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I've been living in Thailand for 2 years and before I came here I was kind of sweating (hehe) about the heat, but now that I'm here and used to it I kind of love it. It just feels good to be outside when it's super hot for a few hours, and then you come inside to shower or go for a swim. I feel like it's good for your skin to sweat a lot, too. I used to have breakouts but they've pretty much stopped since I moved here. The Thais themselves hate the heat and complain about it a lot, lol. Nearly every building is air conditioned so much a lot of people wear sweatshirts to stay warm inside. Also if you are worried about air pollution and want to live almost anywhere in Asia you are going to be dissapointed because field burn-offs and pollution from China are just a fact of life in SEA and Korea. Maybe Japan and Taiwan are better in this regard. It's not bad all the time, though. It's definitely the worst in the winter months.
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Apr 6, 2021 05:39
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Taiwan is still hot and humid a lot of the time—there’s a winter in Taipei, sure, and you need coats and jackets and such, but it’s a damp winter. I suppose the central mountains would be better and there are jobs there but there will be fewer than in the big cities. Air pollution is also a problem.
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Apr 6, 2021 09:49
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Tbh I'm just trying to figure out a place in Asia to call home for a few years, so I'm struggling to figure out where to ask this between here and the Korea thread. My main asks are decent air quality, decent weather (hot and humid is fine as long as we're not talking about Miami/Tallahassee levels; I used to visit grandparents there and don't want to repeat that experience ever again), a decent cost of living, and a decent enough job market so that my gf and I can find work. Jeju island in Korea seems like it might be nice so I'm going to follow up in the Korea thread as well I have to confess that another big motivation for me is COVID. I am now fully vaccinated but I recognize that the airport/flight over could be a problem with variants, but after the inevitable quarantine period I want to live in a country where I can have a normal life and not be afraid all of the time which is how I feel like things will stand in the West for years to come. I look at Vietnam having what, 3 new cases per 100,000 in the past few weeks? Regardless of how much Asian countries may or may not be cooking the books, their response has undeniably been insanely robust compared to everywhere else. And while I like the idea of living in New Zealand okay, the cost of living seems insane and I'd rather experience more culture shock rather than simply move to another Anglo country. Plus, NZ/Australia don't really fit with my aim of teaching English abroad. Since low humidity is probably elusive in SE Asia I will post this in other threads as well. If anyone knows good online "expat" communities then that would be helpful as well.
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Apr 6, 2021 22:25
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Taiwan is a pretty good choice imo. In the south the air is pretty bad, but Taipei not so bad (it’s all relative but you can see historical data here: https://aqicn.org/map/taipei/ scroll down and you can see it’s mostly green) I’d also recommend looking at the east coast of Taiwan, particularly Hualien and Taidong. Air quality there is good year round, and it’s generally a bit cooler. They’re also cities big enough to have a level of job market and amenities without being too big, and a smaller but not inexistant western foreign community, a pretty decent level so that there’s some people around if you want some friends and English speakers, but not so much that you have a huge temptation to just hang with foreigners all the time. Heat/humidity is all relative imo. I’m from Maine and one of those types that loves the cold but I’ve just kinda adapted to living in Tokyo summers, Singapore, and now southern Taiwan. You might find that you don’t case so much when you’re basically living with air conditioning most of the time etc.
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Apr 7, 2021 08:13
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Did Thailand go boom? My friend there texted me and said the country is shut down but I can't seem to find a news report about it. I know songkran was a few days back and cases were increasing.
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Apr 18, 2021 00:44
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It is what it is. We're over 1500 cases nationally per day. Hospitals are running out of beds and test kits. Some people are choosing to self quarantine at home rather than get tested to avoid expensive private hospital bills in case they are mandated to quarantine at a location they can't afford. Meanwhile, the government didn't act prior to Songkran in some bizarre combination of "technically the government isn't in session until Friday" and "we really don't want to gently caress with domestic tourism". Schools are shut until at least May. All shops, including 7-11s have an 11pm closing time. There's no official curfew though so have fun wandering the streets I guess. Large gatherings are banned outright. I'm not sure if that applies to the whole country or just red zone. Meanwhile, every individual province has its own rules. Chiang Rai for instance is calling for a full 14 day lock-in.
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Apr 18, 2021 02:24
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Yea, while there were no events formally, airports were loving packed with people going to see family.
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Apr 18, 2021 02:29
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If cases are coming back I'm really skeptical tourism will be coming back this year. Hopefully I'm wrong and can skip out on another US Winter.
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Apr 18, 2021 02:36
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Vaccine rollout has also been impossibly slow making foreign tourism even less likely.
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Apr 18, 2021 02:43
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Father in law in Bangkok told us that apparently a few college kids had set up online gambling servers in Myanmar or Laos or something, went up there repeatedly to collect money to distribute to winners and caught it then went out clubbing and it was a superspreader event. I have no idea if this is true or not but its making the rounds of scuttlebutt.
