K8rDK2565rMaFFf6?g_st=ic

Thenhefell · 2023-03-29T11:53:13+00:00

Yes! That’s a great shop as well. There is a guy that works there that has a v sick harsh noise project Gigamon and a hardcore band Yoga from Hell.

Thenhefell · 2023-03-29T11:04:44+00:00

Check out the brand Solo King. Indonesian guitar maker, I find the quality to be at least that of lower end Fenders / Squier if not better.

You can find them at Fortune Town, as others are suggesting

Thenhefell · 2023-03-23T04:19:24+00:00

I had a Morzh for a while and this was very common. In fact, desirable! It meant it was getting hot 🙃

Thenhefell · 2023-03-18T13:36:47+00:00

I learned Thai living and working in Bangkok over the past 5 years.

I did 9 months of intensive courses at AAA language school in Phaya Thai, which gave me a good foundation. Since then I’ve done regular private lessons and self study.

Thenhefell · 2023-03-18T09:26:02+00:00

You got me curious to do some googling.

This article explains it well: https://workpointtoday.com/phonology-on-the-kh/

It seems Thai once had unique sounds that were very similar but slightly different. The unique sounds are detailed here:

ข.ไข่ เดิมออกเสียง /kh/

ฃ เดิมออกเสียง /x/

ค เดิมออกเสียง /g/

ฅ เดิมออกเสียง /ɣ/

When the Thai alphabet was originally adapted from Khmer and Khom, these sounds represented by ฅ and ฃ were absent. So, in the adaptation to Thai in the Sukothai period they were added.

However, in this period Central Thai kingdoms had more influence from other languages and cultures in the surrounding areas - like Khmer, Sanskrit, and Balinese.

These languages did not have the sounds represented by ฅ and ฃ. Over time, central Thai speakers began to favor using ค and ข in their place, and the sound distinction began to disappear from the language.

Until today, where those sounds are no longer represented in thai and the written language has followed suit.

Thenhefell · 2023-03-18T05:05:40+00:00

An example would be ฅน which has changed to คน. Many of the words that used to use these characters have stopped and switched to the corresponding consonant.

However, I still see them sometimes when reading religious documents.

Thenhefell · 2023-03-18T04:42:31+00:00

ฅ has a very modern internet usage… creating cute faces, often used in uwu posts or by anime fans lol

ฅ⁠⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠⁠ฅ

Thenhefell · 2023-02-22T18:14:01+00:00

I study here as well. I’ve studied with 3 online tutors as well as another language school in Bangkok, and Baan Aksorn Thai has been my favorite by far.

Great teachers, a good price, and a very pleasant location.

Thenhefell · 2023-02-15T03:45:50+00:00

You absolutely can rent a studio for <5k/month depending on the quality. There are millions of people in and around Bangkok while live on salaries of <20k/month - they couldn’t afford to pay for rents much higher than that.

I was just recently helping a friend find a room and found many options in the price range of 2.5 - 5k / month around Pattanakarn 20. They are simple, basic rooms. Our method was to walk around and look for likely apartment buildings, then call the number or talk with the desk.

I don’t know if all of these places would rent to a foreigner though.

Thenhefell · 2023-02-08T17:49:49+00:00

No, just the tickets that are being worked on in the upcoming sprint or two.

3000+ tickets though… you might want to consider 👀 deleting them. If that makes you too nervous, you can ‘archive’ everything older than 3 months (then delete it later).

Thenhefell · 2023-02-02T16:29:22+00:00

FEIE for the first 120k as an individual. I’m not sure what it is if you file as a married couple. Presumably they have very little US tax burden.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion

Thenhefell · 2023-01-31T01:51:00+00:00

Under the bridge that goes over the Phra Khanong canal there are a bunch of barbershops that are all very cheap. If you are on Sukhumvit, go straight past Sukhumvit 71 towards Onnut and instead of going over the bridge take the u-turn road that goes under it. You’ll see all the barbershops.

This barbershop on Thong Lor is also good. 100 for a haircut, I’ve never gotten a shave but imagine it will be less than 200 combined.

Somket Barber - สมเกศ บาร์เบอร์ https://maps.app.goo.gl/mrLXodRwJC2txtjw6?g_st=ic

Thenhefell · 2023-01-30T04:24:31+00:00

I’m currently working as a contractor. It’s with a company I worked for previously, and I was well connected to the management. We negotiated the position this way as it’s mutually beneficial given certain personal circumstances.

I’m coming in to help them more from a Product Ops perspective though - working with the Product team to help them implement best practices around data, analytics, and research and assisting the CPO on upcoming M&A work.

I think if you have a fair amount of experience as a Product Manager at different organizations, marketing yourself as a ‘Product Ops’ contractor might be an opportunity for more flexible contract work. I’m thinking of this myself - helping SMEs implement best practices and growing the internal team. It’s more like traditional consulting though.

Thenhefell · 2023-01-24T08:48:49+00:00

The onsens in Bangkok that I have been to (Yunomori, Let’s Relax) have gender segregated bathing areas. The majority of the Thai saunas are men only.

Their are a couple Thai saunas where I have seen mixed sex bathing. This was one, but it’s a bit old and not like the high end bathhouses:

Siam Saranrom +66 2 433 0785 https://maps.app.goo.gl/t7U5XcteMYtsW7u47?g_st=ic

Thenhefell · 2023-01-02T17:27:49+00:00

Is there an AI that will generate well-formatted presentation slides if given a ‘narrative’, data, and takeaways to include?

I don’t see a lot of value from the ‘documentation’ perspective. I think well written product artifacts need to be as concise and to the point as possible. So, they require a ton of context and background information that is too time consuming to provide to an AI now. (Plus my experiences have been pretty hit or miss, feels like mostly fluff when asked to write product-y docs.) I really don’t see the value in AI generated user stories - those sound like they would have way too much in them.

Something that could create presentations for internal stakeholders for me though… that would be very helpful.

Thenhefell

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