This is Why You SHOULDN'T Move To Thailand..

Lloyd & Mandy

Go to https://surfshark.com/lloydandmandy for 4 extra months of Surfshark at an unbeatable price!  Welcome to Lloyd and Mandy! We&#039;re a family living our dream life in Thailand, and our channel is here to guide you through all the highs and lows of relocating to this incredible country. We cover everything from daily essentials - like buying groceries, driving, and getting healthcare - to bigger topics like where to live, how to raise a family here, and what to expect from the local culture. In our latest video we dive into the challenges and surprises that can catch newcomers off guard. We know that moving abroad is a huge decision, and we believe it’s crucial to experience Thailand not just as a tourist, but as a potential new home. That’s why we always recommend living here for 1-2 months as a local before committing.   If you find our content helpful, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to stay updated on all our latest tips and insights about living in Thailand!  GET IN TOUCH: 🌏 Email: lloydandmandy@ruthlesstalent.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloydandmandy/ 💻 Our Website: https://www.lloydandmandy.com/  TRAVEL INSURANCE THAT WE USE AND RECOMMEND: 🏥 Re

Transcript

00:00Okay so despite what the title of this video says this is not gonna be me

00:04bashing Thailand for 10 minutes straight. Obviously since we decided to move here

00:09we absolutely love Thailand. The local people have welcomed us with open arms

00:14and we've created plenty of videos on all the reasons why we decided to move

00:18to Thailand and why we think you should too. But having said that for the sake

00:22of transparency we don't want to be the YouTubers who just sugarcoat

00:26absolutely everything and make it seem like it's always sunshine and rainbows

00:31here. We've actually heard a couple of subscribers speak to us when we've been

00:35out and about and they told us that they watched our content and they moved here

00:40to Hua Hin specifically because of the videos that we've put out. And we also

00:45receive a lot of DMs from people saying they're planning on moving here and

00:49they're looking for advice which honestly is amazing. We love helping people out

00:53who are on the same page as us. But I've got to be completely honest even though

00:58it's flattering I also feel a little bit of a sense of responsibility. Because if

01:04someone's making a life decision based on the information that we've put out I

01:08definitely feel like we're responsible to make sure that we not only talk about

01:12all the great things about Thailand and the reasons we moved here but also go

01:17over some of the reasons that many people may not want to move to Thailand. Look

01:22everybody's different and people have different comforts and expectations and

01:26we want people to know that there are some challenges when it comes to living

01:30in Thailand just like there is in any other country in the world. We've got

01:34friends and family members that I know for a fact would not really want to live in

01:38Thailand so I realize that there's probably a lot more people out there who

01:43may not actually love living in Thailand as much as we do. And I know a lot of

01:49people watching this will say that the things I'm gonna cover are obvious and

01:53everyone should know this already about Thailand but if you haven't been here you

01:58just simply won't know what it's like until you get here. And so for that reason

02:04I'd suggest anyone who's thinking about possibly moving to Thailand to come here

02:09for a couple of months and feel it out and try to live as much like a local as

02:15possible not like a tourist on a one or two week holiday. Do your best to try to

02:20immerse yourself in daily life and see if Thailand really is for you before

02:25making a possibly irreversible decision to move here. So the first thing is very

02:30obvious but it has to be pointed out that the heat can be quite overwhelming

02:34especially in cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai and to be honest even here in

02:39Hua Hin. In Thailand there's pretty much two types of weather it's hot and dry or

02:44hot and wet. Between February and April is when it can get extremely hot and also

02:51very dry. If you're escaping a North American city or somewhere in Europe

02:55where winters can be really long and cold I completely understand that you're

03:00probably thinking I don't care if it's hot all the time I love warm weather and we

03:04love warm weather too but the fact is that during the middle of the day almost all

03:09year round except for maybe a couple of months during like December and January

03:14it's really hard to go out and do things in the middle of the day because of the

03:18heat. And I'm talking like even if you walk 50 meters from your accommodation to

03:237-11 just to grab something to eat or drink you're gonna come back absolutely

03:27drenched in sweat. But I do think it's definitely possible to become acclimatized to

03:34it. I feel more comfortable now walking around in the heat than I did when we first got

03:38here 12 months ago. But for some people it might just be too overwhelming especially

03:44if you don't do too well in the heat and believe it or not you can actually get

03:48sick of hot weather. I know sometimes I find myself craving cooler weather. So

03:53while we're on the subject of weather the next thing which we didn't know too

03:56much about before coming here was the burning season or the smoky season. So

04:01burning season is in northern Thailand generally between February and April when

04:08the weather is extremely hot and dry and this causes the vegetation to dry up and

04:13sometimes the intensity of the weather can cause the vegetation to catch fire

04:18causing massive fires. As a result the air quality during this period is really poor.

