I enjoyed living in Thailand.

That is, I loved the social life and everything it had to offer, the local hospitality, the friendly expats living there and its plain affordability. I can truly say it has been the highlight of my time living away from Australia. Well maybe apart from some rare and exceptional highlights I experienced when living in China and Tibet…

If you don’t know, Krabi is situated in the south of Thailand, only a few hours drive from the border with Malaysia, and roughly opposite Phuket which lies across the bay. I rented a free standing villa with a garden which was part of a gated community, in Ao Nang, not far from Nopparat Thara beach and the Ao Nang tourist strip. Khun Jeab, the rental agent was so accommodating; she and husband Patrick and  family lived next door. They were super friendly, always generous with their time, ready to assist and attend to any issues.

So why the appeal? Frankly, the rich quality of life.

The beast

Aside from the facilities and infrastructure, the appeal comes from the ease and simplicity of living there, the unexpected quality of services and amenities, the great beaches, clear skies, lack of traffic congestion as well as the very welcoming and ‘grounded’ local people. Then there’s the absence of overwhelming seasonal tourist tides.

View from ‘Dragons Crest’ in the National Park

It helped of course that I was actually living there and so got to know people that transient tourists would never have the chance to meet. The ownership of a high powered e-scooter also enabled me to go wherever I wanted, whenever I felt like it. Of course that depended on the weather, but in the dry season it gave me so much freedom. Sure, there were traffic build ups during the tourist high season around the main attraction areas, but my scooter put paid to that.

Day trip to the islands

Krabi is one of the most scenic locations in Thailand. There are limestone karst outcrops on land and in the sea. These ‘islands’ are what the area is most famous for and you can get an idea of this from the header photo of this article. One of the older James Bond movies, ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ starring Roger Moore (1972) was filmed here. Krabi would most certainly have been a much quieter place back then! None the less, the present day island day-tours on offer are still worth the effort, especially if you take a private tour on board one of the ubiquitous ‘Long-Tail’ boats.

Ao Nang, where I lived, was not over run by Russian or ‘follow the flag’ Chinese tourists, unlike many other areas such as Phuket or Chang Mai. In fact, towards the end of my time, you could say that visitors from around the world, north, south, east and west, helped give the area a truly international feel. I reckon this contributed significantly to its overall appeal, at least while I was there.

Digging a little deeper, Krabi has both an established expat and very friendly local community. I encountered some beautiful characters and was sad when it came time to say goodbye. I posted a few farewells on my Facebook page as I was leaving. It is obvious to me now, given the great appeal mentioned above, why so many foreigners decide to settle in Thailand.

Pla and friend at Nopparat Thara

Pla and Stanley

My friend ‘Pla’ was at the top of the list of characters. It seems she was once a model for product promotions, but now, at the age of 50 + and sporting some spectacular tattoos, she runs a bar. She is also a Buddhist who has some pretty liberal views about life. When I first met Pla she was running a bar on the Nopparat Thara main beach strip, and since it was in the thick of the post pandemic recovery period, with very few foreign tourists about, things were fairly quiet. During this time I was introduced to some of the local expats, including Stanley, a 70 something retiree who swam 3km in the ocean each day to keep fit. In his younger days, Stanley was at the cutting edge of long board skateboarding, wakeboarding and kite surfing, well before they were all mainstream. He and Pla would often share a few ‘joints’ while I was there talking to them, since it was practically legal at the time. It now is, and there are ‘Ganja’ cafe’s everywhere.

Pla’s husband Kevin was Norwegian. He didn’t have a work permit but backed the business, even if it seemed that Pla did all the hard work. Kevin was a keen guitar player and a ‘pseudo bikie’ who would go on charity rides with his Harley mates in their ‘Outlander MC’ colours, sometimes staying away for a few days. He always wanted to be a musician but somehow he never quite got there.

When business picked up, Pla sold up and moved further towards Ao Nang where business was a lot better. She then had a number of ‘girls’ operating from her bar and would take a cut or bar fine if the girls got lucky. If you haven’t lived in Thailand, it is hard not to be judgemental regarding this practice. But that is for a seperate discussion. I witnessed some generous and life changing acts while I was there for some of these ladies, including the time when, after a few weeks with the same girl, a fairly well off first nations Canadian man, who sported some incredible tattoos, asked Pla and the family of the girl, permission to invite her to Canada as his partner.

Then there was a nurse Bernie, not her real name, who fell in love with one of the older girls and committed to pay for her daughter to go through high school and on to university. Thailand is one of the most liberal and carefree countries when it comes to the LGBT+ community.

There is a dark side to Thailand, in that the sex tourism trade flourishes in some areas. I met a 40 year old ladyboy we’ll call Praew who, when she was in her 20’s was swept up by a guy from the UK, who promised her the world and took her to live in England. The nightmare that followed involved him pimping her out to his english mates and taking all the money for this ‘service’ (and her passport). She later escaped got help from the embassy and returned to Thailand, but not before she had been scarred with some terrible memories. When I met her, she was living happily with a long time partner in Ao Nang.

Having fun filming at ‘Pink Lady’ Karaoke

On a lighter note, one of the funniest encounters I had was at the Pink Lady karaoke bar located on Nopparat Tara main strip. The owner was also a matriarchal ladyboy with a magnificent 50’s Beehive hairdo. Everyone was welcome to sing at any time, and there were usually at least a dozen or more people there. She had a female bartender (another single mum with two daughters…) who liked to pick up a mic. and join in whenever anyone sang. However she did this in a melodramatic and operatic style, and was typically way off key. The look of incredulous astonishment on the faces of the patrons was hilarious. Some of these same patrons graciously took part in the making of my ‘Creep’ music video.

There is still so much that I could talk about here, but instead I’ll write another article later.

So, until then…