Why Apartment Doesn'T Usualy Have A Kitchen ?

[duiter]

Dear all,

Why apartment in Bangkok doesn't usualy have a kitchen ?

I was looking around apartments and found out that it is very rare to find a 5000-10000 baht apartment with a kitchen

It is expected that the tenant to buy food packed with plastic bag

[necronx99]

^{Pretty much yes. many Thais just do not cook due to the availablity of cheap prepared food.}

[wana]

without a kicthen you are at the mercy of the food vendors and dont worry , they WILL put in more sugar ,salt ,greece ,msg than youve ever encountered before

sometimes i think about building a kitchen ,but that would involve going to market ,get ingredients ,wash them ,cook them .eat it and then have to clean everything and wash dishes when finished

its easier to sit down and order it if your in a city ,probably cheaper too

[PattayaParent]

Thais generally just pick up food at the street stalls and eat at home.

Those that do a bit of cooking their kitchen will consist of a gas bottle and a double ring hob out on the balcony.

[IanForbes]

That is PRECISELY why I don't call them apartments. What they are is a room for rent that may or may not have a balcony. If you want to eat you are expected to have a meal served at one of the Thai street cafes. If you want to cook something you need to have a balcony and your own little table top stove. Of course, because the apartment also doesn't have any closets you have to store your excess stuff on the balcony. And, in most of these hotel rooms the toilet and shower are in the same small room, meaning that if you want to use the toilet in the evening your feet and butt get wet, so you almost have to strip naked before using what can very loosely be called a "bathroom".

[PattayaParent]

^or you could just dry the toilet seat before you sit down to have a dump?

[IanForbes]

^or you could just dry the toilet seat before you sit down to have a dump?

Hey, I could also hang my dick or butt over the balcony railing and fire on down below... with all the plastic bags and other garbage everyone throws on the ground instead of putting it in the trash can standing 20 feet away.

[steve down under]

without a kicthen you are at the mercy of the food vendors and dont worry , they WILL put in more sugar ,salt ,greece ,msg than youve ever encountered before

sometimes i think about building a kitchen ,but that would involve going to market ,get ingredients ,wash them ,cook them .eat it and then have to clean everything and wash dishes when finished

its easier to sit down and order it if your in a city ,probably cheaper too

Hmm how the heck do you put a whole country in a meal ????

[DP25]

Because most Thais don't cook, so there isn't a demand for it. People would rather eat out every single meal. It's not like back home where that is expensive. Climate is also a reason, ovens were traditionally used as a heating for your home in addition to cooking, and the gas that fuels it can also run the heater. Traditionally in this climate you wouldn't even want an oven inside your home because it would be too hot.

If you want to cook in your apartment, go buy an electric wok, kettle, toaster oven, and microwave.

[swisstouristpattaya]

thai buy cooked food from market.

u can get fish ball,curry,rice,kebab,fish,bbq,...

[HidyHo]

If you are looking at 30 sq. meter *studio* rooms, then there are other things to consider. Most places come with fairly small refrigerator so it's hard to store much in there. Also there are hardly much covered spaces to store dry goods and spices. And if you do, you are just inviting all kind of insects (ants, roaches) to come and hang out.

I live in such place. If there is any cooking done, it's done on a small balcony which serves as kitchen (cooking and washing dishes) and laundry room (occasional washing and hanging). Currently we are using electric burner but in the past, I've used one of those single gas burner where you buy the gas in the can. Many places will not let you have one of those propane tank based burners due to fire risk.

Purely from financial perspective, I don't think there is much saving from cooking at home vs. eating same food outside but there's more to a life than money (for some people).

[nocturn]

stat looking at apartments rather than rooms (hong dio) and up your budget and you will find kitchens

[geriatrickid]

That is PRECISELY why I don't call them apartments. What they are is a room for rent that may or may not have a balcony. If you want to eat you are expected to have a meal served at one of the Thai street cafes. If you want to cook something you need to have a balcony and your own little table top stove. Of course, because the apartment also doesn't have any closets you have to store your excess stuff on the balcony. And, in most of these hotel rooms the toilet and shower are in the same small room, meaning that if you want to use the toilet in the evening your feet and butt get wet, so you almost have to strip naked before using what can very loosely be called a "bathroom".

Not just low end places, but high end too. I have a Thai style bathroom where everything gets wet. My kitchen is basically the size of a walkin cupboard that juts out onto the balcony. I have a sink, some cupboards in there, an electric burner thingie, a microwave, and one of those water boil kettles. Whatever I eat here tends to be strictly simple such as salads or other vegetables that I can clean using my clean water dispenser. I never cook anything stinky or fancy. How I miss baking something, but this place isn't set up for that. I rented it from an owner who had redesigned it for himself and he ripped out the western style bathroom *sob*. I think you need to live in a house or a condo built to western standards to get a proper kitchen. This place suits my needs, and I usually am living alone, so I'm ok. would be different if I had a proper wife or g/f or a family.

ps. As per above, I try to keep limited mounts of food outside of the refrigerator/freezer as the cockroaches are ginormous here and I get ants. I left out a coke can the other day and their was a big column going up the cabinet, marching along the counter to the coke can.

