When we first decided to travel right after Trek was born (and 6 months before we found out he was sick), one of the main reasons for me was food. I love to cook, but cooking means lots of cleaning and I HATE cleaning. I also was finding it really hard to find time to cook since Trek wanted to be held all the time and I happily obliged him. I would make a revolving menu of spaghetti and tacos, since I could make those with one hand while Trek snuggled on my shoulder. It got really old and most nights we just had popcorn.
me being rendered totally useless by Trek’s snuggles
I wanted to live somewhere where it was cheaper to eat out than to cook.
I am soo happy to say that we have found the place! We have been eating street food around Pai for the last couple of days. We decided to check out the grocery store to get some groceries and we quickly found out that it would cost us more to cook at home than to continue letting the nice Thai ladies cook our meals. So I happily put all the groceries back and out to lunch we went.
When we eat from the street vendors we can walk around and all pick our own meal. Each one is from 10-30 baht. (30 cents -$1). We usually spend around $3-$4 on random meat on a stick, soups, and Thai noodle dishes. We then buy a big bottle of water and a couple bottled cokes which costs us $1.50. We always have room for desert, which today was donuts for 1 baht a piece. We got a whole bag so when all was said and done we ate for about $5 for our entire family. If we go out to eat at a restaurant it costs us $10-$15. Super cheap by American standards, but still a lot to spend everyday so we try to do this once or twice a week.
daddy and Peyton picking out their dinner
Today we had our dinner on some stairs we found by the food stalls. This particular area did not have tables, some of them do. We watched all the local people pull up on their mopeds and take their dinner to go. We were too hungry to wait to get home!
yummy donut cart
food market to get vegetables and fruit for snacks at the house
ice cream stand
Peyton choosing his flavor-40 cents for a scoop of icecream and a cone
free ice water station at our favorite place to get Pad Thai
Thai drive thru
delicious fresh fruit-$2.25 for a watermelon, 4 mangoes, and an avacado
ice cream bicycle
5 baht ice cream
streets full of vendors selling yummy food
I love this! The picture of you and Peyton getting donuts is too cute! I wish we had a a grocery store that awesome!! Enjoy!!!
thanks! we were so excited, they were soo yummy!
Hahahaha – random meat on a stick! I will pass on that I think, that ice-cream however…….I’ll have one of each colour!
the icecream is super yummy and so fun to be able to get whenever we want!
Looks like so much fun and very interesting! I agree…..no cooking & cleaning if it’s cheaper to support the locals! Lovin’ the “drive thru”! Lots of love!
it is so nice to be able to just relax and hop on the moped when we get hungry, not make a pile of dirty dishes!
You guys are so adventurous with your eating!! Do you ever worry about what meat it is??:)) ha! Do you ever worry about getting really sick to your stomach? Have any of you gotten sick? I suppose by the time you get back here you will have stomachs of steel!!!
I have never thought about that! it is pretty obvious what the meat is and we try to stick to street vendors who are cooking it right in front of us to make sure it has not been sitting out very long. But sometimes we eat whatever and no one has gotten sick yet:) woohoo!
The food is so cheap there. I’m moving to Thailand! Not having to cook means more time for the family!
hehe, i know! its really nice, I am soaking it up
Gotta say that the fish on a stick looks kind of gross but the vegetable and fruit market looks awesome!
I love Thai street food! I eat it almost every day when I’m in Thailand. You’re right that it’s a lot cheaper than cooking.
I know emily! its soo good! it took me a couple of days of missing the savory food of America (steak, potatoes, mac and cheese), but I am aquiring a taste for the spices and I am really starting to love the food options
you make me want to sell all my stuff and pack everyone a bag!!!! I have a son with autism and he wants to be cuddled to me all the time! I would love to just be free of the therapy and school that he hates so much!!! You have such guts to do what you do!!!
thank you Amanda, ooh I would love to meet your son! I love cuddle bugs:) and i totally understand, that is a huge factor in why we decided to travel, the boys just want to play and be with us all day, so we brainstormed to see how we could make that happen, i hope we can keep finding a way forever
OH my! talk about being in the right place….so cheap! I so would LOVE not cooking, NOT cleaning up
Sounds too good to be true 
I know Lisa! it actually feels too good to be true right now, i am just soaking it up
I’m with Aunt Jalene! No cooking or cleaning if it’s cheaper to support the locals. Oh, if only…
hehe, oh the cleaning! i love to cook if only someone could clean up my super big mess after me
So I definitely need to live there! It is my dream to have eating out be cheaper than eating at home. You have made me fall in love with Thailand.
we are in love too! and i totally am with you about eating out over cooking. in Maui we were lucky since Jarrett ran a restaurant so we got to eat out a lot for free then too
It looks so clean over there…the stores, the streets?
I really wish it was not so far away…i would love to go!
Too bad in the states…we dont have it this way…everything is so high…
it is actually very clean here! we have appreciated that and yes its soo far away! it took so long by plane and bus to find our way here:)