Low Cost and High Value of Southeast Asia

As I mentioned in my previous post, this blog entry is an extension of cost effective travel, focused specifically on our experiences in Southeast Asia. While we aren’t experts on the this area of our world, we are experts on cost and logistics and SE Asia is hands-down the place to get the most bang for your buck when traveling.

Cassia Cottage, Phu Quoc Vietnam

For many Westerners like us, it’s truly difficult to comprehend the low cost of Southeast Asia. Sure, the flight to get over there generally isn’t cheap (or short), but once you arrive, you can literally stay and eat for under $50 a day. That’s food, drink AND lodging. And it isn’t like you are staying in a tiny apartment, with an alley view and your neighbor is blaring his music. We’re talking white sandy beach, towering limestone cliffs, sparkling green water, authentic Thai cuisine and more Singha than you can possibly consume. You can even spend the day pampering elephants, if that’s what you are looking for…

Alright, lets get to the nuts and bolts…or in this case, the dollars and cents. Keep in mind that the flight cost is an estimate and will vary based on your airport and time of year (I have estimated high to prove cost effectiveness). Also, for SE Asia, I’m sticking to the entire country, opposed to specific towns, as I think there is more value at looking at these destinations holistically.

Thailand - ($1100 flights + $650 food/stay +$200 elephant nature park = $1,950/8 days/pp)

Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai Thailand

It doesn’t get any better than Thailand. As I described in detail above, you can literally “have your cake and eat it too” in this unbelievable destination. Who wouldn’t want to walk through the jungle with gentle giants and then fly down for some sunny Thai beach relaxation? And for $1950?! If you want to learn more about this cost estimate and the exact itinerary behind it, check out our Thailand itinerary here for exactly where we stayed and ate (FYI - when calculating the cost for this post, I subbed out Rayavadee luxury resort for a highly rated neighboring hotel called Sand Sea Resort to save big bucks). The only negative that I can think of when visiting any country in SE Asia is the overall travel time (16 - 25 hours). But as we always say…just book the flight!

Cost notes:

Chankam Boutique Hotel, Chiang Mai Thailand

• The elephant sanctuary that we visited in Chiang Mai (socially responsible park catering to abused elephants and other animals - check out our vlog here!) is only $200 for a full day adventure; walking, feeding and bathing these gentle giants. The day is called “pamper a pachyderm” and can be booked directly through their site at www.elephantnaturepark.org. We also stayed in Chiang Mai for $70/night in a beautifully decorated Thai accommodation called Chankam Boutique Hotel, right in the heart of the city.

Railay Beach, Krabi Thailand

• You can stay on Railay Beach for well under $100/night - close to bars, restaurants and water transport to nearby Phi Phi islands (and Phuket). We routinely ventured down the beach for $5 lunch gyros and a $1 20 oz Singha bottled lager.

Thailand is…

Perfect for: SE Asia cuisine, nightlife, beach vacation, elephant sanctuary, warm weather, low cost

Not perfect for: Short travel time, craft beer, wine, high end dining (outside of Bangkok)

For more info on the details of our stay, visit our exact itinerary here.

Vietnam - ($1,050 flights/shuttles + $525 food/stay +$70 Island tour and cable car = $1,645/8 days/pp)

I don’t think we have been anywhere that has THIS much value. Not only is everything incredibly inexpensive, but Vietnam is also very safe. When you combine safety and cost with the food, culture and beauty, it is truly a must visit destination. While Ho Chi Minh is a bit more expensive (as far as SE Asia goes), the island of Phu Quoc was nothing short of unbelievable. I can vividly remember the day I realized how much money I was saving. I was waiting for Kailah to do some shopping near our hotel, so I sat down at an outdoor restaurant nearby for a beer. It was 85 degrees, palm trees swaying overhead and my bottle of Saigon Red lager was going down smooth. I got up to leave and paid my 11,500 Vietnamese Dong. As I was walking away, I was doing the math in my head and realized that my beer cost 50 cents…at a restaurant!

Cost notes:

Bun Cha Ha Noi, Phu Quoc Vietnam

Long Beach, Phu Quoc Vietnam

• There is a Bun Cha restaurant (Called Bun Cha Ha Noi) near where we stayed on Phu Quoc that makes this incredible dish for $2.20 USD. It’s a great value, and I would pay $15 for this meal back in the US because it is so delicious.

• We literally ate dinner ON the beach, with our toes in the sand, overlooking the Gulf of Thailand (yes, Vietnam borders the Gulf of Thailand) for under $20 (with several drinks). We sat there, mostly by ourselves, drank fruity drinks out of hollowed out coconuts and devoured Vietnamese cuisine.

• In our Vietnam itinerary that we published (link below), it references Cassia Cottage as our Phu Quoc accommodation. For the purpose of this post, I chose one of the other accommodations on Long Beach, as they are much more inexpensive and come highly rated. We would still recommend Cassia Cottage (incredible value, food and accommodation), but I wanted to emphasize the low cost of Vietnam.

