I just can’t stop thinking about pad thai.
Lovingly tossed rice noodles, mixed with fish sauce, tofu, vegetables, egg and chicken (or shrimp) and topped with a sprinkling of chili powder, bean sprouts, ground peanuts and freshly squeezed lime juice. It is hands-down the most splendid dish on the planet.
However, even though I love to eat these noodles as often as possible, the reason why thoughts of pad thai so constantly occupy my mind actually has much less to do with its ingredients than it does with…shopping.
Think about this for a moment. You’re shopping for a new television and you find yourself standing in the store deciding whether or not to buy the sleek 32-inch Sony Bravia or to save your money for something else. Your mind debates back and forth, weighing the options…
‘It’s only $499, that’s a good deal. But I could use that money to pay half my rent this month or pay off some credit card debt. Or maybe I should just buy that $200 jacket I’ve wanted for a while and use the rest of the money to buy two tickets to that Don Henley concert in three weeks.’
This can go on for a few minutes, a few days or even a few weeks until you ultimately decide what to do. There is no doubt that spending money can at times be a tough decision.
Here’s where the pad thai comes in…
Now picture having to weigh every single potential purchase against the number of plates of the most amazing pad thai imaginable that you could receive for that same amount of money.
What am I talking about?
Let me introduce you to the Currency of Pad Thai, a currency with such an attractively high exchange rate that it is guaranteed to transform all of your wildest fantasies of world travel into realistic and achievable goals, while motivating you to get started on your dream journey right away.
In order to understand the system, you need to first be aware that there is a particular Thai woman who runs a simple food stall located at the corner of Chakrapong Road and Soi Rambutri in Bangkok. This kind lady never stops cooking as she spends her days and nights dishing out tasty, generous plates of pad thai to a constant line of customers. One plate of her out-of-this-world pad thai costs a mere 15 baht (44 US cents).
Now, with that knowledge in mind, let’s return to shopping. Whenever I’m about to make a non-travel related purchase, the internal debate inside my head goes something like this:
‘Should I buy those sneakers? They’re only $65. I don’t know. For that amount of money I could feast on 140 plates of my favorite pad thai in Bangkok!’
Crazy, I know. I could eat for four and a half months in Thailand just by keeping the perfectly good sneakers I already have and saving $65! It blows my mind every time!
If you need to buy a new camera, think twice before spending $400. Buy a perfectly good camera for $200 and you now have enough money left over for 444 plates of pad thai as you travel around Southeast Asia.
Too many of us think that world travel is simply impossible or that it requires an amount of money that we simply don’t have. This just isn’t true.
The money is there, you just need to re-arrange your spending habits. And that is exactly what the Currency of Pad Thai forces potential world travelers to do. You will forever be reminded of how far your money can take you in foreign lands, motivating you to eliminate some of the unnecessary purchases you regularly make so that you can start traveling as soon as possible.
Perhaps you need further inspiration than just pad thai. Luckily, I have a solution. I often use another, much bolder, value comparison system that works with remarkable success. It is known as the Currency of Nights in Bangladesh. This system is not for the faint-hearted and it has its roots in the 42 taka (60 US cents) I once spent for a hotel room in Bangladesh (not the most luxurious of accommodations, but a bed nonetheless).
Let’s take another look at those $65 sneakers. We already know that $65 can buy 140 plates of pad thai, but here’s the shocker…it will also get you 108 nights of accommodation in Bangladesh. You could backpack around this land of tea fields, monkey-filled jungles, friendly villages, Sundarban mangrove forests and the Chittagong hill tracts for three and a half months by avoiding one simple purchase!
Here’s another example. When I bought my Sony Vaio laptop last year, I had to think twice before dishing out that kind of money. I couldn’t stop thinking about the 4250 plates of pad thai (enough for 3 meals per day for 4.5 years!) I was giving up or the 3225 nights in Bangladesh (yes, almost a decade!) I could have enjoyed for that money.
