Sawasdee everyone!
As I sit here watching The Beach and being dreadfully ill (stupid throat infection), I figured I could talk through typing since it hurts too much to actually talk! 😛 And yeah, I didn’t realize The Beach was kind of scary, but a young Leonardo DiCaprio on a beach where I will be in 3 1/2 months is kind of nice to see! Hopefully we do not run into any sharks or dead people in hotel rooms…
So as of right now we are 96 days away from leaving the Winnipeg airport for our adventure! Over the past 3 weeks we have been doing a lot of planning and booking of hotels and domestic flights. All five flights that we are taking within our three weeks in Southeast Asia are booked. Thank you Air Asia for a 20% off sale! That’s Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam; Hanoi to Siem Reap, Cambodia; Siem Reap to Bangkok; Chiang Mai to Phuket; and Phuket to Bangkok. We also have an overnight train ride in between Bangkok and Chiang Mai in a 1st Class Sleeper compartment with air conditioning! (A steal for $70 each and saves us a whole night in a hotel). Living the backpacking dream!
I won’t lie, I do feel a little pissed off at Air Asia for charging for every single little thing, but the flights are still cheaper with them compared to other airlines. Every flight we take, we each have to pay for our checked bag/backpack and the cost definitely ads up. They also charged me 10 times for a credit card processing fee (10 separate tickets), and each flight they charged for selecting seats in advance. If we could manage living for 3 and a half weeks with a 7kg carry-on, that would be much cheaper; but come on, who do you think we are? LOL.
The hotels on the other hand are turning out to be much cheaper than expected. I am using Agoda to book all of our hotels as it is the easiest website to use with millions of reviews and super good prices! We have budgeted $60 CAD a night for hotels, or $30 each. So far, I am well under budget. In Cambodia, I found a place that is $71 total including taxes for 2 nights in a hotel with a pool, free airport pickup, included tuk-tuk rides to town, a welcome drink and a free 60 minute massage included! Sounds amazing 😀 . As I move on to the southern islands I notice a price increase, but it should all even out since I am under budget so far. I am reserving a few in each city as they are all free-cancellation and once I’m in Winkler next weekend, I’ll present them all to my dad and we can decide together. I did all the hard work for him, but hey, I’m cool like that!
I wanted to share something I ordered online today which I am hoping will be useful on our trip. I ordered some of these Mosquito Repellant Bracelets off of Amazon. They are waterproof, do not smell bad, and are all natural insect repellants. The reviews are really good, so hopefully they will keep the mosquitos away! I am also on the hunt for a good natural bug spray, so if you have any good suggestions please let me know!
Speaking of Malaria (lol), this week I am going to start looking into what vaccinations we need for our trip. No hepatitis for us!! I also made a huge packing list today so things are definitely on the right track. I’m exhausted now from all the planning and thinking; now if I could just feel better and break this fever, that would be great!
Thanks for reading 🙂
xoxo, Hales
The Tales Of Hales 