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.
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