EcoSea Adventures Asian Cheap Hotels Budget Guesthouses Discount Flights PADI Dating Visas

Beijing Cheap Hotels for olympics

2008-07-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about Beijing I am kinda of sad that I will not be going one of the things that I have allways wanted to do is go to a Olympics and watch the fun I am sure there is no better people watching than a this major sporting event that is going on in the Chinese capitol as well as some of the football that will be in Shanghai.

Cheap hotels are going to be a problem to find When i went there we found many on the south side of Tiamen Square and some of them were so small that i quess they will be the last ones to fill up check out the links has a map to show you where to look for the budget accomodations. Good Luck and have fun

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Bali Cheap Flights & Visas in Singapore

2008-07-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

In Bali Diving and when I am not diving in Bali it seems like the conversation always goes towards really Cheap flights Bali to Singapore and Indonesia Visas. Anyone familiar with Bali knows that these two subjects really are one as you need to get cheap flights to Singapore to renew your visas as you cannot do inside Indonesia. Each type of Indonesian visa is different on the number of times that you can renew, but most of them require that you leave at least every 6 months and go somewhere to get a new visa. The Indonesian government also as I understand it change the rules pretty often so it makes for some confusion. For most people Singapore is the place to do a visa run to as it is the closest and the cheapest place that you can get to. In theory you can get the visa overnight once you get to Singapore if you use a agent.

I still cannot get over how much Bali reminds me of Hawaii especially on the ride up to Tulamben where you have the mountains in the distance almost can imagine it is the east side of Oahu. The one thing that is very different is the terraced rice fields they really are some thing to behold.

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Batam a good place to save money is catch a flight to Batam then cross to Singapore on the ferry.

Tiki Hut Sihanoukville Guesthouse Cheap hotel that you should check out!

2008-07-03T23:38:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened that I wanted to talk about when I was getting ready to leave Cambodia. I ran into a old friend at the Sorya market in Phnom Penh. Bob who used to own Club Sandwhich was in town with the whole family shopping and we got a chance to do soem catching up. Bob nows has the Tiki Hut a Sihanoukville Guesthouses cheap hotel that you should check out if you are going to be at the beachs in Sihanoukville.

Bob has had since the first day that he moved to Cambodia the best hamburgers and he fogets most times when to stopping pouring when he is mixing drinks which makes his place very popular withthe locals and the expats that come into Sihanoukville when they are on vacation down at Serindipity beach.

some old pictures of sihanoukville that I dug up and one that I stole from Joel.

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Cheap Charley having fun with the New York Times at a dinner on the beach at Treasure Island.

Bob Mick Jan Kieth not in order of appearece. telling little fibs again :-)

Bali Scuba Diving

2008-06-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Off to go scuba diving on Bali north shore we are going to the Liberty Wreck where I had dove last week I understand from Justin one of the instructors at Blue Season Bali that they saw a shark the last time that they dove there which was only 2 days ago. I am hoping that I can spot one today as well. the last shark that I saw was when I was snorkeling in Phuket when we went out to Koh Phi Phi for the day.

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Bali Scuba Diving Adventures

2008-06-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

My first trip out to the awesome Nusia Pedia where we started out at Manta Point. As promised we had a beautiful Oceanic Manta come through and received a real up close look at one of the most beautiful and graceful of the marine animals. We then went and did a couple of drift dives the first was what you would expect with lots of fish and tons of great coral. The 2nd drift dive adventure was a fantastic experience more like flying underwater as you sweep past all sorts of fish including many butterflys and angel fish with the occasional visitors from the deep. I am really looking forward to seeing my first Mola Mola - Sunfish Bali has a reputation as one of the few places in the world where these exotic creatures come on a regular basis.

