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Lifebyte have combined with backpacking gurus
STA
Travel to compile a list of the
planet's Top Ten Travel Bargains — places
you'll be so proud to be British you'll break
into strains of God Save The Queen in appreciation
of your purchasing power.
1. Hong
Kong — Star Ferry
Cost: 7p one way
Think what 7p buys you at home: maybe a pack of
Sainsbury's own-brand peas. In Hong Kong, though,
where generally 7p won't go too far either, you
can still get one of the world's great bargains:
a journey aboard the Star Ferry from Hong Kong
island to Kowloon, one of the world's most spectacular
trips, up there with a Sydney Harbour or Statten
Island ferry.
2. Malaysia
— Taman Negara National Park
Cost: 15p entrance fee
Accessible only by boat, this could just about
be the world's most beautiful rainforest; it's
one of Asia's largest tropical forest reserves,
covering almost 5000 sq km. Compare this to 20p
per cigarette back home.
3. Czech
Republic — Pint of draught pilsner
in Prague
Cost: 20p
Forget £2 a pint — for that price you could
have near a dozen pints of this lovely amber fluid,
and get to be in picturesque Prague instead of
dreary Britain, to boot. And where better to sink
one, two or 10 pilsners than the country that
invented it?
 4. India
— Unlimited vegetarian thali in Madras
Cost: 23p
A curry in a hurry doesn't come any quicker or
better than at Madras' Sri Krishna villa, where
you can tuck into as much curry as you want for
as long as you want. At home, you'll be lucky
to find just one curry for under £3; if you do,
odds are they won't let you ladel your own generous
helping time and again till you feel full enough
to explode.
5. Peru
— Boot repairs in Cuzco
Cost: 80p
Those old docs coming apart at the seams? Despair
not if you're slogging it through Peru, where
you can get 'em restitched for one-fiftieth of
what you paid for them back here.
6. Istanbul
— Turkish bath
Cost: £1.00
Let off some of that pent-up British steam and
relax with a full massage in a Turkish bath for
not much more than a bus ticket back home.
7. Hawaii
— unlimited breakfast at Perry's Smorgy
Cost: £2.45
An unlimited breakfast — including steaks,
full English fry-up and fruit salad — at Perry's
Smorgy in Honolulu will set you back a wapping
£2.45.
8. Bolivia
— a night in a Sorata mansion
Cost: £2.80
A room in a former rubber Baron's colonial mansion
in Sorata, reputedly Bolivia's most beautiful
setting (a big claim in a land this mind-blowingly
beautiful), comes cheap to us loaded British backpackers
at £2.80 a night.
9. Kenya
— Mombassa-Nairobi train
Cost: £4.20
A little joyride on the scenic train from Mombassa-Nairobi
train lumps in a three-course meal and night in
bedded-down luxury — complete with servants
bringing you a cup of tea in the morn.
10. Thailand
— Thai Airways flight Chiang Mai-Mae Hong
Son
cost: £10.00 inc taxes
A tenner will buy you a pair of slippers at home
for a good night in; in Thailand, it'll get you
a flight on Thai Airways from Chiang Mai to Mae
Hong Son, and according to stats at Am
I Going Down, you have a fair chance
of surviving the flight.
— Clay Lucas, with STA
Travel 20.09.00
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