#ratchaprarop

19th August - 4th September 2015.

  INTRODUCTION

We had reached our final stop: Thailand.

We already visited here four years ago and knew we had to return for its amazing island getaways, tasty cuisine and huge range of cheap markets. With 17 days to spare, we decided to spend just one night in Phuket town, six nights in Koh Lanta (supposedly a relaxing, beautiful island destination), five nights in Koh Samui (where we had been before and loved) and finally three nights in Bangkok (following an overnight bus from Samui).

Knowing our dates, we booked all of our accommodation in advance (starting with the Baiyoke Sky tower in Bangkok), although this definitely wasn't necessary during the low season. Please read below for details on each of these stays!

Also, all prices are in Thai Baht (THB), unless stated otherwise, and the exchange rate at the time of writing is around 55.4 THB for every £1 GBP. NOTE we visited during low season, so the prices everywhere would have been at the lower end; I can't say for certain how much they would increase during the more popular times of the year.

Lamai beach in Koh Samui

PHUKET TOWN

We made a quick stop here after arriving late at Phuket airport and moving straight onto Koh Lanta the next day - unsurprisingly this section is quite brief! With cheap accommodation, transport and night market food, you can't really go wrong here.

Transport: airport minivan (turn left when you exit the arrivals area) at 20:30, which took almost an hour to drop us off right at our hostel for 100 THB each (in comparison to a taxi for 650 THB).

Budget accommodation: one night at Phuket Blue Hostel, booked through booking.com a few days before arriving. Huge double AC room for 275 THB each, with ensuite (and hot water shower!), speedy wifi, free towels and toiletries, plus a balcony overlooking Phang Nga road. Conveniently located near to the night markets and some convenience stores, while the owners were very friendly, even after our late check-in.

Phuket Blue Hostel

  Food and drink: night market next to Robinsons Mall (take the first right from the hostel, then left at the clock tower. Keep going until you see Robinsons - it takes around 10 minutes in total), where we chose a tasty Pad Thai from one of the first stalls on the right with an English menu, costing 70 THB each. For breakfast we found Aunties Recipes on the corner of Phang Nga and Thanon Thepkrasattri, just a two-minute walk from the hostel. For 150 THB you can enjoy a tasty strawberry-banana-chocolate smoothie or ice coffee and honey-passion fruit muesli with yoghurt; delicious, healthy and very reasonably priced, especially for the modern cafe setting.

Night market Pad Thai

Activities: insufficient time here to explore properly! Just enough to wander around Robinsons Mall and walk past the street markets on Tilok Uthit 2 Alley before catching our bus from Terminal 1. Note there are buses at another terminal in town, which you can catch to visit nearby beaches, e.g. Patong, Kata, etc. if you have more time to spend here.

Clock tower near Robinsons Mall

    KOH LANTA

Located on the Andaman Coast in the south of the Krabi province, we decided to visit this island after reading great reviews online and discovering its close location to Phuket. Our six days here were really chilled, just as we wanted, and we found ourselves spending most days by the pool or wandering along the beach, only visiting the main town at the northern end of the island once.

There are many more activities you can do here (see below) and I'm sure the island is even more spectacular during the less rainy high season. Koh Lanta is definitely worth a visit if you're looking for a relaxing (and cheap) island retreat.

Blue Andaman beachside pool

    Transport Phuket Town to Koh Lanta:

Minivan from Phuket Town Terminal 1, costing only 280 THB each and taking 6.5 hours. We arrived at the Terminal 1 bus station at 11:00 (after visiting Terminal 2 outside of town via the 15 THB shuttle bus from Terminal 1, as the Phuket bus station website told us buses to Koh Lanta left from there, which they do NOT) to be told at counter 9 that the next available minivan was at 13:30 (note these leave everyday at 08:30, 09:30, 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30, according to the kiosk sign). We returned at 13:00 and boarded the AC minibus, with only one other passenger. However ten minutes later we were picking up nine others from just outside of town (apparently their bus broke down or something), who we dropped off in Krabi around four hours later. Overall the journey was long but doable, with a toilet break at ~15:00. We stayed in the minivan when it embarked the two ferries to cross to Koh Lanta, and arrived at the Koh Lanta office at ~19:50. We then hailed a tuk-tuk to our hotel 6km away, which we haggled down to 75 THB each.

