Singapore on the Cheap: What you can do in Singapore for free!

July 15, 2014July 16, 2014 / Melanie / 2 Comments

View of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the Gardens by the Bay

View of the beautiful Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the Gardens by the Bay

Singapore was named the world’s most expensive city in 2014, but that doesn’t mean you can’t travel to Singapore on a budget! There are a lot of ways you can cut costs on a trip to Singapore. Here’s how we did Singapore on a tight budget:

Step 1: Skip the traditional hotel!

Hotel room prices in Singapore are insane, so seek out your lodging search using Airbnb or Roomorama. For solo travelers, hostels in Chinatown or Little India might be the cheapest option. We booked the cheapest room we could find on Airbnb, and one week still cost us more than a month’s rent here in Chiang Mai. It was a little rough around the edges, with a decor style I would describe as “prison eclectic”, but we had a hot shower every day and a bed to sleep on at night. Success.

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Step 2: Take advantage of Singapore freebies!

Freebie #1: Gardens by the Bay

This is our #1 freebie pick in Singapore! The Gardens by the Bay grounds are enormous, and full of beautiful botanical wonders. Nearly the entire complex is free, it only costs money to go into the indoor portions or up in the OCBC Skyway. We skipped the paid parts and it saved us over S$25 per person!

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We especially liked the OCBC Skyway Trees:

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Walk all the way out as far east as you can, and enjoy sitting on the green roof of the Barrage Visitor Center where families are picnicking and flying kites. We also saw a couple taking wedding photos!

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Freebie #2: Nightly OCBC Skyway Show at Gardens by the Bay 7:45 and 8:45pm nightly

Be sure to visit the Gardens by the Bay twice – once in the daytime to enjoy seeing the tropical plants, and again at night to see the OCBC Skyway Show. At 7:45 pm and 8:45 pm daily, there is a 15-minute light show in the Skyway trees coordinated to music. It’s awesome! We watched it one night right under the Skyway, and the next night from a viewpoint behind the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Here’s a short 8-second snippet of the show:

Freebie #3: Water and Laser Light Show at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Every night at 8pm and 9:30pm (and on Fridays and Saturdays at 11pm), the fountains in front of the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands light up and dance to a fun 15-minute musical program. Crowds start gathering as much as a half hour beforehand to stake out spots on the tiered wooden deck seating, so grab some snacks and arrive early!

It’s best to watch the water show from the east side of the marina, then the laser show from the west side. We caught the 8pm show in front of the Shoppes:

After the water show ended, we strolled around to the opposite side of the Bay to see the 9:30pm laser light show:

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Freebie #4: Marina Bay Sands Casino

Marina Bay Sands Casino!

For visitors to Singapore, it’s free to enter the Marina Bay Sands Casino! (It costs S$100 for Singaporeans to enter, and Cubans and North Koreans aren’t allowed entry. From what we can tell, you may even be barred entry even if you’ve got a Cuban stamp in your passport!) Once you’re inside, the gambling sure isn’t free, but soft drinks, coffee, tea, hot milo (like hot cocoa), and bottled water are free! To my dismay, they didn’t have games like “Pick a Number” and “Which Hand” like I was led to believe were part of Casino gaming by Uncle Eddie in National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation. Sigh, life will go on.

Admission Tips: A sign outside the casino claims that flip flops aren’t compliant with their dress code, but they let us in without question. You must show your passport for admittance. The entrance to the casino is inside the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Mall.

Freebie #5: Sample a Singapore Sling at Changi International Airport

Raffles Hotel, home of the S$27 Singapore Sling! Ouch!

The Singapore Sling is a disgusting drink, in my opinion – I would rather drink cough syrup. A Sling at the iconic Raffles Hotel, where this sickly sweet drink was invented, will cost you an outrageous S$27. Word on the interwebs is that they don’t even make each sling fresh at Raffles, instead opting to use a pre-mix! We decided not to buy a Sling in Singapore, but were delighted when we got to Changi airport and found out that the duty free liquor shoppes had free samples, made from top shelf liquors! They even let me mix it myself!

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Crucial tip – leave plenty of time to get to your gate! We thought if we arrived a few minutes after boarding began we’d be fine. We couldn’t have been more wrong! We went to a different terminal to sample the Sling, and by the time we got back to our Terminal the flight monitors said “Gate Closing” for our flight! We ended up sprinting through the terminal (wearing our duffel bags on our backs and our laptop bags on our fronts) and arrived just in the nick of time. Plan your time at Changi Airport better, or you’ll be an unhappy camper like I was:

After sprinting through the terminal to get to our gate, I was not a happy camper.