04:24In fact Bangkok has actually been listed as having some of the worst air quality in

04:29the world during this period. Luckily though we haven't experienced it too bad here in

04:34Hua Hin. We've been here for one burning season and yeah to be honest it wasn't bad

04:40at all. You can definitely notice the difference in air quality. If you are going

04:44to be living in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai or somewhere up north you're for sure

04:49going to experience the pollution in the air due to the smoke and to be honest it

04:53may even cause you to want to leave or travel somewhere down south during this

04:59period where it's not as bad. And in complete contrast to burning season is

05:03monsoon season where you'll see heavy heavy rainfall. It pretty much rains all

05:09over Thailand during this season. Personally we don't really mind it at all. It's

05:13actually kind of refreshing after the long hot summer and it kind of feels like a

05:18little bit of a taste of winter. But if you're coming here just to chase the sun

05:22then you can expect not to get too much sun between the months of around June and

05:28November. Although apart from a few weeks where it pretty much rained non-stop this

05:34season we found that the rain actually wasn't too bad and the sun did pop out on

05:39occasion most days. While we're on the subject of water let's talk about the

05:42water shortages. Again this comes down to certain times of year during the hot and

05:47dry period which also happens to be the biggest holiday in Thailand which is Songkran

05:54festival. And it's basically the Thai New Year holiday. As a side note if you've

05:59never been in Thailand for Songkran festival we highly suggest coming because

06:03we just had our first Songkran last year and it was so much fun and we actually

06:07made a video about it you can check it out down below. But due to the fact that it

06:11is extremely dry and hot during this period and Songkran also happens to be

06:16basically a festival that's just one giant water fight for a week straight. Don't be

06:21surprised if your accommodation runs out of water for days on end. We personally

06:27had issues with our water shutting off multiple times during Songkran period and

06:31also just around that time of year in general as a lot of people we spoke to

06:35did also. It was a pretty minor inconvenience but it's just something that

06:39maybe you should know in the back of your mind that could potentially happen

06:43while you're here. Guys I just want to give a quick shout out to Surfshark for

06:46sponsoring this video. One thing that we don't really show a lot of on this

06:50channel is all the behind-the-scenes stuff that we do like editing videos

06:54uploading content and of course planning all of our trips. Now up until about 10

07:00months ago we actually didn't have access to our own Wi-Fi because we were pretty

07:04much traveling full-time which meant going to places like cafes or co-working

07:10places to get all of our work done which also meant logging on to public Wi-Fi. Now if

07:15you don't know public Wi-Fi is an absolute goldmine for hackers which is

07:21why for almost three years now we've been using our Surfshark VPN and still to

07:27this day even though we have our own Wi-Fi I never go online without first

07:31firing up the VPN. And just in case you don't know what VPN stands for it's

07:35Virtual Private Network. So basically it acts like a mask encrypting all of the data

07:41that gets sent between your computer and the internet so that no one can steal

07:46all of your sensitive information. But that's honestly just one reason we use

07:51Surfshark. The other reason is that it also lets us log on to servers from all

07:55over the world which means accessing streaming services from other countries

07:59that we can't usually get such as Hulu, HBO and Netflix. So don't leave yourself

08:06vulnerable to hackers any longer. Secure your privacy with Surfshark by

08:10clicking the link below to get four months extra. Next if you're gonna be

08:15living in Thailand and you're going to get items sent to you from people back

08:20home or if you're gonna be online shopping from overseas retailers don't be

08:25surprised when you get hit with a massive import duty and tax bill. As an

08:29example we recently had one of our friends send us some clothes as a present for

08:34the new baby and the postman came and dropped off a note at our house saying

08:39that we had to go and pay the import duty and tax before we could pick up the

08:44goods. Which meant we literally had to jump in the car and drive 20 minutes to the

08:49closest main post office hub. We paid a 7% tax plus a 30% duty on the goods that

08:56were shipped to us. So basically if you're gonna be ordering like $200 worth of

09:00your favorite clothing online and you get it shipped here to Thailand don't be

09:05surprised when you get hit with a $80 tax bill. You can't buy a booze between

09:10certain hours in Thailand. Now this one doesn't really affect me too much to be

09:14honest anymore because I don't drink that much but I can imagine someone coming to

