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SE Asia

Our Jakarta budget + what to do and see

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Our stay in Jakarta was really home-orientated. Since we had such a nice accommodation we spent quite significant time in our little place midst the craziness of the city. Nevertheless there’s quite much to do and see in Jakarta plus you just can’t miss all the smiles and kindness of the people living there :). As always cost are daily averages for 2 people.

  • Groceries (different food items and all other similar things)  in Jakarta it was mainly breakfast and quite many snacks 🙂 – 90.000 rupiah.
  • Transport (in case of Jakarta it contains only Uber fees since we didn’t use any other method of transport, except walking of course 🙂 )  – 60.000 rupiah
  • Eating out. (We ate lunch and dinner usually somewhere out. If to be honest it was about 50/50 between local and so to say western food in Jakarta) – 135.000 rupiah
  • Entrance fees (Mini Indonesia, Ancol Dreamland and Waterbom water park ) – 42.000 rupiah
  • Shopping. (We decided to buy souvenirs from Bali and we had no need for other things at the time)  – 0 rupiah 🙂
  • Other (mobile internet) – 25.000 rupiah. The cheapest data prepaid card I could find was 300.00 rupiah. And be warned that when arriving in our terminal I could find only one place that sold prepaid data cards and they only took cash. Usually there are loads of this kind of vendors in the airport.

Our accommodation was 4,27 mln rupiah so in total we spent 4,27+4,23 = 8,5 mln rupiah (about ~520 EUR) during our 11 days stay. Of course you can actually get through with considerably less in Jakarta but it’s mostly all up to what kind of accommodation you want :).

What to do and see (in no particular order)

  • Ancol dreamland – a theme park with a huge variety of different activities, parks, places to eat and even it’s own shopping mall. It also had a small beach area for swimming
  • Taman Mini Indonesia Indah – a huge village with numerous activities, temples from all over Indonesia, different museums for all tastes and much more! This is a must visit and it will take you a full day!
  • The National monument and Merdeka square
  • Waterbom Jakarta or any of the other water parks in town. But do your research before since many of the parks are not in good condition
  • Flea market Jalan Surabaya – you can find a huge number of different antiques and souvenirs there. Even if you don’t plan to buy anything it’s really interesting to see, almost like a museum of it’s own!
  • Kota Tua area – it’s the old town area of Jakarta with many beautiful buildings and architecture from Dutch colonial era
  • The contrast of the city – doesn’t matter where you go in Jakarta you will see beautiful buildings right next to slums built under the bridges and highways. It’s quite a sight
  • People – as I’ve already expressed several times people in Jakarta are just so friendly and nice and it’s impossible to go for a walk without a smile on your face :)!
SE Asia

Kuala Lumpur and Singapore budget + what to do

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Kuala Lumpur

Once again – as usual all the costs are averages for 2 people per day. KL was naturally not so inexpensive as Langkawi but nevertheless a very affordable place to visit or live.

  • Groceries (different food items and all other similar things). I’d say that at least half of the times we cooked something on our own since we had a big kitchen to use. There are numerous grocery stores at KL but we mostly visited Giant due to good choice of items and great prices – 33,4 ringgit
  • Transport (in case of KL it contains only Uber for some rides in the city + transport from and to the airport)  – 14,8 ringgit
  • Eating out (also includes breakfast). As an average a meal costs about 10-12 ringgit but be on a lookout for great lunch offers from numerous food trucks for only about 5-6 ringgit – 27,5 ringgit. 
  • Entrance fees (KL Bird park, cinema, National museum etc.) – 15,3 ringgit. By far the most expensive was Bird park but it was also worth it
  • Shopping (different souvenirs) – 14,91 ringgit
  • Other (mobile internet, cash withdrawal fees, washing clothes, and other similar) – 0 ringgit :). Washing clothes was free and we already had enough internet and cash

Our accommodation was 1638 ringgit totaling our expenses at 3120 ringgit (about 647€) during our 13 day stay.

