oliviazeno Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) Hello, I have the opportunity to work in Surat Thani. I would like to know what life is like there ? Is there an expat community? What are the nice neighborhoods to live in ? I plan to stay somewhere quiet a little outside of town to rent a house and maybe later buy 1/2 rai land to build a house. What is the price of a rai there ? Cheers. Edited March 16 by oliviazeno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marin Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 1 minute ago, oliviazeno said: maybe later buy 1/2 rai land to build a house. What is the price of a rai there ? Cheers. Do you have a Thai wife? Price as always varies on location and accessibility. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob smith Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Surat is about as boring as it can possibly get. bob. 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grain Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 40 minutes ago, bob smith said: Surat is about as boring as it can possibly get. bob. agree, probably the only cities in the South worth living in for an expat are HatYai & Phuket. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bob smith Posted March 16 Popular Post Share Posted March 16 6 minutes ago, grain said: agree, probably the only cities in the South worth living in for an expat are HatYai & Phuket. I wouldn't recommend Phuket to anyone either. awful place. bob. 1 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post motdaeng Posted March 16 Popular Post Share Posted March 16 55 minutes ago, oliviazeno said: ... maybe later buy 1/2 rai land to build a house. What is the price of a rai there ? Cheers. you do not know anything about surat thani but think already about building a house ??? as you stated, rent first and after a year or so you know more about the place and maybe go one step further ... 1 1 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dddave Posted March 16 Popular Post Share Posted March 16 I'd suggest you ask this in a less biased forum, not overly populated with those that bash everything without knowing anything about it. The REDDIT Thailand forum would be a good start. https://www.reddit.com/r/Thailand/ 3 1 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tropicalevo Posted March 16 Popular Post Share Posted March 16 2 hours ago, oliviazeno said: Hello, I have the opportunity to work in Surat Thani. I would like to know what life is like there ? Is there an expat community? What are the nice neighborhoods to live in ? I plan to stay somewhere quiet a little outside of town to rent a house and maybe later buy 1/2 rai land to build a house. What is the price of a rai there ? Cheers. From what I have seen (and it is not that much) Suratthani is a crossroads city. Many people pass through it - on their way to somewhere else. Not a large expat population. I did not see any other foreigners whilst I was wondering around on my stays there - other than folk 'in transit'. Some good restaurants that tended to be in clusters. It has some very good hospitals, both government and private as well as good schools. The only expat people that I know there are teachers and they tended to socialise mostly with other expat teachers. It is obviously the centre of government for the province and I suspect that you would need to speak Thai for most of life's daily chores. Those are my observations from my few stays there. This forum is probably not going to be much help to you - maybe look for a 'Suratthani expat Facebook group'. 2 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolf Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 It it close to Khao Sok. Otherwise it is a fairly average city. Easy to visit the islands though. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliviazeno Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 3 hours ago, marin said: Do you have a Thai wife? Price as always varies on location and accessibility. yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolf Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 The nicest areas are towards NST, such as Khanom. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post KhunLA Posted March 16 Popular Post Share Posted March 16 (edited) Heading that way tomorrow, though we don't spend much time in ST (Muang district), and more a pit stop. Yes, we'll be heading down the coast, over by Sichon and below, most of the way till Songkhla. Hwy #41 is a bit boring, especially if any air pollution, as the scenery of any hills in the distance will be a blur. Hope to be down at Betong, Yala, couple days before the weekend, as no desire to be there when the Malay weekender hit town. Not that we'd be near the nightlife area, just prefer not to be caught up in any congestion, if any. A first for us, down that far south, and checks off the last few provinces we haven't stay at yet. Already been to the most N of TH, most E & W and in between. Now the most Southern. Never made it past Phattalung or Satun before, as usually the bottom end of our Southern loops, I don't think, and definitely never slept there if we did. Will actually hit the other areas on the way back up, and a slower ride, spending some time at Hat Yai, Songkhla area & countryside, and where ever else. Need to do a bit more reading about Pattani & Narathiwat. Edited March 16 by KhunLA 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolf Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 6 minutes ago, KhunLA said: Heading that way tomorrow, though we don't spend much time in ST (Muang district), and more a pit stop. Yes, we'll be heading down the coast, over by Sichon and below, most of the way till Songkhla. Hwy #41 is a bit