Hello! I am Susan and I'm currently living in Thailand because I was bored with life in Texas and decided that the American Dream is stupid. I brought my partner Andy along with me, and though we're both the ripe childbearing age of 25, we can thank the easily accessible and inexpensive Thai baby repellant for maintaining a life free of any real responsibility or meaning. My hobbies and interests include cooking, eating, hiking, and yoga, with a good dose of environmentalism and political economics thrown in for fun, because, hey, who doesn't like being lectured about industrial pork farming while digging into some laab?
I've lived in Chiang Mai since December, and I'm hoping to stay here for as long as my bank account lets me, or until I get thrown out of the country for messing up my visa paperwork.
I ended up in Chiang Mai through an involved process of elimination. I wanted to leave the US and experience life somewhere else, and found something to hate about every country in the world except Thailand. Andy and I signed up for a Thai language school with locations in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai and slowly eliminated choices due to hearsay, rumor, and internet forums before deciding to move to Chiang Mai, which fortunately we really like.
Life has actually been super easy and positive over here. I love waking up in the morning, patting the street dogs who hang out in the apartment lobby, and finding a new treat from the fruit lady downstairs. I love living in a walkable area of an old city in close proximity to beautiful mountains and nature to play in. Most of all, I love that no one cares that I really don't do anything too productive with my time, aside from going to class for 6 hours a week. I can wander aimlessly and nap in the afternoon shade all I want. The concepts of sanuk and mai pen rai really work for me.
Here are my problems with Thailand: transportation and beer. The thought of driving a motorbike here terrifies me, so I'm dependent on songtheaws or Andy for transportation. I seriously miss baking, good mexican food, and delicious hoppy beers. I don't like Thai beer at all. Most imports are German or European styles, which are really lovely from time to time, but they lack the risk-taking boldness of American beers. Beerlao dark is okay, but it's not always available. Drinking and understanding quality, craft beer used to be a part of my identity stateside, and I miss that. So everyone feel really sorry for me, okay?
Most of the funny things that have happened to me here involve my terrible Thai language skills. Every time I open my mouth is an abomination to the rich lingual history of Thailand and should be stopped. For instance, the other day I went to the store to pick up some antacids when Andy ate something upsetting. The guy behind the counter has NO idea what I'm talking about, so I start trying to communicate in body language. Eventually he points to the condoms. Not what I needed. Then he hands me a pregnancy test. Also, not what I needed. I'm still not sure why the dude thought something was up with my uterus; it's not like I was waving around my skirts or anything!
My Thai remains horrendous, but my charades have improved drastically. I can mime anything now.
I rent a very nice furnished apartment with two great big TVs and a urinal. I'm pretty sure we got the farang price, but it's still much less expensive than the equivalent in the states. If I could do it again, I would have rented a small serviced apartment for a few weeks while I looked seriously for a long-term place. I'm happy where I am, but I rushed into something just a few days after arriving, and I think that upped the price tag.
I work in tourism, for a destination management company. It is a Thai agency, I have an educational visa, which means that I'll be booted out for making Thai money in any way shape or form. No, I do not have a rich benefactor. I saved up for years before coming here, and my bank account weeps with every withdrawal. I've previously worked as an air quality-focused environmental consultant where I secured grant-funding for clean transportation projects and as a beer wench at the world's first co-operative brewpub. Now I just troll for grant-writing jobs on the internet.
Everyone tells me to teach English, but I know nothing about teaching and my grasp on English is feeble at best. I'm certainly interested in finding work locally for which I'd be well-suited and switching out the old paperwork. I think working here would be nice. Even though adapting to a different work culture would be difficult, the social and cultural doors opened would probably be worth it.
My fashion is more abysmal in Thailand than it ever was back home, and I've gone through dumpster-diving phases, so you know it's really bad now. I'm quite small at about 5 feet and 2 inches tall and weighing not much more than 120 pounds (1.57 meters/55 kilos). I thought this meant that Thai clothes would fit me, but they don't. I recently tried on pants at some trendy store in the mall where all the girls just put on a sack-like skirt over pants to modestly change right out in the open. I could not find a pair of pants that fit. I could get the zipper all the way up on the large sizes, but the waist sat over my ribcage and gave me a massive camel toe. There is nothing at all wrong with being large, but there is something majorly wrong with crotch cleavage.
I've not given up on Thai fashion, though. For cheap, trendy clothes, I go to the markets near CMU on Huay Kaeo Road. There's a nice market that pops up around 6 pm across from the university, and another closer to Canal Road (Route 121). You can buy the basic uniform of every college student here: jeggings, frilly dresses, striped tops with weird graphics plastered all over them, and my personal favorite, a precious little dress with a floral skirt and a top saying, "Come At Me Bro." For those of you who don't know, that's a quote from the paragon of American culture, the groundbreaking and scintillating MTV reality show Jersey Shore.
