[2023-01-03] Why I HATE Living in Thailand [AppdVCxYxCY]

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

I've been living in Thailand for nearly 2

months now, and I thought I'd make a pros

and cons of living in Thailand video

because I have been trying to decide if I

want to commit and live in Thailand for

over a year or more, or maybe just go back

to Japan and live there for half a year

like I was intending to before the whole

world situation thing began. And I have

been thinking that Thailand is not a bad

place to live in. There are many pros

compared to having to live in Japan, and

it is a much easier and cheaper country to

live in. So far, I actually think living

in Thailand is not bad. I think it's

pretty good, especially compared to Japan.

There's a lot of reasons why I actually

prefer living in Thailand compared to

Japan, and there's a lot of pros. For

example, it's really cheap here, but I'll

get to the pros at the end of the video.

I'll start with the cons of living in

Thailand, 'cause there are a few things

about living in Thailand that I don't

really like. So one of the annoying things

about living in Thailand is, as you can

see behind me, there's a load of water

bottles, and that's because you cannot

drink the water here from the taps or the

sinks. Usually in England, if I want a

glass of water, I just go to the kitchen,

get a glass, and turn on the tap and drink

out of the tap, and it's completely okay.

There is a tiny bit of chalky taste back

home in my house in England, but it's

completely safe to drink. Here in

Thailand, you cannot drink the water from

the taps or the sinks or from the shower

either. There's this really weird metallic

disgusting taste. I tried drinking it and

I couldn't physically swallow because I

just gagged. It tastes so bad, and I don't

know if they actually treat the water

here. So I'm kind of worried that when I

have a shower, obviously the water from

the shower is getting onto my body, into

my eyes, into my mouth, onto my sensitive

bits. And I'm hoping that's okay. I'm

pretty sure it is okay, but it just feels

a bit unsafe that this potentially

untreated water is getting all over my

body. And when I brush my teeth, there's

this very bad taste. So you have to buy

bottles of water all the time. We have

recently just bought 16 bottles of big

water, and it costs about 80 baht for 8

bottles of water. So that works out to

about 25 pence per bottle. So you're

drinking at least 1 bottle of water per

day, costing you 25p. It amounts to nearly

£8 or £10 per month you're having to spend

on bottles of water, which isn't really a

huge amount. It's not that expensive to

have to spend £10 on water every month,

but it's kind of annoying because you have

to keep ordering it, and then you have to

go downstairs, and then you have to pick

it up and carry it back up to your

apartment. And And having to carry 16

bottles of water is kind of heavy, and I'm

not very strong, and it's kind of tiring

having to carry all this water up and down

every time. And then you have to get rid

of all these empty plastic bottles of

water that end up gathering because you

start finishing all of the bottles of

water, and then you have to get rid of

them. It's just kind of irritating. It'd

be nice if I could just turn on the sink

and drink out of the sink water. Another

annoying thing is the constant heat. So

obviously a country like Thailand is going

to be very humid and hot pretty much all

year round. And this is the coolest period

of time during the year in Thailand, so

I've been told. Apparently March,

February, and April are much hotter, and I

think this is hot as it is right now. I

don't even go outside during the day

because when I do, it's so unbearably hot.

You have to wear a hat or an umbrella, or

you need some kind of long-sleeve

clothing, otherwise your arms and your

skin just goes all brown and burnt. And

it's just really unpleasant trying to do

anything during the day. For example, if

me and my girlfriend go traveling

somewhere during the weekend, we can't

stay in the hotel during the day because

because it's just a waste of money. So we

have to go out and see stuff like go to a

park or go to a zoo or some kind of

attraction. And it's just so miserable

because I feel so hot and I'm sweating

and I feel so low on energy and I just

want to sit down and sit in the shade and

not really do anything. But sometimes you

have to go out. Sometimes the heat is

nice. For example, getting out of bed is

very easy because it's warm and getting

out of a shower after finishing a shower,

it's nice and warm. I hate it in England

when it's freezing cold you're trying to

get out of bed but you don't want to

because it's so damn cold. And then you

have a shower and then you're wet after

the shower and you quickly try to dry

yourself because it's so cold. You don't

really have that problem here in Thailand.

