Job Discussion Forums

[strider42]

So my main goals in deciding where to move are: I want to learn to sail. I love to fish. The beaches and water are clean. It is not the place all the Farangs go every summer for vacations. I don't want to live directly in either of this large cities, i'm just trying to decide which of these are closer to an area like I have described.

[Pauleddy]

I know both, and they are totally different from eachother.

Phuket is a tourist island, and it is many miles from BKK--a whole day by bus and over an hour by plane. While it has some pretty beaches away from the crowd places, some of the resorts can be dear. Phuket is generally a rip-off. the taxis and etc are overpriced and non-negotiable. Even the motor bike boys charge a lot. Dinner at Patong beach can cost a lot more than dinner in Paris. Phuket Town, the main "town" is rather ugly, seedy and humid. Sure, some people adore Phuket, and you can get a plane from London direct. I don't like Phuket--I once took a good university job there, rented a condo, settled for 6 weeks and then realised I hated it. Red faced resignation.

Rayong is a lot nearer to BKK, about 3 hours by bus. This means that you could leave there early, have lunch and see a movie in BKK and even return late, altho' I wouldnt. Quite near to Rayong is Samet island, which has nice beaches but also discos. very few places in thailand are "cheap as chips", and even a beer on Samet is double price for tourists. There are some school jobs advertised occasionally around Rayong, but these would tend to be gvmt schools, so not always "nice jobs". Rayong itself has a town centre which is the duplicate of many medium size town centres in Thighland--a bus station, three 7-11s and 9 Honda moped shops. There is a tesco Lotus store near the centre. I think that there is a Robinson store where u can buy average shirts and maybe Lacoste. The main beach of Rayong is about 15 min outside of the town. The town is not "on the beach" like in a Hollywood movie. I hate the Rayong beach--it's grubby with derelict hotels every 500m, and you take a van/bus to get there. I think that there are cinemas in Rayong, but most films will be in Thai. I am afraid that Rayong bores me in 2 days, but that's me.

Having been here for some years now, there are no beach towns which offer a perfect ideal--like bookshops, cinemas, culture (all in English and nicey-nicey) WHILE being unspoilt. Patong has 1 or 2 bookshops and cinemas, but that's if you dont mind the touts and the prices of everythg else. Hua Hin town is quite high-class, also 3 hours from BKK, nice beaches, nice food, jazz clubs BUT not cheap. Pattaya is sleazy plus.

Much of the ocean here is warm. I hate warm sea. I have never had a refreshing swim here in many years.

The only place which has EVERYTHG (and then some) is BKK. Chiang mai suits some people (I think we chatted about it in a PM) as well.

Privately, I tell friends that Thailand was best in the 1980s...in terms of being unspoilt, cheap, paradise etc. I spoke to someone recently who moved to Bali or one of the Phillipine Islands (can't recall). he said that he wondered why he wasted so long in Thighland--he would never return now, and says that anyone wanting to come here is crazy. There are much better places. I am sure that I will now get flamed--but I am starting to see his point.

Eddy

[strider42]

Hmm well that's good to know about the beaches in Rayong area, MOD EDIT I don't care about bookshops, movies, or any kind of western amenities at all beyond electricity and plumbing. I want good fishing, and sailing, and clean beaches and water. What about either side of and anywhere else along the southwestern peninsula?

[Pauleddy]

The title of the thread to which I responded was 'Phuket or Rayong'--so I tried to give my experiences of both.

[agentlorange]

I live in Ban Phe; 20 min east of Rayong it is the small beach town that serves as a port for Ko Samet. In all the time I've been here I've seen one sailboat. The water isn't clean anywhere: if there are tourists the water is polluted by boat traffic. If there are no tourists it's polluted with garbage.

That said, you've just got to try it and see. I like it here, it's close enough to BKK, but most of the tourists keep on to the island and there's still an interesting community.

[Pauleddy]

Strider asks a number of questions in several threads, and he needs to come here in order to make his own choices.

I tell many people to abandon preconceptions and fuzzy ideas about Thighland. I can promise that, whatever you have in your mind, the country will be different to yr expectations--considerably.

Eddy