www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/09/09/dateline-paradise-pensionersRecord numbers of Western retirees, including Australians, are opting for a Thai-style sea change for their twilight years. (Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Ever thought of retiring to Thailand?
Record numbers of Western retirees, including Australians, are opting for a Thai-style sea change for their twilight years.
As Nick Lazaredes discovered, it's all part of a retiree boom that is injecting two-and-a-half million dollars a day into the Thai economy.
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Dotted with lotus ponds and ancient temples, Thailand is a land of enchantment.
And Australians are retiring there in droves.
(Reporter:) "So do you find many Aussies around here?" (Bingham:) "Oh, yeah, all the sois (streets) here, there's plenty of Aussie bars around."
Ken Bingham, a former butcher from Melbourne, is part of a new diaspora of Australian retirees moving to Thailand.
The cost of living is estimated to be one-fifth of what it would be at home.
"I can live comfortably on our pension here -- and live a good lifestyle -- where, at home, it's pretty hard, you've got to cut corners."
Another Australian, Godfree Roberts, moved to Thailand when the global financial crisis wiped out his retirement fund.
Now, he has a comfortable life in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.
"It's the best balance of scenery, culture and cost and fun that I've been able to find anywhere."
Chiang Mai plays host to almost 30,000 foreign retirees rediscovering life on a shoestring budget.*
They are providing a welcome boost to the local economy, as Godfree Roberts portrays it.
"The fact that we collectively kick in a billion dollars a year here ... And this is a small town, remember. Only 160,000 people live in old Chiang Mai, and that's money from heaven."
Thailand is also an attractive option for families with ageing members suffering from dementia.
In one unique Swiss-run facility near Chiang Mai, foreign Alzheimers patients are being cared for in a traditional Thai village.
Caregiver Martin Woodtil says it works well.
"It's like a big family. They walk around together with the caregiver, and they see the supermarket, they see the other persons ... They know each other, our neighbours. They know the guests. And that's very nice."
But many Australian retirees are lured to Thailand in search of more than just happy smiles.
Says one who identifies himself simply as Steve.
"(It's) No wonder the guys are coming to retire here. The ladies. You treat the ladies with respect, and they will treat you like God."
In Pattaya, the so-called "sexpat" capital of Thailand where Westerners continue to flock for the sleaze and vice, a unique police force has been set up.
It is a multinational force, designed to help keep them safe.
One police volunteer is a man named Graham, from Queensland's Gold Coast, who began five years ago.
Just like the people they watch over, he and a fellow volunteer named Tom, from Ireland, went to Thailand in search of a lifestyle they could not enjoy back home.
(Graham:) "I'm married to a Thai, have been for 21 years, so that's something that's been good." (Reporter:) "If you'd retired on the Gold Coast?" (Graham:) "I wouldn't have been able to afford it. Not at 52, when I retired. No way I could have retired at 52 on the Gold Coast." (Tom:) "Yeah, I think, if you come here, you can have a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget,*** really. You can live a very, very good life here on not a lot of money."
But too much of a good life can lead to trouble.
Like this drunken man they encounter.
(Tom:) "Are you okay here, or do you want us to take you to the other side of the road? What do you want to do, because I don't want to see you have trouble, you know. (Drunk:) "No, listen, I'm okay." (Tom:) "Are you sure?" (Drunk:) "I'm very okay."
A man named Dave, a retiree from England, is another member of Pattaya's foreign police brigade.
He says expats need to keep their frivolity in check.
"If you are coming to retire to Thailand, make sure you have the finances -- don't waste all your money. In a few years, you will be broke, and you will be living on the beach if there's non-one to help you. Once you are here, you are here -- embassies do not help you. If you use up all your money and your visa runs out, you will be arrested, and you will be put in jail."
Tourist numbers have plummeted as a result of the political unrest that has gripped Thailand.
Now, the military has once again taken control, declaring a war on vice and a return to traditional values.
And Lieutenant Colonel Aroon Promphan says Pattaya is a focus.
"We are cleaning up the city, and we are bringing in more family-type (life) into Pattaya."
Lieutenant Colonel Promphan says the effort to clean up Pattaya and other parts of Thailand is supported by many Thais who recoiled at its hedonistic excesses.
(Reporter:) "How do Thais think about Pattaya?" (Promphan:) "The Thai? Before, three years ago, they don't want to come to Pattaya, because they said there is too much problem going on. But now, recently, they are changing their attitude."
With life in Thailand returning to normal, and Australian retirees facing ever-rising costs at home, a Siam sunset could be the golden pond of choice.
