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Carska, Bialowieza, Poland

Orient Express Experience in Białowieża

The Orient Express has always been a very highly placed dream on my bucket list. The old-time splendor, smell of wood, sounds of a riding train and excitement of a new adventure…. Who wouldn’t want it?

Over the years I have searched for Orient Express-like trains… and they were always outrageously expensive. I already made peace with the simple fact that that item will never disappear from my bucket list. Life works in mysterious ways and in the least expected place I found out that my dream could be an affordable reality.

Carska apartments

A couple of years ago we visited the Białowieski National Park to see bison and untouched nature. During one of our bike trips around Białowieża we came across an old train station now adapted as a hotel and restaurant. Quite a bizarre sight considering how dense the surrounding forest is. Back in the XIX century it was one of the favorite hunting places of the ruling Tsar. He loved coming there but the last part of the journey had to be done on horse and was difficult during autumn and winter. To get there faster and easier he decided to create a train station. In 1897 the work was completed, a station named Białowieża Towarowa came to life. With time it became a destination for passengers and goods trains. Somehow the place survived the First and Second World War and years of abandonment. In 2003 its new owner decided to turn it into what it is now… an extraordinary hotel and restaurant.

The first time we saw it, we could only admire it from the outside. It might be affordable for European standards but for our backpacking budget back then it was a vague dream.

Our stay

The idea of coming back there popped in my head as my 30th birthday was approaching. I really wanted that day to be special. After all you don’t say goodbye to your twenties every day.

Carska offers various accommodations in the old water tower, station agent house and… train wagons. It was clear to me that we had to get that last option.

The wagons are designed to bring back that XIX century Tsar splendor and make you feel like you travel back in time. Each of the four is a bit different but all of them are stunning, filled with vintage pictures, lamps and even a peculiar belt opening system for the windows. To maximize the feeling of a train they are connected with a vintage steam engine locomotive. Pure orient express experience… maybe except for the fact that it’s not moving… But we had a solution for that too. We played a YouTube clip with sounds of a moving train. It was just pure magic.

At night the place was pitch dark and it played tricks on our imagination. As we got used to it we appreciated the sounds of nature coming from everywhere, stars including the Milky Way (absolutely no light pollution) and flying owls.

For forest lovers there are amazing paths just a short walk from the wagons that we indicated on the map below.

The food

Carska restaurant serves local cusine inspired by Tsar times. Their menu features a lot of game meat, berries and mushrooms. It’s tasty although quite pricey. They also serve breakfasts that are included in the price for the guests. The quality and quantity really vary per day… and is a bit underwhelming considering that the hotel is rather high-end for polish standards. Once we had an average breakfast in the restaurant room and once in a beautiful hunting room with a huge selection of meat cuts, egg creations, fruit etc etc.

How to get there?

There are buses going to Białowieża but because Carska is situated outside in the forest it’s very recommendable to go there by car. For a more affordable option (if you don’t have too much luggage) you can also rent a bike in Białowieża.

How much does it cost?

One night in one of the wagons costs around 100 eur. Other accommodations vary from 80-130 eur.

More about activities around Bialowieza?

Head to our previous post about it:)

How much does it cost to travel in Malaysia? Our budget and tips

Malaysia is quite a cheap country. For our 69 euros a day for the two of us (34,5 euro p.p) we spent a beautiful 15 days in Malaysia treating ourselves with very nice accommodations and even quite some visits to local cafes. We could have stayed in Malaysia on a significantly lower budget but for those few extra euros we got quite a lot more.

 

Where did we travel?

We didn’t travel very extensively. Malaysia was really like a long stopover for us and we mainly focused on recharging in there. We stayed in Georgetown, Kuala Lumpur and Cameron Highlands.

How did we travel?

We mostly used public transport so buses and in KL the metro. A bus from Georgetown to Cameron Highlands cost us 80 MYR for both of us (around 17 euro).

Sometimes we spent few riggits on uber. Usually it was never more than 9 MYR (2 euro) but in Cameron Highlands where there was no other way to travel around than taxi or a tour we had to pay even 25 ringgit (around 5 euro) for quite a short ride. Generally there the taxi drivers charge per hour and in high season when you don’t want to rent them for several hours or a whole day, they won’t take you at all. Fortunately we were there in a bit of a dead season so the driver gave us the honor.

