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coryallan
Joined: 20 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:27 pm Post subject: Recommendations for Thailand |
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Hey,
I am going to Thailand for Chuseok, I will be arriving Tuesday evening in Bangkok and then taking a domestic flight to Phuket arriving at 11pm. Just hoping to get some recommendations for where to go/what to see in Phuket. I will be in Phuket for 2 days so want to do as much as possible (did a lot of relaxing in the Philippines in July).
After Phuket I will be headed back to Bangkok where I will be doing a Gibbon tour for two days, I will have just the evening in Bangkok to do some touring (what was the best thing you did/saw in Bangkok?)
Ive looked at a bunch of websites and blogs already, as well as lonely planet but just wanted some recommendations from some of you!
Thanks in advance |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| The best place thing to see in BKK if you have a short time there is probably Wat Phra Kao, the imperial palace, but it might be difficult to see if you only have an evening. |
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DeMayonnaise
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| The best place thing to see in BKK if you have a short time there is probably Wat Phra Kao, the imperial palace, but it might be difficult to see if you only have an evening. |
It closes at like 2 or 3pm, so it's impossible to see in the evening. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:06 am Post subject: |
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Phuket has nice beaches, awesome nightlife, a zoo, an aquarium, and lots of tourists.
If beaches are not your thing, maybe see the Big Buddha. Or squeeze in a trip to Phi Phi Islands. I rather liked them.
Maybe just take 2 days and hang around Patong or Karon. It is good for a while. |
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coryallan
Joined: 20 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:48 am Post subject: |
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Thanks a lot everyone, keep the recommendations coming  I think we are just gonna chill out near the beach and rent some scooters!!
Quick question, is it better to exchange to U.S. dollars in Korea then exchange in Thailand, or just exchange Korean won to THB. Also should we just exchange it at the airport in Thailand?
Thanks again |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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You can get Thai Baht in Korea at Woori Bank or KEB.
| coryallan wrote: |
Thanks a lot everyone, keep the recommendations coming I think we are just gonna chill out near the beach and rent some scooters!!
Quick question, is it better to exchange to U.S. dollars in Korea then exchange in Thailand, or just exchange Korean won to THB. Also should we just exchange it at the airport in Thailand?
Thanks again |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject: Re: Recommendations for Thailand |
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| coryallan wrote: |
| what was the best thing you did/saw in Bangkok? |
Climbing Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) was the best! It was close to dusk, comes after a riverboat ride to it. The stairs are steep but you can CLIMB the temple, it's open for that, and the view from the top, and the awareness that it was the skyscraper of the premodern age, is pretty awesome. Pictures always show the temple, don't show the great view FROM the temple looking outward to the city. I stayed one night in the highest hotel in the city, on the 72nd floor, but the view wasn't as majestic as it was from the temple of dawn (as seen near dusk).
http://www.travelart.com.my/images/profile/350a4d32-e91c-49f5-a69e-cb9c1356785cWAT%20ARUN.jpg |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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| coryallan wrote: |
Thanks a lot everyone, keep the recommendations coming I think we are just gonna chill out near the beach and rent some scooters!!
Quick question, is it better to exchange to U.S. dollars in Korea then exchange in Thailand, or just exchange Korean won to THB. Also should we just exchange it at the airport in Thailand?
Thanks again |
Scooters in Thailand are a BAD idea. If you do, prepare to get ripped off badly and please be aware that Thailand is the WORST PLACE ON THE PLANET for tourist traffic deaths and it is directly linked to scooters (better to just paint a target on your back and a sign that says shoot me). [don't believe me - ask the tourist police - 1155 from any phone.]
As to currency exchange -
Buy 10k baht at the airport IN KOREA (the smallest bills you can get) and take the rest of your travel money in US$. Many places don't take credit cards (unless you are staying in 3* or better. You WILL pay a premium for using them (3% or more). If you use an ATM you WILL pay a service charge of 120-150 Baht PER TRANSACTION ($4-5) from the Thai bank PLUS any service charge that YOUR BANK levies for international use.
DO NOT TAKE WON OUT OF KOREA. You will lose 25% or MORE if you do compared to exchanging won to $ in Korea and then $ to Baht in Thailand.
Take US$ or EUROS (which ever you are more comfortable with).
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LDJS
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
Phuket has nice beaches, awesome nightlife, a zoo, an aquarium, and lots of tourists.
If beaches are not your thing, maybe see the Big Buddha. Or squeeze in a trip to Phi Phi Islands. I rather liked them.