TIP: if you're looking for a good, cheap lunch near Phuket Town Terminal 1 Bus station, turn left onto Phang Nga road and cross it; you will see a pink open restaurant on the corner with lots of meal photos and Japanese cartoons on the wall. We paid 60 THB each for a quick, tasty Thai meal.

Minivan from Phuket to Koh Lanta

Budget accommodation:

6 nights in the Blue Andaman Resort for 220 THB pppn, prepaid through agoda.com around one week before arriving. Our spacious double ensuite AC room was great value for money, including fresh towels, a TV, small balcony, speedy wifi, housecleaning on one day (randomly?), free use of the large beachside pool, bar pool table and beach sunbeds, plus 20% off all food and non-alcoholic drinks from the restaurant because it was low season. Basically it had everything we wanted for our long stay here, although it was a little dated and located 8km away from the main town (which we didn't really mind, as there were enough good restaurants and beaches nearby, plus a 711 just a short walk away). DEFINITELY stay here if you're looking for the same kind of relaxed, slow paced holiday for a great price.

  Top things to do in Koh Lanta:

Do nothing. This is the best place in the world to chill, which is exactly what we intended on and ended up doing during our time here (TIP: Choose a resort with a good pool for this!).

Explore along the main road; we found a few more restaurants and pretty bays after walking for around 3km, but honestly this wasn't necessary and just more of the same scenery as around our resort.

Relax on one of the beaches; the beach next to our resort wasn't so suitable for swimming, but there are bays all up the west coast that are worth a visit (e.g. Long Beach, Klong Dao, Phra Ae, etc.)

Rent bicycles/scooters; we did the former for 60 THB for 3 hours (I wouldn't know the price for scooter rental) and really enjoyed it. This was enough time to cycle to Baan Saladaan 8km away (~40 minutes) and explore the town for an hour (unfortunately a lot of the shops were closed!).

Other activities: waterfall visit, elephant trekking, scuba diving, island tour, etc.

Beach next to Blue Andaman Resort

    Food and drink:

Blue Lanta Resort Restaurant and Bar; we came here at least once every day for the tasty food and mostly the discounted prices (20% was deducted from all of the following costs at low season). Although we wouldn't recommend the strange-tasting breakfast fruit, muesli and yoghurt or the small-portioned Mexican dishes, we would advise all of the following: Thai green curry (80 THB, +20 THB for rice), chicken cashew nut (80 THB), especially either of the sizzling chicken/seafood dishes (150 THB), and any of the western baguette sandwiches with fries (170 THB). The bar also serves tasty 100 THB cocktails from 5-7pm.

Moloko Lanta; we happened upon this laid-back beachside restaurant/bar after wandering north from our resort (20 minutes away, signposted on the main road), and decided to test it out. This was a good choice; if you go, try either of the massaman curry (150 THB) or fried noodles (90 THB) dishes, and definitely choose one of the shakes (80 THB each).

Angels Restaurant; I read good reviews for this so we went one evening for dinner. Although it was really quiet (we were the only guests there, bearing in mind it was low season), the staff were friendly and made a huge effort with our meal, serving us a delicious fried chicken noodles (80 THB) and huge portion of fried chicken cashew (120 THB, plus rice for 20 THB). They also gave us free drinking water and watermelon at the end of our meal - so sweet!

Danny's Restaurant; this is literally just on the right as you leave our resort, and after walking past it so many times and eyeing their cheap prices, we chose to return for lunch, enjoying their chicken cashew dish (80 THB, plus rice for 15 THB), but not so much the beef nachos (120 THB; portion was quite small.)

Seaside Sea Food Restaurant; located in the main town Baan Saladaan, we had wandered past a few other eateries and chose this one for its cheap prices, quirky interior and seaside location. You can't really beat a cheap Pad Thai (75 THB) dinner right by the sea, although some lime would have been nice.

Cheap street food; one night we chose the bargain 30 THB pad Thai from the stall outside 711 near our resort, which were already made and prepackaged. Slightly small portions but what you'd expect, and greatly enjoyed with a 55 THB Singha on our balcony. On the evening we visited Baan Saladaan, we sampled some of the street sweets, including a 70 THB mango and sticky rice (a HUGE, tasty portion) and a Thai-style Nutella pancake for 30 THB.

