Moving to Bangkok with family

Hello Ana, Welcome to Bangkok. many web you may check out;
***

thaivisa.com/

Halo Ana

Welcome to Thailand in the coming months.

Here are some options for you to mingle and socialise as follows

1) There's an Amigo club and cafe but I'm not sure there are more Senors or Senoritas.

2) As your hubby is Irish, you can join the British club here too

3) There's Kelab Malaysia and Singapore Club here too and both countries are under Commonwealth, therefore they will welcome your family as members.

There's activities for ladies especially high tea, gatherings etc

4) If you go to church, there are ECB church in Sukhumvit road and the church van will fetch people at the begining of lane (Soi) to go to church.

There's another church at convent road off Silom Road, many expats go there too.

Another church is ICA on Phetchabun road near to Soi Ekkamai. Previously the Second Secretary of the British Embassy as well as American Military Attaché from USA Embassy goes there. Both of them had been posted to other countries.

All 3 churches have Sunday school whereby qualified teachers will be teaching the kids. Once you mingle around, you will get to know more people.

5) I will contact my missionary couple, hubby is Irish and wife is English. They have 3 beautiful daughters and the youngest was born in Thailand. They travel around Thailand due to their mission work.

Their daughters are very fluent in Thai and you may think they are Thai without looking at them. You can't tell the difference if they are foreigners or Thai just by listening to them speaking.

Message me for contact details etc and if you need more info, I'm glad to help.

With the expat social clubs and churches, there's charity activities too as we give back to Thai society in terms of clothes, shoes, blankets, stationary, food, donations etc

Oh get your taste buds ready as lots of different restaurants and food to taste too especially once you settle in with respective groups. Home cooked meals are WOW! you can't get in any restaurants in Thailand.

Be bless

Anna
I am British, my wife is Spanish. She is moving to Bangkok in July with our four year old twins. I have been here since February. Happy to help with anything...

Jaldeep

Greetings!  I moved to Bangkok from the US quite some time ago, and I'm not sure I would be much help but I'd try.  Maybe as well to start with the online groups part.

Thaivisa is the most visited expat forum but it's geared towards the bar-crowd late-middle-aged white Western male expat.  There's nothing wrong with having all that as a background but you'll notice the perspective tends to be a bit narrow. 

There are a lot of Facebook expat groups, even related only to Bangkok, but most relate to picture sharing or sales.  The theme for one is people insulting new participants or making fun of news stories about suicides.  I can't recommend a balanced, normal place for discussion, but I mean that as an explanation about how a search might go, not as complaining.  The Bangkok Foodies group is tone-neutral, just about food; that might work.

I'm not in those sorts of expat clubs others mentioned but that should be an easy way to network and meet people.  Internations is an expat networking organization, maybe with some of the people looking for romantic connections, but it's still worth checking out.  You might consider looking through meet-ups (a website about event themed groups); depending on specific interests something might ring a bell.

My daughter is three so if you have any specific questions or concerns related to a younger child I could try to answer that, about parks or play areas or whatever else.  People are friendly here, expats and Thais, so there is no need to worry about anything.  I suppose it might be easy to get the wrong impression online since the one expat culture focus is on bar-oriented lifestyle but lots of people here are doing lots of things, and there's nothing missing here, not much for special concerns, it's just slightly different.

cheers  --  John

Hi John,

I think I understand you well since I were around in the similar feeling as you.  Anything I could share form the view point of Thai.  I would love  to share out too.
Rgs.,
Maem

Hi john,
Since you have a little girl. The same there, our daughter is 3 years old too, and the second one is 1 and a half years old. Could you suggest how to find a trustworthy nanny in Bangkok? And what is the average cost to find one? Many thanks!

Hi Anna, we are new in Bangkok, just moved here on the 1st. If you like to meet up, go shopping, grab a drink or any women's talk, please count me! Trying to meet new people and make new friends.

We just lost our maid / nanny of four years, so I might ask the same question, how to find another.  I don't have much for tips.  Sometimes people work privately arranging such things, or there are companies related to that, but the only relatively established one that we went through we didn't have great luck with.

As for pay that's a bit variable too.  The Thai minimum wage is something like 7 or 8,000 (baht per month); that could help as a reference point, but that won't work as an income level, it's a bit low.  If the position is live-in then that adds housing to that compensation, but the demand level for a live-in employee can go up too, beyond what a 9 to 5 worker might perform.  Level of prior experience or English skill might factor in.  It would seem reasonable for a Thai to expect to earn more than a foreign worker, with a bit more paperwork involved to employ someone from somewhere else. 

Paying someone the least you can pay is not necessarily a good strategy since that would build in turn-over as a factor, beyond other basic fairness factoring in.  15,000 per month is the minimum wage for a Thai with a college degree; that might work as a higher side range for help, and slightly below that might still be fair.  It depends on the employer--you--if there is really any difference between hiring someone to work for 15,000 baht per month versus 10k, on budget in addition to personal feelings about that.  Again all the background and compensation taken together would need to be adjusted for, along with level of work demands.

Thanks john! Someone just told me to sign up on momosfree for finding nannies and maids. I am going to check and see how it goes there. 😊