onelilley

My take on your question stinger is, I think you will find it is not only Mr Cap who enjoys the company of our lovely Thai companions. I am assuming this from Andy's great trip report. Sorry I don't have any info Andy, it does look good though. onelilley.

Ahhh...I was just about to post how disappointed I was the curry nights had finished, then I read the whole post. Looking forward to making my way to both Noi's and the Rockhouse in the new year to try these great sounding curries. I hope they are still running over the high season. onelilley.

Cowboy, Just read your post now, I hope all is going well for you. Good luck and I hope you respond well to treatment. onelilley.

If you are looking for a hotel on the island side close to the pick up bars and subway train stations etc, I can recommend the "Wharney hotel", you should be able to get it for around $95-$100 us that time of year on www.agoda.com Anything cheaper is just a shit hole when it comes to Hong Kong. Flying there from Thailand? It is much cheaper to fly to Macau with Air Asia and get a ferry to Hong Kong, the airfares from BKK to HKG are just bullshit, the dearest asia flights I've seen. onelilley.

I think ben99 has summed it up well. Insist when you book in you want an outward facing room, not one that has corridors on both sides. The corridors can be very noisy at night, no matter how late you get home you will get woken by someone getting home later. The hotel is fine with plenty of baht buses going past, not to far from the action around walking st, plenty of good beer bars around soi 2 area and very close to big c. I prefer the areca lodge in soi diana for around the same money. onelilley.

Harvey, The link you posted above is for lk_royal suites not lk renaissance. Martin posted this information in his original post on this hotel, not sure if they have a web page yet as nothing came up when I did a google. You can contact them at metro@lkpattayahotel.com with subject line "LK Renaissance" or call +6638720720 onelilley.

I have stayed here a few times, it is one of my favortites, I have booked for part of my stay again in January. I do always book a room with a pool view as I like to sit on the balcony sometimes, the rear building facing the new pool is a better building imho. The hotel has everything I'm looking for, eg great pool areas, safes in room and girl friendly. Not having in room internet is a let down though. I really like the area, soi diana is close to everything for me. As erik_e says, it is getting a little "old" in the rooms, maybe they will redo the rooms once the third lock is completed, but the rooms are still nice enough to make the place enjoyable. Any opinions on better hotels for similar money and similar amenities erik_e would be appreciated? Thanks in advance. onelilley.

I regularly browse the prices of fares from Australia to Bangkok, and have rarely seen the prices on offer currently from Jetstar for Feb - Jun next year. I plugged in a few random dates for early to mid 2008 MEL-BKK and kept getting back a price under $600au including all taxes. Now I fully understand that Jetstar isn't for everyone, I flew with them last Christmas and found them quite ok. I am happy to sit in economy for a bit over 9 hours to save that sort of money as the saving pays most of my accommodation costs. I'm not sure about Sydney as they fly direct to Phuket but a connecting flight via Airasia or Jetstar via MEL I'm sure would still provide a fair saving. Not sure on other capitals in Australia. I'm sure these prices are because of Tiger Air's push into Australia and the cheap prices they are offering. A direct flight MEL-BKK for under $600au in my opinion is unbelievable. onelilley.

I always do as mentioned above, change a little at the airport bkk and change more as I go at the Siam Bank money changers around town, they are the purple colored ones. There is one next to rgp on beach rd and also one close to soi diana on 2nd rd, always found they have about the best exchange rate to the aussie $. Once my cash has ran out I just make withdrawals from the atm's. onelilley.

Wig & Pizzle, Hope all went well with the opening. I'm not sure if you have given yourselves a bit of a "talk up" in the business section, if not I'm sure many more bm's would see it there. Goodluck. onelilley.

Thanks Aussie_20, Great advice. Looks like we might get even cheaper flights once AirAsiaX and Tiger International come to town. If you have plenty of travelling time you will get some extremely low priced flights out of Melbourne and Sydney probably via Darwin and Singapore but as I say if time isn't a problem a return for around $600au or even cheaper will not be out of the question. onelilley.

For me its a no brainer, Pattaya - Areca Lodge Soi Diana. Bangkok - Majestic Suites Sukhumvit Rd. onelilley.

Amazing wit as always, another classic. Thanks. onelilley.

I would also check out how guest friendly it is also before you book it, I'm not 100% sure but I thought I read they are more into the family guests rather than the mongering guests. I have stayed at the Sabai Inn a few times and found it good if you like that area. onelilley.

Thanks for the info Martin, I will be sure to check it out when I am there at Christmas, with a view of staying there next time I visit in quiet season, probably a bit too expensive for me at Christmas, but you never know. From Caspers report it looks like a very swish place. onelilley.

Sick puppy, If I was you I would put the purchase of this accomodation down as a bad decision and just take the knock of the $50 (approx) you have spent. I cannot stand and would not stand putting up with all that shit for a week of cheap accomodation and have my holiday ruined by pushy sellers. They will hold it over you and give you the shits many times over the time you are staying there. I would rather book another nice condo or hotel/motel in Jontiem or Pattaya, plenty available, just read up in the review area. Accomodation in Pattaya and Jontiem is cheap compared to Australia so take the knock and enjoy your holiday. onelilley.

Adam, Thanks for posting, always good to see your party photo's whilst I am stuck here at home. onelilley.

I for one like to know whom I am dealing with, getting off the plane and using the first person to shove an advertising board under my nose isn't really what I want after my flight. It is a lot more of a pain in the neck for me than looking for a board with my name on it by a reputable taxi service such as Mr Toom. I have used Mr Toom many times, never let me down, and even turned up on very short noice. What's another 600 baht? A short time the way I look at it. onelilley.