On the boat there were some freshly minted instructors who had just finished their IDC with Blue Season Bali which imports a course director who has a great record for getting instructors in shape for the IE. Blue Season Bali has a 100% pass rate on the IE IDC a enviable record. I am going to do the IDC Staff instructor here in Bali with Blue Season Bali. For more information on the Bali PADI IDC

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Bali scuba diving in Indonesia

2008-06-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

Bali Scuba Diving is everything that I thought it would be Indonesia is always listed as one of the 10 best scuba diving areas of the world. I have had the pleasure of scuba diving some of the best areas for scuba diving in the world having dove in Hawaii in Waikiki doing the wrecks and Hanama bay as well as lots of dives in Kona Maui & Kauai including the Molikini crater and the famous manta night dive in Kona with Eco Adventures. I have also had the pleasure of diving on the great barrier reef and the thrill of the shark feed out inthe Coral Sea while on the dive livaboard the Taka out of Carins Aaustralia. i have also dove in the Philippines and hundreds of dives in Thailand and Cambodia in Sihanoukville.

So far i have free dived off of the beach in Sanuer on the south end of Bali and I have done the shore wreck dive the Liberty in Tulamben on Bali's north side. I look forward to lots more dives that I will load videos like the one below which shows me swimming into a very large fish ball just off the Liberty Wreck in Bali.

for more pictures go to Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Bali wreck scuba divingMore later!
Have a Great day!
Fred

Bali Indonesia

2008-06-07T01:06:00.000-07:00

I just got to Bali Indonesia by traveling overland taking cheap flights trains and buses from Phnom Penh to Bali. I would like to say that all of the trip was good but there were some sections that were very tiring. The biggest problem was my expectations of what I was signing up for and to be fair their representations were geared towards getting me to sign up for there trips.

On the sleeper train from Jakarta to Surabuya I was expecting that the overnight sleeper would be a berth instead it was a chair that reclined slightly. The other one that there was a misunderstanding again I don't feel that I was entirely at fualt as I did ask alot of questions was on the bus to Bali from Surabuya I bought a first class wxcutive seat and was totally crowed and over booked I made sure to ask how many seats 31 which was the number of seats but they also had people sitting in the isles which they did not tell me would be the case and in addition they also had lots of extra baggage that was in the isles aswell further making the trip to the bathroom a real pain to do.

in looking at the costs afterwards that it would have been just about as expensive to take a cheap flight from Bangkok or singapore to Bali I would have saved a few days and the cost would have been roughtly the same when you added in hotels and taxis and mini buses betwenn the various conviencances.

Below some pictures from the trip.

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Ecotravel in Asia Jakarta to Bali indonesia

2008-06-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

After sitting in Phnom Penh Cambodia and getting rained on everyday I decided that I needed a vacation, most of my friends will tell you that I need a permanete vacation as I am allways on holiday. What can I say lucky me my work is play!

I decided to go overland to Bali and took buses and trains for the whole trip with the exception of one leg from Batam Indonesia to Jakarta. I took the cheap flight from Batam on Sriwejira Airlines for $50 I needed to do this as the ferry was not going to get to Batam for 3 days after my arival and then would have taken another day to get to Jakarta so I took the cheap flight.

I did take the train from Jakarta to Surabuya which took most of the night not a bad trip with one small note the train was sold asa sleeper but was actually a regular train car with seats no beds so i did not get much sleep. Feels like I am jet lagged as the next leg by bus was sold as excutive class and was more like a cattle car as the bus was way over loaded If I had to do the leg from Batam to Bali again I would probbly get a flight out of Singapore which when you add everything up comes out to being just about the same price.

More later

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Koh phi Phi scuba diving swim through in Thailand

2008-05-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

The last time that I went scuba diving was in Thailand off Koh Phi Phi I had a great time and saw lots of cool things like turtles and sharks but one of the funner thing that I did was this swim through I only wish that I had lights for this as the picture is pretty dark tons of great sea fans here.

If you go to Koh Phi Phi be prepared in that there is no negotiation on the prices they are totally fixed even for dive pro's the only break they gave me was a the use of some scuba diving equipment for my travel buddy.

