Back in my day .... Yeah yeah I say it all the time I know you can't fight progress and I know I simply have to figure out a way to adjust to this new necessity of booking everything ahead of time but the sticker shock is still a very real thing.
I'm currently trying to plan some extra travel after my friends leave Thailand. I'd like to go to a couple of islands and maybe visit some friends there and in Laos. Quite frankly, I'm finding that the process is taking the fun out of travel.
1. I've been taking a lot of shorter trips lately which makes it more difficult to get better deals and find the hotels that are still not online.
2. I'm going to Thailand in the peak of high season; higher prices, less availability.
3. So many people are traveling to Bali and Thailand now, hotel prices have gone up by 4 to 10 times!
4. So many hotels are online and they get booked up ahead of time by this new generation of traveler.
5. Booking hotels ahead also requires booking and knowing transportation schedules ahead of time.
I do understand that typical travelers on shorter vacations like/need to have a plan made and reservations in place ahead of time. But there are so many casual travelers to SE Asia now that they have A) Set the requirement for a new standard of higher end lodging and B) Leave very little remaining for on-the-fly travel.
I just wrote to my old hotel in the Gulf of Thailand and my 150 baht wooden shack is now 600 baht ($5 vs $20). Sure it's on a beautiful beach, but it's just a bed with a mosquito net in a simple wooden shack, shared bathroom down the dirt path, electricity only a few hours a day. And the $5 ferry is now like a $30 speed boat.
I know if I were on slow full-time travel, I could probably make connections on the ground and find better deals and I'd have time to take it as it comes a bit more.
But what used to be an easy take it as it comes travel style, is no more. I'm spending hours online searching for an available affordable hotel, then searching for the transportation options to get there which also have to be booked ahead of time.
I've always said in my budget travel tips that you pay higher prices when you book online.
I feel like I have to have every minute of my trip planned, and that's not normally how I do things. Arghhhh!
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