Live market · Yodl Thailand · field guide
Paying in Thailand
Bangkok runs on the Skytrain and the street wok, and it pays in cash or by the QR code at the register. These guides cover landing, getting around, eating, working and paying, plus the one step the app asks of you before your first scan: verify. PromptPay is national, and the guides start in Bangkok.
01 · Arrive
Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang
Bangkok's two airports make for two different arrivals. Suvarnabhumi (BKK) takes the long-haul flights; the airport train leaves from the basement and runs into the city, with the change for the Skytrain at Phaya Thai. The official taxi line is outside on Level 1: take a ticket from the machine and keep the printed slip, which carries the driver's and the car's details. Grab picks up from its own marked lanes on the same level. Don Mueang (DMK) is the low-cost hub, with a commuter train station across a footbridge. Install an eSIM before you fly or buy a tourist SIM at an arrivals counter with your passport, and have your hotel's name in Thai script or a map pin ready. Two money habits for the first hour: verify in the app before your first scan, and change only a little at the airport, where the counters are typically weaker than the booths in town or an ATM.
02 · Get around
Rabbit card or credit card
For a visitor the spine is the BTS Skytrain's Sukhumvit and Silom lines plus the MRT Blue Line underground, crossing at Asok, Sala Daeng and Mo Chit. They take payment differently, for now: the MRT and the airport train take a contactless credit card at the gate, while the BTS runs on its own Rabbit card and single tickets, so switching between them means tapping out and buying again. Grab and Bolt run cars and motorbikes, with upfront prices that climb in rain and at rush hour, paid in the app or in cash. For the far end of a long soi, the motorbike taxis wait at its mouth in orange vests; ask for the helmet. Say "meter, please" before you sit down in a taxi, and agree on a tuk-tuk's price before you get in. The express boats run the river from Sathorn pier, under Taksin Bridge.
03 · Money & paying
Baht at the counter, verified first
Cards (Visa and Mastercard, plus UnionPay and JCB) work at hotels, malls, restaurants and the big attractions, though Amex is refused in places and some shops add a surcharge or set a minimum. Stalls, night markets, small family shops, and many taxis and tuk-tuks run on cash or the local QR. A phone tap with Apple Pay or Google Pay is a card payment, so it needs a contactless terminal. The QR is PromptPay, Thailand's national real-time payment system, and Thai QR Payment is how people pay it, by scanning the code from a banking app. The catch for a visitor is the wiring: PromptPay runs on Thai bank accounts, banks generally open those for long-term residents, and a foreign banking app or card generally can't pay the code. At the ATM, each foreign-card withdrawal carries a flat local fee on top of your home bank's charges, so take out fewer, larger amounts, choose baht when you're offered your home currency, and take your card, since the cash comes out first.
The app we use here is Yodl, and in Thailand it asks one thing of you first: verify in the app, which unlocks Pro Pay, before your first payment. Then you hold stablecoins, scan the PromptPay or Thai QR at the counter, and a licensed local partner pays the merchant in baht. There's no Thai bank account to open and no local wallet to sign up for. Keep cash for the stalls and the markets, and check what's live in the app before you lean on it.
One $50 bill, two ways
Sample · verify04 · Eat & drink
Where the street food went
Bangkok still eats on the street, though less of it is on the main roads: the city has moved many vendors off its busiest sidewalks since 2022, side streets and tourist areas get more leeway, and new hawker centers took in some of the cooks, one of them beside Lumphini Park. Yaowarat, the Chinatown strip, gets going at dusk. On Charoen Krung the old-guard shophouses do congee for breakfast at Jok Prince and roast duck at Prachak, and Thipsamai has cooked pad thai in the same Old Town shophouse since 1966. A few words open the menus: khao man gai (chicken rice with a cup of broth), pad kra pao (the holy-basil stir-fry over rice that is the default office lunch), jok (rice congee), cha yen (Thai iced tea) and aroi, delicious. The smallest stalls still want cash, so keep small notes on you.
