25 Years Life in Thailand

Getting fat In 2008, my wife was getting really "fat" and at a discussion while watching TV I told her that she "not so small as she used to be". My wife looked at herself in the mirror and agreed that she had to lose some weight and some "centimeters" around her waist. My wife was a Thai/Isaan woman and there was no way that an Isaan would go to exercise. But she knew a Buddhist monk at her village in Chaiyaphum who was well known for helping people to lose weight without exercise. Only Buddhist magic. As the weekend came, she planned a trip to Chaiyaphum. Visit her family and visit the monk. A few days later she returned with 5 bottles of what seemed to be a mixture of honey and spices. She said that within 2 weeks she would be as small as she was before. In the next days, she skipped all meals but drank every 4 hours a glass of the "Voodoo" mixture. After a few days, instead of losing weight she was gaining weight and her belly was sw...

Getting a passport In May 2004, I needed to make a trip to Belgium to make an update of all my documents after I was married to my Thai wife. For the occasion, I was thinking to bring my Thai wife and my Thai daughter with me as well and let my family meet my new little family. I discussed it with my wife, and she was full of joy to go on a trip to Belgium and meet my family. For her, it would be the first trip out of Thailand. But there was a little problem. She needed to get a passport and apply for a Shengen Visa for Belgium. Something she had never done before. At home, I filled an application for a Shengen Visa for Belgium and looked up what documents were needed to apply for a Thai passport. According to the information I did read, we needed to travel to Chaeng Watthana in Bangkok. There was the department located where my wife would need to apply for a Thai passport. I prepared all the necessary documents and we made the trip to Bangkok with her. While waiting for our turn t...

Visa Extension In May 2019, I was bound for my Visa Extension. Same as every year. I was barely 6 months back in Thailand, still recovering from a life threatening surgery in Belgium. Walking with a cane as I was still not fully able to walk normally. Like every year, I had prepared all the required documents and stored them in a briefcase and early in the morning I went to the local Immigration Office in Nakhon Ratchasima. At the main entry door, there was a young student sitting at his desk and checking that everybody would have the required documents ready. About 10 persons were in front of me at the entry door, and I joined the queue. When I arrived at the desk, I was very tired from standing and could barely hold my briefcase while holding my walking cane in one hand. While I was trying to get the documents out of my briefcase, my briefcase dropped out of my hands and all the documents dropped on the floor. I was wearing a medical belly-band and could not bend myself to pi...

Learning the language The first years I was in Thailand, I was working full time and didn't had time to learn an other language. But I learned very fast the most words I needed for my daily life. Tell a taxi driver to turn left (leew sai), turn right (leew qua), etc. Also, I learned to order a few kind of food and drinks in Thai. When the work in Rayong was finished and we moved to Nakhon Ratchasima, alias "Korat" and I married my wife, I wanted to learn more Thai language. I spoke already 6 languages because of my work and learning a 7th language would be nice. One evening, as we were chatting with my friends about our new company at the "makeshift office", the local "Gayang shop" (Barbecue chicken). My wife was also there, chatting with the wife's of the members of our company. When I ordered food and a drink in Thai, my wife noticed this and looked at me as if I had crossed a line. Arrived back home, she told me that I didn't need to lea...

Visa Choice After 2 years of "Visa Run", leaving Thailand every 90-days, I decided that it was time to change the lifestyle from a "Traveler" to a "Family" and I opted for a "Thai Wife" Visa. So, I traveled to my country to apply for a visa "Type "O"", which was later converted in Thailand to a "Thai Wife" visa. Everything was going well with my Visa, and I went every 90-days to the Immigration Office "Suan Phlu" in Bangkok. I went also every year to the Immigration Office, with my Thai wife and my Thai/Belgian daughter, to ask for a Visa Extension which was granted without major problems. In 2006, a local Immigration Office was opened in Nakhon Ratchasima, which made it easier for us to do the 90-days report and ask for a Visa extension every year. But the local Immigration Office had made their own rules. In 2009, we went for the Visa Extension, and the Immigration Officer wanted to have a "priv...

Leaving Thailand Living in Thailand was never my first choice, but Thailand was a nice country to live in. Everything was dirty cheap, unless you wanted to keep eating Western food and have a Western lifestyle. Eating a full "Pad Grapao lae Kai daew" in a roadside restaurant costed 20 Baht (0.60 Euro). But as I grew older and my Health started to go downhill, life in Thailand became less enjoyable. Also, the cost of living (or "Staying alive") became very expensive for me. I needed to go frequently to a doctor visit at the hospital and I was feed a lot of medication.  Daily tasks became a burden to me. What made me decide to leave Thailand? 1. In 2022, I got the message of my doctor at the hospital that my Kidney function was degradating very fast and that I would soon need to start to do a Kidney Dialysis. The cost of this would be a very big junk of my income. 2. The level of corruption at Immigration and other departments started to become a burden. At the ...

The start of my life in Thailand. On November 1, 1999, I was invited by a German group in Thailand to go work with them on a project for a multi-national Petro-Chemical industry in Rayong. I was working in Belgium for an Incinerator company and looking for new experiences. I was living alone in Belgium and spending most of my life in other countries, building and starting up the new installations. I accepted the invitation and started to work as a Project Manager in Thailand. My dream was never to stay in Thailand, but rather to work 5 or 10 years more, buy a Finca in Spain and spend my old days in my home country. During my work in Thailand, I meet a woman who liked me and was ready to start a relation with me. I told her that my plan was to return to Spain and she was OK with that. We talked about how we saw our future together and everything seemed to be fine. In one of our chats, she said that she was "CUT (Sterilized)" and could have not children anymore. I ...