Surratthani Or Nakhon Si Thammarat?

[seiraa]

Hi all , I finally narrowed my two province choices for living and teaching in Thailand.

Can anyone please tell me the diffrence between Surratthani or Nakhon Si Thammarat???

Pros and cons of each???

[nakhonsi sean]

Surathani has more farangs, lots of tourists passing through on the way to the islands. More places to get western food but also more likely to be treated as a tourist than Nakhon. Tourists in Nakhon are a rare sight hence no infrastructure catering to farang here. However, because of this most Thais you meet assume you are a teacher and not a tourist in Nakhon, quite the opposit of Surat.

There are half a dozen good places to work at in Nakhon. In the five years I have been here in the south I have not yet heard any good reports of anywhere in Surat (not saying there are none). Its much easier for a school to attract teachers to Surat than Nakhon, most of them seem to have a very high turnover. Hence a lot of schools in Nakhon try hard to take care of their teachers, my school has a very low turnover.

Nakhon feels like a smaller town than Surat (though actually bigger). Surat has the feeling of a small city, Nakhon a large town. Nakhon feels much more historic and cultured. Nakhon is one of the oldest towns in Thailand and is where the present form of budhism first took hold.

Over the past thirty years of comming to southern Thailand I have never really liked Surat but that is a personal oppinion. Some people love Nakhon, others Surat, some hate both places! I would suggest you visit both for a couple of days and meet up with a few of the long term local farangs.

Hope this helps

Sean

[sbk]

I've found the people of Surat to be not very friendly, again my personal opinion but that's what you are asking for

If it were me, given a choice based on what I know, I'd pick Nakhon over Surat. There is a bit of an expat community there and it does have a more "towny" feel than Surat.

And it still has a tesco lotus

[nakhonsi sean]

sbk Posted Today, 2007-03-05 10:33:49

I've found the people of Surat to be not very friendly, again my personal opinion but that's what you are asking for biggrin.gif

If it were me, given a choice based on what I know, I'd pick Nakhon over Surat. There is a bit of an expat community there and it does have a more "towny" feel than Surat.

And it still has a tesco lotus tongue.gif

Agree on that one. I have found if you are interested it is quite possible to make friends with the locals here. The expat community here are mostly a genuine lot. We tend to attract the more settled Thai orientated folks.

[ThaiPauly]

My Wife comes from Surat.... its not a bad place. I am serously considering relocating that way even though the folks are not the most farang freindly I have come accross, but they are OK.

Anywhere is better than Chiang Mai right now...we are all being poisoned here.

As previously said its a great place to get to other places for the weekend. Less than 2 hours from Krabi, a short boat ride to Samui, it is certainly well placed for fun weekends.

Edited March 14, 2007 by ThaiPauly

[gisele]

Surathani has more farangs, lots of tourists passing through on the way to the islands. More places to get western food but also more likely to be treated as a tourist than Nakhon. Tourists in Nakhon are a rare sight hence no infrastructure catering to farang here. However, because of this most Thais you meet assume you are a teacher and not a tourist in Nakhon, quite the opposit of Surat.

There are half a dozen good places to work at in Nakhon. In the five years I have been here in the south I have not yet heard any good reports of anywhere in Surat (not saying there are none). Its much easier for a school to attract teachers to Surat than Nakhon, most of them seem to have a very high turnover. Hence a lot of schools in Nakhon try hard to take care of their teachers, my school has a very low turnover.

Nakhon feels like a smaller town than Surat (though actually bigger). Surat has the feeling of a small city, Nakhon a large town. Nakhon feels much more historic and cultured. Nakhon is one of the oldest towns in Thailand and is where the present form of budhism first took hold.

Over the past thirty years of comming to southern Thailand I have never really liked Surat but that is a personal oppinion. Some people love Nakhon, others Surat, some hate both places! I would suggest you visit both for a couple of days and meet up with a few of the long term local farangs.

Hope this helps

Sean

totally agree with Sean,

I can honestly say I hope to live in Nakhon Si Thammarat for a long long time.

Though I may be gawked at once in a while, over all I feel I blend in quite nicely, as Sean said, we are not treated as tourists. You can tell the difference between tourists and the local expats, most of us are ghostly white while the tourists have a dark tan.

It is nice that we have a Tesco, a Carrefour and Robinson/Tops (and they are building another Tesco in Thasala so we will have 2 in the area)

I love the paddle boats at Tallad park, once in a while I go to the aviary. Our Zoo isn't great but it is free.