The Travelling Feet

Continuation from The Accidental Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap in 2011

Travel Companions: Ed and Den, Debbie (colleagues at work and close friends) and Mel (Debbie’s close friend)

After the purchase of our plane fares for our trip to Bangkok last January 2011, I immediately started looking for cheap places to stay both in Bangkok and Siem Reap. I never got worried about the budget since I know that travelling to these places won’t cost us much. Although I would have preferred showing up both in Bangkok and Siem Reap without any hotel/guesthouse reservations, I also found it important to look for one and book for our accommodations since I have no clue if January is a peak season for travelers in these places.

scavenged for useful information from my previous trip on this shoebox

When I began searching for accommodations online, it dawned on me that it was no easy thing to do. I got drained from all those searching especially on the accommodations in Bangkok. There are a lot of things to consider in both places. In Siem Reap, the things I had to consider were the guesthouse’ proximity to the Old Market, the safety of our belongings, the cleanliness of the place and so on. For Bangkok, my choice of a guesthouse would be somewhere near Khao San Road – the backpacker’s mecca in Bangkok. So I had to consider safety, cleanliness, level of noise from Khao San and the security of our belongings.

I can no longer recall how many times I visited the Khao San Road website, where majority of all the guesthouses within Khao San are listed. In Siem Reap, I kept googling for cheap guest houses and also found the guesthouse where we last stayed. This was one of my choices. But after reading a bad review that involved security, I know I had to look for a different one. Then I stumbled upon Ron and Monette’s FlipTravels blog and immediately booked at the guesthouse where they stayed in Siem Reap since it was just a walking distance to the market.

As for the accommodations in Bangkok, since there are a lot of cheap hostels listed online without any contact information, I decided that it would be best to just look for one when we arrive in the city. I told my friends of this plan and they all agreed to the idea. Also because they had no clue what to expect in Bangkok, they allowed me to take care of the accommodations.

When my friend Debbie asked me how much would be our budget for our trip, an hour after, I sent them an email containing the estimated costs we will incur on the trip.

Cebu to Bangkok budget – Php 9,500.25

Cebu to Bangkok and Siem Reap budget – Php 16,166.625

Debbie and her friend Mel were only going to Bangkok so I had to separate their travel expenses and created a separate budget for my trip to Siem Reap and Bangkok.

There was also a point where I already got irritated since I felt that I was doing all the research and they were doing nothing. They were asking questions like “Will there be hot water in the place where we’ll stay in Bangkok so that we can just bring noodles?”. “Uh, Bangkok is not like Hong Kong and I don’t have an idea since we agreed we’ll look for a place when we get there.” Then they’d ask me if how much it will cost us to go to this province to see some elephants. One was even hesitant in pushing through the trip to Siem Reap and would rather stay in Bangkok since they were concerned of the expenses no matter how many times I stressed that it is cheaper to stay in Siem Reap than in Bangkok. I couldn’t finalize the reservations on the guest house because of the fickle minds. *sigh* Sometimes, things like this irritate me. Situations like this are normally bound to happen when you will plan your own trip but don’t let this hinder you from pursuing your plans of travelling. This phase will just pass

I guess it was also my fault not to delegate the task to them and kept telling them they have nothing to worry about the trip. I guess they were also confident enough to let me handle all the planning since they know I’ve been to the place before. Anyway, I simply stopped searching since I got tired from all of it and I got busy with work too.

So everything was set two weeks before our scheduled trip. It was decided that we’ll go to Siem Reap then meet up with Debbie and Mel in Bangkok and look for a place there. With no itineraries listed, all of us were excited that we’ll all travel to a foreign land together!

Then all of a sudden, I received a call from Ed. It’s about our friend Den who decided to join us on the trip at the last minute. She was supposed to leave for China but since her trip got postponed, she decided to do a detour to Bangkok and Siem Reap. So I immediately contacted the guesthouse that I made reservations and inquired about their Triple Room. I didn’t get any reply at all. And then all of a sudden, I found Chyng Reyes’ blog since I was looking for info about her experience with an Aspara show, which I planned to see too. I read in her blog about how big her room was at Bou Savy Guesthouse and how satisfied she was with their service. I immediately googled Bou Savy Guesthouse and found that they have package tours. I checked one of the packages and after computing how much we’d spent in Siem Reap with and without that package, I sent them an email to inquire about minor concerns I had. After getting a prompt response from them, I booked for their $72 – 2 DAYS 03 NIGHTS PACKAGE good for 3 persons. I no longer revised the budget since our expenses will be cheaper with three heads to divide the costs of transportation and food

Also, thanks to Praline’s kindness, she allowed me to borrow her digital camera since all I got is a camera phone which could die any minute on me. Since we were to leave ahead of Debbie and Mel, Ed and I had our money exchanged in dollars too. The plan was to have our dollars exchanged to Baht in Bangkok. I still don’t know if it was the better choice since my brain cells are already tired computing.

