I do a lot of focusing on the negative aspects of Thailand and I think that isn't very fair because the good definitely outweighs the bad here so I want to be fair and set the record straight.
I am NOT one of those expats that constantly complains about Thailand and bashes the locals for being "idiots" even though it is simply cultural differences that are really at play. I know a bunch of jaded expats that seem to spend their entire lives looking for the bad around them, and I don't want to be one of those guys.
I 90% like living here and 10% don't. If we were to look at my percentage of what I like about USA it would be a short list such as overall cleanliness, the fact that almost everyone speaks the same language as me, and Taco Bell. Thailand rings my bell a lot more for things that I don't feel the United States is capable of replicating, and I think it is important to point those things out.
For one thing, the availability of amazing and cheap food is just outstanding here. In USA we have food trucks but you are seriously kidding yourself if you think this is actually a good value. It might be a little bit less than a sit down restaurant but you are still probably going to spend $10 on something that may not even be that good. In Thailand, it doesn't really matter where you are, you can get a wide variety of dishes for a dollar or two, day or night.
So why doesn't this exist in USA? I think it likely has to do with very stringent health code rules. Are the street restaurants in Thailand dirty? Well I guess that depends on how much you think bacteria can survive in boiling hot water or oil. I suppose the cutlery could be a bit suspicious but honestly, I have been here more than 5 years and the only time I recall getting food poisoned was when ordering from an international fast-food chain that almost certainly has crazy cleanliness standards.
I love the fact that until around midnight or so, I can take a short ride to a corner area that specializes in having a bunch of stands and spend a couple of USD and have something that is absolutely fantastic. This will never happen in most countries and certainly not in USA.
Then there is the overall affordability of housing, including rentals.
I live in the 4th most populated city in the entire country yet a house like the one pictured and even ones larger than that can easily be acquired for $300 a month or less. Often these places will even already have essential furniture in them as well so you don't have to worry about buying or moving a bunch of stuff.
I don't imagine that there is anything that affordable in any city in the US unless the government is sponsoring it. I recall the apartment I had in college, which was unfurnished and was a real dump, was $425 and barely had enough space for us to move around.
Why are apartments so expensive in USA? Well there are a lot of factors at play here such as a little thing called "economies of scale" that dictates higher wages equal higher rent. This is true all over the world. I often hear people say that the more populated the city is, the higher the rent is going to be and this makes sense, scarcity drives up the price of anything. Well, if this is the case how is it possible that I live in one of the most densely populated cities in all of South East Asia but can still get a 2-3 bedroom partially-furnished house for $300?
The next thing is the general overall safety of almost anywhere.
I often tell people that the most dangerous cities in the world that I have ever visited have all been in the United States. There was a time that I was in a large city and the cops were stopping all cars along the side of the road to prevent you from going into a particular part of Dallas that is regarded as being the "wrong side of town." Gangs, robberies, drugs, and all sort of things that you don't want to have happen to you regularly take place in that part of town and the police, apparently being incapable of stopping it, instead patrol the roads in and out of it and simply encourage motorists to not continue forward and offer alternate routes to where the driver might be heading towards.
Here's a video that shows the "most dangerous hoods in Dallas" and one of the ones I am referring to is on there. I've read and heard that NYC, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, and just about any large US city has "no go" areas and we simply do not have that here in Thailand. I can't speculate on why that is without accidentally sounding racist so instead of that, I'll just say that these areas definitely exist in USA while they do NOT exist in Thailand. I've wandered around all sorts of areas in Thailand, often at night and on my own, and at no point in time did I ever feel threatened or that I should quickly make an escape plan if a group of teens I see in the distance start to head in my direction. Thailand is quite simply safe and I do not feel that the USA can ever replicate this.
So thank you Thailand, whatever it is that you are doing to prevent a vast majority of crime, is working very well.
There are many more factors such as not needing a permit to sell fruit on the side of the road, very lax rules on various stupid permits that you need in order to do almost anything in America, and how the people here are just generally friendlier but to talk about all of that would take way too long.
So I'll just leave it at that for now because I think that food, housing, and safety are kind of at the top of the list of most people's desires in life. Thailand basically nails it on all three of these things and that is why, despite the fact that I often complain about the government and the rather nasty nature of certain cities here in Thailand, I would much rather stay here than return to my home country.
I've said in the past that I feel as though I must return to my home country at some point in my 20's but now I am getting near the end of my 20's and I think I am having a change of heart.