To those of you living in Bangkok could you tell me how much you typically spend per month (not counting poker investments/expenses)? I'm thinking of moving there and I will drink say once a week (and I don't really even drink that much) and I'm just looking for a vague idea of how much I'll need to budget per month.

Same question to those in Chang Mai.

I only just moved here but I have to say I'm positively surprised by how cheap it is. Meals incl. drinks in most thai places around here are <150 baht, a menu at mc/kfc will cost you 80-120 baht. Streetfood/7-11 meals even way less ofcourse.
I should add that I live in the outskirts, seen like 2 white people in the last 3 days, so it's probably quite a bit more expensive in a touristy area/more central area's.
So I'd say as far as meals & groceries go you can live quite well for 300$, if you never eat at western restaurants ofcourse.

As for apartments you could get anything from a 1bdr apt in the outskirts for 4k/month to a baller 50-150k apartment in the centre.
I'd guess that if you get a modest apartment and go out only once a week you could probably live pretty well off of 1k$/month.

Depends on where in the city you live and what you like to do in your free time. Going out drinking once a week doing some gogo hopping with a barfine could put you back 300 bucks. Another guys one night out a week could be going to a Thai student oreinted bar by his place not in the city center and drinking cheap buckets of beer listening to live music with his Thai gf.

You can live for as little or as much as you want in bangkok, depends if you want to live "thai style" or indulge. Most expats probably spend in the $1000-1500 range if I had to guess. I personally spend around $1500-1700, living in fairly baller building, eating out/ordering in almost all meals (mostly farang food) but I don't go out drinking as much as most guys here. If I were, that would shot up to $2000+

+1 to what yellowfever said also

Im spending 3k$ a month for years now without trying to save money. I drink more than i used to and pay for sex less but it always comes to 3k. Fwiw i spent 2k a month in manila for 6 months i lived there

Water restrictions mostly. Not every country has the rainfall of southeast Asia. They are actually prohibited in Australia.

i really dont know why its such a dumb question, if there only internet is the 3g, and they say dont download with the 3g because after u use just a bit it goes super slow......... how do you download?

Nobody ever said 3g is the only internet.

thats why i asked what they used to download.................

OMG ******ED QUESTION OMG!!!!!

You probably stay in the square (Old City), full of drunk backpackers, this is clearly not the place to enjoy CM. I stayed there for about a month then move to Nimman and it is much better there

Also, you're talking about *cheaper*, but North Thailand is much cheaper then any island. Also, in CM, the temperature is perfect, right now it's about 27 degree with 30% humidity. BKK humidity is crazy and the south even worse.

But I agree that between BKK, any cities central or south Thailand, I would choose a *cheaper* island over any of them. It's just that for me CM offer so much *value* in term of money and everyday life, it feel like home, I could stay here forever.

BKK is about 40% more expensive then CM overall (I have lived 1 year in BKK and now 4 months in CM). I'm comparing BKK 2012-2013 to CM 2015-2016 so the difference might be even bigger.

Rent in CM for one bedroom 50% less expensive for the same thing.
Street food about the same price.
Farang food, 50% less in CM.
Transportation about equal, but much easier to go around in CM (just rent a bike).

Overall, if ur on a budget, it's not even close, we spend between 1k and 1.5k overall (me and my GF) per month in CM, but we eat like king and do whatever we want. Doing what we're doing now would cost us 3k per month in BKK. Edit: In Canadian dollar, i'm canadian so we spend between $700 and $1 050 per month in CM in USD. We lived in the most expensive area of Chiang Mai (Nimman Road).

We just came back from 2 week vacation in Malaysia, living in CM instead of BKK allow me to travel way more and do way more thing then just play poker.

Let me tier the citys of Thailand for how sweet it is to live there:

Tier 1
BKK

Tier 2
Patts

Phuket

Ko Samui

Tier 3
All of Isaan


Tier 4
Hua Hin



CM

p.s: Beer in CM cost 35-40 bahts in 7/11 (Heineken cost 40 bahts here), beer in bar are almost never more then 100b, some places 80b.

99.9% of this thread has never been north Thailand for more then 1-2 weeks, you guys just talk out of your ass. You all live in BKK, Pattaya or south thailand, guessing from your answer 95% of you live in BKK, which is sad.

Reading posts like this always makes me curious. I'm glad some people are making it work, no knock there. But the definition of "nice" and "baller" in a place like Thailand just seems so . . . different . . . than anywhere else. It should be a requirement that these posts come with pics to show how relatively "nice" it is.

ya i think the guys like jspill would prefer every tree on the planet to be burned, meaning some people dont give a **** about nature, and live in bkk/patts

i sure as hell appreciate the optimal nature here like a mix between a hippy and a navy seal might

To many busto digital nomads in CM living like kings on 750 USD a month for my taste. I like to be surrounded by good old fashioned sex tourist.

Nature is nice, problem with CM though is there's 1/20th of the girls and nightlife, so it's better if you're in a committed relationship, asexual, or busto like swimmin.

Or if you love running up mountains to strip naked under the moonlight, cover yourself in teatree oil, then upload the results to Strava and facebook it.

i was on a youtube binge and ended up watching so old geezer called geoff carter who does thailand travel videos. it's him with a camera showing you around an area of pattaya or koh samui, etc. it's strangely hypnotic.

chiang mai is a nice place and cheap as ****

but its also boring as ****, no nightlife whatsoever, girls dont speak any english and 6 month of the year its pretty much unliveable due to heavy smog/pollution or daily rain

lets be honest guys, phuket is the greatest place on earth to live ainec

What's a good place in CM for pizza or Mexican food??...and please don't say Smoothie Blues cause that was disappointing...

I hear smoothie blues is pretty good

So more expensive than Lamai then, with no beach, zero nightlife and 6 months a year of smog. Sorry but I just don't see the attraction of Chiang Mai over the alternatives. It seems to me that most people who live in Chiang Mai only ever compare it to Bangkok, which suggests they haven't tried anywhere else. It's ridiculous to compare the COL to Bangkok when Bangkok is a cosmopolitan world city with over 6 million people. Chiang Mai is much more similar to Phuket or Pattaya in terms of population, and has much less to do than either of those places.

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