SPOOKY AMAZING FLIGHT SALE, East and West Coast USA to/from Europe for $300 or less round trip TODAY ONLY

Norwegian is having a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween day sale! Under $300 round trip to fly between many East and West Coast cities and Europe. Specifically: Boston, Miami, LA, San Francisco; London, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris, Copenhagen. You can book them one-way, too, for under $150 one-way. What are you waiting for? Go forth and fly!

How to ride a mototaxi in Bangkok: FAQ

Now, I'm a big fan of the taxi apps Grab and Uber, but let's say you don't have a smartphone or you don't want to wait. No problem! Taxis and mototaxi stands are everywhere.

How to ride a mototaxi


A mototaxi is a guy with a motorcycle or scooter of some kind who lets you pay to ride on the back. But it's not as sketchy as it sounds! Official mototaxi stands are all around the city; you can easily recognize the drivers by their bright orange vests. Prices are generally standardized, and although there's no meter, I've never been ripped off. Expect to pay roughly 40-70 thb ($1-2 USD) to go 2-3 km. Go to the mototaxi stand and go up to the driver; it'll be obvious what you want. Or just flag someone down if you see a riderless mototaxi driver on the street. Flag a taxi by putting your hand out, palm down, pointing down a bit. When you get on, there should be foot rests, and grab the back of the bike. Don't sit too far back, as you could fall off and die.

Is it fast?

Yes! So fast. Mototaxis are my favorite way to get around because they weave in and out of traffic, going in the cracks between gridlocked cars. This is the main reason why I far prefer mototaxis to regular taxis.

Is it safe?

Eh. Not really. There are a lot of motorbike accidents in Thailand, and mototaxis are efficient because they drive dangerously. Legally, you have to wear a helmet on a mototaxi, and may be fined for not wearing one, but most drivers don't carry an extra. Try not to die. I had never ridden a motorcycle before coming here, and now I take them all the time, and I haven't died yet.

Is it awesome?

Yes! Whizzing down the streets of Bangkok on the back of a motorcycle is awesome.

Can I do it in the rain?


Technically you can, but riding a motorcycle in a downpour gets very crazy very fast, and it isn't safe. I got caught in a monsoon on a mototaxi once, and that's a story for another day. When it's raining hard, a regular taxi is your best bet.

Bangkok taxi apps Uber vs. Grab: The Ultimate Showdown

Bangkok does not lack in affordable taxi options, and each type has enough pros and cons that I can't rank them. Here's what you need to know:

The smartphone apps: Free download.
Log in. Connect your credit card in advance (if you want automatic payments) or pay cash after your rides. Click to order a car to your door.

Uber: This international car-share app is used in big cities all over the world, but Bangkok and Chiang Mai are the only cities in Thailand where it's active. Uber drivers are just regular people - NOT official taxi drivers - driving you around in their car to make some extra money.

• Pro: Uber in Thailand is very cheap. Going a few kilometers can cost anywhere from 30-90 thb, which is under $3 USD.
• Pro: You don't need to talk to anyone, or give directions, which is good if you don't speak the local language. You just type in your address and your destination, and the Uber app sends your driver a little GPS map that tells him/her where to go. Easy!
• Con: There are not always a lot of Uber drivers nearby, and sometimes the map shows a driver nearby, but a faraway driver will accept my request instead. Thanks to Bangkok traffic, this means a wait time of anywhere from 5-40 minutes before your car even shows up. Usually less than 40, but you can never be sure, which leads me to the biggest...
• Con: The Uber app doesn't understand Bangkok traffic. Watching your car's expected arrival time is like jumping into a wormhole of time travel and disappointment. First it says your car is 4 minutes away. Then it's 10 minutes. Now it's 8 minutes! Now it's 15 minutes. 10 minutes later, it's still 15 minutes away. Huh. It costs money to cancel, too.

Grab: This app is hot in Southeast Asia, and covers way more cities and towns around here than Uber. Its main claim to fame is calling real, official taxi drivers to your door, but it also offers loads of other options, for a variety of prices, from dirt-cheap randos on mototaxis to the more-expensive-but-still-reasonable real live taxi drivers.

• Pro: Grab has lots of options, which means you'll probably find a ride and not have to wait more than 10 minutes - GrabBike for mototaxis (they do delivery, too!), GrabTaxi for real live official taxis, GrabEconomy, which is basically Uber, as well as some options to get bigger or nicer cars, which Uber also has in most markets. 
• Pro: There are way more GrabTaxis than Ubers or GrabEconomy cars, so you can easily find one. You can find GrabTaxis in other parts of Thailand, too, out of the reach of Uber.
• Pro/Con: The driver will always call you after you book, I guess to tell you how far they are and to make sure you didn't butt-dial and they have the right location. However, they almost never speak any English, and sometimes get flustered and cancel the booking if you're unable to communicate. You must either learn some Thai or accept that you might have to try again with a different driver. Yes, they have a map with your location. No, apparently this isn't enough. This is great if you speak Thai, as the driver will let you know how long you will have to wait. This can be stressful if you don't speak Thai.
• Con: GrabTaxi costs more than Uber and Economy, sometimes twice as much. Still, that makes a ride like $3, so it's not killer, and it beats waiting a half hour.
• Con: Drivers don't seem to use their Grab app maps (what is this, Dr. Seuss?), so you may need to give them directions, probably in Thai or wild gestures (my preferred language), and they probably won't indicate to you that they don't know where they are going, they'll just keep on driving. Be vigilant.

