India trip 2017 november

Not much changed atleast near Palavakkam, ECR road, chennai.
Due to rains, roads are severely affected, pot holes, stagnated water, stray dogs everywhere.
However coffee still costs only 10/-, its amazing how after many years its still the same.
I had a haircut near Gundur, Tiruchinapalli which costed 50/- and a shave for another 40/-, it was incredible, I was so happy that I tipped him 10/- but I regret now, I should've tipped 50/- atleast as it was one of the best I had.
I bought vegetables near Tenali, the prices were ok, 7/- for 250 gm of tomatoes, 45/- for 1 kg onions which looked expensive as I remember we used to buy onions for 2/- 10-15 years before.
Guava became so expensive, 3 for 20/-, not sure what happened, pomegrante were cheap, 6 for 50/-
Corn - 10/- each which was delicious.
Beeda/pan were between 12-15/-
Overall i felt that there is still some value for 10/- in small towns

Thailand trip

So many things to cover and our short trip has a lot of memories.
Krabi ao nang beach:
Everything near the beach is expensive, if you go away then its cheap, we got coconut water for 20 bhat in the town, 40 bhat at some other point of the town, whereas its 60 bhat in phuket (patong), 70 bhat in phi phi island.

TaxiFares:
Airport transfer from phuket to patong is 800 bhat if you book at the airport but our tour agent (mu mu) later said we can get for 600 bhat if we know people.
Airport transfer from ao nang beach to krabi aiport is 500 bhat.

We booked a small auto, its a 4 wheeler similar to tuk tuk, we bargained with the person for local sight seeing, initially he said 500 bhat and he would take us to krabi town, later once we started, he was observing my watch, attire and asked where we were from, when we said malaysia , he p increased the price and said 500 bhat for 1 hour, we bargained a lot and finally settled for 700 bhat for 2 hours.

Currency exchange:
We bought a mastercard currenct card from travelex.com.au , the rate was ok ,24.8 bhat for aud but we were not aware of the fees , none explained.
The reality is for every atm transaction in thailand, there is 220 bhat fees and 89 bhat charges, and around 5% service charge for card use, we lost close to 1500 bhat due to this.
The best way to get money is to bring AUD hard cash and then exchange locally in thailand, they give great rates, 25.5$ which is more than the prevailing rate.
Thailand is like Indian villages and towns, cash is the king.
Generally people are very hardworking and they are the best in hospitality, wr haven't seen a single begger anywhere, all the roads are very clean, they really care for their roads, they take care of their waste, we see bins everywhere.

Massage:
Thai massage shops are everywhere, its cheaper in Krabi, even near the ao nang beach, its 200 bhat for traditional, 300 bhat for oil massage which is cheaper to those in Phuket, Patong. In Patong, prices vary from 400 to 700 for oil and 300 to 400 for traditional, it depends on the area.