I've also purchased a few items in the basement of Central Plaza that have been inexpensive and unique and I love browsing near Warorot market a bit east of the northeast of the old city. I had one low, low day outside the Dunkin Donuts in the giant Tesco when I impulsively bought a pair of wedge sandals for 120 baht because I felt bad about myself for coming to Thailand and eating all the donuts (especially when everyone knows Mister Donut is the far superior donut outlet) and looking like a scrub. Here's a tip: don't buy shoes you can't walk in from a stand outside of a Dunkin Donuts in a megastore if you want to look pretty.
The food in Chiang Mai is almost universally delicious, especially the kind that comes from carts. I've been bitten by the khao soi bug pretty hard, and I haven't had a bad bowl yet. If you're new to khao soi, it's best to start out at Just Khao Soi on Charoen Pratet Road near the Anusan Night Market and learn about the dish's history and assorted condiments the right way. It will cost you a little bit more, but it's worth it for food nerds. I've also enjoyed a bowl at Khao Soi Nimman on Soi 7 and from countless smaller places with names I can't read. It's even good from Tops Supermarket in the basement of the Kad Suan Keao Mall on Huay Keaw Road.
I think the best places to get food are the side-of-the-road outlets. I would start at Chiang Mai Gate on the south side of moat, which has tons of carts serving food almost 24 hours a day. You can get some good vegetarian options there, as well as the best mango and sticky rice I've ever had. I also like to eat the food at the walking streets (Saturday at Wua Lai Road, Sunday at Rajdunnern Road), but it's best to go early or late and avoid the crowds. There's also a touristy market I believe on Soi 9 near Moon Muang road that has some nice readymade food including a delicious and inexpensive smoothie place if you're in town for a visit. I'm not a good enough person to share my tiny, hole-in-the-wall favorite, because I've noticed more people and longer waits as of late, but I would encourage you to look in small corners and alleys for new treasures.
For farang food, Duke's Burger Bar on Moon Muang has the best burger, and Pizza E Vino right across from Thapae Gate has the nice pasta and pizza. Smoothie Blues on Nimman has a good all-day American breakfast, including the elusive croissant breakfast sandwich, and Bake 'n Bite right around the corner on Nimman Soi 6 has super yummy muesli pancakes.
Other places of note are a Northern Thai restaurant and Khun Churn Vegetarian Thai, both on Nimman Soi 17. Both are obviously more expensive than the delicious local joints, but they offer something unique. The Northern Thai restaurant is on the north side of the road, and all of its signage is in Thai; you can tell where it is because of the lack of English. They serve food it's hard to reliably find elsewhere in the city limits, items like wild boar in all of its hairy, raw fermented glory. The vegetarian place serves really nice, carefully cooked and constructed vegetarian food. Khun Churn's is a bright spot in a place where finding substantial, relatively authentic vegetarian food can be a challenge.
Quite honestly, I usually end up drinking outside the liquor store on Nimman. The novelty of being able to walk out of a liquor store with an open container and sit down on the sidewalk has not yet lost its appeal for me. Also? There is a gang of beefed up motorcycle dudes that are always there showing off and a mobile food cart selling grilled proteins on sticks pulls up when you need it. Drinks, plus beef (to eat), plus beef (on dudes) proves a winning combination.
It's fun to try Monkey Club on Nimman Soi 9 every once in a while. It's full of really fashionable young Thais jamming out to live music that's actually really good. Make sure to not look like a total slob if you go; there is always a group of farang sitting by themselves looking super grungy on weekend nights which brings down the atmosphere for all of the locals who have been primping for hours before setting foot inside.
There's a cluster of bars on Ratwithi Road in the old city that are well-known and always packed. Zoe's is probably the most popular--that's the reggae bar all of the travelers and expats like to go to. I prefer the 2nd Floor across the street. Then, after I've had a few drinks, I like to skip Zoe's and go straight to the hard rock bar next door (you can't miss it) so that I can give myself whiplash head banging and have an excuse for self-indulgent hangover day with lots of massages.
I am the last person in the world to find things on the internet. I read Tasty Thailand for Bangkok information and She Simmers for Thai food recipes written for Americans. Sometimes I go to Thai Visa so people can yell at me about how stupid I am for committing atrocities like renting a motorbike instead of owning.
If you want to read about the fruit I eat and things I buy in Chiang Mai, you're always welcome at my site: splendorinthelemongrass.com
I really don't have a lot of advice to giving newly arriving expat women as I'm still floundering around myself. I would encourage women not hesitate to reach out to others for company and support. We're so lucky to live in this time where finding new friends can be as easy as signing up for a social network.
Also, you might have read that you can bake cakes in a rice cooker, but you can't. Don't try. You'll save yourself so much pan scraping sorrow.
Living in Thailand, so what is that like? The Chicky Net interviews tell the stories of expat women who have decided that Thailand is their home (for now). How did they end up here, what's it like to live and work in Thailand and what challenges and amazing experiences have they have come across?
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