I haven’t found a place I like living in more than Bangkok

A German tech entrepreneur takes business, puzzles and Bangkok living in his stride

Karsten Aichholz conveys a confidence you’d expect of someone who speaks fluent Thai and has lived in Bangkok for 11 years. The German expat feels at home in the City of Angels, loving the convenience of its 24-hour services and, in keeping with his appearance and national stereotype, manages his lifestyle here through a pragmatic lens.

“What makes it convenient is a lot of people here are entrepreneurial.  When Thai people see an opportunity, they start a business”, Karsten says. As a result it was usually easy to find something convenient and affordable, from food carts in front of the office to grocery deliveries. “I haven’t found a place I like living in more.”

Yet, the way he speaks about his migration in January 2006, it is clear that Aichholz has always taken life here in his stride, even before he learnt the language. Within the first five years, his Bangkok-based video games company grew from nothing to a million-dollar enterprise, employing 18 staff in the process.

Growing up

The youngest of three brothers, Herr Aichholz grew up in Unterweissach, a small German village not far from Stuttgart. In his teens he developed a love for video games at a time when you had to build your own computer (without colour-coded wires). “For us back then in high school, that was the most normal thing in the world. You could spend 20 hours a week, at least, playing games,” he says, recalling his marathon sessions.

It’s no surprise that Karsten soon became a professional gamer. The online community grew rapidly during the 90s, creating a virtual space where gaming geeks from small villages could compete and converse with those in far-off mega cities, often forming close social attachments. It was in these forums, where written and spoken English dominates, that Karsten honed his English language skills; not, as his British mother may have hoped, from her.

An enigmatic yet ebullient character, Karsten’s blue eyes pierce through you as he eagerly rehearses his knowledge and enthusiasm for gaming technologies. Combining this energy with his technical whizz, he and a university friend built a platform for online role-playing games, catering to a predominantly US audience. Soon enough, they figured that Germany was not the best place to maximise the company’s growth potential.

Karsten’s business partner, having interned in Thailand, understood the opportunities available in Asia:  the market seemed ripe for business, the Thai government was supportive of the industry, and they could keep costs down and [yet] retain quality of life. So at just 23, having negotiated an investment promotion with the Thai government, the two small-town Germans relocated to the gritty metropolis of Bangkok.

Technology: shifting the paradigms

It wasn’t all plain sailing of course. Karsten soon learnt that the difficulties associated with running a business shift with time and location. They experienced issues with the quality of internet, limited bandwidth, outages that lasted for hours and the importance of backing up their data on additional servers.

Now, of course, superfast 4G and broadband connections, faster processors and better graphics have changed the dynamics of the industry. The smart-phone sector has opened up the market, now dominated, surprisingly, by mid-30s gamers, and mostly female.  As the demographics have changed, so has Karsten’s interest in video games. “I make the choice not to do it anymore. I had a compulsive gaming behaviour”, he says conceding the difficulty of running a business and finding a spare 200 hours a month.

On fashion

Style is evidently important to Karsten. Sporting an impressively thick, red beard, this is a man who takes pride in his appearance, keeping his facial hair well groomed, rocking the shaved-head look and dressing dapperly in tailored shirts and suits.

“People talk about Bangkok as a shopping destination but a lot of the items here have quality issues. The branded stuff would cost more than in Germany.” Karsten applies that pragmatic approach of his to buying and maintaining his wardrobe. He takes advantage of local laundry services, but sometimes they get ruined or lost. “So you buy t-shirts that you don’t mind losing. You adjust to the available infrastructure and make your purchasing decisions accordingly”, he says. The cost of living in Thailand for expats can sometimes be cheaper, but many times it is also more expensive than in Europe.

Bangkok living is easy

Karsten Aichholz lives in Huaykwang, a predominantly Thai residential district that boasts few high-rise condos. He appreciates the simple pleasures and amenities. The MRT is a 10-minute ride to Bangkok centre, or “an hour by taxi”, he jokes. “You have everything in walking distance. There’s a 24-hour gym on my street, a supermarket nearby, a mall. At the same time, there’s this old Chinese tea store that sells you green tea for 20 baht.”

These days he favours playing board games with close friends at dedicated cafes over consoles. “It’s a good way to mix the more social side of things with the competitive aspect,” he explains. Karsten believes that mobile gaming and global pop culture have helped to attract a broader audience to games in general, such as the ‘super-complicated’ board game, Game of Thrones. “It’s a counter movement to the whole internet thing… a change of pace and scenery, and the available options have got a lot better.”

Brewed in Bangkok

His changing interests and personal ambitions have also led Karsten to diversify his business pursuits, most notably an online web resource for expats in Bangkok and a regular podcast series. The Thailand Starter Kit is a collection of free guides to help people in Thailand who are out of their comfort zone and lacking familial support networks. “Just think of it as the uncle, who you might turn to in your home country, who can offer you advice here”, the German expat states with aplomb.

The website is a platform for Karsten (and guest writers) to talk the user through setting up a bank account, or a business, on how to import dogs, order gluten-free groceries online, give birth in Thailand or lost weight here. This last one is harder than people might think considering the mistaken healthy image of Thai food. The lean German shed an impressive 10kg in 100 days cataloguing the micro details of the process.

What’s next?

Eleven years and counting in Thailand, what does the future hold? Moving abroad is something that could be on the cards for personal reasons and for additional experiences. His girlfriend’s career in medicine creates the potential for moving to the US in the future. And living in a middle-income country does have its limitations.

“The biggest issue in Thailand,” he says, “is avoiding a long work commute and daily traffic struggles.” He admits that it can be harder in a couple to develop simple workarounds that suit both parties, especially if you add kids to the equation.

Giving a characteristically German analogy, Karsten describes the foreseeable challenge of bringing up children in Thailand. “Drinking water does not flow from the tap here, you have to pay a premium for the privilege of bottled water. That’s also the case with education. In Germany, high quality education is widely available, and free. In Thailand, the quality of public education is not at the quality that I would expect. You have to go private. You have to do bottled-water education.”

Website: Thailand Starter Kit
Podcast: Brewed in Bangkok
Kartsen’s favourite tailors: DNA and For Chong