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia flights guesthouses accommodations Blog

Asia coolest coffee shop Nha Trang Vietnam

2008-04-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

What a cool coffee shop here in Asia in Nha Trang Vietnam, I found this coffee shop accross the street pretty much from a great luxury beach resort in Nha Trang the Ana Madera. The resort was nice but one of the highlights of this trip back to Nha Trang by train from Saigon was this coffee shop which had just a ton of art works of every kind spread out in the garden setting a very relaxing place to stop and enjoy your holiday, which if you are like me you are here there and every where, and you really never slow down to smell the beans, so enjoy!

Please see our other blog Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Blog

Asia travel tips new one bring more cash!

2008-04-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to give you a couple of tips

1 bring more money if you are going to come to Asia as everything is getting more expensive at a crazy rate! Milk went from $1 to $1.50, Coffee from $3 to $3.80,
eggs 10 for .6 to ten small for over a buck. Gas is now over $1.25 a liter in Cambodia and Thailand is very similar.

A good friend of mine went online and booked a hotel room online, the hotel never confirmed. The hotel refused the contract rate and wanted more than 25% more than was listed on a major hotel booking search engine! I am not going to ding the engine as it was not there fault.

If you live in the west this is fairly common stuff but has to be very scary for the Khmers and Thais that are already living on the edge. More scary is the price of rice and fish, both of these staples have gone through the roof nearly double what they were a year ago and still climbing like a rocket! I half expect that there will be trouble on that front in the near future here in South East Asia.

the 2nd Asia travel tip is this vodka, take the vodka and stick it into a small bottle and use it as a hand sanitizer. At 60% alcohol by content it is more powerful that the commercial sanitizers and cheaper by weight as well. And hey if the day gets to be a pain you can use it as a stress reliever. Also because it is alcohol you can rub it on your arms and neck and it will cool you down as it evaporates Pretty cool travel tip! Pardon the pun!

bidvertiser

2008-04-13T07:40:00.001-07:00

BDV-303115-BDV

Land sale from Email Siem Reap Cambodia

2008-04-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know why but this seems like it is not quite ligitimate. I don't remember ever giving this person my email and they must know that foriegners are not suppose to own land in Cambodia, unless they have a corporation registered with the Cambodia goverment.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have 10 Hectares of land in Siem Reap along the road
to Banteay Srey Temple (Kulen Mountain) 16km from town
and I want to sell it urgently. The price is very
reasonable just $1.2/m2. I promise it is a very good
land.

Please see the map of my land in the attached file.

With our best regards,

Ousphea
016 30 82 13

PS. This area will be used to build golf club in the
near future.

Phuket Scuba diving in Thailand

2008-03-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

As I have been saying on my blogs. I had forgot how good the scuba diving was over on the Adaman sea I did a couple of dives around Koh Phi Phi and saw sharks and tons of beautiful soft coral below the M/V Dive Asia gets out to the really good diving and for the trip the price is really good. Don't forget tell them EcoSea.com sent you otherwise they will quote a different rate. If you have a group send me a email.

Below the discription for the trip I will place a couple of scuba diving pictures I took with my Sony cybershot with the marine pack underwater housing.

M/V Dive Asia I to the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai & Richelieu Rock departs on Friday the 14th of March 2008 and will return to Chalong on March the 18th around 6 P.M.

4 Nights / 4 Days / 14 dives, air-conditioned cabins - twin share, all meals, fruits, drinking water, coffee, tea, Divemaster, tanks, weights, weight belts, underwater light for the night dives.

Pick up time: 6 P.M. in Kata, Karon and Patong Beach

Last Minute Offer for your Guest: 19,900 Baht Important you need to tell them that you were refered from EcoSea.com to get this special rate!!!

National Park fee of 1600 Baht to be paid by customer directly to Dive Asia prior departure.

For inquiries or bookings, please contact your Dive Asia Team at:

Dive Asia, Kata Beach
Phone: 076 330 598, Fax: 076 284 033
mailto:reservations@diveasia.com

Please see our other blog http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/

Max's guesthouse in Patong Phuket Thailand

2008-02-28T02:45:00.000-08:00

We have been staying at Max's guesthouse in Patong Beach it is always a pleasure to find a little gem like this where you get good customer service clean rooms and everything works the way it is suppose to. Thailand today is getting to be very expensive as the baht continues to get stronger the Baht has actually gone into the 31.xx range and doesn't seem like it is going to get weaker anytime soon.