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Apr 29, 2021 15:58
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The nightclub half is at least true, but I don't think it's solely responsible for the current outbreak. I don't feel like the second wave in January ever honestly ended. We were always clocking a few dozen cases a day prior to April, so it was in the wild and spreading. It was really only a matter of time before it got out of hand.
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May 1, 2021 10:30
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Is it time to start support groups for people who haven't been able to go to Asia for a year? I feel unwell.
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May 2, 2021 18:07
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Mulozon Empuri posted:Is it time to start support groups for people who haven't been able to go to Asia for a year? I feel unwell. We were supposed to spend Songkran with my wife's family last year but had to cancel the trip a couple months before we would have gone. I'm bummed but at this point my wife hasn't seen her parents in over two years, a record for her. As much as I miss Thailand I feel way more for her. On the bright side, her sister flew over to stay with us for a year getting some work experience stateside, and we were able to get her a vaccination less than a month after she arrived 
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May 2, 2021 18:17
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I haven't seen my partner in a year, and will probably be another two years with the slow vaccination rollout and border restrictions here. It's funny all the dumb little things I miss though, I don't even like going to malls but I'd love to be walking around a Jakarta mall right now and I miss the horrible traffic
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May 2, 2021 18:43
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Scylo posted:I haven't seen my partner in a year, and will probably be another two years with the slow vaccination rollout and border restrictions here. It's funny all the dumb little things I miss though, I don't even like going to malls but I'd love to be walking around a Jakarta mall right now and I miss the horrible traffic I got approved for my visa in June last year immediately after being accepted into my postgrad programme but they put a freeze on issuing visas immediately afterwards, then banned students from entering in September, and then specifically banned UK students in October. The general student ban got lifted in January but the UK one is still in place. Non-UK-passport-holding students currently living in the UK can still enter. UK passport holders with work visas can still enter. UK passport holders with valid student visas issued prior to March 2020 can still enter. But UK passport holders with student visas issued since March last year are the single remaining banned category other than people entering on tourist visas and it makes zero difference to immigration that I've been sitting very patiently in Singapore since March last year  
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May 3, 2021 08:47
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I visited my aunt in Myanmar a year and a half ago. Things felt like they were slowly getting better and I felt a real optimism. But with the coup and the military shooting people in the streets and imprisoning people, it's like sliding back 10-20-30? years. I don't know when we will ever go back.
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May 3, 2021 09:30
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My wife is chomping at the bit for her school in Thailand to cancel in person classes for the rest of the year so she and my son can go to Taiwan to see her family for the summer and will have enough time to do quarantine and still make it worthwhile.
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May 3, 2021 10:09
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Scylo posted:I haven't seen my partner in a year, and will probably be another two years with the slow vaccination rollout and border restrictions here. It's funny all the dumb little things I miss though, I don't even like going to malls but I'd love to be walking around a Jakarta mall right now and I miss the horrible traffic This but Manila. I'm hoping to fly back to Philippines during Christmas, but only if they ever get their poo poo together (they won't).
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May 3, 2021 10:38
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It looks like the Thai government is going ahead with operation "please come spend $$$ in Phuket july 2021." Anyone know how the whole thing will work? Can you go to Phuket for a week and then go to BKK after?
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May 9, 2021 06:13
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No idea, but what's the goon tl;dr on Phuket anyhow? A little curious, all the weirdo Brit's that I meant merely described it as a smaller but much nicer Pattaya.
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May 9, 2021 06:29
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I've heard it is run by various mafias and the taxi situation is dire, but it's otherwise nice.
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May 9, 2021 06:38
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:No idea, but what's the goon tl;dr on Phuket anyhow? A little curious, all the weirdo Brit's that I meant merely described it as a smaller but much nicer Pattaya. I'm curious, too. From what I read, it reminds me of Maui.
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May 9, 2021 06:46
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It's a big big island. You can stay in backpacker / party areas or a more low key and relaxed area and in areas that are quite secluded. Many beaches to choose from and a lot of places with good viewpoints and little hikes. It's also easy to take daytrips to places like Phi Phi, Phang Nga Bay, Similian islands, etc. Phuket old town is quite charming and worth checking out. I'd say it has a little bit for everyone. Not my favorite place in Thailand, but it's not a bad one stop shop sort of place for people looking to be in one area for their holiday (or being stuck somewhere due to covid rules). I was there in March and it was weird having places like the entirety of Patong beach basically to myself. Hopefully the island gets a little more traffic if they go through with that plan. I'd recommend renting a motorbike or car while there so you don't have to deal with taxis and because the points of interest are quite spread out. Edit: And, ya, it's much different than Pattaya. Bigger, more spread out, much nicer beaches. The seedy redlight stuff is pretty concentrated in one area so if you do or don't want to experience that it's easy to plan accordingly. Boola fucked around with this message at 08:01 on May 9, 2021 |
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May 9, 2021 07:58
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That's good to hear there's way more than just a red light district which honestly what I was trying to get at because when I was down there earlier that was the only thing the British Expats wouldn't stop talking about.
