RETIRING IN HUA HIN we need help

[classiclady1st]

My partner and I are coming to Hua Hin mid october to have a look around with the thought of retirement next year we would love to meet some expats that can hopefully give us some ideas on every day life not just the tourist style and a few pointers so it will be as easy as possible thank you cindy.

[buksida]

Welcome to the forum, you've come to the right place. If you haven't already have a look through the Hua Hin Expat website: http://www.expathuahin.com/

No doubt other forum members will be happy to meet up to give you more pointers.

[moose 961]

hi cindy, just make sure you add enough extra income for the on expected. l'm running into some on planned for bill's.

[JW]

There will probably be a quiz in JWs bar while your here - lots of expats will be there, we make teams up on the night.

[uncle tom]

Cindy,

There's a great expat community in Hua Hin, with many retirees

It's a relatively quiet town, but without being boring; and it's well suited to those looking to enjoy a civilised retirement in the sun.

The climate is benign, there are no air pollution problems, and medical and dental services are very good.

The only downside is that it's not the cheapest place in Thailand, although that's just a reflection of it's popularity.

What it actually costs to live in Thailand depends on how you plan to live - if you want to live like a permanent holiday-maker, it can prove quite expensive; but if you fully embrace the Thai culture and lifestyle, you can almost get by on a British state pension.

Most retirees take a mid path between the two extremes.

Bear in mind that if you are British and officially take up residence outside of the EU, your state pension no longer gets index linked; so if you do retire to Thailand, you might want to consider leaving your official residence at home..

[margaretcarnes]

Cindy,

There's a great expat community in Hua Hin, with many retirees

It's a relatively quiet town, but without being boring; and it's well suited to those looking to enjoy a civilised retirement in the sun.

The climate is benign, there are no air pollution problems, and medical and dental services are very good.

The only downside is that it's not the cheapest place in Thailand, although that's just a reflection of it's popularity.

What it actually costs to live in Thailand depends on how you plan to live - if you want to live like a permanent holiday-maker, it can prove quite expensive; but if you fully embrace the Thai culture and lifestyle, you can almost get by on a British state pension.

Most retirees take a mid path between the two extremes.

Bear in mind that if you are British and officially take up residence outside of the EU, your state pension no longer gets index linked; so if you do retire to Thailand, you might want to consider leaving your official residence at home..

Agreed on all counts One of the most spot on summaries of HH i've seen in a long time.

[MisterClean]

You may need to budget 50 pounds a month if you live in a single house because you will be filtering your own water, cleaning and maintaining your own water tanks and having "clean" water delivered on days you when the municipality shuts off water to your house for days at a time.

Thats just for showering water.

For fresh drinking water you will need another 50 pound a month for two people for delivery of clean bottled brand name drinking water, in 6 litre bottles.

The water from the municipality is brown here. It is clear if you dont pay attention while showering but fill a bucket and its brown. Sorry, so 100 pounds a month for double filtering your water from the main street line, and buying 80 six litre bottles a month for two people. Plus about 100 pounds for the costs of the two water filters and installation. Filters need to be changed every month. So thats where the 50 pounds a month goes.

Hope that helps.

Anyone tells you otherwise is a dirty water user! Or they have some ingenious plan on how THEY fillter the water. Or they live in a Condo that has its water delivered. But then the drinking water costs still apply. Or use a cheap baht water dispenser for your drinking water, but because water is important to life, I dont use public water dispensers, but have used them with great success before, just had one bad experience.

[Nereus]

You may need to budget 50 pounds a month if you live in a single house because you will be filtering your own water, cleaning and maintaining your own water tanks and having "clean" water delivered on days you when the municipality shuts off water to your house for days at a time.

Thats just for showering water.

For fresh drinking water you will need another 50 pound a month for two people for delivery of clean bottled brand name drinking water, in 6 litre bottles.

The water from the municipality is brown here. It is clear if you dont pay attention while showering but fill a bucket and its brown. Sorry, so 100 pounds a month for double filtering your water from the main street line, and buying 80 six litre bottles a month for two people. Plus about 100 pounds for the costs of the two water filters and installation. Filters need to be changed every month. So thats where the 50 pounds a month goes.

Hope that helps.

