My wife started on the pension in January she was in Australia more than 2 years prior. We were in Thailand 3 months from May. She received pension and concession first 6 weeks then just pension after that.

Be careful though if it's the same as they count the visa days 180 days is actually only 179.

@Stuart ********

thanks for that. My first thought was you are trying to sell something. Is it Amway 555 :)

@Stuart ********

why don't you post your ideas here. I'm sure others may be interested.

@David **********

I fear the OP is going to come down me hard for chatting in his thread. Unley Park wow must have been a mansion. We own a prefab portable one of the few left in the NE suburbs. Less than 15 minutes to the city.

@Colin ********

I thought it may have been another thing you may not have considered. Also in Thailand most (make that all) vendors take qr code payments. I may have got this wrong but have you only spent 3 weeks in Thailand or was this one of many trips?

@David **********

The fear I have is the news will spread and everyone will want to come to Adelaide. If you own your own home with a reasonable backyard why wouldn't you want to stay.

Quick question. How do you get your pension money to Thailand. ATM's the 220 baht fees is ok but they charge 5.5% commission as a low exchange rate. Using credit card works well and you get a good exchange rate but still cash handy.

I'm from Adelaide but have been in Thailand the past 3 months May1- and arriving back in Adelaide Aug 2. I have a Thai wife and have been staying in a room 6x4m next to her sister's family. The living conditions are not optimal. Winters can be cold as you know but we don't get many of them and then it starts warming up again. I figure when its cold you can always add another layer of clothing. Not many options when its hot and humid. A cold shower works but the affect only lasts a few minutes once you get out. I don't know what sort of accommodation you were staying in but you really do need air con at least in the sleeping area. I find its at night when the body feels sticky and itchy. Calamine lotions works well for the itch. During the day its not too bad, can always escape into a shopping mall, duck into a 7 11 or visit a bigC. Any interests/hobbies you have in Adelaide you need to see how they can continue, or find new ones. Living as Thai people do it can be considerably cheap to live here. Visas are a hassle. I would try living it out here from April-July, the hottest months and see if you can hack it. Going by another post there aren't that many good month in a year to stay!!

I don't think google voice works when it thinks you are in Thailand. You may have to subscribe to a vpn service. Or another option would be to find a voip service which can give you the option of a phone number from your country. More tech stuff alas. Might have to see if you can find a friend or family member to help you out.