Ranee’s

no – Fish Burger

Jetstar Pacific have big plans for the airline to become a leader in the Asia region, “From 2008, Jetstar Pacific will expand its network with more domestic and international flights into South East Asia. In six coming years, our fleet will grow up to 30 Airbus aircrafts. In 2014 Jetstar Pacific’s network will cover most countries in Asia.”

From now, visitors to jetstar.com will be able to book domestic flights in Vietnam as well as the few international services offered.  Future expansion is expected soon.

It will be very interesting to see how Jetstar Pacific can catch up to the regional budget leader. Air Asia.  In a climate of rising fuel costs budget airlines are under pressure to keep fares low.  Having another budget airline in the region will certainly increase that pressure.

I use AIS’s 1-2-Call service for my local number in Thailand so this post only relates to their service. 1-2-Call is a prepaid service and you can buy refill cards from any 7-Eleven and loads of other places. To buy a SIM card visit an AIS shop. There are a few choices including a SIM card that maintains credit for 1 year – good if you are visiting Thailand often.

So just buying the SIM card and activating it will give you a local Thai phone number. If your phone is GPRS enabled you should also be able to access the internet from your phone. The charge is 1 Thai Baht (THB) per minute if you don’t buy a package from AIS.

There are a number of packages available that make access really cheap. I recently bought 5 hours access for only 50 THB (about US$1.65). This lasts for 30 days and the cost is deducted from the credit you have on your phone. To buy internet access packages call *138 and follow the English instructions. Calling *139 checks your balance.

It is really easy to use and will make those long bus journeys more fun as you’ll be able check your emails and surf the web for very little cost.

The costs for checked luggage are cheaper if you book advance but you can pay at the airport for a higher price. The per person baggage allowance remains at 15kg and anything above this will be charged at excess luggage rates.

Prebooked luggage costs approx US$1 per piece while the airport rate is approx US$1.66.

You can view the full policy details and charges chart on the Air Asia website.

Vancouverite joins 500-km tour of Vietnam
Suzanne Fournier, The Province
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

After a lifetime spent selling real estate for the federal government, Dal Fleischer plans to spend his 60th birthday riding a unicycle through Vietnam.

“I’m retired and now I can have fun on a full-time basis,” said Fleischer, who will be among 25 or more people from all parts of the world on an epic 500-kilometre journey from Hanoi to Saigon.

The Uninam Unicycle Tour, which insists on its website that it is “not a joke,” is a well-organized and environmentally friendly ride by “reasonably normal people” who will raise money for Oxfam New Zealand.

Fleischer of Vancouver, who has been to Asia several times but never to Vietnam, is no stranger to international travel, having organized tours to Russia, Turkey and Mexico.

“I’m predominantly in favour of fun,” says Fleischer, who lists “drinking beer” as his diversion of choice, but he notes that riding a unicycle also requires skill, balance and superior leg, abdominal and core strength.

The unicycle breaks down barriers and starts conversations on 20-kilometre jaunts around False Creek and the Stanley Park seawall, notes Fleischer, and he expects it to do the same in Vietnam, where bicycles abound.

Fleischer, who rides a 36-inch-wheel unicycle, says the tour from March 5 to 25 will average about 70 km a day.

The tour, organized by New Zealand unicyclist Ken Looi and Grasshopper Adventures, costs about $1,300.

Applicants should be able to ride a unicycle at about 14 to 16 km/h on flat roads and be skilled at riding in traffic, which is especially helpful on Vietnam’s crowded and dangerous roads.

Fleischer admits he doesn’t wear a helmet in False Creek but will in Vietnam.

“Riders must also be nice to their support crew and buy them a beer during the tour,” Looi warns on his website.

Unicycle rides are becoming more common, with tours in the past few years of Laos, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, Europe and the U.S.

Unicycles now have gears and can travel as fast and far as bicycles, claims Looi.

Fleischer leaves Vancouver today for Florida, where he will be in “spring training,” until he leaves for Vietnam.

see more on this tour at: www.grasshopperadventures.com

Depending on your nationality visas are available on entry into Laos for the following prices (in USD):

• Australia – $30
• Canada – $42
• Eastern Europe – $30
• Hong Kong - $30
• India – $40
• Japan - free
• New Zealand – $30
• Western Europe – $35
  • except for France $30, Germany $30, Sweden $31
• USA – $35

Anyone traveling to Delhi should take note that hotel prices in this crazy city are not the bargain that you might expect. Having spent more of my time in South East Asia and China I was surprised to see that a simple 3 star hotel in Connaught Place is going for more than US$150 – a similar room in a hotel a few stops away on the Metro in the ‘rustic’ suburb of Karol Bargh is still US$80.

In Bangkok a mid-class hotel like the Viengtai Hotel, which we use for some of our groups, is under US$60. And for this you get a great location, a swimming pool and a room that is big enough to comfortably hold 2 people. The rooms in Delhi were small and tired, many didn’t have outside windows.

The US$150 hotel I just stayed at in Delhi would sell for about US$30 in Bangkok.

The cause of all this, according to a friend who works for a tour company in Delhi, is that with all the business people traveling through Delhi setting up deals, visiting their call centres and making lots of money, hotels are able to charge whatever they like. With multi-million dollar deals in the works businesses don’t care if the person making it happen pays US$500 a night for a hotel. Those traveling on smaller business budgets are still able to pay high prices because the comparative prices with the US and Europe still make it relatively cheap. All of this has had a pull up affect on all hotel prices. The city is under supplied in peak season so hotels can charge these crazy prices.

So if you are heading to Delhi between October and March don’t necessarily think that you’ll get what you pay for. Instead you’ll get what the hotels decide to give you for your budget.