Also, going out in the evening is quite

comfortable. It's still humid and hot,

but it's not really hot because the sun is

not shining. So going out in the evening

is actually quite nice. It's better than

trying to go outside in England when it's

raining and freezing all the time. Cost of

living in Thailand is insanely cheap. For

example, my really nice and spacious

apartment with balcony and separate

bedrooms, separate kitchen, nice shower,

only costs £260 a month for rent.

And this place is considered to be not

cheap. For a Thai person, this place would

be above average, I think, maybe average

or above average. But a low-income worker

in Thailand would not be able to afford a

place like this. And for someone like me,

even with a small YouTube channel and a

small Twitch channel who only makes about

$1,500 a month, Having to only pay about

$300 a month for rent is just insanely

cheap for me. So to put things into

perspective, maybe someone who only works

as a cleaner or in McDonald's, they

probably only make about 15,000 baht.

This place costs about 11,000 baht a

month, so they only have about 4,000 baht

left over. I don't think they'd be able to

afford to live in a place like this. They

would need to live in a place that only

costs about 6,000 or 7,000 baht a month,

which would be way smaller in a not very

nice building. This building is so

luxurious and premium. It's got a massive

swimming pool, like the kind of swimming

pool you'd expect to find in a hotel

resort, and it's got a massive gym, and

it's got all of these facilities like a

spa and a sauna. It's really nice. As

someone who makes his money in US dollars,

it's really nice to be able to afford a

luxurious lifestyle for a very cheap

price. It's very reassuring and comforting

knowing that I don't actually need to make

a lot of money to have a good life here in

Thailand. When it comes food, it depends

on what kind of food you like to eat. So

obviously Thai food and local Thai dishes

are extremely cheap. You can get a whole

restaurant meal for maybe 60 or 70 baht,

or maybe even just 50 baht, which is like

a pound. £1 for a restaurant meal is

insane. But I don't really like Thai food

that much. I don't really like the flavors

a lot. I prefer Western food and Japanese

food, and that food isn't exactly cheap.

I think a Western or Japanese meal at a

restaurant would usually cost about 400 or

500 baht, which is about £10. So not

exactly super cheap, but it's not too

expensive. You can even get like a really

nice restaurant, get wagyu A5 steak for

about £30 for a meal, which is not cheap

really. It's actually kind of similar to

Western prices. The same thing applies for

food delivery. So if you're going to use

the apps that deliver food like Grab or

Panda Express. They don't have Uber Eats

here, but they have similar stuff. It's

going to cost like 400 baht to get a

Burger King or McDonald's, but if you get

Thai food delivered, then it's going to be

only 150 maybe. So it's a lot more

expensive to get Western fast food

delivered to your place directly. So I try

not to do that. I try to do my own cooking

because I think it saves a lot of money.

I think there's way too much traffic in

Bangkok. Living in Bangkok is pretty

different to living in other parts of

Thailand, but the amount of 8-lane

carriageways, dual carriageways, all over

Bangkok. It's just insane. Everywhere you

go in Bangkok, there's just like these

massive 8 or 10-lane motorway kind of

roads all over the place, just like the

normal roads. In England, we only have

8-lane carriageways for the motorway, and

you don't see a massive motorway running

through a town or city in England. But

here in Thailand, it's just like every

road is massive multi-lane roads. And

trying to drive anywhere when I go driving

with my girlfriend We just get stuck in

traffic jams all the time. People are not

very good at driving here either. I don't

think there's much of a surprise that

Thailand has one of the highest amount of

road accidents in the entire world. It's

because they just have really bad driving

skills. They weave in and out of lanes

without indicating at all. They just

suddenly change lanes without giving any

kind of indication. They don't even stay

in the middle of the lane most of the

time. They're like going left and right

trying to look for opportunities to

overtake. They're just constantly trying

to overtake at any chance they get instead

of just staying in one lane and following

it. They'll try to change lanes and get

ahead just by one or two cars. It just

seems so unnecessary. You're putting

yourself at such a big risk by constantly

changing lanes like that just to get ahead

by maybe 5 seconds, and then you get stuck

in the same traffic jam that the people

you just overtook get stuck in as well.

