"that's just too much for me"
The Thai did learn, FALANG is rich, VERY rich, they first buy a house for the "wife", a car or a motobike and a new shop for the family.

Now they want the high quality tourists.

Me, like you, I do not have this money.

What u can do ? I do not know a Taxi under 1.000 Baht. But u can try to find a private person to drive u for 500 Baht.