Travel Questions for Thailand based Dopers

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am scheduled to fly into the LoS around 14 April and depart out on 23 April. In between I have some business that I need to attend to in Surat Thani which should take a few days, tops. Other than that, I was kind of hoping to go somewhere new and different. What are your experiences in traveling to nearby countries? I’m thinking about Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia or Indonesia. Probably just one of those places, maybe two. I’d mostly be interested in food and a little sight seeing, although generally I can amuse myself just doing simple things like going into markets and shops.

Things I’m interested to know:

  • ease of getting there, including cost and visas.
  • how interesting the place is.
  • ease of solo travel - I don’t want to get on a tour bus, at least not for any length of time.
  • cost of stay (lodging and food)

Of course any other “flavor” you want to add is appreciated.

Oh, also, any advice on getting from the new airport to the city are also good, since this will be my first trip not into Don Muang, although I used to live very close to the new place. Just a bit rusty on pricing, maybe B300 to get there or back?

If you’re in Bangkok during that period and want to have a beer or two I’d buy you the first one (I think there’s only a few of you).

Thanks,

Shibb

ETA: meant to put this in the Cornfield, not My Cornfield. The new names are a bit confusing.

2

Thank you for your offer, but we’re leaving for the US in a couple of days and won’t be back until the end of the month. The main reason we’re leaving in April is because of the dreaded Songkran holiday from April 13-15, or until April 17 this year to compensate for part of it being on the weekend.

Yes, a taxi into Bangkok from Suvarnabhumi Airport should run about 300 baht including Expressway tolls and the 50-baht surcharge for the airport taxi. There have been problems of late with horrendous queues at Immigration – 2-3 hours the norm – but supposedly these are getting better. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to ignore the unofficial taxi touts.

As for travel to neighboring countries, I can tell you that among those you’ve listed, Hong Kong – not a country, but let’s not quibble – is the farthest. Takes a few hours to fly there. But Americans get visa on arrival, unless that’s changed drastically. Vietnam is very nice, and if it’s just a quick trip, then I recommend Hanoi/Halong Bay or even central Vietnam – Hue, Hoi An – over Ho Chi Minh City, which, although worth a look too, the wife and I both have found to be less interesting than the other places and more of your generic Asian metropolis. For Americans, however, Vietnam has the highest visa fee of all the Asean – the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. I’m thinking it was US$30 when I got mine two years ago. There is no visa-on-arrival for US citizens, so you must arrange it ahead of time at the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok (or where you are now if there’s one closer). This can take up to three days but can be expedited with payment of a rush fee (legitimate, not a bribe).

If you’re going to be in Surat Thani, then Malaysia is closest, of course. (There are no land crossings into Burma, except for day trip to Victoria’s Point.) It’s still at least a day’s journey to the border by bus or train, and I’d be wary of entering the Deep South of Thailand right now. There were some ferocious bombings down there over the weekend, and the authorities are braced for more. Part of the almost decade-old insurgency in that part. But I like Malaysia, and a flight to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok is pretty quick. If you do cross the land border, Peneng – which has an airport too – resembles what Hong Kong and Singapore must have looked like before modernization. No visa required for trips to Malaysia.

For Indonesia, Bali is nice, and you can fly there nonstop from Bangkok. About 3-1/2 hours if I remember correctly. (2-1/2? Something like that.) I highly recommend the Ubud inland toward the center, and dolphin-watching on the north shore at Lovina Beach. From there it’s an hour’s flight to Yogyakarta in southern Java, site of the ancient Borobudur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu) temples. You may have to arrange a visa beforehand; check with the embassy.

Besides Malaysia, Singapore also does not require a visa. Laos and Cambodia do require visas, but you can pay for them on arrival. (You could arrange for them beforehand too, but both the Cambodian and the Lao embassies are now over in the Ramkhamhaeng area, very far and inconvenient to get to.) You can fly directly to Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is, but it’s an expensive flight – Bangkok Airways has a monopolyon the route. It’s possible to go overland from the Thai border, which takes just a couple of hours, and the road is paved all the way now, I hear.

Traveling solo is pretty much no problem in any of these places. Costs will be equal to or (mostly) less than in Thailand, except for Singapore and Hong Kong of course.

3

Thanks, Sam. I was hoping Songkran might be done by the time I got there, but there’s not much I could do about the timing. Have a good trip, maybe I’ll pass you in some airport.

I think Penang might be a nice option, particularly if there is a simple way to get there directly from Surat Thani. I seem to recall that there is a train, just not sure how long it takes.

4

But Suri Thani isn’t on the Penang side of the peninsula, though it’s a great place to visit, (and eat Laksa!)

Do consider the East coast of Malaysia, it’s very beautiful, undeveloped beachs, (including the Beach of Passionate Love!) It’s rural and a little backward compared to the Capital and West Coast, but it’s unspoiled and slower paced.

