After 5-6 months of living in Bangkok, Thailand last year, I have a feeling it will always be my second home. Culture, food, people, weather, and cost of living- all appeal to my very western upbringing seeking a radically different travel experience. I continue to be surprised by how my travel critic peers tend to agree with my love for Bangkok, even while the city is the center of a political firestorm that has flared up too often as of late. Namely, Travel + Leisure named Bangkok the number one city of 2010despite its political issues, with its northern, much smaller sister Chiang Mai taking #2 on the list.

There have been a plethora of posts on Bangkok’s ‘Top 10’, one of my favorite being from CNN: 50 reasons why Bangkok’s the world’s greatest city. However, many people have asked me about my trip lately (i.e. during interviews) and I’ve tripped up a few times in my efforts to succinctly sell my experience in the World’s greatest city in 2 minutes. So with some reflection, here are the top 10 reasons answering the question “Why travel to Bangkok?”

1. Thai People

Straight chill waves. Peaceful, nice, accepting, and relaxed. Perfect, Western-friendly culture for confused travelers. There are obviously scams and touts like everywhere in Asia, but just use common sense.

2. Food

Say goodbye to too-sweet $15 American pad thai, and hello to $1 street Pad Thai glory. A decent diet can be made up of a rotation between noodle dishes, rice dishes, street fruit, and plentiful international cuisine.

3. Cost of living

Overall, there’s an extremely friendly cost of living for those interested in living like a Thai while traveling. However, if you prefer to live like an American or European in Thailand while in Bangkok, costs will be slightly lower or at par with your homeland. Pretty much a win win.

4. International - Rough Hybrid

Bangkok is an extremely International city in parts, yet extremely Thai everywhere in between. Their interesting economic history plays a large part in this, as extremely rapid expansion in the late 90’s was on pace to transform them into a Seoul, South Korea until the Asian financial crisis originated in Bangkok in 1997 and almost sent them back to the stone age. I attribute the lovability of Bangkok to the extreme visual and cultural contrasts to the volatile economy left behind in the form of city layout and buildings.

5. Weather

Well, weather is hit or miss. Let’s just assume you go during high season November - January. Weather is a solid 75-85, humidity more than manageable,and sunny. The islands, always much nicer as well. Hard to beat that.

6. Travel Center

Bangkok is theeee epicenter for travelers in Asia. Khao San Road sees the most of the backpacker vibe. Even if you hate the backpacker overload, you’ll appreciate the services that come along with it - dirt cheap buses departing Bangkok, cheap hostels, tons of travel services, and a sense of comfort.

7. Hawt Threads

Shopping in Bangkok is awesome, coming from someone who hates shopping. As a thrifty shopper trending towards quality rip off merchandise, Bangkok is spot on. Malls and markets full of decent, negotiable clothing and merchandise are awesome. ALSO, Bangkok it is a necessity to get some clothes tailored when in Bangkok - some shirts at the very least, but suits recommended. Just be wary of touts and scams and do real research before choosing a tailor.

8. Cheap flights

As a travel center of Thailand and Southeast Asia, Bangkok serves as the hub for most Southeast Asian flights. Flights from Europe has some of the best flights to Bangkok coming from London, and airfares coming from US are consistently affordable as far as Asian destinations go.

Even better, Air Asia uses Bangkok as it’s second hub (after its HQ in Kuala Lumpur) servicing almost every Southeast Asian destination possible.

9. Sense of Lawlessness - A sense of anything goes and lawlessness in Bangkok is refreshing to a Midwestern audience used to getting $150 police tickets for driving 10mph over the speed limit. Traffic is crazy, the rules that do exist only do to be broken, and you feel like you’re living on the edge even though it’s really not that crazy. Favorite example of this ‘lawlessness’ –> motorcycle taxis & moped rentals. Nothing pleases me more than motorcycle taxis taking me on sidewalks and renting mopeds for $6/day.

10. Well documented

My IT background may be shining a little to brightly here - but Bangkok is an easy travel destination partly due to its documentation. There are a gagillion amazing travel resources for Bangkok online. TravelFish.com, TravelHappy.info, and Bangkok.com to name a few along with the legendary WikiTravel.

