15

Ill just clear this one up. Im not buying drugs. No chance. Im not into that and plus i dont fancy the long stretch inside. Im staying in bangkok for 3 nights and phuket for 11 nights. Yes its self catering so only room paid for. Usually have all inclusive holidays.

I paid £815 for the 37000 baht.

Well thanks for everyones comments. Made me a lil less nervous about the place lol

16

Also was wondering about prices of general things like water and food. If anyone has any links would be useful.
Thanks

17

I can eat for about 250bt a day, some eat double that at a meal.

18

^^ Eating in Thailand is all about relevance. It's quite possible to "live" on jok (rice porridge) for breakfast, and noodles or a rice dish for lunch and dinner and get by on 90 - 100 baht for the day. I'd find it very bloody boring doing that day after day, but it's the budget for many backies where length of stay is more relevant than quality or quantity of diet, and many achieve it quite easily. Good on 'em! Some are clever and stay in the cheapest hotel that has buffet breakfast included and then pig out each morning so they can skip lunch.

Westwood's 250 baht is a fair daily average for, say, a western brekkie, and one or two meals in a cheapie place. Or you can blow all that 250 on a ham & cheese baguette, lemon pie and a coffee at DeliFrance

If you want a decent 3 course meal in a standard quality restaurant with table cloths, non-bendy cutlery, and glassware, with proper table service, whether it be western food, or Thai (which isn't really courses, just a series of dishes) then it's going to come in at around 500 - 1,000 or more. The same menu in Sydney or Brisbane or Auckland would be twice the price or more, so it's fair to say it's still cheap eating.

Not every tourist who comes here has to keep their spending below a preset and usually low budget and it's often puzzled me why people try to eke out their money doing the same cheap thing for longer when they can have a better quality holiday in less time for the same total.

19

I'd rather do the cheap thing longer than a shorter quality holiday. I suppose because for all our trips in over 20 years, money has always been at the bottom end of the scale. We're perfectly comfortable with places we stay and how we travel-- usually 2nd class sleepers(only 2nd class seat or bus if theres nothing else).
We started that way on our first trip then when we travelled with the "billy lid", we had a 3rd person to pay for. We haven t scrimped on everything. We have several pieces of quality teak furniture and other bits and pieces from a couple of our trips. The worst thing was having to have enough money in the bank as well for things like electricity, land rates, water rates bills that dont stop.

20

Do you all recommend currency exchange in airport or ATM?
I hate the machines that take your card into it, hopefully it's not those.

21

I've had one card eaten and retrieved twice but it was the card that was faulty. Now I try new cards before I leave the bank at home.