Six Weeks In…
Our last major trip was six weeks long, it seems appropriate to let you know how we’re getting on.
Last time, we attempted to whiz around the world in six weeks. We did this but felt, especially in Thailand, that we missed a trick. So, here we are, six weeks in, and we have spent the entire time in Southeast Asia. Those of you who know our 2007 trip will know that we spent nearly all of the time ‘five-starring it’. Our goal this time was to get more amongst it and stop off at one or two plush places along the way. If you discount the four nights we’ve pampered ourselves on this trip, our accommodation has cost us £636.60. Compare that to the £10,000.00+ we spent in 2007: Average of £16.75/night (£8.38 per person per night), compared to £238.00/night in 2007.
Typically we’ve been aiming for ‘mid-range’ accommodation, with air con and preferably a private bathroom, these usually go for circa $20 a night, including breakfast. Not bad for two people.
If you’re interested, the four nights’ luxury have cost us a total of £1002.00 (two nights in Nha Trang, Vietnam and two nights in Ko Samui, Thailand). This takes our total spend to £1638.60 at an average spend per night to £39.00, still well under the cost of a Travel Inn in the UK!
I think we’re done with the luxury now. As I write we’ve moved on from Chiang Mai (the subject of the last blog post) and have had the two nights’ uber opulence in the Six Senses on Ko Samui. We’re still on Ko Samui now but have moved accommodation to somewhere that doesn’t make the credit card get stopped and we are enjoying the party life on Chaweng Beach.
Before Ko Samui we were debating heavily on the next destination. The rains in Cambodia and Chiang Mai were getting a bit much and we seriously looked at Bali and the surrounding islands due to the fact it’s still dry season down there. After a hasty Lonely Planet purchase we looked at flights and possible accommodation. As you know we have been doing the accommodation on a whim when we’ve got to a destination but after a bit of research I found out it’s the Aussie school holidays at the moment and as a result Bali is pretty busy. With that in mind I looked at a few places to stay but they were all full; we didn’t fancy taking the chance so we stuck to the original plan and flew to Ko Samui where I’m pleased to announce the weather has been kind.
We’ll probably do another day or two here before getting the boat to Ko Tao where we’ll have a few more days before boating to Ko Phangan, home of the Full Moon Party on 4 October. ‘Beach’ is very much the current theme; after hopping from city to city over the last month or so we were craving some downtime. After these islands it’s on to Australia starting at Whitsundays, about three-quarters up the East Coast and we have our flight out of Sydney just over two weeks later to return home. We intend to take in two or three places down the East coast of Australia.
You can see all my pictures through my photo page and can also get details on where we stayed, how we got there, visas etc on my S.E. Asia 2009 page. If anybody needs any more details on these, drop me a line.
Four weeks to go…
Glad to see your keeping an eye on the purse strings… NOT as easy as it sounds I can vouch for that pal. Hope Samui is treating you well and we can’t wait to read about Phangan and Tao…
Have fun
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?