Budget, check. Siem Reap guesthouse, check. Camera, check. Backpack, check. Laptop, check.

I was all set. I didn’t sleep the night before the trip since I was working and 2 hours before I had to leave my house for the airport, I took a nap.

To be continued…

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This is a series of blog posts documenting my trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap and back in January of 2011. If you haven’t read the first posts, please check on the links below:

** Off to Bangkok and Siem Reap
#1 – The Accidental Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap in 2011
#2 – You are reading this now
#3 – How to Create Your Bangkok to Siem Reap Itinerary
#4 – Arriving 5 Minutes Late on our Connecting Flight to Bangkok
#5 – En Route: Clark to Bangkok
#6 – Touchdown Bangkok!
#7 – Suvarnabhumi Airport a.k.a. Bangkok International Airport
#8 – Bangkok Train Station: Waiting for our Train Ride to Aranyaprathet
#9 – My First Taste of Authentic Thai Food

Unfinished Series from my 2008 Trip…
My First Train Ride From Bangkok to Aranyaprathet
Arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok
My First Trip To Bangkok

You might also find this useful:
Modes of Transportation in Bangkok
Things to Consider When Planning Your Travel Itinerary
The Cheapest Way to Bangkok from Suvarnabhumi Airport

Last year, I vowed to myself that I should stop travelling to international destinations in the next coming months as I need to save up considering the fact that I just “retired” from my 5-year job in a BPO company. But when opportunity presented last October, the vows were completely forgotten and I gave in to the travel itch.

This was all Cebu Pacific Air’s fault!

Kidding aside, I’m really grateful for the promo fares that Cebu Pacific offer its passengers. If not for them, I wouldn’t be able to travel to both local and international destinations with those exhorbitant fares other airline companies charge.

My friend wanted to go to Bangkok to shop for clothing to sell back home and when I told them of the promo fare I saw online for Clark to Bangkok, she said they’d avail of the promo. She also convinced me and pleaded me to join them too and I was sold *sigh*. I told a travel buddy of mine about the trip and he agreed to join us too. The plan was for all of us to fly to Bangkok together. But after my buddy made me realize that I’m no longer restricted to the normal 2-days off work schedule since I now own my work time, what used to be a 4-day trip became a week-long trip instead. Fireworks were popping up my mind as I immediately formulated a plan to do a side trip to Siem Reap. (light bulb!)

So when I announced to my parents that I will be travelling to Bangkok last January 2011 my mom immediately blurted out “Na naman? Anong gagawin mo dun?” (Again? What are you going to do there?)

(Being Bicolanos, our parents required us to speak Tagalog inside the house so that we won’t forget that dialect. That’s why my other Cebuano friends find my way of speaking the Cebuano dialect weird. That’s because it’s a mixture of Bisaya, Tagalog and Bicolano.)

My reply was simple. “Mo-laag!” (will roam)

And when I also told them I’ll go back to Cambodia, my dad blurted out “Di ba delikado doon?” (Is it not dangerous to go there?). I guess he was referring to the landmines and the war and conflict that he had heard from years before.

I immediately reassured them that there’s nothing to be afraid of when going to Cambodia. Especially that I’m still around and nothing bad has happened to me when I last went there. I used Cambodia and not specifically Siem Reap since I know he doesn’t know where that one is

Parents. They’re always like that. Over-protective. But after explaining, they consented since they really can’t do anything to stop me from travelling. hehehe

exposed pictures of our balloon ride in Siem Reap in 2008, one of the reasons why I had to go back

Actually, this was my 3rd travel to Bangkok and my 2nd to Siem Reap. My first trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap happened last 2008. I love Siem Reap so much that I promised to go back to that quaint “not-so-little” town one day. And I never imagined that that one day would be this year. I was so excited. Finally I can take photos again of how wonderful that place is.

