I had planned on getting Thai Elite Family Excursion 5-year visa with my wife later this year. It's the cheapest plan for 2 people at 800k baht total. However, they announced that it's ending on June 15 so we decided to push up our plans and will be applying for it a couple days before it ends.

Normally, it seems like it's just a formality to get approved for the visa. They basically only do a background check in your home country and check marriage license. My wife and I are Mexican and American, but we got married a couple months ago in Georgia (the country). Then we got the marriage license translated to English and apostilled, so it should be ok, but I'm wondering if Thai Elite might look for an excuse to deny our application b/c this particular visa is ending and hope that we come back later and pay for one of the more expensive options (we won't, 800k is pretty much the max we'd be willing to pay for this).

Anyway, looking like probably 90% we'll be approved and moving to Bangkok in a couple months, but you never know. Not ideal having to get set up in the middle of monsoon season, but we're pretty excited nonetheless.

We'll be moving with our Chihuahua which kinda limits options, b/c only like 5-10% of condos allow pets, but I think we've found a couple buildings which look promising.

One spot is on Sukhumvit 12 a close walk to Nana/Asok BTS. I know it will kinda suck being close to sexpat central, but we'd also be a short walk to Benchakitti (as well as the dog park there) and usually we love to be in the center of everything, even if it's a bit chaotic. So it might be the best option.

Other spots are near Sukhumvit in between Thonglor and Phrom Phong. Also a solid option, but wondering if maybe it might be a little too laidback for us. And a 3rd option would be a bit away from the BTS, but next to Khlong Saen Saep. Being able to use the canal would be a nice option, but not sure that it really hits many destinations that we'd regularly use.

How about Chatuchak? You can walk your dog in the park there, HUGE market, cheaper rent compared to central cesspool Nana and the Thais there are more authentic because way less foreigners are hanging out in this part of Bangkok. And you have access to the BTS and MRT.

Pay the premium for a short term rental of 3 months or so. The dog is limiting but must be able to find something.
Soi 12 your main hangout spot will be terminal 21. So ladyboys and 50yo tugjob artists to welcome you everyday and then hanging out at the mall.
Although the food court there is kind of elite, so could balance things out.
Just do Thong lor and call it a day. You'll be happier.

Soi 12 is fine as long as you don't get carried away too much by all the nearby debauchery...

I know a Thai professor who has about 50+ units...we leased a condo in Ekkamai for a few years before our townhouse was finished. I could probably dig up his contact email. DM me, cheers!

Yep, had the wife jump through the hoops and get an exchange account then created a simple eth wallet (fast, ec20 all the way), then withdrawl to your new wallet and load your roll. You have to be able to show your wallet when you withdrawal back to it.

Probably a bit too remote for us. Most of the stuff we'd want to do would be a 50 minute BTS/MRT, so realistically we'd probably rarely do it. In any case, we'd probably take our dog to Chatuchak every now and then for exercise.

Well, one thing to note is that we already know a couple with a pet living in that building. She's disgusted by 50yo tugjob artists, but says it's not quite as in your face as you'd think there.

We'd use the parks a ton, both for ourselves and the dog. Also, I like the idea of having both BTS/MRT nearby, which opens up so many options. Can hit up Old Town and Chinatown easily with the MRT access, we'd probably rarely go there from Thonglor having to switch lines every time. Can walk to the parks, malls, Siam Square, occasionally posting up at a bar and people watch near Nana Plaza, etc.

We both work from home, so when we go outside we like to experience a lot of chaos and action and I feel like Thonglor might be a bit too slow for us, but we'll see once we investigate closer.

Probably a bit too far, but might work if it's a great deal and next to BTS. Thanks and DM sent

The Chatuchak park is really good. Huge with lots of old, big trees and it's NEVER crowded, so underutilized but probably not so much better than the one right by asoke that calls for a special trip so much.
I've ended up in Chinatown a couple of times recently and it's probably my favorite place now. Lots of the new generation have opened bars. Fun place to explore.
Thong lor is plenty busy with local culture and don't feel like you're living too much in a tourist destination like you would in lower suk.
The neighborhood around soi 16 probably one of my favorites in the Asoke area. See what kind of monthly deal you can get at the column hotel as a place to base temporarily. They have sizeable 1 bedrooms with kitchens.
Soi 24 and 26 are nice also as there are actual trees along the road there.

