Blog post - Doing laundry in Bangkok

When I first arrived I had a hard time figuring out laundry. So here are just a few tidbits I've learned, maybe they'll help someone else out.

The majority of locals hand-wash their own laundry, this accounts for the lack of full service Laundromats as most people from western countries are accustom to.

There are a few options for doing laundry:

1) A laundry service
There are many services that will do it for you. Most either use a washing machine or hand wash for you, and air dry. You will find these services in most hotels, and at many small shops along sois where you find local business. Expect to pay between 35 and 50 baht per kilogram of laundry.
My personal beef with laundry services is that you don't get your clothes back for 24 hours generally, and for a traveler with a limited wardrobe this can be annoying.
But for short stay travelers this is probably the way to go.

2) In hotel/apartment laundry
Many long term hotels or apartments will have laundry machines. Many do not provide dryers though, so expect to still hang dry your clothes. If this sounds like too much work for you, refer back to #1.

3) Finding an outside Laundromat
I found this impossibly difficult until I lived here for 2 months and realized they're all over the place, just not in the form I had my eye open for.
Don't expect to find a big Laundromat with 10 washing machines and 20 dryers. To find a laundry mat look down the sois with local shops, preferably near local housing areas (if you see filtered water dispensers you're  probably in the right area). Sometimes a small shop will have 2 or 3 washing machines that are coin operated that you can just come in and use. More often than finding the machines inside a shop, is finding them situated on the sidewalk just outside some unrelated shop. They're coin op, you just wander up and use them. Sure, any old joe could come up and steal your clothes, but really, who wants your stinky (or even clean) clothes. Thailand doesn't sport that much crime really, and Thais don't usually fit in westerners clothes anyway, so if anyone steals your shorts it's going to be another bloody tourist. Expect to pay about 20 baht for each load of laundry at a coin op machine. Don't expect to ever find a dryer anywhere. And if you do find one, for heaven’s sake, post it here so everyone knows about it!

Good luck and clean clothes