Unpopular opinion: my $11 hostel stay in Bangkok taught me more about budget travel than 3 years of travel blogs
I kept a running total of every baht I spent on a 5 day trip to Bangkok last month, and the number that surprised me was $11. That was my nightly rate at a hostel near Khao San Road, breakfast included, and it beat the $60 hotel I booked two nights later in every way that mattered to me. The hotel had AC and a private bathroom, sure, but the hostel had a woman cooking rice soup at 6am who showed me which bus to take to the weekend market for 8 baht instead of a 150 baht tuk tuk. I ended up spending $180 total for the whole trip, flights not counted, and most of that was street food and one splurge dinner. Has anyone else had a cheap place end up being the highlight of a trip like that?