A Social Evening Out

[BigWheelMan]

I live in Chiang Mai, but I'm sure this is relevant to wherever you live in Thailand.

Like many other ThaiVisa members I sometime enjoy a social night out that Thailand is famous for. But over the last couple of years, with the falling of bank exchange and interest rates and the ever hyping up of prices for night entertainments, such as, restaurants, alcoholic drinks, female company etc, social has become a luxury for me.

Some examples:

Restaurant meal = 300 baht is you're lucky.

Hotel room = approx 900 baht

Female company bar = drinks, bar fine, lady = 2000 baht

Petrol if living out of town = 200 baht

Total = 3400 baht

This is without excessive drinking or going over board with spending.

So has social and night entertainments become a luxury for you?

Are you all becoming computer or TV slouches or just staying at home more because the budget gets tighter?

Is there such a thing in Thailand as an economy night out? Without it being boring.

Be interesting to hear your comments.

Edited March 12, 2010 by BigWheelMan

[garyh]

Maybe you need to move to Cambodia if Thailand is now too expensive for you.

[NanLaew]

Let me guess... another wingeing pom? Nothing wrong with anyone else's forex rates now is there?

OK, from your example, the horizontal mambo part of your night out is about 60% of your budget.

I will leave it to the OP to consider if there's room for economies in his budget. I mean, if you have to get drunk to sleep with a lady....

Edited March 13, 2010 by NanLaew

[NADTATIDA1]

Restaurant meal = 300 baht is you're lucky.

Hotel room = approx 900 baht

Female company bar = drinks, bar fine, lady = 2000 baht

Petrol if living out of town = 200 baht

Total = 3400 baht

ONLY AN AUSSIE COULD GET DRUNK ON A BUDGET LIKE THAT....1000 BT???

[NADTATIDA1]

DP

Edited March 13, 2010 by NADTATIDA1

[WeeGB]

Let me guess... another wingeing pom? Nothing wrong with anyone else's forex rates now is there?

OK, from your example, the horizontal mambo part of your night out is about 60% of your budget.

I will leave it to the OP to consider if there's room for economies in his budget. I mean, if you have to get drunk to sleep with a lady....

Maybe it's the lady who needs the drinks.....

[Ulysses G.]

Maybe you need to move to Cambodia if Thailand is now too expensive for you.

One hundred dollars for a good Western meal, a decent hotel room, drinks and the services of a lovely lady does not sound "expensive" to me (and you can do the whole thing for half of that if you get a guesthouse and go to a massage parlor rather than a Go-Go bar).

[IanForbes]

The great thing about bars and bar ladies is you CAN budget yourself. When you start running short of funds just cut back.

I spend FAR more on entertainment than I ever do for necessities.

room rental - 4000 baht per month

Meals - 5000 baht per month

Ladies - 15,000 baht per month

Bar bill - 15,000 baht per month, but most of that is for lady drinks. I seldom have more than two per night myself.

Incidentals - who knows, not much. I've got enough to buy what I want or need without getting extravagant.

[ukrules]

Perhaps you should spend less on the ladies and just concentrate on the alcohol.

[TheLaughingMan]

Save your money and get a real girlfriend? Of course... maybe dont listen to me seeing as I'm alone and miserable.

[neverdie]

The great thing about bars and bar ladies is you CAN budget yourself. When you start running short of funds just cut back.

I spend FAR more on entertainment than I ever do for necessities.

room rental - 4000 baht per month

Meals - 5000 baht per month

Ladies - 15,000 baht per month

Bar bill - 15,000 baht per month, but most of that is for lady drinks. I seldom have more than two per night myself.

Incidentals - who knows, not much. I've got enough to buy what I want or need without getting extravagant.

Shocking Ian, absolutely shocking.....but its what I expected from you

4000 baht on a stinking little rat infested room amoungst the slums and 30,000 on the ladies, easy to see which head your thinking with

[Ulysses G.]

4000 baht on a stinking little rat infested room amoungst the slums and 30,000 on the ladies, easy to see which head your thinking with

He's not the only one. Great minds think alike!

[eek]

Restaurant meal = 300 baht is you're lucky. I pay roughly 100 - 150 for great meals.. places on Nimmenheimen etc. Dunno where you are eating, or how much though. But, that is more than enough budget for me normally. Can eat for much less money than that too!

Hotel room = approx 900 baht I rent, so different for me..but again, 500 baht can get you a really nice room..900 seems a tad high imo. ?

Female company bar = drinks, bar fine, lady = 2000 baht Not a requirement.

Petrol if living out of town = 200 baht I fill my bike up with 100 and it lasts me for days. But i live close to town.

Total = 3400 baht

This is without excessive drinking or going over board with spending.

Im off out dancing tonight. I dont drink alcohol so i guess that helps, not sure..and paying for any kind of company would never factor in my spending habits. So anyway, i'll be dancing my ass off having fun. I guess it all depends on what people consider important etc, but i can still have a ton of fun on a tighter budget.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Not sure if you live in Chiang Mai, Neverdie, but 4000 is quite a fancy room around these parts. Unless the point of your post was just to be nasty at a fellow forum member?

