Jun 26, 2015 |
Not Same Same in Thailand…
Whenever I head back home and come across friends I have not seen in a long while they ask me, “Is it cheaper living in Thailand?”. It’s hard to answer that question without giving an example. So my example is the sandwich. Simple and easy to make.
But in a nutshell my answer is it really depends. If you can eat like the locals the answer is a resounding yes. If you eat like the way you eat back in the US then the answer is no. Let’s take the good ol’ sandwich for example and look at the prices.
When I was a kid one of the first things I ever made to eat on my own is a sandwich. There’s not a huge learning curve so it’s right up my alley. Ham, cheese, a heavy slather of mayo between two slices of Wonder Bread. And there’s a 98% chance that whoever reads this and is from the USA made the same too.
According to the Smithsonian every day 50% of Americans consume some form of a sandwich. And that sounds about right. Putting together a sandwich in the US is economical. Packing a sandwich for lunch to work is just one of the best ways to save money. And finding a grocery store with all sorts of cold cuts and cheese is easy peasy too back home in US.
It’s kinda like that too in Thailand. Though there are a few surprises or shall we call it sticker price shock…
Sandwich Ingredients and Costs
Whole wheat bread from Yamazaki 55THB (8 Slices)…
I always buy bread from Yamazki bakery. You can find them just about everywhere there is a Tops Supermarket. A bag of 8 slices cost 55THB, nearly $2USD. I like this style of bread because it taste good. But most importantly, it is not loaded with preservatives. You’ll find a expiration date right on the bag which is 3 days from date of purchase. But I find that if you stick it in the fridge it’ll last an extra 2 to 3 days.
There is a certain brand of cheaper whole wheat bread you can buy in most major supermarkets and convenience stores such as 7-Eleven. I don’t buy the cheap stuff because it lasts about two to three weeks. There’s just something sinister about bread that takes that long to go moldy.
Good ol’ Oscar Meyer Ham or Bologne…
Every supermarket in Thailand has some sort of deli/cold cuts department today. The better ones are mainly located inside supermarkets with many expats or foreigners nearby. The best cold cut department I’ve ever seen is at the Emporium Supermarket in the basement level of Siam Paragon Mall.
But I don’t live anywhere near there so I purchase packaged Oscar Meyer ham near the deli section of a local Tops Supermarket at Central Ladprao.
Normally a 6oz. (170 grams) package of Oscar Meyer ham cost 164THB ($4.86USD). 170 grams is about 10 slices of ham. Yes, that is expensive right? And it doesn’t get any cheaper if you buy local produced ham.
Local ham is even more expensive too…
Swiss Chalet is a Thai brand of ham that is of good quality and sometimes I buy it when it goes on sale. Normally, it costs 98THB ($2.90USD) for 6 slices of ham, 200 grams.
Back in NYC near my local Key Food Supermarket I pay $4.99USD for 453 grams of quality ham. Right about now you must be thinking this can’t get any worse right?? Wait for it…
Your sandwich cheese options…
Allowrie is a Thai dairy company and their cheese is comparable to packaged Kraft Cheese back in the states. A pack of 12 slices cost 139THB ($4.13USD). In the US I stay away from the packaged sliced cheese and buy right from the deli counter.
Back in the US I know I can buy a whole pound of good quality American cheese for $4USD.
Imported swiss cheese ain’t cheap in Thailand…
Even though you’ll find a wide variety of block cheeses mostly from Europe and USA it’s expensive. Even the lower quality package cheeses have crazy prices. 10 slices of cheddar cheese from the Netherlands cost about $8USD.
In general dairy products are expensive in Thailand. Butter and in this case cheese are not common items found in the fridge as it is in most countries.
Mayo ain’t cheap in Thailand…
Condiments
Mayo, the glue that holds the sandwich together, is expensive as well. A 443ml Kraft Mayonnaise jar cost $3USD. That’s a small bottle and the way I use it would last me 8 sandwiches. I rather just make my own these days using Alton Brown’s mayo recipe. Eggs and oil which are essential in a mayo recipe is very affordable in Thailand.
99THB for a small bottle of mustard…
Sometimes I like to switch out mayo for mustard. But mustard is also a bit pricey. Luckily for my taste a little bit of mustard goes a long way. 340g of French’s Mustard cost $3USD.
Tomato and lettuce are affordable but not exactly cheap either. And it doesn’t help that I’m a bit picky about the raw vegetables I buy. You can save a bit of money purchasing vegetables for sandwiches at local Thai wet markets instead of supermarkets. But if you don’t live near one it could be a bit inconvenient. Also I find that vegetables in supermarkets are cleaner and better quality.
In general, it’s cheaper to eat Thai food outside then it is to cook Thai food at home. And also consider you don’t need to prep the ingredients and wash dishes afterwards. So you save time too.
