I am putting the knowledge I learnt from the 4-Hour Workweek into practice. I have decided to check out Bangkok, Thailand as my next location to live. My plan to migrate to Australia is still on but it will be delayed due to the global economic crisis that has badly affected Australia’s economy.

Now the Aussie dollar is worth almost as much as the Singapore dollar! Furthermore, Australia has decided to decrease the amount of foreigners entering their country so I think that might delay my permanent residence application. My application was received by the Australian authorities on 31 April 2008 and it should take 1 year from that date to complete.

I will definitely move to Australia in the future but I am not sure if I would make it my permanent home. That would depend on how things work out in Thailand.

I have been in Bangkok, Thailand for 3 days now. I arrived on 15 December 2008 from Singapore. I plan to check the city out and as many locations as possible to get an idea about where I should stay. The list goes on and on.

I noticed a lot of things about Bangkok…

• Pictures of the king and queen can be seen almost everywhere.
• I see floor mats with the words “MOST WANTED” and pictures of Thaksin and his wife.
• Zebra crossings and other pedestrian crossings do not work here because the drivers ignore it!
• Food is cheap, public transport is cheap, taxi is cheap, cinema tickets (100 THB – 120 THB or lower) are cheap…
• The apartment rental prices are very cheap compared to the Singapore prices.
• Foreign imported goods are very expensive. I can get American breakfast serials in Singapore at almost 40% the prices I see in Thailand. Same goes for my favourite Lay’s chips! This does not make sense.
• Street numbers and unit numbers do not run in sequence. Do not be alarmed to see street (Soi) 1 in front of you but street 5 after it. Houses are equally confusing. I was looking for a place yesterday and it was unit number 10XX but the other unit next to it was 6X. Crazy!
• Stray cats and dogs are everywhere! I heard the stray dogs get dumped at temples where they are left to survive on their own among other strays.
• The city comes alive at night when little street stalls are set up.
• The subway and sky train system looks and feels a lot like Singapore’s. My only problem is the sky train (BTS) ticket machine only accepts 5 THB and 10 THB coins. If you don’t have coins, you need to exchange it at the counter. The subway (MRT) does not have this problem. They have this new contact-less card system but I have not figured out how to get one.
• There are Wi-Fi zones around the city but I have not figured out where they are and how to connect to it.
• The female janitors enter the male toilets like they are guys. Doesn’t matter if a guy is pissing into the urinal when she enters, they enter like it is normal for them to do so. Hmmm…
• Thais pronounce the letter “V” as “WE” (Vincent = Wincent), the number 6 as “SICK”, the letters “SP” as “SIR-P” (Spy = SIR-BY, Spa = SIR-PA) and lots more strange pronounciations that I have yet to pick up.
• My Thai is very poor at the moment. I learnt from books and CDs so I do not know a lot of words and slangs. Whenever I say a certain phrase I learnt in my books/CDs, I expect an answer that is similar to what I learnt but it almost always does not happen! Hence, I do not understand their replies!

That’s all for now. I shall upload some pictures once I have more time. I have uploaded some pictures to my Facebook account so look me up on Facebook.

Tagged As: 4-hour work week, Bangkok, Singapore, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra

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