Between 2009 and 2018 I always traveled low budget across Thailand. I simply didn’t have much to spend, and moreover, I would often stay several months in the country to study Thai Massage (without earning any money there) so I needed to really take care of my spending.
Therefore, for me it was always the cheapest guest houses, rarely a hotel (and if it was a hotel surely the cheapest one), the cheapest local food and restaurants, and always the cheapest train, bus, songthaew, or minivan tickets, and certainly no luxury spa treatments or expensive sightseeing tours and such.
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At the time it was possible to truly travel cheap in the country, actually, in Thailand you could make it as expensive and luxurious or as cheap and basic as you would want it to be. Even today it’s one of the cheapest destinations and you can get good value for little money if you are not too “picky” as for comfort and cleanliness. I think that that’s one of the things that made (and still makes) Thailand so attractive for basically everybody; you can spend time in Thailand and enjoy the country even if you don’t have a deep wallet, and if you have — well, only the sky is the limit.
In 2010, for instance, I could travel by bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for 350 THB (Thai Baht), which is about USD $10 for a 10 to 12 hours bus trip. I must admit that the quality of the busses was usually “not so okay,” meaning that they were often dirty, stinky and loud, inhabited by mosquitos and cockroaches, without air conditioning (apart from opening the windows, and sometimes ventilators instead), uncomfortable and run down seats, and it was not uncommon to stop for a while to let the overheated motor cool off. I even had breakdowns and bus repairs during the trip and I was used to journeys that rather took 18 hours instead of 10 to 12 hours to reach Chiang Mai (or Bangkok, going the other way around).
On the other hand, you could also take a 1,000 THB (about USD $28) VIP-trip, all things very clean and with food service onboard included, little pillows, blankets, and sleep masks, large and comfortable reclining seats, drinks, and air conditioning. The whole shebang. That’s surely still very cheap compared to European or North American standards, of course. I did have such trips occasionally when I was really weary of shabby traveling or when I had no other reasonable transportation alternative.
Traveling by train was a bit the same; you would pay different prices depending on having a bed to spend the night in during your journey, or alternatively take first class, second class or third class seated travel (with or without air conditioning), and so on, with prices comparable to the bus. Cleanliness, service, and luxury depended on what you chose, but I found that there were often more cockroaches in trains than in busses (by the way, you may have noticed that I don’t like cockroaches, especially not when they crawl on you while you sleep).
I also used the cheap songthaews for local and regional transport instead of taxis, and minivans in the case that there were no public busses. And sometimes minivans were just the faster option to reach your destination. However, they can be described as taking a hell-ride, because the drivers usually tend to go super-fast and carelessly. In addition, there is not much comfort involved and the max 8-person minivan usually gets stuffed to a 14-person commodity, which also counts for the songthaews.
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Then about budget hostels and guest houses. Well, what you got was really depending on what you would (or could) spend. From 2009 up to 2012, I still could get 200 THB (about USD $6) rooms per night (without a private bathroom, breakfast, or any extras, and typically quite dirty and noisy), but in 2015 it was hard to get something below 500 THB (USD $14).
Sure, that’s still not expensive, but if you’d stay several months in Thailand, it means like USD $425 per month only for lodging, not counting the cost of food, traveling, and Thai Massage course tuitions, which for me personally was quite an expense. So when I stayed for longer periods in Thailand (in one place) I would rather rent a room, which is much, much cheaper, say about USD $170 per month (6,000 THB), but then you would need to pay a 3 month’s deposit and often take the room for a minimum of 3 months.
All by all, I didn’t have much to complain about given the means I had. Thailand gave me the opportunity to do, see, and learn a lot of interesting things for little money, and until today I’m grateful for it even to the point of forgetting my plenty unpleasant cockroach adventures.
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