Backgound: We are two senior ladies, long-time friends, married to non-traveling husbands . . . “traveling with your husband is twice the money and half the fun.” We are frugal (a.k.a., cheap), well traveled, and a step above backpacking.

The Plan: Fly into Bangkok, take night train to Ventiane, fly to Luang Prabang, Chiang Mai, back to Bangkok and home . . . we had two weeks.

Lodging:

Samran Place in Bangkok, $38/nt, inc breakfast/taxes, very nice hotel.

Souphaphone Guesthouse, Vientiane, $25/nt, inc breakfast/taxes, clean, basic, very nice

ThanaBoun Guesthouse, Luang Prabang, $22/nt, inc taxes, ok

Sri Pat Guesthouse, Chiang Mai, $25/nt, inc taxes, very nice, very pretty

Food: Cheap, tasty, we loved it all.

Money: We each spent approximately $1,500.

The Nitty-Gritty . . . I’ve typed up my travelog and would be happy to email it to you, just drop me a note at [email protected]. It is too long/detailed to post.

This was our fourth trip to Thailand and our first to Laos. We had a fantastic trip and received a lot of great advice here and on TripAdvisor. Thanks for your help and support.

Sandy (in Denton)

I'm so glad to hear that you had a great time.

As for your trip report being too long and detailed to post... have you read some of the epic trip reports here? I'd like to see you post it!

me too!

mee too

Yes, please do post here. Glad you had a good time, and it's always nice to hear from people who have a good time staying at cheaper places.

Thank you for your encouragement . . . but . . . I'm not always politically correct, I don't like some places that others do . . . I have learned the hard way that some Fodor's folks get irate if you don't love what they love.

Plus, my report is about 38 pages single spaced . . . TMI for a public forum . . . and the spelling police would have a field day.

Sandy (in Denton)

Sandy...
You sound like my kind of traveller! I'm also 'of a certain age' but my husband also loves to travel, so I don't share that problem with you.

However, that said, I do often travel solo (and that includes places like Australia and Thailand).

I'm with the others, wishing you would post your report here. I'm curious to read about what you liked/did not like. Everyone's opinions are welcome here (even if we do sometimes agree to disagree... Chiang Mai comes to mind).

We don't all stay in the big riverside hotels in Bangkok!

Anyway, I'm glad you had a nice time.

(BTW...you should meet Sandra (McBeanie) from Houston sometime!)

Yes PLEASE post your report. I am going to Laos in January either by myself or with another female friend if she can afford it. I travel 1/2 time with my husband and 1/2 time without as he does not have quite the passion for travelling that I do.

I would be very interested in seeing your report politically correct or not..

one recent trip report of mine was many more pages, and karen just got someone's notes on planning a trip to vn and it ran 75 pages...

i love un-PC stuff....we don't get it enough on here....if you don't like it say so and hopefully tell us why...

OTHERWISE I AM MOVING TO DENTON AND CAMPING OUT ON YOUR LAWN UNTIL YOU COME CLEAN..

Sandy "I have learned the hard way that some Fodor's folks get irate if you don't love what they love." A sad reflection on the behaviour of some forum members. Ignore them! Their opinions really do not matter. As the Duke of Wellington once said "publish and be damned ". We would love to read your report however long (maybe post in sections or bite sized chunks..

Many of us on Fodors do not insist on 5* travel all the way and travel on a budget either out of choice or necessity.

I agree, it's your opinion. Personally i don't think it matters if you choose to travel 5* or budget, enjoying where you are is what it is all about.
Yep some posters get sniffy, ignore them (there are also posters who take the moral high ground if you don't rough it) but each to there own, i love reading peoples travel tails regardless of class of travel. Go on, post it......(can i request paragraphs please!!)

I'll give you the first two days, don't say I didn't warn you . . .

Sunday/Monday, July 25-26 Denton-Tokyo-Bangkok

My hubby took us to the airport (DFW), arrived about 10:15 a., and we were checked in and sitting in Champps Cafe/Bar at 11:00. We split a club sandwich and fries and ordered two large beers. Beers never came, sandwich was late, and since we had to gobble it down, we don’t know if it were good or bad . . . $16 . . . pretty pricey and we’ll probably scratch Champps off our list.

Our flight to Narita boarded at 11:30 and departed right on time at 12:10 and was about two-thirds full. The purser/flight attendant was DH, a skydiving friend of V’s. She was delighted to see us and apologized for not being able to move us up as they were full in business and first class. She did make sure that we received free wine during the flight. This leg was six hours and we slept most of the way.

