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Life In Surat Thani


ThaiPauly

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Does anyone on this forum live there?

My Wife comes from Surat, we had our wedding there.

All her brothers live there as does her aging Father. She being the only Daughter in the family will at some stage have to go to look after him for a long while.

She obviously misses her family, they are very close, and they always make me feel very welcome.

However, whenever I go, I find it unbearably hot, and I get bored as there does not seem much to do, and I have never noticed hardly any Farangs around, only holidaymakers holed up in hotels.

So my real question is What is Suart like for a farang to live in?

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I've been here for a couple months - it's quite liveable. Now, I came from Ubon Ratchathani in Isaan so that's my comparison. I also spent a few months in Phuket before Ubon so I have a rather small frame of reference, but for what it's worth I'll give you some thoughts

Surat has limited things to do within the city limits... however, the coolest thing about this town is it's proximity to other great places. On a Friday after working (at school) I can head to: Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Pangnan, Krabi, Railay Beach, Trang, Khao Sok national park, Tai Rom Yen national park, Nakhon Si Thammarat (not as great as the others but it's a big city). I have only a motorbike and so I can drive to all those places on the motorbike WITH my girlfriend on the back. It's just about at the limit of comfort going to Krabi or Trang (over 2 hours) but, still quite doable. There are buses going very often to Krabi, Phuket, Don Sak Pier to catch the ferry to the islands near Samui... So, for 2 day weekends we can go any of those places. Now, for 3 day weekends we can hit Phuket, Koh PiPi, Chumpon, Hua Hin, Bangkok (night train sleeper), Penang (but I don't like it much), or a slew of other parks containing waterfalls, caves, lookouts, hiking, etc.

Surat is a Thai town but they are used to seeing foreigners. They pay us little mind. There are some decent Thai places to eat - but FEW farang places. There is one decent italian pizza place by the river and the ferries - Milanos pizza, that is quite good. Other farang food is best found on Samui where there is italian, mcdonalds, haagen dazs, mexican, american, as well as better thai restraurants than I've found here in Surat.

Surat has 2 nice parks where many go to walk, run, and play all kinds of sports in the early evening. One located on a small island in the river. One located off Donnok Road.

There is a Tesco, a Big C, KFC, and some sandwich places around. There was a black Canyon coffee at the tesco - but they've been renovating the entire concessionairre area at tesco and it may not return - not sure.

The people here are nice - not nearly as friendly as Ubon though. There are MANY farangs here working as english teachers and they have quite a contingent that goes off to Krabi, Samui and other places together - sometimes as many as 20+ of them going to the same place. They also go to same bars many times.

Oh, I've been here June-present and it's NOT hot. Next few months will rain a lot and get cooler. March through May will be pretty warm i've heard.

Hmm... hope that helps.

Any more questions about something in particular?

VJ

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