One Month in Pattaya For $1065

I did a Pattaya budget breakdown before but this is an updated version since living there again more recently. The first time I went to Pattaya 3 years ago I spent around $1250. To my surprise I actually spent quite a bit less than I did last time.

asian-girl-prone-bone

Cost of Living in Pattaya 2016

I am actually quite shocked that I spent so much less. Part of it is because the Baht is much weaker than it was last time. Back then when I traded in a $100 bill I got 3000 baht, this time I got 3550ish.

But this time I had to pay 13k for my condo instead of 10k. And I also was with quite a few more girls, just using different methods.

Thailand is a weird place in that some things are great value and others are pretty bad value. Here is a breakdown of what I spent and how I rate each of them based on value.

FWIW the baht to dollar rate was switching between 35.4 and 35.5 when I was there so I used 35.45 for all my calculations.

Condo ($425)

As mentioned my apartment at View Talay 1 was 13k baht, and in total after 2020 more for electric, water, and a BS 500 baht room charge that the lady added on AFTER I had paid her for the month I spent 15020 baht or around $425 on accommodation.

I have mixed feelings about the value here because last time I was in the same building and it was only 10k, but I was at the tale end of high season this time and the building was almost fully booked.

So I feel like I overpaid a bit, but on the other hand it was a much nicer room than anywhere I have had in the Philippines, and it was about the same price as what I was paying in Cebu for a less ‘modern’ room.

Transportation ($22)

I also spent $22 on transport which can basically be broken down to me spending 20 baht (60ish cents) a day taking the baht bus to Walking Street and then back home.

A couple days I didn’t go to Walking Street, and a couple times I took a motor when the baht bus back to Jomtien was empty at 4am and I didn’t want to wait half an hour for it to fill up.

pattaya-baht-bus-russian-girls

I also took a motor with a girl one time, but I counted that under ‘entertainment’ charges because without her I wouldn’t have taken it.

Phone ($19)

I relied on mobile data for all of my internet needs so I spent $19 for the month on internet. DTAC worked very well (a couple shaky moments but nothing serious) and since I heard the wifi at View Talay wasn’t very good I didn’t pay 870 baht for it. Mobile data was enough.

Laundry ($3)

The only other life expense I had was the Pattaya rip off laundry cost of 90 baht for less than a kilo. After paying that one time I just started washing my laundry myself. Even though it is still cheap at 90 baht I refust to pay 4x what I paid in Angeles for laundry.

Since I live out of a backpack and only have a few pieces of clothes quickly washing one in the sink and putting it on the balcony doesn’t take long at all. There are lots of washers on the streets of Jomtien….. but no dryers :(.

Food ($260)

The last time I came to Pattaya one of the things that I noticed was that western food there was more expensive than anywhere else I had been in Asia outside of a few places in Manila.

In Cebu, Angeles, or Sihanoukville (the 3 places I have spent the vast majority of my time) you can pretty much eat anywhere for $5 a meal or less. Sure there are some exceptions, but there is plenty of good western food around for that price.

Well the dollar being stronger and/or the baht being weaker has made western food in Pattaya more reasonably priced. And I also was able to figure out which places had big enough portions so that I could get two meals out of one order.

My two favorite restaurants were Trattoria, an Italian place with very good pasta right next to where I lived, and Thinnie’s Thailand, a new pie shop that is only a few months old in Jomtien. The crusts on those chicken pot pies were magnificent.

Get some corn on the cob and bread from Foodmart nearby and you can easily stretch one meal into two. If you don’t like corn pick whatever side you want of course.

The bread and pastries at Foodmart were really good, particularly the danishes (they had a weird name, but they were effectively a danish) that cost 23 baht or roughly .66 cents.

Also it was nice to have some legit chocolate milk for the first time in a long time. I think it is way to overpriced in PI but was very reasonably priced in Thailand.

Another great thing about Pattaya is of course that there is good cheap Thai food and also cheap Shwarmas all over the place. 60 baht for a pad thai, and I usually got the 80 baht shwarmas across from 808 disco on Walking Street.

Most places charged 60 baht but the ones that were 80 had a lot more chicken and made a full meal with a bag of chips. So there are 2 good cheap meals that help keep a food budget down.

I eat 2 meals and a snack a day and generally in Phils I spent about $240ish a month on food. I spent $20 more in Pattaya but was a bit more lenient on my spending than I may have been if not ‘traveling’ and kind of in a vacation mode.

Some people go to Pattaya and are 2 week millionaires. $20 over budget is plenty enough for me.

Entertainment ($335)

Last time I was in Pattaya I only had prostitutes over 10 or 12 times and spent close to $400. Most times were 1000 baht, and I paid 1500 baht once and 500 baht a time or two.

When traveling I am trying to force myself to spend more and ‘entertainment’ is supposed to be where I want to spend the most. I told myself I would have a $500 a month forced hooker budget so I would have some good stories for the readers here.

