Changed the channel name to reflect new, updated life in Thailand
Just putting our fun adventures and my quest to get off the couch, sofa, chesterfield, whateva you call it out there.
I fell in love with the country and now have my retirement visa in order looking to stay here permanently, or at least as much as possible
I met an amazing lady, named Tik and her and I have been building a life together over here for the last five years
I’m also a musician I love to mess around in my studio as my hobby write songs for fun and add them to my videos If you ever need any original music for a project, hit me up
So this channel bounces around a lot ..I try to keep it interesting and film things that I want to preserve as memories. I’m glad you made it this far and hopefully you want to come along for this ride. I appreciate you taking the time to watch, comment, like and share my videos. Thanks for checking out my channel. Please subscribe! Thanks! Glen
Thats interesting regarding the bees be interested to see the results.That was funny regarding the drone attack. We use those to feed wild squirrels we about 10 come every morning for their breakfast. We just stated getting rain down here on Koh Phangan after months of drought. We spent the school holidays in MaeChan CR and it never stopped raining strange lol.
Aphids will attack your pak. Mix up garlic and onion in a spray bottle. Spray when necessary. It's natural as you can imagine but it saves on pesticides
It’s pretty much impossible for foreigners to own land in Thailand you can own a condo. My advice would be to come over, travel around and rent. See what areas you like before making any major purchases.
I remember, when I build my house in Thailand 18 years ago, we were spending 40K€ with an exchange rate of 1:50, so today it would be more like 50K€. So in Bah it was 2M. It's a single floor home. The property was already owned by my wifes family. Just last year we did some maintanance by painting the house in a new colour and some small other things.
Let’s face it soon as they see our white skin the price goes up In less than a year, this house has turned into a ramshackle mess with six dogs and shit everywhere. Probably less than a quarter rai of land Built as cheaply as possible top to bottom Hate to see what it’s gonna look like in 10 years
Been here now 2 years and plan to get private lessons come jan 2025. Picked up some thai but its more personal bf/gf chit chat . Local thai friends laugh when i call out my lady in front of them . Never too late to learn . Some hard work and a good teacher
Didn’t expect RU-vid to let this video get ‘suggested’ the 200 people who normally watch my videos know where I live 😀 I live in a little village in Chiang Rai province northern Thailand thanks for watching man.
Well done Tik and Glenn and all the locals. We were in MaeSai last Tuesday afternoon collecting my yearly extension and saw the start of the flood. We had to leave the following morning to head south for my sons schooling but lots of our friends have lost basically everything sadly.
This house was built by a contractor for some people in our village Just my opinion, but most houses here are built to last about 20 to 30 years if that Not like the west where you can find a really good well built house from the 50s and fix it up Not saying it’s impossible, but that’s why I think most people just tear down and build new here
good for you to take up driving in Thailand as a resident... the only thing I teach myself every day is to trust no one on the road is going to do what you think they should be doing... 3 lane right turns... u-turn on a one-way road,,, no blinker indication... head on a swivel and "Evasive Manouvers Delta" as Captain Picard has stated many times ... chok dee kup Glen.
Thanks ..all good tips. Expect the unexpected. Two hands on the wheel, full attention all the time It’s almost guaranteed a 10 minute trip into town will result in at least one near miss, a ‘what the F are ya doing buddy?’ And a ‘screw this, you can drive Tik’ 😂
congratulations glen and tik, that procedure was the easiest i've seen yet. most folk get bogged down with document translations/legalisations... a marriage licence of sorts.
It was half the hassle of getting the yellow house book There was another couple there getting married and Tik acted as their translator as they could only talk with Google translate
All palms were greased, but the big boss was called upstairs for an emergency meeting. We had to wait for her final signature Plus, the mayor from our village had to go and sign and he missed a spot. We had to wait for him to come back Whole thing was a comedy of errors of sorts good thing we’re retired.
Belated congratulations you two kids! 7 years together?? That time has flown. I've been following you now Glen, through a few reinventions and channels, for what mu st be close to 10 years. I've been with you longer than Tik has mate, where's my present? LOL Brilliant news and I wish you many, many more years of happiness here in the Kingdom. Lots of love, Barry.
I just started driving in Thailand myself and I encounter the same problem with the signal lights. That and wanting to reach over my right hip for the seat belt. My wife gets a good chuckle out of it. I drove in Bangkok last weekend and it was absolute madness. I would say, "never again" but that's where my wife's family lives. The floods in the north are quite something. My wife was saying some people have been stuck in their homes for 3+ days without food. Stay safe and dry!
Nice video once again Glen, I tried learning Thai and knew quite a lot of words and phrases and when my Thai wife from Korat was talking at home with her son, daughter and grand daughter I could understand quite a bit but when she was talking with her mum, brother, other family and neighbours I couldn't make out anything. Turns out the village all speak Lao and they are 6 hours drive from the Lao border. I taught my little granddaughter to speak English.
