What do you love about the place where you live? Here are 5 things about living in Thailand that I love. I couldn’t possibly choose which of these would make it as my number one favourite thing, but these are definitely the top 5!
I love having a pool
I went down to the pool in my apartment building today after work and swam for a while. When I got back to my apartment, it struck me that having my own pool (okay, I do share it with the other people in my building but I am usually in it by myself) is one of the things I love about living here in Thailand.
It is hot enough here in Bangkok that I can swim all year round. I am sure I’ll get to the stage that I feel it is too cold for that one month of the year when the temperature sits at around 23C (73F), but I have not acclimatised to that point yet. The cool season is just ending right now, so the temperature is soaring again, and the humidity rising.
The pool in my building is maintained by the building manager’s staff and cleaned every morning. I can decide to go down there anytime and sunbathe (not that I do this much, I’m a Kiwi and as such, I am well aware of the damage this can do to my skin), swim lengths or read a book in the shade.
I love Thai food
Thai food can be rather spicy, but has a balance of many flavours. Every meal is a gastronomic feast for your taste buds. The seafood is always extremely fresh and I love it when it is prepared in tasty curries or soups.
The first meal I learnt to order was Phat Thai Jay, a traditional noodle dish that is a staple on most menus. I order it ‘Jay’ which means vegetable. This is not a spicy dish, but it is full of peanuts, so it’s no good for people with a nut allergy.
But Phat Thai Jay isn’t my favourite Thai dish. That’s reserved for Gang Kiew Wan Jay, Sweet Green Vegetable Curry. I would eat this everyday, and have had guests come and stay with me who did! This curry is not spicy by Thai standards, but sometimes it nearly takes my head off.
I love Thai food so much that I went to a Thai cooking school when some friends came to visit last year. You can find Thai cookery schools all over the country, wherever you are likely to find tourists. The courses are inexpensive and available in a number of languages. Usually you cook your own portion of the food, then you sit around with your classmates and eat it. This week when I was on vacation in Chiang Mai I did a second cooking course and learnt how to make Phat Thai Jay!
Last month I went to a restaurant called Bangkok Seaview. We had to drive for an hour in a taxi, then take a longtail boat for another 20 minutes to get out to this restaurant. The seafood was rather fresh, as the restaurant is built on piers out in the middle of the sea, I imagine they just catch the fish over the side!! The restaurant was full of Thai people, which is always a good sign, in my opinion, and the menu was written in Thai. We had to order from the 8 dishes that they of which they had printed photographs in the menu. The food was superb, the view was spectacular and if you're an enthusiastic ornithologist, the birdlife was abundant.
I love bargaining
When you buy something at a market in Thailand, you get to bargain the price down. To me, this isn’t just about the money. I love bargaining. I consider it a challenge to get the vendor to come down on his/her asking price. Often in the past I have paid the vendor their original asking price, if it was a reasonable one. I just enjoy the experience of bargaining.
I find it especially rewarding if I can do it in the language of the vendor. Here in Thailand learning to say the numbers in Thai was a priority for me. I can now bargain quite successfully in Thai. When friends come to visit they usually tell me what they want to pay for something and get me to do the bargaining for them, they like the price I get for them and I have some fun with the vendors.
I remember being at a night market looking at some cushion covers that I wanted for my mother. It took me about 15 minutes to bargain the vendor down to my price, she was great fun. She made no allowance for the fact that I didn’t speak very much Thai, I had to guess what she was talking about from her body language. When we had settled on the price, I paid her the original asking price. It was well worth it for the entertainment she’d given me.
On another occasion I went to the floating market with some friends. The driver we'd hired came on the boat with us and said he'd let us know if the price we'd been quoted was a good one or not. His code words were 'it's up to you,' which is what he'd say if he thought the price was too high. So, armed with the knowledge that our driver would prevent us from paying too much for our purchases, we went on a mini shopping spree. Only, each time I asked, 'what do you think?' he'd tell me to buy it and maybe go into bargaining for a living. I had a great day!!!
I love Thai people
The Thai people that I’ve met here are happy and contented. The Thai people are gentle and friendly and kind. The culture here is to ‘keep a cool heart’, which means don’t get angry. When you get angry in Thailand, you lose the respect of Thai people. I am a calmer person here in Thailand and could count on one hand the number of times I’ve been angry in the 18 months I’ve lived here.
Even when I haven’t been able to communicate well with people here, they have, without fail, smiled and helped me.
This has a knock-on effect into my professional life. The children I teach are polite, respectful and cheerful. I really get a kick out of walking into school of a morning to be greeted by smiling children left and right on the way to my classroom. Teaching at an international school is how I support my lifestyle in Thailand, and it’s a lot easier than the teaching I’ve done in state schools in the UK and NZ.
And not all the children greeting me in the mornings are Thai, so there’s a knock-on effect on other expatriates and their children too. The children here are well disciplined but have loads of personality and charm. They are a pleasure to teach.
I love being female
Thailand is a great country in which to be a girl! Thailand is abound with shops to get foot massages, full body massages, manicures and pedicures, facials and everything else you can think of.
I have one colleague who always has immaculate hair because she gets it washed and blow-dried a couple of times a week!
Last weekend I got all dressed up in a ball gown and went to the NZ Society Ball. In May I might go to the British Embassy Ball. If you like going out, dancing, eating great food and wearing posh frocks, then Bangkok is the place!
All in all, I’m happy here in Thailand. Happy with my teaching job, happy with my apartment and happy with the experiences I’m having while I live here. If you’re considering moving abroad, you should definitely consider coming here.
