Owl_

I'd have to agree with you that the Hong Kong train into town is excellent. It's the easiest one I have used so far. Hopefully, the people in Bangkok will take a lesson from the way the Hong Kong trains were set up and get their train into town working as well.

When I was in Rio de Janeiro around 2006, a friend of mine from Sweden mentioned to a us that we would be going to the football match Wednesday night, I knew we would be going to a soccer match. So my friends (two from Sweden and two from Finland) and myself, went to the Maracana Soccer Stadium located in Rio de Janeiro. So my thought was that people from Sweden refer to it as football! Here's a shot I took from our seats while we were there as we got there early. It is reported that the Maracana Soccer Stadium is the largest soccer stadium in the world that easily seats 100,000 spectators and has been reported to hold over 200,000 during top events!

Interesting! I thought the term soccer was used in the US for the most part. Now I'm learning that it is used in some other countries as well!

WOW! I've heard about the coconut crabs before but until you posted these pictures, I never realized just how large a crab they really were. I've heard that they are delicious when cooked! But glad I'm not the one who has to tackle them to get them into the pot!!!

I was also wondering about the Pasadena Lodge also Druid! Thanks sharing your experiences from your visit there! It looks like a nice place to stay in. In an area (LK Metro) that I really enjoy!

Ha ha! Now that's a good one! Here's the truth about the use of either Lemon Fresh Joy dish washing soap or Listerine mouth wash to kill mosquitoes... http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/mosquitoes.asp DEET is most likely the best solution to repel those pesky mosquitoes!

Thank you! It's working now. One other thing I just noticed is that photos are not showing when the hotels are listed in the index portion (comes up with "no image"), but they are in the website when I click on a hotel to read a review. Is this normal?

Same here! I couldn't get in when I tried to look at a review a couple of hours ago!

I would totally agree that the Jasmine Mansion is a very good place to stay. I spend 30 days there on my last trip to Pattaya. Nice people who run the place and the food was very good.

I have eaten off of carts and sidewalk cafe's in Pattaya many times it's been some of the best Thai food I have eaten on my visits to Thailand. I usually let the Thai girls I'm with pick the place as they seem to know where all the good food is!

Mulph you have a nice place and I like your rooms.

I'm very sorry Valentinoxxx that you think that I do not have any friends here, due to the tone on my response to another BM here. I have pointed out in a reply that I am very easy going and I have made many friends while in Pattaya over the past three years while visiting Pattaya. I am in e-mail contact with many of those people from Hong Kong, Sweden and the US. The buying a safe would be a good investment if and when I become a long time resident in Pattaya, but I feel for short term people that it would be more of a time consuming burden then a cost saving item. If you can really reap a saving on hotel/apartment rooms then why hasn't someone started a rental program in Pattaya for in-room safes to people on vacation/holiday? If someone is doing this now I think we would of heard about it by now. And I only get huffy as others do upon me and tries to force an idea on me without any valid proof. This proof can come in the form of pointing a person to websites and showing me price comparison etc. But in the end it would be all judgmental in our likes and dislike of said rooms, location etc. I'm sure emil is a nice guy and a good friend to others but I do not like being force feed an ideal I do not believe in. So if my tone of writing offends you then I am very sorry. Thank you for pointing out the options of the pawn shop, but like I have said before I would rather find the room of my choice rather then spend unnecessary time away from my main purpose for coming to Pattaya and that is to be on vacation/holiday. I am replying to you now to apologizes because my tone of reply might of offended you.

Possibility! You mean you haven't already convinced some to do it! And now you're talking about a 4000 baht safe!!! What happened to the 700 baht safe? And once again your just talking theory again about saving 8000 bahts. Where's a valid example that you can show me? People don't buy theory's unless you can prove it! You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to get a "like" room that has a safe and it's the same price as the room with out a safe? Then I don't have to go thought all the trouble and time to buy a safe, then find someone to sell it too. And I'll go to the beer bars and Hell Club anyway and have more time to boot! Like I said above, if I make a statement that you're going to save 200 bahts I'm going to provide facts and examples to prove my point and cover my ass. You have not done this time and time again and only have provided a theory to work on. Where are your valid examples to prove that it can be done? Not your here say, but valid black and white example that you can point to to show me that this can be done? Once again I don't know it all and I'm here on the board to learn and get "facts" on what I want to know. You're making all the suggestions, possibility's and theory's and telling me about your exploring of tons of hotels so you are talking like you're the "know it all" with a new possibility every time you reply. Not me! So please don't bother to reply to me again since everything you said I've rebutted. Because all this is all growing old and I don't want to get any more into the topic. I've proved my point and you haven't been able to provide me with real black and white examples. My original question has been answered so I'm done with all your theory's and possibility's. You have wasted enough of my time, so I will go back to reading other articles here and on other Pattaya type forums. Go and try and convince someone else to buy your 700 baht safe. Cause I ain't buying it! The safe or your ideas! Good bye and good luck to you.

Totally agree with you Cenctm about Soi 13 being a great spot for a 1st timer. As a matter of fact, on my first trip to Pattaya I stayed at the Dynasty Inn on Soi 13 and loved it! The other hotels you have mentioned are good suggestions for him also. Easy access to either Beach Rd or 2nd Rd to catch the baht bus and you can be most anywhere in Pattaya in short time. Here are the links to some of those hotels on Soi 13... http://www.dynastyinn.com/beta_DynastyInnPattaya.htm http://www.sandyspringhotel.com/ http://www.whitehousecondotel.com/index.htm After he gets the lay of the land in Pattaya he can then branch out to the area he likes best and maybe check out hotels in those areas.