After sprinting through the terminal to get to our gate, I was one unhappy lady…

Step 3: Eat at Hawker Centers!

A wise group of Singaporeans once told us that you should never eat in a sit-down restaurant here. In the Hawker centres, the food is better AND cheaper! Win Win!! For more info on Hawker Centres, see my previous posts on Little India and on Eating in Singapore.

Step 4: Get yourself some of that free wifi!

Skip the coffee shops and visit the National Library in the Bugis neighborhood if you need somewhere to hunker down and work. Plus, the library has killer aircon and is 13 floors tall! Great views and cool temperatures? Sign me up. The best spot for studying is the 11th floor library. (Note: If you DO go to the library, it’s important to sign up for a 24-free-hour visitor’s Singtel wifi account before you go! Details here.)

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We loved the views from the top floors of the library! Added bonus, they have a glass elevator! Fun times:

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The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Mall also has free wifi if you’re in a pinch, but there aren’t many great places to work. Best to log onto this network with just your smart phone. We sat outside by the koi pond enjoying a great view of downtown Singapore while using the free wifi:

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Important tip: Don’t forget to use a VPN like Cloak to protect your personal information if you’re doing anything sensitive while using a Public wifi network!

Step 5: Be prepared to walk a LOT

Bring your walking shoes! Prepare for a walk of Olympic proportions (see photo below – har har har). One day, we actually walked over a half marathon (over 14 miles in one day, as reported by my Fitbit pedometer)!

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It’s fun to walk the loop around the Marina – I loved the view from the Helix bridge at night time:

Awesome Views from The Helix Bridge!

Take the time to visit all of Singapore’s fun neighborhoods – we could (and did) spend days exploring Little India, Chinatown, and Arab Street.

We had a lot of fun exploring Chinatown:

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Be sure to visit the Sultan Mosque in the Arab Street neighborhood (another freebie):

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We also enjoyed walking through Fort Canning Park, just north of Chinatown. While it’s probably not worth the trip if you’re not already in the neighborhood, we enjoyed walking around there. We especially enjoyed the spice garden! I’ve never seen a vanilla tree before, or a nutmeg tree, or so many herb plants.

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We want to hear from you!

There’s nothing we love on a vacation more than walking around exploring new cities. Which cities do you recommend most for exploring on foot? For us, nothing beats exploring the awesome little towns in the Rhine River Valley area of Germany – the best!

Eating in Singapore

July 11, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 2 Comments

Singapore’s food scene is absolutely epic. There are food centers full of “Hawker Stalls” all over the city where you can try dishes from all over Asia. Not only is the food at Hawker Stalls more delicious, it’s also much cheaper than sit-down restaurants. Contrary to what you might think after reading my last post, we ate more than just Indian food while we were in Singapore. Here’s a summary at some of the tasty things we tried.

Maxwell Food Centre

The Maxwell Food Centre is in the Chinatown neighborhood of Singapore, just a few blocks from where we stayed during our weeklong trip. It was highly recommended by several Singaporeans we met at the Red Dot Ruby Conference, so we made sure to arrive hungry. Here’s a look at the Maxwell Food Center – it looks like madness, but it’s fun, delicious madness:

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First, we tried out Hainanese Curry Rice. We picked this place because of the long line at the stall:

Hainanese Curry Rice Hawker Stall

Check out all their tasty looking food:

Delicious Food at the Hainanese Curry Rice stall

The spoils – Hainanese Curry Rice with chicken, cabbage and a fried egg:

Curry Rice, Cabbage, Chicken and a Fried Egg for S$3.

We grabbed a fresh sugar cane juice – such a treat:

Fresh Sugar Cane Juice for S$1.50

Singapore is famous for their “Chicken Rice” dish, so we headed to the Hawker Stall recommended by total food badass, Anthony Bourdain. I think we were in the right spot – check out this line:

This is THE Hawker Stall to get Singapore’s famous Chicken Rice dish!

Still going…

Can you believe this line?

Still going…

Unbelievable line! The wait was about 20 minutes!

We were not deterred by this guy, who crawled up on Kevin’s foot. Fun Fact: cockroaches can fly! (Shudder…)

The flying cockroach that climbed Kevin’s leg.

