Editor;
Re: Old guys in Pattaya (PM Mailbag Friday, 24 January 2014) – Just get a letter from your embassy. No problem, just sign a statuary declaration stating you receive over B65000 (small charge). Start a Thai bank account B400. Receive a letter from bank stating you have funds invested (no large amount needed). Letter B700. Then off to get a medical certificate, approx. B800. Now off to Soi 5 and make application for retirement Visa. About B1500. If you don’t have a Non Immigrant Visa you can update your Tourist Visa. I think about B1000. Now you are “home & hosed. You should now have a Visa for the next 15 months.
Report every 90 days (No Charge). You think you are on cloud 9.
Here you are in Paradise but in actual fact you can not afford a toga let alone feed yourself on about B24000 a month pension. Glad it’s you and not I. After the first month your rent becomes due and you are out on the street. Nights are spent searching out bars staging parties.
You can spend some nights in the waiting room of the hospital. Coffee is free & some times fruit also. Soon you are told to move on. Now it’s down to the beach every day. No money for laundry and even the girls there make fun of you. You learn the word “men” is not a form of endearment. If you are lucky your family may get you home or an NGO will arrange for your fare home. Back in the old dart you spend time at the local pub picking up glasses, cleaning the bog and saving like hell for your next adventure.
Aussie Bill
