Yeh, should be able to find hotels on or around that soi.

Check on Agoda for hotels on that soi before you arrive and check the prices, this will help with negotiating with hotel staff. They will often give you the agoda price too.

and would you agree that would be a good area?

has anyone sent a wire transfer out of Thailand?(I'm from US)

I asked them if I could do it at Bangkok Bank and they said yes and gave me a form that says Application for Outward Remittance. Its a form for wire transfers but is asking for Purpose of Remittance/Source of Funds with options of Cost of Goods, Freight Charge, Education Expense, or Other (please specify). There's also a line for Details of Remittance.

When are you looking to come over? Might have found something nice that fits your description.

Anyone know what "kun keow" means? Hear this all the time, can't find a translation. Asked a Thai and she said she doesn't know the English translation.

you mean Mai Keow or something similar to that? i don't think there is a direct translation.. i think its something like being close in spirit or love.... a romantic tone..

Le Ketai is ok mate.

This place is doing discounts of 500 per room for their smaller rooms right now

http://www.rockhousepattaya.com/

This is excellent for 700 is you can get in, is often full.

http://www.chinagardenpattaya.com/de...sp?Folder=5747


These are all in the same small area, If you are getting there at a reasonable time of day you could just easily turn up without booking anything and get a room in one of the guesthouse in this area, there are literally dozens and you will deffo get something in the 5-700 right right now as its low season.

Just ask to be taken to 'Soi LK Metro'. If you don't find anything on this street there are loads on the surrounding streets too.

Yes, I always stay in that area, if your talking about the Soi LK Metro area where Le Ketai is.

Since green/chew/fang/persuasive are not common my best guess is they are saying gin=eat khow=rice gin khow = slang for eat food, but who knows.

Naughty or cheeky

^that would be man kiow like to a little kid...

naughty ; mischievous
แก่นแก้ว
gɛ̀ɛn gɛ̂ɛo

i assume most thais know how to say "eat food" in english, quinn

^except that is a dead phrase you'd never hear in conversation from 2-3 generations ago.

Hey man,

I just got back from 4 months in Thailand (with visits to Singapore/Malaysia/Laos). I am not sure exactly what you're looking for out of the trip but here is some advice that will hopefully help. And if you have any specific questions I'm glad to field them.

In Thailand:
Bangkok
I spent 10 days in Bangkok after about a month in Thailand. I HATED IT. Could go on for hours and hours about all the misery that is Bangkok. I was staying on Suhumvit 11 as well (best place to say).

Then right before I flew back I spent one night in Bangkok and have never loved anywhere as much as I love Bangkok.

Definitely stay in the Sukhumvit area, it's the best place by far (best food, best girls, best clubs, best hotels). I can recommend 2 places.

Cheaper: Boss Suites on Soi 4. (if you're not sure how road names work. Sukhumvit is the big main road and when I say Soi # that is the intersecting smaller road. So there is Sukhumvit Soi 1 -22 in the main area. I abbreviate by just saying Soi #). Boss Suites was about $30-35/night, great breakfast is included with the room. Room was basic but modern, good sized soft bed, free tuk tuk down to Sukumvit. Younger crowd, overall enjoyed it.

More expensive (well worth it): Stay at Aloft on Sukhumvit 11. This is where I stayed coming back for my last night in Thailand. It is excellent. Room was about $60. But it's owned by the same company that owns Westin hotels (Starwood) and in my room was a Westin Heavenly bed (awesome) also Ipod docking station, big bathroom, couch, internet. Hotel staff was awesome, the restaurant in the hotel rocks, and by staying at the hotel you can get free entrance to Bed Supperclub (right across the street, cool place) and Q Bar (right around the corner, much cooler place).

I stayed at some other places but Aloft is the one place I will stay at from now on during short term stays in Bangkok. Perfect place, perfect location.

Night Life:
-Q Bar, Bed Supperclub, Insomnia, Climax, Nana Plaza (any of the places in Nana Plaza are fun), Soi Cowboy. The first 4 are actual clubs. The last 2 are districts. Nana Plaza has like 40 strip clubs and is always a good time. Highly recommend going to Annies Massage for a soapy body massage if you're into that. Wild 2 hours for about $75. They also have a partner company called Dr. Bjs on Soi 7 which is also cool but more of a stop in on the way somewhere type of place.

