More than a year ago I wrote about my plans to take a trip to Bangkok in January of 2015. Since then several people have asked, "Are you still planning that trip to Bangkok?" To all my doubters, "Yes I am." I did however, decided on a more reasonable one month vacation.
So here's how things look now:
Missing Pay
This is no longer my biggest expense. Since I'm now going for just under 33 days, only 20 of them will be missed work days. About 15 of those will be paid, so I'm now only losing a weeks pay.
Airfare
I had said that I hoped my cousin, who will be joining me for part of the trip, would be able to get me cheap standby tickets. And if not I didn't expect to pay more than $1,500.
Well, there's no such thing as standby tickets for the last leg of the journey now, so I did have to buy my own. I could have spent $1,150, but I cherry picked the flights I wanted, and ended up paying $1,350. Still within my expected budget, and now that it's not standby, I can go right up to my vacation limits.
I'll be spending 26 days in Thailand, 4 in Japan, 2 in the air, and less than 12 hours at home. In fact, I will be going from work to the airport, and vice versa.
Lodging
A year ago I was talking about renting a service apartment by the month. That would have been pretty cheap. Now I'm planning to be there less time, and I want to be more flexible. I have found AirBNB.com, so it looks like I can get a studio apartment in the $30 to $45 a night range. It will be cheaper for the days I spend up north. All in all, I'm probably going to spend $1,000 to $1,5000 for the whole trip on lodging.
However, I will not be paying rent at home like I expected. I'll be moving at that time, so I have arranged to wait until I get back to move into the new place. That means I'll be spending less than my initial expectations.
Fun Times
The conversion rate there is still amazing, but I'm thinking I might live it up a little. I'm planing to spend two or three times what I normally do here.
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