travelling to thailand

dot

how much would you spend on average in thailand if you were going for a month besides paying for accommadation?

I am MAN

dot wrote:

how much would you spend on average in thailand if you were going for a month besides paying for accommadation?

Hey,

Last year I went for a month and spent 1500 in total. I spent 400 euro on accomodation and travel for the month and that meant staying in really nice places but I would not advise spending this much on accomodation and travel because looking back now I should have spent way less.

This year I will be travelling to Thailand for two months, I have my first month pretty much planned out and my travel/accomodation is going to be just under 150 euro but this will end up been more because I intend on treating myself and the girlfriend to a few nights at SPA's.

As for spending money you can get buy on little or nothing, I know a guy who spent under 1,000 euro on a two month stay and I know some people who spend 2,000 euro on a 2 week stay. Eating good, going out everynight, buying some weed/mushrooms now and again and renting out a motorbike alot of the time you are over there will cost you about 1,000 euro - it did for me anyway and I spend alot. The more you have the better obviously because everything is so cheap and its nice to have money for shopping.

I intend on having 3-4k this year which is an absolutely obscene amount of money to be spending.

Any questions regarding anything about Thailand just ask me, I love the place so i'll be willing to answer anything!"

Mark.

Loco

1 month excl accomodation: 800

flights : 800
accomodation (normal, not budget not palace) : 200

total 3 months(incl visas & trips to laos/camodia, 2 diving certs, 4 flights from bkk <-> chiang mai, 1 flight from bkk -> ko samui & loads of shopping) : 3800

i did this easily. i was not budgeting!

check the nokair/airasia etc sites if ur making trips.. i payed 14 euros for flight from bkk to chiang mai, booked a week before hand.
this is only 2 euros more expensive than a sleeper on a train... which takes 15 hours orso, and saves a day on your holiday
i'de recommend flying if your only goin for a month

hope this helps

Loco

I am MAN wrote:

I intend on having 3-4k this year which is an absolutely obscene amount of money to be spending.

Any questions regarding anything about Thailand just ask me, I love the place so i'll be willing to answer anything!"

yes that is a quite obscene amount of money, no wonder you love the place spending that kind of money in obscene places like soi cowboy gogo bars :P

MrJoeSoap

Thailand posts

I am MAN

Loco wrote:

1 month excl accomodation: 800

flights : 800
accomodation (normal, not budget not palace) : 200

total 3 months(incl visas & trips to laos/camodia, 2 diving certs, 4 flights from bkk <-> chiang mai, 1 flight from bkk -> ko samui & loads of shopping) : 3800

i did this easily. i was not budgeting!

check the nokair/airasia etc sites if ur making trips.. i payed 14 euros for flight from bkk to chiang mai, booked a week before hand.
this is only 2 euros more expensive than a sleeper on a train... which takes 15 hours orso, and saves a day on your holiday
i'de recommend flying if your only goin for a month

hope this helps

I find it hard to believe you got flights for 14 euro, Inland flights in Thailand are really expensive nearly 80 euro return to go down south and deffiently no less than 40 euro from Bangkok to Chag Mai? I would love to know how you managed this.

Dont be put off by the travelling as this is a great part of the holiday, I love getting buses because its a really good opportunity to socialise and meet some really interesting people. You can grab a bus and connecting boat pretty much anywhere for under ten euro. Even train journeys for 12 euro that loco mention are unheard of to me, you can get them for 20 euro or so(it may sound scabby arguing over a tenner but the euros add up when you're over there).

Sounds good that you got diving certs and that Loco I would be interested in doing this, something positive and educational to bring home from the holiday instead of golden skin and a sore head

As for the 3-4k comment, I dont go near the bargirl or gogo scene at all and as I said above I will be with the girlfriend but it's always nice to have an obscene amount of money if you can manage it.

I would recommend going backpacker style instead of inland flights etc because it really is interesting, you can get buses to Cambodia for 8 euro on Khao San road in Bangkok and it's advisable that you obtain the visa needed to enter Cambodia while in Bangkok due to dodgey bastards at the border.

dot

thanks a million for yer help thats all i needed to know i will hopefully be bringin a grand myself if all goes well...