Survival Tips:
-Be forceful with the touts you have to deal with. If you take a taxi, know where you are going before you get in. Don't ask taxi drivers directions, they'll take you to massage parlors or tailors. And learn to ignore when you're not interested. You don't have to stop and chat with every person who talks to you, it'l take you 2 hours to get a block if you do. That being said, there is no need to be rude, just be clear.

-Don't stay too long in Bangkok. I'd go for a day or two, go all out, and escape to a more chill location. Bangkok isn't a fun place to chill out in my opinion. It probably can be, it's gigantic and in 11 days there I probably saw 6 blocks of it.

-Never use Tuk Tuk's that are just driving around trying to solicit. Out of using 10, 7 tried to overcharge me obscenely.

-Bangkok isn't "cheap" if you go to Sukhumvit and have the time of your life. You do however get great value for the money you spend.


Chiang Mai:

Chiang Mai is a bit cheaper. I spent some time here as i was considering living there. After a few days I decided it wasn't for me. There are some cool sites to see (which get boring after a few hours) and some good food. Also there is a really big expat population in Chiang Mai. A lot of people swear by it and I can see the appeal. For me it wasn't the prettiest girl at the ball when comparing it to other areas.

I didn't go to Chiang Rai.

For your beach vacation, I can really recommend some things (I lived on the islands most of my time in Thailand).

Koh Samui is excellent. Good sized island, good night life, great food, gorgeous women... But... It's getting a bit developed and is pretty touristy in parts. If you want to go however stay in Chaweng Beach. It's the place to be. Lots of cool things to do on the island and everything is pretty affordable. I'd recommend staying as close as you can to Ark Bar in Chaweng Beach as that's the center of the action. Green Mango district is the night life center in Chaweng (and is about 2 minutes from Ark Bar). Spend the day hanging at Ark Bar checking out gorgeous babes. Do a little bar hopping in the evening around Green Mango. Hit Green Mango up at 12 (or if you're like me and don't care for huge night clubs that much hang out at one of the smaller bars nearby). At 3am the party moves to Sound Club until about 6am. I'd recommend shutting yourself down by about 5 as 5-6 gets lame and it's not that fun to still be out drinking as the sun rises (all the time at least).

The other recommendation I have if you want more of a laid back actual beach vacation would be to hop a boat from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan (about a 20 minute ride). Phangan is much less developed and is a great place to unwind and relax on the beach for a few days. You can rent a kayak and go check out some really amazing beaches that are only accessible by water. Great rooms can be found for $15/night. This is the island I go to when I want to unwind from the comparably high intensity island life of Koh Samui.

Phuket was a bit expensive and I didn't quite like it as much as Samui. Koh Phi Phi and Krabi are worth visiting if you find yourself over there. But there is lots of fun to be had on Samui and Phangan.

Laos:

You should definitely go to Laos. If you spend time in Bangkok/Islands/Chiang Mai then Laos will be the perfect place to balance out your trip.

Malaysia isn't very fun. I haven't been to Cambodia and Vietnam has a lot of cool stuff to do but you have to get a visa ahead of time which is lame.

Laos is awesome though. It's like a $120 flight from Bangkok to Vientiane, I think it's actually cheaper to do the river boat option. But I haven't done this myself. If you are going to go to Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai I'd save it for the last place before Laos if you're doing the river boat option. Chiang Mai is way up north and Chiang Rai is even more way up north. So it'd be dumb to go there and then go back through for the river boat. As far as I know you can actually get on boats in Chiang Mai that take you (eventually to Luang Prabang). The crossover point between Thailand/Laos is Chiang Khong, Thailand and Huay Xai, Laos. I believe you can just take a bus to there and get the riverboat to Luang Prabang.

That will put you in the north of the country. Bus travel in Laos is super easy, and super affordable. A VIP bus with AC from Vientiane (capital) to Vang Vieng cost me 60,000 lao kip. Which is like $7. I've actually not been to Luang Prabang. Which is embarassing since I've spent like 3 weeks in Vang Vieng. My travel plans just never made it convenient for me. I've heard only super positive things about LP though.