In total we spent 46 euros on transportation.

Where did we stay?

In all of the three locations we stayed in very nice places. First in Georgetown we stayed in a very nice, huge room in one of those stunning, Peranakan houses. We rented it for 36 euros per night on Airbnb and although we knew we could get a more or less decent room for half of it… we never regretted it.

In Kuala Lumpur we stayed in an Airbnb studio with access to a spectacular view on the city with an infinity pool. More about that here.

Only in Cameron Highlands we couldn’t find anything interesting on Airbnb so we decided to stay in a little, charming guesthouse. There we paid 158 MYR per night (31 euro). More about this one and tea region in general here.

Overal we spent 489 euros on accommodation.

What did we eat?

Only in Kuala Lumpur we had our own kitchen so we cooked a bit there. In other places we were forced to eat out. At first we thought it would be rewarding but very soon we realized that the Malaysian cuisine we knew from Holland had nothing to do with the one in the country. It was fatty, bloody and we were far from being impressed. So to be honest few times we chose for a meal from a supermarket rather than for a restaurant.

In total we spent 162 euros on eating out and that includes 110 MYR (around 23 euros) we paid for high tea for the two of us in Cameron Highlands and various lunches in quite nice cafes. In a normal, local restaurant we would pay around 20-30 ringgit (4-6 euros) for a meal for both of us. That without even choosing the cheapest of the cheapest.

In 206 euros under “food” we included our supermarket groceries, ice creams we bought in convenient stores and many, many, fresh, cold coconuts bravely opened by teenage boys all over Malaysia.

How expensive are museums, tours etc?

In 39 euros under “tourism” we only included our whole day tour with a jeep in Cameron Highlands. For the rest, what we saw was free.

Where did the rest of our money go?

Postcards, laundry, small souvenirs and my dream rattan bag turned out to be 88 euros.  

Money- saving tips and tricks

Malaysia is a pretty cheap country. Transportation, food and even handcrafts are very affordable but…

    1. Bargain! It’s one of those countries where people get those few extra euros off you if you don’t know how much something should cost. Ask for a price up front, bargain or just search for places where the prices are already written.
    2. Choose your accommodation wisely. Decide if you want to go for the cheapest of the cheapest or a bit more luxurious. If the first one it’s best to walk around once you get here and ask around for the best deal. We met people who were literally staying for 2 euros per night, per bed in hostels that were not even mentioned online. If you want to go somewhere clean and really nice, we would recommend Airbnb. It’s definitely cheaper than hotels and often the service and conditions you get are way better.
    3. Eat locally! Food at local food courts and restaurants is really affordable, not to mention the coffee. You get a bag (yep a plastic bag) that would wake up a cow for 50 euro cents. It's surprisingly good, just make sure you take a very basic one without any sugar, butter or the typical Malaysian one that tastes like it was poured from nescafe powder.
    4. Try to volunteer! Always a great idea to save money on food and accommodation and get to know local culture and customs.
    5. Enjoy the free attractions. Street art, nature, animals. You can see all that for free.

     Exchange rate used: 1 Euro = 4.98 MYR

How to save money during traveling?

These days traveling is almost for everyone. There is something for every budget. Although the smaller the budget the more effort and research it costs. After more than 2 years on the road I got pretty good in finding ways to save and I would love to share it with you guys.

Accommodation

That’s the biggest part of any budget and the most essential part of any journey. Everyone has to sleep somewhere, right?

Airbnb

Airbnb offers the most original and interesting accommodations possible. Sleeping in a castle, trailer, hammock or a tree house. All there, it’s just a matter of money. It’s not a cheap option but many times it’s worth the price and there are possibilities to lower the costs. Here is how:

  • Booking your first trip you get a discount on your first reservation. You can also use a discount send by a friend or partner. Inviting a next person into the Airbnb world get you a discount when that person books her/his first stay.
  • Weekly/monthly discounts. Many places offer a special price for longer stays. Some for a week, some for a month. It can be 10% or even 50%. It all depends on the owner. Some places do not even except stays shorter than a certain amount of days. We saw a place in Kyoto that didn’t accept any reservation under 22 days. We managed to get an apartment on Taiwan with a discount of 45% above 28 days stay. If you want to stay longer it’s worth searching for offers like that.
  • Special offer. The host can send you a special offer. We had few situations when we asked about a room and the host just send us a discount to push us to book. Or when he committed a mistake with our booking and had to switch rooms for us. Other times we saw that some spots had discounts for low season. When we started using airbnb we didn't know that the price can be negotiable, now we know that in some situations we can just ask. We got 10 % off in Malaysia just like that.

