Travel Planning

Friday, July 2, 2010--Bangkok

I went to the travel agency I've used here before to try to check on flights home and flights to India and Sri Lanka. Apparently, it will cost more than I expected. They quoted a price for a one-way ticket from here to San Antonio that is about 1/3 of the cost of an around-the-world ticket! And the prices to India and Sri Lanka seemed expensive, too. So, I headed to the cyber cafe to check on prices there.

After researching on the Internet, I have decided that my best way home is via United Airlines which is the airline that I have my frequent flyer account with. They will give me an over-65 discount of 10%, and by flying on Sept. 2 or later, I can save about $600 on the flight which will cost me about $1100 then. Unfortunately, it will have a high fee for any adjustment that needs to be made, so I must try to make the flight then. I haven't had to worry about that in recent years, because my ATW tickets always allowed adjustments in dates without a fee.

I've decided that trying to go to Sir Lanka and India would cost too much for what benefit I would get. To go to both countries from and back to Bangkok would cost me about $900! The cheaper alternative would be to use Air Asia and fly through Kuala Lampur, but that would be quite a hassle with the extra airport involved. I'm now thinking that maybe I will just spend the next two months here in Thailand and in Laos.

I tried to reserve the flight to San Antonio and ran into problems. I wanted to use a credit card which I did not have with me due to their being an extra fee for using it outside the U.S. Howver, a purchase from United Airlines would be processed within the U.S. and would give me a rebate on the cost of the ticket. I had information written down about the card on a paper I carry, but apparently it was outdated. Something was wrong making it impossible to process the card. I need to get updated information before I can buy the ticket.

A new, unexpected problem developed in the evening. I have been spending money that I kept from last year knowing that I would be returning to Thailand. Running low, I decided to go to an ATM and get more cash. I went to two different banks and both of them had a statement saying there would be a fee of 150 Baht (almost $5) to proccess the withdrawal. I've never faced that before. I withdraw money on a credit card which I have prepaid. Usually, there are no bank fees for withdrawals from credit cards by agreement with VISA and M/C. There never have been in Thailand before. It's gettng harder and harder to travel cheaply. Guess I will try some other banks tomorrow and will also consider just changing cash rather than using the ATM if I can't find one without a fee.

Saturday, July 3, 2010--Bangkok

I went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market this morning. I hadn't been in a couple of years. I didn't stay long, however. I was bored, and rain was threatening.

I returned to the cyber cafe and continued trying to do travel planning. I completely gave up on the idea of going to India and Sri Lanka. I discovered that coming back to Thailnd overland from a neighboring country such as Laos will involve a restriction allowing me to have only 15 more days before having to leave Thailand. (Thailand is fighting a battle against people who have been trying to live here illegally and leaving and re-entering the country every few months at a border crossing. Therefore, they are tightening their rules.)

I had Hong Kong dollars leftover from my visit there which I never changed due to having to rush to my plane after having been put on an earlier flight. I walked to a nearby neighborhood that has money changers and tried to change it. The man accepted my 100s and 50s, but he would not accept my 20 and my 10 bills that I had. When I returned to the hotel (which I knew would have very bad exchange rates compared to the other money changer), I asked and was lucky. While apologizing about their bad rates, they changed the 20 and the 10 for me. It meant I lost about 17 Baht (only 52 cents) compared to the rate at the other place, but it meant that I got another 105 Baht ($3.24) that would have been lost forever if I had just thrown the small bills away.

I also checked more ATMs. What I noticed is that every ATM in town seems to look like the same machine no matter what bank is involved. My guess is that the banks have outsourced their ATMs to a private company and that it is the private company that is charging the 150 Baht fee. Outsourcing (or privatizing as it is called when governments do it) is never good for the persons having to deal with the services. It's ridiculous to charge such a high fee just for using an ATM. I can't imagine that Thais tolerate this with their lower incomes. I withdrew the maximum I was allowed to withdraw to try to minimize the cost of it.

I finished reading Heaven Lake by John Dalton. I really enjoyed it as a novel. It follows a young American man who idealistically goes to Taiwan to be a missionary. Later, it follows him as he makes a trip through mainland China. What is interesting about the book is how real-to-life it is in terms of describing his experiences. I could "picture" everything that was happening due to my own travel experiences in Taiwan and China. I think I bought the book because of it being on a list of titles that were recommended for giving an authentic description of other places. Anyway, I gave the book 3 1/2 stars (out of 4) and would recommend it for reading by anyone who would find the topic interesting.