A large bag of chips cost about the same in USA, about $3USD a bag…
However, for the sandwich, it’s actually cheaper to make at home than it is to buy it outside. There are many shops that sell pre-made sandwiches. You can buy a ham and cheese between two pieces of white bread for $1.75USD. But if you make your own sandwich at home it could cost you about $1USD but with lettuce and tomato.
I do miss the days I could make myself a hero sandwich, with a few inches of stacked ham and turkey with cheddar cheese and the works. Sadly here in Thailand, you don’t really have that choice. Hell, I can’t even find turkey cold cuts.
Granted a lot of the ingredients I buy for my sandwiches are all imported I can still tell you locally produced ham and cheese are not cheap and nearly the same price as imported.
You won’t run out of food options on the streets of Bangkok…
But there’s plenty of cheap Thai food all around where I live and travel often. I can get a small entree with rice for about $1.30USD to $1.60USD. Though I usually double my order because I can eat a lot. Even noodles I would order 2 bowls.
This tasty bowl of fishball with egg noodle and soup cost about $1.20USD…
It is still possible to live off of $10USD a day on food, assuming you’re only eating Thai.
So there it is. Familiar foods that we can readily and easily prepare back home can be expensive to make here in Thailand. Don’t get me started on cereal. A box of shredded wheats cost $8USD here but I remember back in NYC it cost about $5USD.
And there are no Costcos or BJ Wholesale Clubs here. Man, I miss those places.
Jun 12, 2015 |
Excellent Location and Not So Expensive…
Whenever I get asked where is a good place to stay in Kuala Lumpur I always suggest an area called Bukit Bintang. I’ve stayed in a couple of hotels in that area but the one I frequently stay at is called the Piccolo Hotel (called ANSA Kuala Lumpur Hotel today).
The Piccolo was built back in 2008. Yeah, it sounds old but it’s remarkably well kept. And although I’m not a 100% sure there must’ve been some renovation done sometime ago to look the way it looks.
ANSA Hotel superior room are about 30 square meters…
I always choose the superior rooms and for some reason on Agoda.com you get two rates, one cheaper and the other more expensive. So of course I book the cheaper ones which cost about $65USD.
I’ve booked at deluxe room a couple of times at the ANSA Hotel but to me there is not much difference in terms of quality between the two room grades. There’s free in room Wi-Fi internet access too.
Last time I went a superior room at Piccolo cost about $65USD per night with taxes included…
The bathrooms layout could be a little bit weird because the toilet and the shower is not in a separate room. There’s just glass separating those two facilities from the rest of the room. I suppose that’s fine if you’re staying with your spouse or close family but if you’re bunking with a friend it might be kinda uncomfortable due to limited privacy. Or maybe that’s just me.
Toilet and shower stalls in room…
So what’s so good about the ANSA Hotel?
It’s one of the hotels closest to the Bukit Bintang KL Monorail station. I always take the buses from KLIA2 because I fly in from Air Asia. I also take the SkyBus which is Air Asia’s official bus to KL Sentral where I take the KL Monorail line to Bukit Bintang. The SkyBus fare is only RM9.50 and the bus trip takes about 1 hour. A single journey fare from KL Sentral to Bukit Bintang cost RM2.10, very cheap.
At KL Sentral you’ll see it’s a major travel hub with trains and buses that go all over Malaysia. There is also a big mall attached to KL Sentral. Follow the signs through the mall and you’ll find the entrance to the KL Monorail. As I recall the station platforms are on the second floor.
And you’ll find a lot of shopping malls adjacent to ANSA KL Hotel:
- Lot 10 Mall – Cool food court in the basement.
- Sungei Wang Shopping Plaza – This place is kind of like the MBK Mall of Kuala Lumpur.
- Farenheit – A mix of luxury shops and local businesses.
- Pavillion Mall – A high end posh mall in the heart of Bukit Bintang.
There are a lot of other malls too just a bit further away like the Berjaya Times Square. You can walk there in about 10 or 15 minutes.
A huge plate of food at Food Republic in Pavillion Mall, with a drink it cost about $5.50USD…
Bukit Bintang is also a gem of an area for food. Indian, Arab, Chinese, you name it you’ll find it or a combination of it. It’s a wonderful food paradise. But because Bukit is a tourist area food prices are higher but still manageable.
I forgot to mention, you can also walk to Kuala Lumpur’s most famous landmark, the Petronas Towers in about 30 minutes. The Piccolo is a good hotel for exploring Kuala Lumpur. There’s a KL Hop on Hop Off tour bus that stops right in front of the hotel sidewalk.
Read guests reviews and find current discounts for ANSA Kuala Lumpur. (Note- On Agoda ANSA is rated as a 4 star hotel. Personally I think it’s a 3 at best, which is still good.)
