Living Expenses In Koh Samui: Your Advice Please!

[samui04]

Hmm it is not very very far from Lamai beach it is under a 10 minute walk and you do not hear any noise from the road at all. Fair enough though if it is a beach property you want unfortunately I cannot help.

Lamai Boomerang do the best pizzas in town with prices starting at 180baht, quite a lot cheaper than the 350 you suggest and also cooked by an Italian chef. I have never had a better pizza!

I also know of a few places that do a full english breakfast for 99baht, and that includes the whole lot! Samui is not too expensive if you know where to go.

There are not beach villas avail, only 5 star resorts in Lamai, i can live with a place "close" to the beach, better if I dont' have to cross the ring road with the usual concrete trucks speeding day and night....

Boomerang pizza is very thick and for 180b you get the small one, all crust burned out....remember i'm italian, we invented Pizza

If I eat for more than 3 days a full english breakfast i would go to hospital, again, i'm italian

Cappuccino (with real coffe), fruit, yoghurt, musli, toast, jam and real orange juice is my usual breakfats/lunch and it was a miracle to find a place close by for only 150b, i hope they will be there next year or I will starve

Remember, oily fried bacon will kill you, slowly.....

[RAZZELL]

i suggest koh chang

I don't. The weather's terrible. Beaches nothing special. Nothing to do

RAZZ

[Birdman]

Koh Chang is beautiful, beaches are very nice. The weather depends on the season like everywhere. Nothing to do, if one can not appreciate terrific nature and a not hectic island life.

Some poster shoulder get more informations and read more about the places pre their visit!

[cyborg22]

Perkie

Your post was very informative for the op and very true in my opinion.

Samui is not that expensive if you live in the right area. Lamai is considerably cheaper than chawenge.

If cost really is a main concern for eating, There is always the all you can eat bbq's for about bht100 each. i see some of the backbackers in there at night stocking up for the next day. (amazes me how they can sleep after all that)

I stay in lamai often when i get time to have a well earned break. Which is not often enough

For a massage, You can get a decent massage on lamai beach for bht200/250 i often go to one on the beach behind lamai pearl resort at the top of lamai beach road. Beware of cheaper massage prices you might get only 30 mins. The one i go to your there for about hour and half or little bit more. Nice guy next door called greg does some very nice food or just a coffee while you waiting for the massage.

[Rooo]

The Op's question was about the cost of living, and not the specifics of a good pizza or the origin of pasta.

[RAZZELL]

Koh Chang is beautiful, beaches are very nice. The weather depends on the season like everywhere. Nothing to do, if one can not appreciate terrific nature and a not hectic island life.

Some poster shoulder get more informations and read more about the places pre their visit!

I've been to Koh Chang 4 times

The weather is bad because you get the rains from Cambodia and Vietnam.

The OP wants to spend a year looking at "nature"? No thanks

Apart from Whitesands the beaches are nowhere near as good as what you'd find in Phuket or Krabi...or even Samui

RAZZ

[Nick001]

I am slightly curious about the visa options one can use to 'move to Samui'...

Yes, salient comment.

To the original poster: I am confused. You say you were in Samui and Phuket for a month each, yet you don't know how much you should budget for food and spending? You don't know how much a used car costs and apparently are unaware of petrol costs as well. You don't even know how much a mobile phone costs.

You say: "We have looked all over the internet trying to find the answers ourselves, but have come up with almost nothing!!"

What were you doing in Samui for a month that you were unable to even understand how much food costs? I'm guessing you were not in an exclusive 5-star resort, since scrimping seems a fundamental for you, and I assume you were not spending the month in the Samui District Prison.

So how can you spend a month here and not think, "Look at all those phone shops, wonder how much the phones are?" What did you eat? I mean a month of eating would give you a pretty grounded idea of food costs.

What gives?

