Can anybody recommend a nice place to live in Thailand preferably near the sea, that is fairly cheap to live in. Dont like Pattaya or Phuket Island.

cha am maybe is not the cheapest seaside resort, but is 2h drive from bangkok and just 10 minutes from an upscale hua hin.

the advantage is that in those places you can use english, as well you have reasonable services, hospitals, airports

Trang in the south is beautiful, but you would need to learn to speak Thai very quickly.

Had Yai is another of my favourite places, it is not on the beach but as most tourists come from Malaysia and Singapore so there is a lot of English spoken. It is also 20 minutes from Songkhla, on the Gulf. It may be a good place to start out while you learn the language.

If you don't believe you can learn Thai then as per last post Cha-am or Hua Hin are for you.

Bang Saen is on the sea, about 45 minutes from the airport, and just over an hour to Bangkok

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if you want to practice thai, ch'am is a good place

i would not expect most thais to speak english there

i found it a great place to learn thai because i HAD to

however the farang there do speak angrit

Bang Saen is on the sea, about 45 minutes from the airport, and just over an hour to Bangkok

Seconded, it's a nice Thai town on the sea.

If you want something a bit more lively just up the road is Sri Racha which is a very nice small city.

When you say you don't like Phuket, there are some very pleasant and quiet places there on the beach like Kata and Karon.

You probably mean you don't like Patong which is fill of bars and populated by drunken sleazy falang like me.

Cha-am, Huahin, Krabi, or Trad

Huahin- Not too far from Bangkok but it's the beach and sea. Some says it's too quite( comparing to pattaya) higher property price someplace 's more expensive than Bangkok to buy . Farang society ( not so big big farang town but there's some farang)

Pranburi, Cha-am cheaper to live by... but so Thais 's society more than Farang society ... ( not so many farang there)

Krabi- Far away , down south .. very beautiful scene. beautiful deep blue sea. good for natural living near the beach and you can diving.. cheap living cost( comparing from Phuket).

Pattaya- too much farang, bargirl,more crime, so so beach, cheaper property. you can live a bit farer in Jomtein beach but yet..more expensive.

Koh samui- nice beach island, so relaxing there !!! for holiday .. near koh Tao. expensive living . far away from Bangkok.

Not recommend: Rayong ( too much factories and lack of water sometimes , bad pollutions)

Others for considering. ( not the beach)

Bangkok- good society living. so many the best amenities... good transportation around Bangkok now. ( BTS skytrain and MRT subway train. and Airport link- finished all construction but not ready to use yet.. seemed it 'll not ready untill the ended of this year 2010) ,another skytrain line they 're going to building it. bad point, poor air, bad pollution, more crime, they said the lower land than the ocean level, someday it might all flooded. and I heard of it a lot about they may move the capital to another town -yet nobody know where's it gonna be, accept bad power corrupt guys in gov.)

Chaingmai- Nice mountain scene , cool weather. cheaper living cost. good hospital. a bit far away ( but there's so many flights to fly to)

Others, cheap cheap living but not so many farang society ...

For me I'm interesting in Hua hin . Chaingmai... Bangkok( property not down to resell)

hope I could help some.

All the information maybe it's not absolutely true.. but It's all I know about

Edited January 11, 201016 yr by hawthorne