I love having a pool
I went down to the pool in my apartment building today after work and swam for a while. When I got back to my apartment, it struck me that having my own pool (okay, I do share it with the other people in my building but I am usually in it by myself) is one of the things I love about living here in Thailand.
It is hot enough here in Bangkok that I can swim all year round. I am sure I’ll get to the stage that I feel it is too cold for that one month of the year when the temperature sits at around 23C (73F), but I have not acclimatised to that point yet. The cool season is just ending right now, so the temperature is soaring again, and the humidity rising.
The pool in my building is maintained by the building manager’s staff and cleaned every morning. I can decide to go down there anytime and sunbathe (not that I do this much, I’m a Kiwi and as such, I am well aware of the damage this can do to my skin), swim lengths or read a book in the shade.
I love Thai food
Thai food can be rather spicy, but has a balance of many flavours. Every meal is a gastronomic feast for your taste buds. The seafood is always extremely fresh and I love it when it is prepared in tasty curries or soups.
The first meal I learnt to order was Phat Thai Jay, a traditional noodle dish that is a staple on most menus. I order it ‘Jay’ which means vegetable. This is not a spicy dish, but it is full of peanuts, so it’s no good for people with a nut allergy.
But Phat Thai Jay isn’t my favourite Thai dish. That’s reserved for Gang Kiew Wan Jay, Sweet Green Vegetable Curry. I would eat this everyday, and have had guests come and stay with me who did! This curry is not spicy by Thai standards, but sometimes it nearly takes my head off.
I love Thai food so much that I went to a Thai cooking school when some friends came to visit last year. You can find Thai cookery schools all over the country, wherever you are likely to find tourists. The courses are inexpensive and available in a number of languages. Usually you cook your own portion of the food, then you sit around with your classmates and eat it. This week when I was on vacation in Chiang Mai I did a second cooking course and learnt how to make Phat Thai Jay!
Last month I went to a restaurant called Bangkok Seaview. We had to drive for an hour in a taxi, then take a longtail boat for another 20 minutes to get out to this restaurant. The seafood was rather fresh, as the restaurant is built on piers out in the middle of the sea, I imagine they just catch the fish over the side!! The restaurant was full of Thai people, which is always a good sign, in my opinion, and the menu was written in Thai. We had to order from the 8 dishes that they of which they had printed photographs in the menu. The food was superb, the view was spectacular and if you're an enthusiastic ornithologist, the birdlife was abundant.
I love bargaining
When you buy something at a market in Thailand, you get to bargain the price down. To me, this isn’t just about the money. I love bargaining. I consider it a challenge to get the vendor to come down on his/her asking price. Often in the past I have paid the vendor their original asking price, if it was a reasonable one. I just enjoy the experience of bargaining.
I find it especially rewarding if I can do it in the language of the vendor. Here in Thailand learning to say the numbers in Thai was a priority for me. I can now bargain quite successfully in Thai. When friends come to visit they usually tell me what they want to pay for something and get me to do the bargaining for them, they like the price I get for them and I have some fun with the vendors.
I remember being at a night market looking at some cushion covers that I wanted for my mother. It took me about 15 minutes to bargain the vendor down to my price, she was great fun. She made no allowance for the fact that I didn’t speak very much Thai, I had to guess what she was talking about from her body language. When we had settled on the price, I paid her the original asking price. It was well worth it for the entertainment she’d given me.
On another occasion I went to the floating market with some friends. The driver we'd hired came on the boat with us and said he'd let us know if the price we'd been quoted was a good one or not. His code words were 'it's up to you,' which is what he'd say if he thought the price was too high. So, armed with the knowledge that our driver would prevent us from paying too much for our purchases, we went on a mini shopping spree. Only, each time I asked, 'what do you think?' he'd tell me to buy it and maybe go into bargaining for a living. I had a great day!!!
I love Thai people
The Thai people that I’ve met here are happy and contented. The Thai people are gentle and friendly and kind. The culture here is to ‘keep a cool heart’, which means don’t get angry. When you get angry in Thailand, you lose the respect of Thai people. I am a calmer person here in Thailand and could count on one hand the number of times I’ve been angry in the 18 months I’ve lived here.
Even when I haven’t been able to communicate well with people here, they have, without fail, smiled and helped me.
This has a knock-on effect into my professional life. The children I teach are polite, respectful and cheerful. I really get a kick out of walking into school of a morning to be greeted by smiling children left and right on the way to my classroom. Teaching at an international school is how I support my lifestyle in Thailand, and it’s a lot easier than the teaching I’ve done in state schools in the UK and NZ.
And not all the children greeting me in the mornings are Thai, so there’s a knock-on effect on other expatriates and their children too. The children here are well disciplined but have loads of personality and charm. They are a pleasure to teach.
I love being female
Thailand is a great country in which to be a girl! Thailand is abound with shops to get foot massages, full body massages, manicures and pedicures, facials and everything else you can think of.
I have one colleague who always has immaculate hair because she gets it washed and blow-dried a couple of times a week!
Last weekend I got all dressed up in a ball gown and went to the NZ Society Ball. In May I might go to the British Embassy Ball. If you like going out, dancing, eating great food and wearing posh frocks, then Bangkok is the place!
All in all, I’m happy here in Thailand. Happy with my teaching job, happy with my apartment and happy with the experiences I’m having while I live here. If you’re considering moving abroad, you should definitely consider coming here.
1 comment:
Thailand is a wonderful country...a place where many farangs are retiring.
Hey. If you like cooking Thai food, try this website
http://www.thaifoodtonight.com/thaifoodtonight/recipes.htm
It's like an online Thai cooking school. It has over 30 popular Thai dishes with a cooking video for each dish and instructions and ingredients etc.
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