This is in my fourth floor hotel room in Trat. 680 baht per night posted room rate. The ceiling crack looks like earthquake damage. The load-bearing bolts are very wobbly. Don't be caught sitting underneath such a unit when the next quake strikes.
I've been hanging around green rainy Trat for a while now. It's quite a bit cheaper than the other eastern shore provinces. The people are the most welcoming I've encountered anywhere in the country. (Sa Kaeo previously had my vote as the friendliest Thai province I've been to, followed by Surat Thani and Uttaradit. But now Trat tops the list.)
Weekly expenses started off at 7800 baht or $240 USD for visits to the affluent Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Rayong provinces. A two-night visit to Koh Samet is included in that figure. That comes out to 3800 weekly for lodging and 3100 for food.
By contrast, in Chanthaburi and Trat, I am spending 5500-6500 baht per week. 2500 for lodging and 2300 for food.
700 km of travel has cost 980 baht, with 11 separate destinations in five provinces visited.
Admittedly, roach/ant issues, limited room furnishings and cheap mattresses are the norm at the 300-400 baht per night price range. 550-650 gets you a much better room, but many mid-range properties charge 650+ even during low season and refuse to offer a discount. (The intermediate range of 400-500, which used to be my sweet spot for Thai travel, hasn't been available for some reason.)
During the day it is closed. But around 9 pm, the doors open, the overhead twinkle lights are turned on, and a sextet of scantily clad ladies - no pun intended - sit around the outside tables chatting with each other or looking at their phones. No music, no solicitations. They glance up but don't say anything when I walk by. So I'm left wondering, is this a bonafide whorehouse? If so, it's the first time in all my Thailand travels that I've seen such an establishment.
Why not ask the women myself, you wonder? Okay, how would that work. "Ahem, excuse me ladies. Are you a buncha whores?"
I didn't say anything, and he got off before I did.
Spotted crossing the road at the resort here in Soi Dao, Chanthaburi. It was at least 6" long and showed no signs of aggression on being approached with a camera.
June abounds with fruits here. Santol or cotton fruit is similar to mangosteen in its internal construction, yet very different in flavor and texture.
Khao Phra Baht makes a perfect stop for a train traveler looking to visit the coastal village of Bang Phra and also enjoy the trails on Khao Chalak hill, which is inhabited by numerous packs of pariah dogs. Interestingly, the wild dogs on the hillside minded their own business; it's the property dogs down along the highway and residential streets which rushed out barking and growling, but stopped when neighbors shouted at them in Thai.
I recommend a stay in Porestva Hotel (rooms starting at 590 baht). You can arrive early and relax in their lovely garden before checking in and then making the climb. Their cafe had a Lophophora collection growing in the windowsill. These take years to reach this meaningful size, and in all that time not a single customer has disturbed them.
You can climb both the paved path and steep, eroded dirt trails to get to the summit of Khao Chalak, which is roughly 300 meters in elevation. At the summit viewpoint, you can only look in a single direction, toward Siracha. No other viewpoints are available due to the priority status of the area for forest preservation. The paved trail is very busy with local fitness enthusiasts; take the trail to get into the woods.
The weather couldn't be better for outdoors activities most of the day, with high temps barely reaching 32 C. Beware of the afternoon sea storms that come in on that lovely sea breeze. This storm I glimpsed out at sea from the summit (third pic) swept in fast, with the sky darkening over 50% over 15 minutes before the cool storm wind began blowing. Then another 10 minutes later, it began to rain. The first round of rain was moderate for 20 minutes, enough time to drink a beer. Then it paused for 10 minutes. When the sky turned almost black and the rain began falling again, the best restaurant is always the closest one to you.
Next stay is near the tongue-twisting Yanasangwararam railway station; in fact, mid-way between the station and the beach. You can walk along the placid coastline to Ban Amphoe village at low tide, or else take the big highway, which has plenty of room for pedestrians to safely walk alongside it. Here a room starts at 600 baht.
Food options are limited in both of these rural areas, but you won't go hungry if you have money to spend. 500 baht per day per person is barely enough to sample the cuisine on offer. If you're a big American eater who doesn't want to say "no" to anything that looks tasty regardless of price, you can easily average 1000 baht per day per person on food in the upmarket eateries of Chonburi province.
I recently spent 27 days crossing five provinces of Nepal by public transport and staying in numerous villages along the way. It was a difficult experience, but it was completely immersive. Conditions gradually improved along the way, with the Terai and central provinces being significantly more pleasant to stay in than the far western hill villages in my estimation.
