Bangkok is one of the most popular travel destinations for Singapore. Just a short 2 hours flight away and we can be transported to the land of cheap shopping, food and massages. Bangkok is the perfect weekend getaway, or when you just want to go somewhere (out of Singapore) for a few days, with a tight budget.
We went for an impromptu weekend getaway (3 days, 3 nights) to Bangkok last week. It was a really last minuter decision and hotel was difficult to book cos it apparently was peak season. But I'm glad we managed to get cheap air tickets and accommodation (at a great location!).
For short haul flights, I'm always in favor of budget airlines, unless full airlines are having really good promotions. Else, I don't see the need to spend the extras on a 2 hour flight since we'll have landed before we are comfortably settled down. I rather save the money for more food, massages and shopping!
Jetstar has been our preferred budget airlines, and this time round, we manage to score at a pretty good deal (less than S$200/pax). In total, we spent less than S$300/pax including air fare, accommodations, luggage and insurance.
The trick to score cheap air tickets is to be flexible, meaning, it's not a MUST that you must fly on Friday night and return Sunday night. This kind of combi is guaranteed to give extremely expensive tickets. Like wise if you're trying to fly the day before a public holiday etc. Basically, if you want to minimize using your leave, and to utilize public holidays and weekends, it's almost guaranteed that you'll get expensive tickets since demand is really high. Be prepared to fly say on Wednesday or Thursday, and return on Monday or Tuesday and prices can go down quite a fair bit. Play around to see the different combinations.
For accommodation in Bangkok. our family always stays in the pratunam area since the place we spent the most time in is pratunam. It's where the wholesale shopping mall
Platinum Mall is, and streets after streets of wholesale clothings. It's also about a 15 min walk to the famous Erawan Shrine, and is easily accessible via the
Airport Rail Link.
Getting to Pratunam from Suvarnabhumi Airport
Just hop on the train in the airport, and
alight at Ratchaprarop station in about 30 - 45 mins. Cost only 150baht (around S$6/pax). Cheap, comfortable, fast and easy without the traffic jam! It runs from 6am to 12am everyday so if you're arriving at midnight, you may need to take a cab instead.
Beware of the long flight of stairs to the street level though, so it may not be that child and elderly friendly or if you have heavy and bulky luggage. Unfortunately, there's no lift or escalator down, so good luck!
Getting to the hotel from Ratchaprarop Station
You should be able to walk there fairly easily. If it's your first time visiting the hotel, I'll strongly suggest you do some homework on
tripadvisor and see what others have to say. There's lots of useful tips on
tripadvisor by friendly travelers that can help you find your hotel (eg. see this landmark, turn left, see the 7-11 then turn in etc.). Alot of hotels in pratunam are boutique hotels (unless you're staying in GLOW, Baiyoke, or Amari Watergate etc) . These boutique hotels are often "hidden" in one of the streets which can be difficult to locate, especially if its at night. You can try asking the locals but most are unaware of the address (not surprising since there's so many sois, and it's really hard to keep track).
Hotel #1 - Hotel 93
We've been staying in this hotel for a number of years ever since it first opened. It's a simple, no-frill hotel so if you've high expectations for hotel, then this may not be the one for you. I've simple requirements for hotels since I'm rarely in the room anyway. All I look for is Security, Cleanliness, Location. I really don't care if there's any bath tub or swimming pool or what grand breakfast spread they have.
My family love this hotel for its location. It's near Baiyoke Suite Hotel, and right smack in the street with lots of street food and cheap shopping. It's the stretch where there's never ending shopping through the night where the stalls change shift and you can basically have lots to shop anytime of the day. When the cab driver have no idea where our hotel is, we'll just tell him Baiyoke and walk in (about 5 mins). No fuss. It's also a 5 - 10mins walk to our favourite Platinum mall (but the walk is usually longer since we need to pass through pratunam market with lots and lots of clothings, hence lots of distractions! it's also usually super crowded, and we often have to make way for people making their deliveries.)
1 tip if you're staying in Hotel 93 though. AVOID level 5. level 5 is really wierd, and you need to climb up some stairs to reach it (not good after a long day of shopping). The layout in the room is also really weird, especially the toilet. You hardly have space to stand in front of the basin since the toilet bowl is right smack in front of it! level 5 just gives us weird feelings, so avoid it at all cost.
Hotel 93 is full when we tried to book it for this trip so I had to look for another one.
Hotel #2 - Hotel Vista Express
After quite a bit of research, I settled on
Hotel Vista Express. It's located opposite Platinum mall (just a short 5 mins away. all you need is to cross the road via the overhead bridge and walk into one of the street). The reviews on
tripadvisor rave about this location as very ideal for shopping, as there's plenty of shops to shop right at the doorstep. Others also commented that the rooms are clean, nice reception etc. Since our main objective for this trip is to shop, this sounds ideal.
We arrived in Bangkok late evening. Thank goodness for all the kind souls leaving advice and tips on how to locate the hotel. Indeed, without those advice, it is very difficult to find this hotel for the first time since its hidden in one of the many streets, especially at night.
So, if you're looking at this post because you're considering Hotel Vista Express and want to know how to go, refer to the guide below:
- Take Airport Rail Link from Suvarnabhumi Airport. After you've come out from the gates, just follow the sign to the airport rail link. It's about 10 mins walk. Along the way you can also get data SIM card
- Alight at Ratchaprarop station (about 30 - 45 mins). This is the second last stop.
- Walk down to the street level (note: no escalators or lift)
- Keep walking towards Platinum mall or Grand Diamond Plaza (if you know the short cut, you can walk via the streets inside. Else, just walk straight following the side of the road. You'll walk 1 big round though).
