My dream about living in paradise was shuttered when I moved to Australia, which I considered the ultimate country for a living, and discovered that it also has its flaws. However, my journey in search for a paradise place to live started much earlier than that. When you make money on the Internet you are free to choose where you office is, remember? At the age of 20, after getting my first degree, I went to travel Asia. I have been to Singapore, China, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand where I finally decided to settle. After all, scenery in Thailand looked exactly like it did on the pictures which we are conditioned to believe are the pictures of paradise. Read about my experience below.
Choosing the paradise
Prior to moving to Thailand for long-term I have been there as a tourist and absolutely loved the place. The food, the service, the facilities all was perfect. Besides, people of many nationalities are allowed to stay there for as long as 3 months at a time. In case if you want to stay longer, you just do a visa run to the neighboring country on a bus that takes roughly one day with any of the local tour operators and get another 3 months permission. So, the choice for destination was obvious. During that time I understood that being a tourist in a country and actually living in that country are two different things.
The discomfort
Coming from Russia where we have predominantly cool temperatures around the year I immediately was discomforted by constant heat amplified by high humidity which doesn’t go away even in the afternoon in Thailand. Russia spends a lot on keeping its central heating system running to make everyone warm during the winter. But, Thai government is troubled just as much if not more by keeping everything cool all year round. Trucks loaded with water drive around all the time. The plants need to be watered twice a day not to dry out. You need to take shower 4 times a day because you sweat a lot which is caused by drinking a lot of water. It was bearable when you spend time by the pool all day, but when you try to work in such conditions the life becomes miserable.
Tough conditions
Air-conditioner makes the air dry, which means you have two options: either breath unhealthy air or sweat like on a run, this is exactly what happens immediately when you turn the air-con off. This was something media that show us pictures of paradise haven’t mentioned. They also didn’t mention that there are plenty of insects carrying diseases unknown to European and Western people who live in cooler conditions. Now, the photo of the beach with palms and crystal-clear water doesn’t seem as peaceful as it used to be, does it?
I ended up my appartment lease contract months before the date I planned to stay until and went back home. It might be cold outside in Russia, but once you are inside it’s warm and cosy. Although, I didn’t give up on searching the paradise, and I think I found the place which comes close to the definition on it. Stay tuned to know where it is at…