First Impressions of Living In Bangkok

After living 6 weeks in Bangkok, what are my first impressions? I’ve got to say it’s not that good, although there are positives. I’ve come here a lot, but I’ve never actually lived here. It’s changed my perspective a little bit.

I want to start by saying how in a bubble everyone feels in Bangkok. This could be the fact that this is a capital city. It’s very busy. It’s similar to London.

People are commuting to and from work. It’s busy. It’s crowded. It’s noisy. People just want to get home and do what they want to do.

With me trying to learn Thai, I want to interact a little bit more with the locals. The problem is a lot of these vendors you want to talk Thai to, they’re busy. They have a lot of customers.

With me trying to speak in broken Thai, needing them to have a little bit of patience with me if I speak incorrectly or I need them to repeat something, they don’t have time for it. That was one thing I didn’t expect with living here.

Bangkok Heat Smog and Air Quality

If anyone’s been to Bangkok, they know that the weather here is hot. It’s humid, sticky, and Bangkok has a kind of smell about it. Then again, I think every city has its own unique smell. Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok, they all have different smells, but they’re all not that great.

But the thing with Bangkok is that you’ve got the congestion of the cars, the fumes, the high-rise buildings which are blocking the airflow. And it’s such a stark contrast to that of Pattaya, where you’ve got the sea breeze coming in.

The smog is kind of here all year round. It does get really bad a couple of months of the year. But with the smog being ever present and the kind of smell of Bangkok, drying your clothes out here on the balcony, your clothes can sometimes smell a little bit.

My main point is we all know that a few months of the year there is burning season and the smog is really bad in Bangkok. But I feel like Bangkok is bad with the air quality all year round.

On clear days like today, you can see quite far into the distance, but typically you can’t really see that far, and it might seem like the illusion that there’s rain in the distance. But it’s not rain, it’s just smog.

Bangkok Traffic and Everyday Journeys

It’s obvious. Before coming to Bangkok, I knew this is a capital city; this is going to have a lot of traffic. But I think the main thing is just doing normal daily commutes, such as going to the supermarket, can sometimes feel like a massive chore.

You have to come out and battle the heat and get through this traffic however possible, whether that be a bike or BTS. I can tell you that gets old pretty quickly.

Coming from a city like Pattaya, anywhere you really want to go, it’s never going to be more than 10 minutes. But if a journey was 10 minutes in Bangkok, you’re thankful that it’s so short.

On the map, it seems like such a small journey, but when you actually get feet on the ground, it takes a little bit longer than you first may think.

Bangkok Restaurant Prices Service Charge and VAT

It should come as no surprise, but Bangkok is more expensive than most places in Thailand. But the difference that I’ve noticed now I live here and I spend much more time at restaurants is that most of the places which are a little bit more expensive also bolt on service charge and VAT.

In Bangkok, the price that you see on menus is likely not the final price, and it’s something you’ve always got to bear in mind because it’s easy to forget. Then you go in somewhere and say, okay, this is a little bit expensive, but yeah, I guess we’ll eat here, and then suddenly you realize it’s 20 to 30% more expensive.

I didn’t see this in any other part of Thailand, the likes of Phuket or Pattaya. I never saw anywhere bolting on service charge or VAT. But it seems like it’s normal here in Bangkok.

Staying in a Bangkok Condo and Its Amenities

Here’s a point very similar to the fact that people are in their own bubble in Bangkok. People are busy. They are on the go. They are commuting to and from work, and they just want to do their thing and get home. When they’re home, they stay home.

It’s kind of rubbed off on me. I feel like I just want to stay in my condo, whereas when I was in Pattaya, I felt like I wanted to get out all the time. I wanted to be out and about at a coffee shop, at a shopping mall, here and there.

But because it’s such a nuisance to get around and everyone’s just in a rush, it feels like a massive ordeal, so I end up just kind of staying indoors. Going out for a walk or a stroll along the side of the street, I’ve just never done that.

If you’re thinking about moving to Bangkok on your own, you’re probably going to get a 30-square-meter little box apartment, and you’re just going to stay in that room for a very long time.

The condos have all the amenities that you want. They have gyms, they have 7-Elevens, like mine has a 7-Eleven right downstairs. They have co-working spaces, they have chill-out spaces. You have your own ecosystem right in the condo.

I feel like you don’t have to leave your condo whatsoever. But then I feel like I’m not living in Thailand. I’m just living in my bloody condo.

Something I’ve got to work on is just to get out a little bit more, start speaking to people, get out of my own bubble, and not get kind of pushed into the same script that everyone falls into when they move to Bangkok or anyone who just lives here.

Exploring Bangkok Making Friends and Travelling

Of course there are positives to living here in Bangkok. One of the things is I recently got my surgery done for my varicose veins. Now I’m up and about. I have to wear this leg sleeve for about another 2 weeks, but after that I can explore more.

Bangkok is one of those cities where if you don’t know where to go, you don’t know who to speak to, it can feel quite an empty city where it has everything, but you just don’t know where it is. Now it’s time to explore.

The good thing about Bangkok is it does have seemingly an endless amount of content. If you’re active enough, you will pluck out the content. I could walk down any soi and I would find something to make content out of.

For quality of life, if you’re coming here and you don’t have work that revolves around something to do with Bangkok itself, let’s say you’re just working online and you’re just finding somewhere to live other than your home country, I feel like Bangkok doesn’t have a great quality of life unless you’re someone who loves that kind of hustle and bustle city vibe.

But I feel like there are way better places out there in Thailand to just kind of relax and do your online job.

But for me as a content creator, I think Bangkok will actually work out.

I’m planning to get out more. I hope to meet more people, make new friends. I’d probably say the thing I miss most about Pattaya is my friends. I had a nice network of friends there, and it’s only a matter of time. The more time I’m in Bangkok, the more I will create a network of friends here, whether that be creators or people I just meet naturally.

Bangkok is actually amazing if you are travelling a lot. I recently went to Chiang Mai and the process was super simple. Where I’m located now, it takes me about 30 minutes to get to the airport.

That is something I’m looking forward to: travelling a little bit more, whether that be around Thailand or outside of Thailand. But certainly within Thailand, as I want to go around to different provinces and speak Thai with the locals.

Another thing is I want to get back into shape. It’s not that I’m overweight or out of shape. It’s just I want to get back to my peak form at the gym. Obviously, having surgery and just being so busy with life, I have put it off.