Anyone tells you otherwise is a dirty water user! Or they have some ingenious plan on how THEY fillter the water. Or they live in a Condo that has its water delivered. But then the drinking water costs still apply. Or use a cheap baht water dispenser for your drinking water, but because water is important to life, I dont use public water dispensers, but have used them with great success before, just had one bad experience.

If that is the case then there must be thousands of Thais that never wash, or drink water!
Many of them do not earn much more than 100 pounds a month!

[blue05]

You may need to budget 50 pounds a month if you live in a single house because you will be filtering your own water, cleaning and maintaining your own water tanks and having "clean" water delivered on days you when the municipality shuts off water to your house for days at a time.

Thats just for showering water.

For fresh drinking water you will need another 50 pound a month for two people for delivery of clean bottled brand name drinking water, in 6 litre bottles.

The water from the municipality is brown here. It is clear if you dont pay attention while showering but fill a bucket and its brown. Sorry, so 100 pounds a month for double filtering your water from the main street line, and buying 80 six litre bottles a month for two people. Plus about 100 pounds for the costs of the two water filters and installation. Filters need to be changed every month. So thats where the 50 pounds a month goes.

Hope that helps.

Anyone tells you otherwise is a dirty water user! Or they have some ingenious plan on how THEY fillter the water. Or they live in a Condo that has its water delivered. But then the drinking water costs still apply. Or use a cheap baht water dispenser for your drinking water, but because water is important to life, I dont use public water dispensers, but have used them with great success before, just had one bad experience.

Never had to do this in all the years I have lived in Thailand, scaremongering I feel

[lomuamart]

Bloody hell,
Been here 14 years and never have had a municipal water bill of over 100 THB for a month. OK, no pool or other heavy usage of water but there are a good few plants to keep alive and we do try to keep clean!!!
As far as drinking water is concerned, we get the 25 litre containers of filtered water for 10 THB a time. Over the month, maybe 4 of those. Neither of us has come down with cholera, hep A or any other nasty - ever.
So, the other side of the coin is a total water bill of under 150 THB a month for two.

[johnnyk]

Bloody hell,
Been here 14 years and never have had a municipal water bill of over 100 THB for a month. OK, no pool or other heavy usage of water but there are a good few plants to keep alive and we do try to keep clean!!!
As far as drinking water is concerned, we get the 25 litre containers of filtered water for 10 THB a time. Over the month, maybe 4 of those. Neither of us has come down with cholera, hep A or any other nasty - ever.
So, the other side of the coin is a total water bill of under 150 THB a month for two.

My experience also

[Frank Hovis]

Hello everybody, My name is Frank and I'm a dirty water user, there I've said it !

Showers, teeth cleaning, hand washing, toileting, coffee, tea, cleaning vegetables, cooking all done with water straight from the tap. I do have a filter on the supply to the fridge for ice and cold water so perhaps there is hope for me yet.

MisterClean, what part of Hua Hin do you live at? I think the OP would be keen to avoid that area.

[dtaai-maai]

Anyone tells you otherwise is a dirty water user!

I'm with lomu on this, although we now use bottled drinking water rather than the large containers. 10k baht a month for clean water? That's more than my rent!

I wonder if the name Mister Clean implies some sort of personal hygiene/cleanliness issues? Of an obsessive or compulsive nature?
Nah, probably just a coincidence...

[heartofmidlothian]

Uncle Tom's post is spot on. Mr Clean, your post gave me a good laugh. You are a little bit neurotic about your water and I am with everyone else on this. I have been a dirty water user for a long time!

[uncle tom]

I've no idea how misterclean arrived at those numbers!

If you don't like the very slight brownish tinge to the mains water you can always filter it, but there's absolutely no need to do so for washing purposes - it doesn't make you dirty!

The mains water is treated (I am told..) but low pressure at times of peak demand prompts many to install pumps. The resulting negative pressure on the main causes leaks to function in reverse, drawing small amounts of dirty water into the system from time to time - so bottled water is the norm for drinking purposes.

The construction of a large water tower in the town to balance supply and demand fluctuations would solve a lot of problems IMO..

In terms of cost, I think I'd struggle to drink my way through the ten pounds worth of bottled water in a month, let alone fifty, and even if misterclean is filtering all his water, he should shop around if that's costing him fifty quid a month..