Reader Submission: Cheap in Thailand
Here are some tips for those still going. I'm going to Thailand for a few weeks, my tips:
- Tip 1. When you arrive at the airport you usually have to go through visa control at the first entrance. A big line waiting for you. Walk a bit further to entrance 3 visa control. Was right on.
- Tip 2. Cheap transport is possible to some destinations, for example to Pattaya by bus for 135 baht. Travel time half an hour longer than by taxi, but 1500 baht cheaper.
- Tip 3. The night bus from Pattaya to Khon Kaen is cheap for 550 baht, but a travel time of 11 hours.
- Tip 4. Book a cheap hotel? Then it is better not to book in advance. Clean hotel with pool air con and no view, 10 minutes walk from the weekly market, for 650 baht per night.
- Tip 5. I wouldn't buy cheap gold. Gold is sold as 22k but is 14k with a gold bath treatment 22k. Ps don't say anything to your girlfriend.
Cheap is going to the bar and not getting drunk before you know it you have a bill, where you think you have become the owner of the bar, I speak from my own experience. By Dutch standards it was not too bad: 5000 baht.
The baht bus from Khon Kaen to Banfang is also cheap for 20 baht. Just don't do it around 17.00 p.m. We used to try how many people we could fit in a Volkswagen Beetle. Now I know how many people fit in a baht bus: 26 and stopping along the way to see if more could fit, and yes, I did.
Working on the rice fields is also cheap, 400 baht for a day, I tried it myself. My advice: don't!
Cheap and less tiring sitting on a stool at the local market and people watching with a can of Leo for 30 baht. And then being surprised in the middle of Isaan that many people can speak English. The disadvantage was that it was right through my box of cigars.
This time the return flight by plane from Khon Kaen to Bangkok was cheap for 800 baht
Cheap is not two weeks holiday in the Netherlands, next time cheap again to Thailand
Regards,
Piet
Well Pete, I do have a few caveats to your tips. There is no doubt that the bus from the airport to Pattaya is cheaper, but you usually lose more time than the extra half hour that you specify. Due to the popularity of the bus, it often happens that the first departing bus is full, you often have to wait an hour before the bus leaves and when you arrive in Pattaya / Jomtien you are of course not greeted at the door of a taxi, as with a taxi. dropped off at your hotel/apartment. Booking a hotel in advance does not always have to be more expensive, moreover you are sure of a room in the desired hotel class and the place where the hotel is located. Your warning that you should be careful when buying gold cheaply is too brief; in usually every gold shop the price of the gold is visible in large letters and if gold is offered for sale somewhere or by someone for a significantly lower price, then you should indeed be wary. But now you are suggesting that gold would typically be 14 kt treated in a gold bath. Your tip about not getting drunk in a bar is right. And yes, the bill could be high, partly because the control over your index finger may be less and you have treated the other attendees to the necessary (lady) drinks. By the way, wish you many pleasant holidays in Thailand.
May I add a few comments:
a can of Leo is no longer 30 baht, but rather close to 37.
Working on a rice field for 400 a day is certainly not good advice, first of all you need a work permit and you will never get one for working on a rice field, that work is only for Thais.
Sebastiaan
Nicely written Piet and everything at the right end 55555.
If I had to turn around like that every Bath, I'd rather opt for a shorter stay, or stay straight home. Under actual holidaying, most people clearly imagine something different than following the above advice, but everyone has their own taste. Furthermore, I find the advice not to work on a rice field for 400 Bath completely unnecessary, unless it concerns family help. At temperatures of about 38 ° C or sometimes even warmer, no normal holiday maker will voluntarily report to work on a rice field for a day for 400 Bath. Your tip 5 story about buying so-called cheap gold is also as leaky as a basket in terms of accuracy. The gold you may mean is at most an imitation gold, which is sold on every market for a prick, and unfortunately this has nothing to do with gold, and certainly not with 14k, which you think goes into a bath, to make 22k of it. to make. You can buy fair gold anywhere in the recognized trade, where the correct daily price is stated.
I must say you have some very strange ideas. Working on the rice field? How long would a farang hold out? Half an hour? And what about that gold? So you think those sellers of that gold are really stupid. Because you can hand it in again. Of course you get a little less. But still much more than if it were only 14 karat. Yes and you can of course much cheaper, sleep in the Wad not the bus but walk, no beer but water.
