Some of us would love to buy a car as we started working but it was different for me, instead, I save up my first-year salary to travel. The first country that I visited without my family was Turkey. My travel experience in Turkey changed me completely of how I would like to travel the world next. After using the travel agency for my first trip, I’ve decided to travel on my own but not as in solo traveling, just without the agent. That way, I will be able to go anywhere I want without having to follow people around with my sweet little time.
I never thought I would go camping outside Malaysia, but Thailand got me started all of this. At first, I wasn’t sure whether I am ready to travel using my OWN itinerary and planning but I guess I was able to get out of my comfort zone.
I was looking for a partner to do this for a while and fate has brought me to meet my oldest friend again, Amira/Mia. She agreed to join me for my trip to Thailand (thank you!). Then, I started to build my confidence and bringing more people in. So I called out my hiking friends to see whether they are interested in joining me. Surprisingly, 5 of them wanted to tag along.
By gotten support from them, I was able to proceed with the purchase of flight tickets and started to book transportation and accommodation. We decided to go for 8 days 7 nights with quite packed itinerary and the itinerary as per below:
- Day 1: Bangkok – Ubon Ratchathani – Pha Taem National Park
- Day 2: Sam Phan Bok – Grand Canyon
- Day 3: Khao Phra Wihan, Sisaket – Buriram- Wang Nam Keaw
- Day 4: Nakhon Ratchasima- Jim Thompson Farm
- Day 5: Lopburi – Palio, Khao Yai – Toscana Valley – Bangkok
- Day 6: Bangkok – Kanchanaburi – Erawan Waterfall
- Day 7: Kanchanaburi – Alpaca Hill – Bangkok
- Day 8: Bangkok
Note: If you want to know more details about the places above, feel free to click here.
The reason why I booked a van to get around Thailand was to save more time and see more places without getting lost. Trust me when I said you do not want to get lost because the signboards are mostly in Thailand and the local people hardly able to understand or speak English. The van that I booked was Siam Van Travel (you can find them on Facebook). I found the company from another blogger (which I forgot the name of, sorry! and thank you).
There is another option if you are not traveling in a group, as the cost of the van might be a little expensive for you, about RM500 or USD120 a day. You can travel by train and other public transport but you need more time to travel through the same itinerary as me. I can simply say about 3 to 5 days extra if you are traveling using public transport. But I can’t guarantee you will be able to go to each place that I went to as the public transport outside Bangkok city are less available.
The total cost for this trip was about RM1500/ USD350 including return flights, van, accommodation, entrance fees, and meals. Cheap isn’t it? Well, we squeeze out most of our budget for meals and accommodation. As it was a camping trip, we barely need to spend on hotel booking except in Bangkok and Kanchanaburi.
Since most of my friends hike, we have our sleeping bag, sleeping mat, cooking pan, stove and we bring our cutlery from Malaysia to Thailand. You can buy these things in Thailand or even rent it if its inconvenient for you to bring it from your home country. What was the stove for? Well, we mostly cooked our meals throughout the journey to cut some expenses.
You can simply buy your groceries and gas for the stove at Tesco or any convenient shops and local markets. By doing this, the price per meal can be as cheap as RM3. The total cost that we spend on our breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the whole 8 days and 7 nights was about RM200 per person. The costing summary as per below:
Well, of course, this was back in 2016. The cost might go up a little today. And that’s the simple basic costing and itinerary for this trip. Let me further tell you my story in Thailand in my next post. Don’t forget to read it!
