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I'll be heading out to Thailand in a week. I'm going to be spending a few days in Koh Tao and then will be finishing off the weekend in Bangkok. What are you recommendations on converting currency? I don't want to convert everything in case I don't spend it because I don't want to lose money in the process. If I'm on Koh Tao, how easy will it be to change non-US currency (Taiwan dollars) into baht? What are you recommendations on keeping my cash safe?
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Jan 24, 2011 14:31
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 23:02 |
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I've always just used ATM's, with $100-200 in traveler's checks squirreled away from my main cash supply as emergency money. This isn't really an option for me. I'd have to send all my money to America, which would cost me a wire transfer fee and conversion fee, because my Taiwanese ATM card won't work in Thailand. Then when I took money out of the ATM in Thailand, I'd have to pay additional charges to convert my dollars to baht and use a foreign ATM. I know it's riskier to travel with cash, but assuming I don't lose it I'll save more money in the long run.
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Jan 25, 2011 04:42
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I am on Ko Tao right now. If any goons want to meet up, let me know! Also, Magu was logged in on this computer at this internet cafe and I went ahead and logged him out instead of posting a banme. You're welcome.
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Feb 1, 2011 08:54
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Steve. posted:Maaaaaan, I wish I was there. I left on the 23rd, and I'm back home now. It sucks. I'm at Ban's.
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Feb 2, 2011 08:01
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Steve. posted:
It was OK. I was kinda disappointed in Ko Tao, though. It was advertised as really off the beaten path, but it was mostly just an inconvenient place to see a lot of hippies. I felt more like I was in Europe than in Thailand. At the end of the trip, a guy from Texas overheard my friends and I talking and just wanted to see proof that there were other Americans on the island.
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Feb 6, 2011 11:57
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It was the impression my friends got from wikitravel and their guidebook. It was certainly a beautiful place, but it wasn't what I was looking for in an island resort. I did get really, really drunk with some Europeans though. All in all, Thailand was a very different experience from other Asian countries I've been to. I didn't really get to see much of it, and I suspect what I did see was specifically designed with foreigners in mind, but I never felt like I was in a "foreign" country the way I did in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan. It was cheap. I got some cool souvenirs. The food was amazing everywhere I went. The people were all friendly. But everyone I met was a tourist.
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Feb 6, 2011 12:32
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I just booked a flight to Manila over Chinese New Year (Feb 9-17). I live in Taipei and have the week off and didn't go anywhere last year, so this year I feel like having a little bit of adventure. My original plan was just to book a hotel for the week there and see what the city had to offer, but after reading the detailed post about Manila, I'm beginning to suspect that I can see everything in a couple of days, so now I'm starting to second guess myself. I hear flights out of the city to somewhere more interesting are cheap and don't really need to be booked ahead of time. I'm also assuming that Chinese New Year has a slight influx of tourists, but isn't a major deal in the country overall. In any case, I'm arriving alone and another friend of mine from Taiwan might meet up with me later, but it's the kind of thing that will probably fall through. So, pointers would be appreciated (places to go, things to see, etc). I'm not really hoping for much. I don't mind museums and cultural stuff, but for the most part I just want a week where I can just disconnect from reality. If I spend the whole week in a bar surrounded by beautiful women, it'd probably be a success. If any goons out there have a free day or night or whatever, I'll gladly buy you a round of drinks and offer the same if you make your north someday. Edit: One reason I'm hesitant to leave the city is because I feel like I wasted a trip to Thailand two years ago. I went to Koh Tao after hearing it was a remote getaway that few people went out to, and it turned out to be a terrible tourist hotbed that I was stuck on for a couple of days. Combined with the time lost in transit, it was like my vacation was over right after I got there. Ideally, I don't want to repeat that mess. Atlas Hugged fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Oct 30, 2012 |
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Oct 30, 2012 17:32
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DontAskKant posted:My friends who have done the Philippines usually fly into Manila, and wait a couple hours for their next flight out to Cebu or somewhere else. Your flight from Taipei would be so short that you wouldn't really be tired from a trip even after that. Hell, a 2 hour subway ride leaves me more drained than flights here in Asia. Well, I'll probably at least do the first night in Manila. I figure Saturday night is the best time to do a city.
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Oct 30, 2012 18:30
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caberham posted:Just spend all your time in Soi Cowboy instead Bangkok is the most popular destination for Taiwanese people to go to during Chinese New Year. All of the direct flights were already booked. As far as sim cards go, I don't have a smart phone. If I plug a local sim into a feature phone, will that work? How do I go about getting a sim?
