฿100 a day challenge – day 1

Day one of the challenge was successful: I survived on less than ฿100 a day!

It’s weekend, so I made plans to go to Lumphini Park with Alison. We agreed to meet there in the morning for a picnic. So, I only had a small breakfast with stuff I still have at home: crispbread and Nutella. A little later I was on my way to the bus. I bought some veggie fritters (it’s jay festival, so there’s vegetarian food everywhere) and some fruit to share with Alison for our picnic.

I arrived at the bus stop way in advance as I had quite some bad luck waiting for buses before. About ten minutes later, bus number 50 arrived and I hopped on. Unfortunately, this was an airconditioned bus, which meant that the ticket is more expensive even though the route was fairly short. I paid ฿13 for a one-way to Lumphini Park.

Alison and I spent the afternoon there and shared food and drinks. It’s a bit like Central Park in Bangkok, just not as big. Ok, Central Park is much nicer, but this is one of my favourite places in Bangkok. Especially in the colder season when the temperatures are about 20-something degrees and there are free open air Bangkok Symphony Orchestra concerts on Sundays.

Alison and I left the park before it would start raining. I made my way back to the bus stop and got back on the number 50 bus for ฿13. By the time I arrived at my stop, it had started raining already. I had spent ฿66 so far and thus ฿34 left for dinner. I was planning to buy som tam (papaya salad) but the som tam stalls weren’t there. I looked around and found a stall selling fried taro. I decided that would be my dinner and quickly bought a portion.

I rushed home as it started to rain more heavily. I hate Bangkok when it’s raining. The water just doesn’t go anywhere, so I end up hopping around puddles (and still get splashed – either by cars, tuk-tuks and motorbikes passing by or by my own flipflops flipping the dirt up my own legs). Also, it’s not just the drains on the ground. A lot of roofs have defect drains so the water is dripping and splashing everywhere – pretty gross. There is even one house in my soi that has water splashing everywhere even when it isn’t raining!
Anyways, I got home before the heavy rain and rushed out again to the water machine on the corner to refil my water bottle for ฿1! I love these machines.

So, I got through the first day spending only ฿87! And clearly, it will be a Saturday night in: watching a movie, playing some guitar, reading a book. Enjoying the great indoors, for free!