Bangkok on a budget

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- From 15-cent train rides to excellent, one-dollar meals, Thailand's tropical capital is teeming with budget options for the penny-pinching traveler. Where else in the world can you get a free vasectomy?

It's easy to spend hundreds of dollars a day in Bangkok, home to some of the most luxurious hotels in the world. But following some guidelines, you can enjoy the city at a fraction of the price.

Accommodations

Most budget tourists head straight for Khao San Road, a lively, colorful area where you can pay as little as 150 baht (US $4.50) a night for a bed in a dorm room. Despite the low price, the accommodations are perfectly decent. It's heaven for backpackers, but more recently is attracting more upmarket tourists as well.

In Bangkok's prime residential area of Sukhumvit Road, one budget option is Suk 11, a quirky guesthouse legendary among backpackers, where the halls have been remade with creaking wooden planks and hanging lanterns to look like old Bangkok alleyways. A bed in a clean, air-conditioned dorm room starts at 250 baht (US$7.50).

Getting around

Buses in Bangkok charge only 5 baht (US 15 cents) for non-air-conditioned service, and up to 17 baht (US 50 cents) for AC vehicles.

Traveling in Bangkok during rush hour is an exercise in Zen patience, so tourists in a hurry would do best to use the excellent BTS Skytrain and underground Metro, with trips starting at 15 baht(US 45 cents).

Trains in Bangkok are cheap. A third-class trip from some suburban areas to the heart of town costs as little as 5 baht (US 15 cents). Or hop aboard one of the public ferries along the Chao Phraya River for sogkok's free oddities. Traditional dances are performed without charge at the Erawan Shrine, near the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel.

At Siam Square, a popular hangout for the younger crowd, free break dancing competitions and concerts take place in the shadows of chichi malls and high-end apartment complexes.

Check out BK Magazine or the "Real Time" section of Friday's Bangkok Post for up-to-date schedules of free performances and other events in the city.

Inside info

Just saying "hello" ("sawadee kha" if you are a woman; "sawadee krap" if you are a man) and "thank you" ("khopkhun kha/krap") may well get you a lower price, especially when bargaining in markets.

Never throw the grown-up version of temper tantrums. Thais abhor them -- and may add on some baht to your bill in revenge.

As for those free vasectomies? The Population and Community Development Association offers them to any man, any nationality, who has fathered two children already. How's that for a good deal?

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