I would imagine that some of you are thinking ‘why would anyone even want to go to Bangladesh in the first place or eat so much pad thai?’ Those are indeed reasonable thoughts, but they are not relevant to the overall purpose here.
‘Pad Thai’ and ‘Nights in Bangladesh’ can be whatever you want them to be. I happen to love pad thai and third-world backpacking, so that is what personally motivates me, but there are an infinite number of choices…
Take a look at these typical expenses of life in the ‘real world’ and what a budget traveler could do with that kind of money while on the road:
$10,000 new car = 22,222 plates of pad thai or 16,666 nights in Bangladesh (yes, 45 years)
$1,200 furniture set = 5 weeks of accommodation, food and transport in South Africa
$375 barbecue grill = flight from NYC to Costa Rica
$199 watch = 10 nights of budget hotels in Eastern Europe
$145 cell phone = 3 days of accommodation, meals and travel in Turkey
$99 shoes = 6-month visa, 7 nights of decent hotels & a meal at my favorite restaurant in Delhi
$65 spent at a nightclub = 3-day/ 2-night boat trip around several remote islands in Thailand
$50 to fill up your car with gas = 3 nights in Buenos Aires
$35 bottle of wine = one week in a bungalow on a white sand beach in Indonesia
$4 cup of coffee = 9 plates of pad thai or 7 nights in Bangladesh
Just think about those numbers – if you eliminate 4 cups of coffee in one month, you would save enough money for four weeks of budget accommodation in Bangladesh or 36 plates of pad thai. Not to mention a train journey across India, 2 days of surfboard rental in Mexico, a wine tasting tour in Argentina, entrance fees to the Pyramids of Giza or a night in Prague. Just from $16 saved!
Imagine the results from eliminating your $30/month landline, sushi takeout three times a week, unnecessary clothes and a few random gadgets that you don’t really need anyway…you’ll be on that plane to paradise before you know it.
The point is – if you really want to travel, you can.
All you have to do is stay focused on the pad thai.
*Please share your comments below and let me know what methods you use to motivate yourself to save money for travel…
Back in 1999, I left home for a 3 month trip to Asia that has still yet to end.
This is what I started doing about a year ago. The temptation to spend money goes away quickly when I realize I can live for a few days in South America instead of go out for one $50 dinner in the States that I’ll enjoy for about two hours at most.
I had friends that told me they wanted to travel like me but couldn’t do it for money reasons. So whenever I spent time with them and they started shelling out money for things they didn’t need, I’d make a comparison like one of many in this post. “You can spend that money on new shoes and new pants, or you could buy a roundtrip plane ticket to the Caribbean.”
No wonder I don’t have friends anymore.
Hey Clay!
Thank you for commenting. You’re exactly right…once you realize the true travel value of even $50, it’s amazing how much you can save. In the end, I think that most people are simply afraid to travel like you have because it requires them to leave the safety of the ‘real world’ behind. As a result, they just use money as an excuse which prevents them from chasing their dreams. ‘What a shame’ I say!
BRILLIANT! I’ve been doing this for a while, albeit less scientifically, and it’s amazing how many unneccessary purchases it will keep you from making.
Of course, now I have to find this nice lady with 15 baht pad thai!
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Lol, love the currency of PadThai although I have to say I have probably eaten about a pair of trainers worth of them since being here in Bangkok as it truely is the food of the Gods.
It was very interesting reading your article as this idea of benchmarking expenses against what it could buy elsewhere is what i have found myself doing recently. I own nothing at the moment so I benchmark the cost of flights against month I could live in Bangkok having an awesome life.
Great post Earl
Wow that’s definitely good food for thought (excuse the pun!). I’ve often thought about that specifically when dining out. It kills me to think how many great home-cooked meals I could make with the money spent at a big dinner out.
Money is obviously always somewhat of a constraint, no matter who you are, but for me, time is more constraining at this stage of my life. If only I could free up some more time so I can live the pad thai lifestyle!
I have to try out your 44 cent pad-thai stop when I’m in Bangkok this May. Does your lady have a name or will I just find her at that intersection?