So you're not really making much more

progress than you would have made if you

just just stayed in the same lane. One

thing I found very useful was when I first

arrived in Bangkok Airport is the fact

that you can just buy a tourist SIM card,

a 30-day unlimited 5G-enabled SIM card.

And I got several of these, so I just had

internet straight away as soon as I got

here in Thailand. Compared to Japan,

where getting a SIM card or phone contract

is a very lengthy process where you would

go into a store and sit down and arrange

an appointment, and it's kind of difficult

if you don't speak good Japanese. Even I

struggled, so I had to get my ex-wife to

help me get my phone contract sorted out

in Japan. And it's very difficult to get a

phone in Japan, I find, unless you

actually have a Japanese person helping

you. In comparison, here in Thailand, you

can just go to the airport and buy one of

these pay-as-you-go tourist SIM cards,

and when it expires, you can just renew it

online. I don't know if things have

changed in Japan since last time I went,

so I don't know if they offer tourist SIMs

at the airport now. But one of the things

I dread about going back to Japan is

arriving and not having any internet.

Maybe I can pick up like a pocket Wi-Fi

like I used to do, but those pocket Wi-Fis

are just not very good. And sometimes you

really just need a Japanese phone number

for certain apps and doing certain things,

and it's really helpful to have internet

when you're out and about in Japan. But

it's like they make it difficult for

foreigners to get their hands on some kind

of SIM card. Maybe there's some kind of

service that gets you a tourist SIM card

in Japan that just not aware of. Going

back to the cheap thing again, everything

is really cheap here, including hotels.

So you could actually live in a hotel for

a whole month for about £600 to £800 a

month, and actually live in a hotel and

have room service and all the great stuff

that comes with a hotel. In comparison,

can you imagine trying to live in a hotel

in, for example, London? It would cost you

like £5,000 a month easily. And in Japan,

you probably have to pay about £1,200 to

£1,500 a month to live in a decent hotel

every single day for a whole month. But in

Thailand, you could actually live in a

hotel for an affordable price. Obviously,

it's kind of silly to live in a hotel if

you have the option to get an apartment in

Thailand, but I was only able to get this

apartment thanks to having a Thai

girlfriend. Without having a Thai

girlfriend, I don't think I would be able

to have access to such a cheap way of

getting a cheap apartment because they

would never rent to a foreigner or tourist

who's only here on a short-term visa.

Because places like this, they want you to

rent the place for at least a year, and

then you've got to sign up for a contract.

