วิธีการพูดเช่นเดียวกับชาวบ้าน (How to speak like the locals)

The Thai folk are going to instantly assume you're one of them when you start speaking their language!

Some cool Thai people!

If they think you are a local, they won't charge you tourist rates, so learn these words before you go...

What Research Bunny Really Thinks About Phuket...

"I am Research Bunny, how can I help you today?"

Research Bunny has lovingly borrowed all this information about Phuket from Phuket.com

The Important Matter of Transport

Nic has found a really useful map.  

This shows the buses, trains and ferries around Thailand.

"Well done, that's some good research"

Our plan so far goes like this...

Kerala

This is my latest good idea.  I want to stay in a house boat while we're in Kerala.

House boat in Kerala

Annoyingly these have also been mentioned in the Guardian, but I swear I found them before the Guardian did!

A Plan Has Been Formed!!!

Thanks to Google maps, we now have a bit of a plan.

Here is our proposed route.

So, we'll fly into Bangkok.  Maybe stay there for a few days.

First, we go to Bangkok baby, oh yeah!!

Koh Phayam

Koh Phayam

A map of Koh Phayam

Here is Koh Phayam.  It's on the left of Thailand.

Here is a tourist map of Koh Phayam, so you know where to go and what it does.

This is Koh Phayam in Google maps (sort of)



View Larger Map

Some awesome place in Koh Phayam

Koh Phayam was the first Thai island that we really loved, so it deserves a post of it's own right now.

Because we're still in London and it's a crappy day here I'm going to put up a load of pictures of Koh Phayam now...

We think this is a less touristy part of Thailand.

Accommodation looks good there. We found this place for around £13.70 per night.

The Guardian mentions the huts that we want to stay at.

I guess this is a beach on Koh Phayam 

Yay!  Another beach.  Well done Koh Phayam.

And here is more about the bungalows.

You can get somewhere awesome for around £8 - 10 a night.

Where to stay?

The Sort of Accommodation That We're Thinking Of...

We're probably not going to be completely slumming it on our travels.  We may stay in some hostels, but generally I think we'll find some nice (but still very cheap) places that aren't shit.

Here are some of the things I've found already.

Fancy Stuff

I assume this will be my room?

At the top end of the market we have places like this.   It's beautiful isn't it?

I found it on i-escape which has a load of fancy-but-pricey boutique hotels all over the world.

How very civilized!

This hotel is in Chang Mai and is £71 a night!

But it does look lovely, and someone's going to having a birthday around February...!

Still Quite Fancy

An awesome tent in Goa

Still on the pricey side, but a little better are these awesome tents in Goa.

These were also on i-escape.

In the cheap season these tents are £47.71 per night (for 2 people).

Spot the tent

They do look lovely and I think they're lots of fun, but they're £50 a night to sleep in a fancy tent.

The garden

 I can totally see myself here.

I go for a little swim, maybe I will see a crocodile.  Then I'll pop onto my little deck and sit in the sun drinking a cocktail from a coconut.

There will be a little umbrella in the cocktail too.

Awesome (and better priced)

This is where I really want to go... the Jungle House!  It's £19.42 for both of us for a night.  So that'd be £273 for a fortnight.  Which is neat.

Koh Sok

It's in Koh Sok national park which just looks like amazingness...

And you get to stay in a little wooden tree hut type thing.  I can't get the photos of the website, so just imagine what a tree house looks like, or click the link above.

AirBnB is a nice site for finding cute, but not too pricey options for accommodation.

"You have done well, young padawan"
~ Research Bunny is impressed ~

The Budget

Sadly we are not millionaires, so we will need to budget our travel.  We've got a vague idea that we'll need £1000 per person per month.  But do we?  Some people I've spoken to say that far too much, some say it's not enough.  Of course it depends on which countries you go to and what towns you stay in, and what sort of accommodation and... well, loads of stuff.

"Stand back!  I have a bomb!"

Things To Do

Written in the hope that if I have an actual list and I make it visible to the world, there's a slight chance that I might just do one or two of these things at some stage...

"Do not fear the To-Do list.  Only fear Tarzan."

The 'Volunteer' Bit

I don't think it technically counts as volunteering, but there seems to be a thing going round whereby people go on cheaper holidays because they spend there time 'volunteering' to earn their keep.  Here is the best website I've found about this: Ecoteer.

The Weather

As with almost everyone else in the whole world, I love talking about the weather.  It is so interesting, it's always changing - there's so many variations and so, so much to say!

It's also an important factor to consider whilst we are in the 'planning' phase.

(this woman is not me)

So.... what am I looking for from my weather? Personally, I like it in the late 20's with a bit of a breeze. That's nice weather for me.  It makes me think...

An Attempt To Plan

Rodin probably had similar problems

The problem is I'm not too sure where to start.  The problem is also procrastination.  It is too easy to procrastinate.  I just spent most of the morning tweaking the layout of this blog for example.  I could have been... doing something more productive towards planning my trip.  But what....

For my first trick, I will list all the places that I think we should go to.  That seems like a jolly good start.

My List Of Places I Think We Should Go To

Thailand

India

Nepal

Laos (maybe)

Some other islands/ nice places in the nearby area

South Africa

I think I can improve on this.  Maybe I should list the towns and the actual things I want to see, like a temple or a particular beach. Let's see if that goes any better.

My More Considered List Of Places I Think We Should Go To

Chang Mai - to stay with the elephants

Malaysia - to save the turtles

Nepal

North India

South India

Sri Lanka (maybe)

I feel this list is better.  I appreciate that I'm still not quite there, but I feel progress has been made.  Now, I'm going to think about the weather.

"You might want to keep working on this list"
~ Research Bunny ~