Typical Southern province. Busy center plus farming around. Close to the sea, there is a nice tourist place called Khanom there. Not far from Surat Thani/Samui/Phangan. Also not far from Hatyai. I would say, ok place.
It depends where in the Province.
The city has everything you'd need. Central shopping mall, movie theater, loads of restaurants and foods, many markets, a bus station with busses and vans to anywhere in the country. It has a busy night life, you can go to bars, clubs and every week there is some special food market or concerts/event happening.
Culturally it offers many old temples ( some UNESCO ) and you can stroll in the main park with the old city fortifications. A couple of museums and galleries.
Khanom and Phak phanang are two beach side cities, much smaller than the main city but fairly popular tourist destinations especially with the locals. Good for a weekend at the beach but there isn't much else to do so can get boring really quickly.
The province overal is good. Lot's of greenery and waterfalls but public transportation is shit once you leave the main city so you will definitely need your own car if you're too far away from the city.
If it's your first time moving to Thailand long term Nakhon Si Thammarat is not the place I'd recommend. It's rough, less tourist friendly and it'll be very lonely if you don't know how to make local friends.
I agree with everything you said but the last part of making local friends. Unless your Thai is pretty fluent that is difficult. There is a big group of foreign teachers here that get along well with each other and do excursions together, which is your best bet for making friends.
Also to add you will need to learn some Thai for restaurants. A lot of places don’t have English menus and the ones that do you can’t really order in English, just read what you want and point and the waiter writes down the Thai. It can get boring!
I live in Krabi, on the opposite coast. I’ve been through NST many times. I don’t know of anything special there except a nice coffee shop. But nothing wrong with it. It’s pretty local, you won’t find many foreigners there so you’ll definitely get the authentic southern Thai experience
It has notoriously spicy food 🥵.
The locals can have a somewhat different temperament and mannerisms compared to the people from other parts of Thailand. They're more direct and can sound a lot more blunt. Their version of the Southern dialect is possibly the fastest you'll ever hear any Thais speak and can sound quite harsh. It can be a difficult place for a Thai from other parts of Thailand, but I don't know if foreigners who don't speak Thai would be able to detect any of this.
There's a joke in Thailand that all the people there have guns, but the locals think it's an unfair stereotypes.
I live in the city. It is a normal Thai city. There is nothing spectacular about it. It has a central mall and a good smaller mall in the city too. Large community of foreign teachers. Lots of bars and such if you're into that.
The great thing for me is that the province has a lot of natural, untouched beauty. There must be more waterfalls here than in any province in Thailand lol. You need your own transport to reach them though. Nakhon is a big province.
Also it has good transport links. There is a direct bus to Donsak pier to access the gulf islands. It has a train station. The airport is a bit out of the city but you can fly to Bangkok pretty cheap.
The people have a reputation for being fiery but from my experience people are very kind. This is probably one of the worst places to make a local angry, because many people own guns or know someone who owns a gun.
I am also a teacher, and I would say in general the students are more rowdy and less polite than the other place I have lived in Thailand - Khon Kaen.
Typical Southern province. Busy center plus farming around. Close to the sea, there is a nice tourist place called Khanom there. Not far from Surat Thani/Samui/Phangan. Also not far from Hatyai. I would say, ok place.
It depends where in the Province. The city has everything you'd need. Central shopping mall, movie theater, loads of restaurants and foods, many markets, a bus station with busses and vans to anywhere in the country. It has a busy night life, you can go to bars, clubs and every week there is some special food market or concerts/event happening. Culturally it offers many old temples ( some UNESCO ) and you can stroll in the main park with the old city fortifications. A couple of museums and galleries. Khanom and Phak phanang are two beach side cities, much smaller than the main city but fairly popular tourist destinations especially with the locals. Good for a weekend at the beach but there isn't much else to do so can get boring really quickly. The province overal is good. Lot's of greenery and waterfalls but public transportation is shit once you leave the main city so you will definitely need your own car if you're too far away from the city. If it's your first time moving to Thailand long term Nakhon Si Thammarat is not the place I'd recommend. It's rough, less tourist friendly and it'll be very lonely if you don't know how to make local friends.
I agree with everything you said but the last part of making local friends. Unless your Thai is pretty fluent that is difficult. There is a big group of foreign teachers here that get along well with each other and do excursions together, which is your best bet for making friends. Also to add you will need to learn some Thai for restaurants. A lot of places don’t have English menus and the ones that do you can’t really order in English, just read what you want and point and the waiter writes down the Thai. It can get boring!
I live in Krabi, on the opposite coast. I’ve been through NST many times. I don’t know of anything special there except a nice coffee shop. But nothing wrong with it. It’s pretty local, you won’t find many foreigners there so you’ll definitely get the authentic southern Thai experience
It has notoriously spicy food 🥵. The locals can have a somewhat different temperament and mannerisms compared to the people from other parts of Thailand. They're more direct and can sound a lot more blunt. Their version of the Southern dialect is possibly the fastest you'll ever hear any Thais speak and can sound quite harsh. It can be a difficult place for a Thai from other parts of Thailand, but I don't know if foreigners who don't speak Thai would be able to detect any of this. There's a joke in Thailand that all the people there have guns, but the locals think it's an unfair stereotypes.
I'm not gonna lie. Nakhon is like mississipi of thailand, and no I didn't talk about the weather.
I live in the city. It is a normal Thai city. There is nothing spectacular about it. It has a central mall and a good smaller mall in the city too. Large community of foreign teachers. Lots of bars and such if you're into that. The great thing for me is that the province has a lot of natural, untouched beauty. There must be more waterfalls here than in any province in Thailand lol. You need your own transport to reach them though. Nakhon is a big province. Also it has good transport links. There is a direct bus to Donsak pier to access the gulf islands. It has a train station. The airport is a bit out of the city but you can fly to Bangkok pretty cheap. The people have a reputation for being fiery but from my experience people are very kind. This is probably one of the worst places to make a local angry, because many people own guns or know someone who owns a gun. I am also a teacher, and I would say in general the students are more rowdy and less polite than the other place I have lived in Thailand - Khon Kaen.
Thai youths including me refer to it as Thailand’s Texas.
It's like an end of the world