Friday, August 29, 2014

Thailand on $24.50/person/day.

We were on track to come in under $40/day in Thailand... and then we spent a week diving on Koh Tao.  That "vacation from our vacation" was worth every penny and even still, we're pretty pleased with the results!  Now that we've passed back through Bangkok on our way to the mountains, we can share the Thailand breakdown with some details...

Initial budget: no more than $30/person/day
Actual cost: 61 days at $2966 ($49/day, $24.50/person/day)

homemade flag brought to you by a cracker wrapper

  • Lodging: $533 - 54 nights at guest houses, 1-/2-star hotels, and our family friend's AirB&B averaging $10/person/night (excludes 6 nights at our Help Exchange farmstay)
  • Transportation: $307 - buses/songthaews and boats between major cities; motorbike and bicycle rentals; tuk-tuks within cities (mostly just to/from the bus station); public transit in Bangkok
  • Groceries: $202 - we had a kitchen in Chiang Mai but otherwise this is mostly bottled water and snacks during transport
  • Meals: $586 - like other countries in Asia, a few hotels had free breakfasts, and we were able to cook at bit during our Air B&B stay, but otherwise we ate out every meal which comes to roughly $4.80/person/day 
  • Tours: $239 - $80/person for Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai (also worth every penny); $20/person entree fees to Sukhothia/Si Satchanalai/Kamphaeng Phet historic sites (Sukhothai being the most expensive of the three); $7/person for Kanchanaburi's Death Railway train ride and Elewan National Park; nominal entry fees for museums and other attractions
  • Alcohol: $73 - AKA too much for crappy beer
  • Gear: $36 - $10 for clothes, bug spray, headlamp batteries for our village farmstay; $10 for new t-shirts (with the heat we had to increase our rotation supply); $8 for a new iTouch charger; $7 for work gloves for the Habitat build and beyond
  • "Misc": $929 - $832 (!!!) for a week of diving in Koh Tao including completion of one Open Water/Advanced Open Water course; $20 for Jen's dentist appointment; $18 for things related to our Chiang Mai discounted Air B&B stay ("hardware for stuff we broke", replacing laundry detergent and that sort of thing); $18 for books; nominal costs for laundry and WCs
  • Border: $62 - $31/person for our first 60-day visas (the second 30-day visas were free)

Other fun Thailand facts...

Time for currency #11 - rupees in Nepal!

2 comments:

  1. this wouldnn't even cover my maple syrup expenses / =

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    Replies
    1. Maybe you should try Canada instead of Thailand.

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