Muang Thong Thani: Why I Could Live here

If you're anywhere longer than a few days sharing a room is less than perfect and hotels can start to get expensive, so you'll really need an apartment. I'm staying in a place called Muang Thong Thani, which is about a 20 minute drive from central Bangkok and although it can get pretty boring as it's a place to live in not tourist in, I really like it and felt it deserved its own post. MTT is one of the biggest community projects attempted in the world but is often considered a failure by the people who count in real estate because it went bust during a collapse in the property market in 1992. Therefore, many of the buildings were built, never used and remain empty. It's a real shame to see some of the luxury apartment buildings here falling apart when this place has so much potential! 

Impact, the largest exhibition center in SEA

I've never seen a place have so much you need to hand, I can grab a midnight snack at 7Eleven (seen 3 so far) and anything they don't sell in 7Eleven I can probably find in Big C, Watson's or Tescos. There's a bunch of mid-range department stores, I can surf the net in internet cafes, there's cake shops, fruit stalls, ice-cream shops, bubble tea shops, coffee shops and a steak house as well as loads of cheap restaurants. I can stock up on my jewellery, DVDs, and magazines. I can get photos developed, buy a new or second-hand phone or laptop, a fake iPad, send a fax, visit the doctor and then the pharmacy. I can get my clothes fixed (and I did for about 3$) and washed, my hair and nails done, my eyes tested and grab a massage and a beer in a bar afterwards and all within a 5 minute walk! It has the biggest exhibition and convention center in South East Asia and just in my apartment block alone I have 2 shops, a laundry service and numerous washing machines and dryers if I'd rather do it myself and it's easy as most of the apartments come attached with a little box outside for drying your clothes in so you don't even need the dryers anyway. It's almost as if you could seriously never leave Muang Thong Thani and have almost everything you need to hand. Ahhhh If only it was like that back home, we don't even have an ATM there lol!

MTT is market mad to and has one every day! It's good during the day but really comes alive after dark and the food court in the middle of the market here is pretty famous, with a wide array of cheap (as little as 25 baht sometimes), healthy (they do great salads, which is a real joy after all the fried rice and noodles) and just awesome food. The portions are small though but I noticed most people get 2 or 3 meals and if you only want one, you might be lucky and get some extra added on your plate like I did :) It's quite common to see people come from outside MTT just to eat here! As well as the everyday market they have here there's also a massive weekly market, selling everything from belts to headphones but the best part is the food! There's just so much choice and so much of it is so beautifully presented, it looks like food art to me!

The cost of living here is so cheap to; you can own an apartment here for as little as $10,000 and I've got Wi-Fi, hot water and a large sitting room all for around 150 USD a month. I never feel unsafe; it's secure where I'm staying as there are security guards and cameras. If you do need to get to central Bangkok it's easy; you can take a taxi but it costs anywhere from 130-210 baht, take a mini-van 30 baht direct to Victory Monument or take a bus, which costs around 18 baht.

There is however, always a little rough with the smooth and here's a little list of my MTT peeves;

• Most people do not speak English in Muang Thong Thani and ordering food can be a nightmare as there are no non-Thai Menus or pictures to point to but learning a language never did anybody any harm and you will learn in a place like this, you have to.
• My apartment is not the cleanest.
• Getting a taxi in the evening can be near impossible after everyone finishes work.
• Access to my apartment building is by key card only but you're not given one for the first month so you're basically stuck in or out until someone turns up who does have one or one of the guards decides to actually do their job and open the door for you but so far only one seems happy to do so without bitching or looking moody. I'm sometimes stuck in or out for up to 20 minutes! I can't get my head around why you have to wait a month before you get a card; it's surely a massive fire risk?
• I'm unable to easily cook in my room, no kitchen and not allowed gas but it's nothing a couple of rice cookers or portable cooking equipment wouldn't fix but with the amount of cheap eateries around (plate of fried rice goes for about 35 baht here) there really is no reason to cook anyway.
• It’s a small community here, I am one of about 4 foreigners in the immediate area so you start to recognise people, they do you and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I quite like being anonymous.