It will be fairly obvious from my various updates that I am doing a lot of partying while I’m out here backpacking around Thailand and there is always interest as one traveller to another what budgets people are trying to stick to successful or not.
So here’s a typical days spending for me, taken from the 20th January 2009, while I was staying in Bangkok
- 300 Baht for Accommodation, a secure and clean hostel in central Bangkok which includes tea and toast for breakfast.
- 9 Baht for a small half litre bottle of water.
- 20 Baht for a 330ml bottle of Green Tea with Lemon.
- 6 Baht for some cheap instant noodles.
- 109 Baht for over baked rice with pork and olive and a pineapple iced smoothie in a Japanese style chain restaurant.
- 96 Baht for a four pack of Leo beer from Seven-Eleven.
- 20 Baht for the Sky Train to the Underground Interchange.
- 27 Baht for the Underground to the Railway Station.
- 10 Baht for a short Tuk Tuk ride to Sky Train stop.
- 20 Baht for the Sky Train Home
Total for the day: 617 Thai Baht which at today’s exchange rates is around £12.50.
I also paid an additional 611 for my train ticket to Chiang Mai, but since it’s over night it means on the day of travel I don’t have to pay for a room, which keeps the travel costs down, and I normally wouldn’t have quiet so much to drink, but it was the inauguration of President Barack Obama that night and so I stayed up later then I had otherwise planned. Of course, “I wouldn’t normally, but…” happens fairly frequently when travelling! There was also a one off fee of 100 Thai Baht for my wi-fi internet connection, which I can keep using if I stay here again.
When I did my inital budget I was looking at the same amount of stering getting me about 750 Thai Baht, which would have been a much more comfortable budget, but such is life and the upshot of the failing pound basically means that I can realistically stay out travelling for five months, rather then six.
So there you have it, life out here really is cheap! With a little bit of creativity such as getting instant noodles for cheap-cheap, hanging out and having a couple of beers with banter can work easily into even a small budget.