Tourist are enamored with their first trip to Thailand. So much so, to the point many return home with the goal of relocating to Thailand permanently.
However, what tourists do not know or understand, is that living in Thailand is not the same as a Thailand tourist experience.
Thailand might be cool for a holiday, however, when you move here and are forced into the daily grind like Thai people, it may not be the forever cool place you thought.
Holidays are just that. Fun, fun, fun. Pocket full of money, coming and going at your leisure. Eating and drinking whatever you want, stay in resorts and seeing new sights everyday.
All great and when your holiday time is over, you return home with an empty wallet.
Tourist cannot get that experience out of their heads and think moving to Thailand that everyday will be just like that.
Wrong answer!
Even after you go through the painstaking effort to find a place to live and a job if you have to work to make money, the reality of living in Thailand sets in.
Getting to and from work is a hot, sweaty challenge that can wear you down. Walking to and from public transportation, the rush hour crowding, you name it.
Seriously hot weather, followed by monsoon rains where the streets fill up with 2 feet of water in an hour. Not fun in your work attire.
The soon to be realization that you are not making enough money to make life enjoyable anymore.
The long hours of work, combined with commute times leaves you out of gas with no energy or willingness to do anything.
Real life has set in and depending on income level, that is all there is. It is not fun, it is hard work.
It does get old fast, really fast. I think most decide after a year that this is not what they want for the next 40 years until retirement. Many people decide after a year or two to return home.
Thailand is no magic Utopia. People have to work, pay the bills and try to survive the rest of their lives. Thailand is not an easy place to do that, due to the limited jobs and small salaries.
There will inevitably come a time, where you start questioning your decision to move.
Thailand is not a fun place when you have to work. Workers do not have the same guarantees and protections as in the west.
Thailand is not a fun place when you have limited income.
Not be able to save and do the things you want to do, gets old fast.
It doesn’t take long, once you are living in Thailand full-time for the coolness to wear off.