Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand December 2014 / January 2015 | Page 40

Life & Travel

Bangkok to Beaches
An Aussie expat woman reflects on abandoning
the City of Angels for an island of coconuts
Text: Millee Johnson

I

t wasn’t easy deciding if I should
move to Koh Samui with my partner. I spent many days contemplating whether my employer’s offer
for a short-term project was a good
idea or not. Although I’m from
Australia, this proposal would mean
a domestic move, not an international one. In fact, it would be my third
location in Thailand! I had moved
to Bangkok from Hua Hin ten months
earlier, after switching my career from
a teacher at an international school
to an operations manager at a travel
company. I wasn’t exactly a newbie
to Thailand anymore.
Looking back at my initial
move, the big one from Australia
to Hua Hin, I can’t help but giggle.
At the time it felt foreign, new,
and exciting to move to Thailand—
40 WANDERLUST

but, comparing it to the shock
of relocating to Bangkok, sleepy
Hua Hin didn’t seem so daring at all.
Bangkok was whole new culture.
The noise, the smells, the abundance
of shops and cars, and the neverending stream of people were
not things to which I was ever able
to adjust. Don’t get me wrong— after
living in a town with one limiting
shopping mall, I did enjoy jumping
on the BTS ending up at Central
World or Siam Paragon to stock
up at Top Shop and Zara; however,
I couldn’t combat the mental state
it took to share a shopping mall with
what seemed like half the population
of the city.
Once I’d lived in BKK for a few
months, I mastered my routine.
From Monday to Friday, I would

catch the BTS several times to fill
my day with work, yoga and food.
On weekends, work was replaced
with a visit to one of the many
shopping malls Bangkok has on offer.
I began to stir after attending
enough yoga classes to make even
a plank flexible. But had I really done
enough yoga classes, eaten enough
food, and shopped so much that
I was ready to move on?
In Australia, I grew up on a farm