Thailand is the kind of place that many people dream of when they attempt to create an online business. The idea of working from a hammock on the beach fits well with what Thailand has to offer. I only really spent time in Bangkok, Chang Mai and Pai with a couple of treks in between and never found my paradise but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there somewhere. Working in Thailand wasn’t as easy as I thought but I would be up for a second attempt for sure.
Pros
- Cheap - If you make an effort you can stay in Thailand for very cheap. Of course if you party all the time (which is tempting in some places) or do a lot of travelling then costs will add up but overall, Thailand is great value for money.
- Easy access to other parts of Asia – Thailand is as central as a place can be when you look at a map of Asia and it’s well connected. You can bus or train it to Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia and budget airlines like Air Asia make going a bit further really cheap and easy.
- Friendly people - In my experience I wouldn’t put Thais in the same category as Filipinos or people from Myanmar for friendliness but they come pretty close. It’s not known as ‘the land of smiles’ for nothing.
- Awesome food - I can’t resist Thai food. I love it. In Thailand, funnily enough, there’s loads of cheap and delicious Thai food to be had.
- Lots to see and do - Thailand seems to have something for everyone from diving to beaches to jungles to elephants to hill tribes etc etc. There always seems to be something fun to distract you if working gets to be too much.
- Cheap internet cafes - There are plenty of internet cafes with great connections that only charge 20 to 30 baht per hour. That’s about 60 to 90 cents and that’s super cheap. So if you like to work in internet cafes then you’ll be able to do it cheaply.
Cons
- Wifi rarely free - I expected Thailand to be well hooked up for wifi and was amazed to find that it was more common in China! When I did find it in hostels or cafes, there was almost always a charge to use it. A hotel I stayed at charged 600 (that’s about $17!) baht per day, Starbucks was 150 per hour, and most cafes were at least 50 baht per hour and often more… even if you bought food and drinks.
- Unreliable wifi - Thailand was the only country I consistently had problems with my wifi connections. If it wasn’t cutting out all the time it wasn’t connecting at all, despite the computer saying that the signal was strong. None of the staff ever seemed to know what was going on and it meant having to move from cafe to cafe in search of a working signal. A couple times in Chang Mai the entire block was having connections issues.
- Very touristy - I’m not a tourist hater type person so I don’t care much if a place I’m in is crowded with expats and travellers but if this bothers you then you might want to think twice about coming to Thailand. The tourist industry here is super developed and main destinations are crawling with backpackers so if you want to escape the crowds you’ll have to do some hunting to find the off the beaten path type places.
I was surprised at how crap wifi in Thailand was both from the having to pay for it angle and the unreliability aspect. Maybe I just never found the good places? I don’t know. If I could get a list of guesthouses and cafes with fast and free net connections then I would be back to check them out because I really did enjoy my time in Thailand.
Good wrap up. It is possible to do Thailand extrememly cheaply. Did you happen to price mobile broadband at all? It wasn’t really available last time I was there.
Is it possible to rent an apartment with a net connection from what you saw? I think thats how I would prefer to do things given the choice.
Interesting post – thanks.
I do agree with all your positives, but on the negatives….
Regarding the free WiFi, TRUE (a Thai telecom) provides free WiFi across Bangkok. Yes the connection can be very slow, but it is free! More info here:
http://travelhappy.info/thailand/free-wireless-internet-across-bangkok-until-june-2009/
Very touristy? Well Thailand is as touristy as you allow it to be — there’s stacks of off-the-beaten-track destinations that are easy to reach and see hardly any tourists at all. Sure if you stick to the trail it’s busy, but one of the great things about Thailand is it is easy to get off the trail!
Some of the best and most productive work on our trip have been in Thailand. The wifi connections can be problematic and internet cafes can be hellish, but the benefits of Thailand outweigh that for us – a great environment, fantastic food, friendly people and inexpensive. In Bangkok we bounced around between several restaurants in offering free wifi. We also sought out guest houses with free wifi in Krabi and Patong and got most of our work done there. We used this great list of free wifi in Bangkok and throughout Thailand: http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/wifi/ThailandFreeWirelessInternetWiFi.htm
We also put together our own list from Southeast Asia based on our own experiences:
http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/2007/04/staying-connected-on-the-road/
i agree with travelfish about it is as touristy as you make it. for instance outside of the popular islands, bangkok and chiang mai and around most places are not that touristy!
the one time i really got off the beaten track in thailand i nearly got beaten up!
I wasn’t looking for mobile boradband or apartments so didn’t price them and I’m not sure how easy it is to get an apartment with internet. Anyone else know?
Stuart I had thought Matt tried to get online with TRUE when we met up and he said something about having to pay for it now so I didn’t even attempt to access it after that. Damn. As for Thailand being touristy, I guess I mean relatively. Of course everywhere has off the beaten path places if you look for them but on first impressions, I’d think you’d have to look a bit harder in Thailand than in other places.
Thanks for those lists Audrey… where were they a few weeks ago? haha