The Four Types of Foreigners Who “Live” in Thailand

When you tell people you’re moving to Thailand, the reactions are… predictable.

If you’re a woman, a couple, or a family, you get something like “that’s great, what a wonderful adventure, good luck". But if you’re a single, older man you get more like “oh... right” accompanied by one of two looks: the wink-wink, nudge-nudge grin, or the look of pure disgust.

I wasn’t coming to contribute to the older guy cliché, but everywhere you a guy goes he's labelled with it. I first visited Thailand to see what all the fuss was about, yes, Phuket. We all go to Phuket first. I came back and decided to live here because I fell in love with Thailand, its people, and its culture. But assumptions based on stereotypes and cliches cling like Bangkok humidity — and they follow you into expat life.

Over time, I’ve realised there are four distinct species of foreigner who “live” here.

1. The Stereotypical Men

Spotting them is easy: middle-aged or older, usually sunburned, often holding a beer before noon. Their “retirement plan” is either a much younger girlfriend or an ever-rotating cast of them. Whatever girl they can afford.

Their world is a triangle: condo, bar, and whoever they can take home. Pattaya is their Mecca and pushes “sleaze” to the limit, though you’ll find them in all tourist areas. You’d be surprised to know that even in a small town like Ao Nang, there is a bar that I consider sleazier than anywhere in Phuket, so really, any tourist town.

They’ll tell you they’re living the dream. And they are — if your dream involves paying for affection, marinating your liver, and pretending it’s all about “mutual attraction.” Underneath? Insecurity wrapped in denial, gift-wrapped with a bow of delusion, all in the name of attempting to pump up an ego that is in reality, smaller than their prostate.

We all know them—some of us, unfortunately, know too many of them. Single, middle-aged (or older) men who move to Thailand to find a much younger woman… or to stay single while keeping a revolving door of “girlfriends”… every night. Whatever they can afford.

They cluster in tourist-heavy areas because that’s where the women willing to do that kind of business congregate. Girlfriend for hire or girlfriend for a night, whatever floats a guy’s boat. Contrary to the clichés, most Thai women aren’t “easy”, prostitutes, or prostitutes looking to milk a guy of his money pretending to be his girlfriend. It only appears that way because tourist areas are a magnet for these types of women, with no skills, from poor families in the country, who are attracted by the opportunity of making good money.  

These guys’ lives revolve around bars, booze, and girls. The longer they live this way, the more morally warped and delusional they become. I’ve seen the full fantasy in action—one man telling me, with a straight face, “I can have any girl I want here.” Meanwhile, he’s paying for her drinks and affection (if she has her way he’ll be paying more for her later) in a gentleman’s club, where the stage-to-girl ratio looks like an adult version of musical chairs.

They’re not here for Thailand. They’re here for an ego boost they can’t get at home. And sadly, they believe their own sales pitch. These men are seriously damaged, carrying many issues, who’s ego needs stroking by thinking that young and beautiful women want them. They talk like big men but underneath they're tragically insecure and in total denial of reality.  They live in a world with a self-image that is as substantive as a dream, inside a hologram, inside a mirage. Yes, they are tragic and the longer they live that life the more morally corrupt and delusional they get.

Funny, I saw a video where a seriously unattractive, old and overweight foreign man was being interviewed. He said he likes how the girls in Thailand accept him how he is. Then the video cuts to a Thai “working” girl and she said all she wants is their money. These girls are smart, and these men are dumb as rocks. Sure, enjoy the girls for the entertainment, but men forget it’s a business transaction for the girls. No, they don't really "lile" you.

I feel like saying “Dude, you're paying her. You don’t “have” her because you're a hunky good looking guy with a personality so magnetic that it would drag the International Space Station back to earth.

2. The Retirees

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You know the type: Not that long ago they would have retired, sold the home in somewhere like Sydney, cashed up, and skipped town to somewhere cheaper and quieter up or down the coast. With property prices being what they are, the “cheaper” option out of a city is no longer cheap to buy property or to live. So, they choose to move to places like Thailand. Places where it’s far easier to stretch the pension, superannuation, and savings than where they come from.

They pick tourist-friendly areas where there is enough English spoken to get them through most transaction and google translate takes care of the odd time English doesn’t work. The only Thai they care to know is “hello”, “thank you” and “how much”. Ok, maybe they know, “how much”.

They stay very insulated in their little expat group of friends living as if on an island in the sea of Thai people. They don’t mingle or make friends with locals. Many have little respect for Thai people and the culture and hang onto every bit of “home” they can. Any Thai culture they pick up is more wallpaper than understanding and respecting the “why”.

Thailand isn’t their passion — it’s a bargain.

Sure, they live in Thailand… for now

3. The Digital Nomads

You’ll find them in hip cafés, MacBook open, latte art intact, working on something that “lets me live anywhere.” They could be in Bali, Lisbon, or Medellín — Thailand just happens to be the pin in the map this year.

They’re younger, less bitter, and generally more functional than Group 1. They work, they travel, they post Instagram stories of sunsets. They’re not looking to “understand” Thailand — Maybe they will end up staying long-term, or more than likely they’re just enjoying the ride until their next country swap.

4. The Wonder-Seekers

This is where I fit.

We’re here because we choose Thailand — not just the scenery, a cheap way out, or as an ego boost, but for the people, the culture, the way of life. We learn the language (or try to – it’s soooo hard), befriend locals, and adapt to the rhythm of life here and embrace Thai ways of doing things. We find that Thailand makes us a better version of ourselves. We initially visited as tourists, but quickly saw enough behind the glitz, bars and slick tourist service to know Thailand was far deeper than most realise.

Living here isn’t just about location—it’s a personal growth project. Thai culture, if you let it in, reshapes you. It shifts how you see yourself, how you handle challenges, and how you measure what matters.

We don’t expect Thailand to mould itself to us. We mould ourselves to it. And in doing so, it changes us — how we think, how we react, how we measure a good day. When I visit Australia these days, I fit in less than I ever did. The franticness. The stress. The arrogance, self-entitlement, and egos. The reacting more than responding.

I remember my first day in Thailand as a tourist, wandering a neighbourhood far from the postcard beaches. I felt lighter—like the air itself carried a kind of quiet positivity. There’s a warmth here, a kind of human ease, an authenticness you don’t find everywhere. You can’t buy it, you can’t fake it — but if you let it in, it sticks, it infects you, it changes you. It’s not magic, and it’s not “woo-woo” energy talk—it’s simply how life feels here when you’re open to it.

Be warned. This will distance you from foreign people you know. You will find the western way of thinking they cling onto pushes you away. These day I mostly tolerate foreigners in Thailand because I’m attracted to Thai attitudes and repulsed by western baggage.

The Question That Sums It Up

Thais often ask, “How long you stay here for?”I say, “I live here.”They smile and ask again: “Yes… but how long you stay?”

I worked out they ask that because for most foreigners, “live here” means “until the long-term visa runs out”, or they decide to explore somewhere else. One day they will go “home”.

For me? It means “This is my home, forever”.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter which group you fall into — as long as you’re honest about it. Honest with yourself. But here’s the thing: Thailand will give back exactly what you put in. If you only want cheap rent, cold beer, and a pretty distraction on your arm, that’s all you’ll ever get.

But if you let the place under your skin — if you trade the expat bubble for real conversations, strange food, awkward language attempts, and the quiet rhythm of Thai life — you might just find something better than what you came here looking for.

The real question isn’t how long you stay. It’s how deep you live.