For my next blog posts, I’ll be documenting our detailed trip to Siem Reap and Bangkok, including the cheap places we stayed, the great food trips we devoured, the beautiful places we’ve seen and the exact money we spent for the entire trip. To give you an idea, I spent a total of Php 8,750.25 (~$197) for my trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap last January 18-25, 2011. That’s Php 4,296.00 (~$97) in Bangkok and Php 4,454.25 (~$100) in Siem Reap. This only includes food, transportation, accomodation and sight seeing in Bangkok and Siem Reap, not including the plane fares and bus fares from Cebu-Manila-Clark-Bangkok-Clark-Cebu and the travel tax and terminal fees in the Philippines

So do visit thetravellingfeet regularly as I’ll give you a blow-by-blow account of my 1st trip for the year 2011.

————————-

This is a series of blog posts documenting my trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap and back in January of 2011. If you haven’t read the first posts, please check on the links below:

** Off to Bangkok and Siem Reap
#1 – You are reading this now
#2 – Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap: The Planning Stage
#3 – How to Create Your Bangkok to Siem Reap Itinerary
#4 – Arriving 5 Minutes Late on our Connecting Flight to Bangkok
#5 – En Route: Clark to Bangkok
#6 – Touchdown Bangkok!
#7 – Suvarnabhumi Airport a.k.a. Bangkok International Airport
#8 – Bangkok Train Station: Waiting for our Train Ride to Aranyaprathet
#9 – My First Taste of Authentic Thai Food

Unfinished Series from my 2008 Trip…
My First Train Ride From Bangkok to Aranyaprathet
Arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok
My First Trip To Bangkok

You might also find this useful:
Modes of Transportation in Bangkok
Things to Consider When Planning Your Travel Itinerary
The Cheapest Way to Bangkok from Suvarnabhumi Airport

If you want to save big time on getting out of the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, your best bet would be to ride their public bus transportation system.

Taxi

If you hail a metered taxi, it could cost you a whooping 500 baht for the trip to Bangkok from the Suvarnabhumi Airport. Sometimes, taxi drivers will charge you a flat rate (pakyaw) which will cover the toll fees that you will pass. But metered or not, the ~500 baht fare is just too expensive if you are travelling alone, unless you have someone else to split the fare. Travel time: ~2 hours and depends on the traffic

Airport Rail Link

Then there’s also the Bangkok Airport Rail Link which will cut the travel time as well as the costs of getting in Bangkok. From Suvarbabhumi Airport, you may have to pay ~150 baht to reach the Phaya Thai station in 30 minutes.There are plenty of signs in the airport so you won’t definitely get lost when finding the Airport Link station. From there, you can ride a taxi to get to where you want to go or simply take the BTS train. I haven’t really tried this mode of transportation but this one looks really promising as this is definitely cheaper compared to hailing taxi cabs. Travel time: ~1 hour

Public Bus

However, for someone like me who travels on a tight budget, I believe that the cheapest way to travel to Bangkok from the Suvarbabhumi Airport is via a public bus. So how do you find one within the airport? Simple…

You just have to ride one of those Bangkok Airport Shuttle Bus. The shuttle bus is FREE. When you exit the doors of the arrival section of the airport, cross the street (still within the airport grounds, ok?) and look for the bus stop signs and wait for the free shuttle buses.

riding the free airport shuttle bus with our backpacks

There’s enough room on any Airport Shuttle Bus for your luggages too, if you are carrying one instead of backpacks. But since this is a free bus, tendency is you may stand up when there are too many passengers waiting for the shuttle bus. You can either wait for the next bus to arrive or be alert and quickly hop on the bus before the other passengers =)

These buses will take you to the Transport Centre.

the Transport Center

bus numbers vs their corresponding routes

Once you are in the Transport Center, look for the huge board with different bus numbers and their corresponding routes. You can use them as reference to what bus number you will ride. Travel time: ~2 hours depending on the traffic

Public Bus Number 550 on its way to Bangkok

public bus within Bangkok

On my recent trip to Bangkok, we rode bus number 550 to reach the Mo Chit Bus station. The plan was to get to the Mo Chit Bus Terminal and ride a taxi to Hua Lamphong station (which was what we did the last time we were there).  But due to language barriers, we end up getting dropped at the Mo Chit Bus station. From there, we rode another bus going to the Hua Lamphong Station. The cost of the whole trip?

