Good value accomodations

By American “standards”, our accommodations were very minimalist and a bit run-down. Most were clean, a few with had some bugs and the occasional lizard on the wall. We’re back to the Royal Hotel in Bangkok for our last night, before flying to Tel Aviv. At less than $20US it has a good location and includes a huge breakfast buffet (includes Pad Thai). Heck, it even has a nice pool. Rooms in Siem Reap and Phnom Pen in Cambodia were okay and included breakfast. Most folks have eggs (any way you like them) and bread, although a noodle soup is also very traditional start to the day.

Crossing into Vietnam, we’d have our best and worst hotels. We stayed at a place in Chau Doc that was about $18US, where we were greeted with a welcome beverage before going into a clean, comfortable and stylish room. The place in Ho Chi Minh was a bit of a let-down from that, but a good location. We booked our own place in northern Vietnam, staying at the Hanoi Boutique Hotel. It’s listed with the Hostel Association, but was beautiful and the staff was amazing. The $25US (our most expensive), including breakfast, it was a little oasis in the middle of the grime and craziness of the old city. We flew from there to Bangkok to catch the sleeper train for Chiang Mai, staying in a very simple guest house. As with many other places we’ve stayed, the bathroom does double duty as a shower. There’s a shower head above the toilet and the drain on the floor.

Suffice it to say, you get a lot of value for your money in Southeast Asia. Transport was reasonable and easily accessible. I thought the street food was cheap and good. I’ve tried as many things as I could identify, and a few things I had to eat to see what they were. For example, we picked up 6 fried shrimp for 30TB (about a buck) as we walked around yesterday. Tasted great, but Rita didn’t appreciate that they were cooked whole (uncleaned, w/their heads on). I thought tasted great :)

Jeff