This post isn’t about finding a place to live in Bangkok, but I wanted to write about what can change when you do move to a new apartment or house in Bangkok, which often goes several layers deep. Finding a new place here can be a hell of a task, as we covered in our podcast on the subject. Oh, you can find a great place if you’re willing to pay a ton for it, but finding a great place for a good price is hard and time-consuming. In western culture, moving to a new neighborhood is largely an easy process. Sure, the driving and transit routes change and you have to look into where the schools and hospitals are, but the strip-mall pervasiveness of western development largely takes any real surprise out of the operation. Not so in Bangkok, where a move to a new place in the city can have some drastic effects on your wallet, your commute, you social life and even your diet.

I’ll use myself as a test case here, largely because it’s the best I can do while sitting in a chair at my computer. Also, I just moved to a new neighborhood on the other side of the city to where I was before, and that seems relevant somehow. I used to live in Chinatown but have just recently relocated to the Ari area, on the BTS line up near Chatuchak Market. I work on lower Sukhumvit, so let me freestyle a bit on how things have changed in the past month.

Commute: In Chinatown, I could either take a tuk-tuk to the MRT (30b), the MRT to the BTS (26b) and the BTS to work (20b) for a total of 86 baht and about 40 minutes. I could also take a taxi, which took about 30 minutes and cost about 80 baht. That’s about 3,200 a month. In Ari, I can walk to the BTS in a few minutes, and each trip – with the appropriate card – costs 20 baht, or about 800 baht a month.

Of course, if I had a car it would be a whole other ball game. During the rush hour commute the traffic is different in different places and at different times, and you need to know the locations of the expressways and shortcuts if you want to avoid sitting in traffic for hours because you took the wrong turn. If you’re driving in Bangkok and move to a new place, you need to do some serious reconnoitering to make sure you get to work on time on your first day after moving.

People don't like it when I laugh at the traffic below. Not one bit.

People don’t like it when I laugh at the traffic below. Not one bit.

Bills: In my place in Chinatown I lived in a corner unit, so I could open my windows and get a breeze through the place, largely negating the need for air-con. But my new place doesn’t have the same type of layout, and in Bangkok, unless you have a fan in your face the whole time you’re at home (or really enjoy sweating), that air-con has to be turned on at least sometimes. That means my electric bills will go up – by how much I’m not sure yet, but let me get back to you on that.

Diet: Actually, for me this hasn’t been much of a big deal. Chinatown and Ari are two of the best-known Bangkok neighborhoods for food so I’m lucky in that my options really haven’t been affected that much. However, I do know people who have moved to neighborhoods where the street food offerings are either very sparse and/or unrecognizable to the western palate, or upscale and expensive, with nary a street food cluster in sight. When this happens it takes a considerable amount of time to source new locations where you can get regular, varied meals.

Are those snails I see in the background?? Sacre bleu!

Are those snails I see in the background?? Sacre bleu!

For instance, a friend of mine just moved into upper-Sukhumvit. Because his condo is located down a soi off of the main drag with no food stalls (as many residential spaces in Bangkok are), he has two choices: make the 400m hike out to Sukhumvit every time he wants a meal, or stock his place with food (in western countries, this is normal; in Bangkok, with its thriving street food culture, it’s much less common). Add to this that 400m is that awkward sweet spot – too far away to be convenient, but close enough that you sound like a knob complaining about it. This all sounds like a severe over-analysis of a pretty simple problem, but it’s something you have to think about when moving to a new place in the Big Mango.

"Hmmm... 7-11 always has food. Taxi!"

“Hmmm… 7-11 always has food. Taxi!”

Social Life: Again, unless you have a car and know all the shortcuts, moving away from central Bangkok can have its drawbacks. I have several friends who live in the ‘boonies’ and for them, getting in to town – where most of the socializing goes on – is a chore. I would often call up a friend and invite him places, but it was just too much trouble. “Should I shower, get dressed, leave my comfortable apartment, find a cab, and sit in traffic, or should I just continue sitting here relaxing?” Spontaneity is largely eliminated and most social activities have to be planned in advance.

There are plenty more ways you’ll have to rearrange things when you move. Any other ones?