Thailand - Budget/Immigration/Scams/Tips for travel

Bangkok is one of the exciting travel destinations for the lads all over the world. The pub crawls, private parties, island hopping, theme parties at phi phi island what not. I treasured some of the craziest memories during my visit to thailand this month. Worth the visit. Here in this blog i will be giving complete information about the immigration, tips and scams to avoid in Thailand.

Flight Tickets :

As per my trip, i have booked my flight tickets prior to one month. So i got to pay more than that of expected flight tickets.

Basically anywhere from India (Mumbai/Delhi/Kolkata/Bangalore) the up and down tickets will be about approx 13k-14k round trip and you will get direct flights with travel time of 5hrs to bangkok, from Hyderabad it will be about approx 16k-17k round trip but you will have layover of several hours.

If you are from Hyderabad and dont want to waste time as some travelers will have work/leave constraints you can plan the trip in following ways

1.)You can opt going to Delhi/Mumbai/Bangalore and then directly to bangkok instead of going directly from hyderabad. This will save money and time.

2.) If you are ready to throw bucks you can directly opt AirAsia/Thai as they got direct flights to Bangkok from Hyderabad, some of them will have layover of two or three hours at singapore/malaysia, but you can reach the destination without any delay. Due to leave constraints i have opted AirAsia and my total travel time was about 8hrs (had layover at Kuala Lumpur). If i opted indian airlines from hyderabad the travel time would be 15hrs minimum. The cost of these flights will be about 25k-30k round trip.

(Sometimes you may get indian airlines with shorter layover from hyderabad, better check and proceed)

(The above details are regarding the flights from india to bangkok, for Krabi/Phuket the travel timings and flight rates differ. Plan according to your budget)

Budget :

The main places to visit during your Thailand trip :

Bangkok

Pattaya

Krabi

Phuket

Chiang Mai

Budget always depends upon your personal pay out. If you are shopping person, you need to put extra money for shopping, trust me you will get best shopping experience in one of the biggest markets in Asia - The Chatuchak Weekend market, Bangkok. Dont miss or hesitate to grab everything you like at this place. You will get best deals.

(Suggestion : Keep yourself an extra 5000baht, about 11500 rupees for shopping)

For me, the budget went overboard already by opting AirAsia flights for round trip and I have covered all the four places mentioned above except chiang mai.

If you want to cover every place or most of the places mentioned above, you need to get set your budget from 60k INR if you are going with a group not more than 4(as per your spending, this will be your minimum number). If you are going with a gang you can set the budget somewhat less.

If you want to cover only Bangkok and pattaya 40-45k will be the decent budget for 5 days of trip.

My total trip expenses were about 70k (includes food hopping at some costly hotels and shopping).

Suggestion:

Do not plan to opt Public transport in Krabi/phuket. It will be a waste. Grab is like Uber in Bangkok. Grab is cheaper in Bangkok but not in krabi/phuket. If you are more than 4 then grab is good for you if not go for Bike rentals. But for bike rental you need to give your passport to them. Do not take risk by giving your passport to the road side bike rental shops, Some resorts will provide bike rentals even though they take your passport it will be with the resort management itself, so there will be no issues. You can take your passport during checkout. You can also negotiate with them to have bike without giving passport that depends on your talk.

In krabi some resorts and hotels will provide free pickup and drop shuttles from hotel to Important places in town like Ao Nang beach and Krabi town market. If not for bike rental atleast you can have free shuttle to some places, from there you will be on your own.

P.S :

The above budget doesnt include pub crawling/shopping/Luxury dining expenses.

Immigration :

Thailand provides Visa on arrival valid for about 15 days. For Indians Visa on Arrival fee will be about 2000baht (i.e 4600 rupees approx). However thailand will waive off the Visa on arrival fee for Indians for a specific period. For 2020, upto April Visa on arrival is free for Indians. (I visited during this time and i didnt pay single baht)

Visa on Arrival is available in following International airports of Thailand

Bangkok (Both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports)

Phuket

Krabi

Chiang mai

Songh Kla

You can arrive at any of the above airports and get your Visa on Arrival done.

Initially in the flight you will be given an Arrival-departure form that needs to be filled. Later at the airport you will be given Visa application form. Both should be filled and submitted in the immigration where as a slip from Arrival-departure card will be given to you which they will ask again while leaving the country. You should take care of that slip.

Suggestion :

If you have time constraints dont opt Visa on Arrival, atleast dont opt Bangkok Airports as you will be facing a one two hour queue. Instead go for eVisa on arrival. (Use this link)

If you dont want to apply eVisa, you can also fill the visa application in the prior. (Get the application form here). You can advance in the queue if you are done with the form filling in prior.

P.S : I have booked my flight directly to krabi, my visa on arrival process was done in 10 minutes (lucky me). Where i spent 5 minutes in form filling. There was no queue though. You can follow the same itinerary but i dont recommend, Go to bangkok firstly do some Aloha shopping in chatuchak market and then visit Krabi and phuket. If you so want to spend your island hopping and beach time with hawaiian dresses and goodies you will get the best in chatuchak market, Believe me you will get best deals. If you are not so particular in shopping or about your attire then you can directly go to Krabi/Phuket. (Flight rates differ to these places).

Go to Krabi/Phuket directly and have your time in the islands, come to bangkok and return home. This is what i did as i am not in particular with shopping.

Documents needed for immigration :

1. Passport (obviously), make sure that your passport is valid for 6 months atleast from the date of departure, also make sure you have unused pages in your passport.

