And get paid western wages. If you live in thailand you get paid thailand wages, and thailand connections for the most part, which are locally adjusted for the cost of living downwards.
Living in Thailand doesn't mean you have to work in Thailand. That is the crucial difference...
I live here (Thailand) and do contract work at near western rates. That means I can live for months off the revenue from a single project.
To be fair though, the cost of living in Thailand is higher than the article makes out. Rent is quite high (if you want to live in a good location), and having western food all the time gets expensive. Expect to spend about 30k THB per month on ChefXP and FoodByPhone.
As for a variety of foods, Bangkok is hard to beat. Except for the lack of decent mexican food (Sunrise Taco should be burned down), we have pretty much anything you could want to eat... and it can be delivered to your door w/in 45minutes for less than you'd pay in the US.
Bangkok is a 24hr city. You can get good food any time day or night. There are always things to do no matter what the hour... ผมรักกรูงเทพฯมากๆเลย
I've lived on 4 continents (Africa, N. America, Europe, Asia), and I seriously believe that Thailand is the best country for living.
I can confirm that. Bangkok/Thailand can be both very cheap and extremely expensive, depends on what you eat, how you live. If you adjust your taste to thai food, you can get by pretty cheap, but even if you eat moderately fast food western food here and there like 112 pizza, food court in MBK (has great greek lamb!) toll can get up high pretty fast.
Living in BKK is another story, you can buy a decent house in a decent neighborhood for about 4 mil baht, which is cheap in my book. I have, due to the nature of my work, lived in nearby Salaya and commuted to shooting location and BKK with designated driver, prices of living there (only a 30 minute drive from BKK) are significantly lower than in BKK.
I can testify that is not true. It really depends on what you are working, I have been payed a pretty good sum of money while working there, as well as my Thai buddies - pay was on the level you would expect anywhere in the world for that kind of job. And I have witnessed several foreigners (farangs) that were payed significantly more than their thai counterparts.
Being Thai myself, my general observation is that westerners (farangs) are always paid more than their thai counterparts doing the same job. This has always rubbed me the wrong way. It's like reverse racism almost.
Also although the cost of living CAN be low, if you wanted to live cheaply and save money, you'd have to live like a middle class Thai person. That means no Starbucks (who the heck pays 80 Baht for coffee when you can get REAL thai iced coffee for 5 on the street). Even what we know as fast foods are somewhat middle/upper middle class.
The foreigners I know living in Thailand seem to live a pretty upper class lifestyle here in Thailand because their dollar goes a long way so I'm not sure how much they are saving. Then again, they're not hackers.
Even normal things that middle class westerners are used to could be considered luxury for the middle class Thai. Cable for example is pretty expensive compared to the cost of food and living and so is internet. Travel in the city can be dirt cheap if you stick to public transporation.
So again, you can stretch the dollar if you are willing to be fruga. Then again you can do the same if you choose to live in the states.
Starbucks has some of the most disgusting coffee I've ever tasted in my life, if you can call that coffee at all. I have noticed one thing that stood out amongst thais that were payed on pair with farangs, they all have mastered english more or less they can communicate with ease, you probably know that there are not that many people in thailand that have a really good grasp of english (English is not my first language also).
Here is a good article on trying to live on 30k a month. It is a pretty frugal lifestyle actually. Lots of toast for breakfast, not a lot of ordering Au Bon Pain.