34.00 baht/head - Transport Center to Mochit Bus Station (airconditioned)
8.17 baht/head – Mo Chit bus station to Hua Lamphong Station (we paid 24 for 3 heads) (non-airconditioned)
————
42.17 baht/head - Total fare – Suvarnabhumi Airport to Hua Lamphong Railway Station

We were on our way to Siem Reap which explains the need to go to Hua Lamphong train station. But I bet we could have saved more on the bus fare had I known the exact bus station to get off to reach Hua Lamphong Station. After being dropped off at the Mo Chit bus station, we asked some locals if it is cheaper to ride a taxi or a bus and they recommended the bus and pointed us to what bus number to ride. We could have paid a few extra bahts if we hopped on an airconditioned one but this is still the cheapest by far. (TIP: Never hesitate to ask for help)

*esp if travelling alone
**especially when carrying huge luggages

Hailing for taxi cabs is more convenient due to their door-to-door drop off points but you may also end up getting scammed by some taxi drivers. Airport Links could be difficult if you have huge luggages and you will have to walk to reach the bus/train stations. Public buses could also be difficult if you have huge luggages with you and you may have to ask what bus number to ride and wait for the buses to arrive.

So there you go. Even if taxis are the most convenient mode of transportation going to Bangkok, I’d still prefer riding a public bus. The amount of money I will save on a taxi or the airport link will definitely be useful for food trips and shopping in Bangkok!

If you want to know how to get around Bangkok, you can check out the differenttransportation they have within the city on this link:

http://thetravellingfeet.com/modes-of-transportation-in-bangkok/

————————-

This is a series of blog posts documenting my trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap and back in January of 2011. If you haven’t read the first posts, please check on the links below:

** Off to Bangkok and Siem Reap
#1 – The Accidental Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap in 2011
#2 – Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap: The Planning Stage
#3 – How to Create Your Bangkok to Siem Reap Itinerary
#4 – Arriving 5 Minutes Late on our Connecting Flight to Bangkok
#5 – En Route: Clark to Bangkok
#6 – Touchdown Bangkok!
#7 – Suvarnabhumi Airport a.k.a. Bangkok International Airport
#8 – Bangkok Train Station: Waiting for our Train Ride to Aranyaprathet
#9 – My First Taste of Authentic Thai Food

Unfinished Series from my 2008 Trip…
My First Train Ride From Bangkok to Aranyaprathet
Arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok
My First Trip To Bangkok

You might also find this useful:
Modes of Transportation in Bangkok
Things to Consider When Planning Your Travel Itinerary

Let me start this entry by expressing my gratitude to my friend, Leah and Donnie, for without these guys, I wouldn’t get the chance to travel outside of the Philippines. Hope we get to travel soon!

One day, while I was trying to check for promo fares at Cebu Pacific I told Donnie-Lee that we should book a flight to wherever. Our first bet was Palawan since we haven’t been to that place yet. But when we consulted our other friend, Leah, she immediately said we should go to Cambodia via Bangkok. Cambodia – to see the place where Tomb Raider was filmed and Bangkok, for Donnie’s benefit – will tell you later about this. :lo:

And the rest was history. I booked our tickets online last January 17, 2008 and paid Php 15,354.00 (Php 5,118.00 each) for the Manila-Bangkok-Manila trip. We also paid Php 5,535.04 (Php 2,767.52) for the Cebu-Manila-Cebu trip. In total, Leah and I spent Php 7,885.52 for our round trip fares from Cebu to Bangkok. Donnie only spent Php 5,118.00 since he was Manila-based.

A month after, we found ourselves having the most difficult converstaions we had in our entire life when we asked some local Thais how to get to the train station. Then we also enjoyed the really long and bumpy ride going to Siem Reap from Poipet.

I had no idea what to expect from that trip. I’ve never been out of the country before. Recalling that day, I don’t think I even felt excited about the whole trip at all. It’s just like “Ok, we’re going to Bangkok. Fine”. – type of thing.

And then people started asking why Cambodia. Leah’s reply was always “Why not?”. Mine was “That’s what my other 2 companions wanted.”

Honestly, I was never into travelling until I saw this All Inclusive Holidays package. Although I liked to travel a lot, my work prevented me from doing so. So this trip sort of awakened my “travelling chi” for now all I can think of is to travel and travel and travel. I’m actually the shy type so you wouldn’t catch me making the first move at open up conversations. Not really an ideal traveller’s attitude. But what the heck. I really love to travel. Riding those planes, boats, trains – less the accidents that could happen anytime, I really love to travel! So if ever you happen to bump on me along the way, please don’t get the wrong impression of me being strict and a snob.

Now back to the trip!

Feb 27th was the day that we flew to Manila on our way to Bangkok. We hadn’t changed our money to dollars that morning yet so we had to go to the BDO Fuente Branch in Cebu to buy some dollars before our flight. I’m OC in this aspect so I didn’t agree to go to the black market to have our peso changed. With this move, I am sure that 1) my dollar isn’t fake and 2) I have the best deal in terms of the  exchange rate. But I’m still not sure which (bank or black market) offers the best exchange rate. The bad thing is I had to photocopy my passport, vaild IDs and plane tickets before I can buy US dollars. This was really a hassle. I had no choice but to comply.

