What Is Life in Rural Thailand Really Like? A Day in Our Village

When people think about Thailand, they often picture beaches, hotels, nightlife, Bangkok or the places they have visited on holiday.

That is Thailand, but it is not the Thailand I call home.

Our life is much quieter.

It revolves around family, children, food, the land, the farm and the ordinary routines that make one day flow into another.

This is not meant to describe life in every rural Thai village. It is simply an ordinary day in ours, and the life that Prae and I have come to value.

05H00 — The Village Wakes Up

Our day often begins around 05H00.

One of the first sounds I hear is the monks chanting prayers through the village loudspeakers.

Before long, the rest of the village begins waking up too.

The chickens and roosters make themselves heard. Then there are the ducks and turkeys. It is certainly not the gentle silence people sometimes imagine when they think about living in the countryside.

In the central family kitchen, Mom is already getting food ready.

Around the house, families are beginning their day and the children are waking and getting ready for school.

There is nothing arranged for visitors and nothing particularly remarkable happening.

It is simply another morning in the village.

And that is precisely what I have come to appreciate about it.

A Walk Through the Fields

Before breakfast, I like to get outside and walk through the fields.

I am not trying to achieve anything complicated.

It gives me some fresh air and clarity before the rest of the day begins.

I have spent much of my working life in construction. That environment can be fast, demanding and relentless. There is always another problem to solve, another deadline and another responsibility waiting for attention.

Those responsibilities do not magically disappear because I am in Thailand.

I still have financial responsibilities. I still have work commitments in the UK. There are still decisions to make and problems that need sorting out.

But walking through the fields feels very different.

There is space to think.

Sometimes that is all I need.

Breakfast, School and Coffee

When I return, everybody comes together for breakfast.

Eating together is an ordinary part of family life here. It is not an event that needs arranging weeks in advance. People are simply around one another.

Then it is time to get the children to school.

Once they have been dropped off, the morning might include stopping for a coffee.

On another day I might wash the car or we might go shopping for something the family needs.

Then it is back home.

There is always something waiting there.

Home Is Not a Holiday

One of the things I want Rural Thailand Lifestyle to show honestly is that living here is not the same thing as being on holiday in Thailand.

When you visit somewhere for two weeks, somebody else is usually taking care of much of ordinary life for you.

Home is different.

The house needs cleaning. The garden needs looking after. Things break and need fixing. There are jobs that have been put off and suddenly cannot be put off any longer.

Bills still arrive.

Financial responsibilities still exist.

My work commitments in the UK do not disappear.

Living here has not removed ordinary life. It has given ordinary life a very different setting.

That distinction matters to me.

I do not want to present rural Thailand as some kind of perfect escape where responsibilities disappear and every day is spent relaxing under a blue sky.

It is home.

And homes require looking after.

Taking the TukTuk to the Farm

Later we might take the TukTuk out to the farm.

The TukTuk is not there as a tourist attraction. It is simply a useful part of getting around and doing what needs to be done.

At the farm we can check the cassava, rice and sugar cane fields and see what is happening in the family orchards.

These are not attractions that have been arranged for visitors. They are simply part of the family's land and everyday life.

What needs attention depends on the time of year and what is growing.

Some days are beautiful. Some days are hot. Some days involve jobs that simply need doing.

That is real life.

And it is one of the reasons I have become increasingly interested in properly documenting this part of our lives.

Over the years, Prae and I have accumulated photographs and videos of the fields, planting, harvesting, food, family and the ordinary work that happens around us.

At the time, many of those photographs were simply photographs.

Looking back at them now, I can see that together they are recording something much bigger.

They are recording our life as it develops.

The Slower Part of the Day

Lunch is generally much slower and more relaxed than the working lunches I became accustomed to during my construction life.

There is time to sit down and eat.

There is peace and quiet.

The afternoon might involve more gardening, another job around the house, something at the farm or going shopping.

None of that sounds particularly dramatic.

That is part of the point.

I have learned that a simpler life is not an empty life.

