How Moving to Thailand Has Changed Me For The Better
If you have the opportunity to live outside of your home country at least once in your life, I think you should do it. Not only does it open your eyes to how other people live, but it takes you out of your bubble and forces you to grow.
I distinctly remember when I first met John, he told me that he might have to live in Thailand for an extended period to do field research for his PhD. I remember telling him, “Well, I’ll never move to Thailand, but we’ll just do long distance when the time comes.”
Here’s our first photo together after just having started dating!
Flash forward 3 years, we got married, and something in me just clicked: I wanted that experience for myself too. I wanted to challenge myself in living abroad, in a country whose culture, language, and food was so different than my own.
I’m no stranger to living abroad though. When I was 11, my family lived back and forth in Brazil until I was 14. I was a “corporate brat”, my dad was (and still is) an engineer with GE and at the time, his big project was bringing electricity to rural parts of the Amazon. So, I have an idea of what life is like outside of my American bubble. I’d just never been to Asia before. I knew it was going to be an adventure, but I didn’t realize how much it would change me.
I’ve been thinking about writing a post like this for a while now! So here it goes, here are the ways that moving to Thailand has changed me:
I Stopped Eating Meat
In college, I was a vegetarian for 8 months. I did it for all the wrong reasons: to lose weight. Then one drunken night – I succumbed to pepperoni pizza . When you stop eating meat for the wrong reasons, there’s nothing really holding you back from having that burger. I decided that I wouldn’t stop eating meat unless I had a compelling reason not to. I loved, LOVED burgers . I was a self-proclaimed burger connoisseur. Shake Shack versus In-N-Out? In-N-Out all the way, baby!
Then I moved to Thailand. The abundance of street meat surprisingly made me feel uneasy – especially the jarring amount that seemed to go to waste. We visited the famous Chatchuchak market in Bangkok, and somehow stumbled upon the illegal animal trade section of the market. It’s hidden away from tourists and for good reason. They have exotic animals kept in cages too small, hundreds of drugged sugar gliders – actually – I’m pretty sure all the animals were drugged to some capacity. Hundreds of pure bred puppies, that you know most of which either will be drowned (yes, they drown or poison dogs here in Thailand) or end up on the streets. I’m pretty sure I saw a French Bulldog puppy die from overheating. I’m not sure if it was the heat, or if everywhere I turned I saw a suffering animal. I felt like my world was spinning. Every noise felt amplified. When I met the eyes of the suffering animals, they seemed to cry out to me in terror and for help. It didn’t matter if it was a puppy, a meerkat, a parrot, or a sugar glider: all these animals were suffering. I started sobbing in the middle of the market.
That wasn’t the moment I stopped eating meat. I started to feel that all animals felt complex emotions and that they were no different than us humans. About a week later, we were taking Daisy on a walk to a market nearby our condo building. Walking through the market, we stumbled upon the meat section. I had to pick Daisy up, as there was about an inch of blood, guts, and water on the ground. It was like walking into a scene from a horror film: animal body parts everywhere – and then the smell. The smell had me gagging and gasping for fresh air. As we made our way out of the market, there were cages of livestock that were up next on the chopping block. The look in their eyes told us that they knew that they were going to die that day – and they saw no less fear than a human would if the roles were reversed.
I started having dreams where I was debating with people about meat – in my dream I was saying, “If you think about it – why are we so disgusted that in some cultures people eat dogs? Aren’t dogs meat? Pigs and cows can be pets too, but we eat them with no remorse. Aren’t they all just meat? Aren’t we all just meat? If I served you human slathered in BBQ sauce, would you taste the difference?” I know, that sounds horrifying.
I woke up from that dream, and I stopped eating meat.
At first, I told myself that I would just do what felt natural to me. I stopped eating meat, but if I changed my mind, I would simply start eating meat again. There was no stress associated with it. No guilt, labels or stigmas. So, the days went on. Then the weeks. And now the months. I’m about 5 months into not eating meat, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever crave it or want it again.