Leah driving on our way to BDO; me with fences still

we $500 dollars richer that day! wohooo!

Recalling that day now makes me wonder how stupid it was to exchange for dollars on the day of our flight Our flight to Manila was scheduled at 11:55 am and yet we were still heading to the BDO branch in Fuente, which opens at around 9am, to buy dollars. If there was a heavy flow of traffic that morning, we could have missed our flight! Geesh!

Leah, boarding the aircraft

Our flight to Manila got delayed. When the plane landed, we went straight to the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) to kill time since our flight to Bangkok was scheduled at 10:05 pm. We watched “My Big Love” then had dinner before heading to Teminal 1 of NAIA.

Leah was still a vegetarian at that time so we bought bread at French Baker to feed our hungry stomach during the trip. Leah’s also a sucker for bread and pastries so you could just imagine those eyes getting bigger at the sight of all those nice-smelling freshly baked breads.

Since we were kinda on a budget, we just bought this Raisin Bonnet. The label says “Buy 8 for only P85.00 and save P11.00. I forgot how this one tasted. I think the bread was stuffed and hard. hehehe

If I am not mistaken, our other friend, Donnie, was already in the airport waiting for us. Our flight to Bangkok was again delayed by an hour, I think, and we arrived in Bangkok at around 2:30 am.

It was chaotic at the airport terminal. There was a long line at the check in luggage and since we were all first-timers, we had to ask where we need to go, what we need to fill up and pay. We paid the international travel taxes and also got forms for the immigration. We checked in our backpacks and also bought Thai Baht at the currency exchange counter in the airport. If I’m not mistaken, the exchange rate was at 1.40 Thai Baht per peso (or was it more expensive?). Anyway, we did this since we knew we had to have Thai’s currency when we arrive in Bangkok to pay for our taxi fares.

Donnie and Leah striking a pose while waiting for our turn in the immigration counter

Leah, trying to convince the immigration officer to allow her to travel to Bangkok

Since our flight was again delayed, we managed to steal a couple of photos while we patiently wait for our aircraft amidst the cold temperature inside the waiting area of the airport terminal.

To  be continued….

————————-

This is a series of blog posts documenting my trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap and back in January of 2011. If you haven’t read the first posts, please check on the links below:

** Off to Bangkok and Siem Reap
#1 – The Accidental Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap in 2011
#2 – Trip to Bangkok and Siem Reap: The Planning Stage
#3 – How to Create Your Bangkok to Siem Reap Itinerary
#4 – Arriving 5 Minutes Late on our Connecting Flight to Bangkok
#5 – En Route: Clark to Bangkok
#6 – Touchdown Bangkok!
#7 – Suvarnabhumi Airport a.k.a. Bangkok International Airport
#8 – Bangkok Train Station: Waiting for our Train Ride to Aranyaprathet
#9 – My First Taste of Authentic Thai Food

Unfinished Series from my 2008 Trip…
My First Train Ride From Bangkok to Aranyaprathet
Arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok

You might also find this useful:
Modes of Transportation in Bangkok
Things to Consider When Planning Your Travel Itinerary
The Cheapest Way to Bangkok from Suvarnabhumi Airport

sadako, is that you?

Nope. Sorry to disappoint you. That’s not Sadako That’s actually me dozing off while riding a train from a package tour we paid on our last day in Bangkok.

My friend took that picture of me while I was napping on our train ride going to the floating restaurant. I failed to get enough sleep the night before since we had to pack all our stuff. Since we were going to be on a whole day tour on our last day in Bangkok, we checked out early in the morning from the inn where we stayed in Sukhumvit and stored our bags at the luggage compartment of the van we rode on the package tour that we availed.

On our last day, since our flight was in the wee hours of the evening, we decided to avail of a packaged tour to be able to see the country side of Thailand. We chose the Kanchanaburi River Kwai Package Tour since this was the cheapest and we get to ride an elephant. We paid 1,450 baht each (Php2030) for this tour. The tour included a visit to the War Museum in Kanchanaburi, checking out the bridge over the River Kwai, riding a train, having lunch on a floating resto/hotel then riding a bamboo raft going to the elephant camp and then checking out the Sai Yok Noi waterfalls. This was a whole day tour and we got back in Bangkok just in time to grab dinner at an Indian restaurant before heading to the airport.