Plus, Thai people get a way cheaper price

usually than foreigners get, and I think

it's a bit unfair that foreigners get

charged nearly 2 times or 5 times more

than a Thai person would get charged in

some places. Like a park, for example, or

a temple, they would charge the foreigner

but they won't charge the Thai person. So

we went to a temple, for example, and my

girlfriend was able to enter the temple

for free and didn't have to pay anything

just because she's Thai. But I had to pay

a couple hundred baht just because I'm a

foreigner. Sometimes she would try to get

the tickets and tell me to wait behind and

stand behind her or wait way back so they

can't see me, and then she'll try and tell

them that I'm Thai But obviously I don't

look like a Thai person to a Thai person,

and they just take one look at me and they

see straight away that I'm not a Thai

person, and then they charge me the full

foreigner tourist price. Can you imagine

if they did this back home in England and

they charged white people for things less

than they charged non-white people? There

would be an absolute uproar. There'd be

riots on the street about, you know,

racism and stuff like that. But here in

Thailand, it's perfectly okay for for some

reason. Bangkok as a city is surprisingly

modern. In my mind, I always thought of

Thailand as not a very developed or

advanced country, but coming to Bangkok

and seeing all of the massive skyscrapers,

all the massive motorways, and the really

glitzy shopping areas that kind of look a

bit like Tokyo but a bit more grittier, a

bit more cyberpunk-ish, it actually is

quite a nice city to live in. I don't

really have any major major complaints

about the city. There's some really nice

shopping areas, really nice high-end

upper-class areas as well that look on par

with other Asian cities like Seoul and

Tokyo. So yeah, in conclusion, I am

actually enjoying my time in Thailand. I

think it's a pretty good country to live

in so far, and I am seriously considering

options where I could potentially get an

education visa and go to a Thai school

maybe and try living here for over a year.

Or there's even the more expensive Thai

Elite Visa option, which costs about

$16,000 or $17,000, but then you get a

whole 5-year visa where you can just live

in Thailand basically. And if I had to

choose between living in England or living

in Thailand, I think I would actually

choose Thailand because I don't see any

good reason why I would choose England

over Thailand. The only thing I miss about

England is fish and chips and a saveloy

sausage now and then, or a pot noodle.

But apart from that, everything seems

worse in England. In England,

everything's way more expensive, at least

5 times more expensive. Rent is way more

expensive. For example, when I lived in

Manchester, I had a way smaller apartment

than this apartment, and it cost me nearly

£1,000 a month in rent and bills. That's

almost 4 times more expensive than this

place. Also, in England, I don't really

feel like I fit in because obviously I

look Asian, and even though Thai people

don't see me as a Thai person because they

notice I'm a foreigner straight away. I

feel like I fit in more in Asia in general

just because I look Asian, and I feel more

at peace, I guess, just because I fit in.

Also, in England, there's lots of other

problems like, um, racial stuff and ethnic

groups and multicultural societal

problems, and, you know, other problems

like energy crisis because of the

you-know-what war. And people going on

strike all the time. There's going to be

more train strikes planned over Christmas

because of unions and all these other

strikes. Just seems like England is full

of problems, plus it's 5 times more

expensive and I don't really feel like I

fit in there. So I'm really struggling to

find reasons why England would be a better

country to live in. I guess you got maybe

better healthcare. I don't know if the NHS

can be considered as good healthcare.

I've never really had to use them yet. I

guess one thing I miss about England would

be the rolling green fields and trees.

And the English countryside is really the

best countryside that you could ever see

in the world. I have been to a lot of

countries. I've never seen any other

country that has better countryside than

England. The countryside in Thailand

doesn't really feel the same as it does in

England. It's just like jungles and

jungles and brown dirt roads. It's not

really aesthetically pleasing like the

English countryside is. One thing I really

hated about living in Japan had to be when

you go into shops and then staff would

always be really loud and shout

irasshaimase or other stuff to you. And

shopping areas in Japan, just very noisy

because of how loud the staff are trained

to be. But in Thailand, they don't really

shout stuff at you when you go into a

shop, so that's a nice thing. The customer

service is good here, but it's not good in

like a robotic, super perfect way that it

is in Japan. Everyone says Japanese

customer customer service is the best in

the world, but I think in Japan it's too

good to a point where it's kind of

robotic. And staff in Japan just don't

really seem or feel human anymore because

they seem so robotic. I prefer the

customer service in Thailand. I think

there's more of a human touch. I'm still

new here to Thailand. I've only been here

for a few months, so obviously I'm not an

expert, and maybe there's a lot of things

I don't know about the country, and maybe

I'm still in like a honeymoon phase where

everything seems great and rosy and

perfect. But so far it seems pretty good

here, and maybe I will actually consider

living here for at least a year or more.