Living in Ratchaburi, Thailand

We are in our last official week of teaching; this consists of drinking iced coffee and making sure the kids don’t cheat on exams. As our year in Ratchaburi comes to a close here are a few of the highlights from living in our charming little city. As we said before we live in Ratchaburi, about an hour and forty-five minutes south of Bangkok. We have been living here since June but did not move into our house till the end of October. It is great having a house and we really enjoy being only five minutes from school.  Our house is located in a typical Thai neighborhood complete with rice fields, tin shacks, multiple stray dogs, a family of pigs, and the local cattle.

       

The house itself is a lovely two story concrete building.  We each have our own bedrooms, a hot shower, and living room complete with couch, entertainment center, and cable TV.  There are only three stations we ever watch; therefore we have a movie night, every night. There are also multiple fans in each room and with the recent weather change they are now a necessity. Last but not least is the kitchen, or as we like to call it “the Kitchen of Horrors”! By only having a sink and a microwave, “kitchen” is a very loose term. It is home to all of the scary things that go bump in the night and therefore we really don’t use it. Not to mention it is an obstacle course with lids and plungers covering random holes where creepy crawlers love to appear. With every house come unwanted house guests; one morning I awoke to find a full on scorpion just chilling in the bathroom.  Not sure what else to do I donned one of my tennis shoes and proceeded to stomp on the critter until dead, though I did have a slight error in judgment as while I was chasing him around the bathroom, he got very close to the foot without the shoe.  I was successful in killing him and we now thoroughly check our shoes for any more cunning guests. We are lucky enough to have two very loyal guard dogs, though they are probably only loyal for the treats but we do love being greeted every time we come home by wagging tails.
 

Though we don’t stay here most weekends there are a few things to do here during the week. We usually frequent the night market which is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A river runs right through our town so the market is perfectly located along the boardwalk. At the market we frequent a Chinese tea house and sample the many foods street vendors have to offer (our favorite are the grilled scallops and mussels!). There are also many street vendors selling random things from t-shirts to kitchen utensils. We lucked out in being here for the Chinese New Year and the night market was especially decked out for the occasion. Complete with fireworks, dancing, and a performance on the river. We also have some bars as well where we get dinner on occasion (our favorite being One Brain Two Hands, which some nights has a local Thai band. There is also the hookah bar run by two very friendly Thai girls who welcome us with kisses on the cheek. Last, but not least, we have our mall, Robinsons, where we get weekly hour foot massages for only $3. Though we do have pretty bicycles we do get lazy now and again so we usually just walk to the train station and grab motto-taxis. We are entrusting our lives and helmet- less heads to local Thai drivers. It has been a great base with BKK only a short trip to the north and Hua Hin (where the Thais go to vacation) only two hours south. With the train running pretty much through our back yard it is very easy for us to travel. Living in Thailand has been an amazing experience and with our teaching coming to an end we have really enjoyed living in Ratchaburi.

~ Randi