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Oct 31, 2012 01:27
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Hope you have fun, and just maybe hit the "off beach".
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Cynic Jester posted:But n'thing the recommendation to find a beach somewhere as soon as possible. Manila is pretty boring beyond partying. Getting hammered and trying to convince other drunk people to go to karaoke with me is basically standard operating procedure. A decent pub with other ex-pats is really all I need. I prefer places with more of a rock soundtrack to dance clubs, but that's basically the only requirement. As far as the beach goes, I guess I'll wait and see. I'm not really sure how necessary it is, though I guess going all the way out there and NOT going to the beach would be a waste. From past experience, I know that swimming by yourself is kind of lovely. I also have the complexion of a sheet of paper, so prologued amounts of time in the surf are just a liability. However, sitting in the shade and drinking are right up my alley. So, to confirm my earlier suspicions, if I don't book stuff ahead of time, I'm not going to run into too much trouble? I can basically just get down to the airport and grab a flight somewhere if I decide to go? Or should I have a firm itinerary in place?
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Oct 31, 2012 02:05
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Cynic Jester posted:Seeing as you're coming down on what is probably a pretty busy period, I'd consider ordering somewhat in advance, but in general just showing up the airport works fine. It's how I spend some of my weekends, just going to the airport and getting a cheap ticket to any beach at all. How far in advance is far in advance? I booked my ticket to the country already because those were going fast (a few available seats remaining), but I'm guessing flights between the islands are more regular and rooms shouldn't be too hard to come by for a night, right?
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Oct 31, 2012 03:07
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The hotel I'm looking at offers a 700 peso airport pickup. Should I just take that or try getting a taxi?
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Oct 31, 2012 05:06
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Well then I'm just going to stick with the airport service. I'm willing to pay a premium not to get screwed. Also, if I want to avoid flying again, is a fairy to Cebu a realistic thing? What kind of time investment is that? How would I go about setting that up?
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Oct 31, 2012 06:53
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Rojkir posted:Thanks for the penang advice guys, I'm in a budget on love lane, the weather is much much better than kl which was what I came for in the first place and I just had what was probably my best lunch ever. I thought thailand's food was great, but my (limited) sampling of malaysian cuisine had proven to be better and cheaper. I really loved Malaysian food when I was there. Their take on curries, BBQs, and satay are amazing. If you hit a Chinese-Malay restaurant, see if they have "orange peel beef".
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Nov 6, 2012 13:17
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Have any of you guys ever brought a cat into Thailand? Kind of a long shot for this thread I think, but maybe someone will have some experience with it.
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Jan 1, 2014 16:26
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Anyone going to be in Bangkok for Chinese New Year?
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Jan 3, 2014 17:37
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ReindeerF posted:we just have to do a shitload of cardio exercise and expect to die a bit younger, maybe - literally have multiple seventy year-old friends who run 5-10K several times a week and drink like fish This is probably going to be me in 40 years, if I live that long.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:50
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Meh, that is me now at 30... I meant the 70 year old part.
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Jan 10, 2014 05:40
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You ever have sunburn, you know, down there?
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Jan 10, 2014 08:47
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I was in Bangkok a couple of years ago and spent the first hour sitting outside at a bar getting eaten alive by local mosquitoes. The inching was painful and agonizing, but after the first hour, I didn't feel another bite the rest of the week I was in the country. Maybe I just got acclimated to it?
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Jan 14, 2014 04:02
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LAX is the only place security has ever stopped me on suspicion of being a terrorist, though they had decent enough cause. I booked my flight naively thinking an hour would be enough to transfer from an international flight arriving in LAX and then catching a departing domestic flight. Oh boy was that not the case. Worse, my checked baggage had a broken wheel, so I had to literally carry the drat thing. This resulted in my sprinting across an airport in a panic with a giant suitcase in my arms. When it was clear I wasn't a terrorist, they did let me skip the line and make my flight.
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Jan 15, 2014 10:02
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ReindeerF posted:How you pulled a Hurley without yelling DEATH TO AMERICA at the top of your lungs I'll never know. It had to hit you at some point, heh. Who?
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Jan 15, 2014 10:41
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Kylaer posted:(If this is going to get me killed, someone please let me know before I do it) I don't know man, a historically important death in Bangkok for something other than auto-erotic asphyxiation would be kind of cool.
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Jan 17, 2014 06:11
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Has anyone here actually done a TEFL in Bangkok and if so is there one that's less of a ripoff than somewhere else?