Patong and Phuket in general are going absolutely crazy even this close to March most of the Cheap Hotels & guesthouse in Phukett and Patong beach Thailandare full.

We are going to go out to Koh Phi Phi tomorrow I was surprised that we could get a cheap ticket of 900 baht round trip to and from Phuket including transfers and the locals are saying that we should be able to get 700 baht air con rooms.
Max guesthouse cheap hotels Phuket Thailand photo

Please see our other blog http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/blog/

Bangkok Cheap days long gone!

2008-02-27T02:41:00.000-08:00

I remember when Bangkok was affordable well ok more affordable than today my Thailand cheap hotel in Bangkok use to cost me $15 now costs nearly $22. I use to buy shoes they would cost me around $25 now a cheap pair of shoes is $35 almost $40 and the reason is the strong Baht to the weak Dollar. In 2000 the baht dollar rate was 46 baht to the dollar, if you are good with numbers you realize that is nearly 40% in 8 years.

The foreign exchange rumor of the day is that Thailand is going to bring the baht down internationally where it is trading around 31, and bring the baht inside Thailand to the same levels instead of having this on shore, off shore rate. So remember if you are coming to Thailand don't buy baht until you get here and wait if you can until you get into town to do your exchange and you will give yourself nearly 3% for the same amount of money.

Don't use credit cards if you want to save money as they are going to bill you at the off shore rate so you are going to pay more, the difference again is around 3% more to see the current foreign exchange rates use these travel tools for ef="http://www.ecosea.com/eco/HTM/travel%20tools.htm">currancy converter

Dating in Thailand has always been a lot of fun. Recently though, it seems like the women aren't as friendly as they have been in days gone past. A guy I know was saying that he noticed the same thing and he says he has more fun dating in Cambodia and Japanese dating is more fun as well if you have the budget to hang out in Tokyo which even the cheap hotels in Tokyo cost almost $75 for a room that you can fit yourself and your luggage into.

Please see our other blog http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/blog/

Dating in Thailand

2008-02-21T03:07:00.000-08:00

Dating in Thailand has always been a lot of fun. Recently though, it seems like the women aren't as friendly as they have been in days gone past. A guy I know was saying that he noticed the same thing and he says he has more fun dating in Cambodia and Japanese dating is more fun as well if you have the budget to hang out in Tokyo which even the cheap hotels in Tokyo cost almost $75 for a room that you can fit yourself and your luggage into.

Please see our other blog http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/blog/

Cambodia Mock USA elections in Phnom Penh

2008-02-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

I just had to write that for the title as the spin on it mimics the election process that we have in the USA today. One of the funny things is that a couple of states might not have their votes counted for the democratic primary's because they had the gall to have their elections earlier, so that they could get their issues actually acknowledged by the politicinas. Thanks to Cheap Charlies hotels Asia for putting that video up on their blog.

Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Discount Flights & Visa: Cambodia’s Mock US Election.

Please see our other blog http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/blog/

Hawaii scuba diving Photos

2008-02-06T03:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures of Hawaii scuba diving in Waikiki. Again if you are visiting in Hawaii from Waikiki hotels the cheap way to get to the Waikiki beach’s is to take The BUS Honolulu's excellent bus system which you can take all the way around the island and you can also take it up the west side of the island to Makaha which is a very beautiful little town on the end of the road.

Picture of Diamondhead the most recognizable landmark in Waikiki and Honolulu Hawaii

Nha Trang Vietnam storms, cheap hotels & guesthouses

2008-02-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

I was talking to friend about scuba diving and he asked where should we go and I responded that I still want to scuba dive in Nha Trang. Vietnam always seems to be getting hit with a storm when I am planning to go there or actually is in a storm when I am there.

When I was in Nha Trang in Aug Sept or Oct it was a last minuite trip as a friend from Saigon asked me if I could help him with a presentation that he was doing. Vietnam charges a fair bit for their Vietnamese visa that you really want to take advantage of them when you do go there.

