Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

Good idea. You don't need to plan too much at this time of the year as most of Thailand isn't busy now. If you were to come to Krabi or some of the other tourist hot spots in peak season (Christmas till February) you have to book stuff well in advance. I was talking to one other fellow here yesterday in the pool - three hour chat, have a nice sunburn now - and he told me he books hotels for his Christmas holiday in Thailand a year in advance. Anyway you've got nothing to worry about, book the first and last night in Bangkok and everything in between will be fine as you go along.

Those other photos you mentioned are Jiuzhaigou. Everyone in China should go there at least once, the place is magic.

[MaiPenRai]

Its August in Thailand so you have to expect rain anywhere at anytime. It does rain less in the Samed/Chang area, but it still rains. As mentioned before, you might get 3,4 days of clear sunny skies and then 2,3 of rain off and on all day.

Once again, forget Pattaya area (Jomtien). Always a dreadful beach experience in my mind. Been many times and at all times of the year. A simple google image search will show you what to expect at Jomtien beach. Poor water quality, jetskis/boats, umbrellas and beach chairs dominating the beach and all right along a major road. Plenty of cold overpriced seafood available.

Hua Hin area can be ok if you have the budget to stay at better resorts/hotels with more private beaches.

Skip Phuket (almost anything done in Phuket can be done from Krabi without the Phuket hassles and ripoffs).

Samed, Ao Nang/Railay (Krabi) are definitely the nicer beaches and surroundings. More to do in Krabi area. Samed a true island though.

You can probably find cheaper flights to Krabi on Air Asia. Between 1500-3000 baht depending on time of day you fly.

Most hotels in Ao Nang will offer an airport pickup for about 5-700 baht. You can take the airport shuttle into Ao Nang for about 150 baht I think. Once in Ao Nang, you can buy tickets to get the boat to Railay right at the main corner of the beach and road going up the hill. They usually only leave when the boat is full (30 minutes wait at most). Takes about 15 minutes i think.

If you go to Krabi area, I recommend doing a half day or full day of the mangrove forest kayaking. Cant remember the name of the area but its about 45 minute drive from Ao Nang (your guide will drive you). Great scenery and the more it rains/floods the more places the guides can take you to. Done it 3 times.

7969, those photos of the Jiuzhaigou got me thinking about my next vacation. May hit you up for some advice later..

[7969]

I'll hijack this thread slightly . . . I'll be back in Bangkok for a few days on the 11th. Has anyone on here ever visited any of the rooftop bars in Bangkok for a good view of the city? Preferably with no glass enclosures so as to get better photos. Any that will allow you up there with jeans and flipflops/running shoes? One of my former students from China whose been to Bangkok recommended the Observation Deck of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel near Ratchathewi. Any opinions or ideas? I suppose at 85 floors this place won't be hard to find from the Ratchathewi BTS station.

[GeminiTiger]

August 10th-- just four days until I step onto my plan to BBK.

The question about rooftop bars inspired me, I hope to visit one myself. I found a few.

a few top 10 lists--
http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/eat/rooftop-bars-and-restaurants-998213
http://www.bangkok.com/top10-rooftop-bars.htm
http://news.experiencesoutheastasia.com/2010/07/rooftop-bars-bangkok/
http://www.bangkok.com/rooftop-bars.htm

[7969]

I just arrived back in Bangkok this afternoon. Here's a summary/guide of my seven day Ao Nang/Krabi holiday.

Arrive at the airport and take the Bt 150 bus into Ao Nang. Get the tickets at the bus ticket window at the right as you go down the escalator in Krabi Airport arrivals. The place is small so it's easy to find. The bus takes about 30-40 mins to get into Ao Nang. It stopped right outside the Ban Ao Nang resort that I posted about earlier so I only had to walk across the street to get a room.

The Ao Nang beach itself is at least a couple of km long, probably more. Less busy at the far end but it isn't crowded at all anywhere during August. A day or two over at Railay and Ton Sai beaches is a good idea. Take a 20 min boat ride (Bt200 return trip) there from Ao Nang. The beaches there are nice and they also have rock climbing, and in general it's just nice and quiet (no cars). Yesterday I took a one day trip via speedboat to Hong Island. You stop at a few other small islands along the way for snorkeling/swimming and after lunch spend about 2 hours at Hong Island. Overall a good trip and at this time of the year it will be bearable as there aren't a lot of people going. At Hong Island there were only a half dozen or so other speedboats so it was relatively uncrowded. I can only imagine the chaos on these trips during high season (wouldn't even bother with it then). The Hong Island trip cost Bt 700 via speedboat and Bt 400 via longtail boat. Speedboat is far more comfortable but you may want the local experience of getting splashed with sea water and smelling gas fumes in which case I recommend the longtail I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics and for at least two days our of seven only went out to eat and then spent the rest of the time relaxing on the bed watching sports. As for the weather - we had a 30 minute rain-shower the day after I arrived in Ao Nang and for the rest of the time it was sunny and warm. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

As for the food, loads of good restaurants in Ao Nang serving Thai, Italian, Indian, and they have a decent selection of western style food too. There's also a Burger King and a Mcdonalds. Tons of souvenir shops selling the typical touristy stuff.

On the way back to Bangkok my flight left at 10am but the airport bus doesn't run that frequently, and if I wanted to use that to get out to the airport I'd have to leave town at 06:30 for a 10am flight. Instead I booked a private taxi at a travel agent (Bt 400) and left at 8:15, which was much better.

