Bangkok on the cheap - 2001.

[lomuamart]

I was having a bit of a paper clear out at home yesterday and came across a newspaper article that had been sent to me from the UK about staying cheaply in BKK. The article was from The Sunday Times, Jan 28th 2001. How times have changed.
There's quite a bit of padding in the article, but some interesting information when compared to today's prices.
Accommodation - the article's number one place was The Atlanta on Sukhimvit soi 2. Fan rooms from 7 GBP. Not sure what they're charging now as I havn't stayed there for about seven years. I doubt you'd get a room for that though.
Rooms on Khao San Road for 1.50 GBP a night and the reporter's favourites in Chinatown for 6-7.50 GBP per night.
Food - plenty of food stalls serving fish balls, pork skewers and fresh fruit for 40p. Indoor cafe eating around Chinatown for 4 GBP for two, including beer and live Thai folk music.
Sang Som - 2 GBP for a half bottle. The reporter's take on the old "rum" was that it gave a good buzz and you were left with no discernible hangover the next day That dosn't ring true to my memories of the stuff.
Naughty nightlife - Again the reporter's comments. Forget Patpong and head to Nana Plaza. A weird and wonderful collection of go-go bars, live shows and transexual cafes that has a strangely civilised feel about it and where a beer will set you back 1 GBP and the shows are free
The Bottom Line
365.50 GBP for seven nights in BKK, including flights, accommodation and transfers based on two sharing. Take 100 GBP spending money or 200 GBP if you want an extra week at the beach. Train/boat tickets from BKK to Samui were 16 GBP return and cheap beach huts on Samui cost 5 GBP a night.

Well, that's a trip down memory lane for me. In fact I'd forgotten that prices like the above ever existed. All I get these days is the missus constantly complaining about how the price of eggs has risen by 30% over the past 6 months and as for the price of fruit and vegetables Or something like that anyway. I normally switch off when she returns from local markets.
Admittedly, everywhere gets more expensive and the exchange rate would have been considerably more favourable in 2001.
It's a shame that they never did the same sort of article for HH. Can anyone remember if the above prices were roughly correct 9 years ago?
I'm gonna frame that article and hang it on my wall. Oh to have been a backpacker all those years ago
I suppose you could get the same sort of information from old Lonely Planets as well.

[buksida]

Ahh, I remember those halcyon days ... all the beer you could drink in the Cathouse in Nana for 100 baht between 4pm and 8.

Stuff was that cheap back then, even in HH you could get a room for 150 baht a night, 3 large beers for 100 baht, a good feed for 20, and motorcycle taxis were 10 baht everywhere.

[STEVE G]

I suppose things got really cheap after the Asian financial crisis.
I remember spending ten days in Thailand in the mid-nineties when it was about 38 bt to the pound and actually finding it quite expensive.
It was the same in Indonesia; I first went there in 1995 and a beer in central Jakarta could easily cost you the equivalent of 5 pounds in a decent bar.

[margaretcarnes]

Nana Plaza civilised? Well - I suppose it WAS different then, when all the motorbikes were parked inside. The prices sound about right for stall food and Sangsom in Bangers certainly, and the exchange rate 10 years ago was favourable. The hotel I used then in Bangkok was about 500/600 baht, which would have been around 7 or 8 stirling. It hasn't gone up much in baht price either. You could get a good meal at the Old Dutch for about 200 baht, and fish and chips at Chequers around 150? Which then was really splashing out! And I think the Skytrain fares started at 15 or 20 baht.
In HH in 2000 it was still possible to get rooms for 150 bt. I charged between 150 to 200 at the Hare and Hounds depending on length of stay, and for a month it could work out less than 100 a night - which was still too much for some Lonely Planet toting backpackers.
What we did find was that the Lonely Planet was way out of date in many ways, and in 2000 it was quoting some full room rates of 50 bt in HH. That caused a lot of hassle with backpackers arriving expecting to get rooms for next to nothing. They would reject 150 and wander off down to the wood hut rooms, only to return later defeated!

[Nereus]

Ahh, I remember those halcyon days ... all the beer you could drink in the Cathouse in Nana for 100 baht between 4pm and 8.

Stuff was that cheap back then, even in HH you could get a room for 150 baht a night, 3 large beers for 100 baht, a good feed for 20, and motorcycle taxis were 10 baht everywhere.

It was the demise of they 10 Baht note that started inflation!
Just think back and remember how the 10 Baht note was used for so many things. Along with motorcycle taxis, it was a universal "tip" for everything from a waitress to a posing ladyboy!

[hhfarang]

It was the demise of they 10 Baht note that started inflation!

Yeah, come to think of it, I haven't seen one of those in about two years and sightings were rare for a couple of years before that.

[PeteC]

Rare to be sure. The 10 Baht coin replaced the note in 1988 and all of a sudden most disappeared into drawers as keepsakes. If they surface now in your change, someone is scraping the bottom and raiding their collections. Pete

[tarakandi]

One of my lasting memories is in the mid 80’s there was a noodle shop in Bintabaht, before there were any bars there that had Carlsberg on draught and you could get a pitcher for 25Baht

[Bamboo Grove]

One good price I remember from 1990. I was staying on Asoke-Dindaeng Road and near the apartment were small food stalls. A plate of rice topped with two different curries and a cup of water was 7.25 Baht. At that time you got 25 Baht for 1 USD.

[chopsticks]

365.50 GBP for seven nights in BKK, including flights, accommodation and transfers based on two sharing.

Airfares are probably the only thing that hasn't increased too much with the same deal currently being offered for 499 GBP.

[Big Boy]

365.50 GBP for seven nights in BKK, including flights, accommodation and transfers based on two sharing.

Airfares are probably the only thing that hasn't increased too much with the same deal currently being offered for 499 GBP.

The best deal I ever got was in about 1996 when 16 nights accomodation at the Mountain View Hotel, Pattaya, with flights and transfers cost £324.

The price of flights has definitely come down. Late 80s/early 90s I was paying about £550 return (aiport taxes were minimal then). In the last 5 years I've always paid less than £400. As an example, this year's flight costs £160 return. The airport taxes are over £200

[deepee]

Just dug out an old travel diary from 1975 - 80 baht a night at the Rich Hotel in Bunglampoo, and that was for a double with air con ,modest but clean,
Return boat to Kho Larn off Pattaya 45 baht,5 baht for fried rice with pork at the weekend markets ,red bus BKK to Chon Buri 10 baht,red bus BKK to HH 28 baht.
And 21st AUG1976- 280 baht for one double at the Malaysia in Bkk, breakfast and light lunch from the street, to the Montien Hotel for a pre dinner drink and coffee then on to Bobby's Arms for an evening of darts, plenty of ale, burger and chips plus taxis to and fro and that was for the two of us with a late night coffee at the Blue Fox on the way home.Ah, those were the days.

[Jimbob]

I could be banned for my thoughts but on reading the posts about the good old days in Bangers. I immediately thought of the Four Yorkshiremen skit by the Monty Pyton team.
You just need to insert some Baht values.

We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank (at XX Baht a night). We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

[STEVE G]

The price of flights has definitely come down. Late 80s/early 90s I was paying about £550 return (aiport taxes were minimal then). In the last 5 years I've always paid less than £400. As an example, this year's flight costs £160 return. The airport taxes are over £200

You've got a bargain there BB; for a man of your size, £160.00 return is considerably cheaper than air frieght rates!

[JimmyGreaves]

Senoritas Happy with food only at the Grace Hotel 1980 to take good care of you. No concrete overhead also!

Good read :-)


Jimmy; you should know better!!
Edited by mod.