We enjoyed the chicken rice, but thought it was overhyped and the line was too long:

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Next, we grabbed some dessert from the longest dessert stall line (noticing a theme here? This is rule number one – pick stalls with long lines!) The Tapioca cake stall:

Tapioca Cake Stall

Look at these tasty cakes! We got one of each, which ran us S$1.40:

Coconut Tapioca Cake Bakery

I like to run around pretending I’m a super artistic photographer. Here’s the result of those efforts:

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Hong Lim Hawker Stalls

We also tried some food at the Hong Lim Food Centre in the Chinatown neighborhood. We only got one dish there – Laksa, which is a coconut milk soup with noodles and in our case, chicken:

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Arab Street

We ventured up to the Arab Street neighborhood, a great spot to just wander around and look at all the fun fabric shops and the beautiful Sultan Mosque (photos of this to come in a later post). There were a bunch of street food tents set up for Ramadan, so we snagged ourselves some dinner.

We got the most disappointing chicken gyro ever. It looked so tasty when they were cutting meat off of the roasting gyro:

Tasty looking chicken gyro meat

But sadly, for S$5, this is all we got! Is this the saddest pita you’ve ever seen or what?

Saddest S$5 Pita, EVER.

Luckily, our next purchase redeemed Arab Street for us. We decided to try the “Roti Jack” with chicken, egg, mayo, cheese, mushrooms, and spices. It was greasy, salty, wonderful, delicious goodness and was super filling for just S$5. The folks at this food stall were super friendly too – after finding out we were from the USA, the Roti Jack Chef sang the Star Spangled banner to us. It was awesome.

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Coffees, Sweets, Pastries and Beers

We didn’t hit many coffee shops in Singapore, where a Latte can cost as much as S$13! But here’s a peek at a few of our indulgences.

We stopped at a Chinese Bakery for a S$1 Milo Bun, which was delicious. Milo is sort of like Rich, Chocolatey Ovaltine.

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We visited Starbucks twice. The first time, we shelled out S$9.20 for two French Press Coffees (yikes!) but got a Buy One Get One Free coupon we used on our second visit! Cheap traveling WIN.

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We also visited “The Book Cafe” to enjoy some drinks and free Wifi:

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Kevin has been PINING for an IPA since we left Seattle. So when we walked past Brewerkz in Singapore, we pretty much had no choice but to go inside and do some drinking!

Brewerkz!

Brewerkz has a complicated pricing scheme – beers are S$6 cheaper between noon and 3pm than they are after 7pm! Is that crazy or what?! So you can bet your bottom dollar that we did some day drinking. We had the IPA and the Black Pig (sort of a black IPA). With the 10% service charge and VAT (tax), this ran us S$16.50, ouch! But we did get free wifi and did some work in their bar area. Tip: Ask about the beer of the week – it’s S$2 off!

Black Pig and IPA at Brewerkz

Has anyone reading tried Durian? Haven’t heard of Durian? View the wikipedia article here. We had Durian in December in Vietnam, but were told by our new Singapore buddies that it was probably out of season and we should give it a second chance. Alright, we said, we’ll try it one more time, we said. We decided durian in the form of ice cream would be the safest bet – if Ice Cream + Durian = Gross, there’s no way we’ll enjoy the fruit itself. So we gave it a shot at a Chinatown Ice Cream vendor:

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The verdict? Even Durian in the form of Ice Cream is not for us. Also, a word of caution, even the Durian Ice Cream will give you Durian burps – there’s nothing quite like having garbage burps for a couple hours!

Restaurant Food

During our entire week in Singapore, we had TWO meals in actual sit-down restaurants. The first meal was a super extravagant splurge for Singapore’s most famous food, Chili Crab. This is a “do not miss” food in Singapore! We went to Jumbo Seafood, recommended to us by a handful of Singaporeans at the Ruby Conference:

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Jumbo Seafood took a jumbo bite out of our travel budget (har har har…). For a Chili Crab, a plate of asparagus, rice and steamed buns, we paid S$90! But it was delicious.

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Check out the mess we made. Why on earth they use white tablecloths is beyond me!

Sad the Chili Crab is gone! We did a number on the tablecloth.

Our second restaurant meal was at Ya Kun Kaya Toast:

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

Kaya Toast is another of Singapore’s unique foods, traditionally consisting of Kaya (coconut jam) on toast with butter. We stopped to try some traditional kaya and butter toast and also the peanut kaya toast:

Kaya Toast

It came with coffee and soft boiled eggs, which made me feel like I was eating snot. Fun times.

