Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 15576
Loc: Forest Hill, MD USA
and is a great place to retire of just visit.
I have a couple friends that retired in Thailand and they absolutely love living there. One friend, who once owned a successful foreign car repair business and was a part time charter fishing captain in Chesapeake Bay, moved there about 10 years ago. Within a few weeks he had a girlfriend that moved in with him and they have been together ever since.
I recently communicated with Mike and he told me most of the towns are pretty much open and the majority of the businesses seem to be thriving, but not all. I asked him if there were any arranger keyboard players there and he assured me there were several in Pataya, a very popular city in Thailand for tourists.
The majority of the businesses there have employees that speak English fluently, and most of the music performed often consists of American songs, but the more successful entertainers also provide some Thai music as well. Unfortunately, this is one of the many SE Asian countries I never visited. Mike said that Karaoke has taken over in many of the local bars since the Covid-19 restrictions were put in place back in March, but there are a couple dozen arranger keyboard players still working in Pataya.
I don't know what the pay scale is there for entertainers, but the cost of living is incredibly low. Mike's penthouse condo cost him about $320 a month and from the way he described it, it is fantastic, measuring about 1,500 square feet with all new appliances and furnishings when he moved in. If you look at the following video, you will notice you drive on the Left side of the street, and the currency is in Baht. 100 Baht equals $3.22 USD. You can purchase breakfast for 2 for about 100 Baht.
All the best,
Gary
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PSR-S950, TC Helicon Harmony-M, Digitech VR, Samson Q7, Sennheiser E855, Custom Console, and lots of other silly stuff!
Registered: 02/21/05
Posts: 314
Loc: Allen, TX, USA
That pretty much is true Gary, I’m Thai, I was born and raised there, live music scenes is really awesome, both full bands, arrangers keyboards at some nice restaurant, some back up music, I guess. It’s true cost of living is much cheaper, much more cost effective there, I’ve been living here since 1980, I’m close to retirement and really considering splitting my time both here and maybe half a year over in Thailand. I know Thailand has some bad reputations as well, just like everywhere else, it’s not as bad as what it’s made out to be. A lot of Yamaha and Roland’s arranger there, I’d say.