One of my favourite things about Thailand: Meiji Chocolate and White Milk from 7-11. I buy a few bottles of each daily and mix them about half and half (chocolate is a bit sweet on it's own) for a nice dairy treat. It actually tastes like real milk and is something I don't get enough of in China. Going to miss that when I get back to the mainland. That's about all I can think of for now.

Thanks for those links above Gemini Tiger, I may check those places out too. I've got two more days in Bangkok before heading back to Hong Kong on the 14th.

[7969]

I visited the Baiyoke Sky Tower today, about a 15 minute walk from Ratchathewi BTS station. Bought a ticket for the Observation Deck (Bt300 per person) and went up to the 87th floor. I was not disappointed. Usually when you go to these observation decks what you get is a view through 2 inches of glass full of fingerprints on one side and dirt on the other. Here, at Baiyoke, you're actually outside at the top and there's a wire fence around the perimeter which allows you to shoot photos through it. Oh yeah, the entire top part of the tower revolves constantly so probably not a place for people who are queasy about heights and moving around in a circle at more than 300 metres. I was pleasantly surprised at the setup, and the view from up there is awesome. The weather was great when I arrived around 3pm but by 4:30 it clouded over and I could see rain was on the way. Fortunately, for a photographer, approaching rainstorms are not always a bad thing as you can see here:

Rainstorm Approaching

Shortly after I shot that photo it started to rain (with strong winds too - was hard to stand up straight) so I went down a few floors for a cup of tea and relaxed a bit, before heading back to my hotel. I highly recommend a trip up this tower for anyone going to Bangkok. Typical Bangkok stuff on the way back to the hotel . . . taxis that don't want to use the meter to take you anywhere, or simply don't want to pick up a fare at all, although I lucked out after several minutes and found one to take me to Phaya Thai BTS (had no umbrella with me didn't want to walk). The rain was fairly light during the afternoon but as I got to the road leading up to my hotel there was 6 inches of water that wasn't going anywhere (nothing unusual there - Bangkok drainage) so I had to go amphibious to get back into the hotel. At any rate I was pleased with the afternoon out at the tower so this was a minor inconvenience.

[GeminiTiger]

Another priceless photo 7679.

I'm headed to the airport in 2 hours.

I'm not digging the weather forcast very much it calls for much more precipitation than last week.

[7969]

Moderate rain was forecast for my stay as well, and there was a total of 30 minutes of it in one week. It may just rain for a small part of the day then the rest will be fine, that's typical. I've been in Bangkok for three days now and it's rained about a half hour on each of those days, otherwise the weather has been fine. You're going to have a good time.... I hope you keep us posted on what you do in Thailand.

[GeminiTiger]

Arrived 2 hours late. Slept 8 hours at the Kriss, headed back to the airport this morning to get tickets to Krabi. After that we atre planning to stay at the Baiyoke, just because it's the tallest building in BBK until we go to Krabi.

Visa was a headache (in China), Ill post that later.

[7969]

Anxious to hear what you have to say about it all. I left Bangkok yesterday and got back to my apartment in China this afternoon. . .

[GeminiTiger]

Yesterday went to royal palace, golden Buddha, wat Arun, took a boat ride and taxied to the Eporium, finally took the BTS back to Baiyoke and ordered a tailored dress shirt.

Picked up the shirt this morning, it is excellent, paid 1000 bt for the expensive stuff on second floor, might go back on our return to bbk on the 21st. Took the Bts to to the airport, got return tickets to Krabi four nights later for two people 4600 bts.

Tonight after a short bus ride we are sleeping in the best western just near Krabi beach and we have had rain two days in a row, but only for an hour. Both Bangkok and Krabi have been amazing so far, after I figure out how to disable my netbooks touchpad I'll be able to give more details.

My girl feel asleep just after 9pm, I guess we have had a few long days. Hoping for clearer skies tomorrow, but the sunset and the thai food while watching the sunset was amazing.

misc,

Rented a motorbike as soon as we got to the beach, had a good look over Krabi.

To my surprise I've been able to bargain for all my hotels so far even the Baiyoke.

Sorry for the rambling, this netbook touchpad is pissing me off.

[7969]

[GeminiTiger]

We flew to Karabi and took the bus directly to Ao Nang. We are staying in the Best Western Resort between the two beaches. The room is 1000+350 baht per night and is the biggest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Breakfast isn't special but for extra 350 baht I'm paying or 2 people is quite good. The meals at restaurants have kind of light servings, even fried rice or something so a good breakfast buffet is nice.

Some rain again today, didn't stop us much and it is supposed to clear up now.

[7969]

If that's the same hotel I posted a link to earlier then when you walk out the front of the place turn left and walk about 50 metres. The Indian restaurant that has a few guys (one of them is a skinny guy who chats up everyone) hanging around out front is pretty good. Ate there a few times last week. There's also an Italian place with a good special right near that,- Margharita pizza with a decent salad and some garlic bread for about Bt150. If you turn right out of the hotel the two restaurants right next to it are pretty good too. One is called Sabai Sabai (nice Chicken Pad Thai) and I forget the name of the next place but it's also pretty good.

[GeminiTiger]

We went to the other best western that is another 100 meters down the road and goes slightly up hill off the main road. We had a pizza and some kind of Italian pasta with meat in it at that place last night. We also planned to visit the Indian place but my gf walked alone near there to return out motorbike helmets and apparently the guy was really rude to a pack of girls. So that is out for us.

We spent the day on Riley, ate at a place between the two beaches called "Local Thai Food Restaurant" great food, perfect blue sky, got burned to hell. Headed near the Starbucks to get some Indian or Thai food for dinner.

One more full day and night in Aonang, that will go quickly. But we have 2 days Bangkok and no plan for that.