Our recommendations about what to do and see in KL in no particular order:

  • KL Forest Eco Park and Canopy walk
  • Visiting the numerous beautiful shopping malls of KL. You don’t have to buy anything.. but you could 🙂
  • Petronas Twin towers and KLCC park
  • Central Market and Chinatown
  • Merdeka square
  • KL Botanical and Orchid gardens
  • The Police museum
  • The National Museum of Malaysia
  • Batu caves
  • Heli lounge
  • KL Bird park

Singapore

Singapore is in a class of it’s own related to living costs and it also shows out from our expenses. Nevertheless you can still enjoy this magnificent city with reasonable budget

  • Groceries (different food items and all other similar things). Since we didn’t cook ourselves the expenses in this area were not big – 3,9 S$
  • Transport (in case of Singapore it contains Uber and bike rental fee)  – 12,8 S$
  • Eating out (also includes breakfast). You can get a meal for 5S$ or also 50S$. Up to you 🙂 – 27,3 S$
  • Entrance fees (in our case only National museum ) – 7,5 S$
  • Shopping (different souvenirs) – 3 S$
  • Other (mobile internet) – 8 S$. The cheapest data prepaid card I could find was 32 S$

Our accommodation in Singapore was 150 S$ which means it total we spent 400 S$ (about 250€) during our 3,5 day visit.

Regarding what to do in Singapore read my previous post 🙂

All the best!

Lauri

 

SE Asia

What to see and do in Phuket

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Although we still have a few days left here I’d like to share our list of places to see and activities you can’t miss during your the stay in Phuket. Once again most of them have already been mentioned in the previous posts but it’s always good to have an overview. Here goes (in no particular order)  🙂

  • Go to the beach! Enjoy the sun, swim in the warm sea, do whatever you want to do but go to the beach :)! I would especially recommend Yanui, Nai Harn, Ao Sane and Bang Thao beaches but there is just a huge choice here!
  • Drive on the west coast of the island. It’s full of beautiful beaches, mountains, views and just all in all magical nature accompanied by a small town or a bigger city every now and then.
  • Rent a scooter. Honestly, if you plan a bit longer stay then scooter is necessary to get around the island. But of course be careful in the traffic!
  • Windmill viewpoint – one of the best views on Phuket. In addition cute kittens live there 🙂
  • Promthep cape – after a 15 min hike you can enjoy the nature at it’s fullest. Truly a sight you won’t forget!
  • Chalong sauna – a truly vivid local experience + the sauna itself is just great! I don’t know what kind of herbal mixture they are cooking there but after each visit you will feel revitalized!
  • Phuket weekend night market – the best market on the island. You can find basically everything from there! Opened from 4pm every weekend.
  • Monkey hill – although monkeys living there are still wild animals they grow on you really fast and you get the urge to visit them again and again 🙂
  • Phi-Phi islands and Maya bay – I know it’s a commercial touristy thing. But still, the islands are really beautiful and you can’t miss them while you’re here. But be advised, if you choose to go with a speedboat, sit in the back :)!
  • King Rama IX park – a really beautiful park in the middle of Phuket town. Although it’s currently undergoing some renovations it’s still a great place to have a walk, feed the fish or do some exercise!
  • Ton Ao Yon waterfall – a magical small waterfall in the middle of the jungle. Once again, you can’t miss this!
  • Phuket aquarium – a great place to visit with a very reasonable entrance fee. Definitely worth a visit!
  • The Big Buddha – one of the icons of Phuket. Although I’d say it’s still under construction the statue itself is beautiful and views from the hilltop just breathtaking!
  • Go snorkeling – Phuket and Andaman sea has one of the most beautiful underwater scenery!
  • Visit Central Festival shopping mall – it’s actually a pretty nice shopping mall with a lot to offer (including a cinema) plus quite often beautiful live music or dance shows are being performed near the main entrance.
  • Enjoy the sunset from one of the many beautiful viewpoints!
  • Go to the beach when it’s dark. Usually it happens here around 6-7 so it’s not late. But in the evenings most of the people have gone from the seaside and you can enjoy the beautiful sound of the waves and distant lights flickering on the water.
  • Just enjoy yourself! As I’ve said before Phuket has a lot to offer to everyone! From great beaches to vivid nightlife in Patong area, it’s up to you! Just inhale the beautiful nature, kind people and a tender scent of paradise…
SE Asia

Bangkok budget + what to definitely do and see

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A few days back I wrote about our budget and what to see in Chiang Mai. As promised here’s also a brief overview about Bangkok. First I have to say that if you plan to stay in Chiang Mai, Phuket or other similar areas for a longer time it’s totally ok but for Bangkok 5-6 days is maximum, at least in my opinion. Yes, it’s a huge crazy city with a lot to offer but you get tired of it quite fast. Of course it is totally depending on a person but at least most of the people I’ve met and who have been there are agreeing on this one.

