Meeting and Connecting with Thailand Expats

In the post titled “What do YOU Want to Know About Thailand?” Cody asks:

What is the best way to connect with the local expat community 

before I move over there? (to Thailand)

Answer:

There are several ways to get to know some people and develop contacts and relationships with expats in Thailand prior to arriving there. The best in my opinion is to start frequenting some of the more popular internet forums where Thailand expats hang out. There are several to choose from and each has it’s own different character. Some of the more popular one are:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php - This is one of the oldest and largest Thailand forums on the web.

http://teakdoor.com/forum.php - Mostly English teachers here and they can be a bit jaded and lean towards drinking and debauchery. Seems the forum is looking up and has a better group of expats now.  Based on Charles’ comment I went over and took a look and really liked what I saw.  A lot of Asia news and content based on living in Thailand, building a house or swimming pool, recipes and food related information and general travelers tales.

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/index.php - Good informative forum and I think the mod (owner?) Richard Barrow must be a great guy. I’ve even seen him offer to put people up at his place when they arrive in Bangkok.

http://www.phuket-info.com/forums/ - Large forum focused on Phuket life, but with other areas of the board devoted to Samui, Pattaya, Issan and Bangkok.

http://kohtao-community.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2 – Very small forum focusing on the island of Koh Tao which is a small diving oriented island near Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExpatFocus/ - Yahoo group the answers questions specific to expats. Not sure if you will make any contacts here, but you can get some questions answered.

Another way to meet expats in Bangkok is to get to some of the sponsored events specifically for networking. Of course you can’t do this until you actually arrive in Thailand, but that is true of most everything related to your move to the Land of Smiles. Here are two groups you can check out:

The European Young Professionals society organizes regular networking evenings, although you don’t necessarily have to be European, young or indeed professional to attend these events! The parties are a great way to meet other ex-pats from a social as well as a business perspective. Usually they are held in a posh restaurant or hotel, are free to enter and have vast quantities of free food and drinks. You must book your place in advance though via the web site.

Networking for Success holds weekly breakfast meetings at the Pan Pacific Hotel, 23rd Floor 7.30am - 9am Every Thursday morning. Their website also has a (fairly quiet) forum which might be helpful.

Overall though the very best way to meet expats in Bangkok and Thailand is to simply go there. Once you arrive visit some of the bars and pubs and see who you meet. Bangkok is full of expats, especially around the Sukhumvit Road area so you won’t have any problems meeting expats in Bangkok if you get yourself out and about. And they will undoubtedly be a great source of current information and help to you, having been through the same things you are going through now when they first arrived.

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