The Airport Link (or SRT as it’s called) has had a public test opening and some people report that it’s open once a week to the public for a test ride, but it remains as of yet unopened.  It had been scheduled to open for Songkran most recently before being pushed back to the Queen’s Birthday.  If standard Thai scheduling practices hold firm, the next push-back-date should be the King’s birthday which lies on December 5th, 2010.

The fares are rumored to be something like 90 Baht for a full ride to or from the airport on the local line (slower, stops at all stations) and 150 Baht for a full ride on the express line (stops only at Phaya Thai and Makkasan).  The geniuses who planned the project did *not* connect it directly to the connector station at Petchaburi MRT (subway), meaning that you have to exit the MRT, walk several hundred meters and then climb stairs to get to the SRT for the airport.  All presumably while carrying your bags.

Amazing Thailand!

I haven’t seen any pattern to this as international markets (particularly flag carriers) don’t always obey the same revenue management models as we do. Usually the best deals for an airline that doesn’t use the train cars to Auschwitz as its business model are on the Taiwan/Hong Kong carriers like Cathay and EVA, though not always. Last year Malaysia had a really good special. This year Singapore opened up direct flights to Houston (hizzah) and are keeping that pretty cheap which is good if you happen to be American and live in a city in the middle of the country that’s not NY or LA. If you can get to KL or Singapore cheaply then you can add on a R/T to Bangkok as your connector for a hundred bucks and change usually on Air Asia, Nok Air or Tiger (but beware the baggage charges muhaha).

I use a travel agent here, but in Thailand they still prefer you to pay in cash mostly so that won’t help. Still, looking for bucket shops and consolidators abroad is usually the way to go. Also, check out Emirates, they seem to fly literally everywhere these days for pretty cheap.

Personally I fly THAI anytime I can, though this isn’t a cheap option - just the fastest for me as it flies directly to BKK from either LAX or JFK and I hate those long ass layovers in like Narita where you get back on the plane and you’ve still got 7 hours. Also I love the service on THAI and the coach seats on that route have 7 extra inches by default, business economy another 7-9 more on top of that. Long live the corrupt inefficiency of THAI!

What does this have to do with backpacking?  Well, if you’re planning on “backpacking” in Thailand for months on end, there’s sometimes or even often a need to move money around cheaply.  With the new THB 150 fees on international ATM withdrawals, combined with already steep charges in many countries for withdrawing overseas to begin with, you can be looking at $10 to withdraw cash from an ATM in Thailand.  It’s usually much cheaper to send the money over from a US account (or from your parents) using PayPal and then pull it out from your Thai account with no ATM fee.

Traveler’s checks are safest, but also the most hassle. I’ve generally used a combination of ATM’s/cash, although the increasing availablity of ATMs in Cambodia and Laos is making it less necessary to bring your own currency in. (Also, if you have USD you can use them in Cambodia/Laos)

Falco, May 26, 2008

Definitely don’t bring $1000 in cash over with you. You don’t want to be carrying around that much money at any one time. Just bring about $200 in cash with you and use your ATM card the to pull more money out. Just remember that you will get nailed with a 3% conversion fee from your bank, so pull out a fair bit at a time. I’ve been doing about 3000baht or $100 at a time, but could probably do a bit more.

My biggest piece of advice from my travels so far, is don’t bring near the amount of clothes that you might think you need or want. That is the biggest complaint of most travelers. You really only need a couple of t-shirts, a couple pairs of shorts, one long pants, 3 socks and underwear and that’s about it. Clothing is cheap over here if you decided that you absolutely needed more.

Pompous Rhombus, May 26, 2008

I can pull out 10,000 baht a day (call it $330) from my bank account in the US, which is a pretty decent sum. No need to carry it all on you at once, I usually have a few thousand here and there in my bags to cover all eventualities.

The clothing advice is spot on, you can buy clothes over here for a lot less, and considering laundry is generally done by the kilogram (50 cents to a dollar per, usually) it’s not that big a deal to get it done more frequently.

The Phi Phi Islands are located about 29 miles (48 km) southeast from Phuket and 25 miles (42 km) south from the town of Krabi.  They can be reached by boat in a couple of hours from a variety of locations in south Thailand.  The islands are rugged, with vertical cliffs rising from the sea and jagged shores which conceal protected mini beaches. There are no motor vehicles on the islands at all, everyone gets around on push bikes or by foot.