We landed a little early and had a little over three hours until our next flight on into Bangkok. We ate dinner at a little fast-food place near our gate. I had grilled pork w/ginger, mushrooms, and onions w/rice; V had two rice cakes w/pickled ginger, miso soup w/greens, edamame . . . we both had a beer, 3,960 yen. These were plain, non-descript dishes. I charged them to my Capital One Visa, as we had no yen and did not want to get any back as change if we paid in dollars. I was floored when I saw my statement . . . $46! Japan has never been on my list of places to go . . . and now I’m sure it won’t ever be . . . too expensive!

While waiting for our next leg, we met a guy from Myanmar who was returning from a conference. He is a Presbyterian minister . . . probably the only one in Buddhist Burma. We had a nice visit with him, gave him souvenirs for his six children, and V gave him a Gospel bracelet from Mardel (our Christian bookstore). He was thrilled.

Our next flight was on Japan Airlines, was 13 hours, and was full! We had individual seat-back entertainment systems, free drinks, two meals (slept through both), and beautiful flight attendants who were up and down the aisles offering hot towels, cold towels, water, drinks, and even mango ice cream. We both slept or read on this flight also.

We landed at 10:45 on Monday night, took an airport taxi to our hotel, 375B ($11.61), including two tolls and tip. At Samran Place, we were given room 610, a standard twin with carpet, balcony, TV w/remote, minibar, night stands, phone, closet, bathroom with tub/shower. The room was spotless and very pretty . . . there is free Wi-Fi in the lobby. I had booked it on-line for one night w/Sawadee.com for 1,100B ($38). We went straight to bed.

Tuesday, July 27 Bangkok

We tried to sleep in but were up and down to breakfast around 8:00. We could order anything off the menu. I had scrambled eggs w/ham, toast, orange juice, and coffee; V ordered banana pancakes. We love these . . . we’ve had them all over the world and are always surprised by how they are served. We had our best here at the Riverview Guesthouse, on our first visit to Thailand 12 years ago, they cooked the bananas in the batter. The second best was in Yangshuo, China . . . they put down a circle of thinly sliced bananas on a grill and pour the batter over them. This time, the pancakes came and a whole banana was just sitting on the plate (we’ve had this version many times).

We are out by 9:00 and on our way to MBK (Mahboonkrong), the big shopping mall to buy a sim card for my phone.

At eight stories high, the center hosts around 2,000 stores and services, including the 4-story Tokyu department store, restaurants and entertainment. The center has more than 100,000 visitors daily, half of whom are young Thai people and a third foreign visitors. MBK is very popular with Western tourists and knockoff items can be found in abundance. It is connected to the Siam Discovery and Siam Paragon shopping centers, and is a well known landmark in Bangkok.

We are five minutes walking from the nearest skytrain station–Ratchathewi and 15 minutes from MBK. We arrive too early, does not open until 10:00, we wait. It opens, we buy a Happy (True) sim for 500B ($15.50) and it came with 125 minutes. Local calls are one baht/minute and calls to the USA are six cents/minute if we use a dial-around number (006001), which we did. We ended up being in Thailand for five days and we called home daily . . . card is good until 7-27-11 and we still have time left on it.

We found an Internet place and sent a quick email home (20B, 62¢ for 30 min.). Then we took a taxi, 90B ($2.78) inc tip to the Grand Palace. [BTW, we always tip and all prices include tips.]
We are on our way to the Royal Palace . . . we've seen it before but on our first of four trips here and that was a long time ago (1998), I'm sure it will be all new.

The driver lets us off right at the correct gate but a guy standing nearby points to another gate and tells us to go there for tickets. We do and as we get near the gate, a man with a huge umbrella stops us and tells us the palace is closed for Buddhist holiday. We immediately know this is a scam and try to walk around the guy. He maneuvers himself and his big umbrella between us and the gate . . . but he can’t control both of us. I leave him dancing with V and I quickly side-step around him. I see a sign that says, “No Entry, Enter at Next Gate” and an arrow pointing to the gate we just came from! We head off back to the “real” gate, with more guys telling us that the palace is closed and that we should go see the big Buddha instead . . . this translates to “after I’ve taken you to several gem, silver, and silk stores first, I will drop you off at another wat.”

Admission was 350B each ($10.84) and we were again dazzled by all the gold leaf, gold paint, emerald, blue, red, and yellow tiles and glass. Every building, statue, pavilion is large and gleaming. It did happen to be a Buddhist holiday but that just meant the place was packed.

Built in 1782 - and for 150 years the home of the Thai King, the Royal court and the administrative seat of government - the Grand Palace is Bangkok’s most important tourist attraction. Within its walls were also the Thai war ministry, state departments, and even the mint. Today, the complex remains the spiritual heart of the Thai Kingdom.

