Budget Wise :: NE Thailand Supplement

When we left Thailand back in December the country was about to start their new Visa on Arrival. What used to be a free 30-day Visa for Americans is now only a 15-day Visa. Luckily, it is still free, but this does put a little cramp in a schedule if you’re expecting a full 30-day Visa. (If you fly into the country, I believe you still get the initial 30 days, but any land crossing after that now only gets you 15 as far we understand.) Although we didn’t have as much time in the country this time around, we did still manage to visit three new cities in Northeast Thailand on our way down to Bangkok from Vientiane, Laos. Therefore, the following is meant as a supplement to the original Budget Wise Thailand.

Our 12 day daily average :: $28.87 USD (for two people: one couple) :: 1 USD = 35 THB (baht)

Since this was the end of our Southeast Asian tour and also our international trip we did relax a bit on our budget, but also on our motivation to get out and do things as well. At this time of the year, it is HOT in this region, so our main priority was a room with A/C and some near by tasty grub.

Nong Khai $27.73 (3 day average) :: Khon Kaen $26.20 (3 d.a.) :: Korat $27.17 (3 d.a.) :: Bangkok $34.37 (3 d.a.)

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:: Budget Breakdown Supplement ::

Since this is just a supplement to the original Budget Wise Thailand, I will spare you all the details and just explain the differences we noticed in this region of the country. First of all, guesthouses were about the same price in this region and we paid anywhere from 400-600 Baht for a double A/C room. We did get free WiFi in our guesthouses in Nong Khai and Khon Kaen, but we had to pay for it in Korat (1 Baht/minute) and Bangkok (50 Baht/day). The cost of meals and drinks were pretty much the same as well, but we didn’t see as many good food-hole or food market options as we did on the West side of the country – or maybe we just got lazy. We only really did tourist-like activities in Nong Khai because we couldn’t pass up visiting the Salakeawkoo Sculpture Park. This was well worth the visit and only cost us 20 Baht per entry ticket. We rented some bikes from our Guesthouse, Ruan Thai, for 30 Baht for the day and just rode out there. Make sure to visit the Mutmee Guesthouse (a cool place also) to pick up a map to the park which also includes a diagram of the circle of life inside the park. We traveled to each city by bus and the costs were as follows: Nong Khai to Khon Kaen for 110 Baht/ticket, then to Korat for 125 Baht/ticket, and finally to Bangkok for 198 Baht/ticket.

For more detail on budget traveling in Northern Thailand, check out the original Budget Wise Thailand post. We hope this helps. Enjoy your travels.

Good Morning America

Bangkok, Thailand

You know that you’re back on Khaosan Road when you are walking down the street at 1am and you see a mom with her little kid in a stroller, standing amongst the prostitutes and drunken teenagers.

Budget Wise :: Thailand

Thailand provides many options to accommodate both the small budget traveler and the big budget vacationer’s needs. As per usual, our goal was to spend as little as we could while still enjoying as many comforts as we could afford. Our trip took us from Bangkok slowly up North until we hit Chiang Mai, where we stayed for a while, and then back down to Bangkok where we caught a bus to head toward Cambodia. It seemed to us that most vacationers we met were more interested in Southern Thailand’s beaches, but we avoided that region because it also happens to be the most expensive. So, if you’re interested in information on traveling through Northern Thailand, you’re in the right place, read on.

Working on a Night Train

Bangkok, Thailand

It didn’t really feel like we had been in Chiang Mai for forty days until we actually had to leave. Just like in Torun, we realized that staying in one place for a long time and then leaving can bring all of the original travel nerves back. It’s so easy to get comfortable. To enjoy the routine of waking early, meditating in my room, then walking into the cool morning air, through the bustling market street, and saying good morning to my favorite vendor as she packed my breakfast of mangoes, sticky rice, and treats wrapped in banana leaves. I miss the smile of my banana pancake chef and afternoons spent wandering among the shelves of endless used book stores. I understand why Chiang Mai is the Thai capital of expats. You get the city conveniences, but the small town feel. But as our meditation bootcamp made indisputably clear, all things in life are impermanent, or as we say in the west, all good things must come to an end.

Yeah, I Said Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

I apologize in advance for letting everyone down. You may have looked at the slide show in advance and noticed that we didn’t take many pictures of Bangkok. It’s not that we were lazy. In fact we would have loved to have captured many images. We didn’t take many pictures because, well, we were pretty much stunned. You see, many moons ago Gage and I hatched this crazy plan to quit our jobs, sell all we own, and troop off to Thailand. Well a few natural catastrophes derailed our plans and we found ourselves in Europe for several months. While running around Europe was fun, arriving in Thailand was absolutely surreal. For more than a year we have been dreaming of this country. That dream was realized the moment we touched down in Bangkok. It didn’t matter to us that we didn’t have reservations at a hotel, a guide book, or even a map of the city. No, all that mattered was that we had arrived.

Non-stop grins in the BKK Airport