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Kaya Toast is served at almost any cafe in Singapore. We picked Ya Kun Kaya Toast because it had pretty good reviews, but in hindsight I would’ve rather gone to this other establishment solely because of their ridiculous name:

This Kaya Toast Cafe is called “Heavenly Wang”. I couldn’t make that up.

DIY Food for Budget Travelers

As you know, we’re unemployed, so we travel on a tight budget. Here’s a look at some of the less glamorous meals we’ve had to save money. We stayed at an Airbnb that didn’t provide breakfast and didn’t have a kitchen on this trip, but they did have a refrigerator! So we picked up some groceries for morning breakfasts. Each day we had a banana plus a plain piece of wheat bread (not toasted… we had no toaster…) with a couple slices of ham for protein:

Ridiculous “Breakfast Sandwiches”

We also craved fresh vegetables, so we bought some raw carrots:

Just two weirdos eating raw carrots in Chinatown…

We Want to Hear From You!

What’s the best meal you’ve had on your travels? Do you have a particular country where you enjoy food the most? For us, it’s a close race between Vietnam and Thailand.

Singapore’s Little India, A Love Story (or, a Food Story?)

July 8, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 4 Comments

I love Indian food SO MUCH. I love it more than cake, more than sweet corn, more than ice cream, even more than home baked wheat bread. So when we stumbled upon a neighborhood called Little India during our recent 1-week trip to Singapore, I became a little attached to it. We went out to eat for 11 meals during our recent weeklong trip to Singapore, and a whopping 6 of those meals (SIX! OVER HALF!) were in a little slice of Heaven called the Tekka Centre in Little India. It was like angels were dancing on my taste buds, for realsies, and I loved every minute of it.

Hawker Stalls in the Tekka Centre (Little India, Singapore)

In order to control the street food scene that is so much a part of Southeast Asia, Singapore has organized its food vendors into food centers more commonly known as “Hawker Stalls”. In my opinion, the Tekka Centre is the best – about half of it is Indian food, and the half of the stalls are more of the Chinese food persuasion. There is ONE RULE you need to follow when you dine at any of Singapore’s Hawker Stalls – go where the locals go. Never try an abandoned food stall – pick the longer lines and order what the locals order!

Tekka Centre, Best Hawker Stalls in Singapore

To get to the Tekka Centre, just hop on Singapore’s phenomenal subway system called the MRT and get off at the Little India stop. Follow signs to the Tekka Centre from there, or a friendly local will point you in the right direction if you get lost. Tip: use the bathroom at the subway station! It costs money to use the one in the Tekka Centre!

Inside the Little India MRT Station

From what I gather on the interwebs, Indian food in the US tends to be more like Southern Indian cuisine, while in Singapore it tends to be more Northern Indian. (It’s entirely possible I made that up, but I really think I read that online somewhere…) In Chiang Mai, Indian Food tends to be overpriced and underflavoured – we tried a Shahi Korma at one spot last month that reminded me of melted Velveeta nacho cheese, and the Naan there was an absolute joke, so that was a bust. But we were not disappointed in Singapore, and enjoyed trying some North Indian dishes we’ve never seen on menus in Seattle. Here’s a peek at what we tried out:

Drinks

We tried something we’ve never seen before, a drink called “Special Chendol.” It’s a milky style drink, with lots of green jelly called “Chendol” in it. We didn’t really care for it – I felt like I was slurping up worms, but it was fun to try.

“Special Chendol” for S$1.20

We sucked down as much Masala Tea as possible at the Tekka Centre. We had at least one at every meal. I also really enjoyed the Teh Tarik, which is similar to Masala Tea but with a more chocolatey twist – I think they put Milo in it. Also, it was just S$0.80 for Teh Tarik – bargain city!

Chug Chug Chug! Delicious Masala Tea for S$1

Naans and Curries

We have a naan guy in Singapore now. That’s right, we cozied up with the guys at Pak Kashmiri Delights, the hawker stall that specializes in Naan and Curries, and I learned that the stall owner lived in Connecticut for 12 years! He doesn’t look very happy in the photo below, but he was actually very friendly in person.

Our Naan Guy in Singapore

We ate a lot of Naan in Little India. I really enjoyed how they made the naan – they have a wood-fired naan oven. They press out the dough, lay it on their thick round potholder, and press it on the inside oven wall. Once it’s cooked, they use metal prongs to pry it off and pull it out.