Outside of animal rights, there are many negative impacts the meat industry has on the environment. But I don’t feel the need to discuss that here in depth here. There are many educational materials out there if you feel like reading about it yourself! A really amazing podcast episode that I listened to that made me think differently about meat consumption as it pertains to environmental impact was Beyond Meat’s CEO Ethan Brown’s interview with How I Built This. It’s so good, I listened to it twice!
I know that a lot of people say, “Well, you’re just one person out of a majority not eating meat. That’s not going to make an impact.” I disagree, because if everyone thought like that, why do any good at all? You’re just one person that chooses to recycle. You’re just one person that drives a hybrid car. You’re just one person donating to charity. Why is this choice or action any different? Our small actions every day, combined, can have a huge impact. I don’t believe that you have to stop eating meat all together to have an impact. For example, you can choose one meal out of the day to omit meat or participate in #MeatlessMonday. A lot of people say, “I could never go full vegetarian.” The good thing is, you don’t have to! Labels only limit us. Making small choices can have a great impact!
I got used to the cockroaches
I never thought I’d ever say this: but I’m used to the cockroaches . I was the girl who would scream if there was a tiny spider in the bathroom and make my husband come up and kill it. Now, literally as I was writing this blog post, a big black jumping spider jumped on me and I just nonchalantly brushed it away. There’s no escaping the bugs and cockroaches here in Thailand. Where there are people, there’s food. Where there’s food and garbage, there are cockroaches. And there’s a lot of food here in Bangkok, so naturally, there are a ton of cockroaches! LOL.
I Started Haggling
Haggling is common practice in Thailand. I’m naturally adverse to confrontation and I don’t like making other people feel uncomfortable, and I told myself I would never haggle to avoid conflict.
That lasted about a week.
Thai people are savage when it comes to haggling prices. You either haggle to get a good price or you severely overpay. Sink or swim, right? I couldn’t justify not haggling, and now I haggle all the time.
The greater life lesson that I learned from haggling is that you will never get what you want if you don’t ask for it . I learned that the worst thing the other person could say is “No”, and that’s not so bad, right? So now, I’m not afraid to ask for a better price!
I stopped doing CrossFit
This was a tough decision, because CrossFit changed my life 5 years ago when I started it. I got my confidence back, built my self-esteem, and ultimately gathered the courage to end a bad relationship I was in at the time. I also made life-long friends, one of which ended up my bridesmaid!
However, after 5 years and two different gyms, I decided to call the quits. I started to feel horrible knee pain, which was self-diagnosed as tendonitis, but no matter how much I rested it, applied ice, took anti-inflammatory, it wasn’t going away. I needed to seek out another form of exercise that wouldn’t irritate my injury – so I started to do spin, and then I gathered the courage to try Muay Thai.
Muay Thai intimidates me. What’s worse is doing it with my husband who is a Light-Middle Weight WKA World Champion. He fought in Spain in 2015 and won Gold in his division!
Boxing really isn’t my thing… or so I thought.
The thing that made me uncomfortable about most Muay Thai gyms back home is that they felt very male dominated. Every time I went boxing with John, I was the only female. It shouldn’t matter, but it does to me.
However, I started boxing here in Bangkok, and surprisingly fell in love. It’s an incredible workout – where you’re moving and burning calories for the full hour. We go with our friend Alix, who recommended this gym to us, so it’s become a fun social activity as well!
I never thought that I’d fall in love Muay Thai, but alas, here I am!
I made friends!
Okay, so this one isn’t too surprising. I make friends wherever I go. I attribute it to just having to make new friends moving around so much as a kid. I was surprised that I actually made friends in Bangkok because I heard that it was hard to make friends here given its transitory nature!
We live in a pet-friendly condo building, and there are a group of us dog owners who’ve banned together and not just help take care of each other’s dogs but take care of each other as well!
