I’m wondering whether Thailand would be a good place to take a break around CNY. I was thinking of going to Koh Tao, then I didn’t book a ticket and worried it would be too expensive, and now they’ve done the tsunami thing.
Will tickets be cheap again now?
Will the east coast islands be overrun with backpackers who can’t hang out in Phuket now?
I’m in a quandry. Where else should I consider? Man needs diving, and fantasises about boats too.
Why not go to Phuket? Do Tsunamis follow the same rule lightning is supposed to?
I booked my ticket and decided to go during CNY but now I am thinking if I should have to wait some time…
my ticket is about 6000. pretty cheap…don’t know if it goes down after the tsunami
and you can consider Koh Chang. it’s about 4 hour bus ride from BKK…a beautiful island,too
Malaysia has some nice diving spots.
It would be more expensive, but you could go to Sabah and then on to Sipadan.
Or, stick with Penninsula Malaysia and go to Redang, Perhentian or Tioman islands.
Dude, what the hell? You mean one-way, right? Or did ya get that on Yugoslav Air? Or a container ship?
I just fought tooth and nail to get tickets to Bangkok over Chinese New Year, and after consigning several new pagodas, sacrificing one of my limbs, and numerous kou tous I was granted the privilege of paying no less than 15,000 to leave this nasty place for the space of 12 days.
My point being: how the HELL did you get round-trip for 6000 over Chinese New Year?
It seems that Phuket is open for business again. I read something to that effect in the Danish papers.
Packets tours will be available from February.
[quote=“Loretta”]I’m wondering whether Thailand would be a good place to take a break around CNY. I was thinking of going to Koh Tao, then I didn’t book a ticket and worried it would be too expensive, and now they’ve done the tsunami thing.
Will tickets be cheap again now?
Will the east coast islands be overrun with backpackers who can’t hang out in Phuket now?
[/quote]
Hi Loretta,
A few thoughts. I had a ticket recently for this timeframe on KLM Airlines for NT $10,000, roundtrip from Taipei to Bangkok. When I checked Koh Tao, I found that the good and inexpensive places were booked, the bad and inexpensive places were available, and the exhorbitantly expensive places were available. There might be much more available there that I’m totally unaware of. Koh Samui did seem to be getting some overflow from Phuket, but there are some cancellations, so maybe that’s a wash. Koh Phangan (between Samui and Tao) seemed more promising. Last thought: The World Health Organization just recently started expressing caution about the spread of malaria and other diseases due to tsunami effects, and paraphrased, the guy said that deaths from disease could easily outnumber deaths from the tsunami and earthquake directly. Of course, his comment applied to the whole region, and less to Thailand as it wasn’t damaged as much as other places. That said, just as Bangkok is a major transit point for people, so it will likely be with any regional, communicable diseases.
FWIW,
Seeker4
[quote=“rooftop”]Malaysia has some nice diving spots.
It would be more expensive, but you could go to Sabah and then on to Sipadan.
Or, stick with Penninsula Malaysia and go to Redang, Perhentian or Tioman islands.[/quote]
Sipidan has closed all of it’s diving operations on the island itself, so you’d have to access it by boat from a nearby island. Diving is fantastic though…
Boat dreaming? World class diving? Why not just go to Palau?
COOL. Hopefully that’ll draw off the Taiwanese shark-fin-restaurant-seekers and Western full-moon-party-beach-trashers from invading the place I’M going to be! Woohoo! 
Dude, what the hell? You mean one-way, right? Or did ya get that on Yugoslav Air? Or a container ship?
I just fought tooth and nail to get tickets to Bangkok over Chinese New Year, and after consigning several new pagodas, sacrificing one of my limbs, and numerous kou tous I was granted the privilege of paying no less than 15,000 to leave this nasty place for the space of 12 days.
My point being: how the HELL did you get round-trip for 6000 over Chinese New Year?[/quote]
I got round-trip on the weekend just after Chinese New Year for $6,000NT, Travel Agencies in Taiwan are cheap as hell. It was either Hong Kong(3,500NT) or Bangkok, so I Went with Bangkok. I even saw Taipei-Tokyo for about 8,000NT…but with the hotel prices there, fuck that.
I was quoted $12,000 to BKK but booked through the airline for $8,000.
WHEN?!?! WHICH AIRLINE?!?!?!?!
ANSWER ME NOW, GODDAMMITT!?!?!?
KLM…I booked a couple of months back.
I just booked Taipei/Manila/Taipei (Feb. 5), and they quoted me 13,800. The most I’ve ever paid for that trip is 10,000. :fume:
:loco: :loco: :loco: :loco:
2nd Feb, BKK, NT$8200, EZTravel.
.
.
.
.
but
.
.
.
.
waitlisted. :s
This xmas I had a NT$24k ticket to Copenhagen, but was waitlisted too.
and
the
end
was
that
I had to fork over NT$33k for a ticket with KLM. :fume:
Oh I am going to make you all very jealous. But I post to be informative.
Loretta, find a gal with a Fubon credit card. Offer her the time of her life (travelling with you, how could it be otherwise). Fubon Bank and Cathay Pacific have a deal going. We booked a mere 2 weeks ago and got Bali for NT$9400. Not sure if the deal applies to anywhere Cathay flies, but call a travel agent. They all know about this deal.
don’t buy tickets from the agents in the newpaper. check out ez travel, ez fly, startravel, ezibon…and book the tickets early because the ticket price changes all the time.booked my 6000 ticket two weeks before a friend while he has to pay extra 2000…
yeah but unless you book early ie 2 months early you simply cannot get cheap tickets over CNY. im paying 15000 and routing thru HK to get to BKK and was lucky to get that…if you try ezfly now your lucky to get even wait listed. if you look on their website the CNY dates arent even showing. most wait lists are closed.
that said there will be blocks of tickets released as agents give up group tickets. these are purely 1st in 1st served but there could be quite a few become available in the run-up so keep trying…
The waitlisting turned out to be a bit of optimism. They eventually decided I wasn’t even allowed to wait.
Still, I got Bali for a mere NT$12000 and I haven’t been there for years. Waaaarm!! Yeah!