http://phiphicabana-hotel.com/ was our accommodation while in Phi Phi. We paid £10 ($18) a night for a wooden bungalow with room service, clean bedding and towels daily, full buffet breakfast and a fridge in our room.

Cost of living out there was dirt cheap. A meal for 2 in a restaurant with drinks was about £8 total. Hiring a long tail boat with driver for the day was about £12 and this was the best way of being shown all the islands including Maya bay where The beach was filmed. Also the Long tail boat drivers know where all the best coral is for snorkelling.

Head to Thong Sala if you want to chill a lot more. It’s a lot cheaper at 500-700 baht/night for a 2 bed with toilet by the beach. If Mr. Lek still runs the Reggae Bar there, I know that he offers a taxi service to all the lunar parties that tends not to have any trouble at checkpoints. Haad Rin is Khao San on the beach, and only worth it for a day or two trip from somewhere else on the island. If you do that, just get a cheap place at the Nana Guesthouse for the night.

ProdigalSon, Jan 31, 2007

My favourite beach is in the North-East corner, called Thong Nai Pan. I have some friends that run a circle of bungalows (100-300baht) there called Thai Terrace. Within sight is a beautiful and very quiet beach.

Haad Rin is the beach where the full moon party is. This part of the island has a beautiful beach (with the softest sand I found on the island) but is overdeveloped and crowded with tourists. It’s like Khao San Road on the beach. So, if that’s not your thing, I recommend checking out some of the more remote beaches on the island. My favourite is in the NE corner, called Thong Nai Pan. I have some friends that run a circle of bungalows (100-300baht) there called Thai Terrace. Within sight is a beautiful and very quiet beach.

Rheumy Sven, Jul 07, 2005

Once I found Koh Phangan I pretty much fell in love and didn’t want to leave. There are about 10 major beaches/bays on it where you can stay, so it’s enough by itself. It has gotten a little more developed since the Full Moon Parties started, but it’s still easy to get away from all that and it’s really pretty.

Hbf, Jun 17, 2007

Yeah the beaches in Phangan are much nicer than Tao. Even the main beach sunrise is better than Tao, but there’s a fair bit of people on it (not even close to crowded though). You can hire a boat to see some of the off the beaten path beaches as well, but I don’t know any specifically to check out.

It’s actually included in the “Taxes & Fees” of your plane ticket now. There’s still a departuure tax in Cambodia, The Philippines and Laos though.

In Bangkok there’s Khao San, which is the established tourist ghetto. Lots of cheap accommodation, bars, stores, street vendors, etc. It’s a bit of a zoo, but it has a lot of conveniences and is your best bet if you’re on a budget. You can find something reasonably nice elsewhere in the city for 500-600 baht a night, but I don’t really have any specific recommendations.

You must see the Great Wall. If you can, take a bus a few hours outside of Beijing and check out the unrestored parts of the wall in places like Simatai. Whatever hostel or hotel you’re staying at will probably have tour groups arranged. Aside from that, check out Tiananmen Square and the surrounding stuff, but Beijing tends to get boring pretty fast for a large city in China, in my opinion. The National Museum is really disappointing, when I went most of the place was dedicated to an exhibit on Peru. What else…there’s a decent club there called Cargo that’ll have good shows on weekends.

When I went to Kunming, I did the standard Stone Forest visit which was nice. A lot of people seem to head West from there to Dali and Lijiang. When you head up to Chengdu, you’ll find plenty of stuff to do around Sichuan. The city is full of food, bars, clubs, historical sites, and all that.

Cognitonaut, Feb 05, 2008

Kunming is actually kind of warm right now, like 15 degrees in the afternoons. It never really gets too bad here, I guess. Went to the Stone Forest and China’s largest valley cave, they were pretty spectacular but hell of expensive. e cool shit. It took an hour of wandering and random bus riding plus another internet cafe to find the hostel i was looking for, and then I had to sleep on the floor in the library because there were no beds available.

ReindeerF, March 2008

There are several ways to enter Thailand as a tourist. If you’re from any of the usual host of developed nations, you can simply show up and receive a stamp allowing you to remain in The Kingdom for 30 days. If you show up and happen to be from a nation that isn’t on the preferred list then you must go through the Visa on Arrival queue at the airport.
On the other hand, if you wish to make plans in advance you can also visit or write to a Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Thai Consulate in your country and receive a 60 day or 90 day visa there. However, there are some considerations to make should you desire to stay beyond 90 days.

ReindeerF, May 19, 2007

The problem is that they’re cracking down pretty hard right now on the visa runners, which makes it nigh impossible to actually stay here perpetually without at least a Non-Immigrant B Visa or some other kind of long term non-tourist visa. The stamp is now restricted to 90 days for every six months. In theory, you can get a 90 day tourist visa and then three stamps and then repeat, but I’m not sure how long that loophole is going to exist. However if you just want to stay short term you can get a 90 day multiple entry tourist visa in your home country and then stamp it out for however long.

Credit card skimming is not unknown and it’s undetectable. I always seal my credit cards in an envelope before leaving them anywhere, so at least I will know if someone has swiped it and I can get it stopped.

ass is my canvas, Sep 06, 2007

You may also want to call your bank and tell them your card is going to be doing a little vacation overseas so they don’t put a hold on it thinking it to be some suspicious activity.

Spog, Sep 05, 2006

If the taxi driver screws you on the change, don’t tip (it’s rare that they cheat you). If you are going by meter (as you should), round up to the nearest 10baht in there. Bad traffic - throw in an extra 10 baht. These guys make very little and rising fuel costs have screwed them.