Ben Marriott, the creator behind the YouTube channel The Borderless Office, has left Thailand after living here for six years and relocated to Ho Chi Minh City. His video setting out eight reasons for the move has circulated widely in expat communities, and it is worth engaging with seriously rather than dismissing or cheering uncritically.
His central argument is that the gap between what living in Thailand costs and what it offers has narrowed. That is a defensible position, and several of his specific claims hold up.
What he says, and what the data shows
On corruption and regulatory uncertainty, he is on solid ground. Thailand scored 33 out of 100 in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 116th of 182 countries and its lowest result in nearly two decades. Within ASEAN, Thailand now sits below Vietnam on that measure.
On economic growth, the comparison broadly holds. Vietnam grew 8.02% in 2025. Thailand grew 2.4%, and the NESDC forecasts 1.5 to 2.5% for 2026. For a remote worker building a career in technology and digital business, the energy of a faster-growing economy is a real, if intangible, factor.
His point about overtourism, with Phuket as his primary example, reflects something genuine too. The volume tourism model has pushed certain areas toward a price-over-experience dynamic that makes them less interesting for the kind of long-term resident who wants cultural depth rather than a service economy built around short-stay visitors.
The cultural infrastructure argument, that malls are not museums and that Bangkok lacks the academic and contemporary arts scene of cities like Berlin or Saigon, is fair as far as it goes, though it is also a preference rather than a structural flaw.
His point about how government agencies treat long-term foreign residents as temporary visitors rather than contributors is something many expats who have spent years living in Thailand recognise on a practical level, particularly when dealing with visa renewals, property restrictions, or business registration.
What the video does not cover
Income per person still favours Thailand by a meaningful margin. Vietnam’s GDP per capita was US$5,026 in 2025 against Thailand’s US$8,201. That gap matters for the infrastructure and services that surround daily life.
Thailand also holds advantages in healthcare access, electricity reliability, and international schooling depth that a single video cannot fully address. Freehold condominium ownership for foreigners within the 49% building quota is available here and not in Vietnam. That is not a trivial difference for anyone building long-term financial stability rather than moving from city to city.
Ho Chi Minh City also has its own version of the problems he attributes to Thailand: serious air quality issues, flooding, and rapid rent inflation in central districts that is compressing the cost advantage Vietnam used to offer.
Independent forecasters are also more cautious about Vietnam’s growth trajectory than Hanoi is. The OECD projects 6.5% for Vietnam in 2026 against a government target of 10%. That gap between official ambition and external projection is not unusual, but it is worth noting before making a life decision based on headline GDP numbers.
Who this applies to, and who it does not
The honest framing here is that his calculation is one person’s, made at a specific career stage, in a specific professional niche, with specific priorities. The question of whether Thailand has lost its edge looks different depending on what you are actually measuring and who is measuring it.
A remote worker in their thirties building a tech or content career in a high-growth environment will weigh these factors differently from a retiree, a family with school-age children, or a business owner with established Thai relationships and infrastructure.
Most of what Ben raises is real. Thailand’s cost advantage has compressed, its bureaucracy remains a genuine friction, and faster-growing regional economies are more compelling than they were five years ago. Whether that adds up to leaving depends entirely on what brought you here in the first place.
Is it still worth living in Thailand or is Vietnam worth relocating to? Do you think his reasons are valid?
Source: The Borderless Office YouTube channel, July 2026. Economic data from NESDC, OECD, World Bank 2025 to 2026. Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2025.
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