With regard to tip 2, I agree with Leo Th. agree, the bus you mentioned is often full, with the result that you can wait another hour or even 2. You could also opt for Bell Travel Service. This is also a bus, slightly more expensive than the bus you mentioned, but a lot cheaper than the taxi. You can already book it from the Netherlands and it will take you to your hotel or apartment. Tip 4, you could expand with a look at airbnb. Last time I arranged a nice apartment, complete with swimming pool, kitchen, gym, etc. for the same 650 THB.
The Bell Travel Service bus is indeed also an option. This bus requires you to book (and pay) in advance and costs 250 Bath per person for a ride between Suvarnabhumi and Pattaya. (There are also buses from Bell Travel between Bangkok and Pattaya). The bus runs every two hours from 08.00:18.00 AM until 30:XNUMX PM. In Pattaya, the travelers are divided over a number of minibuses, after which you are taken to your hotel/apartment in a certain order. If you arrive late at the bus you booked due to a possible delay, you can take the next bus for a fee of XNUMX Bath. But you run the risk of a considerable waiting time, even if you have landed at Suvarnabhumi earlier than according to your flight schedule. Everyone makes their own assessment, but after I landed at Suvarnabhumi from my home in the Netherlands, I have already spent many hours waiting and traveling and I want to get to my holiday address as soon as possible. I therefore ignore the savings of several hundred baths and opt for the faster taxi.
There is a taxi company in pattaya Mr T and they can wait for you at suvanaphurn airport. Price to hotel pattaya is 1100 bath. This is slightly cheaper than the 1500 as you mentioned. From Don Muang airport it is 1300 bath. Just send an email to Mr T with your flight details and time of arrival and ask where the driver will be waiting for you in the arrivals hall. For me it was gate nr.3.
Very nicely written, Piet, if you have few things with you, and also a little time, the air-conditioned bus from the airport to Jomtien opposite the Food Mart is a good tip, from there continue with the baht bus that runs along the Food-mart passes by, not the baht buses that are specially waiting in the parking lot of the air-conditioning bus, they immediately want 300 baht to take you to your address. I have some more stuff with me, take the taxi, which you can already order here on Facebook these days for a very reasonable price. As far as the gold is concerned, just let your Thai girlfriend choose the store and the jewelry herself … .. then the quality of the jewelry and the price will be fine. Price ? They have fixed prices. Get a Thai girlfriend, I would say, the fastest way to get to know the ins and outs of Thailand for yourself.
As long as you stay away from the women and their needy families, you can live for next to nothing in Thailand! Nowhere can be cut back so much as on women. Do you still want a woman? Understandable! Rent 1 for a short time so that you do not commit yourself to anything else. Sex is for sale everywhere in Thailand. Romance and love unfortunately usually in surrogate form.
A journey time of 11 hours by bus, yes certainly cheap but you just have to feel like it, didn't see me!
Incidentally (I'm not saying it's your approach Piet so forgive me) but I know compatriots who complain and whine about the service and cramped seats on board the plane then arrive in Thailand and travel for hours in a rickety bus, understand that I don't again. 🙁
Hello the piece about cheap or expensive purchase was my experience that everyone fills in his holiday or stay it was written with a small wink a few years back I myself have been coming for many years and a piece guide still with great pleasure for a few months in Thailand It's not so much for me about as cheap as possible but as pleasant as possible with less cost, but gr piet
Pete, you are talking about going on vacation. Vacation is enjoying a few weeks. Or not? If, after a long flight, you are surprised to pay 25 or 30 euros to take a taxi for a 135 km ride, but you would rather get on a bus with your luggage, then I don't understand that. It is better to spend 1 evening only 4000 instead of 5000 baht in a bar. Such a bill is only possible if you generously let several others drink along. Real gold shops in Pattaya sell real gold at the price of the gold.
Tip 1: walk a bit…
Is this also for stamps?
Yes, every international traveler gets a stamp in their passport upon entry. Depending on the number of aircraft landed at a particular pier, moving to the next section of the immigration process can save time, but that is not always the case. Incidentally, when one section is very busy, there are often officials who refer you to the next entrance. Of course you still have to collect your (possible) luggage from the baggage carousel after passport control. The waiting time for this sometimes varies. Then, of course, through customs.