Temperatures vary from an average high of about 86F (30C) at the end of the rainy season in September and October to almost 100F (37C) at the beginning of the rainy season in April. From November to March the temperature is usually in the upper 80’s and the chance of rain is only slight. Rainy season just means it might rain hard for 30 mins during the day.  The water temperature is constant - about 85F (29C). Day or night, year round the water is warm.

The largest island, Phi Phi Don, is about 5 miles (8 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.5 km) wide. It is shaped like a dumb bell. The island’s mountainous interior means that villages and bungalows are mostly located next to the various beaches.
Phi Phi Le, the smaller of the two main islands, is only 2 miles (3.5) km long and just over half a mile (1 km) wide. It is uninhabited except a few security people who protect some caves on the island. Phi Phi Le has two marvellous beaches: Loh Samah and Maya Bay.

Andrew MacDonald, producer of The Beach (Leonardo DiCaprio) has been quoted as saying that Phi Phi Le’s cliffs are the reason that island was chosen as the setting of the movie; in the book, the beach that the characters are living on is surrounded by the high sea cliffs from the sea.

Rheumy Sven, Jul 07, 2005

That’s the West coast of Southern Thailand - the part the tsunami hit.  I forget which out of Koh Phi Phi Lei and Koh Phi Phi Don was the setting for “The Beach” in the movie version.  They said it was near Koh Phangan in the film, but it was clearly Phi Phi.

Judging from what I saw in “The Beach” and in other things I’ve read, Phi Phi is probably one of the most beautiful beaches in existence - at least the tidal lagoon part.  Supposedly they seriously cleaned it all up for the movie and it’s not nearly so pristine when you visit, but it’s still beautiful. I can also say that while not all of Koh Phangan’s and Koh Samui’s beaches were amazing (there’s at least one muddy bog beach on each isle), enough of them were to keep me around. It’s like living in a Corona commercial every day visually.

Chiang Mai is probably the most culture-y type place, but it’s up north in the mountains, not near the beaches (very nice place to visit, I went there last week).  Along with being a big centre for Thai culture, it’s probably the most known for trekking as well.  If hill-tribes are your thing there’s plenty of that, but don’t expect to see anything too original. I’m personally not big on the “people-zoo” thing, but I can tell you that if you want more authentic hill-tribe experiences, try somewhere else.  If you just want to go hiking, maybe ride an elephant or two, Chiang Mai should fit the bill nicely though.

For clothes there are plenty of options… it depends on whether you’re after T-shirts/jeans or tailor-made stuff. MBK is a huge mall at Siam Square that has a lot, and there’s a mall entirely for clothes called Platinum in Pratunam, one stop away on the Skytrain. Jatujak sells pretty much everything under the sun and would be a good bet as well. Someone else could probably make a recommendation for a tailor.

ReindeerF, May 13, 2008

I made a recommendation a while back for a place called gmcstyle.com. You can also check out this post on buying a tailored suit for more information.

It has, but so has a lot of Thailand, especially the islands and beaches. (And anyways, Siam Square is arguably even more tailored towards foreigners than Khao San, just the older, more affluent kind.) If you’re coming looking for an unspoiled paradise, you’re about 20 years too late. I got tired of Ko Chang (which really isn’t even all that bad) after a day and left for the Northeast, which is a lot more “Thai” Thailand if that’s what you’re after.

In the country, there are all kinds of interesting insects, all of which will happily ignore you.

You’ll encounter:
1) mosquitoes which will give you annoying bites. they can easily be driven away by repellents and vaporisers and

2) big cockroaches which will not hurt you, but they will carry off your backpack.

unhealthyman, May 16, 2008

Don’t bring a bugnet. I would risk stating that everywhere you stay would have mosquito netting either on the windows or over the beds. Lugging a mosquito net around with you is a major ballache.

Thailand is a relatively low risk malaria area anyway and if you are sensible with repellent you should be fine.

spog, May 16, 2008

It really depends if you like seeing naked ladies or not.

ReindeerF, May 16, 2008

“cobra blood milkshakes”? Am I missing something? I thought I’d heard of everything.

spog, May 16, 2008

What kind of pussy drinks it with milk? Cobra blood (in China) is supposed to be served with rice wine.