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The naan guys also made a mean curry. We had Butter Chicken with plain naan and garlic naan:

Left to right: Teh Tarik, Masala Tea, Garlic and Plain Naan, and Butter Chicken. Total S$6.80.

We tried Chana Masala (chickpea curry) with plain naan and garlic naan:

Chana Masala + Plain & Garlic Naan for S$4

And we tried their Aloo Ghobi (vegetable curry) with plain naan:

Aloo Ghobi and Plain Naan for S$4.

The Naan guys also had a pretty tasty Tandoori Chicken we enjoyed:

Tandoori Chicken

Pratas and Murtabaks

We also discovered Prata, which we’ve never seen before! The first guys we went to for Prata were at the Shariff Stall. We enjoyed their plain prata with their delicious tomato-gravy-curry dipping sauce so much that we got it two days in a row:

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We also tried a Mutton Murtabak from the Ar-rahman Royal Prata stall. Mutton Murtabak is egg, onion, ground seasoned mutton, and peppers inside an enormous prata dough, served with dipping curry. It also can be ordered with chicken, but we were trying to be adventurous:

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Our journey through Tekka Center wouldn’t be complete without one indulgent dessert. We ordered up a Banana and Chocolate Prata from Ar-rahman Royal Prata. Delicious, sinful, greasy goodness:

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Nasi Biryanis

We discovered a dish called Nasi Biryani at Tekka Centre and loved it so much we got it three times. According to the internets, it looks like this dish is heavily influenced by Malaysian food culture, but the spices and flavorings still made it taste like it should fall in the Indian Food category.

These are our Nasi Biryani guys – theirs is the BEST.

We ordered Nasi Biryani twice with chicken:

Chicken Nasi Biryani. All this food for S$5!

On the last day, we tried it with Mutton. Mutton Nasi Biryani was the best dish we had during our whole trip to Singapore!

Mutton Nasi Biryani, also S$5. If you’re in Singapore, do not miss this dish!

Gorengs

We enjoyed a couple other dishes that seem like an Indian twist on Malaysian food. First, we tried Nasi Goreng, which was sort of a Fried Rice dish with spices commonly found in Indian food. We both really enjoyed this dish – pretty light and delicious.

Chicken Nasi Goreng

The other “Goreng” dish we tried was Mee Goreng, which looked a lot to me like cut up spaghetti noodles. I was skeptical, but all the locals seemed to be ordering this dish so we gave it a try. It was really tasty, but we liked Nasi Goreng better!

Mee Goreng

We Want to Hear From You!

Where have you tasted your favorite Indian food? Have you been to India? Should we put it on our travel wish list?

Overeating in Pai, Part 2: Savory Eats

June 27, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 3 Comments

This is my third post about our recent 3-night trip up to Pai, a slow little mountain town that’s popular with the backpacker crowd and tourists seeking relaxation. Like I said in my previous post about cakes, pies and coffees in Pai, about the only thing to do in Pai is eat! I don’t want you to think we only ate sweets and drank coffee while we were in Pai – we had some savory Thai food too!

Our favorite spot in Pai was Charlie and Lek’s, a great little restaurant that also has cooking classes. We found a dish there that we haven’t seen anywhere else in Thailand – Pad Thai made with shaved green papaya instead of noodles! If pad thai and som tam got together and had a love child, it would be Green Papaya Pad Thai. IT WAS SO GOOD, as shown by Kevin’s face in the photo below.

Green Papaya Pad Thai at Charlie & Lek’s. Kevin is bursting with excitement for this food. Naturally, we returned three days in a row to get this dish.

Red Dragon Fruit Shake and Watermelon + Lime Shake at Charlie & Lek's

A Red Dragonfruit Shake and a Watermelon + Lime Shake at Charlie & Lek’s

Close up of the Green Papaya Salad at Charlie & Lek’s – so so so good.

We also enjoyed some delicious Thai food from Na’s Kitchen. The pad see iew may have been the best we’ve had so far in Thailand. We also continued our love affair with Som Tam at Na’s – it did not disappoint.

Mango Shake at Na’s Kitchen

Great Pad See Iew at Na’s Kitchen

Som Tam on the left, Sticky Rice in the basket on the right, and Pad See Iew in the back. All for $4.

We splurged and decided to get burgers one night after realizing we hadn’t had any beef for almost 2 months! We visited Maya’s Burger Queen to satisfy our beef craving.