But to the subject. Here are the things we recommend you should see and do in Bangkok:

  • The Golden Mountain – from there you can see a great view over the city and the temple with its green lush hillside is also definitely worth a visit
  • Khaosan road – the main backpackers and tourist street in Bangkok. As written in one of the older posts – go and have a bucket 🙂 + enjoy everything the street has to offer
  • Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha
  • Lumpini park – a beautiful greenness in the middle of surrounding skyscrapers
  • Visit at least one of the skybars to enjoy the view. Yes, the drinks are expensive but to be honest how often do you end up in Bangkok 🙂
  • Chatuchak market – one of the biggest markets in the world. You don’t have to buy anything but the market itself is worth seeing
  • Bangkok National museum – although it’s a bit tired it’s a great place to get an overview of Thai and Buddhism history
  • The Grand Palace – unfortunately it was closed while we visited Bangkok but as I’ve heard and read it’s a must go place

As in case of Chiang Mai all expenses are daily averages for 2 people. We stayed in Bangkok for a period of 6 days.

  • Groceries – 56 baht
  • Transport – 129 baht (mostly we used public transport – MRT and Metro lines + a few times taxis)
  • Eating out – 495 baht (including the 800 baht cocktails in skybar)
  • Entrance fees – 106 baht
  • Shopping – 26 baht
  • Other (Buying a local SIM-card, unlocking the phone) – 136 baht

Our hostel was 4100 baht so in total our living cost for 6 days was 10700 baht (277€). So  in case of our trip our daily costs were roughly the same as in case of Chiang Mai but the latter is definitely a cheaper place to live.

 

Sending positive vibes from Phuket… 🙂

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SE Asia

Chiang Mai budget + what to definitely do and see in this beautiful city

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At the time of writing this post we are already at Rawai, Phuket but don’t worry. There will be a lot of posts about this wonderful place since we will be staying here or 5 weeks :).

But I wanted to write about (for everyone who perhaps plans to visit Chiang Mai in near future) what were our everyday costs in Chiang Mai and what you definitely shouldn’t miss (based on our opinion) if you get there! Most if not all of them have already been mentioned in the posts before but here’s a quick summary:

Our recommendations.

  • Visiting at least one of the many elephant sanctuaries near the city, If you don’t have time for anything else at least do this.
  • Grand Canyon water park – you will have fun there :)!
  • Doi Suthep temple and Doi Pui viewpoint
  • The zoo
  • Huay Kaew waterfall
  • Saturday and Sunday night markets
  • Beautiful temples in the old city and around
  • Definitely go and have a massage. They are very affordable and just really really good!
  • Nong Buak park and feeding the fishes

Of course there are many other things to do but these are the ones we did ourselves and can highly recommend!

Now, the budget. As said in some posts back we are keeping a track of our everyday expenses in order to get a better overview ourselves and also share it with you. Of course there are many ways to travel. Basically you could live with 300€ per month in Thailand and if you want also with 30,000€. It’s all up to you. Either way, here’s the overview of how much money we invested in our memories in Chiang Mai :). All the expenses are for 2 people and daily average. Naturally we didn’t visit a museum every day but in order to get a better overview I have divided everything to the 14 days we spent there.

  • Groceries (everything bought from 7/11 and other similar stores – food, drink, shampoo etc.) – daily average 128 baht
  • Transport (buses, tuk-tuks, songthaews, taxis etc.) – daily average 109 baht (as said before we like to walk quite a lot, so consider a bit higher costs in this area if you plan to use motorized transport more often; you can also get a scooter for 150-200 THB per day)
  • Eating out (including lunches, dinners, different snacks etc. ; breakfast was included in our Hostel price) – daily average 278 baht
  • Entrance fees (museums, temples, water park etc.) – daily average 316 baht (this number is rather high because of the Elephant Family Care visit fee)
  • Shopping (clothes, accessories etc.) – daily average 36 baht (this is a slippery slope, if you plan to shop then there will be at least one zero behind this number 🙂 )
  • Other (massages, cash withdrawal fees etc.) – 105 baht (If you take cash out of the ATM there’s a 220 baht fee + some percentage that your local bank will happily take away)

Our accommodation for the 2 week period was 7000 baht. So all in all our living cost for 2 weeks in Chiang Mai was about 20,000 baht (517€) and roughly we spent whenever we wanted to spend :). Of course Chiang Mai is one the cheapest places to live in Thailand but for such amount of money you can definitely do very well for 2 people :).

I hope you find this post useful and I will also do the same for Bangkok, Phuket and other places we’ll stay.

All the best!

Lauri