boring, especially if any air pollution, as the scenery of any hills in the distance will be a blur. Hope to be down at Betong, Yala, couple days before the weekend, as no desire to be there when the Malay weekender hit town. Not that we'd be near the nightlife area, just prefer not to be caught up in any congestion, if any. A first for us, down that far south, and checks off the last few provinces we haven't stay at yet. Already been to the most N of TH, most E & W and in between. Now the most Southern. Never made it past Phattalung or Satun before, as usually the bottom end of our Southern loops, I don't think, and definitely never slept there if we did. Will actually hit the other areas on the way back up, and a slower ride, spending some time at Hat Yai, Songkhla area & countryside, and where ever else. Need to do a bit more reading about Pattani & Narathiwat. Road 408 to Ko Yo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhunLA Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Dolf said: Road 408 to Ko Yo. Yea, that's the planned crossover from the coast to inland and down to Betong. Edited March 16 by KhunLA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunPer Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 3 hours ago, oliviazeno said: Hello, I have the opportunity to work in Surat Thani. I would like to know what life is like there ? Is there an expat community? What are the nice neighborhoods to live in ? I plan to stay somewhere quiet a little outside of town to rent a house and maybe later buy 1/2 rai land to build a house. What is the price of a rai there ? Cheers. I've been in ST many times. To my knowledge there are not many expats there. Nice town, but not an expat place other than transit, as others also have mentioned. As foreigner you cannot buy land – your wife can buy it, and it will be her land – prices depends on location and can be relative high in central area. ST is a busy town for Thais with province offices, schools, hospitals and business. Take a look in the local bank branches for posters or leaflets with repossessed property for sale, which will give you an idea about land prices in various areas. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolf Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 1 minute ago, KhunLA said: Yea, that's the planned crossover from the coast to head inland and down to Betong. Ko Yo is very nice and Songkhla old town is good. I would actually stay on Ko Yo if I went back. There is a tree house resort if you want something different. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhunLA Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 1 minute ago, Dolf said: Ko Yo is very nice and Songkhla old town is good. I would actually stay on Ko Yo if I went back. There is a tree house resort if you want something different. Plan on spending time there on the way back up. Over night Sun & Mon, be in Betong on Tues, and leave the area before Friday or Fri morning. @oliviazeno as suggested, rent for a year or so, before buying in anywhere. Not a city person ourselves, and love the western part of ST province, toward Khao Sok and down to Phang Nga town (Muang district). Actually would prefer that, than anywhere in ST. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolf Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 1 minute ago, KhunLA said: Plan on spending time there on the way back up. Over night Sun & Mon, be in Betong on Tues, and leave the area before Friday or Fri morning. @oliviazeno as suggested, rent for a year or so, before buying in anywhere. Not a city person ourselves, and love the western part of ST province, toward Khao Sok and down to Phang Nga town (Muang district). Actually would prefer that, than anywhere in ST. Phang Nga is very nice. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorSucker Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Look at Khanom.. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisKC Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Your name Olivia suggests you may be a woman. Either way, if you are married then your partner needs to be happy as well about moving to an unknown part of the country. This does have certain variables, when as a foreigner, an expat community will likely be smaller. Regarding Surat Thani City, I have lived there for more than a year but 7 years ago. Its true, there isnt much in the city to get excited about. An "opportunity" is not a commitment so unless the job has significance enough to justify it, I wouldn't choose that place. Being so much further south of most other places in Thailand, it remains hot enough throughout the "winter" to require the Aircon on all night. On balance the best suggestion I can make is that you go there and investigate matters that are important to you. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ujayujay Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Oh Dude, Surat Thani City is so what of boring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Jones Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Surat doesn't offer much for foreigners. It's dominated by it's close proximity to the islands. Wealth from the islands tends to inflate land prices. Mostly a transit town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donmuang37 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 On 3/16/2024 at 1:18 PM, dddave said: I'd suggest you ask this in a less biased forum, not overly populated with those that bash everything without knowing anything about it. The REDDIT Thailand forum would be a good start. https://www.reddit.com/r/Thailand/ Dddave is correct! Negative people trashing everything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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