Loco

I am MAN wrote:

I find it hard to believe you got flights for 14 euro, Inland flights in Thailand are really expensive nearly 80 euro return to go down south and deffiently no less than 40 euro from Bangkok to Chag Mai? I would love to know how you managed this.

I payed 720 baht for a flight from bangkok -> chiang mai during august. I booked it from an internet cafe on ko samet
I payed 1200 baht for a flight from chiang mai a few days later, which i booked the morning of the flight.
www.airasia.com
www.nokair.com

i can get the flight receipts from my yahoo mail if you really want the proof

I am MAN wrote:

Dont be put off by the travelling as this is a great part of the holiday, I love getting buses because its a really good opportunity to socialise and meet some really interesting people. You can grab a bus and connecting both pretty much anywhere for under ten euro. Even train journeys for 12 euro that loco mention are unheard of to me, you can get them for 20 euro or so(it may sound scabby arguing over a tenner but the euros add up when you're over there).

20 euro for a train ticket? those connections you purchase are marked up alot.. you can get public bus and train ticket from the train station ticket office for far cheaper.
Those connections can be handy.. book bus boat train etc in 1 go, but you end up waiting here and there in the operators restaurant/stops for hours.. i know i did a few of them.
If you put a small bit of effort into planning u can save a ****load on travel.

I took about 4 trains bk->surat thani, all 650 baht or so for sleepers.

Its not being scabby, its just not being lazy and getting bus and train timetables

Plus when your there 3 months, you get sick of the trains and buses and ppl that come up and say the same old backpacker socialising ****.

I would agree with the cambodian visa thing, i remember people at the border payed twice what we payed for our visas in bangkok.

vibe666

i can do better than 3k!

I went to Thailand for 2 weeks with the g/f and we spent over €5k in 2 weeks!

that said, we bought a load of suits and silk shirts and clothes for work and gifts etc.(came back with 30kg more than we went with!), but apart from that we really did live it up.

One thing I will say though is that if you're going when it's hot (pretty much all the time) then take very little clothing and buy stuff there.

even the thinnest clothes you can get here will be way too hot over there and you'll be sweating your tits off.

also, make sure you try all the local food. my g/f has a very picky tummy, but she was brave and tried everything we saw (little and often, the way the thai's do it) and the only time either of us was ill was near the end of our 2 weeks when we wnet for a pizza hut for a change.

we were really lucky in that I have a friend who lives there who took us all round the place and did all our bartering for us and got us good deals all over.

unmissable things:

Royal Palace in Bangkok

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The floating market in Bangkok + general river taxi ride.

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Patpong night market (Bangkok again). Not for the lapdancing bars, but for all the stalls full of good (and bad) stuff.

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Khao San road. again for the experience. it won't be what you expect though. I've heard of people barely leaving it for a month, but 2 nights was enough for us.

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er, lots of other places I don't even remember the name of.

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Koh Samui, Koh Tao etc. (not sure about east coast stuff after the tsunami tho)

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Kanchanaburi (The Bridge on the river Kwai) Not so much for the bridge, but for the steam train journey you can take from there into the back of beyond to where the war memorials etc. are. Well worth the 6(ish) am departure to catch the sunrise as it's spectacular.

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The Tiger Palace (in the same area as Kanchanaburi) if you can find it. It's down a very long dirt road, and there are very rarly any western tourists there, just chinese, but it's amazing to come through a clearing in the middle of the jungle and see this huge reclining buddha in a shining palace in the middle of nowhere. There is also a chinese dragon snaking the hill just before it which is a stairway up to something, and another amzing sight. (warning though, if you do go and look for it, there's also a place nearby with the same name that is a tiger zoo where you can pet baby tigers, which is amazing also, but not nearly the same thing.)

Tips:

As I said, try and buy cheap clothes there (fisherman pants & light t-shirts) as your western clothes will leave you too hot.

Eat what the locals do and try everything, 9 times out of 10 it's well worth it, even the 1 time when it's not!

Take the aircon cabs everywhere during the day rather than tuk tuks, it's more comfortable and doesn't work out much different in price, but take a tuk tuk in the evening, as it's an experience not to be missed.

