In short
Bangkok settles the logistics once and for all: elevated metro, excellent hospitals, recent buildings with a gym and a pool, fibre everywhere, and an airport that connects the whole continent.
The city is lived by district. Ari, Thonglor, Phrom Phong and Sathorn have nothing in common, and picking the wrong one is enough to hate the place.
It is the ideal base camp: you set your work up here, and leave from here for the islands, Vietnam or Cambodia.
What it really costs
A recent condominium is the best value in the region: lift, security, pool, gym, fibre — for a monthly rent below a Paris studio.
Transport is close to free on the scale of a monthly budget if you live on a metro line. Living far from a station is the classic false economy: what you save on rent, you lose in taxis and in time.
Both extremes exist here, as everywhere: you can live very frugally, and you can spend a European budget without effort on the same streets.
Working here
The best fixed internet in the area, and a density of coworking spaces with no regional equal. Working at any hour is a non-issue.
The counterweight is the city's energy: the noise, the heat and the commutes wear you down. The discipline is to live near where you work.
The time difference with Europe is the same as anywhere in Thailand: mornings to yourself, end of day with European clients.
What nobody tells you
Air pollution in the dry season is a genuine health matter, not an inconvenience. You watch it like the weather, and it changes how you live for several weeks.
The humid heat is constant and grinding: it turns any trip across town into an effort.
And Bangkok is easy on the surface and opaque underneath: without some Thai or some local relationships, you stay a customer, never a resident.