05 · Work
Europe's morning, America's night
Thailand runs on UTC+7 with no daylight saving time, which makes Bangkok strong for Europe and Asia-Pacific and a night-shift city for US work: a Bangkok afternoon is a European morning, and a US East Coast stand-up lands late in the Bangkok evening. Home fiber is the real connection. Most condos come pre-wired, but old internal wiring can cap a fast plan, so test the speed in the unit before you sign. Cafés here are day businesses, and many close by late afternoon. Ari's cafés double as unofficial coworking, with NANA Coffee Roasters the one to start at. For a dedicated desk, The Work Loft sits at BTS Sala Daeng in Silom, The Hive is off Sukhumvit Soi 49 in Thonglor, and True Digital Park serves the far end of the Sukhumvit line at Punnawithi. Outlets vary, so arrive charged.
06 · Neighborhoods
Pick the station, then the soi
Ari is the first-month answer for most people: leafy sois, cafés in converted houses, street food under the station and one BTS stop at the center, walkable in a city that mostly isn't. The Sukhumvit core around Nana, Asok and Phrom Phong is the junction, with the malls, the best transit and the most noise; base away from the Soi 4 and Soi Cowboy nightlife. Thonglor and Ekkamai are the polished restaurant-and-bar district, leafy rather than neon, with rents near the top. On Nut and Phra Khanong, at the residential far end of the same line, trade the scene for newer condos and value. Silom and Sathorn put the BTS, the MRT and Lumphini Park at the door. The riverside has the character, the Old Town suits your first few days with the temples, and Chinatown is for visiting, not basing. Book short first.
The directory
Places to know
- Pick$$
Thipsamai Pad Thai Pratu Phi
The pad thai institution, started as a street stall in the 1950s and cooking in this Maha Chai Road shophouse since 1966. Order the prawn pad thai wrapped in egg, with a glass of the fresh orange juice. It's near the Golden Mount, an easy stop on an Old Town day.
Eat · Old Town (Pratu Phi)
- Pick$$
The Work Loft
A coworking space on four floors of the NST One Building on Soi Silom 1, steps from BTS Sala Daeng and a few minutes from MRT Si Lom. Day passes, meeting rooms and private offices, plus a café-bar for when the work stops. Either line gets you to the door.
Coffee · Silom
- Pick$
Song Wat Road
The old spice-wholesale street between Chinatown and the river, where spice shops now sit beside street-art elephants, craft stores, bakeries and bars. Walk it end to end in the late afternoon, and stay on for a drink as the bars fill.
Do · Chinatown riverside
Curated and opinionated — the list grows as we go, and gets fixed the moment a reader tells us it changed.
Every guide, one place
The Thailand guides
Start here · Anchor
How to pay in Thailand: cash, cards and the PromptPay QR
Thailand pays three ways: cash at the stall, a card at the mall, and a PromptPay or Thai QR at the counter in between. How each one works for a visitor, and how to pay the QR from stablecoins once you've verified in the app.
Field guide
PromptPay for foreigners: how visitors pay a Thai QR
Field guide
Landing in Bangkok: Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang
Field guide
Getting around Bangkok: BTS, MRT and the river boats
Field guide
Working from Bangkok as a digital nomad: coworking and cafés
Field guide
Bangkok neighborhoods: where to stay for a month
Thailand, answered
The short version. Everything else is in the guides above.
Is it better to use cash or card in Thailand?
Carry both. Cards work at hotels, malls, restaurants and attractions, with Visa and Mastercard the safe bets and Amex refused in some places. Stalls, night markets, small family shops, and many taxis and tuk-tuks want cash or the local QR. Some shops add a surcharge to cards or set a minimum, and when an ATM offers to charge you in your home currency, choose baht. Keep small notes on you either way.
Does Thailand accept Apple Pay?
Where there's a contactless card terminal, yes: malls, supermarket chains, 7-Eleven and some restaurants. Not at a stall, and not on a PromptPay QR. A phone tap is a card payment, so it works only where a card would.
Do I need a Thai bank account to pay the QR?
No. PromptPay is wired to Thai bank accounts, and banks generally open those for long-term residents, which is why most visitors can't pay the code from their own banking app. You don't need one: verify in the app, which unlocks Pro Pay, then scan the PromptPay or Thai QR at the counter, and a licensed local partner pays the merchant in baht.
Do I need to verify before I can pay?
Yes. In Thailand the app asks you to verify before your first payment, and verifying unlocks Pro Pay, which is how the app scans and pays PromptPay codes. Then scan the PromptPay or Thai QR at the counter, and a licensed local partner pays the merchant in baht.
Verify first. Then scan and pay in baht.
Hold stablecoins, verify in the app, and scan the PromptPay or Thai QR at the counter. Travelers, expats and nomads, same app.