Well things don’t always play out as planned. I found the freelancer scene to be a lot worse than I expected, and I never saw any girl in a bar worth paying what I hear they want (which is getting close to $100 after barfine and tip.)

One of the reasons is because I just don’t find Thai girls faces attractive at all. Everybody has their own opinions on girls and I am in the minority, but I don’t like Thai girls other than their in shape bodies.

yoro-drunk-asian-girls-nightclub

The freelancers are also really rude and confrontational. After dealing with sweet Pinays for 3 years Thai working girls are like dragon ladies.

A lot of them wouldn’t mention price before they came to my room. I just like to get a quick BJ and they are usually in and out of my room in under 30 minutes.

The first girl I met at Ibar but she also worked at Soi 6. I gave her 600 baht and she was fine with it. She wasn’t that hot so I didn’t have her over again.

The next girl I met on Walking Street after noticing her earlier in the night at Ibar. Again I gave her 600 baht and she came over 3 times.

I met a really hot black girl on Beach Road and gave her 850 and she got pissed and wanted 1200. I held my ground and she left pissed off. Last time I was there Beach Road girls were generally 500 or a bit more, I thought I was giving her extra cuz she was pretty hot.

Whatever, even though she was pretty hot she gave bad head and I didn’t want her back over even if she wasn’t a bitch. And I already knew she was a bitch before she came over because the 2nd question I asked her when we first met was ‘where are you from?’ and she rolled her eyes and gave me attitude.

One other freelancer who I met on Walking Street also bitched about the 850 I gave her. She was a bit hotter than the first two girls so I gave her more.

Apparently in their minds having a reliable customer who will give them 850 baht for a 10 minute bj and 20 minute total time in room is bad. Yet sitting around Beach Road or a disco all night making nothing hoping to find some guy that will give them 1500 for long time is better?

The black girl was back on beach road in under an hour……. If only they would have listened when I pulled out my charts and tried to explain to them what an hourly wage was. From then on I just went with the massage shops at Soi Chaiyapoon and Jomtien Soi 6. I really feel like this is by far the best value in Pattaya.

Get a massage (though how legit the massage is will vary, and on Chaiyapoon it generally is a joke of a massage) and a bj for 700 or 800 all in. For sex maybe 1000. The majority of the massage girls aren’t hot, but walk past enough shops and you will find a girl as good looking as most of the girls in Ibar or Insomnia.

I also got overcharged by one bar which you can read about here. Overall I spent $335ish and got 15 blowjobs, a handjob (legit massage girl wouldn’t do bj only hj) and one massage where only hj was available and I passed. Also went to a few bars and paid for some overpriced waters.

Clearly anyone heading to Pattaya for a vacation is going to spend more on entertainment than I did. You will be drinking and if doing that in the bars you will be spending a lot of money. And if traveling across the world you probably want more than a bj every other day.

But this just goes to show that you can have a good time here without spending thousands of dollars. I read some guys on message boards say they spend as much a night as I did in a month.

If you want to do that then cool, but it isn’t necessary.

Visa

One thing I didn’t mention that I would have to account for if living there (I won’t be living there fwiw) is the visas. Considering how difficult the visa situation is Thailand it is almost impossible to put a number on how much this will cost, but the first 30 days is free, and to extend to 60 days is 1900 Baht ($53). For that extra month I went to Bangkok.

You will either have to get an Education visa for $1kish a year, or you will have to take visa runs which will add flight costs and hotel stays. Plus the actual visa cost you have to pay. So maybe another ~$150/ month.

Budget Summary

Maybe I would still spend around $1200 a month to live there long term including visas. I could do it a bit cheaper by finding a cheaper room and finding some reliable girls that could see the value in 600 baht for 20 minutes.

My Pattaya Ebook is loaded with more budget tips as well as pics of all the spots and a step by step gameplan of how to get around town as well as a map of all the key areas.

13 Responses

  1. kick2dante says:

    saw a few hot white tourists as well

  2. Rum and Coke Man says:

    What bars in Asia have had the biggest tit (very important to me don’t like flat chested girls) playboy or penthouse bikini body model face stunner 9s and 10s regardless of price?

    What about a particular city and/or a neighborhood in SEA having a ton of playboy quality (or at least high 7s+) with some of tits?

    • jspill says:

      Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket all have a ‘Hooters’ bar, or two in the case of BKK. Their mission statement is obv to hire hot girls with big chests. And then if that fails (since not all Hooters girls are working girls) then you’re in a red light district with tens of thousands of working girls anyway. In BKK one Hooters is opposite Nana plaza, the other is a short walk to Soi Cowboy. Even though Vietnam / Philippines have bigger tits on average, by sheer numbers of girls and availability of P4P Bangkok would win and you’d find big tits quickly. For model quality check out the soapies near Huay Khwang MRT – the Lord, Poseidon, Nataree, Emanuelle, Caesars, Colonze II, etc. there are about 7-8 within walking distance from the MRT station. It’s harder to find model quality P4P in Philippines and Vietnam that’s easily accessible to foreigners. Thailand for hookers, Vietnam/Philippines for finding a girlfriend, imo.

