Living in Bangkok, on a budget you can check.
Visas, rent, food, transport and healthcare, as they cost me across five years of living here. Every number shows how it was recorded: a bank statement, a note made at the time, or a range from repeat observations.
Start here
The three pages most people need first.
Visas
Visa options for living in Thailand
The main routes for staying long-term, what each one allows, and which kind of stay each one suits.
Cost of living
What a family of three spends
76,205 baht a month in Bang Na, line by line: townhouse, international school, food, transport and utilities, every figure converted.
Timing
Best time to visit Thailand
Bangkok, the Andaman coast, the Gulf islands and the north have different seasons. Here is what each one is like.
Latest guides
Everything published so far, newest first. Nothing appears here until it is live.
- Khao San Road, from someone who lives here
- What a family of three actually spends in Bangkok
- Visa options for living in Thailand
- The O-A retirement visa, and the insurance trap
- The O-X long-stay visa: ten years, fourteen countries
- Best time to visit Thailand, month by month
- Thailand ended 60-day visa-free entry
- Thailand DTV: what it actually requires
Visas and staying legally
Rules change, so each page shows the official source and the date it was checked.
Visa
Thailand DTV: requirements and fees
What the Destination Thailand Visa requires, what it costs, and where the official rules are.
Enforcement
Visa exemptions and visa runs
The 60-day exemption ended on 15 September 2026. What replaced it, and what it means for repeated short entries.
Overview
All visa options compared
Every long-stay route side by side: what each allows, what it costs and who it fits.
Southeast Asia from Bangkok
Bangkok is my base, and most regional trips start and end here. The thing that catches people out on a visa run or a short hop isn't the outbound flight, it's coming back: since 15 September 2026 the visa exemption is 30 days rather than 60, and land border entries are capped. A trip that worked in 2025 may not work the same way now.
So before booking anything regional, check the visa pages rather than a general post about Southeast Asia. They carry the date each rule was last verified, which is the only way to tell whether what you're reading is still true.
Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia guides · What changed on 15 September 2026
Why this exists
Most budget content about Thailand is written for visitors who stay a week or two. Living here is different: rent is paid monthly, bills arrive, visa renewals have deadlines, and a single trip to the clinic can cost more than a week of holiday food.
This site covers those things, with numbers you can check and a note on how each one was recorded. Where I was wrong or paid too much, that stays on the page.