Changing your left over Mongolian money into Chinese money is easy to do at Ulan Bator airport. Just go the bank before heading through departures. I was going to overnight in Beijing so I only needed a bit of cash and I calculated that it was cheaper to change USD to Chinese remnibi in Mongolia than Beijing. First, you gave to change your USD to Mongolian money and then they change it to Remnibi. I was only changing $40 USD and got a rate of 6 compared to 6,5 in Beijing. The money changers in Beijing airport take 60 remnibi […]
Changing money at Ulan Bator airport on departure is easy with no commission charged and a normal bank rate to be had. There is no point taking Mongolian out if the county because it is worthless. You might want to keep 3,000 though to buy a small bottle if water though. Good old airport prices. Think we bought 1,5 litres of water for 800 on this trip and normally only paid 1,000 for 1,5 litres.
Songkhla is the provincial capital and 1 hour by aircon minibus from Hat Yai. Minibuses cost 34 baht and leave from various parts of Hat Yai with the most convenient being close to the Clock Tower. We were dropped at the bus station which is about a 2km walk to the Museum abd where a plethora of Guesthouses are. We stayed at the Holland House Guesthouse which was immaculately clean and our double fan room with bathroom en suite cost 300 bah. We also a nice little balcony. I had my best night of sleep for werks there. I would […]
400 baht will get you a very clean bungalow with TV. The location is good and reasonable value for money if you are heading to or from Myanmar where room costs are no where near as good a deal as Thailand. The songthaew 4 passes right outside the Guesthouse and will take you to the Pier for Myanmar for 20 baht.
Travelling from Kawthoung to Myeik takes a bit of time, but is relatively cheap and easy and probably safer than the boat trip which was the historical travel method. The road between Kawthoung and Myeik is now in good condition and there are regular buses. We had read about evening departures, but were only quoted day journeys. We were told that there were departures from the bus station at 12, 12:30 & 14:00. We had been told that the price was 25,000, but some places in Kawthoung were quoting 23,300. The bus station is a little bit out of town, […]
We hitchhikied from Hat Tung Wua Laen to Chumphon with a young woman and her daughter. We first went to the bus station in the centre of Chumphon, but we had missed the first bus at 07:30. Other scheduled buses were at 09:30, 11:30, 24:30 and were 150 baht. We opted instead to walk to the minibus stand a 10 minute walk away(see maps me) and took the 08:00 minibus for 120 baht. The trip took 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Hat Tung Wua Laen is only 30 minutes by songthaew from Chumphon. it’s a low profile beach town with several accommodation options including the Albatross Guesthouse which is about 400 metres from the beach. Big, clean room with ensure and a balcony for 390 baht. Good value.
We only spent a short night in Hat Yai as we arrived from Kuala Lumpur at around 20:30. Luckily the Sri Maju bus which we had taken from KL transferred us to an aircon minibus at Sadao border crossing. This means that we not only got to Hat Yai quickly , we also got dropped off in the centre of town at the Sri Maju office. We then walked a few minutes to the Singapore Hotel where we had reserved a double fan room with ensure for 400 baht. The room was clean and quiet with an excellent location close […]
There are several ways to get to Hat Yai from KL; plane, train or bus. Cheapish plane tickets are available with Air Asia, particularly if booked in advance. The train is a reasonably priced option too(the train now runs to the border town of Padang Besar where you have to change on the other side of the border). Tickets should be reserved in advance if you want to travel during busy times like weekends or holidays. We decided at the last minute to travel to Hat Yai and so had to opt for the bus. It’s easy to book tickets […]
There are 6 trains a day going to Chumphon along with several buses a day. Whilst the train is definitely slower than the bus I generally prefer to take the train. We bought second class fan seats(reclining) the day before departure abd had no problem obtaunjng seats in the 14:45 train which was due to arrive at Chumphon at 23:12. The tickets from Hat Yai to Chumphon cost 292 baht each. Trains in Thailand are nearly always late si it is a good idea to find out where they are starting from. Our train was going to start from Yala […]