I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion of Cyprus on the expat scene as my interest in the topic has grown lately. This appealed to me as I’ll be learning some Turkish this upcoming fall and am interested in Turkey, a neighbor with a large political influence on the somewhat odd island nation of Cyprus. Thus, I thought I’d do a little travel profile of the Greekish – Turkish island nation(s? - the plural from its political status)

Why go to Cyprus:

• Decent prices – as far as hot beach escapes on the Mediterranean go, Cyprus is a different and affordable option.
• Not yet fully in the EU – They have the Euro, yet with their inclusion in the EU just 2 years old, they haven’t been completely unionized in a sense of prices and entrance requirements that are a bit murky when compared to the free flow of people elsewhere through the EU.  So if ever, now might be the time when looking at price levels and ‘difficulty’ of entrance.
• Interesting Politics - Its current political state is, erm, interesting. Some may dislike the conflict, but I think it adds allure as compromised safety is nowhere near an issue. Stats show Cyprus is unbelievablye safe and content.

Why not go to Cyprus

• Greece – With Greece in the economic shit hole, you may be better off just going to Greece. Greece offers more diversity, islands, historical significance, and [probably] beauty. While Cyprus’ financial situation is very questionable at the time as well, Greece’s seems more likely to discount travel options only in the short term. Its dealing with the crisis seems likely to lead to an economic rebound in the next 5 years or so.
• Limited transit options – Cyprus is accessible only by plane and ferry from (drumroll) Greece, as services from Israel and Turkey are no more. For vagabonding budget travelers seeking a little passport stamp diversity in their travels, it may not be ideal to sit in one spot the entire trip.
• Tourism saturation – not everybody loves British tourist saturation. ‘Cyprus holidays’ is a prevalent British buzz word resulting from its status as a former British colony. So if you have an issue with stereotypical Brits, maybe more off the beaten path destinations are better worth your time.

The Lowdown:
The political issues stem from a few Turkish and Greek disagreements in the past. The North is a bit fractioned off with Turkish influence, while the South is predominately Greek, and more of the stable EU part, per say. You’ll be going to the southern part, atleast for entrance purposes. Holidays to Larnaca in southeast Cyprusare the most common method of visiting Cyprus due to the availability of cheap flights. Other airports include Ercan in the North and Paphos (another beach area)  in the southwestern part of the island. A journey between Paphos and Larnaca would be the obvious route of traveling. The coastal drive linking these two destinations along the beautiful azul waters looks spectacular and is the highlight of a few journals I skimmed.

Internal Cyprus Locomotion
Getting around within Cyprus can be done by bus, shared taxi, or car rentals. Obviously, bus it up if you’re on a budget.

Cyprus Lodging
The term “hostel” doesn’t seem too prevalent in Cyprus from initial research. No worries, however, as quick online searches yielded cheap private hotel rooms for 15 Euros and up. The supply of budget hotels seems a bit sparse, so booking ahead might be a good idea.

Off the Beaten Path
Going off the beaten path in Cyprus seems plausible. I’ve read a few interesting reports and commentary on expeditions, but nothing link worthy. With the prevalence of British tourists and the industry catering to the resort type traveler, you’ll have to search a bit harder. With that comes great potential for genuine Cyprus experiences as well, since low travel saturation in secondary non-resort cities could leave amazing experiences to be had.

Conclusion: I’m intrigued by Cyprus. It’s politics interest me, and hopefully with my future Turkish language skills, a trip to both southern and northern Cyprus is in the near term for me.

I’ve long wondered why there hasn’t been a comprehensive Travel Budget database of sorts with all the web app hype that’s come alive recently. Sadly, the developers of “2.0″ online travel apps have focused almost exclusively on social networks, “where i’ve been” and flight aggregation. Well, awesome. But really, an accurate, quick centralized database for travel prices and budgets has been a pipe dream of mine that I even failed at creating in Backpackability.com.

Sure, us backpackers and wannabees can sift through BootsnAll, Lonely Planet, and Trip Advisor for prices and then brag about how much time we spent [wasting] planning our trips, but why? Or better yet, we could definitely all order new copies of the recent Lonely Planet guides off of Amazon! not. that’s just silly.

I’m obviously not leaving you hanging with ranting post here shaming the big boys of travel for not developing a travel price database already. So Here comes BudgetYourTrip.com.

BudgetYourTrip is something of what I’ve described above. It’s a relatively new, but no soooo green, website that is alot of what I wanted to develop before I understood database powers. In their own words:

Estimate travel costs by country, city, and category. Use the Estimate Trip Costs search form to plan your expenses, or browse the list of countries. The trip expenses entered by other travelers help us calculate daily averages by location and category.

It’s straight forward, and a golden idea.  There’s no reason for me to sit around and talk about it anymore. Just check it out. Better yet, contribute!

Final Disclaimer This is NOT a paid post at all, surprisingly enough. I’m just a fan of truly helpful travel websites, unlike most of the gunk out there.

