That $5 hostel stay in Bangkok made me rethink everything about expensive hotels

I booked a random dorm bed near Khao San Road for 5 bucks a night thinking it'd be a disaster. The place had free pad thai every evening, a rooftop hangout, and I met people who knew secret street vendors where meals cost 40 baht. Now I don't bother with anything over $15 a night unless I'm somewhere really remote. Has anyone else found a crazy cheap spot that totally changed your travel style?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithf7710d ago

Yeah I gotta disagree with you here. That kind of budget travel is fun for a weekend but it gets old REAL fast when you need some actual sleep or privacy. Those $5 hostels are loud, the mattresses are basically cardboard, and you're sharing a bathroom with 20 strangers. Not everyone wants to trade comfort for a cheap pad thai. I've done the dirt cheap thing and ended up spending MORE on coffee shops just to escape my dorm room and get some quiet.

alice80810d ago

Right there with you on this one. That whole "roughing it" thing sounds good on paper until you're lying on a mattress that's basically a yoga mat with a sheet, listening to someone snore three feet away. I did the hostel circuit for a while in my early twenties and it was fun for like a week, but after that I was spending so much money on cafes and iced lattes just to have a quiet place to sit and read that it totally defeated the purpose of saving money on lodging. At a certain point, sleep and basic privacy aren't luxuries, they're needs. Why travel if you're just gonna be exhausted and frustrated the whole time? You ever hit that point where you just cave and book a private room out of desperation?