🏙️ Bangkok Living
Neighbourhoods, condos, and what daily life in Bangkok is actually like.
Bangkok is a genuinely easy city to live in once you are past the first month, and a slightly overwhelming one before that. The gap between the two is mostly knowing where to live and what things should cost.
Where you live decides most of it
More than in most cities, the neighbourhood sets your daily experience here, because the traffic makes anything not on the BTS or MRT considerably further away than the map suggests. Thonglor, Asoke, Sathorn and Ari are different propositions at different prices, and the difference between them is bigger than the rent gap implies.
On the numbers
Bangkok rent figures online range from suspiciously cheap to eye-watering, often on the same page, because people quote different neighbourhoods and different standards without saying which. The condo guide here is a snapshot from an actual search with actual buildings rather than a range pulled from a listings site, which makes it more useful and also more clearly dated.
Whether it is the right city
It was for me, over Tokyo, and the reasoning is written up honestly including the parts I got wrong the first time. Bangkok is not risk-free and it is not the cheapest place in Southeast Asia. What it is, is the one where the practical setup — visas, healthcare, transport, food, getting things delivered — has the fewest sharp edges.
Essential Guides
Renting in Bangkok: No Credit Check, But Read This First
Nobody ran a credit check or asked for a reference. That ease is real, and the deposit is what pays for it.
The Best Luxury Condos in Bangkok: I Toured Them All
A first-hand tour of Bangkok's most exclusive residential buildings, from 98 Wireless to Four Seasons.
Why I Chose Bangkok Over Tokyo
I was planning to move to Tokyo and invest $200K in a Business Manager Visa. Then a friend convinced me to visit Bangkok first. Here is why I changed my mind.