South East Asia Travel Series #3 – Prices in Thailand

One night in Bangkok with a Tuk tuk is a must! :)

Sawasdee my friends!

Currently I am sitting in a Mini Van on a 6 hours ride to “Koh Chang”. Its supposed to be a beautiful island in the south. We decided to go there spontaneously after a friend recommended it us! It's so nice to travel around without everything completely planned from the beginning on. We just have our rough route in mind: Starting off in Bangkok, go to a place to relax on a beach, manage to get to Siem Reap somehow and see Angkor Watt, heading in the direction of Phnom Phen, find a nice spot on an island to take a travel break and finally manage it to get our flight back from Ho Chi Minh City. So we have a lot of time in-between those important stops to be brave and just travel around to places we get recommended! :)

In my last post I asked you what you would like to know about traveling around in Thailand! It was so nice to get actual feedback so I decided to write about the topic you were most interested in as fast as possible. So lets spend the time on that 6 hours ride productive... :) Lets start!

How much money do you need to get around here?

So basically I am only here in Thailand since two days and I only saw Bangkok so far but I think I am already able to give you at least a good impression of how it is to hang around here...

A general / basic note first: The offical currency in Thailand is called Thailand Bath – THB.

1€ = 1,2$ = 40 THB

Accomodation

The name of our accomodation was “Niras Bankoc Hostel”. We wanted to have a bit more comfort after our long arrival journey so we decided to stay in a “private” four bed room instead of a eight or more person dorm. It was definitely a good decision since this way we could really relax and only share the bathroom with the four of us. The price for one night per person was around 15€. Our Hostel was also in a great area which was only 20-30 minutes walking distance to the famous Khao San Road. A small breakfast, a small water bottle, a towel and linen were also included in the price. If you are on a budget you can definitely find cheaper Hostels to sleep in. For example we talked to a friend who stayed in a 9 person dorm and the price was around 6€ per night.

The brown building was the entry to the Niras Bankoc Hostel

Inside the hostel is also a little Cafe

Getting around

There are so many ways to get around in Bangkok. It really depends on your needs which one you should choose. For example if you want to have a nice exciting and fast ride you should definitely take a Tuk Tuk! Always negotiate the price with the drivers since they start with a pretty high price. It also depends on the time you want to have the ride. In the evening they want to have way more money for the same distances. We payed around 150 to 200 THB (3,75€ to 4€) for a trip from our Hostel to the Khao San Road. Since we were four people its less than 1€ per person. It is definitely worth the fun!

If you really want to have it as cheap as possible you should use the local busses but its a bit hard to understand the bus system in the beginning. We used it one time for a 10 minute ride and it was 26 THB for four persons in total. Its also pretty cheap to use a Taxi when they'll accept to drive with the Taxometer instead of a fixed price. Same route: Hostel –> Khao San Road was 50 THB.
Another exciting and fun way is to take a boat on the big river. There are different offerings but if you use the boats of the public transportation system it will be around 60 THB for four persons. Public transportation boats have orange flags and the more expensive ones for tourists have blue flags.
For longer journeys like we do right now the most comfortable way is to go to a “tourist office” near the Khao San Road (not ON! Probably more expensive) and tell them which trip you want to do. We pay for a 6 hour journey in a comfortable mini van directly to the destination we chose on the island Koh Chang 800 THB (20€) per person. The ride also includes a ferry trip which is also about 40 minutes. There were a bit more cheaper options available and you could definitely negotiate about the price again. I think if we really wanted to stay as cheap as possible for this trip we could have made it for 500-600 THB.

Food & Drinks

Where to start? Mhmm. Maybe with our favorite food here so far: Pad Thai! It is a dish with big rice noodles and veggies. You find it everywhere on the street food markets and the prices vary between 30 THB and 60 THB. On the other side if you go into a restaurant there you'll probably pay around 140 THB. Since we are vegan we always take it without eggs and any kind of meat. Its probably also safer this way :D Its so delicious! We had it in two days at least 3 times!

Pad Thai with a lot of peanuts on top

Also a classic: Spring rolls!

Another big love of us are the fruits! Either as a whole, as smoothies or juices it's a big part of our daily nutrition! Prices vary a lot between supermarkets and street markets. For a stack of these delicious little bananas you pay either 13-16 THB or 30-40 THB. You can also get fresh fruits sliced for take away at many street food markets. You chose the fruit you want and they cut it in nice handy pieces. Prices vary between 20 THB to 50 THB for a big slice of watermelon or a small pineapple. Its so good! Smoothies there are also so amazing. There is one thing you need to pay attention to when you tell them what you want. Order it without extra sugar! Way more healthy and its definitely sweet enough to have the fruit sugar only. Prices for a big cup vary between 40 – 60 THB.
We also visited a fully vegetarian / vegan restaurant called “Mango”. We liked it a lot! They had a lot of dishes to choose from. For a big kombucha, a red curry with extra rice and a pancake as a dessert I payed around 320 THB (8€).

For a bottle of water you pay between 5 and 15 THB. You can get a big famous “Chang” beer in the supermarket for around 60 THB. If you're enjoying the nightlife there you'll pay around 70-100 THB in a bar. For the cheapest bucket full with rum cola or vodka with juice we payed 90 THB (2,25€).

If you really want to spend as less money as possible I think its so doable even with having a lot of fun! We also don't want to spend so much and more stay on a budget but we definitely won't miss possibilities to have a great time here since we will only stay for 3 weeks. My first guess about how much money we'll spend in this 3 weeks will be around 500€ including everything except the flights, Cambodian visa, travel insurance and vaccinations. Let's see how it will look like in three weeks!

Did you find this article helpful? Please feel free to share and comment! I would love to hear your feedback again! I am also totally open for more suggestions about what you want to read about my journey through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. If you ever visted those countries already please feel free to share your experiences with me!

Inside the hostel