How to Travel in Style– On a Budget in Bangkok

I just went to travel to Bangkok on a strict budget.  So one of the tricks on staying on budget is preparation.

Air Fare.  Buying your tickets months before your travel date will give you a huge discount.  This is true.  I checked all the airline rates online to determine the best airline rate.  Since Bangkok is fairly one of the topmost destinations for Pinoys who wanted to shop, there are simply a good deal of flight schedules to choose from.  I checked out the Thai Airways website first, then Philippine Airlines then Cebu Pacific the last.  I would have booked with Cebu Pacific but hey they suck remember? So  I decided to take Philippine Airlines and was quite surprised to find that the difference was only P900. To heck with the 900 pesos price difference.

Hotels.  In case of Bangkok, there are simply too many hotels in the city to choose from.  I decided to use Tripadvisor and Agoda for hotel reviews before making my bookings.  Hotel rooms range from USD18-120 per night, and I decided that to be able to gauge the hotels, I used location and distance from the Bangkok Skytrain as my requirements.

Having narrowed it down to anywhere between 5-10 minute walk away from BTS, I started narrowing the locations down by using Google Maps to point out the location of the malls I wanted to shop in.  Since my target was the Central World and Siam Paragon, I decided that staying at a hotel close to the malls would be ok.  WRONG.

Why?  Because the top malls in Bangkok is on the most busiest place in the city, the hotels close to the malls are the most expensive.  Talk about USD120-180 per night hotels… simply out of my budget.  Heck, I was hoping to find a hotel room for USD30-35/ night.  My other requirement is free wifi and stellar reviews from business and solo travelers.

So I went on looking.  Using Tripadvisor and Agoda was a good idea.  I managed to narrow down the hotels near the stations and I managed to narrow them down on my price range, and I ended up with 2 possible hotels:

1- Royal Ivory Nana Hotel- 1 block away from the BTS.  Not bad.  At Bangkok scale, a block could be as far as a 5-10 minute walk.  Wifi is free and the hotel have less than 60 rooms.  Which makes it ideal for solo travelers.  I hate crowds.

2- Bangkok Loft Inn-  half a block away from the closest BTS station.  Great.  I checked out the reviews via Tripadvisor and Agoda, and the hotel got RAVE reviews.

The Decision.  I opted to stay the Bangkok Loft Inn.  Why?  I checked out the age of the hotel and found out that the BLI is newly opened.  This means, new bed, new television, spunkier furniture, and I was right.  Not only that, after making my online booking at Bangkok Loft Inn, I asked if they could arrange for a hotel car to pick me up and they told me their car will pick me up at the airport for free.  Yes… note that almost all big hotels offer free shuttle rides to the hotels… so make sure you let your hotel know that you want to avail for free shuttle ride.

Then, after checking out the prices, I jotted them down using Google Docs and allocated B1,000/day for food.  Yes. I did not want to starve in Bangkok, and I have no plans of eating street food, so I allocated that amount per day for food.  Breakfast only cost USD1/day at Bangkok Loft Inn so I took the room and breakfast deal.

I then allocated the budget I was willing to spend for shopping including the list of items I would like to purchase.  This will help and will prevent you from buying something not in the list and create focus on your hunt for bargains.

I also searched the malls via Google and found out that the malls I wanted to shop in have a sale.  Yes…  Nothing beats than a 70-80 percent off sale on branded items…  Great.

My last day in Bangkok was spent in a night bazaar.  I spent all my remaining baht at Suan Lum Night Market.  I got several Bangkok and Thailand shirts from there, including cheap trinkets and local food items.  I also had dinner in a restaurant loft with my cousins for less than B850.  Not bad.

All in all, I managed to stay within my budget in Bangkok.  Not only that, I managed to get a refund at the airport for my purchases at the mall…  Bangkok was surprisingly easy to move around in.  Although taxi fares are cheaper than Manila, the language barrier can be a hassle so taking the most reliable and safest form of transportation was good.  The BTS is clean and on time.  It can be a little crowded, but the ride is ok since the train is air conditioned anyway.

To book at BLI:

Bangkok Loft Inn www.bangkokloftinn.com

55 Somdet Phra Chao Taksin Rd., Bangyeerua, Thonburi, Bangkok 10600, Thailand
Tel. (+662) 862-0300 : Fax. (+662) 862-0492 : E-mail. Bangkokloftinn@hotmail.com

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