If the street shopping is still not cheap enough for you, you’ll need to get outside the tourist areas a bit, wear your older clothes to look less prosperous, and put on your bargaining hat.Negotiating is something you need to learn to be respected in Thailand; it is far from the somewhat shameful behavior it might be viewed as back home. A good bargainer is admired and often called geng by Thais: savvy and skilled.

We’ve listed the main market areas in our selected cities below for your information; but to really push beyond this, you’ll need to simply walk around in some of the smaller Thai towns, and get out to the local markets, which aside from being real cultural eye-openers, are the frugal traveler’s heaven on earth.