So far, where are you right now? You’ve got your visa, you arrived
in Thailand and you found a nice flat to stay at. Basically you have
already accomplished more than most of the people who are still
sitting in front of their laptops, dreaming about training in
Thailand but found a good reason to skip the session at their home
gym today.
It´s time to talk about
what the title of this series indicates: Staying in Thailand on a
budget and saving as much money as possible. In today´s episode I
will give a general overview of the monthly costs for living and
training in Chiang Mai (!) as a farang (!). Why exclamation marks?
The first one exclamation is in reference to Chiang Mai: a very cheap
city compared to the capital and the south. The second one
exclamation emphasizes the high chance that you look as foreign as I
do, which makes many things more expensive for you here.
Many Thais believe that
foreigners are rich in general. This assumption is kind of right most
of the time. Nonetheless, especially for those who stay long term or
work here, the assumption doesn´t really fit. Sure, my living
standard is still far away from the one of a factory worker but the
budget I´m living on (excluded are the costs for training) is,
according to worldsalaries.org, the same as the avarage salary of an
auxiliary nurse. When I was here the first time on a four weeks
vacation I spent more than twice as much in this time than I do now.
When I have to buy
something I don´t convert the price to Euro, as I did last year, and
think "Oh, wow! These shorts are just 10€". Instead, I
think that "well, 400 Baht... let´s hope the quality is good."
What I mean to say is, if you want to stay long term, you have to
stop thinking like a rich Westerner and start to adapt a Thai-style
middle class life. (At least, this works best for me).
The costs of
living
1. The flat –
3150 Baht including electricity, water, Wi-Fi and a rented fridge.
For more information check out my last post here
2. The training
– depending on how long you stay and/or how long you are willing to
commit yourself to one location, this may vary. I pay 8000 Baht.
3. Food and other
requirements – This includes
basically all the other costs - everything you need to live here.
Food of course but also things like a new toothbrush, new flip flops,
drugs, deodorant, a pair of kneepads for training etc. Also included
are going out sometimes, having sushi for 300 Baht or going to the
cinema for around 350 Baht. You may say "I just want to
concentrate on training! I don´t need this shit!" Believe me,
you do. Even including those expenses the budget is still tight, but
it is enough to have a good life and be able to buy a few things "for
fun".
So how much is it? 11.000
Baht.
As you can see, training
in Thailand is expensive compared to the other costs – even for
western standards. The prices for training are quite the same all
over Thailand, it is always around 7000 – 10.000 Baht with
discounts if you stay long term. But for what you get it´s totally
worth it.
All in all – my
monthly expenses
~ 22.150 Baht per month
More details on how to save money will
follow in the next episodes.
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