Renting Your New Home

I always look at every experience and think, Is there any way I can exploit it or just look at things as a learning curve.

Renting a condo or room is very much like that. You will quickly know what you like and what you do not. It is also paramount to consider what are your prerequisites, and what are the less essential so for me budget was top of the list and then 1 bedroom not a studio.

Now you may well say why not a studio. Living here in Pattaya it is more than likely you will have an overnight visitor which is one of the reasons we choose to leave our homeland and move to a place where you don’t understand the language, Culture or food. Although a great deal of fun will be had with your guest if they are Thai they like to sleep and it is not unusual for a Thai to sleep anything from 8-14 hours a day.

As it is probably in most of our D.N.A to get up and do something a local likes nothing better than sleeping or eating not sure what order comes first. Therefore having another bit of living space where you can escape to, Is why along with budget it remains at top of my shopping list.

Décor is a little lower down the list but there again if you have decided to stay for a while, you want something aesthetically pleasing as possible, because lets face it unless you are actively seeking liver damage spending every day in a bar drinking is not the wisest thing to do.

When you eventually find your habitat for however long, Your agent will request anything from 2 months rent upfront or at least 1 and half then you pay your monthly rent in advance so the initial outlay can be daunting but you will get your deposit back providing you have not broken damaged or lost anything that was there prior to taking on the property.

Note to self. Wise to do an inventory of some kind, and agree with whoever is responsible initially for renting you the place. Most Thais are honest but there will be horror stories of agents charging for the slightest thing they can get away with.    

Looking for Accomadation

Looking for accommodation, sounds easy. Well  it can be if you just want to stay amongst the bars in Soi Bukhoa and I did find, a lot of cheaper rooms but smaller. What I found was there was a lot of studio style rooms with a bed a CRTV not digital, a fridge some storage for clothing etc…

The traditional style wet room. The ubiquitous air con units older style. No cooking facilities (as these tended to be above shop premises)  Wifi  would be accessible. These rentals would offer a daily rate weekly or monthly. The longer you committed the cheaper it would be.

The upside with living so close to the action is that every where is totally accessible Bars, Restaurants, Cafes, Go Go bars even Central Shopping Mall.

The downside it is always busy apart from a Lull from 3am-6am and then it all starts again. When you are dodging Motor bike taxis, Baht buses, Vendors selling everything from dried squid to ladies shoes.

Now I have an issue. I like busy but I also like quiet. Bearing in mind this is not a vacation I am now living here.

I chose to look elsewhere so the areas I looked in were Pratumnak, Pattaya Naklua, Jomtien, Arunathai,Thepprasit all within spitting distance of hub.

There again all these had plusses and negatives.

Pratumnak, Jomtien Thepprasit is South Pattaya and caters heavily for the Russian speaker and it would not be unusual to see Menus in both Thai and Russian. Whereas Pattaya Naklua tends to favour the Northern European Germans and Scandinavians. Arunathai I am still to discover but from my short excursions there was more Italians and French . So getting back to Soi Bukhao which is one of the main arteries through the city tended to be British.

Pattaya is a very cosmopolitan city it just was a case of where I was comfortable.

On previous trips I had stayed in Soi Ko Phai and found it was a good mix of Thai and Farang but mainly Thai so decided well it will be a good value so opted to look in that area.

1st week in Pattaya

I have been coming to the Land of Smiles since 2005 but finally decided to see if I could settle here 2014

Having gone through a divorce and many failed relationships, 4 children who now have families of their own and a  business venture that was semi successful I realised that is not a rehearsal but the real thing and I think many of you will be able to relate to this post, decided what the hell let’s do it

Like many of us, we may have friends in Thailand that have encouraged us to make that bold step and leave our dull mundane lives traffic jams, poor weather reports, boring jobs and worse of all not beautiful bossy partners or no partners at all have ventured to this point, or even thinking of doing so

The reality can be a little different when you are now not in Holiday mode but in reality mode

Suddenly things dawn on you can you live in a hotel or guest house for the rest of your time here, Can you go to the same bars day after day. How will you occupy your time from day to day.

I certainly have not got those answers but I do know every day in the last year I have woken up with a smile on my face. Now in the 55^th year of my life I can truly say hand on heart it has been the best year of my long life

Initially I had to look for long term accommodation, It is not that easy. There are a plethora of Agents 1000s of rooms 100s of people giving you advice. In this case I Just went with my gut. I knew I did not want to live in Central Pattaya but wanted some place close by, Stumbling distance or no more than 100 baht motorbike taxi ride away from where I would spend a night out.

That’s when you realise that you have just left being a grumpy old man in your own city to a grumpy old man in a new city.

Agents I think part of their training is to just ignore everything you say be it a Farang or Thai. Whatever you ask for you will be offered nothing like it. However there are some excellent ones as well, who go out of there way to help you almost want to give them your business, because they have been so helpful. This will give you an insight of what is to come