7 ms·

Curious - when you travel, how do you find families to live with? That sounds really fun. - On week 3 of a (hopefully) ~9mos trip, in Chiang Mai.

jyz 11y ago
Congrats! Chiang Mai seems more like an expat colony at this point, do you still think there's enough Thailand to see in Chiang Mai or do you suggest another destination if people were to go there for the first time now?
- vosper 11y ago
  (depending on how your travels have been) an expat colony can be a really nice thing to find sometimes.
- jeremyis 11y ago
  I've only been in CM for ~1 week and have spent most of the time working (or late night partying with Europeans / expat Americans). I spent 2 weeks in Bangkok before.... I think there is "authentic" Thai here and in Bangkok; there is still a strong majority of Thai's / SE Asians in CM and BKK. Certainly some areas of the city more-so than others. And you can find the places where they frequent... CM is a pretty cool and affordable place. The weather is much nicer than unbearably hot Bangkok, you can get a nice quality single AC room with a queen size bed for ~$20/night in the center of town. Authentic meals cost $2-$3 (the Western-style / tourist meals are more like $5-$10). It has pretty good wifi - much better than BKK. And they have a familiarity with dealing with Westerners; though, it is ironic that Thais are particularly bad at English. I hear the worst at English in SE Asia, despite it being the biggest ex-pat and tourist country. People are pretty friendly up here too.
lucaspiller 11y ago
> Curious - when you travel, how do you find families to live with? That sounds really fun. There is a whole industry around this. Take a look at http://www.homestay.com/ http://www.homestay.com/, it's like Airbnb except you book a family, not just an apartment.
- jeremyis 11y ago
  Thanks!
aidos 11y ago
As heliodor mentions below, language schools will sort you out. In Brazil I walked in and made gestures that I wanted to learn Portuguese (they refused to speak English, even though some of them could, a little). The conversation went on like that and eventually one of the staff took me on a bus to where I would stay with a family. I ended up with a relatively wealthy family, others at the same school were in totally different environments. One thing I hadn't accounted for was the paranoia of that situation. My host family were really nice, but early on we had a discussion about how much people earned in the UK (with the aide of a translation dictionary). The next night I heard them arguing, I could tell it was about money, I was fairly sure it was about me. I recorded a little snippet of it and when I played it for a friend later when I got back to the UK he said they were talking about footballer's salaries :) At the time it made me really self-conscious. It's tough when you're all alone and you don't have anyone to talk to in your native tongue. Leaves you entirely alone with your thoughts.
- jeremyis 11y ago
  Thanks for the great reply. I want to end my trip by spending 3 months in Spain learning Spanish. I'm thinking of Valencia because I think it'll be fairly warm there even during winter months, it's somewhat central, I hear it's fun, and everyone speaks Spanish... Barcelona would be a really fun city to live in also but I think it'd be better to be surrounded 100% by the language I am learning instead of Catalan :-) Before now, I've only heard of living with a foreign family as a thing younger students do. I'm approaching 30... would it be weird to do at this age or is it normal?
  - aidos 11y ago
    Cool! Totally normal. My wife and I were 28 last time we did it. The language school would put you somewhere appropriate I would have thought. Last time we were with a lovely lady in her 60s.
    - jeremyis 11y ago
      Awesome - thanks!

jyz 11y ago

Congrats! Chiang Mai seems more like an expat colony at this point, do you still think there's enough Thailand to see in Chiang Mai or do you suggest another destination if people were to go there for the first time now?

vosper 11y ago
(depending on how your travels have been) an expat colony can be a really nice thing to find sometimes.
jeremyis 11y ago
I've only been in CM for ~1 week and have spent most of the time working (or late night partying with Europeans / expat Americans). I spent 2 weeks in Bangkok before.... I think there is "authentic" Thai here and in Bangkok; there is still a strong majority of Thai's / SE Asians in CM and BKK. Certainly some areas of the city more-so than others. And you can find the places where they frequent... CM is a pretty cool and affordable place. The weather is much nicer than unbearably hot Bangkok, you can get a nice quality single AC room with a queen size bed for ~$20/night in the center of town. Authentic meals cost $2-$3 (the Western-style / tourist meals are more like $5-$10). It has pretty good wifi - much better than BKK. And they have a familiarity with dealing with Westerners; though, it is ironic that Thais are particularly bad at English. I hear the worst at English in SE Asia, despite it being the biggest ex-pat and tourist country. People are pretty friendly up here too.

lucaspiller 11y ago

> Curious - when you travel, how do you find families to live with? That sounds really fun. There is a whole industry around this. Take a look at http://www.homestay.com/ http://www.homestay.com/, it's like Airbnb except you book a family, not just an apartment.

jeremyis 11y ago
Thanks!

aidos 11y ago

As heliodor mentions below, language schools will sort you out. In Brazil I walked in and made gestures that I wanted to learn Portuguese (they refused to speak English, even though some of them could, a little). The conversation went on like that and eventually one of the staff took me on a bus to where I would stay with a family. I ended up with a relatively wealthy family, others at the same school were in totally different environments. One thing I hadn't accounted for was the paranoia of that situation. My host family were really nice, but early on we had a discussion about how much people earned in the UK (with the aide of a translation dictionary). The next night I heard them arguing, I could tell it was about money, I was fairly sure it was about me. I recorded a little snippet of it and when I played it for a friend later when I got back to the UK he said they were talking about footballer's salaries :) At the time it made me really self-conscious. It's tough when you're all alone and you don't have anyone to talk to in your native tongue. Leaves you entirely alone with your thoughts.

jeremyis 11y ago
Thanks for the great reply. I want to end my trip by spending 3 months in Spain learning Spanish. I'm thinking of Valencia because I think it'll be fairly warm there even during winter months, it's somewhat central, I hear it's fun, and everyone speaks Spanish... Barcelona would be a really fun city to live in also but I think it'd be better to be surrounded 100% by the language I am learning instead of Catalan :-) Before now, I've only heard of living with a foreign family as a thing younger students do. I'm approaching 30... would it be weird to do at this age or is it normal?
- aidos 11y ago
  Cool! Totally normal. My wife and I were 28 last time we did it. The language school would put you somewhere appropriate I would have thought. Last time we were with a lovely lady in her 60s.
  - jeremyis 11y ago
    Awesome - thanks!