Here are some photos of my friend’s room:
Photo 1:
Not much explanation needed here; the photo was shot standing in the doorway to enter the room and you can see her bed with the window above it, and a set of plastic drawers beside. The blue basket is for dirty clothes.
Photo 2:
This picture was taken standing in the doorway leading to the balcony. You can see the open window above the bed, and her view of the 29″ TV, with the small bar refrigerator beside it. She has two good quality plastic & metal chairs stacked in front of the entertainment center. Here are a couple of close ups in the thumbnails below that show you the kind of “kids stuff” that even grown Thai girls like to have in their rooms. You’ll see similar types of toys and plush dolls in the photos of the other apartment at the end of the post. Thai girls often behave like children!
Photo 3:
This is just the front door. You can see my shoes and hers in the lower left corner, and the small fridge just inside the door.
Photo 4:
I took this picture standing with my back to the TV shooting towards the back of the room. You can see her wardrobe filled with clothes, her small shelf unit for dishes, food and cooking utensils, and the back door leading to the balcony.
Photo 5:
This is the small balcony. She has a broom and dustpan stored on the right side of the photo and a large white clothes washing machine. It’s very unusual for a TG to have an electric washer; they usually wash clothes by hand. (At the top of the photo you can see some clothes hanging to dry; her apartment has a built in rod around head-height for this purpose. Next to the washer is a very low blue stool she can use under her bum when she’s in the ’squatting’ position for cooking or cleaning, and then on the left you see a black bucket under a tap. Above the bucket is a yellow bottle of dishwashing liquid, and near the bucket are two small glasses waiting to be washed.
Photo 6:
This is the toilet. It is to the left side of the balcony, and you enter via a door from the balcony, meaning that you need to go outside to reach the toilet or take a shower.
A squat toilet is difficult to use if you’re not used to them. You put your feet on each side, then squat with your bum above the toilet. I can’t actually do it… I simply fall over backwards if I try. Most, if not all, Thai people can. It’s actually probably safe to expand that to include all Asians.
The black rubbish bin acts as a cistern… it is always full of water. The blue handled pan floating in the water is used for ‘flushing’ the toilet at the end. The white hose that runs into the black container has a shower head attached to it and is used for showering in the morning. There is no hot water.
You can see a decent sized basin on the right for washing your hands.
Here are a few shots outside the room:
You can see that the hallway is clean and attractive, and the stairway well lighted and in good repair. The signs pictured say to “please always keep clean” followed by two signs that encorage people not to make too much noise, and not to clutter the hallway outside their doorway with dirty shoes and the like.
I took this photo without changing to the nighttime setting so it’s a bit grainy, but you can see a nice garden area in the front of the building with some trees & plants plus table & benches. A nice touch!
I think you can see that my friend’s apartment, while small, is clean, decent and in good repair. She has taken some care to decorate it with some personal touches, and is very proud of her home.
Let me stress that she is not a bar girl, but has a regular job. Her apartment is located about 12 minutes’ walk or 2 minutes by motorcycle from the Phrakhanong BTS station.
When I asked if I could take the photos she was happy for me to do so, but cautioned that while her room is typical size, most of the girls she knows that have seen her room said it was very nice, and were surprised that she was able to get a room of this quality for 2,800 baht per month (around US$90).
I would suggest that for a working-class girl her living conditions are slightly above the norm. She pays for everything herself, and does not have a sponsor or boyfriend. Her parents supported her last year while she was going to school full time to learn English, but for two or three years before that she worked in 7-11 and shared a room about this same size with her cousin, sleeping together in a double bed. She told me that the room they shared was not anywhere near as nice as the one she has now.
She is very happy with her new apartment. Now that she speaks English, she has been able to improve her salary from 6,500 per month at 7-11 to about 20,000 per month now, so language school was a very good investment for her.
She is taking good care of herself, she sends money to her parents every month, and she is putting 1,000 baht a week into a long term savings account.
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