S/V Providencia

Departing from Los Angeles, we took the ANA flight from LAX stopping by Tokyo, Japan in November 14, celebrating Peter’s birthday with Japanese udon soup at Haneda airport at 5am.

The airfare cost us about $700 a one way, 14 hour flight. It was made more pleasant as the Japanese crews were very service oriented with pleasant assistant, beautiful smile, gentle postures and good meal services and wide selections of international movies and documentaries. It was an impressive service that was above and beyond, comparing with the hospitality industry which still remains stuck in the post covid symptoms with its lagging performance.

Upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi international airport, we are among several hundred tourists to check in at customs and immigration. Visa exemption were given for 45 days without fee (as of October 2023 visa exemption for tourists is 30 days only).

Worth of mentioning while you exit the airport, it is a good idea to purchase a sim card for your mobile phone. Airports offers the best data plan with minimum spend that would make life easier when you touring in the cities. We needed to print out document and could not verify security code as we did not hold local Thai numbers.

The ride to our Hostel took us almost an hour due to traffic, and we arrived tired at Issara Hostel, which is very close to the Thai Royal Palace. It costs $20 a night for a private room with AC and shared bath room. The stay was very pleasant and included complimentary breakfast, that come with fresh fruits, omelet, Pai Thai, curry chicken and coffee/tea. The area along a swimming pool and fish pond, open sitting area with fans. The down side of the room is that we were in the room on the busy street, the traffic could interrupt peace of sleep.

As the G20 summit took place during our visit, there were major streets patrolled by police force. In the meanwhile the metro system blocked the stop of Queen Sirikit station for passengers passing.

Our next stay was at Home16 hostel, and cost the same with less value. The room we stayed at was a bare minimum. The walls were made of cardboard separating the rooms, so we could hear snoring from next room packed with many guests and stay late with loud conversations.

So we moved on to a muslim hotel Al Meroz which was a 10 minute walk to the Ramkhamhaeng train station, which is on the airport train route and gives access to the city center. This hotel is our favor choice after all, it costs about $30 and $40 with breakfast for two. The staff are friendly and helpful, the room is spacious and clean (except stain on the carpet). The breakfast offers muslim diet with many variety of Asian cuisines like noodle soup, Pai Thai, chicken masala, as well as fresh cooked omelet. Other good options of fruits, desert and Chinese donut and soy milk.

Regarding options of accommodations, recently we prefer choose hotels over AirBnB for simple reasons. First of all hotels offer the most competitive pricing without hidden fees and charges, vs. AirBnB today with additional service fee, cleaning fee and tax. Secondly, we do enjoy the room service and other perks such as complementary coffee or breakfast, some hotel even with free shuttle services. Lastly it is no headache for checking in and checking out and professional logistic. If you ever have to book rooms via AirBnB, make sure you check the final total after all, and if you check in late night, the place is not in hidden block.

Train and metro cost is as low as 0.50 cents, depending on distance. When come to transportations, we highly recommend metro, train skytrain. They all connect to any points of the country, short and long distance. Grab, taxi or tuk-tuk are not recommended due to heavy traffic during the day. However if you are single traveler, hoping on motorcycle or scooter will make your trip efficient while the ride can easily navigate heavy traffic.

After 30 year since my first visit of Thailand, I feel that the country maintain the friendliness in the same way, and the prices for hotels, food and transportations have been convenient and affordable. Many local streets seem as as poor as 30 years ago, while many commercial buildings and condos are arising in the city centers.

In contrast with US cities, we found the thai people are extremely calm and peaceful. During the morning traffic, people standing by the line of train platform with no stress nor aggression. Trains are usually packed this time, people are calmly waiting without rush or push into the train. Every Thai was wearing mask except tourists. With older passengers on board, seats will be offered by others.

While Western food and drinks are widely offered, we are still enthusiastic about local Thai food, especially street food. About a 10 minute walk from the hotel Al Meroz, there is a small but nice market offering delicious cooked food, vegetables, meat and other merchandise such as clothing. It costs about $2-4 for a good typical meal. For example, egg fried clear noodle costs $0.70 and papaya salad costs $1.80. Most of dishes are under $2.

Siam Paragon is a major shopping mall in Bangkok metropolitan area, with the most famous American and International brands, it offers luxury goods, clothes and verity of international fast foods and fine dining experience. Besides KFC, McDonald, Starbucks and Diary Queen, there are many Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Italian cuisines among Thai food, the price range from $4 to $10. The food court presents clean fresh dishes with public shared tables, while sitting a big crowd of worldly languages, characters and charms.