I've missed loads of stuff off I know, but that'll do you for now I think.

Oh, and the diving courses are a good idea too. very cheap, and there are some good dive centres there, although there's the odd cowboy outfit. If you have the time, do the open water & advanced straight after while you're there, which will give you the chance to do some amazing dives. I'd recommend buying your own mask and snorkel, and maybe some fins if budget allows, but the rest you can rent from the centre.

I can recommend Easy Divers on Koh Samui, very professional outfit (5 Star PADI centre), with some great dive sites. http://www.thaidive.com/ (some good pics there too)

Loco

cool vibe, that would of been fun, i must admit staring at the westin towering over bangkok from my kip of a hotel was demoralising

about the taxis.. make sure u say meter before u get in, many of them will charge their own prices

metered taxi is cheapest(and most comfortable) of all bkk travel really, tuktuks and motos are just out to rip you off(locals get them for nothing)

also if your going to buy all the suits and stuff.. go to pnhom penh in cambodia.. everything there is way cheaper than what it is in bangkok, exact same stuff!

I am MAN

5k in 2 weeks? /me looks at you weird

Make sure to fit Koh Samui, Koh tao(only if you're diivng), Koh Phangan(full moon party/black moon party) and I would love to say Phi Phi but it really isnt the same after the Tsunami although I will be going to volunteer for a few days hopefully. Phuket is pretty much fully operational now(bar some businesss closed on the beach front) they really need tourists to go down there and stop listening to the media.

Vibe mentioned some must see things and pay heed to the taxi meter thing although I must say when im coming home drunk or just want a bit of crack I do hop in a Tuk Tuk because they are loads of fun at times

Also if you fancy some weed or something do not even attempt to get this in Bangkok or for that matter dont step out of line in anyway while in Bangkok because the second day we where there one of my friends unintentionally dropped a smoke butt on the ground and then the police man brought us over to a post and fined everyone who had a box of smokes 10-15 euro. Go down to the islands and find contacts through other tourists but be very careful.

Loco

i had no probs with weed in bkk, reggae bar on little avenue that runs behind khoa san rd.

edit:
and for the islands: happy daze on ko tao(opi & weed) and purple haze on ko phangnan(mango/mushroom shakes & weed)

theres other places on those islands u can get these also, but not the best quality

I am MAN

Loco wrote:

i had no probs with weed in bkk, reggae bar on little avenue that runs behind khoa san rd.

edit:
and for the islands: happy daze on ko tao(opi & weed) and purple haze on ko phangnan(mango/mushroom shakes & weed)

theres other places on those islands u can get these also, but not the best quality

I was just a little spooked by the fine we got so I didnt want to chance anything while in Bangkok but if you know where to get it safely by all means get it because most times it is worth it

Good call on the other two places

stagolee

Loco wrote:

i had no probs with weed in bkk, reggae bar on little avenue that runs behind khoa san rd.

watch out with that place, its a few years ago now but a good mate of mine was nearly busted buying weed from there and he was very suspicious that the bar owners were in on it. he chucked the weed without getting spotted though and went back and picked it up later

vibe666

Loco wrote:

cool vibe, that would of been fun, i must admit staring at the westin towering over bangkok from my kip of a hotel was demoralising

funnily enough we didn't stay anywhere really posh the whole time we were there. in bangkok we stayed in the shanti lodge (very good for the price, and best museli on the planet bar none), in kanchanaburi we stayed in a similar place (hippy type traveller deal, clean and tidy with a really good vibe (apart from me ) and some very cool people) then the nicest place was papillion on koh samui and my mates in laws out in the jungle somewhere in surathani. had a great time, and will be going bakc next year methinks for a cheaper but longer trip.

spent so much cos we got tailored suits (6 between us) and silk shirts (5 each) and a tailored leather jacket on koh samui as well as loads of jewellery for herself, and some geeky stuff for me €500 on a digital camera etc.). it soon goes anyway, when you have it there to spend. damn credit card. only just finished paying it off now and that's over a year later. :eek:

can't say we didn't make the most of it though!