Visiting the beauty of the region

An update of what’s new and value for money in the world of travel - both for the resident and visitor in Thailand. Brought to you by Pattaya Mail and DTC Travel, BKK.

Jungle hiking is becoming popular, yet not over-crowded, in Malaysia.

Malaysia

Taman Negara National Park - the largest in S.E. Asia, offers current packages from Kuala Lumpur for 2 and 3 night stays, priced at Baht 6,000 and Baht 9,600 respectively. Rates include transfer from Kuala Lumpur round-trip plus all meals and guided activities with 2 day treks, night jungle walks, lake trips, whitewater rafting and cave exportation.

Airfare from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur is app. Baht 6,780 round-trip. Take note that is real Rainforest. The only access to the park headquarters is by boat or a small airstrip - there are no roads within the park. This makes for an excellent habitat for the many animals to be seen from various watchtowers. A good, natural experience with lots of clean air. Plus what better time to visit a rainforest than in the rainy season?!

Bellevue Hotel, Penang

For something a little different - Penang Hill Hotel - for the romantics. Take a trip on the Penang Hill Railway to the summit and stay overnight at the historical Bellevue Hotel. The former hill station has magnificent panoramic views of the whole island and rooms cost as little as Baht 1,500 per night. All rooms are fan cooled, due to there being no necessity for air-conditioning amongst the natural coolness of the hill station. Former hangout of Buckminster Fuller, the boffin scientist, there is a small museum dedicated to him in the hotel. A bird garden and numerous hill walks are also available. Definitely a side of Penang that many people miss and excellent if one needs a couple of days to relax away from it all. Another one not to miss. Call your agent.

As an aside, an excellent travellers’ meeting place in Penang is the Green Planet Restaurant to be found on Lebuh Cintra, off the budget hotel area’s Chulia Street. Great for swapping stories and getting up to date info, as well as superb food at good prices. Owner Mr Tan also has a guest house at Tanjung Bunga Beach. So stop buy for a coffee, a chat and some info. He plays good music to socialise by as well.

Bali

If there is a low season in Bali then the next few months are it. However, it is fairly becoming a year round holiday destination with great value for money accommodation. The budget end accom-modation sees such places as Alits Bungalows and the value for money Indah Beach Hotel coming in at around Baht 800 per night, with the more upmarket KulKul Resort costing around Baht 1,900 for a superb chalet with private garden - breakfast included! Both properties are at Kuta/Legian. Further afield at Sanur, Thai Airways’ all inclusive packages offer value for money until October when the pre Xmas snowball increases prices dramatically. Airfare from Bangkok to Bali round-trip can be found for around Baht 10,500-11,000.

India

Off season bargains in India include a re-introduced 5 day tour of the Golden Triangle (Delhi - Agra - Jaipur) by air conditioned private car. Not the way to see India, many would say, but if time is short, then it definitely is at Baht 9,800 per person from Delhi all inclusive of accommodation with, tours, entrance fees and English speaking driver. Call your agent for details if you feel like a Taj Mahal break.

Cambodia

Flights to Phnom Penh are comparatively expensive with other destinations in the region. However, once in Cambodia, money goes a long way. Good accommodation at the Bayon Hotel in Phnom Penh can be found through local agents here at Baht 900 per night including breakfast and round-trip airport transfers. The hotel has been recently refurbished and includes all aircon rooms with video players. Great Value.

Angkor Wat.

Angkor in low season still offers Minefield Studios tours of Angkor Wat and its environs on an all inclusive basis of Baht 3,600 per person per day. It sounds a lot but this includes accommodation at the new Khlok Tok hotel, all meals, soft drinks, private car with driver and English speaking guide, plus all entrance fees and admission permit to Angkor Wat - as well as some local cultural side trips. The Angkor permit alone usually costs Baht 1,800 so it is good value.

Sri Lanka

A new Sri Lankan tour to hit the local market here is a 10 night rail tour of the country. At Baht 23,000 equivalent per person on a twin-share basis, it is a give-away. Including all major scenic and cultural attractions, i.e., Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Kalatura, Colombo, with accommodation in good hotels, all transfers and tours, it is a must for an unusual trip. Again, airfare to Colombo from Bangkok at around Baht 8,000 makes it a worthwhile consideration.

Gulf Air - 2 for 1

Until October 31 Gulf Air is offering 2 business class tickets for the price of one on its Bangkok - Hong Kong Route. Purchase the first ticket and nominate a second passenger to travel with or without you - it can even be yourself on a second (free) trip. Agency discounted rates apply so the fare really should be app. Baht 15,000 - for two. Sounds like a reason-able excuse for early Christmas shopping.

Britrail Passes are available for visitors to the UK at last year’s rates.

A 4 day first class pass costs Baht 6,000 while a 4 day flexi pass (4 days in any month) costs Baht 7,500.

Standard class equivalents are Baht 4,200 and Baht 5,200 respectively.

Longer validates include 8 days in a month for Baht 7,200 standard, 11,000 first, and Baht 12,000 for a 3 week standard pass. A 1 month first class pass costs 19,000 - a real bargain.

Passes are valid for all non UK residents - so okay if you are British residing abroad.

