My Experience of Living in a Thai Village

I lived in a Thai village with my wife for about almost five years. This was a very rural location; over 100 km from the nearest city. I found my time here to be mostly a positive experience. I have some fantastic memories. There can be a downside to living in rural Thailand as well- at least from my point of view. I just thought I’d share my experiences here as it might interest those people who are considering such a move. I now live in an urban part of Thailand and feel that this is the ideal situation for both me and my family,

The first factor to consider when moving to a Thai village is that you will likely be well away from other foreigners. Where I lived there were only two other westerners within a twenty kilometre radius. I could go weeks without meeting anyone who spoke English above a basic conversational level. On the plus side it did give me an incentive to improve my Thai language skills. Speaking in a foreign language is not really the same as conversing in your own though – especially when you have any worries or concerns.

I came to the village from a culture where men socialise with men and a lot of this is done in bars. Not only were there no real bars near where I was living but I found it quite hard to have any type of meaningful relationship with Thai men. Sure, people would come around and talk to me while drinking my beer, but it can be hard to get beyond this point. I knew that some of the guys who stopped by regularly to check out my fridge liked to drink in a karaoke bar in the nearest town in the evenings. I always wondered why I was never invited. I was later told that the men worried that other people might think they were prostitutes if they were seen with a western man; some of these guys were 10 years older than me. I was a big drinker when I first moved to the village and ended up doing a lot of my drinking alone.

There is far less entertainment venues in rural Thailand and this bothered me a lot in the beginning. I eventually gave up alcohol so this was less of an issue for me. There are karaoke places scattered around the countryside, but these venues are very different from the bar scene that most of us westerners are used to. Occasionally there will be village parties and these can be great fun, but mostly villages are quite with people going to bed early so they can go work on the land at the crack of dawn. The area where I lived was dead to the world after seven in the evening.

There is very little privacy in a village and this can be a real problem if you are a solitary kind of person like me. People tend to drop by at whatever time they feel like and there are no secrets. Life in a village is slow and people have a lot of time for gossip. It can be difficult to find time by yourself. Thai people like to eat as part of a group; it is like there is something shameful about eating alone. Opening a bag of crisps becomes a social occasion. I sometimes felt quite overwhelmed by it all. The fact that I was the only foreigner also meant feeling on show for a lot of the time; mind you, my drunkenness in the beginning was a just cause for gossip.

A serious consideration for anyone moving to a Thai village is health care provision. Most villages have a clinic, but they will not be able to deal with serious problems. If you live in a village far from a city then it really could be risky if you have any type of cardiac history or any other condition that might mean you need sudden intensive care. In the village where we lived it would have taken a couple of hours to get to a large hospital. This is why we left soon after our son was born. Lack of health care provision is something that people should think long and hard about prior to moving to a Thai village.

Another reason for our decision to move was that there just did not seem to be much of a future there for my son. The schools in our area had very limited resources and education is important for both my wife and I. We knew that we couldn’t stay there if we wanted my son to have a lot of opportunities.

I did enjoy my years living in a Thai village; there are some great reasons why people might want to make the move. Getting away from all the busyness and replacing this with peace and quiet can be wonderful. I would advise anyone considering the move though to spend time thinking about the negative as well as the positive aspects.