Thanks Thomas I’m really concentrating on just improving my vocabulary. I’m gonna start working on the tones and sentence structures (for me the most confusing parts )once I’ve got enough words to get conversational You start to pick up the little nuances from different settings I was listening to a Thai grandmother talk to her grandson. That’s what I need. Nice and slow. It clicked in to me that we are like infants learning. Tiks sis speaks a mile a minute When they’re talking, I don’t understand hardly anything When older Thai are talking to children I understand much better because they talk much slower and simpler Tik went to uni classes and had a English tutor. Took her years and she was younger. I remind her now and again its a long journey and I just started the car 😁
Hi mate, just thought I'd let you know I still watch all your videos. For me it's a change of pace from the normal Thai video. I'm living in isaan and have kept busy building our house from start to finish. 👍
The biggest problem you have when you're older is adopting a new voice, something which is foundational to your identity and nearly set in stone at a certain age. If you can't learn to find this new voice then you'll never be able to mimic how they speak and learn their language. If this was some European language which is closer to English this would be more achievable but Thai is a totally alien language by comparison.
Thanks for this information. Totally makes sense. Multiple reasons why it’s so damn difficult especially for older folk. I tried singing a couple of my own songs songs in Thai. They were a disaster as far as I was concerned as I couldn’t get the accent, right
@@GlenRobertsonMusic Signing is a good idea actually. I think other people had all the good advice. Learn to read first and watch TV then mimic what they say over and over again. The real talent is if you can suppress your own inner voice and replace it with a a new "Thai" person.
Yes, I’m aware of the five Thai tones I also think a lot of foreigners give up because of the tones and for that reason, I’m not concentrating on them until I get more vocabulary under my belt As a former professional singer, the tones don’t intimidate me but to be fluent and understood, the tones are essential. Thanks for the comment
You’re not alone, my friend It really depends on everyone’s situation. We’re all in different boats. If I lived in Pattaya or Hua Hin, maybe it wouldn’t be as important as out here in the middle of nowhere English is nonexistent
@@GlenRobertsonMusic Even my Thai wife has problems understanding some people in Chiang Mai or Isaan. What chance do we stand? She also disagrees with the statement that many make, that learning yo read and write is the key to it all. Think about babies, they can speak several years before the can read and write. It all comes down to your blessing of learning languages and remembering phrases.
9:36 I'm one of those people who say "if you're gonna live in my country you should learn to speak the language" :D and that's exactly what I did when I moved to Thailand - started learning Thai and at around Paddy's level now (but still far from someone like Stuart Jay Raj). But yes, I still don't understand people who have lived in a country for 10+ years and don't speak the local language. They're basically living in a self-inflicted bubble. My grandma's neighbors in Lithuania are Russian, have lived in Lithuania for like 20 years, and don't speak a word of the language. Their kids go to a russian speaking schools etc. Life must really suck for them tbh, especially with the current geopolitical situation which made most of the country become pretty hostile to Russians... Rant over! 😅
Yes, Stuart is the next level. I’ll never reach that, but Im gonna get intermediate level if it kills me lol same as the guy who calls the Muay Thai fights in Bangkok at the stadium. He speaks perfect Thai (his name slips me) If you’re at Paddys level that is awesome man! I’ll get there someday PS Good rant!
@@GlenRobertsonMusic Language schools really help and keep you engaged! I went to Duke in 2021 (one of the top schools IMO), and considering doing Chulalongkorn's Thai course early next year (but going to struggle to balance it with work since it's HARDCORE - 3 hours of class, 3 hours of homework every day, presentations, speeches, etc)
As a speaker of Thai for decades (since 1970), my biggest recommendation is to learn to read and write from the very beginning. I did the same with Khmer and Lao and have had no issues when learning to speak and understand. Never try to learn Thai using the Latin alphabet, that is a fatal mistake. Thais often don't speak English well, because they are taught using Thai script, along with all of its unique rules.
Well done Glen regarding exercise and learning Thai something I need do on both counts. We are heading to our other home down south where you dont need Thai as most speak English. But we spend half the year in Chiang Rai so very little Thai but my wife who speaks Lao and South Thai sometimes struggles up here. I am collecting my third extension next week than the two day drive South but will be back up for Christmas hopefully. Been following you when came up here first and you were hanging out with the S. African guy from the city.
@@GlenRobertsonMusic Thanks Glen. I made contact with Rowan when we bought up here but never met him. That's maybe 3 to 4 years ago. We must meet up for a coffee sometime when I back up this way.
Hi Glenn. A great Thai teacher for me over the past few years has been Ratanaporn Tangprasert ("Kruu Nhoi") She is very kind and patient and has a great program. She lives in Bangkok and I have Zoomed with her very many times. She's also given me many Thai cooking lessons!
I suspect it's fear more than laziness that prevents many people from trying to learn. The younger ones seem happy to jump in and try, but as we get older the brain slows down and it gets harder to process and retain new info..and along with that comes fear. Fear of discomfort, fear of embarrassment, fear of losing status etc. I'm 60 now and been learning Thai in Aust for about 14 months. Yes it's hard, yes it's frustrating at times, yes it can be a bit embarrassing when you make mistakes and don't know how to express yourself, or understand others once you've gotten up the courage to start a conversation...but hey what else are you gonna do with your brain at this age? Let it slowly rot?? 😅😅. My tips for learning: find a teacher who knows what their doing (online or in person). Stay away from language learning apps. They're dead weight. Speak as much as you can, and learn how to ask clarifying questions in Thai. Eg "could you say that again?" "I didn't understand". "Could you speak slowly please". Thanks for the video friend..and good luck on your Thai language journey!