2. Latest Passport size photos with white background. (Keep atleast 4)

3. Your return tickets xerox copies. (mostly they will not ask, but sometimes they may)

4. Your hotel tickets xerox copies. (mostly they will not ask, but sometimes they may)

5. Filled Visa application form and Arrival-Departure forms (which i mentioned above)

6. If you are a solo traveller just to be on safe side keep 10k baht of thai currency or USD. If you are travelling with family or a gang keep about 20000baht of thai currency or USD (mostly they will ask to show at bangkok airports, sometimes they will not, just to be on safe side).

P.S :

1.)If you are not travelling from India during Visa waiver period, then you need to pay 2000baht of thai currency as Visa on arrival fee. They will not accept cards/USD.

2.)Some countries have Visa exemption for entry in Thailand i.e you can enter thailand without VISA and can stay for 30 days. There are about 50 countries, Click here for full info

Currency exchange :

My personal suggestion will be to convert your complete trip amount to Thai Baht here in foreign exchange. Dont think you cant handle such huge amount like 20k-30k baht or whatever the amount it is. Most of the hotels/resorts have lockers and you can keep your money and passports safely. You will get best exchange rate here, if you dont think so then convert your amount to USD in foreign exchange and then you can convert it to Baht in thailand. Only USD will get best exchange rate in Thailand (as per my observation).

You will have many exchange kiosks everywhere in every city like Phuket/Krabi/Pattaya/Bangkok/Chiang Mai/Rayong, so no issues you can exchange anywhere and all are of same exchange rate almost. Just for sake keep extra money with you (about 5k-10k baht). If you are out of money you need to draw from ATM, they will charge about 400-1000 rupees of fee per transaction (Below 5000 baht 400 rupees, above 5000 baht 800-1000 or maybe more depends on the bank). If that ATM is out of money you need to do another transaction and again give commission fee. (This happened to me)

Hotel Booking and Areas to stay :

Most of the hotels are affordable in Thailand, you get three star hotel experience for 1500-2500 rupees per night if you are opting in offbeat places.

Krabi :

You can chose from following areas :

Krabi Town

Ao Nang Beach area

I suggest you to stay at Ao Nang beach area because island hopping and beach trials will be from here itself so you need to come all the way from krabi town anyway, both areas got cheap hotel deals. Krabi town Nightlife is better compared to Ao nang, Ao Nang market is not so great but the beach street is gliterring and happening all the way.

Phuket :

Patong beach Area (Party vibes and happening place)

Karon beach Area & Kata Beach Area (Quite atmosphere and decent nightlife, mostly for couples)

Bang Tao Area (Luxury)

Pattaya :

Pattaya beach Area (Party vibes, nightlife and happening place)

Jomtien beach (Families, couples, Quite vibes)

Wong Amat and Naklua (Luxury)

Deals will be almost same in both Jomtien and pattaya beach area.

Bangkok :

Siam (easy access to malls and BTS)

Sukhumvit (Budget Travelers, easy access to BTS)

Khao San (solo travellers, backpackers, mostly bunk bedded hostels are available in this area)

Riverside (Couples, luxury)

All other areas will be far away from the must visit attractions of the city.

P.S :

All hotels will take deposit amount (1000 baht or 2000 baht mostly depends on their management). Plan your cash during check in.

Thailand hotels Check in time will be 2PM and checkout will be 12PM. Even if you are early and are ready to give extra money most of the hotels will not allow you for advance check in. However you can drop your luggage in the hotel as most of the hotels have luggage rooms and roam for time being.

Sim Card :

Better take a sim card in Thailand, you will get better deals instead of having a roaming plan with your sim card. That would be costly. If you are landing in Bangkok then you can have many options, chose your plan according to your budget. The cost of sim card will be a minimum of 300Baht for 7 days depending on the plan. As we landed in Krabi we thought of taking sim card outside even though they are good plans in the airport. But we couldnt able to find a store initially, after some trials we went to a supermarket in Ao Nang beach line and got one. Our sim card cost was 350baht, unlimited internet for 30 days. (This is the cheapest plan that we came across, lucky us).

Suggestion:

If you are looking for a cheap deal, browse for simcard deals in Klook.com .You can book a sim card in advance and their agent will be waiting for you in the airport during your arrival time.

Scams :

Tuk tuk is just like Auto in India, most of the tuk tuk drivers will scam you and try to take much more money than negotiated, dont even give big notes and expect change from some of these people. (not about tuk tuks by hotels/resorts). Avoid tuk tuks in Bangkok and Pattaya.

Sex shows :

Mostly called as ping pong shows, many people hold placards with explicit images at Patong night market/pattaya walking street/beachs etc. I seriously recommend not to go to such shows. They will take you to some bars for the show, where the drinks are so costly and you need to throw hell lot of bahts (sometimes 1000-2000 baht) for drinks and tips. This is an absolute scam.

Go Go bars :

Available in Pattaya walking street/patong night market/Bangkok adult streets like Nana and Soi Cowboy, just like mini strip clubs. You will be accompanied by girls during your drink times, you need to pay the drinks of the girl too. Mostly they will order the costliest drinks in the menu and drink like a lot. If you want to experience the go go bars, just ask the girl that you dont want a company. If you hesistate to say NO, you will be doomed.

Strip clubs/Russian girls dance shows :

Mostly they say the entry is free, if you are not on a budget travel and ready to throw bucks, then you can enjoy the strip shows. Usually they will grab from a minimum amount of 2000 baht for food/drinks and tips. You need to give a tip of 500 baht atleast to the strip ladies. Think before you enter.

Adult activites :

I recommend not to involve in any of the adult activities, they are not a scam but they are many sexually transmitted diseases not just one or two. Just experience the go go bars and roam in adult markets like Nana plaza/Soi cowboy etc.

P.S :

Thai massage is not a Taboo. If you are getting it in the adult markets doesnt make it a wrong one. They are many decent spas and Massage centers. You can differentiate yourself between and decent and not-so-good ones.