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Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

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zsteve
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Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby zsteve » Fri May 13, 2022 6:00 am

A few kite friends in our mid-50's to 60 (single males without families) are looking to possibly find a place to retire in asia at sometime in the future in the immediate vicinity of a kite spot. (edit :Preference on flatter water and teen : 13-19mph wind as we foil 90% and would like to continue safely foiling)

Thailand, Vietnam, Phillipines are all on the list. We are looking to do a winter trip just to this year to visit any potential spots as well as kite vacation.
We realize there are a multitude of other variables, but thought any relevant experience or ideas might help.

Priorities being considered are :

Ability to purchase property and retire on a budget
Access to modern health care
Proximity to a metro (market, hardware,etc)

Please chime in with any specific city suggestions if you have them. TIA
Last edited by zsteve on Fri May 13, 2022 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby Havre » Fri May 13, 2022 8:09 am

How much wind do you need?

Never been to Vietnam and I cannot comment on all of Thailand and all of the Philippines, but based on my personal experience and from what I can gather from others:

Philippines: Easier to find good wind - less of a community with retired people (if that is a con for you - personally I prefer places I live to be more "local").
Thailand: Not many spots with consistently "good" wind (20 knots or more for TT) - easier to find places with "western" style standards and to build a social life with retired people from all over the world.

I probably wouldn't want to live on Boracay, but it depends on how you like to live your life - a lot of tourists all over the place of course. And I have no clue if you can buy something there. 50 years ago that island was probably amazing. Good wind and hopefully it is now cleaner then when I went. A friend of mine went to Palawan and that looks amazing.

In Thailand I would check out Hua Hin. Two of my father's friends live there playing golf. They love it. Never kited there myself, but I have friends who has - and they said it was good (I know Hua Hin has been discussed on here as well - you should be able to find some old threads).

Personally I would have gone to Brazil or South-Africa, but Asia is nice as well.
Last edited by Havre on Fri May 13, 2022 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby abel » Fri May 13, 2022 8:39 am

I would second Hua Hin in Thailand.
Reasonable winds during the season from December to April.
15-18 knots almost every day.
Seldom nuking winds.
If you hydrofoil, then you get a lot of nice days before and after the season (9-11 knots).
Life cost also very reasonable.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby magnusod » Fri May 13, 2022 11:38 am

zsteve wrote:
Fri May 13, 2022 6:00 am
Priorities being considered are :

Ability to purchase property and retire on a budget
Access to modern health care
Proximity to a metro (market, hardware,etc)
Hua Hin ticks all these boxes. There's a nice community at https://www.facebook.com/surfspothuahin https://www.surfspotthailand.com/

Pak Nam Pran 30 min south of Hua Hin is a more quiet less developed place https://www.facebook.com/yodakiteschool Only local market. You would need to drive to Hua Hin or Pranburi, 25-30 min, for hardware, supermarket and health care.

Thailand is a fantastic country to live in. In my opinion and many other people that I've met rate it top notch for living. I met many expats during my time in Thailand who rated it as the best place they ever lived in. I've been to Phillipines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia but would definitely choose Thailand in Asia. It's not a high wind location but if you live there and combine it with trips to the Phillipines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Sri Lanka to get stronger winds it's the perfect combo in my opinion. Traveling around Asia is cheap and easy.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby jyka » Fri May 13, 2022 4:35 pm

Hua hin is a nice place, I have been also to Pranburi what provides the same kind of kiting. But with less people around you.
But as already said, the wind is light in hua hin area. And there are dangerous jellyfish - I would wear protective clothing, it also protects against the sun.

If you know more places like Hua Hin where to spend time and kite, I would like to hear :)

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby Toby » Fri May 13, 2022 5:04 pm

Why limited to Asia?

He should also visit Brazil ones and see if it could be on the list as well. If he didn't do it yet.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby Slappysan » Fri May 13, 2022 8:20 pm

While Hua Hin looks great, the off season is more of a true off season so unless you want to travel to kite in the off season you might want to look at Najomtien (near Pattaya) for a more year round foiling destination.

Both offer very nice proximity to an amazing world class city in Bangkok.

I don't think you can own property in Thailand unless you marry a Thai though, but I'd expect similar to Mexico you can have a bank buy it and hold it for you.
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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby CaptainKook » Wed May 18, 2022 5:11 am

AFAIK

American passport holders can buy and own 100%;
land, property, businesses in Thailand.

It believe a deal was done during Vietnam war to encourage US troops visiting on RnR to invest in Thailand.

Non USA can own 49%, however a workaround is set up a Thai company which owns outright. Can find law firms to facilitate this.

Have heard the kite season in Hua Hin is short. Maybe only a few months.

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby Pemba » Wed May 18, 2022 7:29 am

It seems the assumption is made that you can just go to any of these places and stay for an indefinite amount of time. Is that the situation ? I stay in Mozambique and after more than 20 years here it is still a bit of a struggle to keep my resident permit and associated documents updated. You basically need to open up a company and by doing that you put yourself properly "on the radar", which is the beginning of a lot of recurrent hassle. I would imagine it might be the same in many other places ?

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Re: Kite Life Retirement Locations in Asia

Postby CaptainKook » Thu May 19, 2022 6:15 am

In Asia, unless you go the company route, I think it's mostly 90day Tourist Entry Visas.

You need to leave the country and re-enter. Lots of expats there do visa runs to the borders every 90 days. In Bali people used to fly to Singapore, or KL every 90days.

In Thailand people used to overland into Malaysia, Burma, Laois.

Company route was every 6 or 12months.

Not sure if theres a limit on number of re-entrys allowed.


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