That being said, I also want to paint a realistic picture of what exPat life truly entails; hence, this post will focus on some of the harder aspects of exPat life we experience day-in and day-out...lest we (and others) reflect back on this experience as a 2-year vacation. :-)
- Water: anytime we want a drink, we have to seek out clean water. Going to bed and want a quick drink? Downstairs to the water filter. At a restaurant and want just water? Be prepared to pay for bottled water. Water fountains don't exist outside of the airport.
- Heat and Humidity: We have definitely adapted to the climate, but you never truly adapt to 95 degrees and 80% humidity. Our bedroom, where I take my night meetings, averages 31 celsius (88 F).
- Air Conditioning: We have air con in the house, but it's by room, and the thermostats don't really work. So if it's on, it gets cold quickly. If it's off, it gets hot even quicker. We miss the days of quiet, cool rooms in a house. :-)
- Mosquitos: Most of the year it is OK here, but from Feb-Mar, the mosquitos are heavier than most anywhere I've ever lived. For a few weeks early this year, we were killing dozens of mosquitos a night in our house.
- Repair work: We've had to get a fair amount of repair work done while here (house, furniture, mechanical, etc.). It typically takes 4-6 visits to get the work done completely right or done at all. Quality is not high on the list.
- Pollution: I love the outdoors and jog/bike frequently. My rides are now mostly accented by car exhaust and sewer smells. Fresh air is a gift from God.
- Credit cards: very few places take credit cards in Thailand. It's a cash-based society. We miss having 98% of all of our transactions handled via credit card and automatically tracked/categorized
- Language: we speak enough Thai to get by, but really, sometimes you miss being able to simply tell the doctor what ails you and have them truly understand within 1 minute, or go to a local store and ask for a gasket and not get weird looks for 30 mins
- Traffic: the rumors are true. If you don't have motorcycles driving at you in your lane, consider yourself blessed
- Safe, clean food: I've now had food poisoning twice here. Most food I eat I suspect - and I'm pretty picky these days. I took for granted in the States that 90% of all food I ate there was of high quality and clean
- Call quality: We are SO thankful for VOIP...free calls to loved ones back home. BUT, we miss crystal clear phone calls home. More often than not, calls entail "can you hear me now?"
- Out of touch: Some friends and family have done a good job at continuing to reach out to us even though we're overseas, but we've definitely seen that with us living in Thailand, we often need to be the ones reaching out to friends/family back home
- Timezone: There's simply no way to make 12 hours offset from home easy. We take calls early in the morning and late at night to talk with those we love
- Electricity: It's pretty rare a week goes by where we don't lose power for a bit. So far, we've lost a desktop PC and Wii powersupply to the surges
- Smells: Both love and hate this. Either it's tropical flower perfume or sewer smells wafting through your nose. More often than not, it's the latter
- Queueing: Asians in general have no concept of Western queueing. In a line for something?Prepare to have several cut in front of you
- Easy shopping: Let me just say that we now truly appreciate Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and big stores. Variety, quality, and fair prices in one stop
- Disease: Some pretty scary diseases are caught from mosquitos or visiting with locals. Some of our friends have been hospitalized
Posted with Blogsy
It's good to write these things down for perspective! Frolicking with baby elephants comes at a (not just monetary) cost :)
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