09:19Thailand settling in and then ducking down to 7-Eleven at like three or four in

09:24the Arvo trying to buy a couple of takeaway beers and wanting to drink them

09:29by the pool and then being told no sorry you can't buy those right now it's the

09:33law. Actually you probably wouldn't even get that far because you'll notice if you

09:37walk into basically any grocery store or 7-Eleven either before 11 a.m. or

09:43between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. all of the alcohol will be boarded up you cannot even

09:48touch it. And this law has been around for I think almost 50 years and it was

09:54basically brought in place to prevent officials from drinking during working

09:59hours and the laws just stuck and never gone away. As I said though it doesn't

10:03really bother me too much at all it did when we first got here and I kept

10:07forgetting about the rule and I would duck down to the shop to grab a beer or two

10:12to drink by the pool and then I remembered once I got there that oh I can't

10:17actually buy it it's illegal. But having said that while you can't buy takeaway

10:21alcohol during those times you can still go to an establishment like a

10:26restaurant or a bar and have an alcoholic beverage so really it's not a

10:30big deal but definitely something you should know before coming here if you're

10:34somebody who enjoys a drink or two in the afternoon. Now obviously like in any

10:40country where English isn't the first language there's gonna be a language

10:44barrier. And this shouldn't be a shock to anyone but I do think some people who've

10:49travelled to maybe just the more touristy areas in Thailand probably assume

10:54that all of the locals speak a little bit of English which isn't really the case

10:59at all actually. And you can definitely get by using Google Translate or

11:03whatever but if you're gonna be living in Thailand instead of holidaying I

11:08definitely would recommend trying to learn basic Thai just to help make things a

11:13lot easier for yourself. We've been learning a little bit of Thai and slowly

11:18picking it up but to be honest it's not an easy language to learn so it does take

11:22a little bit of time. I also just think that if you're gonna be living in a

11:25country you should probably try showing them the respect of making an effort to

11:31speak their language rather than just expecting locals to always understand

11:35what you're saying in English. But that's my personal opinion. So if you are

11:39someone who's not interested in learning another language at all you're probably

11:43gonna have a little bit of a harder time here in Thailand. And last but not least

11:47the roads can be quite busy and also dangerous especially if you're on a

11:52motorbike or a scooter. I made a video a while ago when I went to get my Thai

11:56motorbike license where I learned that there's approximately 15,000 motorbike

12:01deaths each year in Thailand most of which are related to drink driving. Now don't get me

12:07wrong you can definitely ride a motorbike or a scooter around and be

12:11safe but you generally can't anticipate what other people are doing on the roads

12:15and I highly suggest wearing a helmet, getting the right license or even

12:21driving a car especially if you're a little bit unconfident when it comes to

12:25riding a motorbike or scooter. It is also illegal to ride a motorbike or

12:29scooter without a helmet in Thailand but don't be surprised when you see pretty

12:33much every local and even expats for that matter riding without one because

12:38it's a law that doesn't seem to be enforced very strictly at all. It doesn't

12:43mean that if you get pulled over you won't potentially face a heavy fine from

12:47the police especially being an expat they're pretty much gonna target you. The

12:52traffic in Bangkok is particularly brutal especially during peak hours. Don't be

12:57surprised if you get a taxi and you end up sitting in traffic for hours on end. So if

13:01that's something that really bothers you and you're not interested in taking

13:05public transport I'd probably suggest living somewhere outside of Bangkok

13:10that's a lot quieter. So having said all that these are just some of the

13:13downsides to living in Thailand and in our opinion there's way more upsides than

13:18there are downsides. We absolutely love it here in Thailand. The people are so

13:23friendly and welcoming. The nature and the beaches are stunning. The general quality

13:28of life that we get here in Thailand compared to back home in Australia or

13:32Canada is a massive contrast. And as I said at the beginning of the video if

13:37you're considering moving here I definitely suggest coming for at least a

13:41couple of months if not a few months and just trying to immerse yourself in the

13:46culture and try and live like a local as much as possible. Then you can see how you

13:50like it and also just be prepared that some things might not go as smoothly as you

13:56would like. But one thing I've noticed about Thailand and it's probably honestly

14:00my favorite thing is that people here aren't generally too stressed and they're

14:05not really in a great rush like they are back home and I think that's a great

14:09thing personally. Anyway that's what I think so let me know what you think down

14:13below in the comments. Did I miss anything or do you disagree with me on any of

14:17those points? I'm happy to hear any feedback and if you found this video

14:21helpful at all please like and subscribe and we'll see you in the next one. Cheers.

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