For years I think I associated progress with constantly doing more.

More work. More opportunities. More plans. More things competing for attention.

I still have ambitions and plans.

But I have also started to understand the value of having enough space in a day to notice the life that is already happening around me.

School Finishes and the Market Begins

Later in the afternoon it is time to collect the children from school.

That often leads naturally into another part of everyday life — stopping at the market.

We might buy fresh meat and vegetables for the evening meal and whatever else is needed at home.

Again, this is not the Thailand people necessarily see from a hotel or resort.

It is shopping because the family needs dinner.

It is children finishing school.

It is deciding what everybody is going to eat.

It is ordinary family life.

And I think those ordinary details often explain more about a place than the things designed specifically for tourists.

Everyone Comes Home

By evening, everybody gradually comes back together.

The children play outside.

The adults may enjoy a few cold beers while the evening meal is being prepared.

The children shower and get ready for the evening.

There is movement around the house, people talking, food being prepared and the usual family activity going on.

There is nothing formal about it.

People are simply home.

For me, that has become one of the most valuable parts of the day.

Dinner Is Family Time

Eventually everybody gathers in the central kitchen.

There is freshly cooked food, conversation, banter and laughter.

Sometimes there are games.

Like families everywhere, people have good days and difficult days. There can be disagreements, noise, children being children and all the normal things that come with family life.

But everybody is together.

It is not about luxury.

It is about having time with the people who matter.

That is something I probably understand much better today than I did when I was younger.

For a long time, it was easy to measure life by work, money, projects and what needed to be achieved next.

Those things still matter.

But they are not the whole measurement.

When the Village Goes Quiet

Eventually the noise starts disappearing.

The children settle down.

The kitchen becomes quiet.

Outside, on a clear night, the stars can be incredibly visible.

Sometimes there is a cool breeze before bed.

The house that was busy with children, food and conversation only a short time earlier becomes still.

Then, a few hours later, another morning will begin.

The monks will chant through the village loudspeakers.

The chickens and roosters will start again.

Mom will be in the kitchen.

The children will need to get ready for school.

And another ordinary day will begin.

What This Life Means to Me

I do not want to pretend this life is paradise.

It is not.

We have responsibilities. We have financial pressures. There is family to look after. There is work to do. There are things we want to build and things that do not always go according to plan.

Nor do I see this as a story about Britain being bad and Thailand being good.

The opportunities I had through my working life in the UK helped make much of this possible.

My construction career taught me a great deal. It allowed me to work, earn money and create opportunities that ultimately became part of the life Prae and I are building today.

But rural Thailand gives me something different.

Calm and contentment.

There is family.

There is land.

There is time.

There is a sense of belonging.

And there is a clearer understanding of what I want the next part of my life to be about.

Prae and I still have ambitions.

We still have plans.

Rural Thailand Lifestyle itself is part of those plans.

There are things we want to build around the farm, the shop, our online work and, eventually, the idea of creating a place where other people might be able to experience a little of this rural life for themselves.

None of that has been completed.

So this is not the story of somebody who has finished working and escaped from the world.

We are still building.

The difference is that now I know what I want all that work to be for.

Home is my foundation.

That may be the biggest change in the way I think today.

A successful life does not necessarily have to look impressive from the outside.

Sometimes it looks like walking through a field early in the morning.

Taking children to school.

Checking the cassava.

Stopping at the market.

Sitting around a kitchen table with the family.

Or standing outside at night when everything has finally become quiet.

There are still things I want to achieve.

There is still money that needs to be earned.

There is still work ahead.

But I am increasingly conscious of something that took me a long time to properly understand:

Money Can Be Earned Again. Time Cannot.

And that is why this ordinary rural Thailand life means so much to me.

Follow the Journey

Rural Thailand Lifestyle is the story of the life Prae and I are building, what we are learning along the way, and where we hope it will lead.

If you would like to understand more about how we arrived here, continue with Our Story.

Or visit the Journal for more stories about rural Thailand, what we are building and what we are learning along the way.