Here’s some of the salient points for travel to Thailand and anywhere else in the world:
- In Thailand especially, always smile, even if you are really mad and then decline the transaction with a simple and quiet ‘no’
- Never get in a tuk tuk, taxi, etc. Until you have agreed to the price of the ride. If they take you to a place to shop that you did NOT ask for,
- get out and get another tuk tuk, most rides should only be 80 to 100 baht (25 B = 1 CAD)
- Always bargain with the seller, whether a street vendor or a 5 star hotel, you’ll learn a valuable negotiating skill, plus save a lot of money
- In crowded places around the world, pickpocket proof yourself and don’t flash excessive cash around
- Take a photo of you passport, also register at the Canadian Gov’t travel/embassy site. Also, take a pictures of your luggage, should it go missing
- When going to Thailand, take Canadian $50 bills and your passport or drivers licence to the local currency exchanges, they have great rates
- As a backup, we also take CAD denominated travellers cheques and keep them in a separate place, should we lose our wallet/purse.
- If your credit card includes LoungeKey or Priority Pass, these airport lounges are equipped with comfy seats, free food and drinks.
- We’ve used the Priority Pass lounges in Frankfurt, Helsinki, Stockholm, London, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Bangkok, etc. All very nice.
- Take your mobile phone with you, but have your Canadian service provider unlock it here in Canada before you go.
- I like AIS service provider in Thailand, so find one of their kiosk, usually in airport and malls, don’t go to a 7/11 store if you need help, they are NOT well trained to help you, however, they can sell you a SIM card and plans.
- You’ll need your passport to buy a local SIM card and a plan for your mobile phone (very cheap calling and data plans), ID is a worldwide requirement now
- Before you leave Canada contact Bangkok Limousine Service and signup for their VIP service for getting through Customs and Immigration.
- This will save you time as it can take 1.5 to 2 hours to get thru the non-VIP section. You still have to have all your paper work in order, but you’ll get through about 5 minutes or less.
- Bangkok Limousine service also has a great transfer service options to a lot of places. Hua Hin, etc.
- If you would like to move about the country, e.g. go from Hua Hin to Chiangmai, it’s a 10 to 12 train ride, which didn’t appeal to us. So we used Kan Airlines.
- If you don’t have much luggage, i.e. just an over night bag, then you can get a one-way ticket for THB 990.
- We had a lot of luggage, so for the two of us it was 3,880 THB one way for both of us. Great meal on board, new ATR72 aircraft, very professional crew and under a two hour flight.
- All the photos on the web site www3.telus.net/Tukkimaki/Thai2016 were taken with my mobile phone Moto G3 unlocked.
- The phone camera is 14 Megapixels so they are large files, so put in a Sandisk class 10, 32 Gbyte micro SD in the phone and make it external ram.
- For the web site, I compressed the pictures by 700% so that they would download quickly, as we have friends and family around the world that wanted the photos of our trip(s)
- Anywhere in the world, including Canada and especially airplanes, avoid taking ice in your drinks, etc. As the ice machines, in most, cases, are not properly cleaned.
- If others around you are taking ice and you see them daily and they are fine, go for it. I never take ice anywhere.
- Ask for bottled water, make sure that the seal is a factory seal, with caps serrations to the collar are intact.
- Be sure to get a Twinrix vaccination for Hep A & B nine months ahead of travel. If you eat out even in Kelowna, you need this vaccination.
- If you’ve had a recent or past vaccination, get tested to make sure that it still has efficacy.