Final meal from the Blue Andaman restaurant - Thai style sizzlers with rice

        KOH SAMUI

As I mentioned above we have already been here before, but we were excited to return and stay even longer to fully enjoy the busy market towns, stunning beaches and easy nature of the island. We chose to stay in Lamai town (less busy than the nearby Chaweng but still offering a decent amount to do) and from there we managed to explore as we pleased (which, again, like Lanta, was not that much!).

Lamai beach (view from Swing Bar and Restaurant)

  Transport (from Koh Lanta to Koh Samui):

After checking out the ticket price for this fast-boat (Lomprayah) trip in various tourist offices in Koh Lanta, we managed to barter down the price at our hotel from 950 to 600 THB pp, which included a 7.30am shared AC minivan pick up and all ferry tickets. It took around two hours to travel to Krabi, where we were eventually dropped at the Lomprayah bus station (which had moved to a new location and took the driver a while to find! Note it is on the left hand side of 4034 road heading west out of Krabi; there is a sign with the company name and it's opposite some stalls where you can buy a quick cheap lunch for around 60 TBH).

We waited around 20 minutes before being able to check in at the desk (for some reason the staff were being quite rude about this), where we were given stickers, our tickets and also persuaded to book a transfer to our hotel in Samui for 150 THB each. We then boarded a large AC coach at 11.30, which drove us to Don Sak pier, and again, we were unsure what to do after arriving here, and ended up waiting outside for half an hour before seeing everyone walk to the catamaran at around 15.45.

The boat left at around 16.15, and took ~45 minutes to reach Nathon Pier in Samui. Here we were directed towards our correct Lomprayah mini van, which took us straight to our hotel in Lamai in around 25 minutes. TIP: choose this transfer if you want a hassle-free, good value journey after reaching Samui. We were told there was no public transport available (which I highly doubt, but still have no idea about the pricing or availability), and luckily found the minivans to be efficient, comfortable and spacious (there were only 3 other people in our vehicle!). The trip took around 11 hours in total.

Lomprayah bus station in Krabi

  Budget accommodation:

5 nights in Rich Resort, which is located on the road running parallel to Pracharakapatta Rd and the beach. We pre-booked (and paid one night's deposit for via booking.com) a double fan ensuite room, which also came with a TV, large fridge, hot-water shower, free towels, toiletries, water bottles and relatively good wifi. The room was modern, reasonably spacious and comfortable (albeit warm without the AC- definitely pay for this if you can afford it!), and its basically beachfront location was perfect, especially along with the good deals from its adjoining Swing Bar And Restaurant (see the food section below), such as free beach wifi and sunbeds.

Rich Resort entrance

  Top things to do in Koh Samui:

(Again) relax! We mostly rotated between sunbathing on the beach sunbeds, swimming in the sea and walking along the coast (the rocks at the western end of the beach are particularly scenic, with the infamous grandfather and grandmother rocks).

Watersports; e.g. 2-person Jet ski for 15 minutes (1100 THB), fly boarding for 10 minutes (1500 THB pp), 1 hour climbing on the huge inflatable iceberg (200 THB), etc. There is a big board with all of the options right outside Swing Bar, and these prices seemed non-negotiable from what we saw.

Browse the market stalls in Lamai or Chaweng; granted the latter is better for this, with many more to choose from, plus a sizeable two-storey mall. Note you can hail a public open-backed van/taxi to Chaweng for 50 THB pp, and 75 THB on the way back - we're not sure why it varied each way. The beach in Chaweng is also worth a visit.

Other activities; waterfall visit near Lamai, elephant trekking inland, explore other local beaches (apparently Crystal beach and Coral Cove, both between Lamai and Chaweng, are the most scenic on the island), trips to Ko Tao and other nearby islands, snorkelling and scuba trips, etc.

Lamai beach

  Food and drink:

Cheap restaurants right on the beach, for example Bamboo Restaurant (good quick local Thai dishes e.g. 100 THB fried noodles) and Good Morning Restaurant (tasty 100 THB baguettes).

