Category: Real Life Thailand Experiences

Expat Life In Thailand

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It takes a while to adapt to life in Thailand and – especially living in the busy capital Bangkok – the craziness can be overwhelming to start with. But, it feels good when you suddenly realise that, actually, maybe you have finally acclimatized to life in Thailand. Maybe you’ve even been living there just a little too long…

You know you’ve been living in Thailand too long when:
  • You don’t feel like a douche for shielding yourself from the sun with your UV umbrella on a cloudless sunny day; not a rain drop in sight. Nope, don’t feel even the slightest bit like a douchey Pride & Prejudice wannabe… Okay maybe just a little bit.
  • Drinking Pepsi out of a plastic carrier bag seems perfectly plausible.
  • Drinking everything through a straw has now become mandatory. Everywhere you go in Thailand, you will be given a straw with your drink; even the more elegant establishments have embraced the convenience and easiness of a straw. Buy a pint of milk from the 7/11, and they will literally just chuck a handful of straws at you. I mean, hell, you’re gonna need so many straws to polish off that mammoth pint of milk with. How am I supposed to drink my iced tea without a straw should somebody ever forget? Out of the bottle? Like some sort of animal!?
  • You grow to anticipate motorcyclists around you on the side walk. It takes a while to get used to the fact that you’ve got to dodge motorcyclists on the pavement as they sneak up behind you – in Thailand it’s perfectly normal for cyclists and motorcyclists to use the pavement. When you cross the road… screw looking two ways, you’re looking five ways!
  • The green man at the traffic lights means nothing to you now – why do they even have crossings and green men in Thailand? Crossing the 6 lanes of traffic is every man for himself.
  • Hygiene issues. You can order some ominous, unidentifiable meat on a stick from a street vendor in Bangkok, and carry on blissfully and unaffectedly munching away when a grubby looking rat leaps across your foot from underneath the vendor’s cart.
  • You feel the urge to add ‘na ka’ on the end of all your sentences. You might let out a little cheeky ‘krap’ or maybe even a sneaky Wai when you’re around foreigners.
  • You increasingly start making Thai sounds. ‘Ooiwee!’ when surprised, or ‘err, err’ when in agreement.
  • Miser syndrome. You find yourself unable to frequent Starbucks anymore because you can’t help counting how many Thai meals you could buy instead of a coffee or cake. 110 baht for a coffee?! I could buy four meals with that! Despite amazingly good quality meals being comparably cheaper up to your own home country’s standards, your wallet becomes much tighter. $4 for a steak is way too expensive!
  • You have an annoyingly huge collection of 1 and 2 baht coins that have accumulated in a random corner of your apartment since you first arrived in Thailand. Now you have to slowly try and use them up on toilet paper and milk from the shop down the road. The cashier glares at you irritatedly as you hand them yet another handful of satangs to count out. I will use those coins up I tell you!

 

Homesick For Thailand

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After only three days of being back in England, I already felt painfully homesick for Thailand – worse so than my homesickness for England in reverse. When I arrived back at London Heathrow airport, I reveled in the cockney accents and the feeling of ‘fitting in’ with my brethren… But my excitement to be home was short-lived from there on out.

If I can sum up my return to England in three words, it would be: underwhelming, depressing and dull. For the first couple of months anyway… the grey winters of England have a hard time living up to the glitz of Bangkok.

Homesick for Thailand

But! Moving on from my depressing pining for Thailand – until my future return, let’s focus on the things I love about the most amazing country – my true spiritual home – in the world:

