7 Reasons I'm Moving to Bangkok...or am I? 👀

For years, people have told me I should move to Thailand. In this video, I'm sharing my thoughts on why I'm not moving to Bangkok – or am I? I explain the pros and cons of moving to Thailand and provide a snapshot of my current life in Bangkok.

If you're thinking about moving to Thailand, then this video is for you! *If you're already successfully living in Thailand, well this video is for you too, and maybe you can help a sista out!* If you haven't lived in multiple countries then, I hope you find this entertaining or insightful and fight the urge to tell me what I should do in the comments. 🙃🙃🙃

This is the first of several vlogs from BKK so if you're interested in those adventures, SUBSCRIBE!
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[Shekumanstravel]

I have been to Bangkok is most exciting city in the world and Thailand the best country for English speaker in Asia. I’ve been there 11 times and I still love it

[reneeo.]

Hi Jess! I'm planning on moving to BKK next year and have already lived there for a year in the past, so I totally understand your concerns. Couple of points that will hopefully help or at least validate your pros/cons list a bit more (this is also super long, apologies for the essay!!):

1. AirBnB sucks there because most of the listings are illegal, no matter how friendly the owner sounds in the description. If you want to be safe, hostels or hotels are the way to go. For staying upwards of a year, you can definitely find some apartments on the outskirts or in the super local areas for 8-10k baht/month. I lived in an 1 bd/1bath apartment in Khlong Toei for about 9k/month. It had a kitchenette and washer on the balcony area and you dried your clothes on the roof, elevator, pretty nice building. Khlong Toei is considered a slum of Bkk, but it doesn't feel like one you might experience in the States. If you're still in Bkk, I'd recommend checking the area out; take the MRT to the Lumphini or Khlong Toei stations and just walk around a bit.

2. For the visa, I would recommend a 6 month multi-entry visa to give the city a fair shot. You can stay for 59 days, and go to the immigration office on that same day and get another 30 day extension for 1900 baht. I would say go on the 59th day in case they reject the extension request for some reason so on the 60th day you can just take a bus to Laos then come back in on the 61st day. So in a 6 month period if all goes well, you'll only leave twice. For longer than 6 months, I recommend going for an education visa or pursuing full time employment there. For the education visa, you'll want to come in for a fresh 30 day period and then extend at the immigration office to bump it out to 60 days OR do the education visa processing on the last 60 days of the multi-entry visa. There are several annual Thai language programs you can look into. If you go down this route, you'd probably want to find some type of remote income, as you can't work in Thailand (like working in the country for a company based there) on an education visa. Working remotely is a bit of a gray area and you'd probably be better off looking for a company based in the US as a contractor, that way the US company doesn't have to pay taxes for you. Thailand does have a visa for remote workers, but the requirements are pretty high to live up to, so do what you will with the remote work suggestion.

3. Making money there can definitely be a challenge! Consultants tend to make the big bucks, but so do sales reps who are able to speak English. I have a couple of friends who work in sales roles who work overnight shifts to accommodate US hours (they also don't speak Thai!), so that's definitely something to get used to if you went that route. I would use LinkedIn to find roles as those listings would more than likely be in English so you can comb through it all. For the work visa, I would look into companies like Agoda, they tend to pay pretty competitively if you have transferable skills.

4. I was able to live there for a year on a Type O visa as I was working for a nonprofit as a volunteer, but also had a work permit. I was only getting paid like $330/month as a stipend as most of my expenses were covered, but if I were to factor in everything that was paid for me into my salary, I would say I made around $800/month if I'm being SUPER generous. With that $330/month, I paid for food, transportation to and from work (bus mainly), minutes on my phone, and just a bit of frivolous shopping at some of my favorite stores in town. I also had no savings, so when I say $330, I mean that! Minimum wage in Bkk is about $200-210/month and the average salary is $450-470/month. My friends who worked in consulting fresh out of university and graduated from the top schools in Bkk (Chula & Thammasat) hoped to make roughly $3400/month at consulting firms. So that $1800 puts you in the lower half of that range, but given the minimum, it's not too bad! I think you can live a super full life on that much there, but I can understand that taking more than a 50% pay cut ain't sweet either! You could also look into the Peace Corps since you mentioned teaching, but that process tends to take at minimum 8 months-1 year from when you apply to when you step foot in the country. There are currently no openings available though, so that's more so a long game suggestion.

