Thailand Experience 2012

After comfortable flight with Bangkok Airways, got Visa on Arrival (was a quick procedure)

1st August: Took a city line Airport rail link train to Phaya thani station - then took BTS sky train to On nut station - took a room at Imm fusion hotel (600 baht/day-single). Freshened - Took a full day ticket for BTS (most useful). Went around the city - visited Palace, Big Buddha, Small Buddha, Kho san road etc. Went around Silom and MBT Mall for shopping Mobile phone. Went around Sukhumvit area saw night life and retired for day.

2 nd August: Got up at 6 AM took a organised tour to Floating market - Cobra Show - River Kwai - Tiger Temple and back (2000 baht, exhaustive but good). Went straight to Railway station took a return combined train+bus+ferry ticket and boarded night train to Suratthani (AC Sitting - not so pleasant).

3 rd August: Got down at Surathani station, had little trouble getting into bus to go to donsak pier (overbooked). waited for 1 hour to catch seatran ferry (good company- no problems) reached Koh samui at 4.30 PM. Took a tuk tuk van to Chaweng beach - got into montien house resort 1200 baht/day (good resort). relaxed for rest of the day.

4 th August: (Full moon day)Took a Grand Sea Discovery speed boat trip to Koh Tao and Koh Nyangan island, did snorkelling (excellent trip- recommeded). came back at 5.30 PM. Took a speed boat to Koh Phangan for Full Moon Party (was one hell crazy party). Came back at 5.30 AM next morning.

5 th August: Got up at 12.30 PM, missed my return 11.30 AM ferry, was stuck in the island for a day. Shifted to a small low budget room 700 baht/day. Took a bike on rent 200 baht/day and went around the island, beautiful island.

6 th August: Booked a ferry+Bus ticket to bangkok through Songserm travels (ok, ok or so, so). Boarded at 1.30 PM.

7 th August: Reached Bangkok at 5 AM- took bus to Pattaya. Reached Pattaya and checked into Romeo Palace hotel (ok,ok). Went to Under Water World. Later at 6.30 PM saw Tiffany’s Show. After that went around the Walking Street (wanted to see a go-go bar, but was not allowed inside any, said its for members only. But saw others in group get in. It was either Indians not allowed or singles not allowed I think-But rude attitude)

8 th August: Morning went to Ripley’s Believe it or Not (expensive entry for the standards, ok ok), went around Pattaya. Took Bell bus to Suvarnabhoomi Airport and flew back to India.

Here are some of my opinion and tips for Thailand Travel:

1. Regarding currency exchange: Best is to convert Rupee to Dollars (best is 100 dollar bills, don’t take 10s or 20s) and convert Dollar to Baht in Thailand for best exchange rates.

2. Bangkok and Pattaya are just commercial tourism places, try and go to Islands which are really good and worth seeing.

3. None of my tickets or rooms were booked, it was a wonderful experience to travel like that, though train journey was bad, it was full moon period and my mistake not to prebook at this time.

4. Thai people are generally friendly, but some of them are biased towards white travelers, they think white people means more dollars.

5. Indian travelers please behave well in a foreign country. I saw some Indian men in a group behaving very peculiarly without much care for surrounding people disturbing everyone. It looked very bad. Not that every Indian is like that or not that every white is well behaved. But if any white behaves badly he cannot be branded to one country, they can be European or American but we can be easily branded.

6. Electronic items like TV or Mobiles are almost same cost as in India (you can even get much cheaper in India if you know places). Don’t plan to buy any electronics in Thailand.

7. If you are planning to go to Full Moon Party (FMP) book train tickets in advance, or still better book flight ticket to Koh Samui in advance. FMP is on hell of a crazy party; one should go and see it even if not interested in parties. I stayed in Koh Samui and took speed boat with Seahawk boats (they are absolute bullshit, don’t take them they probably have only 2 speed boats, you will have lot of problems believe me, instead take Grand Sea Discovery boats, they are good and professional). And also don’t sit in the front part of speed boat in the night, it will be spine cracking bumpy ride especially on a FM.

8. Koh tao and Koh Nyangan are one of the finest islands I have seen. One should not miss these islands. Koh Samui and Phangan are developed and filled with way too many people.

9. My private bus experience was not great, no thefts but poor service.

10. Thai people are very poor with English. Learn little Thai words it will be useful to connect with them.

11. Pattaya is mainly for sex tourism, but there are things like, Under Water World is good, Tiffany’s show is good and ripley’s is commercial and not the best of entertainment. Walking street is worth a visit to see the sleaze part of Pattaya.

12. Lastly Thailand experience thought me a lot. It is a nice, non-expensive country to tour. Would surely visit once more to explore northern Thailand, Chiang mai region etc.

I hope the above share is useful for some. And thanks to all others whose posts were helpful for me to plan my trip.