Swing Bar and Restaurant; simple 109 THB breakfasts here you choose 3 options from a reasonable list (along with a cup of tea/coffee) and we enjoyed their grilled Cajun chicken wrap with chips (140 THB).

Brown Sugar (in Lamai town); really filling, good value large pizzas between 150-180 THB.

Chaweng; lots of restaurants to choose from but nothing amazing to recommend. HOWEVER we did buy some delicious 50 TBH crispy crepes from a stand on a road leading to the beach (bearing in mind it will move around).

Night market in Lamai (centre of Pracharakapatta road); we tasted some of the best cheap Thai food here, in particular the 40 TBH chicken skewers form the third stall on the right (along with 30 TBH baked potato and 40 TBH corn on the cob) and the classic Thai dishes from the fifth stall on the left (e.g. Pad Thai, green curry, cashew chicken, all for 70 TBH).

Fruit shakes for 30-40 THB (pay more for mixed); many of these stalls can be found also in the night market or along the main road for a quick healthy refreshment during the day.

Cheap food/snacks/drinks from any of the 711s or Family Marts in town (e.g. 1.5l bottle water (13 TBH), ice coffee (15 TBH), Chang (30 TBH), etc.) OR walk ~1.5km to the big Tesco Lotus on the main road running from Lamai to Chaweng to buy cheaper goods and/or visit the small food court there.

Lamai night market food - the best!

      BANGKOK

Bangkok: our last city stay and four days of our 6-month trip! Like Samui we had been here before, and were more or less interested in two things: shopping and relaxing. Three full days was a perfect amount of time for this, and the Baiyoke Hotel rooftop pool was a great place to take a break from wandering around the infinite malls and markets. Read the budgeting section below for details on some prices!

The only downer to our stay here was the snatch-and-grab scooter theft we encountered (again, read below), but hey: at least we didn't have long left and neither of us were hurt. Otherwise we found Bangkok to live up to its reputation, and really enjoyed coming back here.

Panorama of the city from the Baiyoke Hotel

  Transport:

From Samui to Bangkok:

We booked a 1000 THB pp 999 government bus with a private hotel pick up at 16.30, from 'DJ All Your Travel' in Lamai (the Hello Kitty store in town opposite 711, to the left of the Shamrock Irish Pub and Grill) a few days before day of departure, managing to reserve the front two seats of the 40-seater coach.

We were collected on time from the hotel and driven 25 minutes to the Samui bus station, where our driver took our receipt to the office and gave us two tickets and two ferry cards in return. We then boarded Coach 1335, as instructed, which left at 17.35 to take us to Nathon Pier for the (slower) Seatran ferry, where we disembarked (leaving our main luggage on the bus), handed over our cards and waited just 5 minutes before boarding the vessel separately from the coach.

The ferry journey itself was pleasant and calm, taking around two hours to arrive in Don Sak pier where we exited and walked to the car park, hopping back onto the coach for the remainder of the trip, finding a blanket, snack box, fruit carton and water bottle on each of our seats. We stopped one hour later (9pm ish) at a restaurant, where we were shown to a table of 6 and shared a simple selection of Thai side dishes - all included in the ticket price! The break was only for 20 minutes (you can buy other snacks, etc from the various shops and stalls there), and from then on the bus was direct to Mo Chit 2 bus station in Bangkok, stopping a couple of times in the night for toilet breaks (although there was one on board anyway).

We arrived in Bangkok on time at around 6am, and after trying to locate the Mo Chit BTS station (which apparently was far away anyway) we hailed a tuk tuk straight to our hotel, haggling the price down from 300 to 150 THB (for a ~20 minute journey in busy morning traffic). Note there are also meter taxis at Mo Chit, but we presumed tuk-tuks would be the cheaper option!

