Life in Bangkok

Many people have asked what life is like for us here in Bangkok.  Following is a description about where and how we live.

We live about a mile east of a major landmark in Bangkok called the Victory Monument.

Victory Monument

The area where we live can be viewed on Google maps here:


We live on the 22^nd floor of a 24 floor “tower” building that also has some smaller buildings attached.

Our apartment is one of 4 on the 22^nd floor with a shared front patio overlooking Bangkok. The patio has a variety of potted plants and shrubs so there is a bit of a backyard/patio feel to it. Our apartment is about 500sq. ft., has 2 main rooms: front room with windows overlooking the patio and a bedroom with a small balcony overlooking the neighborhood to the back. There is air conditioning. Sometimes when its cooler we can open the screen doors to the front and back and enjoy the breeze. There is a bathroom with a full size tub and shower, with flow through water heater.  Most of the time cold showers feel just fine!

The apartment is furnished with a couch and coffee table in both the front room and bedroom. There is a king-sized bed, a wardrobe and a buffet/TV stand type of 2 piece cabinet in the bedroom.  The “kitchen” is very tiny, with tiled floor, walls and counter and stainless steel sink with cold water. The kitchen did not come with cabinets or stove. (no room for it anyway). There is a small fridge.  We bought some shelves and a hot plate and have a large toaster oven.  Most people cook outside, so an indoor kitchen is a luxury here.
Our apartment is close to the elevator and stairs. We leave our front door, walk across the patio a few steps to the right and into another door to get to the elevators.

There are coin operated washing machines on the ground floor or you can get laundry services.  There is a small fitness room on the 6^th floor as well as a good sized pool, which we can use 4x/month for free, and pay to use it after that.  The fitness room has no air conditioning or fans, so you could say free sauna included. 

There are a couple of minimart type shops, a hairdresser and a restaurant in the building on first and/or 2nd floor. 

We see a fair number of foreigners that are living in our building as well as a lot of nurses.


In addition to the shops and services in our building, there are many street restaurants nearby as well as small shops and outdoor markets where we can buy fruit, vegetables and household necessities, etc.

Many buildings have a grey grimy look to them from the pollution and humidity, but ours appears to be fairly recently whitewashed. In the neighborhood there are some big hotel buildings, some smaller apartment buildings and shops, and a big temple complex with lots of small narrow streets connecting them. There are sidewalks, but they are shared with street vendors and motorcyclists coming from all directions. The sidewalks are often made from cement tile which are uneven and loose due to tree roots, drainage, driveways, etc., so you really have to watch your step.  Even at pedestrian crossings there is little respect for pedestrians. There are cuts in the curbs for motorcycles but if you were in a wheelchair you would be hard pressed to get around.

We live a 20 min walk from the sky train (BTS) station at Victory Monument.  From the sky train there is access to the subway and boat taxis along the rivers.  For us to travel to school we take the BTS to the second station to the south, and the school is less than a 5 minute walk from that station.


Locally you can always hop on a motorcycle taxi , regular car or 3 wheeled taxi (tuk tuk).  The car taxis are metered but once in a while you come across a driver who will tell you (once you are on the way) that the meter is not working and will ask some exorbitant price.  Usually taxis are very reasonably priced.  Three wheeled taxis are convenient because they are small and fit into places normal taxis cannot. The drivers are also more like the motorcycle drivers who think that whatever traffic rules there are don’t apply to them.  So they have no qualms about driving the wrong way in a lane or even where there is no official roadway.

There are a lot of high end malls, easily reached by public transport and also many local, less pricey indoor/outdoor malls.  So—no lack of places to shop.


Even though Bangkok is a big city it has several nice parks, including one about a 10 minute walk from here.  It is amazing that you can go into these parks and see very few people and forget that you are in a city of 10 million. 



Most of the buildings have shrubbery or plants growing on balconies, on top or even inside. Even on small narrow streets the shop owners usually have a number of potted plants by their entrance.
Today, we visited and orchid farm and bought an orchid to add to the foliage on our patio.  Makes it feel even more like home.

Pray for us as we live in and move about the city of Bangkok.  Pray that our travels would be safe and that we would begin to make some friends among the millions of people here.