  • Firstly, the weather: In Thailand it’s always warm and sunny – you can sit outside whenever you want, take a walk whenever you want, or go see friends whenever you want. The warm weather allows people to be much more sociable and flexible in their lives, whereas the weather in many European countries can completely limit people and affects their moods. The permanent greyness and rain really do make you feel caged up and trapped inside your own home.
  • Creativity and quirkiness: The Thais are so creative! Now, I’m not talking about music or movies, I’m talking about the little things in daily life. Thai people make so much effort to add a little humour and colour to their homes, stalls, shops etc: Hanging beer can decorations, potted plants, ferry lights, and general clutter make every single street in Bangkok charming and interesting. I returned home to England at Christmas, greeted by a dull slap in the face of poxy, lazy Christmas lights hanging sorrily in the city centre. I mean, really England? Bangkok isn’t even a Christian country yet it’s decorations wiped the floor with the drab, dark streets of Bristol. Somebody in Bristol needs to get fired me thinks.
  • Modern life: Bangkok is modern, young, fresh and creative – I came to the realization that the west evolved/ modernised a little sooner than Asia but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Thailand is just about coming into bloom with all it’s cool new restaurants, sleek bars, colourful office spaces and spectacular sky scrapers. I think this contributes towards Thais exercising a lot more creativity too – ferris wheels at festivals, cheeky mascot characters in office spaces, and intricate vintage themes in bars. Bangkok is definitely a city for young people. Unsurprisingly, Bangkok has been recently ranked as the number 1 city for expats to live in due to it’s great social life.
  •  Toilet hygiene: The Thais really do rule the world when it comes to toilet hygiene! I mean, you do not get any cleaner than the toilet’s best friend, the ‘bum gun’ as it is so affectionately called by Thai expats. Coming back to England, I can’t believe we don’t have bum guns in the west… Seriously, I feel like some kind of neanderthal returning to the stone ages… Tissue paper? Really?! (Of course, let’s just ignore the squat toilets in Thailand for now because I really really hate those)
  • Thai people: I miss Thai hipsters and their awesome styles; the little pyjama grannies brightening up the backstreets; the cheerful street vendors easily impressed by a farang’s rubbish Thai skills; and I miss the cheeky little ‘krap poms’ I used to hear every now and then (FYI: translates to ‘yes sir!’). Not only do I miss all the colourful characters of Thailand, I also miss that all important attitude that characterizes the Thai race so proudly around the world: The ‘Mai Ben Rai’ attitude. All the petty little things in life – Thai people’s answer is to rationally react with a charming smile… because it just doesn’t matter! Sometimes when you think with clarity and peace of mind, you realise that life’s too short for stupid little quarrels and qualms. But Thai’s think like this all the time – there’s no petty road rage, no over-worrying… nothing matters. That is Mai Ben Rai. When you step in front of a moped without thinking, and brace yourself for some sweary anger, you are pleasantly rewarded with a lovely, warm smile…
  •  ASBO Free: I think ASBOs are solely an English thing. ASBO = Anti-Social Behaviour Order. This is what we call all the naughty kids and teenagers in England. ASBOs have a tendency to loiter outside corner shops looking ugly and antagonising their elders. But in Thailand… the kids are so well behaved! Awww! Not to mention kids in general are much more quiet and unnoticeable – it’s all about the adults in Thailand, oh yeah!
  • The Language barrier: Language barriers can actually sometimes be a good thing – overhearing ‘interactions’ between douchebags in your home country can be pretty depressing. I’m sure there are plenty of douches in Thailand too, but hey, what you can’t see can’t hurt you. I can’t tell when people are being douches in Thailand because I can’t understand what they’re saying. Ignorance is bliss…
  • Dignified dressing: In England, as soon as the sun comes out, the streets become a shameless strip show, a nationwide flesh-fest. Generally, people cover up much more of their body in Thailand. Whether this is for humble reasons or because of fear of tanning – to me, it’s all a lot more graceful and dignified. No nude sunbathing, no eyefuls of skin… it’s all just left to the imagination.
  • Movie edits and cuts: This one will probably have people shaking their heads in disagreement, but I loved the movie edits when I’d watch Fox movies and HBO in Thailand. With the Thai edits, you end up missing out on the fked up rape scenes and torture scenes in horror films. Watching movies is all a whole lot more pleasant in the protective bubble of Thai TV editing =] (Bring on the happy Disney films any day)
  • Food EVERYWHERE: You’re never hungry in Thailand! There’s always a street vendor hiding around the corner somewhere, selling some kind of Thai snack or treat – bags of fruit, meat skewers with chili sauce, sticky rice and cheap Thai meals. Not to mention all the MSG makes everything so damn tasty! Nothing is better than a plate of Khao Man Gai from a street vendor at 3am in the morning after a late evening in the pub.

 

So for all those of you going through a hard time of homesickness – be strong and stick with it, because Thailand really is a special place =]

Living in Thailand

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6 months in thailand

6 Months In Thailand

It’s been about 6 months since I moved to Thailand in November now. During the first few months living in Thailand I struggled to adapt to life. The culture shock hit me and I felt incredibly homesick, in fact, I could only look forward to the day I went back home, rather than appreciate my new life in Thailand.

I felt lonely and outcast living in Thailand society, taking every little reaction from a Thai person personally. Despite seeing no point in staying in Thailand any longer, I perservered, determined to see my stay through and past the 6 month mark.

Expat friends living in Thailand who originally moved only temporarily have ended up staying permanently. People always say to me, once you get past your first 6 months in Thailand, you’ll never want to go back home…. And they were all right! I pushed through the first 6 months in Thailand and now it has become my home. I’m happy here. But now I find myself in a quandry; not wanting to go back to England but not wanting to abandon my friends and family there either.

6 months in thailand

In one sense, through taking the big step of moving to Thailand, I have succeeded and found my place to belong in the world. Yet in another sense, I have given my life more confusion and anguish by being torn between two homes. The way of life in Thailand, the people and the laid back simplicity have trapped me here now. I have other lifelong dreams like travelling America and seeing the rest of the world, but I’m simply left feeling drawn back to living in Thailand now!

When I picture myself returning to England, I see myself feeling homesick for Thailand. I struggle with the thought of leaving my new friends in Thailand… It seem like I’ve gone and put myself in a lose-lose situation now!

Once you get past the 6 month mark living in Thailand, Thailand has you…

Hairdressers in Thailand

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beauty salon bangkok

 

Hairdressers in Thailand are cheeeap! If you stumble upon one of the ordinary barbers or hairdressers on the streets in the local areas of Thailand or outside of the main cities, you can get yourself a Thai haircut, wash and blowdry for as little as 100 baht. Cheap aye?

