Advantages and Disadvantages

There are plusses and minuses of working anywhere, and this is approximately how Thailand compares, at least according to my values:

Plusses

Minuses

Very nice, peaceful and civil mainstream Thai culture Low crime, safe place (relative to others) Interesting expat community from all over the world Expats tend to be Directors and other high level people, and explorers Abundant and affordable skilled labor Cheap labor Inexpensive office space and overhead Not too strict Internet is OK, reliable, unrestricted Stores have practically everything Relatively free economy for small & medium businesses Good infrastructure Public transport goes everywhere Centrally located for Asia Low cost of living (with servants) Lots of things to export Lovely ladies

Foreigner property ownership restrictions (except condos) Foreigner company ownership restrictions (exceptions exist) Evil and protection - money-wielding foreign gangs are the worst! Corruption on big projects (a much lesser evil) Pollution -- choking air pollution on Bangkok roads, mostly due to nonenforcement against a small % of vagrantly violating vehicles !! Language barrier -- English is poor -- must learn some Thai Sanitation sometimes poor (avoidable) Public transport full at rush hour (avoidable) Weather too hot for some people Culture too alien for some people Sometimes unsatisfactory quality of service (like anywhere in the world) Traffic in Bangkok (not too bad now, was worse before) Copycat lack of creativity, originality, and double-checking the foreigners or the Thais of higher status / rank

You may rank the above in a different order than me.

For example, when I first came to Thailand, I put the last disadvantage ("Copycat lack of creativity...") as second on my list, but after 12 years here I've been able to deal with that by staff attrition (lots of attrition over the years!) and retaining the best staff. (It's actually a problem everywhere in the world, but in Asia it's much worse than in my native North America and my experience with other westerners in Thailand.)

As for the daytime heat, "If you can't take the heat, then get out of the tropics!" I don't mind the heat, but some people from far northern climates suffer. Buy thin shirts and pants (not thick jeans), instead of bringing stuff from home.

Importantly, avoid sunburn when vacationing. See the Health section for info on that and other issues. Health concerns are usually not a significant issue in the overall analysis, as you can see in the Health section

 > History, culture, situation > Advantages

Additional, children pages of this current parent page:

Advantages :
  Economical Thai labor
  Corruption
  Monopolies
  Pollution
  Protection of Evil
  Terrorism in Thailand

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