Hi! The first month we stayed in Koh Samui was for our wedding and honeymoon in December 2007. We did stay in a 4-star hotel and ate at pretty expensive restaurants and did all the touristy things. We returned the year after in Dec 2008 to Phuket. Similarly, we were on holiday so we stayed in really nice hotels, ate expensive foods, and we did all the (more expensive) things you do when you are on holidays, not when you are living somewhere in the long-term (even if the long-term is only a year). Although we often thought and talked about coming back to Thailand for a long stay while we were there, these were only theoretical discussions. That's why we never looked into the real costs of living in Thailand while we were there. We didn't shop for our food at supermarkets, we didn't need phones, our hotel had the internet, we only ever took taxis etc etc. All we knew was that we loved the place and we have since decided to come back. That's why we are doing all the research now and asking for advice from people on Thai Visa. And we really appreciate all the advice and help we have been receiving, thanks very much to you all!

[Mark Wolfe]

Wow.

You stayed a month at the beck and call of one hotel? That must have cost a packet. Either you are not poor or you are after that.... ; )

I find it interesting that you never once ventured out on your own to have a meal or just shop around all by your lonesome. The hotel must have loved you to tears.

More to the point, since you admit to not actually knowing anything about living here -- your experience is through rose-colored glasses (and being in LOVE!!!!) -- I think that your concepts of what it might be like living here are somewhat unreal. I'm not trying to dissuade you from coming, but I do think that the suggestion that you and the spouse come back for a couple of weeks and check life out on the cheap -- read: real life Samui or KP/KT, is a must.

Also, as has been mentioned, under what visa are you thinking you could actually stay here longer-term? Are you 50 years old or over (retirement visa)? Do you want to start a business (gasp!) and thus need a work permit (gasp II!)? Do you want to do the three months in, three months out (or something like that) floater life? I guess a marriage visa is sort of out...

I don't mean to be smug, but you can't just come here and set up camp indefinitely, much in the same way you can't do that in most, if not all, countries.

[brzy]

150 baht per day is enough for eating unless you are eating western food :/ Pizza is used as a treat + my stomach cant fit it all in nowadays, i think my stomach has shrunk to the size of a pea

tried Kokomiko's ? 240 baht pepper steak nice!

[Nick001]

Wow.

You stayed a month at the beck and call of one hotel? That must have cost a packet. Either you are not poor or you are after that.... ; )

I find it interesting that you never once ventured out on your own to have a meal or just shop around all by your lonesome. The hotel must have loved you to tears.

More to the point, since you admit to not actually knowing anything about living here -- your experience is through rose-colored glasses (and being in LOVE!!!!) -- I think that your concepts of what it might be like living here are somewhat unreal. I'm not trying to dissuade you from coming, but I do think that the suggestion that you and the spouse come back for a couple of weeks and check life out on the cheap -- read: real life Samui or KP/KT, is a must.

Also, as has been mentioned, under what visa are you thinking you could actually stay here longer-term? Are you 50 years old or over (retirement visa)? Do you want to start a business (gasp!) and thus need a work permit (gasp II!)? Do you want to do the three months in, three months out (or something like that) floater life? I guess a marriage visa is sort of out...

I don't mean to be smug, but you can't just come here and set up camp indefinitely, much in the same way you can't do that in most, if not all, countries.

Hi again. I certainly take your point. We know that living in Thailand will be a different experience to being on holiday there, but it is something we really want to do and we have thought a lot about it. Worse case scenario, it isn't what we expected, and we come back to Australia.

Our plan is to come on an ED visa, studying the Thai language. With that type of visa we understand we can stay in Thailand for one year with no visa runs, and just need to go to immigration every 90 days to apply for an extension. (You can get a one year extension if studying at a Thai uni, but only 90 days for language courses). We have found quite a few language schools that can help us do this, but we haven't yet found one on Samui. Seems that 'Mind Your Language' is the only school there, and they haven't replied to any of our emails over the last few weeks, so we don't know if they are properly accredited to help us get the ED visa yet. Our other option is the Non-Immigrant type 0 visa (with 90 day visa runs). We know some Australians who, through coming back to Australia every year to get a new one, have stayed in Thailand for over 7 years with this type of visa. And I guess if things ever got tough in terms of getting a visa, we could look into staying in on another tropical island in another South-East Asian country, Malaysia maybe? Haven't thought about that yet, it's a bit down the track, but always an option.