KL’s magnificent Petronas Towers…
Jun 10, 2015 |
After getting off our ferry boat on Ban Phe pier from our recent trip to Koh Samet my wife and I got a bit hungry. It was time for afternoon lunch. But we didn’t know where to go eat. And we were hunkering for seafood too. We wanted fresh crabs but for some reason the restaurants we went to on Koh Samet had none available.
So we asked around the locals working inside a market. Who else would know better than the locals right? And one of them pointed at a restaurant right across the street from us. Its name is Beach Cafe Seafood Ban Phe. It was only about 80 meters away from the entrance of Ban Phe Municipality Pier and across from Ban Phe Tourists Market.
Nice iced cafe latte, not too sweet as ordered, about 50THB…
My wife and I were a bit dubious. We were expecting a place with good seafood would probably be right on a beach or perhaps on a pier overlooking the ferry boats. But we were hungry. And we also wanted coffee. We figured worst comes to worst if the place didn’t look copacetic we’ll just get a couple of iced lattes to go.
They had a espresso machine and grounded the beans fresh for our order. Well that’s a good sign. So while we waited for our lattes we asked to take a look at their menu. There’s the usual Thai food but we wanted to know if they had any crabs available.
Usually on a weekday we know restaurants don’t stock a lot of live seafood. They usually do on weekends when they know there will be more customers. Luckily they had crabs available. But were they fresh??
Yes! They’ve got fresh crabs, this is chili style…
They charge 700THB per kilogram of crabs. Not a bad price at all. And they’ll cook it to whatever style you like. Steamed, curried, chili, salt and pepper you name it – they did it and price was included. We ordered one kilogram – half steamed and half chili style.
Fresh steamed crabs… on the small side but were still good…
We also ordered some shrimp fritters and rice. We were hungry but we also didn’t want to over order because we just weren’t sure if this restaurant had good food. They did have some other customers at another table but not a lot.
Fried shrimp fritters (Tod Mun Gung ทอดมันกุ้ง)… so yummy…
The chili crabs came out first and we dug in. It looked good and it really smelled good. And it was fresh. The crab meat was sweet and with the chili sauce it was a pleasant combination. The steamed crabs came out a few minutes later. They were on the small side so had no crab roe which I love. But I think it wasn’t the right season for crabs so that’s not the fault of the restaurant. The plate of steam crabs was also very good and so fresh. Crab meat was really tender.
Overall we really enjoyed our meal. If I can remember correctly I think the total bill came out to about 950THB. And that’s not a bad price at all for fresh crabs.
But what we really like was the friendly service from the restaurant staff. They pretty much cleaned up our table when ever we made a mess. Alright, whenever I made a mess. Hey – it’s crab with yummy chili sauce. Hands will get dirty. Still not sure how my wife eats crabs with fork and spoon.
Jun 8, 2015 |
Not Cheap and Far From Hua Hin
I know a lot of people who love Hua Hin but want to stay somewhere really quiet and out of the way. I’m not saying Hua Hin is noisy and congested like Bangkok because it’s not.
However, Pa Prai Villa at the Plantation is about a 35 minute drive from Hua Hin’s City Center. Which means if you choose to stay at Pa Prai you’re going to be surrounded by nature and lots of it. And it’s a decent option to stay there as jump point for a road trip to Khao Sam Roi Yod.
Pa Prai Villa is surrounded by a pineapple farm and hills…
Pa Prai is located on top of a hill, overlooking a massive pineapple farm near the front of the property. You can see just a little bit of the ocean ahead plus more hills. Behind the property is another hill. There is nothing around Pa Prai Villa. No 7-Elevens or any kind of shops at all. It’s pretty much a desolate location save for a few private homes.
Swimming pool and ahead is small guests reception area…
One big tip is if you choose to stay at Pa Prai Villa Plantation be sure to drop by convenience store and load up on snacks if you’ll be there for a little while.
Finding Pa Prai Villa can be a little difficult. There are signs along the road but not a lot. And if I wasn’t so familiar with the area I wouldn’t have found this place at all I think. As I mentioned this hotel is on top of a hill with partially paved roads.
When we did find the hotel there was a little slight difficulty getting in. There is a long narrow lane that leads down to the hotel reception area. We got halfway down and a pick up truck appeared right in front of us. It was a Mexican standoff as the other driver didn’t want to reverse and neither did I. Cooler heads prevailed and my wife just told me to back out.
I originally booked a deluxe room, but was upgraded to penthouse…
When we parked it was apparent there was a wedding taking place that night. The pool area had flowers, chairs and tables placed all around. A woman who appeared to be a wedding planner was running around checking things and giving workers instructions.
The hotel grounds is not that big so it was interesting to see how all the wedding set up would turn out.