Vientiane to me was boring, but I had just came from 2 months in Thailand my first time, so there was a bit of culture shock. Things close up early, there aren't really night clubs (I've asked locals and they've confirmed there aren't night clubs) By 11pm everything is pretty much shut down. At first I hated this but my second time I was kind of fond of it. It's a slower paced way of life, the people are all super friendly, the food is good, and it's really affordable. I learned to appreciate it for that and had a great time. Beer Lao is good and cheap. A night out is more like having dinner someplace and then maybe enjoying some drinks over a few games of pool with a local before going to bed early.

But then there's Vang Vieng. This mythical little mountain town where anything goes (or so they say). Highly recommend going. It's a place where you can just feel the temporary nature of it. 10 years from now Vang Vieng won't be what it is today. No one's quite sure what it will be. For now it's over run with young backpackers and there are a lot of really gorgeous foreign girls that go through here. But there is also that annoying aspect of young backpackers "ruining" local culture and not respecting anything. Littering, bars playing music too loud, being rude to the local people who are working in tourism industries, etc. It's not as bad as any expat you talk to in Vientiane will make it sound, but it's concerning. I go out of my way to not be part of the problem.

In the night life of Thailand (bangkok, samui) you can get drunk, be loud, etc and it's really not a problem. The bar areas are the bar areas and everyone is cool with it. Vang Vieng is different, the bars are just open air bars down on the river and the music can disturb the whole town and when it doesn't people getting super drunk (or high, or tripping on shrooms) and walking back from the river into town being loud does disturb a lot of people. Enough already with my cultural rambling. The short story is, maybe 1-5% of the travelers here are douche bags. 95% of them are awesome. Hang out with the 95% and collectively make the few douche bags feel bad about themselves til they change.

Vang Vieng: Great rooms for $6-15/night. Delicious food for $5/meal. River tubing, rope swings, zip lines, hot air balloons, high amount of attractive foreign girls, stunning local landscape, great mountain views, you can buy weed/opium/shrooms from most of the bars on the river very cheap (some even have menu's out on the bar) I don't do any drugs, but when you see a sign like that it's hard to ignore lol.

I spent a week in Vang Vieng this month actually. I just flew back to the states last week and I spent my last week in Vang Vieng with the final night in Bangkok as I flew back. My total expenses over 7 days were about $150. That is eating out every meal and staying in a more expensive room with a river/mountain view and A/C. I didn't go out drinking really or do any tubing/etc. Was kind of there to decompress and recharge. It's actually easy to avoid the night life/party scene in Vang Vieng if you want to, and if you do it's a great place to relax.

The scenery everywhere in Laos is gorgeous. Just the bus ride from Vientiane to Vang Vieng which takes 3-4 hours has you winding along mountain passes and through neat little villages. I hear it's even better going to Luang Prabang from Vang Vieng. Someday soon I'll be able to let you know.

Hope this overly long response gives you some good ideas. And let me know how the trip goes or if you have any other questions. Both Thailand and Laos are super safe. The most danger I ever felt was riding on the back of a motorbike taxi in Bangkok as he was weaving through rush hour traffic. In fact, 99% of all the danger in these countries is motorbike related. Don't worry about triads, but if you rent a motorbike for the day, take it slow. Especially around curves on the islands (island roads are sandy).

Best of luck


I haven't yet been to Pattaya.

But all my friends who try to drag me there highly recommend staying at Penthouse Hotel. Rooms equipped with hot tubs, sex swings, mirrors. Can order girls from your room or go out and find them and bring them back, etc. It sounds fun.... So when I eventually go that's where I'll be staying.

a room equipped with sex swings sounds like it would be a bit to expensive for what im looking for, either way (i change my mind frequently) already scrapped the patayya trip and am just gonna stay in bangkok one night so.........


anyone recommend a cheap decent hotel in a decent area around the airport?

doesnt need to be nice at all id just prefer to survive the night

also anyone flown tiger airways? are they gonna charge me a ton for a pretty big bag? will i even be able to take it with me? it says i can pay ahead of time for cheaper bag fees but its like $34 and the highest weight i could pick was 25 kg's, when my case was weighed at the vegas airport it was 35 lbs.........

DON'T stay on sukhumvit. It is WAAAY over priced and it sucks. Stay at ratchada, I recommend leconcorde in huai khwang or there's a very nice hotel right across the street. If you stay on Ratchada you will have a much easier time traveling to destinations, if you want to do touristy stuff it won't take you 8 hours to get everywhere.

