On life in Thailand

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jacojerb
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On life in Thailand

#1

Post by jacojerb »

Good day furs

For those of you who don't know me (I'm sure there's a few of you), I'm jacojerb (well, obviously. It says so up there). In March, me and Dasc Crescent moved to Thailand together to teach English

It's been an amazing few months so far. Not perfect by any means. Thailand is very different from South-Africa. Everyone you meet is super friendly. I've only met a handful of people I would consider grumpy or mean

There are furs here, though most of them only speak Thai... I haven't been able to learn much Thai yet, so it's tough. Kinda makes things weird when not everyone at the furmeet speaks the same language... Also, they don't really do braais here. We usually go to restaurants and stuff...

I have made some friends with fellow teachers, though noone I would really consider close... Honestly, I am quite lonely. I've got Dasc, which is great, but I miss my friends from back there... I miss furmeets at Victors, and LAN's with my old school friends...

In general, I am happier. There isn't much stress here. I mean, I need to do my job. But, unlike the west, Thailand's businesses often consider "harmony" more important than maximum profits. In other words, the most important thing is just that everyone gets along... While I haven't really made friends at my schools, everyone seems to like me, so it's great

I dono... I miss you guys. Just thought I'd leave a bit of a log for anyone that's interested. Of course, feel free to ask anything
Mew?
Leeward
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Re: On life in Thailand

#2

Post by Leeward »

What's the cost of living like? How are prices of food, clothing, going out, etc. compared to SA? Do you find it easy/natural to be independent?
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Splicer-Fox
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Re: On life in Thailand

#3

Post by Splicer-Fox »

I would like to visit one day.
Can i couch surf in the furry community there?
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jacojerb
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Re: On life in Thailand

#4

Post by jacojerb »

The minimum cost of living is lower than that in S-A. For reference, R1 = 2.34 baht, at the time of writing

Our rent is 7500 baht a month, though if we wanted to, we could go a lot lower. There's a place across the road that's 3500 a month, though our place is quite nice. The room itself is small (we are in bangkok, space is limited), but the room is quite modern and the complex it's in has swimming pools, gyms, a hair salon, laundry people (we do our own washing, but they do our ironing), a little thai restaurant and a little shop. We are very happy with it... Though, in bangkok, if you want anything with a garden, it gets much more expensive

Food is cheap... Or can be. You can buy everything for really low prices at markets, though we don't really cook. When we cook, it's stuff like bacon, eggs and toast. Generally we get our food from Thai restaurants. At the restaurant downstairs, we can get a meal for between 40 and 60 baht, depending on what it is... But it's all super yummy, home cooked type meals. Curries and fried rice and soups... All sorts. We also have a bigish market about two blocks away, where we can get food for about 35 baht to 50 baht, depending on what it is. There's a lot of variety in the Thai street food, and it's all amazing

Luxuries are more expensive though. Anything that's imported is at least double the price of it's Thai equivalent (if it even has a Thai equivalent). Fast food places are a rare treat. KFC, for example, is about 150 for a meal. McDonalds is even more than that, with few meals under 200... So we can buy like 5 street food meals for the price of a McDonalds meal

Travel can be pretty cheap. Dasc is renting a motorcycle for about 3000 a month (I still don't have a licence, so I can't). Other than that, they have songthauws (like bakkies with a kit on the back that has seats and space to stand), which costs 7 baht. They run bus routes, so down main roads, and costs 7 baht, no matter how far you go. There's also vans, which are 16 baht a trip, busses (i've actually never used a bus), taxis (which are fairly priced, if you can convince the driver to use the meter instead of setting his own price), motorcycle taxis (cheaper than a normal taxi, goes places songthauws don't), the train system (slightly pricier) and, of course, walking. Getting around can be really cheap. For example, on Fridays I need to travel for 2 hours, and the whole journey costs me 30 baht

Going to clubs and such can be more pricey, especially if you're white... While the Thai people are friendly, they think white people are tourists and tourists have money. Luckily I'm not too into clubbing. We often go to this really nice cafe, next to a river, on a little floating island, and the prices are very fair

I have been more or less independent in S-A for a few years before we came. Just me and my sis living together. Sure, we didn't have to pay the rent, but still had to get groceries and such ourselves, and keep the place clean... Point is, adjusting was really easy. Dasc is also doing well... We help each other a lot


@Splicer: doubt the furs would be to happy about it, though you could come stay on our couch any time
Mew?
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