Thai Homestay
Thailand is an amazing country however you take it on, and so much of it is geared towards making things smooth and sabai for tourists that you could spend years here and never see or do any of the things locals do and see every day. Maybe that isn’t how you want to spend your time, you’re satisfied with the glossiest expressions of Thailand’s race to globalization. If you’re not satisfied with that, homestay may be something worth checking out.
Homestays are exactly what the name implies – you stay in somebody’s home. They will still be there too, doing whatever it is they would normally be doing. And this where the homestay experience gets interesting.
There are essentially two kinds of homestay – single family homestays and multi-family/village homestays – but there is one common thread. With the exception of those places where it is more or less just a family renting some rooms out in a fashion similar to a hotel or hostel, they are set up to try and give you an opportunity to live like a Thai for a few days and really step outside your box.
As the trend amongst tourists has gotten more popular more Thais are setting rooms aside and opening up homestay all over the country, but for the most part you will find homestays in rural areas. And this is really where you’d want to find them. For one thing rural areas can be hard to get around if you don’t have your own transportation 24/7 and a command of the Thai language, for another that is where you will get the best picture of life for a Thai as it was before the wave of global modernization crashed against the shores of the kingdom and as it still is for its rural folk.
Depending on how it is set up, single family homestays tend to feel considerably more personal and the experience you have is much more like that of a visiting relative than a paying foreign guest. You will be invited to join in on the activities that family is interested in and thinks a stranger might enjoy, you’ll probably meet some of the extended family and be the subject of great curiosity at a cookout, and you’ll often leave with a real friendship or two you’ll maintain forever.
Village homestays are great too, and you will surely make friends and enjoy people’s personal suggestions about things to eat, do, or see. Unlike the single family homestays though they are often very organized with lots of activities, classes, and group things like this that you will participate in with other travelers who are staying with families in the village which makes it feel much more like a tour. In some situations they are the best choice though.
Hill Tribe homestays and farming community homestay villages are some of the coolest escapist holiday fodder on the planet. Nothing will take you out of your life and stressors back home like them. Waking up with the sun to go harvest tea leaves on the grey mountainside before the cool mist rolls away, watching the sun sneak back behind the peaked horizon with the baleful melodies of hill tribe spirit songs ringing down from the mountaintops, and sleeping on a bed made from leaves will see you waking and retiring with a mind unblemished by thoughts of stock exchanges, inflation rates, political unrest, traffic lights, or your neighbor’s dog.
I have been working and living in Bangkok for last several yea5rs. Now I am 72 years
and wish to spend my retired life in rural Thailand in a cool place . My children are not here and have moved out and my wife is returning to India shortly.
Have you any suggestions asto where I can settle down as a paying guest /home stay guest
in rural Thailand preferably with a cool climate. I enjoyed reading your blog and wish to be your reader. Also can you guide me and help me spending my retired life peacefuylly till end in rural thailand, within my limited budget . Hope you will guide me . Best Regards
sathya