Which is better? You decide. Personally, I use them both. If I'm downtown in an area with a lot of Ubers, that's my go-to, but if I'm a bit out of the way, there's more likely to be a Grab nearby. 

Of course, these apps require you to have a phone and Wifi or data. Next time, we'll go into my favorite non-technological transportation option: the mototaxi.

A brief interruption: Buy One Get One Free Chipotle burritos/tacos/salads (USA + Canada)

I interrupt Bangkok Week(s) to bring you BOGO Chipotle burritos!
They are great and give you that wholesome burrito feeling. And they are pretty much everywhere in the US, so it's a good go-to fast-food-but-not-fast-food option for the traveler! Just play this game and give 'em your number, and they'll text you a code good until November 30. Go play and win a burrito/bowl/salad/tacos!


New regularly scheduled posts every Sunday and Wednesday! Up next: Bangkok taxi apps Uber vs. Grab: The Ultimate Showdown.

Getting around Bangkok: budget and not-so-budget options

This blog will now be updated every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday, so keep an eye out! For a more social experience, join the Facebook group and share your thoughts and questions!

Welcome to Bangkok week! It's no secret that Thailand is a great place to live it up on a budget. As I'm settling into life here in Bangkok, I want to share what I have learned, so for the next week or so, I'll be dishing out tips on how to survive Bangkok like a local. 


So, here you are in Thailand. Now how are you going to get from here to there? Didn't think of that, did ya?

Naw, just kidding, I'm sure you're at home, studiously planning away. Here's the lowdown:

The backpackers aren't lying: Thailand really is fantastic for budget travel. There are a lot of different options, but let's start with traveling within Bangkok.

Ultra-budget option: City buses. Cost: free to about 13 baht, which is about $0.37. They connect the entire city and surroundings, and some run all night long, often coming once every ten or twenty minutes. Google Maps knows most of the schedules if you search for public transit directions, but does make some mistakes, so if you've been waiting for a bus that should have shown up half an hour ago and Google says it comes every 10 minutes, it might not be running that day. They're sometimes air conditioned, and there's generally wind through the windows if you're not caught in traffic, so it's not too miserable.

Budget option: BTS and MRT skytrain. Cost: 35 thb ($1 USD) more or less, depending on how far you go. The BTS and MRT may surprise you with how clean, on-time, and efficient they are. Step inside the often-crowded elevated rail car, and you could be in London or Paris or somewhere fancy. All the trains even have little TV screens that play the same commercials and jingles over and over again for the entire month. You might think it would get annoying, but really it just makes me wonder what drinkable Essence of Chicken is, exactly, and how it makes a person very attractive and well-liked. They run every 3-6 minutes from 6:30 AM until midnight.

Still pretty budget option, to be honest: Taxis, mototaxis, Uber, Grabtaxi. Cost: variable and bargainable (sometimes), but generally 55 thb/5 km (plus tolls and sitting in traffic). Even if you hit traffic and your 5 km journey takes an hour (not an exaggeration), it's unlikely that your trip would cost over 100 thb, or $3 USD. Taxis are easy to come by in Bangkok, and boy, are they affordable by US and UK standards. If you're traveling as a couple or group, a taxi is often going to be cheaper than the BTS (although probably not cheaper than the bus). Just be careful of traffic--Bangkok traffic is unlike anything I've ever seen, save perhaps Manhattan at rush hour, only it's like that most hours. Nothing hurts like sitting in a taxi with motion sickness, watching the minutes tick by and the meter tick up, as you miss your lunch reservation.

Crappity-pooply option: tuktuks. My opinion on tuktuks as a transportation option is pretty obvious, but I'll explain why before you file this blog under "Definitely Written By Two Children Stacked On Top Of Each Other's Shoulders Pretending To Be One Adult." In ye olden times, before cars were everywhere, the humble tuktuk was the main taxi option in Bangkok. Now, though, at least in the capital, they're mostly shockingly overpriced touristy gimmicks trying to pass themselves off as legitimate transportation. If you enjoy haggling, then you'll love it, because the drivers I've run into charged five times the going rate for mototaxis or regular taxis. I took a tuktuk once, haggled a bit, still paid way more than I should have, and checked it off my bucket list. The next time a tuktuk driver shouted at my partner and me to get a ride, we were unfortunately outside a huge touristy mall, CentralWorld. He asked for 500 baht. We showed him the Uber app, which stated the ride was worth 80 baht, but he actually refused to haggle at all. Now, I certainly don't begrudge local people trying to make some money and have a better life, so if you want to support the local economy by taking a tuktuk and inhaling fumes in an unsafe vehicle for a lot of money, be my guest. On the plus side, word on the street is that tuktuk drivers know the city like the back of their hand, which could be worth its weight in gold because cab drivers often have no idea where they're going, and will almost never admit this.

