If you read the internet, significantly one explicit web site we won’t identify (thaivisa.com)… whoops, then you’d suppose that Thailand is a dreadful place to visit, filled with hate-filled ex-pats who live in concern and loathing of, properly, every thing. According to many, the sky is likely to fall in at any moment and everything in Thailand is merely too costly, too corrupt, too hot, too chilly, and too dangerous.
Here are seven in style myths some ex-pats wish to hold touting.
The TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) make up the tourist arrival numbers
This has been a preferred conspiracy principle for decades. As the numbers of tourists continued to rise, so did the comment “they’re making it up”. With no evidence to back their claims, keyboard warriors, seemingly sad that there’s a rise in the variety of vacationers coming to Thailand, claim passionately that the TAT is just inventing numbers to appease their bosses.
It should be talked about that the TAT doesn’t run round counting heads however get their figures from the Thai Ministry of Sports and Tourism which collates the statistics from the Immigration Department stories.
Meanwhile, the airports get busier, add new terminals, extra flights arrive, new resorts get constructed, new vacationer sights open, new condos get constructed and folks scream about lengthy immigration queues.
The TAT has assured us, over the years, that the methods used for amassing vacationer arrival information have been the same for 20 years and that the figures are audited. The danger the TAT would have of being exposed to fraudulent numbers could be a significant lack of face.
However, if you’d choose to consider ‘CrankyPattaya’, ‘BritRoot’ or ‘TratTrash’, then go for it.
Things are getting too expensive in Thailand
And things are getting dearer around the globe. It’s called inflation. The rises in prices for food, services in goods in Thailand can partly be defined by the rise of tourism to the country with in style locations having greater rentals than prior to now as the value of the property in vacationer areas rises.
Whilst you can pay 300+ baht for a pad thai in a vacationer area, locals can nonetheless get the same meal for under 50 baht. Is the worth greater than it was 10 years ago? Of Login required .
The variations in costs between the favored tourist magnets and the outlying areas of the nation continue to turn out to be more apparent although. If you’re going to reside in Pattaya, Phuket, or Sukhumvit Road, then you can see many prices have risen along with the popularity of the areas and the rising real estate costs.
You have a high chance of dying on Thailand’s roads
According to figures from the World Health Organisation, Eritrea has probably the most variety of highway deaths (with 48.4 deaths per one hundred,000 residents), Dominican Republic – 41.7, Libya – forty.5, Thailand – 38.1, Venezuela – 37.2. So Thailand has, statistically, the fourth most dangerous roads in the world. The statistic appears unhealthy.
But if you think about that 74% of these deaths are folks on motorcycles, often additionally drunk and never sporting a helmet, it’s not as dangerous as the numbers recommend, if you’re not in the high-risk classes. But IF you’re not drunk, put on a helmet, experience responsibly or travel in a car, your probabilities of getting killed on the roads are a LOT decrease. Whilst the statistics nonetheless look really terrible they are heavily weighted against young males between 16-24.
So if you don’t fall into the ‘at risk’ categories that make up a really excessive majority of deaths on Thailand’s roads, then you’re in much less danger than the world common. That’s still not ok but it places Thailand’s excessive rating into perspective.
The Thai authorities don’t need us to remain here
In recent years there have been additional ranges of paperwork placed on the applying for visas for long-term stayers in the Kingdom. In the previous, a variety of the requirements had been missed or sorted out via, Ummm, negotiation. At the same time, the Thai Government has announced many other modifications to visas and introduced Smart Visas and BOI visas, aimed toward encouraging skilled professionals to reside and work in Thailand.
All this whereas the trade charges for lots of currencies have turned dangerous, particularly for UK, European and Australian residents, so their pensions or offshore investments haven’t been stretching as far as up to now.
Most of the modifications come in the form of enforcement of present guidelines and a common ‘clean up’ of procedures at Thai Immigration places of work. There have been many enhancements, well… attempts at improvements, along the way as nicely – issues like drive-thru services.
Bottom line, when you suppose it’s difficult to stay, work and keep in Thailand, simply examine how difficult it’s for a Thai citizen to maneuver to your nation.
All ex-pats sit in bars and date bar women
In the 1980s this may have been statistically prevalent. But the type-cast ex-pat residing in Pattaya, Patpong, and Phuket has changed radically prior to now 30 or so years. Now ex-pats come from a much broader range of nations, settle here for a lot of completely different reasons, are youthful, many have families, and are more likely to be working right here than retired. And you’re unlikely to see them sitting in a bar chatting up bar ladies (not that there’s something wrong with that).
But old perceptions die-hard and the typical Thai ex-pat remains to be regarded as white, older, and enjoys relationship younger Thai bar girls. Statistically, this can be a tiny proportion of the 300,000 or so ex-pats thought to be dwelling and dealing in Thailand in 2019.
Staying in the Kingdom without a job, with limited funds and no health insurance is becoming more and more complex. But you’d find that state of affairs in most components of the world now. Should you like the protection of a health insurance policy to guard you from these unexpected scenarios, there’s an entire host of corporations prepared to write down you a coverage in a matter of minutes. The specialists in Thailand are Regency Assurance, catering to ex-pats and tourists alike.
The Thai government is a dictatorship
We’ll tread slightly rigorously here. Thailand’s fraught experiment with democracy, since the absolute monarchy was abolished again in 1932, has been fragile. Lots of coups, a lot of Army tampering, and many elections. Thailand now has the dubious distinction of being the world’s solely current Military-led authorities. But is it a ‘dictatorship’ within the historic use of the phrase? Probably not.
The NCPO, the Army-led National Council of Peace and Order, took the reins of presidency on May 22 2014, in a cold take-over from the civilian-elected government.
But the Thai Government is in good firm in and around South East Asia. Laos and Vietnam are each run by communist governments (with secure capitalist economies), Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy run by a frontrunner who has been seen to manage the ‘elections’ by suppressing political dissent. Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy however has suffered ongoing political division and nepotism, and more recently an increase in non secular tensions that cripple the government’s capability to manipulate. Singapore is more of a family business than democracy – the southeast Asian economic miracle of the twentieth century. Brunei is run by a Sultan who has recently introduced features of Sharia law into the Sultanate – no elections there. Myanmar is a quasi army-run dictatorship. Etc, etc…
Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea are the only comparatively stable Asian democracies however they’re few and far between.
So Thailand’s distinctive tackle the words ‘election’ and ‘democracy’ must be considered in a wider framework of pan-Asian politics. Bottom line, there aren’t tanks rolling down the streets or troopers standing on avenue corners toting guns. In the Wikipedia Democracy Index, Thailand falls into the class of ‘hybrid regime’ and that’s in all probability about right.
There’s NO Freedom of Speech in Thailand
Whilst there are lots of refined, and some much less delicate, limitations on Thai media, you will notice sturdy debate and editorials printed in Thai and foreign-language media any day of the week. It’s a uniquely ‘Thai’ sort of media however there are a few well-documented circumstances of people who have dared to tread over the gray line.
Going to a Thai media scrum is about as robust as you’ll find wherever on the planet and the questions fired at politicians, often cloaked in very polite language, can cover just about any issue. There are a few ‘no go’ topics in Thailand and that’s a cultural factor that takes a few years to fully understand. But, believe me, the Thai media is a strong part of the ongoing political and economic discourse of the nation, regardless of the many perceived or actual restrictions. Like many different issues in Thailand, in phrases of freedom of the media, TIT.
The Thaiger has never been contacted by the police, the Army, or government officials to debate or take away anything we’ve revealed..