There are a couple of drawbacks to these cheaper, local hairdressers in Thailand though: It’s hard to know if they’ll actually be any good or even have any skill cutting hair; They very rarely speak English – most ladies’ worst nightmares when unleashing hairdressers on their luscious locks; They are only used to dealing with Thai hair types so they can be known to use the wrong hair products or chemicals and even damage western hair types.

My Thai haircut

When I injured my wrist on holiday in Thailand a couple of months ago, I found it hard to wash and do my own hair. Fed up of walking around looking like a dischevelled, scruffbag bird’s nest, I stumbled across a local Thai hairdressers in Chiang mai. It was a dark and dingy-looking, open-walled shop just off the main street charging 200 baht for a wash, cut and blowdry, and the hairdressers working there seemed surprised by my patronage. I asked, in Thai, for a haircut and wash, but only to cut a little… She ended up cutting off about 3 or 4 inches of my poor hair.

Also, on a recent drunken weekend in Thailand, my boyfriend ended up being taken to a Thai hair salon (which randomly had a pet squirrel running loose btw) by friends who showed the hairdresser a picture of a guy that looked like a cross between Mr T and Prodigy… Now that’s a hard look to pull off, but it does help if the hairdresser actually shaves your hair even remotely straight – not making it look like she did it with her eyes closed. Yeah yeah, it’s not a particularly good start to let your drunk friends pick out your hairstyle but it seriously looked bad… I think I could’ve had a better crack at it myself. Sorry for the Thailand hairdresser horror stories anyway, but just a heads up!

Never fear though, you can always opt for the more glitzy hairdressers in Thailand on the highstreets and in the malls of the city centres. A haircut and blowdry can cost from 400 baht upwards, but in some places they’ll speak English, have more specialist products for western hair and spend more time on their customer’s haircut.

Best Hair Salon in Bangkok

Where to find the best hair salon in Bangkok… Although I’ve not yet tried and tested them myself (I do plan to), these seem to be the most renowned and best hair salons in Bangkok, popular among expats because they speak English too:

Anderson hair salon Bangkok

Hair by Phonatip Bangkok Salon

Zen Red Hair Salon Bangkok *

*I am a little dubious of Zen Red hair salon in Bangkok, they seem to have mixed reviews but are meant to be specifically catered for western hairtypes and customers. Their website seems a little flashy to me as well, not as genuine as the other two.

How to ask for a haircut in Thai!

Dtong-gaan... – I’d like…

Dtat pom – Hair cut

Lem – Trim

Yawm pom – Colour

Sa – Wash

Bpao pom – Blow dry

Gohn noo-at – Shave

Dtok dtang noo-at – Beard Trimmed

Khae nit noy – Only a little

Yaa dtat hai san bpai – Don’t cut it too short

 

When using these phrases to get a haircut in Thailand, don’t forget to add ‘ka’ for women and ‘krap’ for men to be polite.

 

Health Problems In Thailand

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Difficulties of an expat moving to Thailand

Living abroad in another country like Thailand does not come without it’s challenges. Near the beginning of my move I went through a stage of paranoia from the culture shock, I then went through a long period of homesickness and my thoughts even drifted to going back home. But the homesickness eventually passed, I felt like I had begun to relax into my environment, and so the paranoia subsided along with it. It’s not only emotionally troublesome though, I found there were plenty of physical difficulties to deal with after living in a country so completely different to my own.

If you’re going to live in Thailand for more than a few months, it might be helpful to be prepared for the extreme change in atmosphere, change in diet and some of the problems it might pose. Man, the amount of time I’ve had bits fall off, ominous skin changes and all sorts of weird things go on with my body…

The first problems I had in Thailand were purely heat related

For example, I wore my converse trainers everywhere. See, before now I have always hated flip flops and open toed shoes with a vengeance but… it backfired and I ended up getting a foot infection. My toe went itchy and basically looked like it was going to rot away and fall off – in fact after just a couple of weeks my toenail actually did fall off (sorry, probably too much info). In the end, after some time spent with Dr Google, I resorted to trying white vinegar that I bought from the local corner shop.

In the hot Thai weather, fungal foot infections can be pretty common, but soaking your foot in vinegar (mixed 50:50 with water) twice a day for thirty minutes is supposedly one of the cheapest and most effective treatments for it (or for it’s prevention).

A rash spread across my back, chest and arms

The rash was spotty, like welts or mosquito bites, and very itchy. It looked like some sort of tropical skin disease… It turned out to be a simple case of Prickly Heat (or heat rash), and with a healthy mixture of skin aeration and some 35 baht prickly heat powder from the Seven Eleven, the rash was much better in just a few days. Although I think it’s wise to cover up and have some modesty in Thailand, it can also be slightly unhealthy as your skin needs the circulation of fresh air in order to help prevent skin reactions and infections.