Vietnam is…

Perfect for: SE Asia cuisine, nightlife, beach vacation, bee farm, gondola, warm weather, low cost

Not perfect for: Short travel time, craft beer, wine, high end dining (outside of Ho Chi Minh)

For more info on the details of our stay, visit our exact itinerary here.

Listen, I know SE Asia is a LONG way to travel for a “vacation” on a beach. But any and all of these countries are so much more than just value and beautiful weather. The kind people and delicious cuisine alone are more than enough to plan an adventure. With that being said, I hope this post helped clarify the cost of the two SE Asia countries we’ve visited. If you want to read more about why we chose Vietnam as a destination, check out this post I wrote a while back.

Cheers!

Kyle

The Affordable Beauty of Chiang Mai

Dollar for dollar, Chiang Mai is the most valuable place that we have ever visited. It offers age old temples around every corner, distinct and delicious northern Thai cuisine, proximity to jungle landscapes and wildlife, open air markets, traditional Thai massages, and of course, it's people. Sounds amazing right? The crazy part is ... all of these experiences are extremely low cost by American standards...

Take our arrival into Chiang Mai for example. We had just touched down on our 10 AM flight from Bangkok and were heading for ground transportation. When we arrived, a woman dressed in a suit and holding a clipboard asked if we needed a ride. I had done some research ahead of time and I hadn't arranged a car to pick us up - planning on public transport. So, I obliged and told her we were going to the Chankam Boutique Hotel in the old city (about a 13 minute ride). She gave me a concerned look and said "sir will 160 baht be OK?" in broken English. I opened up my phone's calculator and punched in .028 (conversion for Thai currency to dollars) and multiplied it by 160 and got $4.48! Our cab ride cost us four dollars and forty eight cents. Oh and I hadn't even haggled her down like I was supposed to. Upon arriving at the hotel, I realized that I only had Thai Bahts in 1,000 bills (fancy huh?) and my cab driver couldn't make change for us. So I asked him to wait and I walked inside to the front desk, where the hotel staff was awaiting our arrival. I asked for change and they couldn't break my bill either. At this point I was getting a little confused. How much money is in my pocket? Because behind that 1,000 bill, there are nine others that look just like it ($280 total - not a ton for an "exotic" vacation right?). Get this...one of the staff members had to go into the back office and pay our cab driver out of his own wallet, in order for us to be all square. This would serve as a prelude to the kindness and hospitality of the Thai people, but lets continue to focus on the dollars for now. Once the driver was on his way, we were directed to relax in two empty chairs alongside a couple of ice cold towelettes and two glasses of chilled fruit juice. After cooling down a bit, the staff took some pictures of us in the extravagantly laid out lobby. There was Asian inspired art decorating the walls, a bubbling stream flowing and many comfy poof chairs to lounge in, if you so desired.  We then were led upstairs to our room. The key word here is "led", not directed. In America, we are used to being given a key and told to go find room 413. In Asia, they bring you to your room and make sure everything is exactly to your liking. There is no mistake about how you are supposed to feel - and it goes much further than I expected. Once inside, we were shown around - private balcony, king size bed, mini bar, marble bathroom with rain shower...oh yes and our $700 toilet (which our host proudly pointed out). Guess how much this hotel was? $70 per night. The equivalent of a motel 6 in America...

After settling into our room, we realized that we were both starving, so we headed downstairs and got direction from the front desk on their lunch recommendations. We had done "restaurant research" before we left, but I find it's always just as important to get the perspective of the locals. They pointed us towards one of the main streets in the old city, known for it's lunch cuisine. The old city in Chiang Mai, is aptly named because it is completely surrounded by a moat and a wall - both of which were used as protection in bygone eras. Inside the walls, you can visit many of the cities beautiful, historic temples. But for now, our goal was food. When we arrived on Rachadamnoen road, we walked the length of food vendors and makeshift restaurants to try and decide where to eat. Given that this was our first day and we didn't know the lay of the land, we chose one of the giant open air food stalls. We could see a whole chicken being roasted on a spit at the entrance and chicken skewers being cooked over open coals beside it - so we were comfortable with the food preparation. A waiter led us to our table and gave us rudimentary, but practical menus. We ordered the roasted chicken, with white rice, 20 chicken skewers and two 22 oz Singha beers. Sounds like a simple meal right? It was DELICIOUS. Probably one of my favorite in Thailand. And then we asked for the bill. I'm sure it's obvious where I'm going with this. The check read "300 baht". That's around $8.50! It's difficult to get a 20 oz beer at a restaurant in the United states, with tip, for $8.50. Say nothing about two beers and a full meal. At this point in the day, I was beginning to get concerned that I may not be able to spend the money I had so diligently extracted from the ATM a few hours earlier. Not a bad problem to have...