[NHJ]

as far as i know no ED visa is available for thai language school on samui.

[Maestro]

Two off-topic posts about selling timeshare and one about Tenerife have been deleted.

--

Maestro

[Mark Wolfe]

To go 7-Eleven and buy a sandwich for 22 baht. Take it to the condiments station. Put on generous amounts of onions, lettuce, tomatoes and sauces for free. Now you have a real sandwich meal.

[robsamui]

Hmm...

What's interesting here is different people's differing ideas of what CHEAP means to them!

Personally, I'd consider 15,000 baht a month for rent extravagant - the sort of price that people coming here to stay for a month or two would delighted to pay.

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

My old Sujuki Caribbean jeep cost me 80,000 baht and I've changed the oil once in 3 years - no other costs. And my old motorbike was 8,000B.

There are a dozen Thai-style sit-down restaurants close by where two people can eat several dishes for 150 baht, and several quality English/Swiss/Italian restaurants where a massive plate of Euro grub comes across for 300 baht.

I smoke and I drink, so does my (Thai) partner.

I'm living here with a variable income of between 35,000B and 40,000 baht a month and usually manage to bank 5,000 of that a month. And that included going out to the local pubs 3 or 4 times a week.

My advice would be to actually come here to live, but with the minimum of belongings (ie do not ship your stuff yet!) Find somewhere, settle in and then spend your time NOT being on holiday, but speaking to as many people as you can, seeking out cheaper and better accommodation, and generally learning the ropes for yourselves first-hand and for real. THEN, when you've experienced and explored enough to have a clear picture, make your decision!

Good luck,

Rob

[Jose]

Koh Samui/Pha-Ngan/Tao is somewhat like Disneyland - great fun place to visit.

But the moment you move house there, holiday fantasy is over.

[samui04]

Hmm...

What's interesting here is different people's differing ideas of what CHEAP means to them!

Personally, I'd consider 15,000 baht a month for rent extravagant - the sort of price that people coming here to stay for a month or two would delighted to pay.

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

I'm only coming to Samui for a long winter, for now, and last year I was delighted to find a bungalow/villa in december for only 25.000b.

For long term the situation is different but even unfurnished 5500b a month is really very low, maybe the location is a bit far away....if it is so cheap to build houses to rent for near to nothing maybe I will have to change strategy. I could just rent the house for the year and use it 4/5 month, hoping to find the forniture when i'm back......

[BusyBee123]

Hmm...

What's interesting here is different people's differing ideas of what CHEAP means to them!

Personally, I'd consider 15,000 baht a month for rent extravagant - the sort of price that people coming here to stay for a month or two would delighted to pay.

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

I'm only coming to Samui for a long winter, for now, and last year I was delighted to find a bungalow/villa in december for only 25.000b.

For long term the situation is different but even unfurnished 5500b a month is really very low, maybe the location is a bit far away....if it is so cheap to build houses to rent for near to nothing maybe I will have to change strategy. I could just rent the house for the year and use it 4/5 month, hoping to find the forniture when i'm back......

if you want a nice room, swimming pool and open bar at the house i can give you a contact, it is in lamai not sure where you want and cheap(7k a month)!

[dastott]

if you want a nice room, swimming pool and open bar at the house i can give you a contact, it is in lamai not sure where you want and cheap(7k a month)!

That sounds like a great deal. Would love to know the details. PM me if you like.

Cheers.

[Mark Wolfe]

robsamui:

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

This is in Samui? What part of the island is this?

[carmine]

Living here can be as cheap or expensive as you wish to make it. 10000 baht is enough for a nice bugalow in a good location. If you eat Thai food then 200 baht per day per person is enough. The big expenditure here, pending on how much you drink, is booze.

If you are thinking of staying here longterm, i would seriously consider a comprehensive private medical policy, due to the disgraceful overcharging by certain hospitals. This will give a lot of "peace of mind"

[robsamui]

robsamui:

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

This is in Samui? What part of the island is this?