Trans Siberian Express

Finally, it really is affordable. Due to block booking and selling, Trans Siberian Railway packages are really at their lowest prices ever and include a lot of extras. Lead in prices for the 6 day/5 night through service from Beijing to Moscow start at Baht 10,600 second class with deluxe compartments at Baht 14,000 for the Manchurian Route with the Mongolian Route costing app. Baht 2.000 more.

But, the real bargains come with the all inclusive holiday/activity packages. A 16 night package including all meals and accommodation and final night in Moscow costs only Baht 38,000. A six night Mongolian Tour from Ulan Bator plus 2 nights in Irkutsk for Lake Baikal is included as well as 6 nights train travel on the world’s most famous railway. Visas are arranged in advance with Mongolian Visa costing USD 15 and Russian visas costing approximately USD 40, depending on nationality.

There are eight different packages to choose from to cover most tastes and periods.

These travel snippets are compiled and provided by DTC Travel, 27/1-2 Sukhum-vit Soi 18 Bangkok 10110. Tel (02) 259 4535/36, Fax 260 0448/9. Email [email protected].

Pattaya ain’t what it used to be

Did you notice that a lot of people are grumbling about Pattaya these days? To misquote an old TV commercial for the chocolate bar Bounty, “They came in search of paradise and found … a concrete jungle.” The resort these days is hardly distinguishable from Bangkok except that fewer people here wear a tie and it’s less of a hassle finding bangers and mash. The only wild life left in Pattaya is Bongo the elephant on his nightly banana rounds in the Pattayaland sois, and he will probably be only a memory if he accidentally knocks down a row of shop houses in an encounter with a mouse. The last water buffalo died in a coughing fit in 1992, although it is true that large numbers of stinging ants are still holding out at the golf courses in case you are foolish enough to look for a lost ball in the bulrushes. Take a local trip to the islands in a glass-bottomed boat and all you see are empty bottles, pollution and prawns gasping for breath. And attempts to protect the environment haven’t been too successful either. There is a sign at the entrance to a woody area near Sattahip saying, “Shooting Monkeys Not Allowed” which makes you wonder where the clever creatures bought the guns in the first place.
The trouble with Pattaya is that its reputation as a tropical paradise lives on long after the reality has withdrawn from the field. A Russian visitor in the resort recently told a taxi driver that he was willing to pay double the asking price to be driven to Bangkok airport by the scenic route. Doubtless, he wanted to see convoys of ducks waddling along the Sukhumvit highway on their way to market and to photograph the rain forests in what is now Spaghetti Junction near the Chonburi by-pass. As recently as this week, a web page on the Internet advertises Pattaya as an anything-goes, no-holds-barred playground which is strictly true only if you plan to visit the inside of a local prison as part of your itinerary.
It is far from easy to find traces of old Pattaya these days amid the high rise buildings and industrial complexes. However, it is reliably reported that the most popular melody amongst cross-dressing cabaret performers since 1981 is still “I’m A One Woman Man” and it is certainly just as easy to see your healthy bank account explode in a puff of smoke. The old scams are still working successfully. A dishonest agent might still convince greenhorns to put a condo unit’s registration papers in his or her name. And there is still ambiguity about whether 40 baht for a local bus ride is a collective family price or a charge on each individual passenger. More optimistically, a restaurant on the Second Road claims not to have increased its breakfast price for ten years, but disappointed diners claim that the size of the English sausage has definitely gotten smaller.
Mind you, a number of “firsts” have been achieved by Pattaya over the years. In 1983, a farang believed he had discovered the resort’s first voice operated lift. You entered the lift and, finding no buttons to press, simply called out the number of the floor required, for example “three khrap” or “five khrap”. He had been staying in the hotel for a week before he discovered there was a small man on the roof of the elevator who would short-circuit the electricity when you arrived at your chosen level. December of the same year saw an attempt by an international condom manufacturer to introduce “talking rubbers” on a pilot basis. The novelty was that the packaging included an auto message which greeted you on opening it with the tuneful statement “Happy Christmas”. Unfortunately, there was a cock-up at the assembly depot and the actual message said, “Plant Some More In ‘84”, an early example of environmental friendliness gone astray.
A popular pastime among the armchair generals on Jomtien beach these days is to debate the future of Sin City rather than its past. Most predictions are doom-laden: inflation advancing, violence increasing, talk of go-go bars collapsing, property prices on the slide. And so on. One, a qualified futurologist, has recently gone so far as to predict the end of the world – and with it Pattaya – on a March morning early next century. If Armageddon really does destroy civilization in a series of thermo-nuclear explosions, how would the media report our last day on earth?

USA Today:
We’re Dead Folks

Pattaya Mail:
Police Drop Plans To Double Litter Fine to 4000 Baht

Bangkok Post:
Thai Stock Exchange Plunges As World Ends

Pattaya Quiz Newsletter:
Happy Hour To Be Made Permanent

Discovery Channel:
Will The Extinction Of All Life Affect The Way We View The Cosmos?

Readers’ Digest:
Ten Ways You Can Profit By The Apocalypse

The Daily Sport:
Game Over

Thailand Tattler:
Tour Of Pattaya Beer Joints Canceled

Thai Internet Weekly:
Lines Down Again But Not Our Fault

All British Tabloids:
Reformed Paedophile In Dash To Save World

Visiting the beauty of the region

Pattaya ain’t what it used to be