We moved to Bangkok in September 2016, and officially decided to make it our home base in December 2016. The first few months of living here were strange, we had moved into a condo (apartment) in an area called Sathorn.
I had made the switch from “Digital Nomad” living to expat life. I remember my first few months was figuring things out, adapting to the city, a lot of massages, a lot of grocery trips. To be honest, things haven’t changed much.
Fast forward 3 years later and my feelings towards the city have deepened. I now work at executive level in an office, but a love for Thailand never developed.
In fact, a love for Thailand, left. My once warm feelings for the land of smiles, disappeared. Instead a feeling of resentment has built.
It’s hard for me to differentiate whether it has come about from getting older and a changing of priorities, a lack of perspective – or truly a dislike for the Thai city.
The priorities I never realised I had, healthy living, slow life, quiet nature escapes grew much louder.
Everything is much more expensive (at least if you want to live any semblance of western living – food, wine, beauty products and more)
It’s hard to see whether Thailand has just made me fussy.
It wears on you as well, feeling resentful to a country that has not done much wrong.
It might be getting older, it might be being an expat that doesn’t settle well. Maybe it’s the traveler’s curse.
It might be having too high expectations of a place that is never meant to be a replica of the west. I’m not sure what it is, I just know that Thailand does not feel home, and in fact a large resistance grows every day to place that seems culturally opposite, dirty, hierarchical and unaware of its shortcomings.
Champagne Vivant 