Within the palace complex are several impressive buildings including Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), which contains the small, very famous and greatly revered Emerald Buddha that dates back to the 14th century. The robes on the Buddha are changed with the seasons by HM The King of Thailand, and forms an important ritual in the Buddhist calendar. Thai Kings stopped living in the palace around the turn of the twentieth century, but the palace complex is still used to mark all kinds of other ceremonial and auspicious happenings.

We did not get to see the Emerald Buddha, it was off limits as they were preparing for some big event . . . lots of spiffy guards were around, lots of catering people setting up, we probably would have seen the king and queen if we had hung around. We stayed about an hour and a half and took a taxi to the Supatra River House, we ate here on our last visit three years ago and loved it and it was very near the palace. We took a taxi. When we arrived, the meter showed 43B . . . we gave him a 100B but he didn’t have change. No one ever has change, that just about kicks us over the edge. Not wanting to pay $3.10 for a $1.33 fare, we asked him to get change. He shook his head and motioned us out. I stood by the door while V went to get change. I was almost leaning on the taxi when he abruptly drove off. We thought it was fairly obvious that she was getting change, why did he think I was still standing by his car?

We walk over to the Supatra, don’t see any customers, wonder if it is open. We sit on the outside terrace by the river, look around, and notice that the windows all have S&P on them. Waiter comes, we ask if this is the Supatra, and he says no . . . Supatra is across the river. We look at the menu and it is the same as three years ago. Dumb us ate here, not the Supatra. There is a dock right in front of us with a sign that says, “boat dock for Supatra River House, phone xxx for pick up.” We just assumed we were at the right place. HOWEVER! The food was very good last time and was also good this time.

We were hot and ordered beer . . . no alcohol today because of Buddhist holiday, we switch to pineapple freeze for V, lime freeze for me. She ordered salmon teriyaki on rice and I, the chicken w/cashews and chilies with rice. Hers was good but mine was great . . . chicken, cashews, water chestnuts, red and green bell peppers, and really hot pepper. Total 456B ($14.12).

There is a river taxi dock right next door and we take the tourist boat down the river to the skytrain connection. The regular water taxi costs about 10B (31¢) but the tourist water taxi is 25B (77¢), the extra 46¢ buys you English commentary about the sites along the river. The water taxis are a great and cheap way to see life along the river and are fun transportation.

We were walking to the skytrain and a lady in a pretty uniform asked where we were from. Chit-chat ensued, she works at the reception desk at the Peninsula Hotel and spoke very good English. She asked the general tourist questions . . . where are you from, how long will you be here/have you been here, is it our first visit, etc. She asked where we were headed and we told her, the Jim Thompson House. It was almost 3:00 and she said it closes at 4:00 . . . and she said we should go to the Thai Trade Center, that’s where all the Thais shop, and that since today was a Buddhist holiday, there were having a wonderful sale . . . today only. And, a tuk-tuk would only cost 20B (62¢) to get there! One of us was hearing, “Scam, scam” but the other was hearing, “Cheap gold, rubies, sapphires.” The “scam” one was saying, “Oh, that sounds nice but we can’t today, blah, blah, blah.” The other one said, “Sandra Kay, it they were giving away free money, you would say scam!” You decide which was which . . . or maybe which was witch.

We get in the tuk-tuk, he drops us off at the center, we are the only customers there. There is a big jewelry showroom on the first floor and silk clothes and trinkets on the second . . . nothing inexpensive, nothing we want. Scam girl was right.

The process starts with the tourist chancing upon a friendly Thai at a touristic area such as the Grand Palace. This friendly scammer says that there is an expo, where cheap jewelry can be bought in an authentic ‘government’ gem stone shop, where the rates are fixed and the price is standardized by the government. It is always the last day . . . either a government holiday or a Buddhist holiday. This is the most popular/prevalent scam in Bangkok. [“Told you so, told you so!”]

We are not too far from MBK, tried to take a tuk-tuk for 20-30B but about five of them were quoting 150B ($4.65). We walked, it turned out a little farther than we expected but we did have interesting things to look at.

We make it to MBK and decide massages are in order. We are hot and tired and facing a night train adventure. We find a place, have excellent hour-long, full-body massages for 400B ($12.39), a little pricey, by almost double but we didn’t have the energy to hunt around.

After the massages, we were just about to leave when I remembered reading about the fish spa in the basement. Supposedly, the spa was free with any MBK purchase. We found the place, handed over our massage receipts, and were told the promotion was over, 15 min. worth of fish spa would be 150B ($4.65). OK, it’s only money, we’ve never done this before, we did it.

We put our feet/legs up to mid-calf in the water and are immediately swarmed by thousands of tiny (think half the size of goldfish) brown fish. It does not hurt . . . it feels like you are being shocked with a mild electric current. The fish are eating off our dead skin . . . or in my case, my instant tan. It was fun to do . . . but 15 minutes is a long time.

