It’s taken me a little while to get settled in here, but I’m pretty comfortable now.
I got a condo in the On Nut area off AirBnB for the first month of my stay. I’d read that there are much better deals to be had by just looking around on the ground once you get here and from what I can see that is true–signs advertising sublets in this same building that I see on the street are a hundred dollars or more cheaper per month.
But I was just as happy to have the arrangements all worked out before I got here, since I didn’t want to try negotiating all of that for the first time while jet-lagged and confused, and the place is still very inexpensive by American standards.
It’s probably also small, but, then, I’m used to living on a boat. So the little studio seems palatial by my standards.
It’s close to a BTS stop (the Bangkok sky-train line) and several shopping centers. Although the BTS station is in easy walking distance, there’s a regular bus that runs from the condo to the station… an understandable amenity when you get sweat-soaked from walking a block. And a little golf-cart shuttle goes from my condo building over across the canal to another building closer to shopping.
I say “close to shopping” but really there is shopping everywhere. There’s a mall right across the street, new and modern, with one of the ubiquitous 7/11s in it and a variety of restaurants, banks, and other services. And tucked into nooks and crannies where you would never expect them are little stalls, shops, and restaurants.
There are several construction sites nearby (more condos going up, and a new school), but tucked in next to them is a really neat little open-air restaurant that I never realized was there until yesterday. You can see it from my window once you know where to look. But it’s just another random collection of tarps, shanty-structures, and footpaths unless you happen to know what it really is.
I’ve gotten used to juggling the air conditioning to keep the place tolerable without wasting electricity, and acclimated enough that I actually just leave it off except during the hottest parts of the day or while I’m trying to sleep. There’s a nice breeze at this level on most days. I still haven’t gotten used to the view, which is (if one ignores the busy construction site in the foreground) terrific.
Morning, before the heat settles in like a steaming, wet blanket, is the only sensible time to go outside and do things, but the Thais don’t seem to see it that way–very little is open before 10 o’clock (except, of course, the ubiquitous 24/7 7-11s). So I get up, have some breakfast, and write for a while before taking shower #1 of the day.
Although Thailand is a well-known producer of some excellent coffee beans, it’s strangely difficult to find decent coffee here–Nescafe seems to be the gold standard. On the other hand, they, by default, dump a ton of sugar and creamer into anything you order, so it’s pretty much to my taste anyway.
Breakfast varies. This morning it is “Vanilla Cereal” which is basically oatmeal with rice in it. Thai food is cheap but portion sizes are small–two sachets of the stuff is about half what I would normally eat. You would think I would be losing weight, but although I’m certainly eating less and my appetite is a lot lower than normal, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I chose this condo in part because it has a gym and pool. So most days I wander down to take advantage of that, incentivized because the gym looks out on the pool, which is often populated by ladies with very skimpy bikinis on even in the middle of the day.
The TV only gets channels over the air, which are all Thai, but some of them have SAP programming in English (usually the news) that I watch sometimes. It also has a USB plugin, though, so I can watch movies or shows downloaded from my computer.
Staying hydrated is a challenge and I have to force myself to be drinking throughout the day. Municipal water isn’t safe to drink so you have to buy bottled water, which gets old after a while. Fortunately, there are a lot of excellent fruit juices to be had, many of which I cannot identify, but they are all so heavily sugared that the actual fruit content is probably a very small percentage of the whole.
The view from the condo is good, although humid mornings sometimes lead to a dense smog crowding out the buildings and hanging low over the nearby canal. I check the air quality website before opening the windows on days like those.
Going out to see some of the tourist sites keeps me from getting into too much of a rut, but it’s really easy to just sink into neighborhood life here. The amenities are equal to anything available in the States and often less expensive. I could live a fairly complete life in about a three-block radius.
I have finally been able to identify differences between neighborhoods, but there is still little of the specialization that you find at home. There are shops and street stalls selling every conceivable thing almost everywhere you turn, anywhere you go here. There may be differences between the alley to the west and the alley to the east as far as the context and flavor of what is available, but it’s indiscernible to my Western eyes. And the same is true across the breadth of the city. I went to a large market on the other side of the Chao Praya the other day… pretty much the same as all the large markets over here, if a little more rustic and less overrun with tourists.
I haven’t even been here a month yet but it’s easy to see how people come here and stay forever. The culture is friendly and accommodating, life is inexpensive (in all the senses of that term), and things are just generally comfortable. I assume life is different below the poverty line, and many people clearly are, but if there is foment on that account, it is not obvious to an outsider. There is much about the place that remains mysterious, but I don’t get up in the morning to find myself surprised by any cultural oddities or circumstances. It is, however, fascinating, and perhaps endlessly so.