Maybe just take 2 days and hang around Patong or Karon. It is good for a while. |
Kata noi = best beach to stay at in Phuket. Gorgeous and with non of the main roads and cars that the bigger beaches have. Very nice locale, laid back and nice bars, restaurants, coffee shops and good affordable guest houses. I would have gone soemwhere smaller than Phuket though for just 2 nighs, Phuket is very big and doesn't even feel like an Island.
I 2nd the day trip to phi phi OR the James Bond rock, it's a cool boat trip and you get to canoe through some caves. You can do both in a full day. Phi Pi is SO OVERRATED though. Because of it's filming location for the film 'The Beach' you'll be soicalising with trust fund recnt grads who are pseudo hippies with thai dye t's and fake dreads spouting pseudo philisophical blather. Lots of unfinished construction sites too and Western junk food stores and ATM's on every darned corner. But you can do a one day trip there (incorporated with Jame's Bond Island tour) and snorkel off the boat (gorgeous clear waters) and the beaches are admitedly very nice when free of pseudo hippies and construction debris.
If you're adventurous try a visit to Phatpong for pee shows and trannies etc. Not saying you're into that but kind of interesting to see that side of life (or possibly disturbing.)
China town in Phuket is awesome too with some amazing and diverse meals if you ask / hunt around. I saw a frog the size of my head almost in a Chinese restaurant window. Went in and discussed options. She skinned, gutted it and fried it with rice. Very tasty.
You WILL need a scooter in Phuket though if you know how to ride one as it is very big. I think Ttompaz is exagerating, (no offense) I've ridden them there and had no probs, jut be sensible. They are cheap, don't worry about rip offs, just ask around and see what the average price is first.
If all that sounds like too much hastle just stay at the main beach but be warned you might as well be in Itaewon with a beach for all purposes, very not charming or idylic.
Bangkok China Town is the oldest and biggest outside of China in the world (started in the early 1700's and spans several city blocks.) AMAZING markets and the FOOD will knock you for 6. Wow, is the food good there! Also so many cool temples too see there, so colourful and breathaking.
Yeah, the temple of the jade buddha and the palace and the temple of dawn (wat arun) are MUSTS. They will fill a day just those 3 with some other nearby sights and meals and they WILL take the breath away of all but the most jaded travellers. I love Bangkok despite the traffic and pollution, it is a colurful, thriving, gorgeous, inspiring monster nebula of a city and just walking around getting lost and sampling food is a brilliant day out. Please, please do not waste your short time there on Khao San road! If you do just go there in the evening for a few drinkie poos and to witness the bizzare spectacle that it admitedly is in all it's gawdy, disney world for traveller's beauty (or not.) I don't reccomend staying at the cheapest motel in town. I did for 100 baht a night as that was all I had plus the airport tax until I got back to Korea. Was gonna sleep in a park bench but was put off by the stories of those huge lizards they have there like Komodo Dragons. Rock solid mattress, no a/c and lizzards / gekkos climbing up the walls! Very 'The beach!.'
Just thought I'd share.
Enjoy your time there, I garuantee after such a short taster, you will want to go back.
Man I want to go again now! |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| LDJS wrote: |
| Bangkok China Town is the oldest and biggest outside of China in the world (started in the early 1700's and spans several city blocks.) AMAZING markets and the FOOD will knock you for 6. Wow, is the food good there! Also so many cool temples too see there, so colourful and breathaking. |
*Yawn* ... Been to too many chinatowns I guess. Ain't any better than San Francisco's, and of course if you've been to Beijing don't bother unless you have a hard on for all things Chinese.
| LDJS wrote: |
| Yeah, the temple of the jade buddha and the palace and the temple of dawn (wat arun) are MUSTS. |
Hell ya!
| LDJS wrote: |
| Please, please do not waste your short time there on Khao San road! If you do just go there in the evening for a few drinkie poos and to witness the bizzare spectacle that it admitedly is in all it's gawdy, disney world for traveller's beauty (or not.) I don't reccomend staying at the cheapest motel in town. |
Seconded on both counts. Khao San Road ain't worth the trip out there to the edge of the main part of the city (though it ain't too far one one nice huge mall, across the bridge). And don't go cheap with motels. A $30 difference is HUGE in Bangkok. Really, pay an extra 1000 baht and get quality. It's worth it! Go cheap elsewhere where there is some sort of charm or novelty to cheaper accommodations because Bangkok is NOT the place for that.