  3. kick2dante says:

    lol lower your standards bud

    the hottest girls imo are vietnamese but that is all subjective, there are some pretty nice boobs in that area also

    lots of big boobs in phils as well as they are curvier in general, but lots of them are a bit chunkier as well

  4. fillmore crackin says:

    dante and skins need to learn the difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’.

  5. Rum and Coke Man says:

    Dante and JSpill,
    To be clear-What part of Bangkok has the best looking p4p- Soi Cowboy, Patpong, Nana or something else? What about regular chicks?

    Overall- How would rank the cities-which is the best (ie #1 the best)for meeting paid and regular girls between Manila Cebu Jakarta Phnom Penh Saigon Hong Kong Tokyo and Bangkok?

    • jspill says:

      It varies, girls come and go, some only do the P4P thing for a month or two to pay for a new iPhone or university tuition lol. That’s the great thing about Thailand. They’re more ‘natural’ hookers, many of them enjoy it. Whereas Filipinas will be more likely to be doing it out of real necessity to help out their families, and be a bit ashamed of it.

      And Thai hookers can more often afford to choose which guys they go with, guys they genuinely like. That’s nice if you’re a younger guy. Personally I think Thailand is better to live in your 20s and 30s, and Philippines for when you’re getting on a bit. Filipinas take any customers. That’s in terms of P4P, for regular dating though the Philippines is awesome as they speak English and talk about deeper topics. Thais can be a bit boring, but great for short term fun and as a fuckbuddy (‘gik’ they call it).

      Also bar owners change, or girls change bars, it’s hard to say where the best ones are. At the current time though:

      – Billboard on Nana (was bad 6 months ago but new owners brought in a ton of girls recently from a Coyote agency)
      – Crazy House and Baccarat on Soi Cowboy
      – Patpong isn’t great, apart from Club Electric Blue which is ok.

      Nana and Cowboy aren’t far apart so check both. Pop your head in each Gogo and if nothing catches your eye go onto the next one, they’re all right next to each other.

      – Thermae, is a freelancer bar mid way between Nana and Cowboy, by Soi 15. Dozens of girls go there and stand in a line waiting to be picked.

      I’d browse these pics:
      https://www.facebook.com/nanaplazagroup/
      https://www.facebook.com/clubelectricblue/photos

      And if hardly any of those are your taste at all, then your preferences are probably more like an Asian guy’s (model type white skin, tall, pretty) and in that case I’d go do a tour of the soapies in Huay Khwang, the Lord, Poseidon and Nataree. If at least 10% or more are hot to you then since there are hundreds of girls across Nana/Cowboy you’ll find one quite quickly.

      For regular chicks the street of bars/clubs called RCA. Area called Khao San for tourist girls, backpackers etc. and regular girls who like white guys. Or buy a month on ThaiCupid, set up a profile shortly before coming and get girls that way.

      For me Bangkok is #1. Cambodia isn’t good for regular girls, it’s mostly either very cheap (but ugly compared to rest of Asia) P4P or girls that want marriage. Two extremes and not much of a casual dating scene in-between. You wouldn’t like Cambodia much if you want model quality girls.

      Hong Kong not much accessible P4P, I was turned away at private gentleman’s clubs in Mongkok. Was told most of the P4P scene is online on a Craigslist type site in Japanese language. So it’s a bit hard to break into. Didn’t really have fun there.

      Haven’t been to Japan, if money is no object they are probably the hottest girls. I’d assume the places accessible to foreigners have less hot girls though. Bangkok is full of Japanese guys so that probably says something.

      Dante has done well in Jakarta with regular girls.

      Saigon good for massages and blowjob bars but the rest of the P4P scene was mercenary, hardened girls. Not a great country for P4P. Regular girls hot and friendly but hoping for a boyfriend and take maybe 2-3 dates before banging compared to 1-2 in Thailand. Less slutty than Thai girls.

      Cebu great for online dating, not so great for P4P. Some freelancers in J Ave disco pretend not to be hookers lol, you have to both ‘game’ them AND pay. Manila worse than Bangkok but I still had fun, Kojax and Hotspot bar on Burgos Street have the best girls.

    • kick2dante says:

      you never know which bar will have the best lineup on a given night, you just gotta take a look around at nana and cowboy and you will find something

      the 2nd all is a matter of personal opinion, but ive got a couple ebooks coming out on those subjects soon 🙂

  6. Squid says:

    Wow. Jspill said you didn’t like to spend money but I had no idea until I read this article.
    I have to give you some props for discipline Dante.
    Living in the hooker capital of the world and not blowing all your money on them takes some fortitude.
    Also. Stretching one meal into two meals? Never even heard of that before.

  7. Pretty sure I asked this before, but I’ll ask again bc I can’t find the answer — How are freebies in Pattaya?

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