Living in Thailand was never my dream. I had visited here as a tourist some years ago, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it never crossed my mind living here permanently.
But life takes unexpected paths, and after 1 year living in Singapore during Covid time, I got a nice professional offer to settle in Bangkok that I could not refuse. At that time, with uncertainty about the future due to Covid, I thought that Thailand would be a nicer place, as at least it was allowed traveling inside its borders, than staying in small Singapore with all the strict rules set at that time in the country.
Now, almost 3 years later, I think I passed the honeymoon period when you arrive to a new place and I am more objective to judge the good and bad things of living in the Thai capital. Do not get me wrong, in general I love living here and I would recommend it to anyone. Bangkok is an amazing vibrant city where there is so much life, so much to explore, so many choices of entertainment and cuisine for all kind of pockets… But there is obviously no perfect place in the world, right? This is coming from a person who has lived in 6 different countries during his 44 years of life. So here comes my personal list of “The good, the bad and the ugly of living in Bangkok”:
The Good
-If you like city life, you are going to love Bangkok. Its city centre is always bursting with people and whatever hobbies and passions you have, there will be a good chance to find it here: you can play petanque in some French restaurant, or trivial, or retro videogames in some retro bar, you have hundreds of gyms with all kind of sports to practice, hackathons for developers, culinary courses, golf, etc etc etc
-You always have something new to discover: from some of the most beautiful temples in the world, and the temples themselves have a wide variety of decorations, architecture, etc, to huge night markets, food courts, malls with famous brands, indoor cafes, outdoor cafes with cosy patios, bars, restaurants, parks, museums, art galleries, rooftops, hidden cocktail bars, traditional boat tours around the city channels… the list is endless.
-A paradise for foodies and Instagram addicted: Thai food is exquisite and you can already get crazy tasting all what Thailand has to offer in restaurants and night markets or street food vendors (which by the way are in general quite safe to try, do not be scared to buy food from the streets). But you can find restaurants and craft beer bars to taste the flavors from all over the world: Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian, Indian food… You can easily spend years in this city just on culinary adventures, and if you are too lazy to go out of home, services like Grab Food bring it to your door.
-It is quite a safe city to roam: this is a question that I get asked a lot when I visit Europe back, if Bangkok is dangerous. I can say that I feel pretty safe here, and I think for solo male and female travelers is also super safe. Of course no place is a paradise of peace, and exceptional crime cases happen sometimes, but with the huge amount of visitors in the city, that falls into anecdotic. Take into account that the Thai get money from tourists, so it is not in their interest to create bad reputation or problems, and in general they are chilled and easy going people. If you behave politely back and do not visit very shady bars, you will be pretty safe to walk wherever you want in the city without any risk.
-The rental prices: Your money stretches a bit farther here, and even when Bangkok is the most expensive city in Thailand, you can still rent amazing condo apartments for much less than it would cost in many other parts of the world, or even in some other Asian cities like Singapore or Hong Kong. Besides, most condos count with great facilities like swimming pool and gym and with security. Bangkok is so safe that the packages delivered are left in the lobby of the buildings, and nobody steals anything from you.
The Bad
-Traffic is pretty terrible in rush hour and you can literally get stuck for long time not moving anywhere, so you will have to learn when is worthy to use public transportation instead of a taxi. Luckily, Bangkok counts with a great network of sky rail, called BTS, and Metro. The price of taxis are pretty cheap, specially if you want to go with bike taxi, but I personally detest the motorbike taxis as they ride too aggressively and I feel always in tension, so I prefer the cars. Also take into account that traffic accidents happen often, so I would still recommend to take a car taxi instead of risking some more serious trouble with a bike.
-You can walk around Bangkok, but mind that is a city not friendly in general for walking around. You will sweat a lot with the humid heat and if you get out of the main avenues, many streets have literally no sidewalks and you just have to carefully walk on the side while cars and bikes pass by a few centimeters from you. Also the sidewalks themselves are full of traps, with posts, cables, holes… so you really need to be on the moment concentrated when you walk around and not lost in thought or checking your phone, as you can end up with a twisted ankle or a broken leg. Also, forget about using a bicycle to move around the city, there is no infrastructure for it and you would be risking your life sold in the crazy traffic.
-Thai language is a difficult language to learn, due to its difficult intonation that can change the meaning of the words. If you live in Thailand for long time but you cannot speak Thai, you will always be seen as a tourist passing by. This might not feel like a great problem, but when you are walking in busy areas and you live in the city, you can feel a bit annoyed by the tuk tuk drivers offering you rides, the massage parlour’s girls offering you massage, the taxi drivers asking you in what hotel you stay (even if you have a permanent residence in the city), etc. If you are foreigner, you will always be considered a tourist here. Plus the English language level of the local people is quite poor, so that can create a barrier to make friendships and understand the people around.
-If you are a person who values efficiency, Bangkok and Thailand in general might get a bit on your nerves. Here many things are planned or done randomly, waitress can mess up your order, bureaucracy might be more complicated than what you think, deadlines at work are not considered as final deadlines, a simple thing to fix does not get fixed… take it with humor and go with the flow, as the locals do.
The Ugly
-As a foreigner, many times Thais will expect you to pay more than the locals for the same services: taxi drivers might ask you double the usual fare price, tuk tuk drivers will try to scam you, the waitresses in many bars will be quite pushy for you to order more and more and more… As I commented in the good things section, Thailand is safe, but you still are seen as a potential source of income and money, so you will have to deal with it with patience and humor, and do not be afraid to say no when you think that the price is unfair.
-Thailand has been always advertised as the land of smiles, but sadly the reality is that Bangkok and many other touristic areas of the country suffer such a massive tourism that the “kind soul” of the citizens has got a bit lost. Do not get me wrong, Thais in general are still friendly and easy going, but you will be seen in many places just as a dollar bill with legs. You are tolerated in the country as far as you leave money spent here, but you are not deeply loved. Better assume that.
-The sex services are all around and is hard to escape from them. That is the reality. Even if you are a single male with good intentions just wanting to date normal girls, the online dating apps are full of freelancers or women who see you as an economical mean for a better life to support her, the children from previous relations and her family. And that is not mentioning the thousands of ladyboys that will try their luck with you too… If you are into that kind of partner, good for you, but I am not.
Of course there are normal high quality women in Bangkok, but you will have to filter hard to find them. Do not come with a naive illusion that all ladies will shower you with free attention here, because in many scenarios, love comes with a money price, and even going on a “normal date” will imply you as male taking care of the bills.
For female foreign residents, they also complain that is hard to find quality men as they do not see Asian men masculine enough, but western men are often busy with Asian ladies…
So yeah, the transactional side of dating in Bangkok is a side that I do not enjoy at all.