Thanks for the info

There's a pet friendly place right on Soi 24 and a couple more on Sois 28 and 30. As you said we'd have a couple decent streets possibly to walk the dog and Benchasiri wouldn't be too far either (dogs not allowed sadly). Really though, the dog is super low energy and would be fine if he basically never left the condo. So while being near some dog friendly places would be nice, it's pretty low on the list. It would be nice to have access to some green spaces like Lumphini/Benchakitti for us though.

It might come down to which condos have availability or where we can find a decent deal (since pet friendly usually adds a premium to the price). But I'd say we likely end up somewhere along the Nana-Thonglor corridor. Being close to any of those BTS stations seems fine and all have their pros and cons.

It's def not a common sight esp not on the sois on this side of the BTS (except soi 4 ofc), some massage parlours but that's about it. I "lived" in the Sheraton close to soi 12 for like 6 weeks or something last year. Also Terminal 21 is perfectly fine IME just on sukhumvit road at night, soi cowboy/soi 23, soi 11, there you'll find all kind of hookers/ladyboys/other creatures of the night. But all of these are reasonably safe too, just need to know the landscape a bit.

Just curious, what kind of stuff do you want to do on a daily basis here if you grind online for a living and plan to live here BKK long-term?

If I can give you a few advices, my two cents of peace:

- first months, this is really the most important part, change condo every month and move to a different part of the city to get a good idea of the city and where you and your gf gonna like spending time. What most people recommend online might not be for you and your girl. I did it in Saigon for 8 months, changed District every month and no ragrets, cool experience, I wished that I did that in BKK pre covid srs.

- you can order food online via Food Panda, so if you grind online keep that in mind, you can get delivered any food you want wherever you live in the city delivered to your door.

- some BTS/MRT station have bad food/nightlife options compared to the next station (so go Marco Polo mode for a while and see by yourself)

Just my two cents bro, don't go automatically giga city center like 5 south said they are some hidden gems (Chinatown, Chatuchak area for me), just explore and see by yourself before committing to a 1 year condo lease.

If you haven't been yet, a good local spot to hangout in that area is that stretch of bars around "method to my madness" across from Union mall.

honestly man, if it's not monsoon season, i'd seriously just get a bungalow in koh lanta for your first week and see how you like literally living on the beach

worst case scenario, you start off the relocation super relaxed and with easier ability to casually browse listings and talk to agents to make for an easier relocation to bangkok when you finish your bungalow stay

Lul, I legit took the girl I am dating now who lives not far for a first date there and spent the evening in the two biggest bars who have live music there. I really like this spot. Union Mall is probably the worse mall in BKK if you are not a teenager but yea plenty of bars, street food options there, you barely see any foreigners there, also Central Ladprao if you want to shoppingmallmaxx

Never been to Chinatown here, any good places you would recommend?

Yah, plan is for me to grind online poker about 25-30 hours a week and my wife teaches Spanish online on Zoom/Skype. Over the course of 5 years, we'll hit a lot of spots in Thailand and hopefully be able to see 8-12 other Asian countries.

One thing to note is that we're reeeeally big city people. My wife comes from CDMX (22 million people) and our fave cities are CDMX, Istanbul, Paris, all mega cities. And pretty much always, we will stay as close to the center of everything unless budget doesn't allow (like in Paris).

A couple times we've stayed a month+ at nice beaches. Puerto Vallarta is pretty nice and we stayed 6 months, but honestly could've left after a month. Would for sure live long-term in Rio though. I think any city under 1.5 million population is probably an immediate no for us, unless it's truly special.

