Thailand

[Wallachie]

I know a few members on here are either going, or considering going to Thailand in the next few months, so having just come back last week I thought I would post a mini review!

Our first 2 nights were spent in the Mariott Resort & Spa on the river. Lovely resort, fantastic pool, surrounded by lush gardens, palm trees and has views towards the river. Staff were fantastic, all spoke good English and were always on hand to assist in anyway they could. I would recommend this resort to anyone, families, couples or simply a group of friends. We didn't do the Grand Palace or any of the other usual tourist things, as we'd seen them last time. Spent the evenings on Koah San Road, which is simply awesome! Great craic, and full of fellow travellers who are all up for a party! Plenty of good bars and clubs along the road, and thankfully sleaze free! You won't get hassled much here until you hit the end of Koah San Road, then the Tuk Tuk drivers pester you to go with them to a ping pong show! Do this once, and once only! It's worth seeing, but be careful because the Tuk Tuk driver, and the staff at the ping pong emporium will do all they can to extract as much money from you as possible, in both legal and illegal ways - make sure your valuables are well hidden! As for the ping pong show itself, use your imagination and you will only be halfway there!! It will make your eyes water!!

From Bangkok, we flew with Bangkok Airways to Koh Samui, which is to the East. Flights cost about £100 return. We stayed in a resort called the Chaweng Buri, which is right on Chaweng Beach, the most popular area of Samui. Very commercialised, very busy but good all the same. Most of the people we met were from Oz, NZ, Germany and Israel, surprisingly few British travellers. Samui has a good nightlife, especially one square halfway down Chaweng Beach Road, where there are numerous bars and clubs in a pedestrianised area. Top bar/club was Green Mango, which is mostly open air, with a bamboo type roof! Most bars/clubs close at 2am, but there is a cool bar called the 'Swimming Pool Bar', for obvious reasons!! That is open until about 5am, then you can go to Club Solo, which is fantastic (pretty much open air) and open until about 7am! A must see in Samui is the Big Buddha, which is on the East side of Samui, and is a 15m hight gold buddha!! Well worth seeing, especially around 4 or 5pm when the sun is starting to come down. Make sure you are dressed respectively here though, or the Buddhists won't let you near it, and shoes are not allowed.

We spent 3 days in Samui, then headed to Haad Salad by catamaran (Lomprayah is the company who run the boat) to the North of Koh Phangnan, this was really just to totally chill out for a few days and do some snorkelling. We stayed in a bungalow at Salad Beach Resort, which was great, modern and friendly and right on the beach, it also had a lovely pool which was handy rather than running into the sea all the time. The beach here was quite nice, but the sunsets were amazing! Pretty good for snorkelling also, but you have to swim a few hundred metres out to get the good reef. Not much to see on this island really, a few waterfalls in the middle of the island and some spectacular views from many parts on the island. I would recommend renting a jeep or a moped and travel around for a day. Phangnan is most famous for it's full moon parties, but we missed that. Full moon parties are nuts apparently, and you need to have your wits about you if you attend one. I've heard many stories of people getting mugged whilst out, breaking into hotels and bungalows is apparently common place! These parties take place at Haad Rin, which we found to be full of hippies!! My advice would be stay clear of Haad Rin unless you're going to a full moon party, stay to the North of the island, most of the nice resorts are there.

We left Phagnan and got the Lomprayah catamaran to another small island called Koh Tao. This is predominantly a diving resort, and in peak season you may not get any accommodation unless you sign up for a dive. Most, if not all the resorts are dive resorts, with their own boats, instructors and daily courses and dives. This place was the highlight of my holiday, gorgeous place with fantastic sunsets. We stayed at the Coral Grand Resort on Sairee beach, which is on the West Coast of the island. There are lots of nice little bars scattered right along this beach for night time entertainment! During the day, snorkelling was my main pastime, which was amazing!! You only needed to swim out about 100m, and the coral was teeming with life!

