Yeah Yeah I know its too late but the universally proven fact that I am too lazy to write this long post in my blog by myself...so the motivation factor for this post was a well know blog which was inviting write ups on travel. So yes I pulled up my socks & wrote the entire thing & sent it across but my bad it was not selected...I guess its not selected as there was no reply, therefore since I had worked hard (in my head) on this informative post (now again according to me only) I would post it on very my own beloved blog, so may be one day in far far future a girl / a guy will google about planning a trip to Bangkok & may be this teeny tiny post will show up & may be it ll help out someone. So leaving the crap now, enjoy the post :
My husband and I are Travel enthusiasts. We love
traveling to different places but on a strict budget, we take this
is as a challenge to fit our dream vacation on the amount we have finalized. We
love planning our trips ourselves.
Sometimes lot of us get intimidated by the thought of
arranging everything by our own, & have fear of not finding the best deals
& not able to finalize on roadmap to an exciting worthy trip. But with
years gone I have felt anyone can plan their own trip at their own budget.
This post is about trip that we took to Bangkok in Jan 2012. We have this ritual of
taking a holiday on our anniversary every year. So we randomly decided on Bangkok. So, since it was
our first trip to abroad we decide to go the safe way by taking up quote by a
travel agent. But the moment we got the quote for three days we decided to skip
the whole plan, & after two days of being sad, we again pulled our socks
and started all over again. By lot of searching & asking friends and family,
finally we planned the whole trip and the result was a super fun happy holiday.
We took a three day trip to Bangkok and as Rajnikant would say – Mind it,
it was awesome ;)
So tips while planning trip to Bangkok:
- Find a Cheaper airline: Air travel
was one of the major costs that we had to tackle so finally we decided on Air Asia (Suggested & booked by a friend, Thank you M & R for making this trip happen), one can easily book tickets online
with half the cost as compared to other airlines. They have their own
website Airasia.com & they operate from Kolkata & Chennai.
- Book your Hotel in Advance: Bangkok has a plethora of Hotel Options starting from dorm rooms to 7 star luxury hotel.We booked Hotel "Dream" throuiugh Agoda.com , the hotel is located at Sukhumvit, heart of the city, five minutes from Asoke BTS & MRT and 45 minutes from the international airport. It's a beautiful hotel, we had opted for a Plan that included Breakfast.One can easily book any hotel as per your liking & pocket through Agoda.com, expedia.com or Booking.com
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| Hotel Dream |
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| Lobby |
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| Our Room |
- You can easily get a Visa on arrival
at the Bangkok
airport: facility of Visa on arrival is there for Indian resident. Do
ask the enquiry counter about “VISA ON ARRIVAL “counter & it will take
hardly five minutes to do the whole process. Documents required for Visa
for a week is: 1000 Thai Baht (Fees), Visa on arrival form, Passport with
minimum six months validity & three passport size photographs &
copy of return ticket.
- Get your currency changed from India.
Get Rupee converted to Thai Baht as you will require cash at a lot of
places.
- Learn about Cab charges: Take help
from Google baba and never take up a running cab always take it from a cab
junction.
- Take up a Local Sim card: Buy a
local sim card from convenience store like 7 – 11 (name of the convenience
store) that you can find at every corner of the city, So if you want to
receive calls or make some at home it’s a good option & the only
document required is a copy of your passport. We learnt it the hard way as
we paid a lot on the calls from our hotel room.
- Travel mostly on foot , Tuk Tuk or by
Sky train or MRT: It is the best part of a new city or country. The
excitement of exploring new places, things is too exciting &
adventurous. Sky train or MRT are the Thai version of our Metro Trains,
you can buy a whole day pass on minimal charges.
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| The Famous Tuk Tuk |
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| View from Asoke Station |
- Take along your Debit Card (Visa /
Mater only) or Credit card. Maestro card will not work internationally
so it will be better that along with your cash or traveler’s cheque take
up a credit card (I am not a very huge fan of it) or Visa /Master Debit
card that you can use to make payments.
- Plan a list of the places you want to
visit: Google major attraction of the city or pick up a Map from the airport.
The major attractions of Bangkok are Khao San Road,
Floating Market, Wat Arun, Grand Palace, Pratunam market, Chao Phraya River
& waterways, Floating market, Chatuchak weekend market and more. Each
of these destinations is well connected by Sky Trains & MRT.
- Shopping: Buy electronic gadgets
& make up only, as they are at a real steal prices but not clothes or shoes ( as our New
Market, Srojini Market & Fashion Street are way better in terms of
Pricing), but do take up a walk in the lane of Pratunam Market to have a
glimpse of the exotic dresses of cabret dancers.
- Try street food: Ditch the fancy
restaurant, go out on street and try out some local delicacies man!
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| The street side vendor |
- Save a part of your budget for
Calypso’s Lady boy show or an exotic River cruise experience. And now
the last but the best part definitely visits alcazar cabre or a cruise
ride on the last evening of your stay. We had shortage of time and that's why we finalized on the cruise, the cruise ride from Chao Phraya River
Pier was so romantic & enchanting, and the whole city looked so alive
and beautiful. The Singers, the Calypso’s cabret dancers (yes it was a
surprise there were three of them on the cruise as well) & then the exotic
food, light music and dance on the roof deck was just “WOW”. One can book
a river cruise from any of the travel agents from Bangkok itself. We booked the White
Orchid Cruise & it was worth every penny.
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| Our cruise |
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| The famous lady boy show on the cruise |
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| "Happy Us" |
So guys hope this post helped you, so start packing your bag
& plan a trip to Bangkok.
Note: I am not affiliated to any of the airlines, website or
Hotel in any form.