Maya’s Burger Queen

Hawaiian Burger? Yes please.

The Hawaiian Burger, check out how big that pineapple slice is. Wish the beef patty had been bigger, but it was still super tasty! And just $3.

Maya’s Fried Chicken Burger – delicious.

And of course, we got Homemade French Fries

The cheapest meal we had in Pai was at Chew Xin Jai, a Chinese and Thai eatery with vegan and vegetarian food. You get a plate full of rice with 1 scoop of food for 30 baht, 2 for 35 baht, 3 for 40 baht, or 4 for just 45 baht. Cheap, filling, and pretty tasty.

Vegetarian food at Chew Xin Jai

No vacation in Thailand would be complete without some street food. We started at the end of the main road in Pai and ate our way down the street back to our hotel on the last night. It was fabulous. Not pictured: an ear of corn on the cob that I scarfed down before we had time to take a photo…

Curry Puffs, 3 for 20 Baht

We had a chicken BBQ skewer for 20 Baht

We stopped for some Beef Curry and Rice from the Indian Food street vendor for 60 Baht

She also had delicious Samosas for just 5 Baht apiece!

We capped our street food dinner extravaganza off with a Chang beer at our hotel bar, where we sat and enjoyed some live music.

Chang Beer, what some locals lovingly call “elephant pee”. WE MISS PACIFIC NORTHWEST MICROBREWS.

We want to hear from you!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten on your international travels? My favorite meal is still a cook-your-own-hot-plate meal we ate in a dark alleyway in Hanoi, Vietnam last year. We were sitting on tiny plastic stools at a tiny plastic table in a tiny little alley with motorbikes racing by. Sometimes it’s more about the surroundings than the food!

Overeating in Pai, Part 1: Cakes, Pies and Coffees

June 24, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 6 Comments

We recently took a little 3-night trip up to Pai, Thailand to get away from the hustle and bustle of Chiang Mai. Pai is a slow little mountain town that’s super popular with the backpacker crowd and tourists seeking relaxation. There’s not a whole lot to do in Pai other than eat and relax, so we did as much eating as possible. What could be more appropriate than overeating in a town whose name is pronounced “Pie”, anyway? Also, writing about your overeating burns off some of those excess calories. Ok, I may have just made that up, but I’m hoping it’s true. Here are some snapshots of the tasty cakes, pies and coffees we sampled in Pai. Stay tuned for a second blog post of all the non-sweets we had in Pai.

Cakes and Pies in Pai

First stop for some sweets was All About Coffee, a fun spot we found through some fellow traveler’s blogs online.

All About Coffee

Kevin had the Binoffi Pai on the left, which was sort of like a banana cream pie with chocolate drizzle. I had the Mango Cheese Pie on the right, which was pretty much a cheesecake with mangos on top. Super delicious, but a bit expensive.

Binoffi Pai and Mango Cheese Pie

Next, we learned that Thai folks interpret “Ice Cream Sandwich” concept very literally. We picked up this concoction below for just 10 Baht. It’s literally an ice cream sandwich – a piece of sandwich bread filled with scoops of coconut ice cream, a scoop of sweet sticky rice, sweet coconut drizzle, and peanuts.

The Infamous Thai-Style Ice Cream Sandwich

We also made a visit to the Witching Well restaurant, which we’ve read has delicious cakes and desserts. Their decor is also fun and unique.

Fun Decor at Witching Well

Menu and Decor at Witching Well

Decor at Witching Well

Kevin ordered the Apple Crisp, and I got the carrot cake. Both tasty, both cost 70 Baht.

Apple Crisp at Witching Well

Carrot Cake at Witching Well

We also stumbled onto this street vendor, serving up delicious coconut pancakes. We got two with coconut + corn, and two with coconut + banana. SO GOOD. Don’t miss these if you’re in Pai – it was the best dessert we had there!

Coconut Pancakes – don’t miss these!

Coffees in Pai

All the cakes and pies made us lethargic. Naturally, we sought out some high-caffeine high-sugar beverages as a pick me up. During our visit to All About Coffee, we also snagged some tasty drinks. Kevin got a Siphon Coffee, black, and I had an Upside Down Coffee, which is a shot of espresso on top of sweetened condensed milk.

Kevin’s Siphon Coffee

My Upside Down Coffee

News Flash: Melanie is now addicted to coffee

Kevin kicked back and relaxed at All About Coffee

This is as relaxed as Kevin gets, enjoying some reading at All About Coffee.

