Wtb a pic of the 90k baht/month apartment

i post when i think pokerspiv gives bad advice, which is quite a lot. obviously his experience of thailand is vastly different from the majority of posters here, and the majority of posters inquiring about living here. telling a younger poker player that they can move here and live for whatever low amount of money in bkk in a nice serviced apartment is misleading. does that mean pokerspiv is trying to be misleading? probably not, but his perspectives and the perspective of most people thinking about living in thailand after reading this thread aren't going to be on the same plane.

pokerspiv, like most people, likes to dig his heels in and defend his position. that's fine, and it's good for the forum to hear differing opinions, and i even think he gives decent advice some of the time, but his know-it-all attitude (that is up-to-par with a lot people on this forum) is obviously going to make him a target when he disagrees with the majority of posters (aside from u) on a majority of issues.

so i'll keep calling pokerspiv out from time to time when he posts advice i think is wrong, and maybe even crack a lame joke or 2, and u can assume the sheriff roll in this thread and call me out for what u consider is bullish or *******-ish behavior, and no doubt pokerspiv will keep posting more, and the world will keep turning, and this thread will get ever more and more diluted.

It's really not. It just vastly different from your experience. You are mistaken if you think that the guys paying 40k+ baht per month for an apartment are in the majority.

I used to link to these apartments all the time. Like I said though, it depends on your definiton of "nice". According to a few people here, "nice" seems to mean the sort of apartment that CEOs or Celebrities would stay in. That is not a very standard definition of "nice", IMO.

It seems like the prime areas of BKK have a ton of places in the 100K+ range.

In a lot of these neighborhoods you can get a small efficiency or 1 bedroom for about 30K. But you are getting about 45-50 sq meters. If you want a bit more space, prices go up very quickly.

It seems pretty hard to find a 100 sq meter condo in new-ish building in prime Sukhumvit or Silom, Thong Lor for less than 70K... And 100 sq meters is 1000 square feet, which I wouldn't say is gigantic or ostentatious for one person. And you are always faced with paying extra for a place that is furnished and ready, versus cheaper and having to buy furniture (which almost never looks as well designed as the serviced apartments IMO.)

If you guys see a 100 sq meters place in Thong Lor in a nice new-ish building for 40K send me the info or post here.

In BKK, traffic is such a pain so the price premium is worth it for a lot of people. I can understand that. In other cities in Thailand, I don't think it's nearly as important because traffic conditions are so much better and you can get to the prime areas much quicker.

That is true, and I've seen plenty of pics of people who said they have sweet digs and to me their place had a dark and old feel with 70s woodwork, old fixtures, dingy hallways, crappy lobby, etc. To me, 'nice' is what an AVERAGE new condo looks like in USA in a bigger city these days. This means nice hardwood floors (nice tile for LOS, obv), nice new bathroom fixtures, standard granite counters and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and hopefully big windows with lots of light and a little bit of view.

www.housecondobangkok.com

my house is the logo.

feel free to look at other houses that are way over 90k on that site.

take some pics for me plox. also did you or anyone else take pictures at the spaniards bbq?

cheap aptment or house in chiang mai or chiang rai?

links or connections

outside city center or whatever location

just for one or 2 months

You been scammed yet? Any comedy stories to report, shipped a hooker by accident maybe? Don't worry dude we have all done it

lol

what's your budget kev? what do u want in an apartment? i'll be able to recommend a few places if i know what you're looking for.

or u can try www.houseinchiangmai.com, though i'm not sure if they do month to month rentals

i don't think the majority of posters are paying more than 25k+. i am pretty certain a majority of posters living in decent areas of bkk in serviced apartments considered nice by the majority of people here are paying more than 25k+ though.


obviously the standard definition of 'nice' is aimed at the people who populate this forum, namely young poker players with a little disposable income. for me a nice 1bdrm serviced apartment in bkk it would include the following:

1) bedroom, living space and small kitchen with somewhat modern amenities, 50sqm or more
2) pool
3) fitness facility on site or near by
4) in a good area (silom, suk, ekkamai, ratchada) near a bts

i'm pretty sure this is a bare minimum for most of the posters living in bkk right now. i know it is for the one's i know. i'd also expect a young poker player moving to thailand to be interested in the same thing.

anyone have any recommendation for houses in Phuket? going in the next 2 weeks and two other friends are joining.

For anyone who wants to move here and live cheap for $500 a month or watever and live in a **** hole place and eat crap food and just get by they day to day life. why not stay back home and live with your parents??? i really don't understand? if you live at home with your parents u pay $0 rent, food is free, you spend a little bit when you go out with your friends to a club or watever. but you have NO expenses and you probably live a better life living at home with your parents. I seriously dont know anyone that can live a normal lifestyle for under $1k a month, unless you are on a super budget which can't do anything.
I have never gone out in a night where you spend under 2k baht(65$) a night goin out clubbing for the whole night unless you run good at credit card roulette and not pay a dime.
when ppl say that thailand is alot cheaper compare to the US/europe/australia they usally referr to when someone spend about 10k a month in a big city such as NYC, they can spend the same amount here but have a better quality of life and can eat better food without being on a budget. they dont refer to $500/month budget.
I spend around $4k/month give or take with bills and rent, goin out ect and if i were to live the same style back home i would probably spend almost double that. here's a good example: back home a bottle in a club would cost $200-$300 a bottle compare to $50-150 to here

it's not surprising that you, and so many other people don't get why someone would do this. the way you presented your question might give you the answer. you just assume that people have the option of living with parents who will take care of them. this, in america at least, is the perspective of someone who grew up privileged.... and the fact that someone is trying to live somewhere on such limited means probably excludes them from the privileged class that has parents who will provide them free room and board into adulthood.

those who do are also far more likely to look on a 1br/1bath apartment as a "****hole" rather than a reasonable place to stay. do you have any idea what kinds of places you can get for $150/mo in the US? i'll give you a hint: they are mostly 20 year old trailer homes in rural parts of the country.

for $500/mo you can have a small apartment with A/C, drive a motorbike around instead of public transport/walking, eat food cooked by other people instead of cooked by yourself, and live within a short motorbike ride to some beautiful beaches. all the while living an exotic life learning a new culture and language, and in this particular example, have access to poker minds that are willing to help you get better enough at poker to be able to afford more and more.

not to mention, an access to sex with beautiful women that is far more closed to you in the U.S. when you are busto.