After just a few weeks living in Thailand, the skin on my hands started to peel away

Now I’m not talking just a bit – I’m talking like when a snake sheds it’s skin! Grossss! Anyway, this lasted maybe a month and then went completely back to normal. I put it down to adjusting to the hot weather and constant sweatiness living in Thailand.

Diet in Thailand

I ate very healthily back at home, but being kitchenless in Bangkok, I don’t manage to eat as well as I used to. Not only do I end up feeling a little rough and haggered from the lack a balanced diet, but at least once a month I end up ill. I basically get a bout of mild food poisoning every month… England is too hot on health & safety rules and it makes us English folk puny and weedy when we eat the food in other more laid back countries like Thailand. Stoopid health & safety…

Hair falling out

My last health problem I had freaked me out so much that I eventually ended up giving in and seeing a doctor about it. I had problems healing early on after moving to Thailand – I had some piercings which wouldn’t heal and my bruises would take ages to disappear. Finally I gave up and removed my piercings – in my mind ignorance can be bliss and I thought if I can’t see the problem it can’t hurt me! I speculated that it was probably just change of diet and environment messing up my body. But then for about three months after this my hair started falling out. I’m talking loads… everywhere.

I ignored my hair falling out for a while but then, obviously, the effects of this started to become visible on my thinning hair. This time Dr Google scared me with it’s primarily cancerous suggestions (why do I still use google to diagnose myself?!) and I consulted a doctor at the nearby hospital. The doctor basically confirmed what I’d originally thought… the extreme change in diet and environment had basically just caused my body to spaz out.

Anyway, prescribed zinc supplements and multivitamins helped fix me up within a month or two… But my thick locks has suffered irreversible damage :'(. As much as I always prefer a balanced diet to resorting to supplements and vitamins, I highly recommend buying some if you’re staying in Thailand for a long time.

(Update) Insect Bite!

One day I woke up with a sore, swollen elbow. I thought nothing of it, my boyfriend even joked that maybe a bug had laid eggs in my elbow. I’m such a hypochondriac it’s not even funny – I immediately had visions of the Egyptian scarabs borrowing through people’s skin like in the movies… We laughed about it though, until later that evening it had become so painful and swollen that I couldn’t even move it and I started to worry. I think the rule is that if it’s red, hot and painful – go to the doctors asap because it’s infected.

So the next afternoon I did. The receptionists at the hospital looked at it, conversed worriedly with one another and then hastily sent me to the Emergency department (again man!!! What a joke I am!). It turned out to be an infection caused by an unknown insect bite and it got quite bad over the next couple of days while the antibiotics kicked in. I even worried that maybe I’d been poisoned by the flesh rotting venom of an exotic spider. (I can be a tad irrational sometimes ;p)

 

Most of my expat friends and people who have visited me in Thailand have also struggled with the physical changes in Thailand – reduced healing and hair loss being the worst culprit of all. On the other hand though, my boyfriend doesn’t ever seem to have suffered any health problems in Thailand so far – apart from food related illness. I’m such a punoid!

 

Worried about the hospitals in Thailand? You can read all about my visit to St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok here.

Thai Hospital – Bitten By A Dog

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thailand bitten by a dog

If you get bitten by a pet dog in Thailand and are even slightly unsure of the dog’s health, then it is recommended to go to hospital just to be safe – You may still need a tetanus or rabies jab. Most dog owners in Thailand give their pets annual rabies innoculations but unless you know the owner personally, this is a slightly grey area. If you have had a preventary rabies vaccination in the past, you still need to have a rabies jab after being bitten – many vaccinations only delay the effects of rabies, they do not completely protect against it.

dog temple

So many freakin dogs in Thailand

Accident #2 – Dog Bite In Thailand

Recently me and my boyfriend were on holiday in Pai, we were staying at a pretty nice hotel too; it was our treat after slumming it during our travels in Chiangmai. But damn there was this annoying dog that barked incessantly all day and all morning. One day it was yelping and whining outside so Happy went out to investigate it. The barking stopped and he returned to our room 10 minutes later squealing and bouncing around about how cute it was – even though it had apparently spooked him enough at one point to make him nervously scramble up a wall like a little girl.

We figured it was the Thai hotel’s dog. It had a collar and looked in quite good condition, quite young. We later sat outside on the pavillion as the dusk started to peacefully fall and the dog innocently frolicked around the gardens. We were playing around with my camera and when we got bored we headed back to our hotel room, dog following behind entertaining himself in the bushes. Happy was distracted by something in the garden and crouched down to take a photo, the camera strap dangling in front of his body.

dog bite

10 seconds before going schizo

For some reason, this seemed to awaken something in the dog and it excitedly jumped at Happy while becoming increasingly more enthusiastic and bitey until it was simply just gnawing at his legs as he helplessly tried to get away. Happy then passed the camera to me… along with the dogs attention with it. The dog jumped at me and bit at my dress as I edged backwards and dodged it’s advances. By this stage I was getting pretty freaked out and began to use my camera and it’s strap to keep the dog at bay and tangle him up. At one point though, this completely backfired, my £500 camera slipped from my hands, crashed to the floor and as I tried to grab it back, the dog misconstrued this as me merely playing with him.

