Living with a Thai family in Bangkok

I was half-asleep when I heard the soothing sound of wind chimes and birds chirping. I was really tired because of my overnight journey to Bangkok. I reached the homestay early in the morning and all I remembered was taking the keys from my host and crashing. I woke up in this beautiful wooden house. Fahsai homestay is a 150-year-old traditional wooden house, in which I got one of the four wooden row houses built out in the backyard.

I got ready quickly and went out; my host, Nitaya, greeted me with a "sawasdee kaa" (hello in Thai). She was very sweet and helpful, and she spoke English too. She had a very unique taste, everything around was simple and handmade. The abundant plants, Thai handicrafts, and gentle wind chimes made me want to stay inside forever.

According to me, staying with locals gives you much more insight about the place than regular hotels. My host's husband gave me a tour of the house, in which he showed me all the antiques they had preserved from the past generations. Priceless. He told me how their great-grandfathers migrated there from China, their family history and why they loved Bangkok. He was proud of his coffee estates in South Thailand; they had a DIY coffee corner, and the beans came directly from his plantations. I tasted coffee flower tea for the first time and made roasted and ground black coffee from the raw coffee beans!

The family served an authentic scrumptious breakfast every morning and we spent a little time discussing what I should see for the day, where should I go and how to reach there using public transport. I'd spend my evenings telling them stories about the day, what I ate and the new Thai words I learnt and asking if I used them the right way.

It's good to be at a home away from home.

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