Ferry journey from Nathon Pier to Don Sak

  Bangkok hotel to Suvarnabhumi airport: 40 THB pp and 30 minutes via the Airport Rail Link from Ratchaprarop station (

    Accommodation:

3 nights in the Baiyoke Sky Tower, booked via booking.com for ~£53 pp a few months before arrviving in anticipation of our final few days of travelling. This was definitely worth the slightly higher-than-normal price, and turned out to be great value for money. We had a huge AC and ensuite king size room on the 41st floor, which came with a flatscreen TV, free wifi, toiletries and towels, house cleaning every day, hot water shower AND bath, not to mention amazing views of the city. As a guest of the tallest hotel in Bangkok (and building in Thailand) meant we had free access to the outdoor pool on the 20th floor, 360 degree observation room on the 77th floor and entry to the Sky Bar on the 83rd floor. It is perfectly located right next to the bustling Pratnum markets, which open in the early morning and late evening, as well as a 10-minute walk to some of Bangkoks best malls (see below under activities). We couldn't have asked for a better place to end our trip.

Baiyoke hotel rooftop pool

  Top things to do in Bangkok:

SHOPPING: we basically spent our whole three days doing this, buying last minute bits for ourselves and families. This was a good amount of time to see as many of the options as possible while taking our time. Our favourite mall was definitely MBK for cheap brands, a good food court and plenty of opportunities to haggle down prices (it is located Siam Paragon, Central World Plaza, etc) to be much pricier, although still enjoyable for wandering around and visiting familiar branded stores (Zara, Uniqlo, Pull and Bear, etc.). I definitely also recommend the markets on Khao San as well as the PatPong night market on Silom Road (although see my comment below about theft and being careful in this area). The weekend Chatuchak markets are also great, but, obviously, only open on weekends.

Sightseeing, e.g. The Grand Palace, various temples ('Wats') around the city, floating markets, etc. Having been to Bangkok before, we chose not to revisit these main attractions, but there are plenty to keep you occupied, best viewed by hailing a tuk-tuk (expect 150 THB for an 8km journey).

Take a trip to the 77th or 84th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Tower for amazing city views - we had free entry as hotel guests, while a pitcher of beer only cost 350 TBH.

Other attractions: Madame Tussaud's, aquarium, IMAX cinema, museums, etc.

Our favourite mall here

    Food and drink:

Night market stalls near the Baiyoke Sky hotel; go straight out the building towards Pratnum markets and take a right. You can buy Pad Thai here for ~60-90 THB.

Mall food courts; e.g. In MBK on the 6th floor (we had a great chicken noodle dish for 55 TBH each), Siam Paragon ground floor (more expensive stalls - we chose frozen yogurt for ~110 TBH), the 7th floor in Central World Plaza (where they also have a really good supermarket selling lots of fresh produce at cheap prices), etc. Most of the major malls have these, you just need to ask when you're there which floor to head to.

Khao San stalls; we actually visited the northern street parallel to Khao San, which has lots of bars and cheap food stalls (go to Tam Kin Kan for a tasty sit-down 55 TBH pad Thai).

Note the Baiyoke Sky tower has a rotating restaurant on the 84th floor (featured in the Hangover 2 movie I think!), but we didn't even consider going there/checking prices after the mugging (next section).

Baiyoke Sky bar on 83rd floor

    THEFT IN BANGKOK

We were unfortunate enough to encounter this on our penultimate day in the city, having had no other bad experiences in the rest of our trip or when we last visited. We were walking back from Silom Road (carrying all of our PatPong market purchases, which most likely made us even more of a target) to our hotel along the busy Ratchadamri Rd at nighttime. We were about to cross a small road past the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital when a scooter with two guys came from the left right in front of us, grabbing my brown shoulder handbag from my front and ripping it from me before driving off straight into the traffic. Completely taken aback, we started running after them, but clearly to no avail. We started looking around for others to help, and fortunately a kind taxi driver pulled up beside us, motioning that he had witnessed the entire thing (he didn't speak any English). We tried to follow them in the taxi but they had long gone; instead, he drove us to the police station (free of charge) where a translator on duty helped us file a report.

Now I'm not naive in thinking I am the first person this has happened to; I know people have things stolen from them all the time. But this form of robbery; a snatch-and-grab by two men on a scooter, felt more like an attack, and has left us both slightly traumatised. The worst part was not losing our money (which we had literally just withdrawn from the ATM), ID or camera (although the memory card inside is a huge loss), but it was from the assault itself, and feeling so helpless and vulnerable afterwards. We have been so careful this entire trip, always checking our belongings and each other's, but in this instance we just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it has frustratingly left a negative impact of the city.