Edited April 2, 2012 by geriatrickid

[chops]

10,000 baht/month and it doesn't have a kitchen? You must be living in an expensive area.

Anyways, I never cook here. I eat out 100% of the time. There are 7-11s and Thai food stalls everywhere. If I want a steak, I go to Sizzler.

[nocturn]

my house doesn't actually have a kitchen -- indoors.

It does have a separate outbuilding, with a covered breezeway/patio/utility area that contains a fair size kitchen kitted out western-style and tiny maids coffin, er, quarters.

I really like the design, no food in the house but what you are eating. No cooking smells, no bugs.

Edited April 2, 2012 by nocturn

[attrayant]

You might as well ask why apartments don't have darkrooms. Like photography, cooking can be an expensive and time consuming hobby. Most Thais I've talked to see it as a chore more than something fun to do, so it makes sense that the wouldn't need nor want the accoutrements taking up space in an already small apartment.

[edwardandtubs]

The only places that don't have a kitchen are the crappy little "my loom" places. They're designed for poor folk who don't use much electricity (hence are not too worried about the 9 baht per unit electricity charge) and buy 30 baht meals from the street. The huge condos that are all over the place in ever increasing numbers mostly have kitchens. Generally they're 10,000 baht or over though. Is that really too much?

[brit1984]

The only places that don't have a kitchen are the crappy little "my loom" places

Not entirely true... we have just started renting a 600 SQM house with no kitchen... I had it removed when we moved in because I hate kitchens...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

You guys are missing an obvious point here... It may be fine to buy local Thai food from the street stands and such, but you can forget doing that for most of the western things that many of us enjoy regularly or from time to time. Thus for those things, fixing them yourself in your own kitchen becomes pretty important.

When I went looking for a place to live in BKK some years ago, I probably looked through 20 or 30 different apartments (all at least one bedroom plus... no studios) and almost none of them had anything resembling a traditional kitchen.... a few had a counter with a sink and an electric burner and space for a small frig... that was about it.

The place I ended up choosing, fortunately, had a full kitchen with full size frig, four burner gas stove and oven, lots of kitchen cupboard and drawer space, etc etc... And I'm in the kitchen constantly. I'd never live in a place where I couldn't do my own cooking.

I love Thai food and eat it regularly, but it's the healthy varieties my wife and I cook at home. Apart from the sometimes sanitary questions for street food, a lot of it is chocked full of various stuff that really isn't good for anyone's health.

[IanForbes]

I love to cook, but I'm single and can't eat everything I cook at one sitting. In Canada I have a proper kitchen in my home with a big fridge, large microwave, many cupboards and a huge freezer in the basement full of seafood and wild game meat. I cook everything imaginable including pizza from scatch. I eat a LOT of vegetables and fish items.

Fresh prawns dipped in garlic butter are always a treat.. so is halibut, tuna and crab legs.

In Thailand I live in a one room suite that has the added bonus of a toilet separate from the shower... and a bit of a make-up room for my lady visitors. There is a small fridge that I stock with water and a few food items to tide me over if the local cafe is closed when I'm hungry.

[necronx99]

In Thailand I live in a one room suite that has the added bonus of a toilet separate from the shower... and a bit of a make-up room for my lady visitors. There is a small fridge that I stock with water and a few food items to tide me over if the local cafe is closed when I'm hungry.

That must have been a really, really, really good bit of toast for you to want to take a picture of it Ian...

[IanForbes]

In Thailand I live in a one room suite that has the added bonus of a toilet separate from the shower... and a bit of a make-up room for my lady visitors. There is a small fridge that I stock with water and a few food items to tide me over if the local cafe is closed when I'm hungry.

That must have been a really, really, really good bit of toast for you to want to take a picture of it Ian...

My kids always used to love my French toast with cinnimon and fruit syrup. I've got pictures of just about everything and never know when I might use them. I was just teasing the gang here who might have been hungry at the time. It's one thing I miss for the 5 months I'm in Thailand. I have far more variety in Canada and just won't pay the excessive import prices of many items in Thailand. I love extra sharp Canadian chedder cheese, but I won't pay triple the price of what I do in Canada.

[dave111223]

The place I ended up choosing, fortunately, had a full kitchen with full size frig, four burner gas stove and oven, lots of kitchen cupboard and drawer space, etc etc...

I'm guessing this didn't fall into the 5000-10000 range that the OP is discussing?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Also condominiums often don't come with a kitchen, then the buyer of the unit can decide if he wants to put one in.

We recently got a whole house that only had a very rudimentary kitchen outside. We're putting in a small proper kitchen inside before renting it out; I think one of the main attractions of a house over an apartment is that there should be a good kitchen. (Plus the bigger living space.. Our place is only a small townhouse but just the inside living area is over 100m2. Have a look what a 100m2 2 bedroom, one livingroom + kitchen/dining room costs if it's a condominium... And then you still don't have a small garden / car park.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I didn't see anything in the 5-10K range that came with a kitchen in BKK in my searches a few years ago... Doesn't mean there aren't any...but I didn't see them around the Sukhumvit core.

