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, 20242 yr by oliviazeno

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. 

Surat is about as boring as it can possibly get.

 

bob.

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.

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.

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 ...

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/

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'.

It it close to Khao Sok. Otherwise it is a fairly average city. Easy to visit the islands though.

3 hours ago, marin said:

Do you have a Thai wife? Price as always varies on location and accessibility. 

yes

The nicest areas are towards NST, such as Khanom.

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, 20242 yr by KhunLA

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.

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, 20242 yr by KhunLA

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 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 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.

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.

Look at Khanom..

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. 

 

 

Oh Dude, Surat Thani City is so what of boring

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. 

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!