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Living in Thailand as an expat means learning fast about Bangkok life, culture shock, visas, local laws, and the gap between the country you imagined and the one you actually live in. Allison Maciejewski’s first year in Bangkok included political unrest outside her home and visa runs to Cambodia, giving current and future expats a practical look at what changes once Thailand stops being a destination and becomes home.
What You’ll Learn About Living in Thailand as an Expat
- What living in Bangkok as an expat is really like
- What expats should know about political unrest in Thailand
- How Thailand visa runs to Cambodia worked
- What Songkran and Thai New Year traditions are like
- How regional Thai food differs beyond Bangkok
- Why culture shock can last for years
- Why learning Thai doesn't eliminate communication problems
- How living abroad changes your sense of home
Living in Bangkok as an Expat: Housing and First-Year Expectations
Before moving to Thailand, Allison imagined backpacking and inexpensive, stripped-down living. Instead, she and her girlfriend found a one-bedroom apartment in Thong Lo for less than $800 a month before utilities, with security, a gym, and a rooftop pool overlooking Bangkok.
The experience quickly challenged what she thought life in Thailand would look like.
Political Unrest in Thailand: What Expats Should Know
Soon after Allison arrived, protests filled Sukhumvit Road outside her building. At first they seemed peaceful, but bombings later occurred near places she regularly visited, including MBK and Siam Paragon.
She began researching Thai politics and reconsidering what protections foreigners have abroad. Rights and assumptions from your home country don't automatically follow you when you move somewhere else.
Thailand Visa Runs to Cambodia
One cheerful photo looks like Allison is sightseeing in Cambodia. She was actually completing a visa run from Thailand.
She took a bus to the border, crossed into Cambodia, visited a casino, bought cigarettes, posed near a shrine, crossed back into Thailand, and returned to Bangkok that day.
After two visa runs, she decided she wanted a more stable legal status.
Songkran in Thailand: Thai New Year Traditions
Allison's first Songkran turned into a day of hoses, buckets, ice-cold water, and powder rubbed onto people's cheeks.
She learned that Songkran was more than a giant water fight. The water represented renewal and cleansing for the Thai New Year. She “played water” for several years before eventually preferring to stay inside.
The Parts of Expat Life That Stay Uncomfortable
Outside Don Mueang Airport, Allison photographed a child working beside an adult cleaning the roadside. She'd already seen children working elsewhere in Southeast Asia and realized she was becoming accustomed to something she didn't want to normalize.
Living abroad didn't always give her clearer answers. Sometimes it made questions about migration, inequality, work, and opportunity more complicated.
Isan Food and Regional Thai Cuisine
In Nakhon Phanom in northeastern Thailand, Allison discovered grilled sausages made with pork and fermented rice, served with vegetables and green chilies.
As a former chef and food writer, traveling beyond Bangkok showed her how much Thai cuisine changes by region. Her food photography also reflected respect for street-food vendors who may spend decades mastering what they make.
Motorbike Travel in Southern Thailand
A photo from Khanom shows Allison on a motorbike beside the Gulf of Thailand, surrounded by quiet beaches beyond heavily developed tourist areas.
Years later, she saw freedom in that photo. Thailand gave her distance from an NGO career that had consumed much of her life and opened space for travel, curiosity, and a different pace.
Culture Shock and Learning Thai
Four years into living in Thailand, Allison still experienced culture shock in ordinary moments. Asking a 7-Eleven employee not to give her a plastic bag could still end with her carrying three home.
She'd also spent years learning to speak, read, and write Thai, yet could order food and not be understood because she'd used the wrong tone.
Familiarity didn't mean complete understanding. Even after years abroad, small moments could still make her feel like a beginner.
Moving From Thailand to Prague
After about four and a half years in Thailand, Allison moved to Prague and became a newcomer again.
This time, she approached visa problems and unfamiliar systems with more patience. Thailand had taught her that frustration doesn't make bureaucracy move faster and that living abroad requires becoming more forgiving of yourself and others.
How Living Abroad Changes Your Sense of Home
The Thailand photos that once looked strange and exciting eventually became familiar. Bangkok streets, food stalls, Songkran, beaches, and temples became part of a place Allison knew.
Then she moved and began again.
The photos capture a short but important stage of expat life: the period before the strange becomes ordinary and the foreign becomes home.
original publication date: September 25, 2018
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