Visa and Travel Insurance and Currency planning for Thailand

Once the Flights are booked, we need to do the next steps:

1. Hotel booking

2. Visa

3. Local tours

4. Travel insurance

5. Thai currency

In this post I will tell about visa travel insurance and currency planning

Visa: 

Though for Indians, Visa on arrival is an option, but we were a bit over cautious. It was our first trip outside the country and we have booked a connecting flight to Phuket from Bangkok. Visa on arrival will take some time even if there is in problem and we did the right thing, we realized later on. Initially we enquired few visa agents and then found all of them actually do the visa from VFS global. VFS global has their office in Kasba area in Kolkata and their dealing over telephone, we found good. So we just a month before our journey we applied for the Visa to VFS global directly and everything went smoothly. Some money saved. We got our Visa in time. The Thailand single entry visa is really costly compared to other countries!  

Travel Insurance:

Though not mandatory but I will never travel without this, if I am travelling outside my country. There are plenty of banks and other agencies who offer travel insurance. It took some time to decide from whom we should buy. Rates also vary considerably. We found HDFC ERGO is most transparent dealing in their site and it can be done easily through their site and no telephonic discussions and other hassles. Their rate is reasonable and I know the company, since I have my car insurance with them. So just a week before leaving country, we did that and took the print out.

Currency:

So many options and it need some simple mathematical calculations to decide, which is most beneficial.

Option 1: Exchange INR to Required Baht - Thai Baht is considerably costly in India.. so not an option. We purchased few hundred Bahts only just to cover immediate first day expenses.

Option 2: Carry INR and change to Baht in Thailand - INR does not get consistent rate at Thailand so not an option

Option 3: Use Credit/ Debit cards - Unnecessary transaction charges - may be considered in Emergency.

Option 4: Carry USD and change to Baht in Thailand. - Yes two times conversion but calculations were showing it is most beneficial. Other advantages are: consistent rate, leftover USD we can use in next trip, very few notes to carry. Just to mention 100 USD note has maximum value. So we calculated our expense and carried the necessary amount of USD with us.

Now the question is from where to buy USD in Kolkata?

Before buying from bookmyforex I enquired local money changers at different places in Kolkata and all were costlier. I heard there is a grey market, but was not interested. ookmyforex is a good site and they are transparent and rates are best. You need to produce return air ticket and visa for buying forex. You can buy USD even if you are not going to USA. For  INR 30000 plus you need to pay by draft or bank transfer. Bank transfer is almost impossible in a single day to any new payee for large amount. So bank draft remains the only option for higher amount of money. What we did, we purchased below INR 30000  in each members name and could pay by cash.