Usually a room upgrade is a good thing… usually…
I had booked a deluxe room which flanked the swimming pool. But because there’s a wedding taking place during the night so they upgraded us to a penthouse. All the deluxe rooms are located on the ground level where the wedding would take place. So it would be noisy and that’s the reason why we got upgraded to the second floor penthouse suites. Score! Sweeeettttttt! Yahoooooo! But no.
There are only two penthouses at the Pa Prai Villa and we were given the Moree Suites. We were stoked. When we were first shown the room our jaws dropped. It was a huge massive living room. The master bedroom was located upstair and when we looked it we were floored. It’s a beautiful spacious room.
But after checking out the toilet we noticed a very distinct funk. It smelled like a massive turd backup except there were no turd in the toilet. And the longer we stayed there the more foul the smell got. It was really bad and becoming unbearable.
Kiri Suites at Pa Prai Villa with full kitchen…
So we told reception about the problem and they sent someone up to check it out. When the guy came he too noticed the problem. We told them we want to move and the hotel staff obliged without hesitation. They gave us keys to the other penthouse, the Kiri Suites.
Perfect space if you’ve got a lot of people but there’s only one bedroom…
Kiri Suites is a bit smaller than Moree but still big. Though the bedroom was much bigger and so was the bathroom with a full size jacuzzi. But that weird funk that was such a huge problem at Moree Suites was still present but not as bad. But we put up with it as best as we could and we knew the hotel staff felt sorry too.
My wife and I really appreciated the hotel staff, it’s not there fault and they did what they could to make up happy.
Huge bedroom at Kiri Suites…
But there was still another problem. I decided to give the jacuzzi a try. I filled it up with hot water and tried to start the jacuzzi but no bubbles. The controls were pretty simple and straightforward. I felt like calling up downstairs and ask them if it worked or not but did not bother. I didn’t mind a nice soak in hot water anyway.
Nice large bathroom but there was still a funny smell…
About 45 minutes later I got out and the tub started to drain the water. And sometime while watching television with my wife a huge pool of water ended up on the floor. As far as I could tell it came from the repair vent for the jacuzzi. So we called downstairs and a couple of guys came up to check it out. They took off the repair panel and the whole area underneath the jacuzzi was full of water.
So the guys gathered a bunch of towels and mopped up the water. That was it. There was nothing else they could do since it was night time. And I wasn’t planning on taking another dip anyway. Lucky my wife prefers showers.
But the wedding was starting and we could see it all from the balcony that overlooked the swimming pool area. It was a bit noisy and the festivities went on until about 1am but we weren’t complaining. It was nice to experience another happy couples wedding. After all we just got married earlier that same year.
No buffets at Pa Prai Villa only set menus…
After waking up in the morning it’s time to check out what’s for breakfast. I wasn’t surprise to see that Pa Prai Villa does not have a breakfast buffet setup. They don’t get a lot of guests and if they cooked up too much food it’ll probably end up in the trash.
Even with the big wedding party there were plenty of seats left for guests. I ordered their American breakfast set of scrambled eggs and bacon. And my wife ordered the Thai breakfast set which was rice porridge with pork. There’s also plenty of bread, cereal, granola, yogurt and fruit to go around too.
Nice little area to sit and relax near the swimming pool…
There’s nothing else around the area so if you’re not heading out it’s probably best to fill up. Though I do know Pa Prai has has a lunch menu. But to be honest, it’s probably best to simply drive out and find a restaurant. There are many near the beach about a 20 minute drive away.
The Good and The Bad
What I like about Pa Prai Villa is it’s really private and secluded. Needless to say, you need to have a car. Or I suppose if you choose to stay there you can have a driver drop you off and pick you back up when you check out. There are many private car services for hire in Hua Hin.
And the bad… well, it’s secluded. There is nothing else in the immediate area but sand, rocks and a dirt road. I walked around a bit to take a look and saw nothing of interest. I know when people think of Hua Hin they think of beaches. So if that’s what you want Pa Prai isn’t the place you’d want to stay.
Another negative about Pa Prai is I believe it’s overpriced. They charge more then a hotel right in Hua Hin’s city center charges. I paid about $80USD for a deluxe room. However, while doing some current price checking for this post I noticed they have 50% discounts. $40USD sounds about right for their deluxe rooms
There are Pool Villa’s on the property too. My wife and I saw them going through the driveway. I took a quick glance and saw that the villa’s had private small private swimming pools. There are about 8 or so villas.
If we ever do decide to stay at Pa Prai again in the in the future I’ll probably book the 1 bedroom pool villas as long as I can find a good deal.
Read guests’ reviews and find discounts for Pa Prai Villa at the Plantation. (Note: On Agoda.com this hotel is rated at 4 stars. Personally I think it’s more of a 2 star hotel.)
Jun 6, 2015 |
