5 things we didn’t know before arriving to Thailand

NOTE: Article from March 2018

When we decided to go to Thailand, we did what most people do when they go to a country they have never been to; we researched. We watched YouTube videos on the country’s laws like these:

12 things to NOT do in Thailand

10 laws in Thailand to be aware of

We Googled amazing things to do, places to shop for groceries, transportation within the city and read an unhealthy amount of reviews. And despite all this preparation, we still were not fully prepared. From our first grocery shopping experience to getting local wifi, there are a few hurdles to overcome when visiting Thailand and we aim to outline them below.

Getting a tourist visa (aka stamp)

When we were initially planning our trip to Thailand, we heavily considered staying here for 3 months. Given that neither one of us have lived outside of the country in our adult life, we did an insane amount of research. We wanted to understand the costs to enter and stay in the country for an extended period of time, what rules to follow as an expat and perhaps more importantly, find a place to live during that time. We knew for a fact that we needed to show our intent to leave the country at some point with a flight to our next destination (a.k.a onward flight) so we purchased that to show to officials at the visa gate.

We left San Francisco and embarked on a 21-hour flight and 2 planes and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) in Bangkok at roughly 1:00 am — with two kids in tow. But before you can grab your bags, you have to go through the visa line. From everything we read online, it seemed that it would cost us at least $250 total to get a 30-day visa. We filled out the short form with all of our details, waited in line for about 15 mins., told the agent how long we planned to stay (30 days) and he stamped each of passports (tourist visa) and sent us on our way.

No fees. Didn’t ask for our onward flight information. And we didn’t have to show proof of funds to leave the country. #thankyouUniverse Now from what we understand, this is not always the case. Just depends on the day, how they feel, how the winds are shifting, etc…

Transportation in Thailand

Thailand has a ton of options when it comes to transportation. Like any airport, you will be bombarded with vendors looking to coax you into their super fresh vehicles for limited-time, reduced pricing. Don’t fall for it. These are almost always overpriced. Instead book your car rental ahead of time; but you have to make one big decision first — Will you be driving or will someone else drive you around? If you are from the U.S you will notice one major change in driving in any other part of the world, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car but you drive on the left.

Let’s just say we had quite the first week getting adjusted to this.

Unless you plan to be overseas for 30 days or longer, I don’t recommend you start learning how to drive on the other side of the road while on vacation. But if you are up for the challenge we have an amazing car rental company we used and totally recommend.

But if you would like to be driven around, especially if you are going to Hua Hin from Bangkok, we recommend calling Mrs. Air. For a 3-hour drive (from Bangkok to Hua Hin) it only cost us 2,200 ฿ = $70 USD. For daily travel, like around the city, it cost us 500 ฿ = $16 USD (one way).

Currency conversion in Thailand

Like most people, we were super excited about how inexpensive Thailand would be. $1 US = 32฿ so that meant our dollars could stretch pretty far. We downloaded a conversion app for our phones and used it everywhere we went, well almost everywhere.

Here is the problem with “inexpensive”, it becomes really easy to spend more than you budgeted for.

For example, one morning we decided we really wanted a Western breakfast so we headed over to a little breakfast place called The Coffee Shop. Everything is very gourmet, amazing coffee and it can satiate any pancake craving. While we intended to spend no more than $50, we quickly found ourselves with a $87 bill!

How can it happen?

Pancakes: 350 ฿ = $11.22

Specialty Coffee: 200 ฿ = $6.41

Chorizo, Spinach omelets: 180 ฿ = $5.77

Do this 3X and it can start to add up really quick. After this lesson, we learned to be more diligent on what we purchased and used our conversion app all.the.time. If we went out to eat, we tried to make sure that it was at a local Thai place (where we could spend $25 for a meal for 4) and if we wanted to splurge on a meal, we budgeted no more than $100 and usually came under that each time.

Being an attraction in a foreign place

As a full-time traveling family, it is kind of hard to miss that we are all black and in a country that has never been colonized, we stand out like sore thumb. We got our first dose of this “new found fame” during our layover in Shanghai airport. We were sitting down drinking some water and all of a sudden a group of 3 Asian women came over to speak to the girls. Based on their kind voices and demeanor, you could tell they were intrigued. The first thing they noticed was their hair. One of ladies tried to ask me (mainly via hand motions and a lot of pointing) what type of style Jordyn had and I tried (as best as I could) to explain that it was in braids.

Well this fascination took on a whole new life of its own because before we knew it, these ladies asked if

they could take some pictures of the girls and this group of 3 quickly became a crowd of 10 people. They were offering us food, taking pictures with us and asking where we were from.

Coming from a country where having this skin color is often associated with negative imagery, it was refreshing to be amongst people who were more curious about us than judgmental.

But the “fame” didn’t stop there. Every grocery store we went to, every mall, every restaurant, people would literally stop and stare. Some even pointed, smiled and waved. Why? Well, because we are foreign to them in every way. There are many European white people living in Thailand, but seeing black people in their country is still very much a new concept to them. Some have never seen one in their entire lives.

Understanding this was a whole new world for us because we had never encountered such an interest in us based solely on what we looked like.

Thailand Telephone plans, wifi and staying connected to the outside world

This is always a hot topic for people when traveling overseas. Having had my share of roaming charges that piled up to over $600 during a business trip in London a few years back, I was determined to avoid an unnecessary calling/wifi expenses.

Luckily, in the airport, there is a pop-up booth for a company called TrueH where you can purchase a sim card for local data plans and wifi.

Tim bought a 30 day, 4G sim card, along with 50 bonus minutes for 600 ฿ = $19.24. This allowed us to connect to their network everywhere we went in Thailand without being on airplane mode or accidentally doing something on our home network (Verizon) that would cost us and arm and a leg. This also gave us a local Thai number allowing us to call a taxi or car rental place at no extra fee. Being connected to their wifi also allowed us to stay connected to our social media so we could easily upload images/video from our adventures.

Staying in touch with friends and family back home was super easy. We told all of our family and friends to download WhatsApp as that would be our primary communication source. As long as you are on wifi, it works flawlessly. When we needed to make a call back home to the U.S., we used Skype. I purchased the $10 option and was able to dial any number in the U.S. Skype has also been great with staying in touch with family via video for those times when we are really missing each other.

If you find any of these options super limiting, contact your carrier to see what international options they have. For example, Verizon has a plan called Travel Pass where it allows you to use your subscribed plan anywhere you are in the world for $10/day/based on usage.

We have honestly loved our time here in Thailand. The people have been very kind to us. The food has been amazing. We have met long life travel buddies and friends (that’s for another post). And this experience has pushed us to grow out of our comfort zone in incredible ways. We have certainly placed this beautiful country on our list of places to visit again but also on our list of places we are considering to settle down in as well.

Until our next adventure….