Booking.com, hostelworld and knocking at the door

Many of you ask if it’s better to book or just show up. There is no simple answer to that. What we usually do is checking few spots we like and compare the prices on booking, hostel world or any other of those pages. Then we check if the hostel has its own web page with better deals. Since hostels need to pay to booking they sometimes offer better prices at their own web page for people to book directly with them. If not it's worth sending an email and asking for a nice deal especially if you want to stay for a couple of nights. Usually staying longer than 3 nights is good enough to bargain. If it’s dead season, you’re aiming for, you can just pop by at the spot and ask. That’s the best option to get the best offer since if you’re not taking the room, there is a big chance no one else will…

If you're really on a tight budget some hostels allow camping or hanging your own hammock (especially popular in Colombia).

Couch surfing

Although we don’t really like that method, you can also consider staying for free with a local via Couch surfing. Make sure you choose your host carefully. Some stories about CS are quite epic and include harassment or stealing. We saw pretty many listings where guys were only offering a place to sleep for ladies and only in their own bed. Often CS offers not much flexibility, you can stay when the host is there but when she/he goes to work you have to go out as well. You are also expected to be rather social so if you don’t click it’s a bit of a miss to begin with. That I’m not gonna mention that both sides can cancel the agreement any time which can leave you on the street…

 House sitting

The idea behind house sitting is taking care of someone else's house while they are away on vacation. It usually involves taking care of animals as well as just being present at the house. We never tried that option during our journey simply because the countries we traveled to didn't have enough options to make sure that we at least got our fee and hassle back (some web pages require recommendation letters and other paper work). But if you're going to Europe, Australia, Canada or the US it's definitely worth trying. I have done it once in Amsterdam for a friend of a friend and I really liked it. You live like a local and stay in a local neighborhood and you also get a companion, dog or a cat or various 🙂 Some of the most popular web pages that other travelers recommended to us are: Trusted Housesitters and Mind My House

 

Transport

Another big part of any budget is transport. Often it can be the most expensive part of the trip. Flying to Colombia can cost way more than staying there for 2 weeks, especially on a low budget.

Flying is the most expensive mean of transportation and whenever we have to book a flight we make sure we book the best possible option. I always stay alert on deals from Secret flying, fly4free and many polish sites like Mleczne Podroze. From fly4free we got, for example, our flight Paris- Buenos Aires for 380 euros each.

Because I'm still a bit of a planning freak I also check skyscanner, kayak and momondo frequently. We also signed up for many airlines newsletters.

For others transportation we ask locals around about deals for buses or in some countries we bargain. In most Latin American countries that’s what you absolutely need to do. Leave your shame behind and do your best, otherwise you’re gonna get a true “gringo” price (gringo- white foreigner, in some countries the word is used for the white visitors from the US).

Food

The best way to save money on food is to cook as often as possible. To do that we always tried to get a place with a kitchen. We also always tried to use local ingredients rather than the ones we knew and loved from back home. Humble mozarella can be cheap in Europe but in Colombia the price can leave you speechless. So forget what you know and sail away in the supermarket. Reading some food blogs beforehand is not a bad idea. Otherwise you really don't know what you buy and how to prepare it.

Second best is eating locally, in the most crowded places. Giant queues give you a better chance for good food and a reasonable price.

Others

Great way of saving money as well as getting to know the country from the inside is volunteering. You can do that via web pages like workaway (for hostels, farm work, English teacher and pretty much anything), WWOOFing (farm work) or just ask around once there. More about volunteering read our post here.

If you have certain skills you can also exchange them for accommodation, food or excursion. Let’s say you speak Spanish and English, you can translate on a hike and go for free or even get paid. That's what I did on the Ciudad Perdida hike. Same with skills like photography, web design or cooking. Imagination is the limit! The most crucial part is to ask. Those who don’t ask always miss opportunities.