Thanks for the comment Hugh. I actually don’t know the lady’s name but she is guaranteed to be there right at that intersection with her tiny food cart. She’ll be on the corner in front of the bank! And make sure you add a traditional Thai massage at Wat Po (one of the major Buddhist temple’s in Bangkok) to your list…the pain of the body-twisting massage is well worth it in the end!
What an awesome concept!!! While saving money for my trip, I used to think of each purchase in terms of how many hours I’d have to work (ie spend time at a job I didn’t like) in order to buy the item. This is so exciting to read because I can’t wait to travel. There will be a complete shift in how I view purchases. It’s not hours worked it’s dishes of Pad Thai. I really hope inflation or popularity has caused this woman to raise prices, though it seems she deserves to and she can.
Hey Mark – Your method is a good one as well! I think either way, as long as we start to realize how far our money can go in helping us achieve our travel goals, then we’re on the right track. I would imagine that the woman has indeed raised her prices by now. But even if the price was doubled, the pad thai would still be worth the price and the pad thai currency system would still be as effective!
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love this post ( and i love pad thai!!!)… made me rethink about my spending habits…
Hey Flip – Once you start thinking in these terms, it’s hard to stop, but at least it frees up some money for more traveling!
A few months ago I started to look into traveling seriously. Discovering how little money I truly needed to travel was a very pleasant eye opener. I’m headed out next month for at least one year and I plan on eating the hell out of some pad thai.
Great Post.
Scott
Hey Scott – That’s excellent that your adventure is only a month away! There’s no stopping you now. And I think that this idea, that one doesn’t need much money to travel, is probably the most important lesson to learn. After all, upon discovering this truth, one is able to start traveling sooner rather than later and as a result, begin reaping the long-lasting benefits of travel almost immediately.
Hi Earl,
” ‘why would anyone even want to go to Bangladesh in the first place or eat so much pad thai?’ Those are indeed reasonable thoughts, but they are not relevant to the overall purpose here.” Your sense of humour is one of the reasons I keep coming back to your blog
Thanks Lape! that’s good to know because normally, I’m the only one laughing when I try to be funny
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Awesome post, I love thinking like this!! And I love the ’7 links project’ which brought me to this post
Hey Dani – I’m not surprised you think like this as well! As long-term travelers we realize that it’s the only way to think if we want to achieve our travel goals
Ha! Earl, this is excellent.
I made my own take during the trip my friend and I took to Japan & Thailand. I called it the ‘Economics of Beer’. We’re young and we definitely wanted to check out the night life while traveling so I would reference the cost of items (like shoes) vs. how much for a beer.
I know this is obviously really crazy because it’s not food but it did let us get out more often and meet some very interesting people that later treated us to food for being such great entertainment!
Hey Murray – Your method works all the same! It’s just another lesson in the prioritization of spending and how we are able to achieve what may appear as crazy goals, just by changing the way we spend money. And glad to know you managed to eat a little on that trip and that it wasn’t only a diet of beer
What a great post! This makes me feel like travel is possible for me in the near future. And I’m definitely rethinking the way I spend my money.
Lyuda
Hey Lyuda – As soon as we start changing the way we spent money, it’s amazing how we suddenly are in a better position to achieve our goals!
Haha! I thought it was only me who was crazy enough to convert purchases to “things I could afford/ do abroad if I didn’t buy this”. Actually, I’ve even done the pad thai-thing before.
Already put “finding Earl’s pad thai” lady to my to-do-list for Bangkok this December.
You just made my day!
Hey Alice – You’re definitely not alone! I personally feel that converting purchases in this manner is one of the keys to having been able to travel for so long. And yes, you should check out the pad thai lady when you get to Bangkok. She never fails to satisfy
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Hi Earl.. yeah a great way of thinking! and yeah i wish i had found that lady when i was in bkk! never had food that cheap there!!!!! must find it next time!! all the best bernie
Hey Bernie – I hope that lady is still there. I guess I need to revisit Bangkok just to find out
At least in Thailand, even if you pay double or triple that price for a meal, it’s still a bargain!
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