However, we tried to enjoy our next day and final evening, putting aside these thoughts and the memory of what had taken place. On the bright side, it was the end of our travels and probably the best time for it to happen, as it made us actually excited to return home and cautious about over-spending. The main reason I have mentioned the event at all is to warn any of you reading this and heading to Bangkok, Thailand or crime-potent city to be EXTREMELY cautious in these sorts of situations (read my top tips below). I would go so far as to say don't bring any valuables with you at all when going to busy areas, unless they're in a bum bag and you only carry the minimum amount necessary. At the end of the day, we counted ourselves lucky that we weren't at all harmed, but it just goes to show that precautions are necessary when visiting any crime hotspots.

View from Ratchaprarop station

    BUDGETING

(In THB):

Total spend in 17 days (incl. all activities, excl. gifts) = 15,370 (~£277)

Average spend per day = 904 (~£16.30)

Accommodation average price pppn = ~388

Range of meal prices = 30-240

Bus Phuket airport to Phuket town = 100

Minivan transfer Phuket Town (Bus Terminal 1) to Koh Lanta = 280

Transfer Koh Lanta to Koh Samui (coach and ferry via Blue Andaman Resort) = 600

Transfer Koh Samui to Bangkok (incl. ferry and government coach) = 1,000

Public taxi transport Lamai to/from Chaweng = 100-150

Tuk-tuk Bangkok Mo Chit bus station to Baiyoke hotel (8km) = 150

Airport rail link Ratchaprarop to Suvarnabhumi = 40

Market price examples of 'Thailand special' branded goods:

T-shirts in MBK = 150-200

Pair of Birkenstocks = 160-200

Big (and decent quality) Mulberry Bag in MBK = 2,700 (and small Mulberry wash bag = 175)

North Face holdall in MBK = 1,400

Pair of Nike Roshes in PatPong night market = 900

Pair of haviananas in Koh Lanta = 150

Tag Heuer watch in PatPong night market = 1,000

(I could continue this for a while...)

PatPong night market

TOP TIPS

Go for local dishes (instead of western) if you want bigger portions. This isn't always true, but we have experienced our fair share of small nachos/burritos/enchiladas plates to know that it can be!

Stock up on cheap breakfasts from the supermarket to save money (e.g. Tesco in Lamai). We found breakfast out to be usually overpriced and underwhelming.

Choose an AC room and hotel with pool and sunbeds if possible for maximum comfort and relaxation (it was a bit too hot with just a fan, even in the rainy season). Swing Bar even had a fire show every Monday and Friday night, although we weren't allowed to sit there and watch without buying a drink and despite being a hotel guest, which seemed outrageous!

Choose front seats on the bus if you can reserve them when booking your transfer (I.e. try to sort your journey as early as possible).

Watch out for the added 10% service charge on your bills; sometimes it's not obviously listed on the menu.

In Lamai satisfy all your Thai food cravings at the night market. The prices are cheap, the food is fresh and the atmosphere is really lively every night from 6pm onwards (although we found less stalls were open on a Sunday for some reason!).

Keep your 711 stamps they give you when you spend over 50 THB (if this deal is still there). Each sticker point equates to 1 THB, saving you money off your next 711 shop.

Take care of your personal belongings at all times, especially in Bangkok. Do NOT wear a shoulder bag on your side; keep/hold all bags in front of you and be extremely cautious crossing roads or walking near traffic (I.e. Scooters), particularly at nighttime and near busy market areas. If something does happen, try to take a picture or remember their licence plate number at the least.

Try to buy goods from one stall to haggle down prices (e.g. In MBK or on Khao San).

Be strong when bartering tuk-tuk prices - we paid 150 TBH twice for a 6-8km journey.

Tuk-tuk journey in central Bangkok

    FINAL THOUGHTS

Hopefully the tips and information above provide a good basis for a budget stay in each of these islands, but ultimately it comes down to what kind of environment, food and activities you enjoy / are willing to pay for. Both Koh Lanta and Samui and perfect beach locations for backpackers like us, while Bangkok will fulfil all your shopping needs (just be careful with your valuables).

I'm sure it won't be too long until we return again.

Man Made