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May 9, 2021 08:15
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This was way back in 2013, so none of this probably applies now but even the seedy areas wasn't too bad. It sure made for interesting night life as a solo backpacker at the time. You just really have to be prepared for touts which seemed more aggressive there than anywhere else I've been in Thailand. I also was an idiot and stayed at a hostel right on Bangla Road though. The beaches were quite nice but places of interest were quite spread out so you either deal with taxis or scooter rentals. I think most people going to Phuket are staying in resorts or fancy beach hotels these days, so you really don't deal with any of the seedy stuff other than dealing with the taxi mafia. People's experiences probably vary on where they stayed, and if they actually left the place and explored around. I liked it enough as a convenient hub where there's pretty much everything you'd want (beaches, hikes, food, shopping, etc.) before you stop off to go somewhere else. I can't even imagine what holiday destinations are like during/post Covid though, must be pretty surreal. We're still pretty locked down here in Canada.
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May 9, 2021 08:30
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You can use Grab there, right?
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May 9, 2021 08:37
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On the subject of seedy-ness has anyone ever actually had a real issue any of those RLD area's like walking street? And I'm saying this as someone who's been around Skid Row and parts of NYC I really shouldn't have been at all. I never, ever even once felt unsafe in the middle of Bangkok or people watching around the RLD in Phuket at 3AM drunk off my rear end. And honestly, every in these areas has been pretty friendly if a little weird. The only problem I've ever had is ripoff taxis.
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May 9, 2021 08:50
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Same. You won't feel in danger in those areas at all. Be ready for aggressive women/ladyboys grabbing your arm and trying to get you to go inside wherever they work (just smile and keep walking, don't be defensive back obviously), maybe some touts that are annoying, and for sure stay aware enough that you're not easy picking for a pickpocket (don't really hear of that happening much or at all though). It's fine. You'll see (or did before the pandemic) families with kids and bus loads of Chinese tourists in places like walking street in Pattaya. Weird, but also very safe. Finding a bar with a halfway decent band and cheap beer on the corner of one of these places can be entertaining people watching for sure.
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May 9, 2021 09:14
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My friends and I have had a couple of run-ins across Bangkok, but it's always been mostly our own fault and usually involved taxi drivers of one variety or another as opposed to specific characters in the seedy areas. The worst, and really the only time when the victim didn't bare any responsibility at all, was a friend of mine who was stabbed. She was walking out of a cafe and was heading home when a scooter swooped by to try and snatch her bag and she resisted so they stabbed her in the abdomen. She was hospitalized for a bit and was fine. The police made a big show out of catching the suspects and turning it into a media parade. She and her partner ended up returning to their home country shortly thereafter, not that I blame them. I've had two friends get roughed up in taxis because they were too drunk to really know what was going on. One guy got into a taxi with his laptop and passed out. When he came to, the laptop bag was gone and the driver tried to ransom it back for a couple thousand baht. My friend resisted with force, but the driver had a buddy waiting outside the taxi who dragged him out and beat the poo poo out of him. He did not get the laptop back. He rides his bike everywhere now instead, but has been in a couple of accidents and needed surgery. Another friend was in a taxi and was aware enough that they were going the wrong way. He demanded they stop. The driver got out and demanded the fare, but my friend wasn't about to pay. This turned violent. A third party was standing by and broke them up and got everyone to calm down. My friend walked home and thought he had been lucky. Then he noticed his wallet and phone were gone. The third party was likely a plant and in the brief moments of physical contact he had to separate the two of them grappling each other, he picked his pocket. Same guy hopped in a taxi with a buddy after leaving a bar. They had cans of beer in their hands. The driver took a weird route and suddenly they were at a police checkpoint. They tried to hide the cans, but the driver said something in Thai and the cops knew exactly where to look. Open cans in a car are a big no no obviously. They spent the night in the police station negotiating the bribe they would have to pay to keep a charge from appearing on their records and potentially losing their jobs as teachers. He only goes home by Grab now. Dumbest thing that happened to me was that I hopped on a motorcycle taxi to meet up with friends at a bar I had never been to. The driver couldn't figure out where the bar was, so we got the bar staff to speak to the motorcycle driver to give him directions. We arrive and I hopped off and he sped away, my phone still in his hand. I didn't get the license number. I immediately went to the police and they drove me around the area looking at motorcycle stands, but of course this guy was long gone and it's not like I would have been able to pick him out anyway. They tried calling the phone, but of course it was off. I used the various Google features the next day to try and trace it and lock them out of it, but it simply never responded to anything. Eventually I gave up trying and considered it a valuable lesson learned. Some of my friends have told me stories about going into a bar and then waking up the next day with an empty bank account and assuming that they'd been drugged. They can of course never remember which bar it was and didn't go to a hospital to get their blood tested. I absolutely believe they lost a lot of money though and just wanted to invent a story to cover getting drunk and buying a thousand lady drinks.
