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.
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