BigusDicus, I think what season it is in your own country makes a difference. Here in Australia flights are currently as low as $800au with Airlines such as Thai, even cheaper with discount airlines such as Jetstar, right through until the end of our winter. I can book a flight over Christmas time, which is our main Holiday season, for no less than $1450au, even more expensive as the year evolves, Jetstar were $1000au if you booked for Jan 2008 back in Feb 2007. onelilley.

wayneuk, If you are only doing an overnighter I would highly recommend Majestic-Suites, great location. Any more than a few nights I would recommend Majestic-Grande, nicer rooms, better breakfast and nice pool to relax. onelilley. wayneuk, I should have added, I would never attempt to stay at Majestic-Suites without a booking as it has always been full when I have stayed there. onelilley.

Not sure what to make of this post, by "an extra guest" do you mean a third person? There is never a charge for your guest, but maybe for a third person in the room but not always, I think it depends on who is at reception, definately no charge for second person. I agree Areca will, want a cc apon check in, and print a voucher, this voucher gets ripped up in front of you apon check out, any charges to your cc and the card gets swiped and the bill is signed for by you. Very good hotel and never had any problems leaving my cc print on the voucher. onelilley.

Tengotodo, Check sabainn.com, you will pay 1450 baht for that period anyway. My choice at time of year for areca vs sabai inn would be areca. I like the area of soi diana and convenience of having the pool. In saying that, sabai inn is a good hotel and soi 2 area is nice for a change. onelilley.

Tengotodo, E-mail the hotel direct, I find in Thailand there is rarely much of a discount using internet sites such as sawadee.com etc. Use google.com to search the hotel website if you don't already know it. I also find that by booking early direct with the hotel you avoid any price increase that the hotel may have later in the year when they realease their new prices to the web sites. Some smaller hotels can be difficult to get a room at once the internet prices are released, so to me it is better getting in earlier to enure you get a room of your first choice.. onelilley.

ingo67, I have stayed at Areca a few times and would recommend it for a shorter stay than you are asking about, they do offer a discount but not sure how much for month stays, but they don't offer this over the peak period of Christmas New year. I would recommend LK Metropole at the discounted monthly rates Martin has organised, a really good deal on their monthly rates, it would be my place of choice if I could manage to get that much time in one hit in Pattaya. Stayed for a week a couple of years back and found it a great hotel. onelilley.

Recently in Australia we have had many good announcements from different airlines. Firstly Emirates announced they intent to push for direct flights from Melbourne and more from Sydney. Qatar wants the rights to fly out of Sydney and Melboune daily. Virgin Atlantic are pushing strongly for a deal which will see flights to Europe via Asia out of Melbourne on the back of more orders for Aircraft. This week Tigerairways announced Melbourne as their new base in Australia, they will fly domestically in Australia and expand their network to Asia. Tiger Airways Australia has confirmed that it will establish its headquarters in Melbourne, at the city’s main domestic and international gateway, Tullamarine Airport. Tiger Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Davis said, “We went through a thorough and detailed selection process and chose Melbourne, as it presented the best opportunity for the successful launch of Australia’s first truly “Low Fare” Airline.” “Together with its comprehensive skills base and long aviation heritage, the flexibility offered by Melbourne Airport, Victoria State and the City of Melbourne demonstrated a deep understanding of Tiger’s low fare model. The State, aviation & tourism industries, together with the wider community, rallied together to make Melbourne a compelling choice,” Davis said. The selection of the base is an important step in establishing a new airline operation in Australia. Providing over 1000 job opportunities the airline has already commenced the tendering maintenance, ground handling, training and catering contracts. “The Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) process is on track and we are now talking to a variety of cities about destination opportunities so that we can start planning our route network .We’ve also started talking to a number of cities about the opportunities for locating a second base in Australia.” The initial year of operations in Australia will see Tiger basing 5 brand new Airbus A320s with a single class configuration of 180 seats. Davis said that the airline expects to carry around two million passengers in its first year. Airasiax announced this week their intention to fly very cheap fares to Asia from Australia. AirAsiaX taps no-frills market with low fares Steve Creedy, Aviation writer April 23, 2007 ASIA's most aggressive low-cost carrier will today reveal details of a planned assault on Australia. AirAsiaX is a long-haul sister carrier to successful Malaysian-based low-cost operator AirAsia, started five years ago by entreprenuer Tony Fernandes. Due to begin flying long-haul routes from Kuala Lumpur in July, it has made news already, promoting air fares as low as RM9.99 ($3.50) to Britain. Most of its fares are to be about 50 per cent cheaper than traditional airlines and it plans to offer daily point-to-point flights to popular destinations in China, India and Europe. It plans also to fly to Australia, although it is not known when. In the meantime, astute travellers from Perth and Darwin may be able to combine Singapore's Tiger Airways with AirAsiaX to reach Europe for less than $1000 in low season. AirAsia X passengers will be able to buy meals, in-flight entertainment and drinks. According to an executive familiar with the deal, AirAsiaX has selected Airbus over Boeing for 15 new passenger aircraft. "Airbus came with a better commercial deal and delivery ... will be faster," he said. Official confirmation is expected today. Mr Fernandes has said he believes AirAsiaX will tap into a new market rather than compete with full-service carriers such as Qantas and Singapore Airlines. But it is likely to prove a lively competitor for Qantas's Jetstar International. This all goes well for much cheaper fares direct to Asia out of Australia, the only question would be could they all survive?