IMG_5709

Action shot!

The dog darted off mischievously, my camera still caught around his neck clunking and scraping along the walkway until he clumsily tumbled over into a flower bed, legs kicking in the air. I quickly snatched my camera back and my boyfriend distracted the dog with a metal pole lying on the grass nearby. When we got back to our room his ankle was bleeding – not a lot but nonetheless the dog bite had broken the skin. We told the Thai woman at reception who apologised and gave us chemicals to clean the wound, but her english was not great. I asked about rabies and she looked at me kind of nervously and said ‘no’, very unconfidently. It almost felt like she was picking an answer to keep me happy without actually understanding my question.

But, I couldn’t help plaguing myself with thoughts and images of my boyfriend dying of rabies in Thailand! I figured it’s always best to be safe and be sure than to regret not doing something so simple like going to the hospital two minutes down the road. So despite his reluctance, I managed to convince him to simply just ask for advice at the hospital. You don’t need to have treatment there, we can just ask their opinion to be sure. Happy was bitten by a pet dog and I wasn’t sure how it works with being bitten by pet dogs in Thailand. He’d also fortunately already been vaccinated so we we weren’t sure how that worked either, whether he’d even need any rabies treatment.

Pai hospital

We arrived at the hospital reception of accident and emergency later that evening, it was eerily quiet and devoid of patients. I approached the receptionist and tried to explain in my best thai that ‘he’d been bitten by a dog. But a pet dog. Is it a problem?’ I can speak much better thai than I can actually understand back, so she replied with a few wordy sentences and I stared blankly at her. She then walked us over to a small ward with about three nurses behind the desk.

I tried my best to explain the situation in Thai as the nurses came and went interchangeably. ‘He’s been bitten by a pet dog. Do we need to do anything?’ There was a lot of Thai discussion amongst themselves and they didn’t really ask much after I said this. Their english didn’t seem to be a great deal better than my Thai either. There was some more chattering between the nurses. Happy started to rummage through his pockets for his vaccination card when one of them silently slinked her way towards his side, trigger happily squirting away on her syringe. We interrupted and tried to point out that he’d actually already been vaccinated before so weren’t sure if he’d maybe require a different shot. The nurse at this point stared blankly at us and turned to her colleague.

There was more confused, misunderstood clacking amongst the nurses in the hospital and more enthusiastic attempts to inject Happy.  They finally appeared to understand and decided to inject him anyway. I guess we were just being a little paranoid and nervous of the language barrier.

This hospital visit cost 590 baht altogether, complete with yet another goodie bag of drugs. Thai hospitals certainly seem to like chucking around antibiotics and painkillers whenever they get the chance. We left the hospital feeling slightly dishevelled – entering on the expectation of a calm, short discussion of whether he actually even needed treatment, and leaving after being pounced on by an overly-eager, needle wielding nurse, seemingly disinterested of any relevant details or medical history.

And after all that, when we finally returned to our hotel later that night, we found the fluent english speaking owner waiting desperately for us. He apologised profusely and informed us that his dog didn’t have rabies afterall as it had indeed been vaccinated…

 

Thai Hospital – Two Visits In Five Days

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experience in a thai hospital

Thailand accident #1 – Trail biking

I’ve always been pretty bad on a motorbike, I even had to sell my 125cc because I was just so crap on it. So why the hell I decided to go trail biking through the jungle in Thailand, I do not know. In fact, I was so terrible that I fell off the motorbike so much so that it later malfunctioned and the brakes became stuck on the road journey back. The bike skidded and flew me to the tarmac where this time I was not so lucky. My wrist hurt like hell but basically, as nice as the Thai staff were at the bike centre, after earlier surprised remarks and jokes at the sight of a girl doing trail biking I felt like I had something to prove.

So I sucked it up and we continued along the road back to the centre until the pain in my left hand became so much that I couldn’t even grip the handle let alone pull in the clutch, so I surrendered to the pain. They called somebody to pick me up and when I jumped into the truck I eagerly and curiously removed my glove to sneak a glance at the damage. And there it was, a lump the size of half a golf ball sticking out the top of my wrist. I cringed at the thought of it being my bone sticking out… And that was how I had my little accident in Thailand.

Chiang mai Maharaj Hospital

A few hours later we arrived at Chiangmai Maharaj hospital, a large government run hospital located outside of the old city. I found my way to the hospital registration desk to sign myself up and the lady pointed me in the direction of the department to go to. I wandered inside the busy Thai hospital ward and a staff member waved me over to his desk as another man crept up behind me and took my form from me. He then roughly grabbed my arm, completely unobservant of the large misshapen lump on top, and proceeded to slap a blood pressure monitor over the top of my shirt. I whinced and pulled back slightly as he roughed my arm up as if it had wronged him in some way. Then the other hospital staff member questioned me, glanced at my arm and pointed me over to the emergency room.

