[EN] HOW TO BE A DIGITAL NOMAD IN THAILAND? LIVE A MONTH WITH $800

My condominium swimming pool

Introduction

This article might be very useful whom so loves Thailand and travel to Southeast Asia often. I had lived in Thailand for nine years and I spent all my adolescent and student life. It was always fruitful, joyful, and exciting.

Thailand is a place where all kinds of people gather and share their own stories. To be honest, everyone is always welcomed to visit and travel in Thailand.

I would like to share my story based upon my experience in Thailand how anyone can be a digital nomad in Thailand if you are affordable about $800 per month. There will be some tips you can take as well as some warnings that you should take account.

Thailand is a heaven for digital nomad!

If you are interested in being a digital nomad, you would probably have ever searched best places to be a digital nomad. By that time you would have never missed to see Thailand on high rank. I will explain what really makes Thailand rank high.

First of all, the living cost is very cheap. Imagine the minimum wage of Thailand is still very low as 300 baht per day. 300 baht is around $10. Please note that this is still one of the highest among other southeast asian neighbors. Nevertheless, Thailand is very unique in regards to its geography, culture, city life and rural life. I don't want to say that you can really survive in Thailand with $10 as the living cost is quite high. But if you have at least $50 bucks in your pocket, this is very enough.

It is located in the heart of Southeast Asia and it is convenient to travel back and forth the neighboring counties such Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Malaysia. You can take a road trip while the flight ticket is very reasonable as $30-50 per one way trip to go to neighboring country.

Religion is another very important thing in my consideration. Thailand is a very open-minded country that there are no restrictions in liquor consumption unless you shall buy it after 22:00. However, bars and clubs are still open up to 02:00am. In addition, unlike neighboring countries, Thailand tends to be a democratic country in which they give freedom to the market. If you are travelling Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos, you would probably feel that they close all shops on the street when you just get high from liquor.

Real tips for housing

Whenever I had to move to Thailand from a short gap period because of military service and exchange student in Europe, I always choose to rent a condominium. It was always furnished, equipped with swimming pool and gym, and security service was provided. That is, you can just simply move in to the room without taking furnitures.

The price range is totally depending on your preference. The further you move to the outskirt of city, the cheaper room you will get. But still, there are some places you can manage to rent a room below 12,000 baht per month. 12,000 baht will be around $330.

What I mention for the room of $330 /month, this is very high-standard condominium which is fully equipped with furniture, very nice garden, swimming pool, gym, laundry room, library, convenience store within the building, and very close to the major subway or provide a shuttle.

You can simply find those through ddproperty.com. Find the room you prefer and contact the agent via Line application and try to talk with them [as per my experience, most of them can speak English well].

The minimum period of rental also depends on the landlord. But minimum from 6 months of contract and up to 1 year basis. Perhaps you may worry about the deposit if you can receive your deposit back if you shall break the contract due to your personal reason. However, the deposit is not a huge amount of money and it is normally equivalent to two months of rent.

As such, if you have $900~$1,000 in your pocket, Now you can start your Thailand life.

Visa

You would probably worry about Visa issue. Note that it is very difficult to get a proper Visa in Thailand and it would bother you all of the time as per various requirements of immigration office.

If you have any types of Visa, you are required to apply for re-entry visa whenever you are going out from Thailand. If you miss to apply for re-entry Visa, and travel overseas and come back, your visa will be expired.

Further to above, what teased me the most was that I was required to go to the immigration office to receive the residential stamp every three month. I dont know what is the reason for this but I had to wake up 5:00am in the morning and traveled to somewhere outside of Bangkok just to receive the stamp.

I believe, most of you will be awarded to enter Thailand with three month free stay Visa [travel visa], and this is enough to stay and be a digital nomad. In the past, people used to renew the Visa by travelling neighboring countries back and forth. I am not really sure if this method is still valid, still there are thousands of thousands of thousands of foreigners living in Thailand.

Talat Rodfai (Night Train Market)

Living Cost

This is totally up to you how much you consume per month. In particular, if you get hangover over 10 days in a month, in other words if you are a alcohol-holic, you will have to spend a lot of money.

Also, if you are a party animal that you shall go to club every night, you would probably spend a lot of money.

Apart from above I mentioned, there are not much things you would pay expensive. Foods are very cheap everywhere and transportation as well.

However, one thing you shall really consider is the electricity price. If you turn on the aircondition 24/7, you will be billed with some hundreds of US dollars per month. Based on my experience, the average was around $30-40 for a studio time of room (29sqm)

Because of these facts, huge number of Europeans move to Thailand during winter season to enjoy the sunny weather. I met a number of Germans whom were living in small town in a beautiful island in the southern Thailand. In fact, these islands are full of foreigners and it is much easier to see expats and travelers than local Thai in many countryside.

Public Security and Safety

You may perceive that Southeast Asian is very savage and uncivilized. This is what I was told from my friends when I decided to move to Thailand for educational purpose.

However, Thailand is very developed and civilized. Note that Thailand has the largest number of international schools in the world. The tuition of each international school is $10,000 ~ $40,000 per year. They also have a lot of bilingual schools. Imagine that I was not able to speak English at all before moving to Thailand, simply I learnt my language in Thailand. Thailand is very internalized and the easiest place where you can find your national people in overseas country.

Gong back to the point, Thailand is a very safe place unless you are playing some shitty and prohibited thing. You can find the police everywhere whom are working for justice and them. No matter how corrupted they are. They are just being corrupted some law breakers and they are always willing to help anyone in most cases.

Living for 9 years in Thailand from teenagers to be an adult, I have never faced any violence issues. I loved to hang out during night time in many places, but nothing has ever threatened me. Trust me your life will be safe unless you are doing some shitty thing in Thailand. But if you are dare to try some shitty thing, you will be punished severely by both public and institution.

night view from my balcony and Thailand is developing so fast

Conclusion

If you can afford about $1,000 per month, you can be a rich expat in Bangkok. As such, I highly recommend for those whom can earn the money via internet, you are eligible to move to Thailand.

On the other hands, If you are to work in Thailand, you might be deeply desperate when you look at your bank account in the end of month. No matter how expert you are on a particular sector, your salary may decline high.

Your base salary is already set based on your nationality. European, American, Japan are guaranteed to receive at least 50,000 baht per month while Korean is subject of 45,000 month, and other nationality goes down as low as 20,000 baht.

Please be ready and prepared if you are ever planning to move to Thailand to live. You shall have any ways to earn money.

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