I think Penthouse is like $45/night so really not overpriced at all.

Do you really mean just survive the night like have a place to crash in between flights or something? If that's what you mean, there is a hotel right by the airport called novotel or something. You don't even really have to leave the airport it's like a 5 minute walk. Not sure on the price. I can't think of any reason to ever be in Bangkok for a night and not go wild/extravagant/partying but millions of people do it every day so they are probably the ones you should ask.

Never flown Tiger air. But on Thai Airways, Bangkok Air, Singapore Air, Malaysia Air, Laos Air, Nok Air, and Firefly I've never once paid to check my bag (and always checked a bag) so I'm not sure who these Tiger characters are, but if they are charging to check a bag you should tell them to F off and fly with another airline. This isn't America.

The airlines you named are all full service airlines. Tiger (like Air Asia) is a budget airline and they will charge you to check your bag. You can pay ~$25 for it now or $150 for it when you check in. Up to you.

The reason they charge you to check a bag is because their tickets include the price of transportation only. If you want extras (e.g. checked baggage, meal, entertainment etc), then it is an optional extra. The upshot is that their ticket prices are about $40 for the same route that an airline like Singapore would charge $400 for. So feel free to fly with another airline and pay $300 to check your bag instead of the $20 Tiger charges.

good info thanks, yes im just in bangkok for a night because im flying to PP cambodia the next day, then hopping on a bus to sihonoukville, i hate traveling, should be fun times

that dont mean im not gonna head out for a bit while im in bangkok though

Yikes! Thanks for the info. I never really consider airlines. I just walk into the airport, look at the board to pick where I want to go and then go to whatever airline has that flights counter and buy a ticket. Might have to start planning ahead and finding flights via Tiger if they are really that much cheaper.


Well Suvarnbumi airport is pretty far from downtown Bangkok. It's cheap to get there (cost me like 300 baht to go from suvarnbumi to Sukhumvit 11). Just make sure you skip down to the first floor and use the public taxi service through the airport where they give you a slip and everything. They have to use the meter then and it's super cheap.

It'll definitely cost you more to get back to the airport than it will to get into Bangkok.

If you're looking for cheap I can't recommend much. When I'm in Bangkok I go over the top. Sukhumvit is expensive but I find it to be very worth it. That accounts for about 0.5% of the city though. Bangkok is gigantic and I'm sure there's a lot of other fun and cost effective places to stay at.

I hear Khao San Road is cheap and has lots of backpackers. I also hear it is a lot of fun. I also hear it is a total **** hole, I also hear it's a must see. I also hear to avoid it. Like everywhere... Mixed reviews.

I'd just say find out where you want to stay, what you want to do ahead of time for sure. Going into Bangkok for one night without a plan is dangerous. Not life threatening dangerous. Just dangerous in the sense that you could spend the entire night lost and bored and leave pissed off the next day. So find an area, map out some things to do, plan your night out and then have fun while you do it. Stay safe.

I’ve had excellent experiences flying with Orient Thai (twice). And they are always considerably cheaper. You can get a flight BKK - Phuket for 999 THB. The service is also great.

The problem with Orient Thai is that they crash a lot.

You must be a bazillionaire.

orient thai used to be called 1-2-go which had a plane crash on phuket 5 years ago.

even a year after the crash it was banned from flying for like 2 months due to safety problems. imo if thai officials ban an airline from flying it's gotta be pretty serious

maybe it's just me but since there are thai airways, airasia, bangkok airways and nokair etc as options to fly domestic i'd rather fly them instead of orient thai

Na. I did it on accident once because I had missed a flight. And found that the ticket cost the same as it did purchasing a few days in advance or sometimes less when buying only a few hours before the flight.

Or at least it wasn't noticeably more expensive.

For me not having to worry in advance about the flight. Getting to the airport on time, waking up and all that jazz makes it worth it.

On travel days I sleep in, wake up, lounge around, eat, smoke. When I'm in the mood I drag myself to the airport and find a flight. If I'm not in the mood I go back to sleep and wait another day.

I book in advance when I am traveling less common routes. But regional flights are usually common and easy to show up and board.