Great comment and tips The ‘lazy’ title was just to get peoples attention…most of us didn’t get to the point of retiring in Thailand by being lazy. I think most older people give up after they realize 1-how hard it is 2-that it’s a multi year journey 3-that they will probably never be fluent The brain rot comment is interesting as I just finished filming a video about staying healthy while retiring in Thailand The app Ling has helped me a lot because I can do it on my own speed and anywhere I want at any time What it doesn’t help me with is my confidence speaking in public I’ll definitely be trying an online tutor once I get a little bit more vocabulary under my belt You’re right though I can’t think of a single RU-vidr over 60 who speaks Thai in their videos regularly like Paddy, Mickey, or the lady from Ko Lanta It’s a marathon, not a sprint
@@GlenRobertsonMusic You're dead right there! ...it's worth remembering that it takes time..and patient persistence..and motivation. Agreed re Paddy. I'm a big fan..
Thanks I’ve used it on a couple of my original songs. Here’s some links ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-821AHuc6778.htmlsi=Yp0mkJVhz_VAcOX4 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UJFT-GJLr54.htmlsi=hBPcFJRW9Gs_U7Qt
Amazing what CR & Phayo are getting & CM isn't.....Many many years here & still cannot speak Thai....I can pronounce just fine but I just don't remember it....
@@GlenRobertsonMusicThey are getting the hottest chicks too. I know a white Canadian aged 25. He smashes a different girl 5 times a week. Helps he is fluent in Thai, which he learned in just 1 year. *Old guy being jealous😂*
Ahhhhh- THAT explains all the 'Bai nai?" I thought they were just curious. Makes sense. I gotta figure out what Northern speakers mean by all the "loi"'s, and "la"'s. I mean- I know what "la" means (as in "la hun la?"). And the ubiquitous "urr". Only lived here 11 months. Paddy is NO joke. Thx
It’s confusing enough without then throwing the northern dialect in there for us guys up here 😂 I found it interesting that the children all learn to speak central dialect in school but as soon as they all come home to the village, they’re all ‘joew’ this and ‘joew’ that
@@GlenRobertsonMusic I like to shock street vendors, poolroom girls and massage staff in Jomtien w/ "Sambadee boa", "bpoa ben yang", and "saeb, saeb ilee". Oh- and of course I meant "bpai nai?" and not "bai nai?" "Ilee dee"
one good way to start understanding Thai is watching thai movies and tv-series with subtitles, there are some free ones on youtube and streaming services like Netflix has alot of thai content i Thailand.. Its so easy to get Isolated in more rural places if u not understand at least basic words and sentences. My friend in central thailand noticed same thing moving from bangkok to rural central thailand, he gained weight taking scooter instead of walking all the time.
Thanks this is great advice. I’ll definitely start doing that Probably most popular shows just use central dialect, which will help a lot. Once I get a basic understanding, I’m going to get a online tutor
Just stumbled on your vlog and subscribed and l am like number 14 :P I love the countryside it looks so serene and beautiful . I have to admit that the size of your back yard surprised me and even more so by the look of the grass and well kept it is. I have been with my Thai partner Jee for 4.5 years not and retired last year in Australia and then arrived to Thailand approximately 13 months ago and have been trying to learn Thai and my partner says my guttural tones are okay because of my Scottish accent , I have found there are numerous RU-vid videos teaching you and I have found them to be pretty good for the basics. i will be busy going through your older vlogs for a while , didnt realize there would be so many , I was thinking a year but for 7 years you have been vlogging and you have been around a few different countries. But I iwll just watch from the past year or so thats when I arrived here . cheers Willie
Hey Willie, welcome Yeah, my channels just for fun showing a different lifestyle than most people in the west experience I made a few comments about a certain virus a couple years ago and RU-vid really put the squeeze on my channel 😎. I’m surprised you even found it. It’s great you’re trying to learn Thai. I think it’s the key to enjoying this country to the fullest. 👍🙏
According to my Thai friend, building cost per sq.m. ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 Baht and this information was about one year ago.He had his own workers to do the job so it is cheaper for him. Whilst cycling along the street in the area, I met a builder who was constructing a house. He told me that it cost about 4,000 per m². I think depending on the different materials used and the type of foundation, the cost can increased. Thailand building code for simple house is not more stringent than Myanmar. For example, once the columns are erected, it is usually not tied with beams at the ceiling level. It is connected by steel trusses which is not an integral part of the building concrete structure. The good point of building construction in Thailand is that there are many companies that sell building materials. Moreover, concrete can be ordered directly from the batching plant. I believe the contractor is the person who can make it more costly than the fair price for construction.