There was an incident about two months ago now where I was verbally assaulted by a man in our condo building. He aggressively threatened to kill my dog – and kill me too if he had too. I called my girlfriends here for help, and they stormed down to defend me from this aggressive man – risking themselves in the process. (Sadly, our condo associated didn’t take these threats seriously, but that’s another story.) I was a sobbing mess – in complete shock that this would happen to me in a pet-friendly condo building. What stuck with me after that day was the love and companionship my new friends showed. We hang out a lot, go to laser tag, get massages, go eat food – it’s fun living in the same condo building and it almost feels like college again, having a bunch of good friends nearby!
I ride a motorcycle daily
When I moved to Thailand, I said, no way will I ride on the back of a motorcycle. I was way too scared. Motorcycles weren’t something I grew up with, and my parents were overprotective. I joke that I didn’t have helicopter parents, I had velcro parents.
Bangkok traffic is obnoxious. After sitting in hours of traffic in a taxi and fighting crowded public transportation, we were desperate for an alternative solution. John bought a motorcycle and I just had to get over my fear. I feel like that’s what happens when you fear something. It comes out of a place of discomfort. This is what my fear journey felt like: it started to becomes less scary, my fear turned into anxious excitement, then joy, and now I want my own Vespa!
I got over my fear of needles via a vicious monkey attack
I never imagined that I would ever be bit by a monkey and then would need a total of 10 rabies shots . I even had the opportunity to do my rabies vaccine back in America, but ultimately decided not to because I said, “Well, I’m going to stay away from all of the wild animals. I’ll be fine.”
NOPE.
Fast forward a month later, I have monkeys crawling all over me – laughing joyously as I spin them off me.
I had a deep phobia of needles that would often result in me having a full-blown panic attack: shortness of breath, blacking out, losing hearing, feeling like I was going to die – all the horrible symptoms.
After getting bit in the stomach by a monkey, I had no choice but to get used to the feeling of needles stabbing me. If you’ve never gotten bit before, you need two injections at the site of the bite, and then a tetanus booster. After the initial injections, you need an additional 5 shots about a week apart. The worst part is that each one was painful too. After the 5th shot, I was totally cool with needles. An incredible milestone in overcoming my phobia of needles!
Fast forward 4 months later, and I’m deep in street dog rescue, shouting to locals, “It’s okay, I have my rabies shots! If I get bit, I just need to go to the hospital and get one shot!”
Life is funny.
Rescue a Street Dog
I never thought we’d welcome a second dog into our house much less rescue a street dog . Like I said above, life is funny like that. Daisy, our current dog, is a 16lb bag of needs. She’s anxious, suffers from separation anxiety, and isn’t great with other dogs or people. What’s surprising though, is since moving to Bangkok, she’s completely mellowed out. I think it’s because she socializes more now: she has all her dog friends, she sees people every day, it’s been a positive move not just for us, but for Daisy too.
Street dogs here in Thailand are called “soi dogs”. There are tons of soi dogs that need help! We currently donate monthly to Soi Dog Foundation who’s primary goal is to care for homeless and abused dogs in Thailand. They’re an incredible foundation.
Anyway, to our rescue story: I’ll keep it short and sweet because honestly, this story deserves it’s own blog post.
We were on our road trip across Thailand and we were staying in Pai, a backpacker town up north. We were walking in town in search for some dinner when we saw an orange and white dog, limping across the road, bleeding from his hip. He’d clearly been hit by a motorcycle or a car. We instantly knew we needed to help.
I’ll save the juicy details for another blog post, but we took him to the vet, and the vet told us that he would need special care for the next few weeks and asked us if we would be the ones taking care of him. We exchanged glances, and just turned to the vet and blurted out, “Yes! We’ll be taking him home with us.”
Uan, which in Thai means “fat”, is now a goofy “big-little” brother to Daisy. He’s the sweetest dog on Earth.
You think you only have room in your heart to love one dog, but what I learned is that love isn’t capped, love expands. ♥
Stay tuned for the full blog post about Uan!
Whew – this was a long read! Thank you if you read until the very end!