What kind
of job do you have? I teach English at Chiang Mai University,
known in northern Thailand as maw-chaw. (Maw-chaw is the initials
for the university in Thai.) I got the job when I first came to Chiang
Mai a year ago, and so far they seem to like me. I get paid by the hour,
and I teach 15 hours a week. I don't make a lot of money, but it's enough
to get by if I budget myself and don't go hog-wild on weekends. Most farang
ajaans at CMU have a second job, and so do I. My second job is at a Catholic
high school for girls. Between the two jobs, the money I make is
pretty good. What is an ajaan?
An ajaan is a college teacher, a
professor. It's a title of respect. When I go out on the town, people who
know me often call me ajaan John. It means they think I'm a really swell
guy. I kind of like it.
Who
do you work with?
Drifters, outlaws, revolutionaries... no, not
really. We have both Thai and farang teachers at the university. About
half of the staff are farangs, who come from English speaking countries
such as the U.S., England, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. There may
also be a few from countries like Burma, Hong Kong, or Singapore, where
English is a strong second language.
The rest
of the staff in the English department is Thai. The Thais run the department,
design the courses, and make the rules.Sometimes there is tension between
the Thai and the foreign ajaans, but I try to steer clear of it.
A big office like the English department is always going to have politics
and cliques, and people who want to protect their territory. I don't
like that kind of stuff either, but right now I'm happy just to be
living in Thailand.
Many of
the farang ajaans came to Thailand after raising a family or working
for
twenty years in their own countries. Some are close to retirement age,
and seem to just like being in Thailand. Others are just out of college,
and are just starting out in life. Some stay for just one or two
semesters, others stay for twenty years.
How
do you get your visa? It's easy for me, because CMU arranges all
the paperwork so that I don't even have to leave town. Farangs who
work at some of the other schools are not so lucky. They have to leave
Thailand every three months and re-apply for a visa. Laos and Malaysia
are the usual stopovers for these "visa runs."
So, how
much does it cost to live in Thailand? (Updated, Aug 1998) Before
I answer this question I must point out two things. First, not everyone
needs the same amount of comfort; not everyone can live the way I do.
Second, things
have changed in the Thai economy since I first wrote this, and they
may continue to change. So what I am going to tell you is true for me,
but it may not be true for someone else. And it may not be true next year,
either.
How
do you get your visa? It's easy for me, because CMU arranges all
the paperwork so that I don't even have to leave town. Farangs who work
at some of the other schools are not so lucky. They have to leave Thailand
every three months and re-apply for a visa. Laos and Malaysia are
the usual stopovers for these "visa runs."
So, how
much does it cost to live in Thailand? (Updated, Aug 1998) Before
I answer this question I must point out two things. First, not everyone
needs the same amount of comfort; not everyone can live the way I do. Second,
things have changed in the Thai economy since I first wrote this, and they
may continue to change. So what I am going to tell you is true for me,
but it may not be true for someone else. And it may not be true next year,
either.
In Chiang
Mai, you can rent a small apartment near the university for about 2,500
baht a month. This includes a bedroom and bathroom only, no kitchen. If
you want a place with more luxuries, you can spend 3,500 or 4,500. You
can also share a house for about 3,000 a month, or rent one yourself if
you feel flush. Forty-five hundred baht will rent you a modest house, or
you can pay 7,000 or even 10,000 if you want something really fancy.
Transportation
in Chiang Mai is fairly inexpensive, about 200 baht a month if you
own a motorbike, or a little more if you take public transportation. I
have no idea what it costs to own a car, but you don’t need a car in Chiang
Mai.
Food is
cheap; figure on 150 baht a day or so, which comes to 4,500 a month.
Entertainment and discretionary expense varies from person to person. Movies
are cheap at 70 baht. Thai massage is a steal at 100 baht per hour (compare
to $40 an hour in the U.S.). Going out to hear live music or to a disco
can come to a couple of hundred baht if you’re conservative, but if you
get carried away, you can easily spend much more.
Other incidental
expenses may include visits to medical clinics, which are cheap compared
to the U.S.– usually not more than 200 baht per visit for simple complaints,
often including medicine.
Also figure
in large consumer purchases for your apartment, or things like visa fees
and work permits, or any classes you might want to enroll in.
So, if you
want to go the cheap route, we have 2,500 for rent, 200 baht for transportation,
4,500 baht for food, and for entertainment let’s assume 2,000 a month.
Throw in another 2,000 just for things that always seem to happen, and
the final figure comes to 11,200 per month. At 43 baht to the dollar, which
is where it’s been for some time now in 1998, that would be about $260
a month.
But remember,
the salaries for most jobs in Thailand are pretty low, too. You're not
going to live like a king, unless you bring a lot of money with you. And,
I’ve always found that it’s easy to spend more than I planned.
In the end,
your cost of living all depends on the kind of lifestyle you want to have.
If you want to live in a nice house, eat western food in a restaurant every
night, and own a car, you're going to spend a lot more than 11,000 baht
a month. But, if you are the kind of person who doesn't mind eating Thai
food on the streets most of the time, and who can be satisfied with small
things, then living in Chiang Mai on a teacher's salary will be fine for
you. I kind of think that living within the range of the local economy
is the whole beauty of the experience anyway.
