Thailand is easily one of the best budget travel destinations in the world.
So I wanted to see just how affordable it can be.
By seeing how much I can get for ten US dollars in one day.
My name is Ryan and welcome back to the One Shot Adventures Channel.
I'm currently living in Chiang Mai which is in the north of Thailand where 10 US dollars
is equivalent to 323 Thai baht.
So let's see what we can get, it's just passed 8am so time for coffee and breakfast.
I have been living 4km outside of the city centre in an area called Suthep famed for
it's beautiful nature and university campus.
I won't be including my accommodation costs in this challenge but if you are interested
in seeing more about my living situation and how much that costs me I've left a link in
the description below.
So I'm literally just going to go around the corner to one of my favourite coffee shops
called Basecamp.
It's not the cheapest place but it's got a really good atmosphere, good coffee, nice
staff and a very very cute kitten.
Thankfully the kitten cuddles are absolutely free but I also ordered an Americano coffee
and a freshly baked cinnamon roll which came in at 100 baht.
Which is definitely not cheap for Thailand but for me the practical option always wins
at breakfast time.
I usually end up spending a couple of hours here doing some video editing before moving
on to somewhere else in the city.
So it's about midday now got some good editing work done in Basecamp and I'm going to head
into the centre of town to find some lunch.
There are a lot of very affordable ways to get yourself around Chiang Mai the most iconic
being the red Songthaos which are kind of a cross between a taxi and a bus and you can
flag them down all over the city.
There is also Grab which is the Uber of South East Asia which also offers very reasonable
pricing.
But I want to show you the way that we've been using most often.
The main way we get around here is by Mobikes.
Mobike is an app based bicycle rental service and you can see their bright orange bikes
parked all over the city.
This video was filmed a few months ago and I'm starting to see some rumours online that
Mobike might be withdrawing from Thailand so I'm not sure what the current situation
is.
I think there's one over here.
But in our case you just find a bike on the app, unlock it with your camera phone and
then it just charges you electronically depending on the distance that you ride.
I'm just going to make a stop here because this place is pretty cool.
Ok that's all locked up.
That journey cost us 10 baht by the way.
This is Wat Suan Dok.
A 700 year old buddhist temple that we just stumbled upon quite early on in our stay.
I actually think this is one of the coolest temples in Chiang Mai but because it's a little
bit outside of the centre it's never really that busy.
And the best thing about it is its absolutely free so the budget doesn't get touched here.
The bright white area is actually a mausoleum which houses some of the ashes of the old
Chiang Mai royal family.
There are genuinely hundreds of temples around Chiang Mai but the more well known ones in
the touristy areas will charge you for entry.
So it's worth baring in mind that there are free options all over the city if you are
willing to go and find them.
There's actually a really nice vegetarian restaurant inside the temple.
We found it the other day its a little bit hidden but lets see if I can get some lunch
here.
For food I ordered the Pad Pad Ka Na which is stir fried greens with tofu and mushrooms
and that came with rice on the side which came to 45 baht.
Alongside my food I got a traditional Thai iced tea for 21 baht leaving me with 147 baht
in total and feeling very refreshed.
I also got a glass of water for free which is always good.
Beautiful temple and really really good food.
So I'm going to get back on a bike now and head to the centre of the city.
It should take about 10 minutes to ride there.
Chiang Mai's old city is it's its more touristy area filled with restaurants, temples and
lots of nightlife options.
It also has some lovely little parks that you can relax in.
But like the rest of Chiang Mai it's filled with one type of place in particular.
They say that there's so many islands in the Philipines that you couldn't visit all of
them in one lifetime.
And I think the same theory can be applied to coffee shops in Chiang Mai.
There are so many coffee shops here and I'm making it my mission while we are living here
to visit as many as I can.
So let's go and check one out now.
This little hipster espresso was 50 baht.
Proper Shoreditch style coffee place, definitely not Shoreditch prices.
It's starting to get a little bit late in the day now so I'm going to walk back to the
condo so that saves a bit of money and I can enjoy how beautiful this city is.
So I've got 63 baht left so we've going to head down to the street market just a round
the corner and see what we can get.
The food market at the end of Suthep Road caters mainly to the students of Chiang Mai
university and I feel pretty lucky to have it right on my doorstep.
It offers all sorts of delicious food for very reasonable prices.
I started off with a mixed berry smoothie which was 25 baht.
I then moved onto some classic Thai comfort food, stir fried pork with holy basil and
rice and that came to 35 baht.
So I've got 3 baht left.
What can you buy for 3 baht?
There's a lot of 5 baht.
As much as I looked I couldn't find anything for that little in the whole market so in
my moment of need I turned to a faithful friend.
the home of drunk toasties and weird snacks surely 711 would help me out.
Even water is 5 baht.
I think 3 is just a really awkward number I dont think anybody wants to deal with that
little change.
So 5 is the lowest you get.
Nothing for 3 baht not even in 711 so does that mean I failed or is it the ultimate win?
To help you decide let's do a quick recap of everything we got today.
I got a coffee a cinnamon roll 2 bike rides visited a temple ate a delicious vegetarian
lunch had an iced tea a hipster espresso a fresh fruit smoothie a classic Thai dinner
and 2 cups of water for under 10 US dollars.
And honestly if I had been a little bit smarter and avoided the more expensive cafes I could
have got even more for my money.
So in my opinion yes Thailand is still very affordable, well Chiang Mai is anyway.
3 baht lives another day.
Next time on the One Shot Adventures Channel we are heading further north to the backpackers
paradise known as Pai.
Thank you so much for watching this video if you liked it make sure you leave it a thumbs
up and subscribe to the channel and I'll see you next time.