Lefootprints: September 2012

The land of smiles and I, well me and Bangkok at least anyway have a bit of a love/hate relationship; it's cheap but not always in a good way, you can get around easily on a pretty neat transport system but it can be impossible to simply cross the street, the city never sleeps, however, sometimes you need some quiet and the people are smiley but how many are genuine? guess I'll be sitting on the fence as Libra's tend to do with this one but lets see what this sprawling city of contradictions has to offer me this time.

Bangkok can easily be done on a shoe string budget and for a person like me who only has 2 months worth of cash, that will be spread over 3 but will worry about running out later it's a damn good thing. You can eat for under $1 and I've heard you can even stay at the infamous Overstay for free. I've given myself a budget of around 500 baht or £10 a day while I'm here. So let's see what an average day looks like for a tourist living off only a tenner in BKK.

I won't be able to visit The Grand Palace or take a posh dinner cruise but I can take in freshish air in BKK's parks, tour markets, window shop in the malls, get lost, take photos, visit temples, and dine on satay from street vendors. I've met some wonderful people while I've been here and that costs nothing at all, one African ex pat tells me all about what life is like for a black man looking for love in BKK (it's not always pretty but it really is interesting).

There are good things about traveling with less money, being less of a 'tourist' and acting more like a 'local'. You'll find yourself taking more time out to pick up the vibe of a place and really attempt to get a feel for what it's about rather than just heading for the next big touristy spot in your travel guide, one of the things I really enjoy doing here is paying 14 baht to take a boat along the river and just watch the world float by. I find myself making far more effort to talk to people (just smile and say hi!) and some of my best hobo days have been spent with a new friend or two, a beer, just chatting and watching the sun set. Hell you'll be so bored you'll try anything like finally taking a bus rather than the BTS, I heard I'd get lost and I did but I made it and it only cost me 10 baht to! less comfy but much cheaper than the BTS.

So to conclude, yes you can get by with only 500 baht a day in Bangkok but it wasn't easy and a lot of days I ended up spending more than that, however, here's a list of things I really enjoyed on the cheap;