I actually found the Thai doctors in accident and emergency to be very warm and helpful – most of them seemed to be students at the hospital and they all spoke relatively good english. They rushed me over to a stretcher and made me lie down. I felt pretty stupid considering I’d only hurt my wrist – a stretcher seemed a little overkill when there was a patient opposite, unconscious and looking pretty messed up. My boyfriend, with his slightly irrational fear of dirt and hospitals, shuffled nervously at the sight of the grubby floor behind me. They were good at keeping me up to date on what was going on – probably better service than the hospitals in England in fact. At the same time though, they didn’t really seem like they knew much about what was going on with my injury. I had about a team of five Thai student doctors alternating between investigating and prodding away at me and then gathering around for a group discussion on what it could be.

They sent me for an x-ray after only an hour of arriving at the hospital – a porter wheeled me away on my stretcher and I couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed at being unnecessarily pushed around and on display for a wrist injury. When I arrived back at the hospital ward, another foreigner had arrived and she was tearfully led out on a stretcher while her male friend and the group of doctors lingered around her bed. One of the non-student doctors appeared beside me and excitedly explained that they were from Brazil; it was almost as if he was reuniting me with a long lost sister. He then went on, “she had a dog bite her!’ He then grinned jollily and made bitey impressions to which I felt a bit mean giggling at.

The girl next to me ended up having to pay a total of 7000 baht for her hospital treatment and a rabies shot – apparently it was a more expensive kind ‘made from human’ as they had run out of the kind ‘made from horse’. One of the doctors informed me that my wrist wasn’t broken, but was probably a torn ligament or muscle and that I shouldn’t use it and should keep it bandaged up. She didn’t seem particularly confident to be honest but I guess stuff like that can be hard to diagnose when it’s still so swollen. And I certainly can’t fault her customer service after she kept me updated practically every 10 minutes.

All in all my Thailand hospital visit was not a bad experience at all (ignoring the overly aggressive blood pressure guy). For two hours worth of attention from the team of Thai scrubs, two bandages, an x-ray and a goodie bag of drugs it only cost me 691 baht. That’s not even £15 or $20….

Whatever! At least now I have an excuse to wear a cool ninja glove-looking splint…

 

Read about my Thailand hospital experience #2 here

 

 

Jobs In Thailand – Acting

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acting jobs in thailand

As I have whined about enough in my recent posts, lately I have been low on work and am struggling to find ways to earn a living in bangkok. When I was out a few nights ago, I received a phone call from a Bangkok agent I had applied for Extra work with a few months back. As this was the first time I’d heard from this agent yet, I wanted to keep them sweet, and so agreed to go to a casting for an acting job in Bangkok – I normally decline attending castings as I am well aware that there are plenty of other professional actors kicking around… and me – I’m completely clueless and uncharismatic with that sort of thing… Not to mention I hate being the centre of attention.

To be honest, I wasn’t just doing it to get on the good side of this new agent… life in Bangkok has been kind of uneventful recently and I’ve been starting to go a little stir crazy. I also decided to investigate acting as a career in Thailand and take one for the team, for the all-of-about five people that ever actually read my blog. Or anybody who happens to want to know what they shoud expect at a casting in Bangkok. I’ve got nothing better to do anyway, I’d just waste my time mincing around eating fried chicken and bubble teas otherwise.

 

Acting work in Bangkok

There are many acting and extras groups you can join on facebook that advertise this kind of work in Thailand. You can just search ‘casting thailand’ and there will be loads to join up to. Agents are also quite keen to send whoever they can to castings because it simply increases the probability of one of their clients being picked, and them getting their commission from the job. You can find a list of agents to contact under my tips for extra work in Bangkok. It’s difficult to get parts, especially with no experience, but although it can seem time consuming and not worth the effort, the pay can actually be very rewarding. If I had actually gotten this particular part, I would have been paid a minimum of 20,000 baht (about $700 or £450) minus the agency fees – 15,000 baht. Minimum. For one day’s acting work.

There is a lot more pressure than when just doing extra work in Bangkok though. Although you get treated much better (e.g. you get your own umbrella-and-fan man and you get to eat the nice food), it is basically all down to you when they are shooting. If you can’t get it right, then all the extras and all the film crew – they all have to work longer because of you! It’s all your fault! Man, that would seriously stress me out, the thought of that… and all those people watching you try to act. At least when you work as an extra, it doesnt really matter what you’re doing – nobody really cares, you’re just a minion picking your nose in the background. I like it that way though, being the invisible minion with no responsibility…

But most people aren’t insecure wrecks like me, so if you are a confident, outgoing person you may consider giving acting work in Thailand a try and perservering simply because the pay is so good. A lot of other people at the casting I spoke too were not actually experienced actors either. It’s much easier than normal to obtain acting work in Thailand as the community of foreigners is small and the demand for ‘farang’ high. There are many acting workshops you can attend and I have personally heard from people who have been to them that they are very useful and helpful. Which actually surprises me. These can cost from 6000 baht to 10,000 baht for a few weekends of workshops. When you think about the potential amount you could be paid from a typical acting part in Thailand though, it seems easily worth a try to improve your acting skills.

