Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, "Is Thailand a good alternative to a European winter? As my producer and I were kind of joking before we made this video, the answer probably to put it succinctly, yeah it is. That said, all joking aside that is not really the reason I am making this video, is obviously being in Thailand. I love it when winter rolls around in the West because then I hear, maybe this is a guilty pleasure of mine, I hear from friends and family and things back home, oh my God there’s a tundra of snow and da, da, da it is really terrible. I am still walking around in shorts like I was in April so whatever, but that's kind of my own little thing.  

The point of the video though is this is beyond just a weather issue. I thought of making this video after reading an article from Hua Hin Today, that is huahintoday.com, the article is titled: TAT to foreign tourists: "Pay for a pool villa in Phuket instead of paying the energy bills." Quoting directly: "Thailand is hoping to capitalize on the rising cost of living in Europe and the US by urging tourists to leave home soil and escape the energy crisis in the West." Quoting further: "Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Yuthasak Supasorn said Thailand is targeting so-called 'revenge spending' from tourists who are looking to swap a bleak winter at home, both in terms of the weather and rising costs for Thailand's tropical weather." Well, again the weather, hard to beat Thailand's weather, although I have got to tell you, in the middle of August and May, when it's hotter than the surface of the sun, it's sometimes not my favourite thing in the world especially if you are sitting on the back of a motorbike taxi in the middle of gridlock traffic, it can get a little bit trying dealing with that kind of heat but, it is really nice in the winter time when everybody else is freezing and we are just sitting around drinking drinks out of coconuts on a beach somewhere, it is nice.

But as this article points out, it is not so much the weather. As we pointed out in another video made contemporaneously with this one, inflation seems to be a real issue; supply chains are a real issue, so cost of living issues are rising significantly. I have seen it in the United States reports from over there but apparently in Europe it is even more acute and for that reason, yeah I don't think it's a bad idea to be looking at Thailand if you are European, you are from somewhere in Europe and you are essentially looking for a good place to retire, if nothing else just a place to go to kind of weather this coming winter, just get out of there for the brief period of time of the European winter and be in the warmth and not have to deal with all the bills as they noted in the article and just sort of kind of ride it out if you will. I think Thailand is probably a pretty good place to do that. Also, again, some currencies are not trading so well against the Baht as they have in the past but the Dollar is trading very well. I think some of the Scandinavian currencies are doing all right. So again folks from those areas maybe even more inclined to come to Thailand at least for a prolonged stay over the upcoming winter.