This is super long, but I hope it helps you or maybe someone else in the comments. Most of the guys you see here on YT making Bangkok content open some kind of consulting business so they can stay for about 2 year stints and keep renewing that small business visa, or if they're deadset on making YT content, they buy the elite visa for like $17k for a 5 year visa lol. But you'll find that most people are pretty hush hush about how they are in Bkk legally and how they are able to afford living there because while Thailand is super friendly and accommodating, it's standards for permanent residency can be a bit challenging to fulfill if you are under retirement age, and it's not worth imo to give up your US citizenship to pursue citizenship there.

Retired Working For You has a video titled "living in Thailand on $1750/month", dunno if you already checked it out, but it could provide some real work clarity on how to make that salary work! Happy to provide any additional clarity where I can as well :))

[thomasbradley]

Great video sis . I'm going to share it to a few of my female family members. I plan on making the jump in 2025. But I'll be there in Bangkok this November

[icosthop]

This is Keeper ❗️

TY for all the enlightening info. 👍
🧐 📚📚📚

[Chinesebdarija]

love your videos hahah, keep up the good work

[BrianaisGoingPlaces]

Thailand gang rise up!! I think at one point in my life I'll live in Thailand. When I went the first time, I stayed in an airbnb, and I didn't know they were illegal. I'm too scared to try again, even though I've seen some nice ones!

[jamesmartin]

I’m wishing you the best on your journey.

[jonathanflatt]

A potential solution is to work as an online English tutor. I know several tutors who have established a large student base and moved them all online. Technically they could work from anywhere in the world barring too large a timezone difference. The successful ones earn at least the income you are looking for and many earn much more.

[namastewoke]

Gurl, I love you anyway anyway any day!! A true inspiration for international travel teaching! Keep the volgs a comin! ❤🎉😊

[tinypanda]

Glad to see you're still entertaining 🛒 other options.❤ You got accustomed to a certain lifestyle including salary, excellent work-life balance, low cost of living, frequent travels and eating out, etc. Truth be told, China is a unicorn, and it'd be very challenging to find such competitive offerings anywhere in the world for the work you did.

[embracinglogic]

Jesstina, I have a question. Like you, I lived in China for a long time (will be leaving in a couple weeks). I lived in the suburbs in Shandong province, which has to be the worst province in China. It was so difficult for me to make foreign friends here, let alone Chinese friends, and the people I did meet were weirdos. What was your experience? Thanks and good luck, my friend.

[torix]

No advice from me lol I'm tryna see how I can make more money and eat life too! Just here for the journey and wishing you well!

[ThBKK]

I love you Thai accent " Krung - Thep" so good 👍😁

[benwang]

Hi Jessica, maybe Chongqing is not a good option considering the awful authorties, food and people staring, how about other Chinese cities like Chengdu？or some coastal large cities like Fuzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Foshan, Zhuhai, etc, which salary is good, and authoriteis and people there might be more open and friendly than inland city CQ. Especially when Zhuhai is on the boarder of Macau and HongKong.

[tyler]

Have you considered Vietnam? The salary here is quite decent and the environment seems suitable for you (like Da nang). Foreigners love it there.

[jaszlyyy]

Bkk is hands down one of my favorite cities

[foodtravellife]

I think you should take like a summer or short contact and see what you think. I've probably spent in total in last 5 years 6 months in Thailand mainly islands Bangkok is a very affordable capital city but as you said there is a huge expat community in addition to lots of forginer places which will raise your cost traveling around near countries will be very cheap. I make about what you were quoted and have been fine in Thailand. Plus there is always extra side jobs you can do online work or something. I dunno maybe give it a try summer contract or something shorter. Of course isn't China cheap but every time I come back from koh chang Thailand my favorite place back to Bangkok I say shit Bangkok is so much cheaper lol

[DIYDiaz]

You really just out here keeping us on the hook to find out where you end up 😭🤣

[admirabletae]

Thai ppl are so friendly. I was between Thailand and Vietnam. I’ve heard it’s called the smiley country. But ….!Money is needed for the lifestyle you want. I believe you’ll find what you’re looking for.😊

[rs.]

Hi, i leaved and taught in changchun china; Jilin Province for 2 years. What part of changchun were you in and for how long? What was your experience living in Main land China?