Although affordability was constant in Chiang Mai, there were two other experiences that really stuck out to us. The first was shopping. We were fortunate enough to be visiting on a Sunday, when they close several streets in the old city to street traffic and invite vendors from all over northern Thailand to bring their wares to be peddled. This is very literally called the "Sunday Night Market" by us English folk. You can find anything here. There is street food, handmade goods, art, bags, clothing and name brand knock offs - to name a few of the items. I purchased a beautiful pair of "Ray-Bans"...that melted in the sun a few days later (oh the irony). But the sunglasses were an exception and not the rule. I bought sandals for $5, a hat for $5, a new backpack with leather fittings for $10 and Kailah bought several pairs of light pants and other clothing items for $5 a piece. The wild part about this shopping experience for us Westerners was probably the ability to haggle. It is expected in Thai culture for customers to offer less than a listed price on an item. This gets very difficult when you realize that you are haggling cents on the dollar. "I'll give you $5.50 for that $6 t-shirt". It's sort of demotivating to even bother until you realize that this is their culture and it is required. So we learned to have fun with it and see how many dimes could be saved. Needless to say, we returned to the hotel with much more than we left with, in terms of goods and money. And since this wasn't the only Chiang Mai market, our bags were bursting by the time we touched down in Boston 10 days later. The other big Chiang Mai affordability surprise was the traditional Thai massage. These one hour massages are known for being rougher than the traditional American version and, as I learned, require more flexibility (Kailah laughed when I told my 4' 11'', 90 lbs masseuse that she was the strongest woman I had ever met). All in all, they are a great experience and can provide a nice option for down time and relaxation in Chiang Mai. In keeping with the theme of this article, the price is obviously not what I would have expected. In America, or even the western world as a whole, an hour massage will usually cost $100 or more. In Thailand however, we found one of the highest rated massage parlors on TripAdvisor and paid $11...for both of us! Essentially $189 cheaper than the most reasonably priced US version.  

I know I focused primarily on the cost of Chiang Mai in my stories above, but that alone isn't the main reason we should all spend time there. It is the value gained at this cost. There are many places that you can travel cheaply. But there aren't many places that give you this valuable culture focused on service, combined with amazing food, beautiful temples and sprawling landscapes. In addition, it is a great home base to head up north to the Elephant Nature Park (www.elephantnaturepark.org) where you can learn about these gentle giants and spend the day taking care of them. I am already looking forward to my next Singha, red curry and pad thai. 

Kyle

Alex's Kabobs (Krabi, Thailand)

I had never had a Thai kabob before until I met Alex. I didn't even know his name the first time I ate at his food stall. It was around 10 AM on our second day in Krabi, Thailand and I had ventured off of our resort in search of the only thing that could displace me from my chair in the sun - cold beer (don't judge, I'm on vacation :) ). I could easily have had one delivered to my seat, but I love exploring and I knew I'd pay four times less by not being lazy. To set the backdrop, I was surrounded on all sides by dense, green, jungle; sparkling, clear, green-tinted water and towering limestone cliffs. 

As I made my way down the white sands of Railay beach, I noticed a small alley opening in the wall of resorts to my right. There was a walkway that led inland away from the water. I passed a restaurant, several food stalls and a few places for tourists to buy souvenirs. I wasn't overly hungry at the time and wasn't in need of a "I Love Krabi" t-shirt, so I walked until I found a small convenience store with a beer fridge. I could pick my poison - Singha, Chang, Leo and some imported Heineken. I grabbed a 22 oz Singha for 130 baht (roughly $3.50 at the time), popped my top with the opener on the counter, and wandered back out into the alleyway. 

As I started towards the beach, I paused briefly outside of a food stall and heard "hey buddy, what'r ya thinking? Breakfast or lunch?" in almost perfect, but slightly Thai accented English. I smiled and said "I'm thinking lunch". To which he smiled back and motioned to my beer "yes, I see you already have breakfast". Ha, I liked this guy already. As I read down the menu, he could see I didn't know what to order, so he told me to try the kabob. That's when I noticed a spinning tower of chicken being slow cooked directly to my left. I decided, ah what the hell, let's give it a shot. He recommended the mild chili and thousand island sauces, with all the veggies. I paid him the 100 baht ($2.80), thanked him and continued my barefoot trek to the sand. 

It took one bite to realize that this wouldn't be the last time I gave my money to Alex. It was the best combination of tender chicken, crisp vegetables and delicious sweet and tangy dressing that I had ever had. Sometimes it's the people that make the food. Sometimes its the food that makes the people. In Alex's case it is both. In future visits to get kabob wraps I would learn his name, that he spent 28 years in Hawaii after attending the University of Hawaii (hence his English) and was born in Thailand. He is an extremely talented and smart man, who chose to move back here because of his love for the ocean. He could probably do anything, but he chooses to cook amazing food and be happy.

I love these experiences. They provide authenticity by helping us meet new people and also learn more about the local culture that we are visiting. If you are traveling abroad, take a chance to strike up a conversation - it may broaden your perspective.