- NOTE. You do not need to cross the main road after you've come down to the street level at Ratchaprarop station (i.e. no need to cross to platinum mall side)
- After you see platinum mall, keep a look out for Macdonald's, which should be right opposite Grand Diamond Plaza.
- Turn right into the street once you see Macdonald. The street should be selling "zi cha" kind of food on the side. It may look dark and creepy (if you arrive at night) but just walk in.
- Once you see 7-11, turn into the street OPPOSITE 7-11. You should see the sign of the hotel already. Just keep walking (about 3 mins) and you've reached your destination.
See this 7-11 & turn into the street opposite.
After turning into this street, the hotel is on the left hand side.
The hotel building.
Enter from here into the hotel.
You'll need to enter a locked door (those that need a pass to enter), so if you haven't gotten your keys, if someone is sitting at the Money Changer (just right outside the door), they will open for you, or wait for someone to enter. This is 1 security flaw that kind of put me off which I'll elaborate later.
Anyway, reception is on the second floor which is this really nice space. check in is fast and easy. We're pretty impressed with the room. After staying at Hotel 93 for too long and being used to simple hotel rooms ion Bangkok, the room at Hotel Vista Express is a nice change ok la, even the lift feels more atas and hotelish than Hotel 93. When we first open the room, we were pleasantly surprised to find a pretty nice cozy furnished room that feels like a proper hotel room. Of course it can't compare to 5 stars hotel, but it's good enough.
Ok, now I'll talk more in depth about how I feel about this hotel:
SECURITY
As mentioned in the earlier part of this entry, one of my key concern for hotel is security. although nothing happen during our trip here (thank God!), but it just doesn't feel that safe to me.
- Even though the door on the ground floor needs a pass to be accessed, however, this door is often left open, which means anyone can just enter the hotel. There's also no security (as far as I can see) monitoring who is accessing the hotel. Once, after I walk out of the door, someone (I assume is one of the clothes seller in the stalls downstairs, ran to hold the door so that he can move a huge bag of clothes in. I have no idea why or for what but he definitely don't have access to the door else why he needs to run up when he sees people coming out?
- Anyone can take the lift up to the rooms. Unlike the lift at Hotel 93 (although it looks alot more run down), Hotel 93 needs your room card to access your room level. For Hotel Vista Express, no card required so as long as you can get in the main door (which is pretty easy), you can go up to the rooms.
- When we first went into the room, the husband noticed that the window is not shut or locked. the room is not very high up so it's not difficult to climb up if anyone wants to.
LOCATION
There's a huge difference (at least to me and my family) about this location during day and night.
DAY
During the day, this place is super convenient because it's right smack in the middle of where the wholesale market is. In fact, once you walk out of the main door, there's stalls right in front of the door and street. Just walk straight and you'll enter the maze of endless shops of wholesale clothings.
If you want to go to platinum mall, walk out to the street and once you see 7-11, turn left and walk out and you'll see platinum mall. just cross the overhead bridge and you're there! about 5 mins walk. So it's very convenient to return to the hotel after lots of shopping to put your loots, take a quick breather before embarking in more shopping! This is what I love most about this place. The close proximity to Platinum mall which is where I spent most of my time.
If you want to go visit the famous
SabX2 Wanton Noodles, it's right outside too. You'll definitely pass by it after you've turn into the street after seeing 7-11 (towards platinum mall). Queue is very long though. and no, I didn't try it cos I don't think it's worth it. Seems very touristy.
If you're looking for nice and cheap local food, once you see 7-11, instead of turning left (towards platinum mall direction), turn right. You'll see a temple, and many many stalls selling all kind of local food at very affordable prices. Wanton Mee, Kaa Muu (Braised Pork Rice), Tom Yum, Sweet Potato Balls etc etc etc. Very worth trying!
The shops when you come out from the lift inside the building.
Opposite shops once you step out of the building.
The temple that you see after you turn right when you see 7-11.
Some of the food like siew mai, fried fritter ball, porridge, pork sausage, drinks etc.
Hotel Vista Express food menu.
In summary, this location is PERFECT during the day. Endless shopping right from the door step, with cheap nice food. However, do note the stalls start closing around 4+pm and by 6pm, it's dead town.
NIGHT
This location is honestly, very disappointing at night. Since Platinum mall is close after 7pm, and the wholesale stalls are all close by 6pm, basically there's nothing much here at night. Not even street food. But you won't starve though since 7-11 is just opposite, there's this zi cha looking place outside, and when all fails, there's Macdonald's. But honestly, this place is very boring at night. So 1 advice is, if you want to have some nice street food as supper (which is what my family always do in BKK, be it fried chicken, fried pork, fruits, coconut water, fried rice etc etc), buy it else where first and bring back. There's hardly any street stalls at night throughout my stay. The only 1 we see is this coconut ice-cream stall that sells pretty nice ice-cream but that's it! which is abit boring compared to the location at Hotel 93 where there's lots of stalls selling food and knick knacks at night. You can just come down anytime and still have something to buy at night.
that's it! so here's my thoughts about flight and accommodation to bangkok. hope it's been helpful to you. :)
Our 1st location for the day was to go to Erawan Shrine to pray to the 4 faced Buddha. We had a slow walk from our hotel which took about 20min and along the way, there are many stalls selling foods, drinks & other miscellaneous things.
It was around 9.20am, stalls infront platinum mall are not open yet.
Check it out this cute Ice cream stall if you pass by. It costs 80 Baht.
Stalls along the road towards Big C
Big C Shopping Center
Arnoma Hotel Bakery