 

My first – and my last – casting in Bangkok

To start with, the details I was sent about the casting itself were not particularly clear. I was told to dress like a young, affluent and successful world traveller. To dress upscale but casual as if staying at a five star hotel. To dress uniquely with style, but to not look like a model.. and no suits either! I was pretty confused by these conflicting descriptions but nonetheless I interpreted this as dressing like a gnarly, hardcore traveller with lots of money. I opted for some ethnic, leather jewellery and a casual outfit with a funky, smart suit jacket. I know, it said no suits – but I do not own ‘upscale clothing’ so it was all I could think of.

When I arrived at the hotel that the casting was arranged at in Bangkok, I got to the floor of the casting and found about three or four other male actors dressed quite smart and fashionably. I took a seat with them and then one of the Thai crew members came out and gave me a form to fill in with my measurements and contact details. I remained sat, waiting for about 40 minutes… -_- Some of the other people were taken off to a sitting area behind me and had their photos taken in various positions and situations. I heard the photographer behind saying ‘Ok now laugh, someone just did something very funny… HAHAHAHA’… then I heard the model let out an awkward, fake laugh and agonized myself over how douchey I was gonna feel when it was my turn.

Ok, I thought, no problem, this is a piece of cake, I got this job in the bag! All I’ve got to do is pretend I’m doing whatever they say – it’s easy. And I don’t have to be embarassed because everybodies in the same boat here. I think this was more to pump myself up than out of arrogance but I figured – how hard can it be? Anybody can act. Eventually, I got called into the room for the castings and took a seat on a prepared set. Two other girls entered dressed much more glamourously than me and took a seat either side of me.

Basically, I misinterpreted the prior description of the job. We were meant to play three best friends staying in a hotel who were basically rich and went on holiday all the time – not hardcore world travellers. After explaining the setting to us and telling us we would need to improvise (!) a scene of ‘three besties hanging out together and teasing eachother’, the casting woman took a look at me up and down and let out a displeased groan. ‘Take off you jacket so you look comfortable inside your hotel room…’ she asked. Then she took another scrutinising glance at me and continued ‘ok take off you shoes’. ..I was feeling a little unloved at this point.

This was when it got awkward though. I’ve never acted before let alone improvised, so I just could not think what to say. Considering my inexperience though, I think I did pretty well really. It lasted maybe 15 or 20 minutes where they took a few takes of us socialising and laughing together. At the end, the casting woman laughed hard and said to the the girl to my right ‘I feel so sorry for you, you are trying so hard and the others act so… lazy’. She carried on laughing at us while the girl kindly denied what she said and tried to defend us. And I thought I was acting quite cheerful! How wrong I was… I guess if I could pass on anything I’ve learned from this experience, it would be to just make sure to overact and exagerrate everything.

The two girls were both very nice; the other bad one turned out to not be so good at english, so she had a better excuse than me for being bad at improvising. When I left the room after being laughed at by a professional, I felt a little discouraged to say the least. Before I had a chance to recollect myself and remotivate myself, I was called upon by the photographer. This went equally as bad. He would tell me to smile and laugh… it’s actually surprisingly hard to laugh on demand when the pressure is on you. He told me to pretend I was watching funny cartoons on the TV and then said ‘oh, the cartoons aren’t funny enough for you… Ok, show your teeth when you smile’. I don’t even want to see those photographs… it must have looked so creepy watching my feeble attempt to push out an unnatural smile. I’m surprised the poor man didn’t smear grease over his viewfinder to protect his eyes… It’s painful to think about.

I was glad to be out of there… The casting took 90 minutes altogether and during that time alone I saw about nine other applicants. Castings ran all week and all day, so it must be pretty difficult and competitive to actually get the part for something like that. Another extra friend of mine (also new to the industry) once told me about how she attempted to go to a casting in Thailand and how horribly embarrassing it was. So with my non-existent acting skills and this prior warning, I was not so naïve that I actually thought it would go smoothly. As with my other past Thailand career attempts, I think it’s safe to say I did not get the job…

 

Lonely In Thailand

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social networking in thailand

Social Networking In Thailand

The expat community in Thailand is surprisingly small and cosy but I also believe that just living in another country instantly equips you with many common interests to meet and connect with other like-minded expats. Most people who have moved to Thailand will not only tend to share a similar attitude and outlook on life but will also usually be open minded enough to posess an interesting array of alike hobbies. There are many useful social networking websites kicking around to help you to meet other expats if you do get lonely in Thailand. In some people’s cases it can be hard to connect and meet with others and make friends in Thailand otherwise.

Social networking websites in Thailand

I have personally tried and tested some of these social networking sites myself and have found them to be very friendly and welcoming in Bangkok. It’s definitely worth a try to network with other expats in Thailand – there is nothing to lose from trying if you start to feel lonely in Thailand at least. Personally, when I am being anti-social in Bangkok, it makes me considerably more homesick also.