| LDJS wrote: |
| I garuantee after such a short taster, you will want to go back. Man I want to go again now! |
Yeah, the funny thing is... I was happy as hell to get out of Bangkok and head down to the beaches. I was happy again to escape to Chiang Mai in the north. I am no fan of pollution, traffic and humidity. But that dang city of Bangkok beckons and I'm sure I'll be back there two or three times more before my Asian stint is over. And it's such cities that make me feel the dreaded question in my bones: Can I ever go back to my dull home town and settle down after experiencing world class cities like Bangkok? Gawd, I'd rather be stabbed to death on the streets of Buenos Aires than die bored in my home town's retirement center. PROSPER! WHETHER YOU LIVE LONG OR NOT! |
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LDJS
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:01 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| *Yawn* ... Been to too many chinatowns I guess. Ain't any better than San Francisco's, and of course if you've been to Beijing don't bother unless you have a hard on for all things Chinese. |
I didn't like Beijing. Sterile and boring. But just like Chinatown in London, I go to China towns not out of a h/o for things Chinese, just; the lights; the food; the crowds, the vibrancy and vitality etc. And Bangkok China town has those in droves. Did I mention the food?
| Quote: |
| Yeah, the funny thing is... I was happy as hell to get out of Bangkok and head down to the beaches. I was happy again to escape to Chiang Mai in the north. I am no fan of pollution, traffic and humidity. But that dang city of Bangkok beckons and I'm sure I'll be back there two or three times more before my Asian stint is over. And it's such cities that make me feel the dreaded question in my bones: Can I ever go back to my dull home town and settle down after experiencing world class cities like Bangkok? Gawd, I'd rather be stabbed to death on the streets of Buenos Aires than die bored in my home town's retirement center. PROSPER! WHETHER YOU LIVE LONG OR NOT! |
A man speaking form my own heart. I cringe at the whingers who advise people 'just do one night stopover in Bangkok and then get out to the islands. It's so noisy and crowded, dirty and polluted wha wha wha...'
Like you said it is a world class city in the truest sense, a feel you just don't get with Seoul or Bejing (did I dare say that?!) It really has an international vibe and of course has that awesome bladerunneresque feel to it like Tokyo, but with better weather, food and prices. And damnit - just that colourful relaxed Thai charm! And it has a SOLID feel to it, like it's been around a few centuries and witnessed solid events. It has worn in it's boots; a wise yet crazy Henry Miller uncle who has been around and knows the world unlike a lot of the new young upstarts in Asia or those cities that have been made bland by the ravages of communism and other regimes or become completely enslaved by the Gleaming Capitalist mecca approach to tourism - and thank Kimchi Tokyo hasn;t either (or in Seoul's case - bombed to smitherines and then re-built cheaply and I don't criticise my dear second home city lightly I'm telling ya.)
apols for the cr$ppy punctuation but I'm writing from the heart here.
Yup going home and settling after these experiences is tough. Luckilly I'm from the EU... so Andalucia is always there for me...
I could only settle back home for an awesome woman and a career I was passionate about. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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I think your time is a bit too short for a Thailand trip assuming you have to be back at work on Monday the 26th. It's fun to take the river boats on Chao Praya in Bangkok and walk around on the opposite side of Banglampoo or royal palace. One good advice is to use boats and trains instead of taxis as traffic and smoke are very bad on the streets of Bangkok. You can tuk tuk from royal palace to Khao San Road to experience the 3 wheeled tuk tuk, but insist on no shopping. Remember, there is no legitimate 10 or 20 baht tuk tuk ride for tourists nor is the royal palace and Wat Pho closed like they might say in attempt to coerce you to kill time shopping with them. Fares are more like 60 to 90 baht with no shopping detours. Locals probably pay only 5 to 10 baht per ride, but Thailand has a double pricing system on most things.
Scooter rentals outside of Bangkok require you to leave your passport, do not check for drivers license, and no insurance is available so it's a risk. Jet ski rentals also don't have insurance and it might state this fact in English on the side of it such as in Phuket. Transport seemed more difficult than other places, but they have these small trucks plying the routes though seemingly too limited. Seemed to be a lack of taxi services.
Kanchanoburi on the River Kwai is a good trip about 2 hours NW of Bangkok. Too bad you can't go all the way through 3 pagodas pass and into Burma to where the death railway begins and on to that golden rock place as that would be a good one. |
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Aelric
Joined: 02 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Should go north to Chiang Mai instead, but I guess your plans are set. Chiang Mai warrents a longer visit anyway, as it's where you HQ while hitting up Pai and Laos. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Aelric wrote: |
| Should go north to Chiang Mai instead, but I guess your plans are set. Chiang Mai warrents a longer visit anyway, as it's where you HQ while hitting up Pai and Laos. |
Or you can just do it proper and make Laos your HQ when you hit up Laos. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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| It's also worth it going to Krabbi the beaches are much nicer than Phuket. With more unusual rock formations. Phuket beaches are just flat and plain in comparison |
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