Also just South of the Thai border, off the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia are some lovely uninhabited islands you can visit, with little cabins and outdoor facilities. They were very basic, you had to bring your own food, arrange your own fishing boat to drop you and pick you up. But it was truly spectacular.

5

Is there a local travel agency you’d recommend for finding flights to these places, or do you normally use the web or go directly to the airline you want to use?

6

There is a train, but it starts in Bangkok, so chances are high it will be full by the time it reaches Surat Thani. You can reserve your seat 60 days ahead of time. Of course, it does go through the trouble areas in the Deep South, and I may be a bit overly cautious, but I’d prefer to stay away from there right now, particularly after all the bombings this past Saturday. One was a large luxury hotel in Hat Yai, where the train branches off to go to western or eastern peninsula Malaysia. Took a bad hit with a car bomb in the basement. There’s an update here.

But I recall Penang as a pleasant little place. Before Laos and Cambodia opened up, Penang is where all the farangs working in Thailand illegally went to renew their Thai tourist visas, at the Thai consulate there. Every four months, regular as clockwork, they’d hop the overnight train to Penang. (It actually stops in Butterworth before continuing on to Kuala Lumpur. You get to Penang via a cheap, short ferry ride, although we heard taxi drivers trying to scam the unwary by offering to take them in over the bridge for $25. I think the ferry was $1 or less.)

I was fortunate in that I’ve never had to do the visa run, but I knew so many who did that I felt I was missing out. So our Songkran escape in 1996 was a trip all through mainland Malaysia, first stop Penang. Pretty little town. I guess if you have to go there every few months, you get tired of it after a while, but I recall thinking what a nice break this would make. Thai visas were a real industry back then. All the hotels had signs up saying if you were there for a visa run, when the courier would be by to collect everyone’s passports. New tourist visas were issued en masse. That’s changed now, with Vientiane and the Cambodian border checkpoints opening up, although I hear it’s not always the rubber stamp it once was. They actually go through periods of denying people’s tourist visas if they think you’ve been working here without a work permit.

7

It doesn’t matter which side Surat Thani and Penang are on, because that far up the peninsula – Surat Thani – there’s only the one train track going south. It doesn’t branch off until Hat Yai near the border, after which it goes to the west or east side of the peninsula. Again, I’d be careful. The insurgency, which has been going on for seven or eight years now, has been heating up lately.

The Perhentian Islands on the eastern side of the peninsula are indeed lovely though. We had a very nice time there. The smaller one – Perhentian Kecil, I think it is – is the quiter of the two. Stayed on Long Beach. Boats for there leave from Kuala Besut on the coast.

Often we just go to the airline website, like we did with Vietnam Airlines a couple years ago. But we’ve use a place called G Travel for bigger trips afield such as Hawaii or New York this week. They seem pretty good. In the Monorom Building on Rama IV Road. Their number is 02-498-6457.

TV Air is another good one. Long-running. Offices in The Emporium shopping center and on Silom Road near the Hindu temple. (We prefer the latter office. Just seem more efficient and even friendlier.)

8

And of course, I screwed that up. The number is actually 02-249-8645-7.

9

The Suvarnabhumi airport rail link is (one-way) 90 baht for the express and 45 baht with stops. It will take you to Phaya Thai Skytrain station in about 16 or 24 minutes.

You can catch a 1:26 AM sleeper train from Surat Thani and arrive in Butterworth (across the water from Penang) at 1:51 PM. Then take a ferry from there. Penang is worth 3 or 4 days and has many decent places to stay around Jalan Chulia in Georgetown. Check out Chew Jetty and the Chinese temples (better than any I’ve seen in China!). Go to an Indian restaurant for some roti canai and teh terik, then try out some of the street food on Jalan Chulia. There’s a city bus that goes up the east coast of Penang and up to the north, where there are some decent beaches. Here are my photos of Penang.

I can’t recommend spending any time in Kuala Lumpur, but if you plan on flying out from there, you should visit Malacca. It’s just two hours away by bus, and there is a direct bus to Kuala Lumpur International Airport from here. It has a very nice Chinatown and some 500-year-old buildings from when the Portuguese were in charge (who were followed by the Dutch and British).

No visas required for Malaysia or Singapore, so it’s easier than visiting Indonesia or Vietnam. I’d also recommend Cambodia, even if you just make it to Siem Reap (Angkor). Biking around Angkor was probably the top experience of my 8 months traveling through SE Asia. You can get a visa on arrival.

10

I always forget the Airport Rail Link. That’s mainly because it’s not convenient if you have a lot of luggage. Or if there are two or more in your party, because then a taxi is still more cost-effective. They still have some kinks to work out on that. Until they do, we simply don’t use it.

Yes, Malacca, spelled Melaka locally, is worth a day and a half. I always enjoyed spending a couple days in KL too though.