How do I handle Threads in Xamarin apps?

Question

I want to use the NetworkDiscovery in my Xamarin app and convert all the needed classes from Android's NsdChat application to C#.

I'm calling the Android code via DependencyService and it looks like the UI freezes right after I start a Thread.

For example:

public GameClient(InetAddress inetAddress, int port)
    {
        Log.Debug(TAG, "Creating chatClient");
        InetAddress = inetAddress;
        PORT = port;
        SendThread = new Thread(new SendingThread(inetAddress,port));
        SendThread.Start(); //the UI begins to freeze here
    }

I've read about making everything async, but this doesn't work here because the return type from Android to Xamarin PCL is different. On top of that I don't get any error messages from the debugger, other than a cryptic:

No compatible code running