Bali & Bangkok

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:51:04 -0700 (PDT), PeterL
wrote:

On Sep 21, 6:05*pm, "Traveller" wrote:
"Alan S" wrote in message

...





On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:08:13 +0530, "Traveller"
wrote:

BANGKOK-
Full day Safari World with Marine Park -USD-40
Full day Dreamworld with Snow Town -USD-44
Half-day Grand Palace-USD-35
Half-day Crocodile Farm -USD-33
Full day Floating Market with Rose Garden & Lunch -USD-42
Full day Floating Market with Rose Garden, Crocodile Farm & Lunch-USD-42
Chaophraya Dinner Cruise with transfers -USD-55
Kanchaburi Tour with lunch -USD-45
Full day Ayuthaya Bus & Boat Tour with lunch -USD-75
Calypso Cabaret with Soft Drink with Return Transfers-USD-35

Why not just do your own thing? Cheaper and more
interesting.

See if these help with some ideas:
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/2008/05/bangkok.html
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/2008...nd-palace.html

How did you travel inside Bangkok? Did you use buses or cabs? How
expensive are cabs? If buses, are they comfortable & good frequency?

I want to do my own thing, but I am spending very few days at each place.
Don't want to miss a day because I couldn't find transport.-

If you want tours in Bangkok, you can easily book them from your
hotel. Probably cheaper too.

That's very true. These kinds of tours have big profit-margins
associated with them and everyone who comes into contact with tourists
is eager to sell them because of the commissions they get. There's
absolutely no problem to find someone selling them, so no need to book
anything in advance. You can book in the evening for tours that pick
you up at your hotel the next morning. Just shop around and get the
best price you can. The prices are always negotiable.

Chris

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:10:34 +0530, "Traveller" wrote:


"PeterL" wrote in message
...
If you want tours in Bangkok, you can easily book them from your
hotel. Probably cheaper too.

That's what I thought, but a friend said that sometimes these tours get
booked in advance & you may not get seats in the last minute.

That's not my experience. The tour operators can always find a bigger
bus/boat at the last minute to cope with demand if necessary. In any
case, Thailand is going through a tourism crisis right now due to the
political instability, so they need all the tourists they can get
their hands on. As I predicted a few weeks ago, prices are falling as
a result of this. You can now find rooms in some 5-star hotels in
Phuket for less that US$100 a night.

Also, other than going on these tours, what are my options, are there
public buses in Bali & Bangkok available for seeing these places - are
there pickup points near enough the touristy places? What about cabs,
how expensive are they? Are they metered - or do you have to bargain?
Also, can you flag a cab on the street, or do you have to book it on the
phone?

Taxis are easy to find in both Bangkok and Bali, and are metered.
Reckon on no more than US$10 for a 30 minute taxi journey in either
place.

One word of advice, don't choose any taxi parked waiting outside of a
hotel or other tourist venue. Pick an empty moving one that's passing
by.

Chris

Thank you for all your responses. But looks like most of
the responses are related to Bangkok.

Any idea about Bali?

On Sep 21, 10:40*pm, "Traveller" wrote:
"PeterL" wrote in message

...

If you want tours in Bangkok, you can easily book them from your
hotel. *Probably cheaper too.

That's what I thought, but a friend said that sometimes these tours get
booked in advance & you may not get seats in the last minute.

Also, other than going on these tours, what are my options, are there
public buses in Bali & Bangkok available for seeing these places - are
there pickup points near enough the touristy places? What about cabs,
how expensive are they? Are they metered - or do you have to bargain?
Also, can you flag a cab on the street, or do you have to book it on the
phone?


Cabs and tuk tuk in Bangkok, also subway and skytrain. Transportation
is not a problem in Bangkok, except for traffic jams. Tourism is
having some problems in Bangkok these days, with the political
unrest. You should have no problem booking tours.

On Sep 22, 5:02*am, "Traveller" wrote:
Thank you for all your responses. But looks like most of
the responses are related to Bangkok.

Any idea about Bali?

