Thread: Topper's Visit to Bangkok

Originally Posted by Bob Mason

I am absolutely astonished to learn that somebody is willing to pay such a huge amount for breakfast. I am out and about in Thailand for the best part of a month very soon now and will disappear from this forum. I would expect 500 baht to satisfy my breakfast needs for about ten days. (Not in Bangkok but Isaan.)

Well, I guess spending money on decent food helps me avoid spending too much on ya dong and tequila...if you've never mixed the two together, you've never really done any liver damage to yourself.

Originally Posted by Topper

Well, I guess spending money on decent food helps me avoid spending too much on ya dong and tequila...if you've never mixed the two together, you've never really done any liver damage to yourself.

So, if you are willing to spend this amount on breakfast, what would be the cost of your "decent food" dinner, please? One could eat all day in Terminal 21 for 500 baht.

My nieces are making mincemeat of the pies...apparently they rate them highly as compared to the pies they had in the UK..

Originally Posted by DrWilly

20 baht street food eats everyday, or splash out for some decent food. Both are good, one to the exclusion of the other? No thanks.

I agree as it's nice to sit in a quiet restaurant and be served good food. However, over 500 baht for breakfast is not for me. I was told off by my wife for paying too much for a meal near Pantip Plaza but have to admit it was the best "sweet and sour" meal I had ever tasted so sometimes one has to pay for quality.

Suceess...the family's gift....

@topper - you're welcome. I hope you're now back in Bacolod and safe & sound. The e-travel online registration thingy is not unique to PH. As BLD has mentioned, it's also required in SG. Other countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia have their own versions. I don't know if the one for Malaysia is still required or now optional. These days with covid changing the travel protocols, it's best to do one's homework & not be a raging foreigner who moans that they didn't know about it.

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Re: Vietnam, if it's your first time in Saigon (that's still how locals call HCMC), I would recommend 3 days (if you're a slow traveller) or 2 days if you can take in a lot of sights in 1 day. There's a street food market near the Independence/ Reunification Palace which I think you'll enjoy. Check out my Vietnam threads - I have 2, I think. I would recommend to stay at a hotel in District 1 so that you're near the popular sites. If you'd like to go see the Cu Chi tunnels, you can do it on a half-day tour. You can arrange it with your hotel (more pricey) or find a tour agency at Pham Ngu Lao (?) street. It's near Ben Thanh market & has lots of tour agencies. Do your pasalubong shopping in Ben Thanh market.

Vietnam is where the factories of Nike, Reebok, North Face, Kipling, etc are located. Inside Ben Thanh, there are lots of "Class A" stuff. Always bargain. If the sellers know that your wife is Filipino, they'll sometimes accept pesos! (they offered me that) A friend of mine bought lots of Kipling bags/ backpacks as gifts for his nieces/ nephews. An original Kipling bag (example: office bag for ladies) sells for ~P5,000 in the mall. The price was 1/10 in Ben Thanh market.

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If your intention is to go to a beach near Saigon, I would recommend Vung Tau. You can go there by bus or ferry (don't know if ferry still operates). Vung Tau is where the Saigon ppl go for beach weekends (kinda like BKK & Pattaya).


Nha Trang is another beach option - lots of Russians there. You can go there by plane. If you're feeling adventurous, you can travel there by overnight train. You can also go to Da Nang, but by plane too.

If you'd like cooler temps during your vacay, you can go to Da Lat.

I haven't been to Da Lat but my parents have. Accdg to my dad, it's like Baguio - high elevation city, cooler temps. I've been to Da Nang, haven't been to Nha Trang or Vung Tau but have researched going there. Saigon, I've been several times on short visits.

The vlogger "Ninja Teacher" lives there - he has an ESL company. I also like the vlogger Kyle Le - he's a Viet Kieu. His parents were refugees, he grew up in the US, went to work in VN as a TEFLer after college graduation. He also vlogged & rediscovered his roots. He visited VN recently (late last year), so he has interesting new-ish content. The channel "What the Pho" is run by a Viet girl who studied in the US but is now back in VN. She's based in Hanoi but travels around.

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I've found Cebu Pacific an OK company. It's a budget airline - you get what you pay for. Most of their flights are on time. The one time that my flight was delayed ~2 hours, it wasn't their fault. It was due to "air traffic control situation" in Manila.

Cheers!

Re: breakfast buffets (or all you can eat buffets in general) - I'm the type who gorges on food during those buffets. If it's for brunch, then I don't eat lunch anymore & will usually just have a light dinner. There was one time when I stuffed myself so much during an office-sponsored buffet lunch that I only ate an apple for dinner (was still full).

In PH, one can easily spend P500 for a restaurant meal (that's not a high end meal, just a regular resto in the mall), so if the buffet breakfast at Okada hotel is P1,000 and that's good for 2 meals, then I think it's good value. I wouldn't do it regularly (I usually have a very light breakfast, as I've said in the Intermittent Fasting thread) but as a rare treat, it's OK.

Give me a decent buffet meal and I'd quite happily pass out in a food coma for 24 hours.

Originally Posted by katie23

Re: Vietnam, if it's your first time in Saigon (that's still how locals call HCMC)

I teach Vietnamese students and had a student get upset when the book I was using referred to it as Saigon. He went on a mini rant about the wisdom of Uncle Ho and the pride of the Vietnamese people to rename the city in his honor. It was all I could do not to laugh. I do make a point though to refer to it as HCMC when teaching.

I think our first trip there is going to be a short trip to Danang as we can fly directly from Manila to there and then attempt to find a place a bit out of town on the beach. It will be a trip to check out an admittedly touristy area, see what the internet connectivity is like and hit the beach with a future trip to hit district 1 in HCMC with a flight to Quy Nhon to hit the beach.