Um....when you draw money from and ATM does it not come out in the local currency for you?
why not carry paper RMB into Bangkok and change the money there?That's a huge amount of cash for me. RMB or Thai Baht is irrelevant. It's just too much cash for me to carry safely on my person. Using the ATM is safer. I can just take out what I need on an as need basis and don't need to much around wasting time at the banks changing my currency.
Considering that more and more countries and places don't want the dollar...I'm hoping to keep my spending money down to maybe 1000 yuan (4900 baht) for the week. Then the hs (not including Visa application fees or whatever) but I am preparing more like 3000 RMB (14,600 BHT) just in case.
This website seemed to be a decent guide for costs:
http://whatismatt.com/bangkok-cost-of-living/200 baht/day for street food. Maybe throw in a couple nicer meals here and there but not much. so like at least 1500 for food. There's hostels for 120 baht or so to that's another grand. Don't know what transport will cost. Let's say I mostly walk and but but allow another 500 for the occasional taxi (like to the embassy maybe) and I'm up to about 3000 baht. So I think 4900 baht is doable if I don't do much. The Muay Thai gym posted earlier has got me drooling. I'm sure the temples are neat too. Probably just not gonna do much partying outside of sharing cheap beers with my fellow travelers at the hostel. Some websites say Thailand has a lot of cheap whiskey too which sounds good to me. lol
I just wish I could tell how to pick a good hostel as I don't really know where the embassy is yet and more than that, there's a huuuuge range in the "fun factor" between different hostels. When traveling alone like I will be, the right hostel is a big deal. Some are just crash pads and some others are big old party houses with tons of folks from all different countries working off hangovers in the lounge, watching movies on a widescreen TV, planning trips about town together with people they just met yesterday and so on. I want to find one of those.