Korean Job Discussion Forums

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I will be in Thailand for three weeks in August, from the 4th till the 24th. I've never been to Thailand before, but I would like to do things like snorkel, learn to scuba, kayak, etc. I am hoping to stay in cheap accomodation while I'm there, but I'm wondering how much money I should bring with me. The flight is paid for, but I will need to take accomodation, food, shopping, and activities into consideration. Can anyone who has been there before offer any insight? Thanks! Smile

passport220 · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Location: Gyeongsangbuk-do province

Figure $30-$35 usd per day for basic living expenses. This is for basic tourist class hotels (hot water and A/C), decent but not extravagant meals and around town transportation (you can actually get by for less if it is important for you to do so). August is still the low tourist season so you can find a lot of great deals on hotels. Long distance ground transportation is very cheap (buses and trains) you can go from Bangkok to any place in the country for $30 to $40 usd.

Most of the activities I do are of the �do-it-yourself� variety. The only snorkeling I have done was in the forum of a $6 usd snorkeling kit I bought at the local Tesco. I just swim around the local beaches wherever I was visiting.

However, in the past I hired a boat to tour some islands for the better part of the day near Krabi (The famous beach in that area - the name escapes me now) for about $20 usd. In Chang Mai I paid for a package tour including Elephant trekking for the day. The cost was about $50 usd per person. Again since you are going in the low tourist season I expect you can get discounts on this kind of service.

Shopping�..hard to say without knowing what you want to buy, but if you get away from the tourist areas it will shock you how cheap it is.

Hope this helps, enjoy.

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Thanks passport 220! I appreciate your advice.

I'm confused by you calling it low season. I was looking online at hotels/bugalows on Koh Samui for August, and the prices for that time are listed as "high season". It isn't the peak season, but they still class it as high season, therefore the prices are higher.

So about 35 a day (roughly) should do me... I think I can handle that. Thanks!

passport220 · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Location: Gyeongsangbuk-do province

DCJames · Joined: 27 Jul 2006

$35 a day? Rolling Eyes

That was Thailand 5 years ago.

Thailand is not as cheap as it once was.

oxfordstu · Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Location: Bangkok

You can do it for $35 a day if you cut some things out. If you don't mind staying in cheap bungalows/hotels and you cut out some activities, then yeah, it's possible, perhaps for even less. But scuba diving will cost about $50 day. The good thing is that hotels will sometimes give discounts for people who scuba with them. On Koh Tao, almost every hotel operation does this.

hogwonguy1979 · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: the racoon den

Samui in August is expensive because its European high season, prices will be almost as high as they are at Christmas, I pay a min of $35 (1100 baht)/nite in the July 15-Sept 1 period.

Bangkok is cheaper for some reason as its still considered low season

oxfordstu · Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Location: Bangkok

1100 a night? Way too expensive. The most I've ever paid on Samui was 900 a night, and that was when everything was booked during peak season. You can find bungalows close to the beach for around 400 a night, even cheaper if you look. Of course, these won't have AC and will be quite small.