5 Reasons You Should NOT Move To Thailand

#4 — Flooding

Thailand suffers from flooding most years. It’s worse in some areas than others, but can be pretty bad if you get caught up in it.

My My wife’s village in 2011 — Photo by the author

Above is an image of my wife’s village. The whole village and surrounding areas were flooded for around 2 months in 2011.

I lived in Bangkok at the time of these floods and it was thought that the whole central district would flood. People built walls in front of their shops and houses, and there were sandbags piled up all over the city.

In the condo I rented at the time, they advised us to stock up on water. If the street got flooded and the water got contaminated the condo building would only have 3 days supply of clean water from the tanks. We were told we might need to defecate in plastic bags and place the bags on the roof. It was that serious. Luckily, the central districts avoided most of the flooding.

#5 — Banking
Another issue that can affect your life in Thailand is banking. It can be quite difficult to open a bank account there as a foreigner. Many bank staff claim that you need a work permit in order to open a bank account. If you don’t work in Thailand, you won’t have a work permit.

All of this varies depending on the bank, the branch, and even the staff member you deal with. The general advice for foreigners is to head to a head office branch or just go from branch to branch until you find one that will open an account for you.

Most branch staff only speak Thai. If a foreigner turns up wanting to open an account they will often be told that it can’t be done. They just don’t want the hassle of dealing with a foreigner. If you’re American some banks won’t want you at all because dealing with FACTA is too expensive for them.

Conclusion
The above is not meant to put you off, but to inform you of issues you may have. All the above issues can be overcome if you keep calm and go with the flow.

I only spend part of the year in Thailand, so these issues don’t bother me. I already have everything I need set up and working smoothly.