Meetup has an unbelievably wide selection of different groups for people to meet and either help out in the community, get some exercise or brush up on their language skills. Meetup groups in Thailand vary in size from about 5 to 30 people and include volunteer groups, beach volleyball groups, language groups, motorcyle touring,  jam sessions, web developers and naturist groups! And many more! There is something there for everyone…

Chickynet is a women-only social networking site in Thailand. Personally, I think it can sometimes be quite difficult and lonely in Thailand for women, as a large proportion of expats seem to be men. Chickynet is great for socialising, hanging out and meeting with other women in Thailand. It also hosts numerous events, has a classified section and forums for help and expat advice. I highly recommend joining this community if you don’t yet have many aquaintances in Thailand.

For the fitness and beer enthusiasts, there are many Hash groups which exist around Thailand both for cyclists and runners. If you like running and biking, mixed up with some heavy drinking then give it a try. The Bangkok Hash House Bikers host many cycling events and meetups around Bangkok, or there is a runner’s Hash in Bangkok that meet Mondays,  The Hash Pub in Chiangmai, Pattaya Hash in Pattaya… There are absolutely tonnes of other Hash websites to choose from in Thailand depending on your area…

Shared workspaces

For people who are self employed or similar, there are a selection of rentable shared office spaces around Bangkok which are ideal for meeting likeminded people.. or simply for those who are becoming lonely and bored of sitting at their desk in their y-fronts, scratching at their balls eating cheetos.

Hubba is located in Ekkamai in Bangkok and costs from 100 baht per day depending on which package you purchase with them. They offer a free trial so there is no pressure to join up at least. Some snacks and beverages are included in this price such as cakes from their pantry. The atmosphere is very friendly and relaxed and they can arrange meals for you very cheaply to eat and socialise with the rest of the staff.

Launchpad is another share workspace in Bangkok, Sathorn – you can read more about Launchpad here.

Expat Pubs in Thailand

Another great way to meet expats in Thailand are the western style pubs – there are many people who network and make friends more casually in this way. In Bangkok for example, you can find Irish and English style pubs along most of the main stretches of activity – Silom has many to choose from along the whole of Silom Road, Nana is also a particularly pub-filled part of the city. Phrom Pong and Ekkamai also have good selections. Check out Durty Nellys, The Robin Hood and The Black Swan. In Silom near BTS Sala Deng, The Roadhouse is a particularly social pub amongst Bangkok expats. None of these places are cheap, but then foreign luxuries in Thailand never are.

If nightclubs are more your scene, try the expat rich Levels on Soi 11 in Nana, Bangkok. For the more creative crowd I would recommend a visit to the small and cosy Jam Cafe in Sathorn (the end nearest BTS Surasak Bangkok). The Jam Cafe often hosts cult movie nights and other interesting events to get people meeting and socialising. They also make some good fish and chips, burgers and veggie meals for only 100 – 150 baht.

 

 

Homesickness

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thailand home sick

Four months ago, after much deliberation I finally got off my ass, took action and moved to Thailand… and now I feel homesick already -_-.  The first three months living in Thailand I didn’t feel even the slightest bit homesick, possibly from being distracted by the novelty of being in a new country. But then the homesickness kicked in and when it did, it hit hard. For a month now I miss England, and the homesickness seems to be so unrelenting that I even started to question… is it actually homesickness or am I simply ‘done in Thailand’ already?

I’ve adapted to the hectic environment of Bangkok and learned a lot too. But at the same time… I miss home – I miss the music… food.. I miss snow and wrapping up in the cold weather (and not being sweaty!) and I miss having a stable job and income! I find it difficult to get a proper job in Thailand and am gradually eating away through my life savings. To put it simply: Should I really be wasting my hard earned money mooching around in the sun when I’m not gaining much else from it?

ooo

So grey and Englandy!

Living in Thailand has made me learn not to take my home for granted, to appreciate it when I do get home. This insight alone has made my trip to Thailand worth everything already. The grass is always greener on the other side and as much as Thailand has always had a romantic and paradisal association in my mind, it still has it’s imperfections just like every other country. People can still be unfriendly… or even annoying! Just as much so as in my own country. I love Thailand but in reality it has many positives and it also has it’s weaknesses just like anywhere else…

You can search and search for that part missing in your life but moving to the other side of the world does not necessarily automatically cure the naturally miserable, grumbly bastards like me…. some us just need to learn that for ourselves. I think that all the discontentedness some of us feel is inside our heads and if we want to be truly happy, we need to examine inside our minds rather than the world outside. Otherwise we will never be happy no matter where we live.

…It’s still badass to move to a tropical country though!

So I try not to let my homesickness delude me, it’s important to appreciate and make the most of the opportunity to live within such an interesting and lively culture. Living in another country, as opposed to travelling, can teach you a lot more and provide you with some much more realistic and unique experiences. Bangkok is an awesome city to live in… So I will suck it up, get me a nice roast dinner from the pub and listen to some Red hot chili peppers until I am cured once again.

A good cure to homesickness? Socialize and meet people in Thailand.

 

Update! Turns out homesickness and culture shock hits you a lot harder in reverse, when you actually return back to your rather uneventful hometown… if you’re feeling homesick and in need of some positive thinking or appreciation of all things Thai, read about my return to England here.