Lured by the sandy beaches, lush jungle and exotic culture – not to mention the cheap prices – backpackers and, more recently, couples and families have been flocking to Thailand for some fun in the sun. But all that looks set to change. As shown by the cost of living in its capital city, Bangkok – recently named the second most expensive place to live in Southeast Asia.
Singapore alone stands above it in the costly ranks, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Fueled, in part, by the strengthening value of the baht (Thai currency) in relation to the US dollar.
In fairness, things are still pretty cheap – 1USD equaled around 31THB at the time of writing. Which means you can feast quite happily (and easily) on these Bangkok street stalls:
The 10 most expensive cities out of 131 surveyed, were Zurich, Tokyo, Geneva, Osaka/Kobe, Oslo, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Frankfurt.
With the least most expensive cities being Muscat (Oman), Dhaka, Algiers, Katmandu, Panama City, Jeddah, New Delhi, Tehran, Mumbai and Karachi.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