We took a taxi (50B, $1.55) back to Samran Place, picked up our luggage, and had a couple of Singha beers in the dining room. We didn’t know if hotels are exempt from the “no alcohol” rule or if maybe the ban was over at sunset, anyway, we were glad to get the beer!

Around 7:00, we took a taxi (75B, $2.32) to the train station . . . it was crowded but was not the zoo it was on our first visit 12 years ago. That time, we had a Thai friend with us to help buy tickets and even he was confused and had problems! We bought a snack to take with us . . . German bratwurst . . . wrapped with bacon and grilled . . . bun was extra, no mustard . . . WTF . . . 94B ($2.92) . . . pretty darn tasty (but why no mustard)? V added a corn on the cob (15B, 47¢) and off we went to find the track, the car, the berths.

We had no problem finding the correct car, we had berths 30 and 32, lower bunks across from one another. We had booked ahead and on-line with www.traveller2000.com, an agency recommended on www.seat61.com. By mentioning we saw their ad on Seat61, we got a break on the service charges (reduced from $10 to $5). They were very nice to deal with, responses were quick, we paid by credit card, they delivered our tickets to our hotel in Bangkok, we received exactly what we wanted. We had booked second-class berths, with a/c. There are only two berths per seat and they go the same direction as the rails . . . as opposed to European trains where the berths are usually three high and go across the rails. Ours were very long and had a shelf for a bag, a nightlight, and a small mesh bag to hold eyeglasses. The conductor made the berths up with a bottom sheet and we were given a pillow and a cotton thermal-type blanket. We had curtains that we could pull across for privacy. There were two restrooms in each car, one western, one not. Both were reasonably clean and had toilet paper throughout the entire journey . . . a definite surprise. There were also two large sink stations with mirrors outside of the restrooms. Along about 10:00, the conductor had all the berths made up, both doors to our car were locked, and it was bedtime. The lights were left on, however.

Our train was to leave at 8:00 and you better be on it, it left promptly at 8:00. We bought a couple of beers from the snack guy on the train (150B ea., $4.65) . . . yes it was a rip off but when we ordered them, we didn’t know they would be the big bottles AND we didn’t know they would be $4.65 each! The snack guy did give us a couple of cups and we made those around us happy by sharing our beers.

We were pretty lucky, our car wasn’t full, and we had quiet people in it. We all retired about 10:00. I slept great! We did stop all along the way . . . and people were getting on/off all night . . . but somehow, they didn’t seem to make much noise . . . and I loved the easy rocking movement and the bed was pretty comfy.

Please post your report. Would love to read it.
How did the night train go? The only night train I have ever taken was from Barcelona to Madrad some 14 years ago, the old slow train not the fast train. Loved it.

My girlfiend and I both fell for the 'Palace is closed' scam and we had even read about it in Lonely planet....they are very good at convincing, but good for you for not falling for it.

Your night train sounds so much better than the day train we took the Chaing Mai.

Cant wait to hear more.

We also fell for that scam last Dec. While we were walking towards Wat po, a well-dress man came out from nowhere to tell us Wat po was closed but a museum is hosting ceremonies and some jewelry places are launching one day big sale because of King's birthday. I had heard about scams and I 've been to BKK before. But that man sound sincere and desperate at the same time and it really was the King's birthday the following day. Long story short, after listening of loads of b_s_ and having gone to the first jewelry stop and saw no sale, I said I had enough but the tuk tuk driver begged us to go to one more jewelry place so that he could get free oil change +pocket money. Dh felt sorry for him and told him to hurry. That trip took an hour as we were stuck in traffic. We miss lunch but ate plenty of dust.
The train does not sound bad at all. I might look into it.
I didn't know there was a fish spa in the basement in MBK and is free with proof of purchase. You see I learn something. Thanks.

anxiously waiting to hear about Laos Sandy

Thanks for giving in to our pleadings and posting a report.

I am confused by the beginning of your report... from Narita you flew to Bangkok, but your report says you had a 13 hour flight on Japan Airlines. Were you reporting your return flight from Narita to the US? Or did this flight make stops on the way to Bangkok? Or maybe it just felt like 13 hours?

Kathie,

We flew from Dallas-Ft Worth nonstop on AA to Narita . . . 13 long hours. We had a 3-hr layover at Narita and then 6 hrs into Bangkok on JAL.

Both flights were good and we probably had the best routing available.

Sandy (in Denton)

Thank you for opting to post your report here. I always feel as though I'm right there with you in Bangkok. Keep it coming, please.

Thanks for clarifying. Yes, you had great routing for your trip.