But, the place I eventually found went for 15K for two bedrooms and two baths, and walking distance from BTS... I consider that one of the better things I've done and found here.

If I was living in a place without any built-in kitchen, I guess I could make do... No problem with buy and put in a suitable frig... Electric cooking plate ought to suffice... Likewise can buy freestanding storage and or shelving units.

The main issue, I guess, would be washing food and cleaning dishing out on the balcony or similar, assuming the place has one. Not quite my cup of tea... But obviously that's the common Thai style for such things.

BTW, my wife and I were looking at new townhouse units around BKK a few months back (presumably mostly aimed at the Thai buyer), and as stated above, only rarely did they come with built-in kitchens.

The place I ended up choosing, fortunately, had a full kitchen with full size frig, four burner gas stove and oven, lots of kitchen cupboard and drawer space, etc etc...

I'm guessing this didn't fall into the 5000-10000 range that the OP is discussing?

Edited April 3, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[harrry]

THe simple reason is that Thai Food is not suited to cooking indoors. Grilling chillies and prawn paste do not leave the room suitable for romantic interludes.

[scorecard]

That is PRECISELY why I don't call them apartments. What they are is a room for rent that may or may not have a balcony. If you want to eat you are expected to have a meal served at one of the Thai street cafes. If you want to cook something you need to have a balcony and your own little table top stove. Of course, because the apartment also doesn't have any closets you have to store your excess stuff on the balcony. And, in most of these hotel rooms the toilet and shower are in the same small room, meaning that if you want to use the toilet in the evening your feet and butt get wet, so you almost have to strip naked before using what can very loosely be called a "bathroom".

Not just low end places, but high end too. I have a Thai style bathroom where everything gets wet. My kitchen is basically the size of a walkin cupboard that juts out onto the balcony. I have a sink, some cupboards in there, an electric burner thingie, a microwave, and one of those water boil kettles. Whatever I eat here tends to be strictly simple such as salads or other vegetables that I can clean using my clean water dispenser. I never cook anything stinky or fancy. How I miss baking something, but this place isn't set up for that. I rented it from an owner who had redesigned it for himself and he ripped out the western style bathroom *sob*. I think you need to live in a house or a condo built to western standards to get a proper kitchen. This place suits my needs, and I usually am living alone, so I'm ok. would be different if I had a proper wife or g/f or a family.

ps. As per above, I try to keep limited mounts of food outside of the refrigerator/freezer as the cockroaches are ginormous here and I get ants. I left out a coke can the other day and their was a big column going up the cabinet, marching along the counter to the coke can.

And not only in apartments. I have Thai friends who bought a very upmarket house a few years back in Bkk.

Four floors. Third and fourth floors both have one very large bedroom plus big en-suite bathroom, plus separate living room area, internet desk etc. Then second floor had two bedrooms both with en-suite bathrooms, living area etc.

Ground floor is a massive living room, plus a large dining room. Kitchen area is a 1.5 metres long cupboard on one wall of the dining room, part of the 1.5 meter long counter taken up by a small micro wave. Plus there's a medum size fridge. Sink for dish washing is outside on the back wall of the house.

Both husband and wife are quite happy with the kitchen they have and see no reason for anything bigger.

Edited April 3, 2012 by scorecard

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

THe simple reason is that Thai Food is not suited to cooking indoors. Grilling chillies and prawn paste do not leave the room suitable for romantic interludes.

I think that's a good and likely explanatory point...in addition to the generated heat from cooking issue...

All of that leads to the notion of having the cooking activity done outdoors.

Unfortunately, most of the BKK apartments I've seen thru the years don't have an outdoors area that's even remotely suitable for cooking and/or washing.

When my wife and I were shopping for townhouses earlier this year, at least those typically were built with an outside patio on the ground floor that included a decent sized sink and counter area. But not much else, even in the way of electrical outlets that would support kitchen appliances.

And neither indoors nor outdoors was there any kind of cabinetry installed. Of course, there also wasn't any closets built in the bedrooms either. Another thing I can't quite fathom about housing here...why the builders don't treat bedroom closets as a standard feature.

[nocturn]

THe simple reason is that Thai Food is not suited to cooking indoors. Grilling chillies and prawn paste do not leave the room suitable for romantic interludes.

hood fans were made for this exact reason

[PattayaParent]

^or you could just dry the toilet seat before you sit down to have a dump?

Hey, I could also hang my dick or butt over the balcony railing and fire on down below... with all the plastic bags and other garbage everyone throws on the ground instead of putting it in the trash can standing 20 feet away.

In Thailand I live in a one room suite that has the added bonus of a toilet separate from the shower

Then what are you complaining about?

And, in most of these hotel rooms the toilet and shower are in the same small room, meaning that if you want to use the toilet in the evening your feet and butt get wet, so you almost have to strip naked before using what can very loosely be called a "bathroom".