When it comes to researching travel insurance products to protect you, your health, loved ones, or ipods while traveling abroad on your backpacking journey, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Online, everyone and their dog is willing to sell you comprehensive, cheap travel insurance. Amongst online travel advertisers, I’d have to say travel insurance companies, affiliates, and agents have to be one of most active advertisers eager to get their unique travel insurance in front of your overwhelmed, lost self.

Do you Need travel insurance?

Good question. As a skeptic by nature, i’m not certain. However, the overwhelming consensus online is that travel insurance is necessary. Highly regarded Matador Travel Network property the Traveler’s Notebook says:

Travel insurance is a necessity. You need travel insurance. If you get sick or injured, if your things are stolen, if you need to cancel your trip or if you need an evacuation, it’s essential to have an insurance company backing you up.

Travel insurance is cheap and easy to get. There’s no excuse not to buy a policy. If you’re traveling and don’t have insurance, you should get coverage right now – it takes less than 15 minutes.

So if you want to take their word for it, yes, Traveler’s insurance is important.

Fortunately, I haven’t been in a position to purchase my own traveler’s insurance. My university assigned me mandatory travel insurance for my current studies abroad, and I’m fortunate enough to have a comprehensive health insurance plan at home that would cover everything anyways. Out of curiosity and relevance to the readers though, here are the best authoritative and reliable resources to scour before buying travel insurance. So atleast I’ll attempt to point you in the right direction.

Resources on How to Choose Travel Insurance

• The Guardian
• CNN
• Times Online
• REI
• TravelFish
• TheBackpacker.net

Sponsored Mention - CheapTravelInsurance.com

With that said, CheapTravelInsurance.com is an insurance seller that caters to the Backpacker’s needs. This provider offers packages tailored for backpackers, gap years, etc. The site has a pretty comprehensive set of offerings that give you a variety of options that will probably suit your needs - as long as you know what they are.

As far as its legitimacy goes, its been in operation since 2001 and more can be read about its faffiliations and underwriters on its about page. Overall, with its variety of policy options comparable to industry leaders, a quick online search for quotes using their engine is may make CheapTravelInsurance.com a good first stop in your hunt for cheap, affordable travel insurance.

A while ago I received news that I was accepted to study abroad in Bangkok, Thailand (application covered here) for the upcoming fall academic session starting sometime in August 2009 - December 2009.  I will be studying at Thammasat University and traveling all around Southeast Asia in my spare time, which should be plentiful.

Thammasat University is set in the heart of Bangkok, nearby the famous backpacker’s haven Khao San Road, the recent Red Shirt riots, and the Grand Palace. All, I’m sure, will be covered in greater detail in my upcoming travels.

(more…)

I’m pleased to bring you a new, exciting budget travel and backpacking website that I think could become a timeless reference for all prospective travelers researching their destinations and making their travel budgets.

The site is BackpackAbility.com. What is it? It can be described in a multitude of ways, the following being my favorite:

• World Travel and Living cost index
• Comprehensive listing of travel and living costs for destinations worldwide

I’ve been developing the site off and on the past month or so, and it will initially be a simple listing of prices and costs for as many international travel destinations as possible, with part of this hopefully due to YOUR INVOLVEMENT. I’d love for the site to become a massive compilation of travel costs based on the recent experiences of budget travelers. So I really really encourage you to spend 35 seconds to submit some travel and living expenses to help the community.

So what are these travel costs listed? Initially, just the consumer staples + whatever else you submit. Including beer, hostels, transportation, hotels, cheap meals, apartments, and internet access. Other things that would be great would be visa costs, nice meals, cover charges at clubs, and major attraction/entertainment expenses.

There will be more…

Really, the site won’t too special right away - just handy price index reference that is easy to navigate and quick to use. But the future, I hope for two other features:

• Simple, definitive travel guides outlining good, relevant attractions for budget travelers and backpackers
• A credible and authoritative rating system that takes price, fun, and enjoyability into account to create an objective rating for a country’s backpackability

What there is now:

Roosh has kindly allowed me to use his South American living costs from his travel guides, but the rest of the world is struggling. Here are some examples of finished cost indexes, amongst some other destinations:

• Israel travel living costs
• Ecuador travel living costs
• Argentina living, traveling costs
• New Zealand cost of travel and living

Plus you get something in return.

So check out the site, spread the word, and submit travel costs if you can. If you have a travel site you’ll get a free link back as well in the post. If you don’t have a site, I can still give credit to you or give you a good ole shoutout of whatever in the post.

If you could care less about this cost index jazz, you can always check out the best budget travel and backpacking resources list I compiled.