In Bali you can easily hire a cab for a day. Otherwise you can also
book any tour you want from your hotel.

you can find a reliable driver ( or driver and guide
combo) in every other location on the island, ask
at your reception. many of the hotel drivers do private
tours if you ask them.

steer clear of most of the dudes hanging out in front
of the resorts, looking for a quick buck and ripping
you off.

ubud, tanah lot and ullawatu are worth going. nusa
lembogan wasn´t my cup of tea and not worth spen-
ding a whole day.

for some impressions:

http://tvc15.blogs.com/photos/bali_2005/index.html
http://tvc15.blogs.com/photos/mornin...rld/index.html

bye


frank



http://tvc15.blogs.com/

On 22 Sep, 13:02, "Traveller" wrote:
Thank you for all your responses. But looks like most of
the responses are related to Bangkok.

Any idea about Bali?

A car costs from 200,000rp for a basic 8-seatr 1-litre MPV with no
power steering but with a/c to 300,000rp for something a little more
powerful. 10,000 rp is about US$1, so that's $20 for a day.

A driver for a day (up to 10 hours) is 100,000rp. Worth the cost.
Plenty of reasonably priced tour leaflets in the domestic terminal in
Indonesian language (lots try to rip-off foreign tourists with higher
charges). From about 350,000rp (per vehicle) it can be cheaper than a
car+driver package, as you have to pay petrol (6000rp/litre) if you
hire a driver.

The costs you quote are okish for private car, not for a seat in a
group tour. Not too sure on costs for that, in theory you should save,
in practice maybe not because the domestic market (cheaper) has large
families and hence focused to the 'whole vehicle' approach, whereas
the international market is much more expensive.

Tourist attractions such as the bird park have much higher prices for
foreign tourists, typically double. I suggest contacting a local agent
who may be able to sell you pre-paid vouchers at much lower cost.

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:19:12 +0530, "Traveller"
wrote:

"Alan S" wrote in message
.. .
There are hundreds of local tour providers there; if you
change your mind it will be simple to arrange tours on the
spot from an agent in the Khao San Road or similar.

Thank you, Alan. Do I need to be in Khao San Road at any particular time
of the day for a tour or do they have have tours going through the day.

Can't say, because I did my own thing. I probably missed a
lot, but Bangkok for me was actually a brief stopover needed
to access Angkor Wat en-route to other places.


Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com
Latest: Two Indian Hotels: to Sleep, Perchance...

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:03:57 +0200, "Frank" wrote:

steer clear of most of the dudes hanging out in front
of the resorts, looking for a quick buck and ripping
you off.

That's normally good advice, and I would usually do the same, but I
just came back from Bali and had a very different experience there.

This guy had his own minibus and used to hang out in front of the
resort I was staying in (Bali Tropic Hotel in Nusa Dua). I used to get
a metered taxi from there into Kuta most evenings, and the metered
fare was always around 75,000 Rupiah. One evening there didn't seem to
be any taxis around so I asked him how much he would charge and he
quoted 70,000 Rupiah. He got my business that evening, and I used him
every day from then on. I would never have expected a private
transport operator to match a metered taxi fare, so in fairness to
this guy I just wanted to go on record and mention it here.

Chris

On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:06:56 +0800, Chris Blunt
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:03:57 +0200, "Frank" wrote:

steer clear of most of the dudes hanging out in front
of the resorts, looking for a quick buck and ripping
you off.

That's normally good advice, and I would usually do the same, but I
just came back from Bali and had a very different experience there.

This guy had his own minibus and used to hang out in front of the
resort I was staying in (Bali Tropic Hotel in Nusa Dua). I used to get
a metered taxi from there into Kuta most evenings, and the metered
fare was always around 75,000 Rupiah. One evening there didn't seem to
be any taxis around so I asked him how much he would charge and he
quoted 70,000 Rupiah. He got my business that evening, and I used him
every day from then on. I would never have expected a private
transport operator to match a metered taxi fare, so in fairness to
this guy I just wanted to go on record and mention it here.

Chris

Similarly, the cabs based at the Baqngkok 13 Coins Airport
Hotel were reliable and didn't try any funny routes or
fare-gouging.

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com
Latest: Two Indian Hotels: to Sleep, Perchance...