From Phnom Penh to Saigon is a cheap trip only like $12 each way and to get up to Nha Trang to Saigon Vietnam on the train is about the same in a 1st class sleeper. the Saigon cheap hotels are still around $10 but many are starting to raise their prices I would expect that they will all $15 pretty soon.

Nha Trang Cheap hotels are just a little bit more if you are close to the beach. If you have the budget go for a discount naha trang Hotel or a luxury nha trang hotel on the beach is really cheap compared to other beach resorts for the same quaility.

Nha Trang Vietnam City view

Hawaii Scuba diving near Waikiki Hotels at Haunama Bay peacock flounder

2008-02-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

This is a great video of peacock flounder that I shot at Haunama Bay near Waikiki in Honolulu. Haunama Bay is one of the best scuba diving sites in Hawaii it is only done as a shore dive. Haunama Bay is a protected reserve and so you will see fish and turtles and they don't spook very easy compared to other dive sites in Hawaii.

Haunama Bay is a partially collapsed volcano cone. As a protected area you get many different fish species in one place. Haunama Bay is a great way to spend a day for really cheap. Waikiki Hotels will help you to get there by Honolulu the bus or they can give you directions for your rental car and there is lots of parking that is not a budget buster.

I love to find peacock flounders and show them to other divers as they are so unique. When they are young both the eyes are like all the other fish one on each side, as they get older one eye migrates towards the other, so that both eyes are up. The flounder lays on the sand in ambush and waits for dinner to come to it. The camouflage also protects it from being eaten itself.

Cambodia Scuba diving Photo's

2007-12-25T06:29:00.000-08:00

I am writing a artcle for a Cambodia travel magazine and I was looking through some old pictures from this time of the tyear out at Koh Tang as you can see from the photos there was excent visability that day in the Thailand Gulf just 35 miles from sihanoukville.

Muse in Phnom Penh Cambodia on energy alternative

2007-12-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

I was watching a program last night on TV on energy and i still find it hard to believe that alternative energy is being fought so hard. We will have a real crisis in not so many years if we don't start taking action now to curtail it.

I think everyone can start looking at there lifestyles and figure out how you can reduce reuse or recycle. I recently got a new apartment in Phnom Penh and I replaced the air con with a new one and the difference in the energy bill is $50 a month on average so the new air con will pay for itself in 4 months. now some will say turn the air con off all together I agree if I was comfortable but I am not so I use it as minimally as I can.

I think that in modern society it is impossible to live with out using energy the thing we need to do is use it smartly and move towards renewable I also look for and buy alternative energy stocks DSTI is my most recent buy as they have a non silicon based system that is getting 10% efficiency and is bendable once they can get this being generated in bulk the technology can be used on the outside of buildings to generate electricity.

If you know of a good alternative energy stock please let me know here on the blog thanks

Mosquito, Good trick to kill them with!

2007-12-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

I learned something that I find to be helpful. If you are hunting that mosquito that has been bothering you.. if you lather up your hands when you swat at them they stick to your hand, and then you can put them out of your misery Now that I live in Phnom Penh this is a real good thing to know to lessen the chance of catching dengue fever which will knock the dodo out of you for a weeks at a time if you get a bad case of it.

Cambodia getting more expensive

2007-12-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

i have noticed alot lately that there is a energy tax being applied everywhere in Cambodia and the world, but it seems that it is seen more readily here as one of the ways that the Cambodian goverment taxes is through the gas pump.

From a tax collection stand point it makes sence as you get everybody and every industry by taxing energy. The problem is that you are also raising costs accross the board and not getting any added value. It makes more sence to tax products and industry after they have had a chance to make money with the little bit of capitol that is aailable, so what happens is that companies cannot afford to expand faster as they are just keeping pace with the increases in energy. for a lot of business in Cambodia if the energy was taxed later they would be able to expand which means more jobs and more taxs eventually comming in. It is sad that this is the way it is becuase the ones that lose the most opertunities are the ones that can least afford it.