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I only got the health insurance because the retirement visa required it. Eight months later, that mandatory paperwork was the one thing that stopped a heart attack from wiping me out financially.
Graham, a 68-year-old British retiree, reluctantly takes out the mandatory health insurance for his retirement visa in Hua Hin. Months later, a heart attack teaches him why the policy he saw as a formality turned out to be the most important decision he made moving here.
I was 27 and felt invincible, so I never bothered with health insurance. A motorbike accident on Koh Samui taught me exactly what that feeling of invincibility costs, in baht and in loan interest.
Jordan, a 27-year-old Canadian working remotely from Koh Samui, never saw the need for private health insurance. A motorbike accident leaves him with a hospital bill that takes over a year to finish paying off.
Our daughter was born in Chiang Mai on a Friday afternoon, and by Monday we were already arguing over which surname would go on each of her two passports.
Mark, a 34-year-old Canadian, and his wife Nam navigate the weeks following their daughter's birth in Chiang Mai, racing against the separate deadlines of the Canadian embassy and the Thai civil registry to secure her dual nationality.
The German embassy asked me for a DNA test to recognise my own son. It took four months, and for that whole stretch my son legally didn't exist for any country except Thailand.
Felix, a 41-year-old German, discovers that legally recognising his son born in Bangkok, since he and the mother, Ploy, weren't married, requires a DNA test demanded by the German embassy before citizenship and a passport can be processed.
My international driving permit had expired eight months earlier without me even noticing. A car hit me at a junction in Phuket, and that one piece of paperwork ate up every bit of my savings.
Derek, a 47-year-old Briton, has a motorbike accident in Phuket without realising his international driving permit had expired months earlier. The insurer refuses to cover anything, and his partner Ice helps him navigate the weeks that follow.
I failed the Thai written driving test twice. On the third try, she made me flashcards with her own drawings because she said I read road signs like they were abstract art.
Aaron, a 39-year-old Australian, fails the Thai written driving test twice. His partner Bell makes him homemade study flashcards, turning the bureaucratic process into something they end up laughing about.
I assumed the prenup would be my idea, to protect myself. Her father sat me down at the table and explained it was the other way around: it was to protect his daughter's rice land.
Simon, a 45-year-old Australian, assumes that if there's a prenuptial agreement, it'll be his idea, to protect himself. His future father-in-law explains he actually wants the agreement to protect family land that's stayed in his daughter's name for generations.
I had a divorce behind me and a flat in my name in London. I brought up a prenup expecting an argument. She pulled out a list of what she wanted to add too.
Richard, a 52-year-old already-divorced Briton, dreads the prenuptial agreement conversation with his Thai fiancée June. He discovers she had her own, quite different, reasons for wanting one too.
I arrived in Chiang Mai burnt out, with dangerously high blood pressure at thirty-eight. She never once told me to calm down. She just said 'mai pen rai' so many times it eventually stuck.
Chris, a 38-year-old American in the middle of career burnout, moves to Chiang Mai and meets Toon, whose constant 'mai pen rai' attitude toward setbacks quietly ends up changing how he handles stress altogether.
I went to my first Songkran thinking it was just one giant water fight. I left that day understanding exactly why my mother-in-law made me kneel in front of her.
Owen, a 33-year-old Briton, experiences his first Songkran with his Thai partner's family. After hours of street water fighting, a quiet, formal moment at the grandparents' house teaches him what the holiday actually means.
We'd been together a year before she officially introduced me to her family. She chose Songkran on purpose, because she said everyone would be in a good mood.
Callum, a 36-year-old Scot, is formally introduced to his Thai partner Praew's family during Songkran, a deliberate choice on her part so the first real meeting would happen in the most relaxed atmosphere of the year.
Someone stole my motorbike right in front of her and she just shrugged it off. It took me a year to understand that it wasn't that she didn't care — she just carried it differently.
Marcus, a 41-year-old German, gets frustrated when his Thai partner Fern responds with a calm 'mai pen rai' after his motorbike gets stolen. It takes him a year to understand the phrase doesn't mean indifference, just a different way of carrying a problem.