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

Personally, I have a houseful of furniture and I live and work here, so a tiny one-roomer, bar and pool notwithstanding, wouldn't do for me!

R

[robsamui]

robsamui:

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

This is in Samui? What part of the island is this?

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

Personally, I have a houseful of furniture and I live and work here, so a tiny one-roomer, bar and pool notwithstanding, wouldn't do for me!

R

ps and to answer a previous post - there are 5 houses in the patch where I am, and the one opposite is rented by a German guy who comes here every January for 3 months. He pays 60,000B a year rent and keeps it on all year round, with the owners going in to give it a clean every month.

It's a cheap and secure way to keep a permanent base on Samui.

R

[samui04]

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

[smokie36]

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

I assume you mean 15/20k for a private villa?

Not sure about bungalows but I saw apartments for rent 1min from the beach for 7k earlier this year.

Much cheaper than any other beachside place i've found on Samui

[samui04]

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

I assume you mean 15/20k for a private villa?

Not sure about bungalows but I saw apartments for rent 1min from the beach for 7k earlier this year.

Much cheaper than any other beachside place i've found on Samui

A beach single bed bungalow is called a villa if not on the beach.

An apartment on the beach road above a bar must have a negative price, that is they must pay me at least 20k for noise reduction stuff....Last time I've asked the WWWwill wait apart were 50k month.....

I admit that i checked prices 2 years ago and there was only expensive rooms after the ring road very up on hill, with noise.

Now the building mania has spread and until there is a single coconut they will cut it to make room for an apartment so maybe this winter i'll go around a bit, but for a 3/4 month stay the choise is usually with furnished apartments and the price is not so low. With pools no way, cheaper an hotel monthly rental 20k, everything included, no beach but close by foot. Using a car to go for a breakfast remind me of Milan, a tropical paradise has no car...

[smokie36]

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

I assume you mean 15/20k for a private villa?

Not sure about bungalows but I saw apartments for rent 1min from the beach for 7k earlier this year.

Much cheaper than any other beachside place i've found on Samui

A beach single bed bungalow is called a villa if not on the beach.

An apartment on the beach road above a bar must have a negative price, that is they must pay me at least 20k for noise reduction stuff....Last time I've asked the WWWwill wait apart were 50k month.....

I admit that i checked prices 2 years ago and there was only expensive rooms after the ring road very up on hill, with noise.

Now the building mania has spread and until there is a single coconut they will cut it to make room for an apartment so maybe this winter i'll go around a bit, but for a 3/4 month stay the choise is usually with furnished apartments and the price is not so low. With pools no way, cheaper an hotel monthly rental 20k, everything included, no beach but close by foot. Using a car to go for a breakfast remind me of Milan, a tropical paradise has no car...

The place I saw was off the main lamai beach road on the actual road to the beach on the left a fairly sizeable place. I think they were advertising a pool also although I can't be sure on that one (might be a pond). Not been inside the place but for that price on the beach??

[smokie36]

Chopping down my favourite rest spot in bophut already as we speak samui04.

What about Cheong Mon it still has a few places and breakfast on the beach too. Might not be eurozone standard though!

[cyborg22]

The place I saw was off the main lamai beach road on the actual road to the beach on the left a fairly sizeable place. I think they were advertising a pool also although I can't be sure on that one (might be a pond). Not been inside the place but for that price on the beach??

If it is the one i am thinking of, Your right it is a sizable place. But you don't get all of it for that price only an annex of it. There are several rooms contained within it.

[smokie36]

The place I saw was off the main lamai beach road on the actual road to the beach on the left a fairly sizeable place. I think they were advertising a pool also although I can't be sure on that one (might be a pond). Not been inside the place but for that price on the beach??

If it is the one i am thinking of, Your right it is a sizable place. But you don't get all of it for that price only an annex of it. There are several rooms contained within it.

If you are referring to the same place 2-storey building then yes you do only get a room for your money. I think the price may even have been 6k last year.