THAILAND – To most Singaporeans, Thailand is often synonymous to her capital city, Bangkok. I’ve been to Bangkok twice prior to this trip and the endless amount of shopping would be just about the right phrase to describe both trips. This time round, I wanted to see what else Thailand could offer other than just cheap shopping and street food. I wanted to travel up north, away from the city, and thus I booked a flight to Thailand via Scoot (SGD $152 per pax) and departed from Singapore Changi Airport at 0630hrs (GMT+8) on Sunday.
This trip took us to 8 different provinces across a total of 11 days. We decided to go on a self-drive road trip for the northern leg and we rented a Toyota Yaris from ThaiRentACar. For the rest of the trip, we took an overnight sleeper train, several mini-van rides as well as the public transport network (BTS/ MRT).
Thailand 2016
A 10 Days Self-Drive Itinerary
Day 1 | June 26: Singapore – Bangkok (via Don Mueang Airport) – Chiang Mai
Day 2 | June 27: Chiang Mai – Doi Inthanon – Mae Wang
Day 3 | June 28 : Mae Wang – Mon Jam – Pai
Day 4 | June 29: Pai (Wat Phra That Mae Yen – Pam Bok Waterfall – Pai Land Split)
Day 5 | June 30: Pai – Chiang Mai – Ayutthaya
Day 6 | July 1: Ayutthaya (Wat Ratcha Burana, Bang Lan Night Market)
Day 7 | July 2: Ayutthaya – Bangkok (Chatuchak – Union Mall – CentralPlaza Ladprao)
Day 8 | July 3: Bangkok (Thong Lo – TGI.Fest – Rod Fai 2 Night Market)
Day 9 | July 4: Bangkok (Victory Monument) – Maeklong Train Market – Bangkok (Hua Lamphong Railway Station – Yaowarat)
Day 10 | July 5: Bangkok (Union Mall – Don Mueang Airport) – Singapore
Driving In Thailand
ThaiRentACar (Chiang Mai)
60 Mahidol Rd, Su Thep, Amphoe Mueang Chiang Mai, Chang Wat Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
(Chiang Mai International Airport)
https://www.thairentacar.com/
To drive in Thailand, you would have to apply for an International Driving Permit (IDP). For Singaporean drivers, Automobile Association of Singapore (AA) is the only authorised place where you can apply for an IDP. More details can be found here.
Renting a car from ThaiRentACar was as simple as filling up a booking form on their website. We found the prices from ThaiRentACar to be the most competitive amongst all the various companies that we have found. There were also lots of positive reviews online. The rental fees came up to 3809.20 THB or SGD $151.44 (inclusive of Super Loss Damage Wavier) for a period of 4 days. I would highly recommend that you include the Super Loss Damage Wavier in your booking as this extra insurance will reduce your liability in the event of an accident to 0 THB.
Depending on the class of vehicle, there is a deposit of 10,000 THB or 20,000 THB. A credit card is required for payment of deposit.
Pre-Paid Sim Card
Prior to the trip, I did some googling and there were sites online that mentioned about the ease of getting a Thailand Pre-Paid sim card at the airport. The actual fact is that the options are very limited compared to getting a sim card at Don Meuang. There are only 3 locations that you can get your sim card within the airport; Baggage Claims (Domestic), Arrival Area (International), Mobile phone shop (in-between the Domestic & International “terminals”). The counters at both Baggage Claims (Domestic) and Arrival Area (International) looked like pop-up booths and they only sell sim cards from “True”. The mobile phone shop offers sim cards from both “DATC” as well as “AIS”. We opted to get a sim card from True as it claims to have the largest 4G coverage in Thailand and it didn’t disappoint us in our trip.
The sim card cost 450 THB for a 10-days data plan (inclusive of 2.5gb of data usage before extreme data throttling). If you are looking for sim cards from “DATC” or “AIS”, I would recommend for you to get them at either Don Mueang Airport or Suvarnabhumi Airport as the official shops at both airports offer more variety of plans. The mobile phone shop at Chiang Mai Airport only offers the 7-day plan.