Things I liked about living in Thailand, Part 1

Part One: Nichada Thani

I really appreciated where we lived, which was a gated compound/community about 30 km north of BKK called Nichada Thani. I really want to write a little bit about it, because googling for it often leads to snarky comments about Nichada life from posters on Thai Visa and other forums like it, and those sentiments aren't really helpful to familes who might be trying to figure out where they might like to live if they're moving in the Bangkok area. So, without further ado:

Things that I liked about living in Nichada:

• It was green and clean, by Bangkok standards. There were actual sidewalks to walk on, and they were free of vendors selling hair accessories, squid snacks, edible insects, or fake Rolex watches. They weren't full of dozing (or oozing) soi dogs, either. The sidewalks were actually fairly stroller/tricycle friendly for my young kids, which can't be said of a lot of the footpaths in BKK. For my first 2.5 years in Thailand, walking around the lake in Nichada Thani (I don't know if it has an actual name, but I always thought of it as Lake Nichada) was my primary form of exercise, and I enjoyed passing by the gardens of roses, frangipani, bougainvillea, and the other tropical plants on the way. Lots of coconut trees. And I never actually saw a snake, though I often saw snails of an awesomely impressive size! 

 

• The amenities. Nichada was a nice place to live for the times when I didn't feel like venturing into all of the crazy outside of the gates. The shopping plaza had a pharmacy (which will happily dole out a lot of meds that we'd otherwise need prescriptions for in Canada) with a very nice pharmicist, a photo studio where I could get the dozens of ID photos that life in Thailand required, a beauty salon (which my family patronized for haircuts and pedicures), a fitness center, a travel agency, and my beloved Villa Market was also located there. Bumrungrad also operates a medical clinic within Nichada Thani, and I really liked the current pediatrician. And there is also a Starbucks, but I wasn't a huge fan as they don't have chai lattes on the menu. The other nice thing about having all of this within walking distance was that my family did not have a car around all of the time (which is true for most families living there), and I often needed to make emergency trips to the grocery store ...

 

• The location was quite convenient. Even if it's thirty-some odd kilometers north of central Bangkok, the expressway into the city was only two minutes away, and we made the trip into the city all the time for doctors appointments, dinners out, touristy things, and shopping at the markets and malls. There were also plenty of good international schools and preschool programs within a fifteen-minute radius, so Madeline was spared a bus ride in busy Bangkok during rush-hour.  Nichada Thani wasn't the most exciting place to live, but there was a decent amount of things to do in the nearby area (for example: cinemas, horse-back riding at the Nonthaburi Equestrian Club, bowling, biking, swimming). Things definitely improved when the Central Chaengwattana shopping center opening nearly two years ago, and many new restaurants opened in the three years that we were there for. It was also convenient to not be so close to central BKK during the protests in the spring - life for my family was largely unaffected by the unrest with the roads, schools, and shops in the area remaining open. 

 

• It was easy to make friends; I'd run into the same people all the time at the schools, at the pool, and the grocery store, etc. The residents of Nichada are foreigners by a large majority, so nearly everyone had had the experience of being newly-arrived in Thailand at one time. Because of the proximity to the schools, it's a popular location for families with young children to chose to live. We did, after all :) 

 

• It seemed fairly safe*. There were guards everywhere, and somehow, they managed to even keep the soi dogs out of the compound. The most dangerous thing on the roads were probably brand-new drivers tooling around on golf carts (unless you counted the taxi drivers who had never seen a traffic circle before). The US Embassy puts a lot of their families into Nichada, which seemed to give Nichada some security credibility as well. *By "safe", I don't mean to imply that the community pool had life guards on duty, because it didn't, or that all of the playground equipment was in good shape, because it wasn't. I was speaking more about serious crime! 

I am not going to pretend that living in Nichada let us have an authentic Thai experience; Nichada Thani is an ex-pat bubble, but it was a good place for my family to live for three years. To be honest, I think that even if we'd chosen to live in the city instead of out in Nichada, we'd still have lived in a some version of the bubble, but would have had a more intimate experience with the authentic Bangkok traffic. I didn't mind giving up the traffic :) 

Three month out, I still miss my old life in Thailand dearly. I didn't think that I would feel so strongly, but I have to admit that our life in Nichada in our apartment with the wonderful maintenance team really helped me (and my family) navigate life in a foreign country with a bit more grace than I'd have had otherwise. 

