So after my first ever Muay Thai class I wandered around nearby trying to find an apartment. The plan was start near the gym and slowly hit every apartment complex in a radius around it to find something in my price range. The gym had a contract with a nearby place and it was something ridiculous like 7,000 baht a month ($211). After wandering, I ended up finding a nice cheap one, but the lady said I couldn’t move in for a week. She was one of the nicest ladies I’ve ever met! She felt bad she had nothing I could move into immediately, so she offered to help me find another apartment! She took me to the other apartment and talked in Thai with the landlord there, but no luck. Next, we went to a complex where I couldn’t find the property manager’s office, so she even called the owner of that complex to see if she could get me in it. While I was waiting for her to do that she offered me Coke and water!
She never gave up. Her and another nearby elderly apartment owner, Auntie Nung I called her, drove me to one last apartment complex where I ended up getting a room with AC for 2800 baht a month ($84). That is just the base price, but it came with free internet and water and electric are charged by the unit of energy/water used. Only thing I might want is a fridge which can be rented for 200 baht ($6) a month.
I did get a rice cooker and have been using that for the past couple of days. I cook the rice and mix that with sardines, since they were cheaper than tuna. So that’s my plan for supplementary meals even though eating out can be done for under a dollar. I went on a shopping spree to buy the essentials like a towel, detergent, toilet paper, a pillow, and pillow case. Only thing that would make things perfect is a bike. A lady at church might have offered one. I’ll follow up on that next Sunday.
To get a real sense of how I’m living I filmed a quick little apartment tour that you can view below!