Stuff that we'd like to do in Bangkok:

-We'll do street food quite often. CDMX has a street food culture and that's a big plus for us.
-Language exchanges, expat meetups (unless we go and they're too weird), probably take a couple hours a week of Thai at a school
-My gf does pole dance and sometimes we do salsa dance classes together, although she might switch to muay thai or a cheaper gym
-I used to do yoga a ton, but switched to rock climbing, so would like to have some options there nearby
-We'd probably walk around Siam Square a ton if we leave nearby. Yah it's touristy, but we love that sort of people watching
-Will also for sure walk in the parks a lot if we're near nice ones.
-We're not huge into nightlife, but once a week we'll go out for 2-3 drinks. I think we'll mostly focus on rooftoops or posting up at a good people watching spot on Sukhumvit or even Nana.
-Honestly though we just like having a plethora of options and doing something different every week: markets, Chinatown, Asiatique, river cruise, canals, ladyboy show, KhaoSan, Old Town, malls, temples, probably a ton of stuff I'm leaving out, but Bangkok seems like it has a near endless supply of stuff to do and we'd like to be super well located to take advantage of it all.

The idea of bouncing around month to month does have some appeal, but we've been nomading around a lot lately and having the dog makes it even a bit more tiresome, so I think we'll be glad to finally have a permanent place. We'll take 2-4 weeks in Bangkok and check out some areas, then decide. If we make a mistake and find we like some other area better, well we've got 4 more years to live there. In any case, most of these areas seem pretty great, so I think we'll be ok even if we don't find the ideal spot right off the bat.

Just curious, How do you find students?
See lots of online language lesson classes. Seems like a tough market in finding customers.

Haha, Union mall has to be one of the most busto in the city but central lad phrao can probably challenge paragon on the weekends for hot girls. Haven't been to the new night markets that opened up nearby but those things seem to be getting a bit generic these days.
Chinatown a good place to start is soi nana around teens of Thailand. Over priced drinks but worth checking out that strip of bars.

She uses the teaching platforms like Verbling, Italki, etc. They take a 15% commission, but basically do the marketing for you. It was a bit slow getting students when she started, but little by little you keep getting more new ones and are (hopefully) retaining a decent amount of your older ones. I'd say she's nearing capacity now. She gives about 120 hours of classes a month, which is close to her limit.

I lived in Bangkok near Sukhumvit with some other 2p2ers circa 2007 playing high stakes holdem on party poker back in the good old days.

Where can I find a live cash PLO game where I won't get robbed or stabbed? I'll be there in a few days

Thanks.

Edit: wow I just realized this is the same thread me and degen started back in late 2006. I made post #100 in this thread 17 years ago lol. Now I'm tryna play PLO in Bangkok. Back then I was playing high stakes minbet holdem, making $250 an hour avoiding ladyboys. Some things don't change much. Some things do.

How's the hourly winrate now? Obv don't need to answer if you don't want to.

how fast the time goes eh

was first in bkk myself in 05 too it seems like a lifetime ago

im thinking ill prob be back over there myself in a couple months idk if there are still any 2+2 people there but would be good to know what happened to some of the old faces

If you want to move to the world's largest red light district and no other place within the same city is good enough (for your dog) then just own it. Why would you people-watch if you find it all so terribly disgusting?

You've probably made a good move anyway. If your wife sees you getting the rock-star treatment from the girls on Soi Cowboy when you walk along to your people-watching spot then she'll get a good reality check that she needs to keep treating you right.

You highlighted a quote I made about someone else besides my wife and I lol. I don't have any issue with P4P, I even talked about partaking a bit in other threads. If being near the red light district was my motivation, I would just say it. Anyone that knows me personally knows I DGAF and will say whatever. If RLD happened to be near Thonglor, it wouldn't change my preference one bit.

We want to be super close to the center of the city where it's most chaotic and also have access to great parks. From Chitlom to Asok just south is the best spot for that. If you know anywhere else that fits the bill, then enlighten me.

And yah, my wife is the type that will probably be extra motivated to get in great shape, but she already treats me super well, so can't complain there.

I still feel like referring to lower suk as the center of the city of like calling Hollywood Blvd around the Chinese theater the center of LA. It's just an annoying tourist zone.
Good luck finding pretty much any street in Bangkok without a bunch of chaos on the daily.

Umm. I don't play LHE now. But last I checked it was $188/hour.