From Koh Tao, we got a speedboat back to Samui, spent another night here to do some shopping and boozing!! Next day we flew back to Bangkok, and stayed at the Bangkok Conrad, which was fantastic, best hotel of the trip, only let down by the pool area. The Mariott had the best pool area by far! Spent the last night shopping down Koah San Road and Patpong market, got some great bargains such as watches, T-shirts, DVD's and CD's (all copies of course and only about £1.20 each!!)

So, that's about it - a bit long winded and I've probably missed loads out, but feel free to quiz me about anything I may have missed. I'll add some photos shortly.

[FiftyPence]

Excellent review, im glad you enjoyed the place and the pics are phenomenal.

I heard that the cost of living there really is miniscule when compared to the UK. Can you provide an example of this, ie how much is the hotel, what are the prices of a few everyday items?

[Mastermofo]

well when i went - 3 yearsa ago....

decent 4+ star hotel GBP30-40 per nite

(room on KSR as above....4-7quid per nite)

beer..50-90pence for large bottle

dinner in mid level nice resteraunt for thai food 3-6quid each

prices do vary but this is what i was paying

great place to go and after paying for flight 450-650 you can live well on such a small amount of money

[Wallachie]

[ QUOTE ]

I heard that the cost of living there really is miniscule when compared to the UK. Can you provide an example of this, ie how much is the hotel, what are the prices of a few everyday items?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, it is very cheap in most places! On average a local beer (Chang or Singha) will cost you £1 in a bar, once out in the islands this can be cheaper still. In Bangkok though, prices can vary quite a lot. A packet of cigs will cost you about £1 (mostly Marlboro Lights), a bottle of water costs about 30p. Food is really cheap, a good meal can cost as little as £3 each, but this can go up to UK prices depending on where you go.

If you ever go, try the Bed Supper Club in Bangkok: -

http://www.bedsupperclub.com/

[Soapsuds]

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

I heard that the cost of living there really is miniscule when compared to the UK. Can you provide an example of this, ie how much is the hotel, what are the prices of a few everyday items?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, it is very cheap in most places! On average a local beer (Chang or Singha) will cost you £1 in a bar, once out in the islands this can be cheaper still. In Bangkok though, prices can vary quite a lot. A packet of cigs will cost you about £1 (mostly Marlboro Lights), a bottle of water costs about 30p. Food is really cheap, a good meal can cost as little as £3 each, but this can go up to UK prices depending on where you go.

If you ever go, try the Bed Supper Club in Bangkok: -

http://www.bedsupperclub.com/

[/ QUOTE ]

You think BKK is cheap, jump on a flight over to Vietnam (£70 return) and it MEGA cheap there, the people are friendlier and the place is much less westernised! Only place i have been in the world WITHOUT an McDonalds / KFC!!

Beer in Hanoi (capital) is currently 5p for a 1/2 pint glass, or 25p for bottles beer (650ml) and food is about 20p starter 50p main course in a restaurant!

Been to Bangkok 5 times and loved it! Stayed in that Marriot Resort too - lovely place! Been to Nam twice (just got back 1 week ago) and its even better!!! Get there boefre the tourists hit big time and the prices go up.....

[rsvmilly]

Newbie here so hi to all.

I've been to SE Asia a few times and have friends out there - one a diving instructor on Koh Tao, another living on KP, not too far from Haad Salad. I agree with avoiding Haad Rin - the place is a dive and if you want to go to the Full Moon parties then taxis run from all over the island. No need to stay in the place.

Mr(s) Avant is correct that Vietnam made Thailand seem expensive although I never found beer as cheap as that. Did you visit the Funky Monkey or see Les Marionettes d'eu? (sp?)

I went to the bedsupper club in BKK and found it architecturally interesting but the aircond was way too powerful and the beer, at 180B a bottle, was overpriced.

I've always been to Thailand on a budget so if anyone wants to know how to do it on the cheap then by all means ask. Only thing I won't skimp on is the flight - it has to be direct, so either EVA, Quantas or BA - in that order.