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May 9, 2021 12:06
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Boola posted:Same. You won't feel in danger in those areas at all. Be ready for aggressive women/ladyboys grabbing your arm and trying to get you to go inside wherever they work (just smile and keep walking, don't be defensive back obviously), maybe some touts that are annoying, and for sure stay aware enough that you're not easy picking for a pickpocket (don't really hear of that happening much or at all though). It's fine. Yea, I was there in 2018-2019? and honestly this never bothered me even one bit. US Strip Clubs are far more aggressive, shady and more dangerous than any club or alley around Pattaya or even BKK. Boola posted:You'll see (or did before the pandemic) families with kids and bus loads of Chinese tourists in places like walking street in Pattaya. Weird, but also very safe. Finding a bar with a halfway decent band and cheap beer on the corner of one of these places can be entertaining people watching for sure. I don't get the negativity toward Pattaya after being there for about a week. I guess the RLD is pretty dirty sometimes but the stuff around Pattaya and Soi Cowboy is incredible and unlike anywhere I've been in the world. It's a such cool place to even simply hang out, drink, etc. and I think there's one bar around Soi Cowboy that has whole balcony that's above the main street. I kind of had a completely different impression of the area initially but the OP is probably one of the best explanations of the area - it's not some weird gross evil shady underworld. Atlas Hugged posted:
Heh, after I started going around the clubs in BKK I too went past my initial budget. 
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May 10, 2021 01:53
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Heh, after I started going around the clubs in BKK I too went past my initial budget. These weren't even clubs. Just bars. The kind of place where there'd be a computer hooked up to the speakers and you could play music through YouTube.
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May 10, 2021 05:56
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Pattaya is just an enormous red light district. I've stayed at an all inclusive resort with it's own beach and a place on the north side that was decent. But yea, it's kind of a sad town. The floating market is dastardly nasty, the animal parks are shady and sad, and there isnt much in the way of food to make you want to visit. I think it's more of a red light city per capita than Bangkok to be honest.
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May 11, 2021 03:42
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There’s also the Cartoon Network water park
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May 11, 2021 04:48
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Shammypants posted:Pattaya is just an enormous red light district. I've stayed at an all inclusive resort with it's own beach and a place on the north side that was decent. But yea, it's kind of a sad town. The floating market is dastardly nasty, the animal parks are shady and sad, and there isnt much in the way of food to make you want to visit. I think it's more of a red light city per capita than Bangkok to be honest. That... I didn't know but I still thought there was plenty of stuff to do that wasn't RLD related but there is certainly a whole bunch of that along with wasted tourists.  Not sure about the floating market is or animal parks. Oddly enough, most of my time was spent eating food people watching while carefully hauling my drunk rear end.
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May 11, 2021 05:15
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I never spent much time in Pattaya myself other than passing through on the way to or back from Ko Lan, which was a nice island. Some of my coworkers enjoyed it a lot, though based on their experiences I recommend setting a strict budget and using the buddy system to stay safe and sane.
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May 11, 2021 05:29
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I've never been to Pattaya and would like to see the Sanctuary of Truth.
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May 11, 2021 08:55
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Pattaya is weird because it is both this giant cesspool of a city and it also really wants to clean up its image but it can't survive on the clean image alone so it has to allow the festering parts to keep going and that drives away people who want wholesome family fun. But there is a water park!
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May 11, 2021 11:31
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Couldn't you say that about the country as a whole? Not the cesspool part. But the sex trade being a massive part of the GDP so the government just looks the other way.
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May 11, 2021 17:43
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Waltzing Along posted:I've never been to Pattaya and would like to see the Sanctuary of Truth. That’s a good point! I forgot about that. Never went to see that while I was living in Thailand, kind of regret it. That and the White Temple up in Chiang Rai.
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May 11, 2021 18:22
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Waltzing Along posted:Couldn't you say that about the country as a whole? Not the cesspool part. But the sex trade being a massive part of the GDP so the government just looks the other way. Not really. Hua Hin has very little sex trade. The more Muslim cities have very little red light areas. Huge areas of Bangkok have little to no sex trade. The islands have some but not close to Pattaya. Chiang Mai has some but easily avoidable. A typical walk down like 30 blocks of Pattaya is basically just sex work after sex work. Walking street didn't even have a single place to eat or coffee shop, just gogo bars and sex work. Shammypants fucked around with this message at 18:36 on May 11, 2021 |
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May 11, 2021 18:32
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