Hi PokerSpiv,

Im from Oz but living in Europe. Planning on moving to Kohsamui and seems like you know wat you talkin about. And noone else on here lives there I dont think.
Anyway my mate and I are planning on moving tehre in Oct for as long as we can.

Which area do you recommend living in and have you got any contacts for long term house rentals?

is teh internet reliable out there?

Thnaks

Igetjokes is probably the best person to ask at the moment because I'm currently in Australia.

I usually stay in the Lamai area, because it's quieter. Chaweng is where most of the under 30 crowd stay, it has most of the good clubs and all the backpacker hostels etc.

Renting a house long-term is pretty cheap and easy on Samui, finding a house/apartment with decent internet is a different story though. It is perfectly possible to get reliable internet on Samui, but most places do not care about the quality of the connection and just have the cheapest, crappiest plan available with TOT, the worst internet provider.

If you owned your own place and connected it yourself it would be no problem at all, but since you are renting you are at the mercy of the landlord, and most of them have no idea about, and do not care about "grindable" internet.

Probably the best solution is to get a CAT CDMA Aircard, these can be used most places on the island and will give a reliable, if not very fast connection. Just test it wherever you plan to stay and make sure it works in that location before signing anything or putting any money down.

Otherwise, the one place I have tested that does have a good reliable connection is Aumpai Luxury Apartments in Lamai.

http://news.samuiexpress.net/clients/aumpai/aumpai.html

There is nothing particularly remarkable about this place, it's similar to about 2 dozen other apartments you could rent in Samui, the only difference being that the Wi-Fi supplied is actually a 4mb premium TT&T link rather than the rock-bottom TOT plan that most places have. I have speed tested it and you will get 4mb download speeds there.

According to this thread they will also let you install your own private telephone line in your room if you wish (presumably only if you are planning on staying there long-term)

Apart from that the rooms are quite large and reasonably priced (15k/month). Mind you this place has very high occupancy rates as far as Samui, so if you are planning on staying here you should book in advance.

Apart from that there is really nowhere with an internet connection that I can recommend. In 2008 I deliberately went to as many places in Lamai as I could in 2 days and tested all their connections. This Aumpai place was the only one I found that had a halfway decent connection that worked in the room. Most of them just had very weak wifi that you wouldn't even be able to use without a dedicated external wifi antenna.

Of course there are probably places I don't know about because I only checked out Lamai beach. But as I said above most places simply do not care about the quality of their internet connection, so if you find one it would be pure luck.

If the CAT CDMA is the way you choose to go, then I can recommend my friend's villas which are called Amy Village (http://www.amyvillage.com/gallery/amy-village/). This place is located about 5 minutes ride from lamai town (near Lamai Tesco), I know about 7 people who stay there. It has a pool and is quite cheap, and is owned by Farangs so there is very little hassle/bull**** involved (owner is English). They have wi-fi there too but as far as I know it is just the standard TOT wifi.

A 2 bedroom villa there is 20k per month, 1 bedroom villa is 10k. The 2 bedroom ones are a bit nicer though. The nice thing about this place though is that it's a small community in it's own right, about 20 people live there permanently and they have regular BBQs/Parties etc there together.

If you are interested in accommodation in places other than Lamai I suggest asking "Igetjokes" as I've always stayed in Lamai.

Awesome mate,

thats a great headstart.

will look more into it.

When u comin back over? after footy season? u eagles or dockers? im from adelaide but follow the swans

talk soon

Dunno when I'm coming back. I am playing footy at the moment so it depends how well my body holds up :P

Hoping for a rolled ankle so I can go back to Samui tbh.

I'm a Dockers fan.

iPhone? -

I'm arriving in Phuket on Saturday. I have an iPhone 3G with ios 4.0 on it. For me to get a thai carrier simcard, do I need to jailbreak my phone, or will the carrier retailer be able to do it for me in Phuket? Will I be able to use GPS and internets? What about tethering?

thanks.

you need to jailbreak, unless of course it's already unlocked by your provider

He actually changed from Indy to Premium last time I stayed here(October). Lessu, in which area do you live? Chalong?

speedtest today:

wow thats horrid

lol, three disconnections in under 3 hours play..

Anybody got a table and chair for sale? I need it for grinding, nothing fancy, just cheap and okay

I also need CDMA(if it works in Kata), I know Lessu got two for sale..
I would like to get the CDMA today, so I can grind away..

If you can get a hold of the phone/contract number for 3bb there you could give them a call (they speak english) and ask if you are actually on the premier package and if there are some problems with their lines especially in kata.

the number is 1530

if those speeds have been going on long i doubt you are on premier...

the 3bb people are coming here today.. I actually did not have any problem with lag when I played 4 tables of rush poker with the line now, but the stability is another story.

i only got one for sale actually

you cant really ask "if it works in kata"

it might work at some place and not in others

so you really need to test it where you are planning to grind

if you want i can bring the cdma to kata for you to test.

i will need someone to vouch for you or some sort of deposit money if you want to keep it for testing though after i leave (the CDMAs are not mine so i wont give them to unknowns without anything). sorry if that sounds harsh but hope you understand

PM me your msn/phone number if you want to try it

Ate there yesterday and thought the food was pretty good. Margarita wasn't that good.

Where's the best place to change dollars in BKK? Are they all the same or is there one that's better than others?

I would say most are the same with the odd exception of a lot worse if you look around

how much are you selling the CDMA for lessu? also how much are they brand new?

All seem to give really good rates on exchanging dollar to baht. Lots of places to do it too/

how about Phuket? I know that you get worse exchange rate inside Jungceylon compared to outside. Is there a particular exchange booth that is better than the rest in Kata, Karon or Patong?

Just spent the past 3 days or so reading about 95% of this thread.

Good work in here. Thanks for all the quality advice/information from the regulars and long-timers in here. Also appreciate the degen characters, TRs, levels, and other crap.

Never been to Thailand but it is next on my list (working in Korea for the past year+ but only get 6 weeks vacation per year.)

I just started reading this thread from the beginning and I had to comment on this post. While I see the validity in what you are saying about getting eaten alive for arguing "because it is the principle" people have a tendency to to go overboard with all the Thai are so proud blah blah blah.

A firm voice and a hard stare makes 99.9% of them tuck their tail between their legs and the other 0.01% only didn't because they have a gang of their friends with them.

Hey fellas, we will have an open spot here at our place, on sukhumvit 67 near prakanong bts, most likely this next month. ship me a pm if interested, or let me know if you know someone who may be interested. and no euro donks please, thanks. -Showpow

Does anyone know where I can find a nice apartment anywhere in Phuket or area I should look at?

I do not want to pay for than 18k baht monthly. Must have kitchen, 1 bedroom, quiet area and close to beach(1-2km maybe). and must important: STABLE 3bb premium internet available..

Not Patong.

Hi I'm thinking of going to Thailand (probs Phuket) for a month or 2 in october/november with some friends. We are looking for a baller 4/5 bedroom villa. Where can I find one at a good price?? (all i see on the internet looks pretty expensive)
Is there a really good website? Or should I wait to be there?
Thanks!