Total local spending: 78930 Nepali rupees cash (at a cost of $516 USD + $16 ATM fees)
Visa fee: $50 USD for 30 days
Departure flight with Nepal Airlines: $239 USD
Intercity bus, van, shared taxi transport spending: 11330 NPR
Food spending: 25180 NPR
Hotel spending: 35400 NPR
Beer spending: 4475 NPR
Other expenses: 2545 NPR
Total visitor contributions: $821 USD (1.25 lakh NPR equivalent)
Average daily contribution to each village: 3000 NPR ($20 USD equivalent)
Keep in mind that most foreign tourists to Nepal are not budget travelers: they go on private tours/treks and spend significantly more than this profile.
USA passport here. Having booked my flights 38 days apart back in April, before the new visa rules were announced, it was a matter of anxiety for me. Immigration asked me how long I will be staying. I told her 38 days and she gave me 60. Perfect!
Four weeks to get from Mahendranagar to Kathmandu sounds like a leisurely journey. Why not travel through the hilly regions, I thought? There are highways, it can't be that difficult. But once you see Nepal's terrain in person, you'll realize just what a challenge you have ahead of you. Even an 50 km journey turns into an all-day affair which leaves you with enough time for an hour's strolling around after dinner - only to wake up the next morning and repeat the ordeal of finding a transport vehicle, waiting for it to fill up to the max, then cramming yourself inside on an interminable journey full of rough roads, phone calls, deliveries, pickups, arguments, social calls and tea breaks.
Yesterday I arrived in Jumla, Karnali after eight grueling back-to-back days of travel that covered barely a third of my overall planned route across the country. Google says 44 hours for a private vehicle, but when you are riding public transport, it's more like 100 hours of travel. That's nearly four hours a day of cramming yourself into a Mahindra or minibus, every single day, for the entirety of the trip. Not counting the 2-3 hours you spend waiting for the vehicle to leave. This kind of travel is enduring rather than enjoying!
Nepal is an extremely hospitable country for foreign visitors, with plenty of natural beauty and cultural experiences to offer. Heavy traffic, industry, rampant development and the rest of prosperity's plagues have yet to reach these traditional hilly regions. But don't bite off more of Nepal than you can chew, or you will spend your trip frazzled and wearily indifferent to everything besides a good night's rest.
If you're here for 30 days, pick one region of the country to explore, and leave the rest for next time. You will be able to wander around at leisure, take daytrips to interesting nature spots, make local friends, figure out where the good food is served, take some pretty pictures and otherwise enjoy life on Nepal time.
It's so prevalent up here in Uttarakhand. Only in 3 out of the 10 hotels I've stayed at up here was the honest price offered upfront. Budget hotel managers with greasy dilapidated rooms will ask for 1500 upfront, then after a couple minutes' hesitation the price abruptly drops to 1000. The homestay owner in Munsyari asked 2000 for a room with attached living quarters, then gave me a "final offer" of 1800 before realizing I was not buying it. A second "final offer" of 1500 immediately followed.
Hotels are cheaper up here than in Maharashtra, but asking prices were so much more consistent with prevailing market values down there.
Rustic, sleepy, and completely devoid of marketing hype...but also affordable and hospitable in the stoic manner of the high mountain dwellers. A pleasant hotel room costs only 500 rupees here. The local restaurants have no signage or menus, but they serve great-tasting food to whoever stops by. Thru traffic is extremely light, and business is slow in this economically marginalized place. Nonetheless, numerous businesses are open, because any money is better than none at all.
Madkote is the most restful place I've stayed at in five plus months of traveling India.
Restaurants all across India will be raising their prices in the coming days. Such price hikes are not always indicated by menu stickers; there may be a sign next to the register saying something like "due to LPG price hikes, every menu item is now 30% more expensive". To avoid unpleasant billing disputes, confirm prices with staff when you order.
"Chicken masala, half, 250 rupees?"
"Nai, old price, 350 rupees half".
In my experience over the past five months, most restaurants in India do honest business. But they are getting squeezed harder every month by rising minimum wages, rising food costs, and now rising gas costs. As a result, a few pieces of chicken in masala gravy with a half serving of rice and two flatbread on the side is now going to cost you $5 in most restaurants.
Baijnath, not Bairnath.
It's tranquil and uncrowded here. Lovely cool weather as well. There is some regret in passing over the headwater villages with their world-famous snowy vistas. Yamonutri, Gangotri, Kedernath, Badrinath, Wan. But the thousands of tourists already crowding into those well-traveled valleys are too much to handle. And the ones off the beaten path require hiring a private driver, which varies from ₹20-40 per km of travel. Collective transport is limited in the Himalayas, especially when compared to a state like Maharashtra where I took dozens of daytrips to rural mountain villages on ST buses. Up here, only one public bus a day serves many routes.