How Far Does $30 (1,000 Baht) Go at Bangkok's Chatuchak Market?
If you aren’t following our Instagram (which you should!) you might not have seen that we, along with some friends, were in a pretty bad car accident a couple weeks ago. Our friends’ rental car was totaled after being rear ended and pushed into a ditch by a driver who didn’t brake at all.
In other words, we were four of the 3,612 injured people mentioned in this article. That distracted us more than it should have, and we fell behind.
Anyway, for this week’s video and blog post, we went to Bangkok’s famous Chatuchak Market. With over fifteen thousand stalls, this market is insanely big and has anything you can imagine. From food to furniture, from puppies to purses, it’s all there.
We went with one mission: spend 1,000 baht (~$30 USD) on food.
We always find it fascinating to see people’s culinary experiences while they travel, and, as budget travelers, we also love to know just how much those amazing foods cost.
Instead of just listing the prices of the dishes, though, we thought we’d take $30 to Chatuchak Market to find out (and show you!) how far it stretches.
We failed in our mission.
We thought that $30 might not be enough to cover all of the incredible, delicious foods and drinks we wanted to try while we were there. After all, $30 barely covers a meal, drink, and dessert for one person at the California State Fair, for example.
We were completely wrong.
In fact, we were only able to spend about half of that $30 on food. After that, we were so full that we just could not eat any more.
Instead, we took the remaining money and spent it on a massage.
Check out the video to see all of the amazing things we tried, and also for some glimpses of the market itself! For a complete breakdown of everything we ate and drank, and how much it cost, read on.
Flower (chrysanthemum) tea: 25 baht
Coconut water (still in the coconut): 30 baht
Cream puffs: 20 baht
Quail eggs: 30 baht
Sour pork balls: 20 baht
Fish balls: 20 baht
Fruit bowl with brown sugar and shrimp sauce: 40 baht
Fried vegetable cubes: 40 baht
Squid eggs: 40 baht
Miang kham (leaf wraps): 40 baht
Jackfruit sticky rice: 40 baht
Bubblegum-flavored shaved ice: 30 baht
Sprite popsicle: 5 baht
Pork sausage: 20 baht
Hibiscus drink: 20 baht
Lychee juice: 20 baht
Coconut ice cream: 50 baht
Flower (chrysanthemum) tea: 20 baht
Vegan pad thai: 50 baht
That’s a grand total of 560 baht on food and drink. We were so stuffed that we couldn’t eat another bite, so we took our remaining 440 baht and got massages.
In summary, our approximately $30 got us five drinks, 14 (often sizable) snacks, a plate of noodles, and back and shoulder massages.