Comments

[womens white jeans]

What a very entertaining post , you have here, Laura. I always fancy myself living in Thailand, as I always love that little Asian country where exotic foods would really make you feel out of this world. I have visited Nichada when we have our honeymoon there, I forgot to wear something like black pants as my pants usually get dirty with all the smoke from the vehicles and tuktuk there, I wore Zara’s womens white jeans and was surprised when we get back to the hotel that it is still white. I would definitely visit Thailand again and hope that you post more as I find it very interesting indeed.

[Lauren Ashley]

Dear Laura,
We are residents of Nichada Thani and while we enjoyed your post, we feel that it lacked information on how to actually have fun here.
Please write a new post.
We would love to hear from you :)

[Jennifer Marsh]

Dear Laura,

I found your post to be very encouraging. My husband and I are headed to Nichada Thani in a few weeks to secure a home for our family. We are moving there in June. I hope you write more--

[laura]

Jennifer, I tried to reply to you via email, but your address didn't work!

[Jennifer Marsh]

Hi Laura,
I did get your email--thank you so much! It was very encouraging, and we will take your guidance with us as we head to Nichada Thani to find our home next week.
Take care, Jennifer

[Wakanyi Hoffman]

Hi Laura,

Found this thread online as I was looking up places to live in Thailand with kids. We have two and another one on the way, due August. 2nd was born in BKK (Samitivej) but we were living in Nepal and only went to BKK for the birth. But we are so thrilled to (hopefully) be moving there this summer. We're very keen to live in Nichada Thani as our 5 year old will go to ISB for Kindergarten. What are the preschools like for our 3 year old? Any montessori? And really, what's ISB like? Is it culturally diverse or just full of American expats? (we are Americans but this being our 6th expat move, we've lived in places where we were the minority and really loved it). What is housing like? I mean stand alone houses. Possibility of getting a house with a yard? Rent prices? We're with the UN so have to find all of these on our own. And how do the working spouses travel from Nichada Thani to central BKK with all the traffic? Does BTS come as far as Nichada? Really happy to read this very positive post from you.

[siobian smith]

Hey Wakanyi- Do you remember me from Nepal? I had a daughter, Juliette, who is now 4. I hope we may also move to Bangkok later this year and Juliette would go to the ISB. Send me your email, I would love to hear from you. I'm sorry I can't rmember your daughters name....I have some nice pictures of her from Kathmandu when we had Santa Claus come to our house.... :-)

[Ulgen]

Hi Laura- We will be moving out to Bangkok this summmer. We have two children, ages 5 and 3 and many questions regarding ISB and Rose Marie Academy just to name a couple! Instead of filling-up your blog with a ton of personal “mom” questions would you be willing to correspond via email?

[Patrick Lane]

Hi Laura- I too enjoyed your thoughts on Nichada. just found this today while perusing the internet for come nice communities to retire in.... and thus my question.

Are there many other retirees in Nichada? I'm retiring a bit younger at age 55 but wondering if there are others with a bit more "life's experiences" living there?

Thanks
Patrick
Capt737AA@mac.com

[Coley]

Wow, everything that you wrote is what I felt about Nichada. We are moving there in 2 weeks. I am slightly concerned about the whole "living in a bubble" comments and was beginning to wonder if we made the right choice. However, I feel that with 2 kids, ages 10 and 12, it was the right move. This has all been frustrating for me. I feel as though we were rushed on when and where to move. It wasn't until after we leased the house, enrolled kids in ISB, then everyone talks negatively about Nichada saying we are far from everything and living in a bubble. Thanks for sharing your post. Very encouraging!

[Online Diploma]

nice & impressive article you have posted.. Wonderful post, It is really not difficult to study your blog.. I have found good information in your blog… So excellent … It’s a treasure for me to reading your blog..I will definitely share it with others.thanks

[Kevin]

What a great post - we've been trying to get additional information on places to live in Bangkok as exPats. Do you mind sharing your email so we can ask some questions?

[Jess]

Great post Laura!
Yes, I live in Nichada..well...just out of it. And I FULLY appreciate it! The school is great with SO MANY things for kids to do and see etc. There is a GREAT variety of people so there is ALWAYS someone to talk to.

The posts I have read about not having fun?! Well...I don't think any little 'town' is here to entertain us really....its about entertaining ourselves and making our own fun. The times when we have everything are usually the times we tend to take things for granted...this is Nichada...its always great to appreciate it.

I think that's the thing about living overseas......we're all tourists in our own way...but want to be a 'local' at the same time....its NEVER going to happen. So we just try to learn what we can from the local culture and make the most of it.

Thanks Laura!