There are also pickup truck taxi/buses of some kind in Bangkok called songthaews, but I have never used one in the city. I believe they tend to go to more out-of-the-way places that the regular buses don't, but I could be wrong.

I take songthaews a lot when I'm out in the country. Hold on tight; you can fall out.

Up next: Taxis vs. mototaxis vs. Uber vs. Grab: The Ultimate Showdown


Got tips? Got questions? Leave a comment!

$99 Flights from West and East Coast USA to Iceland, and $149 to Europe!

WowAir has wowed us once again with a new batch of $99 flights from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington, DC/Baltimore to Reykjavik, Iceland one-way.
They also have flights starting at $145 one-way from the aforementioned cities to loads of locations in Europe, such as Amsterdam and London. These prices are available on various flights any time between now and next October. These prices don't stick around, so jump on it while you can.

WowAir has recently changed their baggage policy from 5 kg total for one carry-on to a somewhat more reasonable 1 carry-on up to 42x32x25cm (10kg/22 lbs) and 1 personal item. Note that this carry-on size is about half the size you would normally expect, so leave the suitcase at home and bring a small backpack or duffel. Or just pay to check a bag. That's allowed, too. Remember to suit up with your punk rock carry-on vest!

WowAir isn't the only airline to have such a small carry-on size, as WizzAir, an Eastern Europe-based discount airline, sells these li'l guys which fit the baggage rules to a T and have a 30-liter capacity.


Don't forget about WowAir's free stopovers--book a flight to Europe, and get a free stopover in Iceland. The planes all stop there anyway, so you may as well enjoy!

AirAsia returning to Europe later than expected, in 2018

AirAsia has announced that they will start flights connecting Asia and Europe in 2018.
The initial announcement said flights would start this month, but was allegedly just a marketing test of some kind. My guess is the flights will originate in the AirAsia hub of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and there's talk of flying into Russia and Barcelona, but it's all up in the air at this point. Ha ha ha get it?
Ha

Scoot Airlines, based in Singapore, hasn't released any recent news about their scheduled June 2017 flights to Athens, Greece, so no news is probably good news.


At the same time, with current Eurowings prices of $196 one-way for a bare-bones flight from Germany to Bangkok, AirAsia and Scoot might not end up with the cheapest flights on the market. Time will tell!

Frontier Airlines $20 flight sale today only

Frontier is having an impressive sale today only (October 18), with many flights only $20 one-way.
They're still in the middle of some slightly-less-impressive but longer-lasting sales, too, so even if you need a day to think it over, your route may still only be $34-60. Check it out!

Your five-step guide to Thailand during the mourning period

As some of you may know, I'm living in Bangkok now, teaching college prep classes. Thailand is currently in a widespread state of mourning over the death of its beloved king last week. He reigned for 70 years and was seen as a great unifier and father figure, and his death shook the country, causing a one-month ban on gratuitous entertainment and a one-year official mourning period. Here is a quick breakdown of what to expect in the coming days and months if you visit Thailand:


1. No live music for 1 month (up to Nov. 13). Bars and restaurants are still playing the radio and have a jovial atmosphere, but pretty much all concerts are cancelled.

2. Festivals will probably be low-key or cancelled until Nov. 13, and possibly up to a year from now. The infamously wild-'n'-crazy monthly Full Moon Party has been cancelled for October, but will probably be on in November again. Allegedly, many strip clubs will be closed, but they will probably open soon, and this is not really something I keep close tabs on. I've heard mixed things about the availability of alcohol, but Thailand generally has rules about what time of day alcohol can be purchased, so I don't think it should have a huge impact on things.

3. A lot of people will be wearing black, but not everyone. I live in an expat-heavy neighborhood, and maybe half the people I run into are wearing black shirts, but this is probably different in more heavily Thai areas. As a tourist, people probably won't be angry at you if you don't wear black, but try to dress in a respectful way and avoid bright, happy colors.

4. Most clubs, bars, stores, malls, spas, etc. are open, but the excitement will be toned down for the month, and possibly for longer. If you have your eye on a particular club, and you want to visit before November 13, give them a call to make sure they're open.

5. Things are safe for now, but Thailand has had recent political terror attacks in tourist spots around the South of the country, and although things have been stable the past couple of years, they could deteriorate. There hasn't been any sign of unrest yet, but on the day of the king's death, the government put their safety watch on red alert. For some reason, blogs that pander to tourists claim that this means it is actually safer to visit now, because security is so high. This seems like a strange thing to say. I wouldn't say anyone needs to delay their plans over safety issues--cities all over the world are experiencing terrorism, gun violence, and disease all the time these days--but I would keep an eye on the news and make sure to get traveler's health insurance.


That's all! Public transit is running smoothly, and at least in Bangkok, the city is still buzzing with life. Remember that it is illegal in Thailand to criticize or threaten the royal family, and it will also upset people who are in mourning, so be careful and respectful.