We discovered a little cafe called Cafein in the center of Pai with two rocking chairs right by the street. This cafe is situated right across from a motorbike rental place, so we killed several hours watching brand new motorbike riders come up and shakily ride off on their newly rented motorbikes. We saw some of them again later with knees and elbows wrapped in gauze!

Our favorite spot in Pai

Green Tea Latte at Cafein. Spoiler alert – all that green coloring is not natural. My tongue matched the drink after I finished it!

Iced Lattes at Cafein

Wonderful Cafein

Another favorite spot was Cafe d’tist, just down the street from our hotel. They had tasty iced drinks for just 50 baht, and we really liked their Iced Lattes and their fun decor.

Iced Latte at Cafe d’tist

Cafe d’tist

Cute little rocking swan at Cafe d’tist

Enjoying some Iced Lattes at Cafe d'tist

Enjoying another round of Iced Lattes at Cafe d’tist

A stray dog hanging out at Cafe d’tist

Not all our caffeine came from coffee in Pai. We also stopped by Art in Chai, a little coffee house that’s super popular with backpackers. Art in Chai is known for their Masala Chai. For each glass, the barista uses a mortar and pestle to freshly pound up all the spices that go into that cup. We met a few people at Art in Chai who came to Pai on week-long vacation and are still here two years later. A lot of people seem to come to Pai and just never leave!

Art in Chai, backpacker’s paradise

Masala Chai Teas at Art in Chai

I’m almost embarrassed to post all of this. Yes, we were only in Pai for 3 nights, and yes, we really did eat all of these sweets. If you could win a vacation award for eating cakes, pies and coffees, we definitely won on this trip! YOLO, right?

We want to hear from you!

Where in the world have you had your best coffee? There will always be a special place in my heart for Vietnamese coffee, which tastes almost like chocolate.

Getting to Pai from Chiang Mai

June 20, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 5 Comments

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to Pai we go!

The Road to Pai

The road to Pai from Chiang Mai is a stomach-churning nausea-inducing blood-pressure-increasing 80-mile-long nightmare. According to legend, the road has 762 hairpin turns and is one of the most dangerous stretches in all of Thailand. Zoom in on the map below to see all the twists and turns as the road nears Pai – it’s quite the ride! In spite of it being just 80 miles, the drive usually takes 3-4 hours unless you’re a crazy daredevil. Being the idiots that we are, we still wanted to make a trip to the cute little mountain town of Pai, Thailand, but it was harder than we thought it’d be to decide how to get there! We visited no less than 8 travel agencies here in Chiang Mai to assess all of our options.

Option #1: Fly

The quickest way to get there is to take a half-hour flight with Kan Air, a tiny airline that only serves a handful of towns in North Thailand. But they only make the trip Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday, and only once per day! Their flights are close to $60 one way, and were mostly sold out for the next few weeks. Also, as a former Boeing employee, I tend treat small domestic airlines in foreign countries with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Option #2: Public Bus

The word on the interwebs is that a bus fare to Pai costs 150 Baht, or about $4.60. I’ve read that the “air conditioned” busses don’t have very good air conditioning, so what ends up happening is that you’re just stuck in a hot bus with windows that won’t open! Non-air-conditioned busses also make the trip to Pai, but stories of fruit rolling around on the floor and random loose chickens deterred us from bussing it. We’ve only been in Thailand a month, after all, so we aren’t sure we’re ready yet for that experience.

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Option #3: Motorbike

We were encouraged by several strangers to attempt to motorbike up to Pai. Now that we’ve seen the road, we are about 95% sure that motorbiking to Pai would’ve killed us. Neither of us has driven a motorbike before, so a 3-hour trip through the mountains in the rainy season with tons of hairpin turns would have been an absolute disaster. I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t be writing this blog post right now if we had attempted to motorbike to Pai. This road is definitely for advanced motor bikers only!

Option #4: Aya Minivans

When we started looking into the Minivan option, we found that the most popular van operator, Aya Service, has a plethora of terrifying reviews online. Phrases like “don’t use this company if you value your life” and “someone threw up everywhere in the van” were commonplace. Some people’s reviews even said their drivers were acting erratic, like they had used some sort of drugs to stay awake. More than a few people mentioned that the Aya drivers go way too fast, hustling up to Pai so they can load up a new vanful of passengers and race back down to Chiang Mai. We even read a post online claiming that the passengers in one Aya van revolted, forced the driver to pull over, put him in the back seat, and a passenger finished out the drive up to Pai!