Why would you assume that everyone back home lives with their parents?

They may be referring to a city like NYC when they talk about America, but in Australia or Europe, every ****hole city with a population 1 million or more is as expensive to live in as NYC. You have to compare like with like too.

For instance, in Perth where I live, a 1brm city apartment will run you at least 3k per month. You can't compare a 3 bedroom apartment 5 minutes walk from Soi Cowboy to the 3 bedroom house you used to live in, in the outer suburbs of Portland. How much do you think it would cost to rent a 3 bedroom place in downtown Seattle? If you have to ask, you couldn't afford it.

In Perth, A bottle of beer in a bar or club will cost you $8-11, a bottled mixed drink $15, and you can't even buy a bottle, that's illegal. A pack of cigarettes is $18. Taxis are $6 flagfall + around $2 per km. A night out here will cost you 4-6 times what it does in Thailand. When I used to smoke (gave up a few months back) my total cost for rent + electric + internet + amenities + cigarettes each month in Thailand, was less than what I spent each month in Australia just on cigarettes.

I spend around $3k per month in Thailand, but $2000 of that would be entertainment budget. My living expenses are very low. That $2000 entertainment budget goes a lot further in Thailand than it does in Australia. I could afford to go out maybe once a week on that budget at home (and hookers would be out of the question), whereas in Thailand I am out every night.

Thailand can be pretty cheap if you don't have many bad habits or hobbies.. I had an eye infection of some sort in my right eye, my eye was very red and so I just chilled in my condo to rest and let it heal, not to mention it didn't look too pleasing. I did nothing but lay in bed, play video games, and eat peanut butter sandwiches. I didn't spend one stinkin baht that entire day.

...pretty sure you can do this all over the world for a similar price.

Note: I read no ThaiVisa peanut butter prices skyrocketed in Thailand!

I don'T really like what you ever say, but you are right that you can live in a nice appt in bangkok for very cheap.

Serviced means you get crappy wifi and maid service.

So if you get a real apartment for 9-11k baht a month(Lots of brand new condos around sukhumvit 101 with nice kitchens) pay maid 1k per month to come every week for an hour. You've got yourself a very nice looking, furnished apartment with a maid. Internet will be 1k per month from true.
Thats 13k a month, the 'baller's living around suk 31-50 are paying 3 to 5x that each for a very old 'large' condo with very bad looking wood furniture made in the 1960's. They're also stuck with roomates when they could all rent a large studio and meet up in the condo's library/pool/gym.

Also you can get a 1br or studio for UNDER 20k baht, RIGHT next to Siam paragon and the golf course AND lumpini. A little old but usualy nicely furnished. That is because nobody can own a condo or land there, people rent for cheaper. We had a 70sqm 2br condo there, real western kitchen, golf view, 4mins walk to lumpini, 8mins walk to siam paragon. 1min to BTS. Also you'll have lots of TV stars in your building.

Why do some people ITT consider street food crap?

because a lot of it isn't good? fwiw I like street food but the ones that cook the food in the morning and let it sit out all day long tend to suck. also a lot of people don't like room temperature food, so they won't like any street food.

stop trying to be the new Bill, or Ron. your not, and never will be.

i think street food really depends on the street, kind of food and the time of day. for comparable prices you can eat fresher food at food courts or small thai restaurants. not that i don't eat my fair share of street food.

the bbq stuff is awesome though. I agree that the luke-warm servings are annoying. Although its not a problem if you have a microwave.

Thais are very proud of their food and take it seriously, so i dont think its accurate to say that if you cant afford to eat at fine restaurants youll be eating crap.

There was a woman in Karon who would whip up basically anything you wanted for 50 baht from scratch.

I ate there almost everyday.

That is completely false. My gf cooks extremely good thai food, with top notch ingredients. Her mom sells it on the street, decent ingredients but she's a very good cook so it tastes a lot better than it should. Everytime i eat at other vendors, it taste completely awful. Very few of them try to make good food, they subsidize everything with the processed sugar and re-used sauce. Once they make more money, they find ways to spend less which results in worse taste. Over the years, some of my fav vendors have gone from awesome to horrible. But they've moved from a shack to a 6br brand new house.

There's only a few cheap restaurant i can eat at without throwing it away after 2 bites after having tasted great quality food.

If you tried my gf's cooking in north america and then moved back to thailand, you'd only eat american food. Theres only 3 reasons that i want to go back home for and one of them is my gf's cooking with top notch ingredient without me having to drive 20km to buy them.

I think the street food if your selective enough can be excellent in some places. I do however tend to stick to places where it is cooked up fresh in a wok in front of me to limit the chances if me getting the ****s, can't beat a good pad thai or some other noodle fry up imo........

I tend to avoid the BBQ'd meats though as that's what I have problem from in the past........