Perhaps you should spend less on the ladies and just concentrate on the alcohol.

Well, that's a choice right. You could do either. For example on any given night you can significantly reduce spending on either fancy accommodation, fancy food, fancy alcohol or fancy company. Where your priorities are, there your expenditures lie as well.

I could go into detail on how to reduce costs any of those 4, but what they all have in common is that reducing costs tends to mean going more 'Thai', which presumably is why we're here in the first place, because we like Thailand. So people who truly love Thailand won't have trouble reducing costs, if only until exchange rates get better.

Edited March 13, 2010 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Bedrockguesthouse]

Surely u hav met mrs palmer and her 4 daughters. No bar fine no cost and no ladies drink. More drinks for you and your mates

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Out of interest, let me try, with a focus on cutting costs. (Advance notice to the usual suspects: This is not typical for me, I do have options thankyouverymuch.)

> Restaurant meal = 300 baht is you're lucky.

I do enjoy nice restaurants, but stopped doing so in combination with a party night out. I might spend that when just going to dinner, and then typically with the family. But then there's no serious drinking or other vices afterwards. Note that cost is not the only factor in this; a big meal followed by big drinking is a great recipe for great weight-gain. So on a drinking night, I go VERY easy on the food, to the point that it basically doesn't add cost. I might buy something from a passing vendor and then share it with the company in attendance. So then it serves a dual purpose of getting a little food in, AND doing something nice for the crowd that doesn't come in the form of a 100 baht drink.

> Hotel room = approx 900 baht

Sure you can spend that, or much more. I probably would when spending only a night or two in a place. For longer stays you can obviously spend FAR less. On occasion I like to reconnect with a traveller past, and then you find that there still are MANY guesthouses left that didn't go 'boutique'. Anyway with a house or apartment you don't have that as an expense for a night out. Unless of course you refer to shorter term accommodation. In that case find someone with a room.

> Female company bar = drinks, bar fine, lady = 2000 baht

You could go for non commercial relationships, though to be honest that doesn't save cost in a significant way. If you work on a list of acquaintances then you'll find that expenditures DO drop significantly. You do then need to add a couple hundred baht a month for a cell phone.

> Petrol if living out of town = 200 baht

That's pretty far out of town. I'm about 10kms out, 15km/liter, so about 20 baht to get into town? Note that this doesn't make sense in combination with a cost for a hotel; if you're staying in a hotel then presumably you can find one in town..... So in addition to exploring sufficiency-partying, I think you need to work on the math/logic as well.

Edited March 13, 2010 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Carib]

The great thing about bars and bar ladies is you CAN budget yourself. When you start running short of funds just cut back.

I spend FAR more on entertainment than I ever do for necessities.

room rental - 4000 baht per month

Meals - 5000 baht per month

Ladies - 15,000 baht per month

Bar bill - 15,000 baht per month, but most of that is for lady drinks. I seldom have more than two per night myself.

Incidentals - who knows, not much. I've got enough to buy what I want or need without getting extravagant.

Absolutely disgusting !!!

What a filthy lifestyle....

[elkangorito]

Unless I go to my mate's restaurant, I avoid going out. The biggest two luxuries for me in Thailand are quietness & simplicity...both of which I get at home.

[garyh]

Surely u hav met mrs palmer and her 4 daughters. No bar fine no cost and no ladies drink. More drinks for you and your mates

You forgot the opposable thumb that makes us human

[StreetCowboy]

8>< NESTED QUOTES DELETED ><8

You forgot the opposable thumb that makes us human

I like to think there's more to it than that, though maybe not in your case, my simian friend.

SC

EDIT:

A brief PS to make it seem somewhat on topic:

I tried to get by on 1,000 / day cash

200 baht for lunch

200 baht for dinner

200 baht for taxi to work

200 baht for taxi home

200 baht for fun

and I'd aim to underspend enough to have 2,000 left over for a better night once a week.

I never managed it, though... I always ended up blowing a couple of thousand on drink and so forth at least once a week...

SC

Edited March 13, 2010 by StreetCowboy

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Taxi cost is pretty high for you.. you could move, or get a bike or cheap car.

[IanForbes]

Shocking Ian, absolutely shocking.....but its what I expected from you

4000 baht on a stinking little rat infested room amoungst the slums and 30,000 on the ladies, easy to see which head your thinking with

Actually, it's quite a nice hotel, but a bit out of town (2 km). And, I have a nice big corner room with a view.

I don't mind eating boring Thai food for 40 baht a meal. I live well on the stuff. However, I do find it hard to not buy my lady friends a drink when I go out every evening. And, I have to do the circuit to my few regular bars. That adds up to about 500 - 600 baht a night. I have other arrangements for my afternoon ladies, so I seldom if ever bar fine anyone unless one of the gals wants to go dancing or to some music establishment.

Of course, I have to get enough lovin in to carry me over my 7 months of celebacy when I'm in Canada.