Before I snapped this photo, I asked Kevin how he felt about our upcoming journey…

Reading these reviews had us rethinking our trip to Pai altogether. It made us nervous for the trip no matter how we got there, as shown by Kevin’s face in the photo above.

Option #5: The winner, a Minivan with Terminal Green

Luckily, we found Terminal Green! This company operates the same style of 16-passenger minivans as Aya Service, and their tickets are the same price. The fare for a ride up to Pai is 180 Baht (about $5.50) and includes pickup at your hotel/apartment. The ride back down costs just 150 Baht (about $4.60), and ends in Chiang Mai’s Old City, close enough to our condo that we could just walk home afterwards. We could hardly find any reviews online for Terminal Green, but we felt “less unconfident” about them just because of the lack of bad reviews online. It seemed like the least evil of all options. To book the Chiang Mai to Pai portion, call Terminal Green at 081-960-9283 (and be sure to request seats in the front of van!) The return journey can be booked at the Terminal Green storefront in Pai. Seats on the return journey are first come first served for the trip back to Chiang Mai, so you have to arrive early and throw some elbows to sit in the front.

The Journey

We each took some Bonine for motion sickness before leaving the house to head to Pai. This turned out to be a great idea – highly recommend a Bonine pill or two. A Terminal Green van picked us up near our condo at 9:45am and drove us over to the Chiang Mai Arcade Bus Station to load up into another Terminal Green minivan. Try to show up with an empty bladder – it costs 3 Baht to use the filthy bathrooms at the bus station. Do you at least get toilet paper or soap since you paid 3 Baht? No way, man!

This is the ticket counter at the Arcade Bus Terminal where you can buy tickets to Pai

The Arcade Bus Terminal Ticket Counter

We loaded up into the van, packed like sardines. One seat even had two passengers – a mom with her 5 year old daughter on her lap!

One last selfie before the drive – hopefully not the last selfie ever…

By 10:30am, we were en route to Pai. We were probably the only passengers who wore seat belts. Even the driver didn’t buckle up. Luckily, the air conditioner worked well and it wasn’t too warm!

We chuckled at this sign in the van: “Please Expect Seat Belt”

We stopped at a rest stop halfway up to Pai. Using the bathrooms at this stop cost 3 Baht, toilets were of the squatting variety, and it did not include toilet paper or soap. Sigh.

We were glad we brought snacks along – it was a long drive and the food at the rest stop was expensive (and by expensive I mean $3/meal) and it looked like it had been there for more than a few days. After eating our makeshift egg sandwiches (not egg salad… just a boiled egg wrapped in a piece of bread… we are simple folk), we piled back into the van.

Our trusty van which got us safely up to Pai

The trusty steed which got us safely up to Pai

En route to Pai, we drove through a herd of cows on the road and passed several big semi trucks on the windy road. We arrived safely at the bus station in Pai at about 2pm, hungry, tired, and with a Bonine hangover. Luckily, no one threw up in our van. Success!

If we had to make the trip up to Pai again, we would definitely use Terminal Green. They were one of the cheapest options for getting to and from Pai, and we never felt unsafe. We liked both of our drivers – they took their time getting us safely through the mountains and always passed slower cars/motorbikes carefully. We did spot a few Aya vans that seemed like they were really zooming around other cars on the road – several zoomed passed us on our journey – so we were happy with our choice to use Terminal Green.

We want to hear from you!

Have you ever had a terrifying journey on your travels? We want to hear all about it! Please leave us a comment with your story.

Step 1: Skip the traditional hotel!

Step 2: Take advantage of Singapore freebies!

Freebie #1: Gardens by the Bay

Freebie #2: Nightly OCBC Skyway Show at Gardens by the Bay 7:45 and 8:45pm nightly

Freebie #3: Water and Laser Light Show at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Freebie #4: Marina Bay Sands Casino

Freebie #5: Sample a Singapore Sling at Changi International Airport

Step 3: Eat at Hawker Centers!

Step 4: Get yourself some of that free wifi!

Step 5: Be prepared to walk a LOT

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Hong Lim Hawker Stalls

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Drinks

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Cakes and Pies in Pai

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The Road to Pai

Option #1: Fly

Option #2: Public Bus

Option #3: Motorbike

Option #4: Aya Minivans

Option #5: The winner, a Minivan with Terminal Green

The Journey

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