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Jan 18, 2014 09:38
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Do frozen waffles exist in Thailand?
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Jan 21, 2014 05:13
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What exactly does the State of Emergency in Bangkok mean at this point? If I have a late flight in, are taxis going to be affected by the curfew? Or does a curfew just mean no public assemblages on the streets?
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Jan 22, 2014 05:23
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It's not going to stop my trip at all, I just don't want to get stranded at the airport until dawn or something dumb.
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Jan 22, 2014 05:54
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Oracle posted:Yeah, I know I'll always regret the time I could've paid to contract Hep C... Yeah, hookers are people too! Dirty, filthy people who have dirty, filthy diseases! Look, prostitution, especially in South East Asia, is a really complicated issue with varying degrees of consent and agency. Some of the girls are just in it for the money and see it as a job, some are forced into it by their families, and others are basically sex slaves. But if you actually care about their plight and the underlying issues that have created the industry, what you shouldn't do is demonize the girls for the work they do. A lot of these girls actually do want to get out someday and live "normal" lives, but if they carry the stigma of being a "dirty whore riddled with venereal disease" no matter what, that becomes increasingly difficult for them to do. And besides, while proper condom use doesn't prevent all STDs, it is effective against the serious ones. And Hep C is actually a really lousy example because there's not even conclusive evidence that it can be spread sexually, and a condom would prevent transmission anyway.
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Jan 25, 2014 02:50
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The protests actually make for great street markets.
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Jan 29, 2014 08:53
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Is there any good KTV that doesn't come with women? Just want to drink beer and rock out with friends.
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Jan 29, 2014 11:30
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Taipei is absolutely worth it. The food is mediocre to bad, but it's got some great temples, museums, and of course 101. Depending on weather and polution, the view from the top is really cool. I checked out the KTV in Mega Bangna and they seemed to have a decent selection of songs, not as good as Korea (Korea had a disproportionate number of European power metal bands in every song book). I prefer the KTV with a large group of friends because you can still get the drunken chorus of Piano Man going and you don't end up with that one rear end in a top hat who came by himself hoping to be "discovered".
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Jan 30, 2014 04:30
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Sorry, it's just when comparing Taiwanese cuisine to the likes of Korean, Thai, Indian, etc, it comes off as just being fried crap with a pile of salt on the side. Yeah, there is good food to be had in Taiwan, but it typically isn't "Taiwanese". Meat on a stick is the same everywhere and a lot of the noodles are explicitly Japanese style. If you asked the average Taiwanese person what they ate on a daily basis, it would be "便當“ or "lunch box", which is an over-cooked piece of fried meat on a bed of rice with a side of boiled vegetables. It's about 50NT a box and tastes like how much it costs.
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Jan 30, 2014 05:07
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For years my friends and I have joked Taiwan is the Iowa of Asia. 新年快樂，恭喜發財，紅包拿來！謝謝洋鬼子
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Jan 30, 2014 12:09
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There's a Russian guy staying in the same community in Bangkok as me and he absolutely refuses to eat anything other than ramen. He describes all the meat in the dishes here as "jam from meat" meaning that everything is way, way too sweet. This has made me wonder just how awful the food in Russia must be to snub your nose to everything prepared in Thailand.
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Feb 1, 2014 04:29
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So what day is the actual election? Tomorrow or Monday? I noticed the alcohol ban has gone into effect already, but I'm curious how universally enforced that is. I can't imagine Soi Cowboy or Nana Plaza turning off the taps tonight. How is this all going to go down?
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Feb 1, 2014 14:17
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I've come to the conclusion that the fancier the restaurant in Thailand, the worse the food is. And this is especially true for anything remotely geared towards foreigners. The cost to taste ratio is extraordinarily bad. The best meals I've had have been a 45baht curry in MBK and a 35baht curry from a street vendor.
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Feb 1, 2014 17:52
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Cheesemaster200 posted:23 hours on my flight home with food poisoning would agree with you.... What gave you food poisoning?
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Feb 2, 2014 03:03
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Beer Lao is the best kept secret in South East Asia. I ordered it on a whim because of the price and never looked back.
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Feb 2, 2014 15:13
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eviljelly posted:It's a secret...? I don't think I've ever met anyone who went to Laos who would shut the gently caress up about it. Also Chang supremacy. I’ve never met someone outside of Southeast Asia mention it and many of the people I met this trip who have been here for years have never even tried it.
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Feb 2, 2014 18:17
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 23:02 |
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I had to put on pants today. Goodbye Southeast Asia thread.
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Feb 3, 2014 08:11
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