Trip to Bangkok and BarcampBKK3

May 31, 2009 | Travel Guide | Bangkok, Barcampbkk3, Canon EOS 500D, Diana, Holiday, Oversea, Photos, review, Tango Vibrant, Travel Guide, trip

It was a spontaneous decision. Found out about Barcamp Bangkok 3 two weeks before it happens, and within few days, Diana and I decided to go for it and take this opportunity for a shopping break too. She had been bugging me to travel with her and so we did.

As we’re traveling on a tight budget (and wanting to save more for our shopping there), we did quick math and booked a combination with the cheapest flight possible and most cost effective hotel. Saw Charline’s post on her recent trip to Bangkok and the hotel she stayed seems modern and cosy, and the price is so cheap!

Here’s our combo for our 5D4N trip to Bangkok:

Flight on Tiger Airways $10 for return trip
SG -> BKK $0 each
BKK -> SG $10 each
Taxes and surcharge $210
Luggage surcharge $20 (15kg for me) + $70 (25kg for Diana)
Taxes $20
Total for flight $340 (for 2 pax)
5D4N stay at Tango Vibrant Living Place Hotel booked via Agoda.com
SGD45/ night/ room
Total for hotel $218.02
Grand Total for 5D2N is $558.02 for 2 pax

The hotel is new, cosy, clean and very secured. You will need to scan the hotel access card when entering the hotel, and on every level you will also need to scan the card to enter the room corridor. The hotel room is modern and has all the necessary things. Although we requested for two single beds, we were still given a double bed room. If I’m not wrong, the two single beds room is bigger and hence more expensive, at $54 per night. The bed was comfortable to sleep on and clean. Pillows were quite comfy too. We love the hotel very much and have set Tango as our default hotel in Bangkok when we return for future trips. Unless they increase their prices or we discover an even better and cheaper one in the future.

The only setback about the hotel is the costly wifi internet connection which we cannot live without. At 150 baht per hour or 600 baht for unlimited access within a day, we couldn’t make ourselves pay for that. We made do with the free first hour access voucher given daily. When we are lucky, we were able to get unstable free wifi from some spot in the room. Diana and I had many hair pulling moments when the wifi died on us while we were replying to emails or discussing work with clients over IM. That’s when I realised how fortunate we are back here in Singapore with unlimited high speed broadband connection. Hence I shall try not to complain too much about our connection here from now on. Oh! And there’s also a LCD TV in the room.

If you think the cheap ($45) hotel rate doesn’t come with daily breakfast, than you’re so wrong! We had our breakfast ~~everyday~~ (missed one as we were too lazy to wake up before 10am) at the hotel’s cafe which only opens for breakfast. There were the few selection of American set breakfast, buffet style cooked food and choice of bread and rolls.

Tango hotel is located within a narrow street in a small neighborhood (if that’s what they call it in Bangkok). Out of the four different cabs we took back to the hotel, only one of them managed to find his way to the hotel without us making a call back for direction. Next time, we should just tell them is near Diamond Hotel and hopefully the driver will know how to get into the one-way street.

Every night, Diana will go down to the street, few blocks away from the hotel, to get her supper fixed. There’s this lady selling yummy prata at only 20 baht no matter the choice of fillings! You can choose to have just the egg with prata or add banana to it too. Same price!

She will than ask if you want to add milk or sugar to the prata. For me, I like them both! *Sugar rush!* Piping hot prata for supper is the best lah! I want to eat it again!!! This is much better than some of those here in Singapore can? And where can you get a egg and banana prata with milk and sugar for less than a dollar here in Singapore?

Let’s get the serious stuff over first. What brought us to Bangkok in the first place was Barcamp Bangkok 3.

We wanted to expand our networks of friends and check out the technical and social media trends in Bangkok for work purposes. And where better to do all that then to attend a Barcamp in that city. We were hoping there will be more English speaking sessions, but this year there were a lot of Thai sessions and we were limited to just a few options.

It was great having to experience Barcamp in another country. Seeing how Barcamp Bangkok team had created such an impressive session for such a big crowd, I’m inspired! There were plenty of coffee, tea and ovaltine at every corridor where there are sessions taking place. The hot water dispensers were always topped up. There were also bottled water, packet cakes and biscuits available for all at the table. You will never get sleepy nor hungry there! Plenty of fuels to recharge all the geeks at Barcamp Bangkok!

Few points I noted from Barcamp Bangkok 3:

Twitter is picking up in Bangkok. However there weren’t much tweets for #barcampbkk3 when I was there.
Many people wants to know how to make money from blogging.
Support and help from the community is very important for a successful Barcamp. Quality of sponsorship is very important too.
@robinthailand is planning for TEDxBKK. You can follow @TEDxBKK for updates.

After my first oversea Barcamp experience, I hope to have more chances to travel around to other Barcamps too. On a sidenote, Singapore Barcamp 4 is happening soon too! Looking forward!

Ending my first post of our Bangkok trip with more photos from Barcamp Bangkok 3. More updates about the trip coming soon!