Expat on the Beach - Freedom is a great feeling!

Expat on the Beach - Freedom is a great feeling!

Agenda:
- At the beach - Hua Hin, Thailand
- Scandinavian community
- Golf destination
- YouTube update
- Well-Being Man channel is growing
- Travel & Leisure ranks Chiang Mai #1
- Driver's licenses, condo ownership
- Material wealth and happiness
- Freedom is a great feeling!

Here is the link to the video

In this episode, I'm on the beach. I felt like I needed a little ocean time. So, here I am on the Gulf of Thailand in a city called Hua Hin. To get here from Chiang Mai, it's about an hour flight. If you were to get in a car and drive from Hua Hin to Bangkok, it would take about 3 hours. You can also take a bus or a train, believe it or not. Straight across the Gulf going east, is a city called Pattaya. It’s a very popular city.

Hua Hin became popular as a tourist destination about 100 years ago, 1920s, when the Thai royal family built summer palaces here. It’s a bit more relaxed, chill kind of place than say Bangkok or Phuket or Pattaya across the Gulf.

Interestingly, in Hua Hin there are a lot of Scandinavians – people from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. A lot of them are snowbirds, meaning they come here for winter months. Some of them live here all year long.

Hua Hin is also a big golf destination. People come here just to play golf. There are many golf courses in the surrounding area. I think there're around 10 major golf courses here. I was at breakfast yesterday and met a family from Australia, from Sydney, and the mother told me they come here specifically for golf. Same thing with a couple I met from Korea, a man and woman. They come to Hua Hin specifically to golf.

Turning to YouTube, I have to say I'm very pleased that the Well-Being Man channel is growing. Thank you to all of you who have subscribed to the channel, or watched the videos, liked the videos, or who have made comments. We appreciate that very much.

I'm learning a lot, and I have to say I have a lot more respect for YouTubers than I ever did before. Initially, I thought the pivot from writing newsletters to shooting videos would be easy, but it's really not that easy. It's a lot of work. Before uploading a video, I have to write a script, shoot the video, edit the video in CapCut, then export the video. All of that takes a lot of time. After an upload, I have to write the description, create a thumbnail, put in some useful links and resources, then I take the video dialogue and turn it into a blog, and I put that blog on my website where anyone can read the video dialogue. Finally, every Sunday I send out an email to all of my subscribers giving them the option to either watch the video or go to the website and read the newsletter.

Even though this is a lot of work, I have to say it's very gratifying. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing now. I could travel, be at the beach, or at home in Chiang Mai. I could be in any country; as long as I have my camera with me, I'm good to go.

Next, I wanted to make a few observations about living here in Thailand. The first thing I wanted to say, interestingly, the readers of Travel and Leisure magazine, a New York City-based magazine, ranked Chiang Mai as the number one city in Asia. I was surprised to hear that. I mean, there're a lot of cities in Asia. Asia is a big place. I was very pleased to see that. At the same time, Chiang Mai was ranked number two globally by the readers of Travel and Leisure magazine.

The second thing I wanted to say about living here in Thailand relates to staying in touch with people in the US. I find myself talking to people in the US either early morning like 7:00 a.m. or later in the evening like 7:00 p.m., or a lot later, given the time difference. The east coast of the U.S is 11 hours behind Thailand and the west coast 14 hours behind. So, it's either early in the morning or later in the evening when I can talk to people back home.

The third thing I wanted to mention, since people have asked, is about a driver's license. Yes, I have a driver's license. I actually have two driver's licenses, one for the motorbike and one for the car. In my case, I think it was easy to get those licenses because I came here from Miami with an International Driver's Permit and a Florida driver's license. That made the process a lot easier. I didn't have to take tests and all that.

I bought my motorbike. It cost about US$3,000. I bought a Yamaha NMAX 155cc. It's a great little bike. It can go up any hill. And I'm happy to say I do not own a car.

One other point about driving here relates to the usage of horns. When I first moved here, at least my experience living in Chiang Mai, I thought maybe cars here were not made with horns. In fact, every car does have a horn, but people just don't use it. They're considered rude. And so, I would say that a horn here in Thailand, especially in Chiang Mai perhaps, is considered a safety device. And the horns in America, I can with firsthand experience, are an anger device. Somebody cuts you off, you yell out some cuss words and flip them off, expressing anger.

The fourth thing I wanted to mention is that people have asked about my condo. I own my condo. As a foreigner. I can own 100% of my condo. However, I cannot own 100% of a house or a business. There are foreign ownership limitations here in Thailand. I can own 49% of a house or a business, but I can't own 100%.

Finally, the last thing I want to mention was in reference to a newsletter I had written. It’s one of the last newsletters I wrote before I switched over to YouTube. The title of it is “I moved to Thailand - I am free.” In that newsletter, I mentioned some factors that influenced my decision to move here. One observation I kept thinking about, and so I wrote about it, was that people in Thailand who have very little material wealth seem so happy, and at the same time, people in America – people I know – who have a lot of material wealth, often don’t seem very happy. They’re always pursuing more wealth even though they have enough wealth for 10 lives, or more.

The other observation from that newsletter was a key factor that made me move here. That is, for the first time in my life, I feel completely free to do whatever I want to do. And that is a really good feeling. The kids are grown. I don't have any clients or customers or investors or students. I don't have to answer anybody. I could do whatever I want, whenever I want. And let me tell you, that is a great feeling!

Thank you and we'll see you again!
Peter

Here is the link to the video

Here are the links in the video description:
- The video locations:
1. The Standard, Hua Hin, Thailand
2. Centara Resort, Hua Hin, Thailand

- Newsletter: I moved to Thailand - I am free
- Travel & Leisure magazine ranking Chiang Mai #1: here