Thank you Sa-teef for giving me a straight answering my original question on if the Keetati Home Stay did or did not have them in-room safe. But I also still concur that every room is still different from hotel to hotel and it is difficult to judge them as being "alike" unless they are rooms within the same hotel! Now it can also work the other way too on those room calculations! What if we have "like" rooms but the room with the safe is 200 bahts cheaper then the room without the safe. Then you can say that you getting the saving emil calculated plus the 700 bahts you would not of spend buying a safe. Or you could say you were saving 400 bahts a day because said room with the safe should be 200 higher then the room without the safe!!! Cold cut figures but they don't really make a difference because the rooms are really not alike. It's just to iffy to judge rooms being like between hotel to hotel and then setting a cold cut price difference between them. That's mainly because like rooms for one person will not be that for another person because we all have different opinion on how they should be. Is every Best Western hotel the same price across the US because they have like rooms? No! Because they are different and location comes into play too. Sorry if I went on and on about the subject! But it's not really as cut and dry as people try to make it! Thanks you again for your answer to my question!

You're not going to show me any hotel rooms because you can't produce any to back up your statements. Your just spitting out a theory and throwing out number and that's all you are doing. You got nothing to back you up except a wild theory. Like I said you cannot compare a room from one hotel to another hotel because they are all different so don't waste my time. I think that no one here is even going to think about going out and buying one of your 700 baht safe because it's to much trouble. You've convinced no one but yourself that it's a good idea to buy one. You are just trying to save faith because you made this statement and now you're saying anything you can to save faith! And like I said, why the heck would I want to buy a safe and then give it to somebody in "hope" that he'll give it back when I return. What if he moves or dies or gets in an accident before I get back then I'm out 700 bahts, right? That's way to much trouble for 700 bahts. So tell me, have you bought one of these 700 baht safe and do you now have a friend who stores it for you when you return to the states? I'd rather spend that 700 bahts at a beer bar while having fun with the girls.

First off, thanks for letting us know that the 700 baht safe you were talking about is made of metal as others were wondering what it was made of! Seconds, what does your example of cost to and from the airport and the taxi/car being made of plastic (but if you look carefully now a days there is a lot of plastic being used on todays cars now ) have to do with my original question if the hotel/apartment in question does or doesn't have an in room safe? I do know that things cost different then the in the US as I've been traveling to Asia for the past 10 years. Third, my asking questions here and finding out what hotels and apartments have that meet my requirements and have an in room safe that fits my budget. Money is an object and I try to spend it wisely. (Now who said money was no object... I wish it wasn't? ) And your example of a room with or with out a safe costing 200 bahts more is off base because how can you compare rooms on a equal to equal basic. You can't because they are all different and the value of one room to another from hotel to hotel is dependent upon your requirements. You'd have to show me one hotel/apartment in Pattaya that have like rooms for rent with and without a safe that are 200 bahts difference in cost to be able to prove your point. As far as I've seen, you either have hotels that have in room safe or they don't have them. I might be wrong on that point, but all the hotel/apartments I've looked at are that way so far. Fourth, why do I want to buy something in Pattaya and leave it with someone else who I just met!? I don't that here in the US so why would I do that in Pattaya? That's an option that people can take into account but I feel that most people would rather get a room with a safe rather then going out and buying one. Simple as that. If you want buy a safe, use it, then leave it with someone else to use it and then come back 6 month or a year later and try to get it back. Great go ahead and be my guest. Lastly, the Keerati Home Stay looks like a great place to stay from looking at the pictures posted here. Now if someone could answer my original question of if they do or do not have in room safes, then the Keerati Home Stay will be on my list of places to stay at in future trips to Pattaya!

For me, and most likely others here, it's about service and loyalty to those that have served me well in the past. I'm sure that you have favorite places you like to stay in, restaurant you like to eat at, bars you like to go to and you shop at places that have provide good service to you. I like having a familiar face to greet me at the airport and drive me to where ever I need to go and maybe chat about things that have happen while I've been gone! If it was all about cost I can go down to the arrival area down stairs at the airport and get a taxi to Pattaya there for about 800 bahts +/- tolls depending upon what we settle on. But that's me! Everyone has their own opinion on how we do things and that's what I do.

I'll keep them in mind as my normal driver Jan has a baby on the way and I'm not sure when she will be back driving again!

As I have not noticed a listing for a website or an e-mail address it would be sort of hard for me to find out or ask them. Secure is a metal safe bolted into the room like many of the other places in that same area for me. That's why I asked the question if they had any in room safes in the rooms. People who been there tells us about the rooms can easily answer with a yes or a no here. That is what this forum is for... to ask question and seek answers. I was wondering what you'd get for 700bahts! I carry around a PacSafe, which is a ballistic reinforced nylon portable safe which costed me a lot more then 700 bahts here in the US. I prefer having a real metal one like the ones in the Jasmine Mansion, LK Metro or Rockhouse which are right in that same area.

I don't think that the owners of the hotel would take kindly to people drilling holes in their rooms to secures an in room safe!!!

The room looks very nice! Do the rooms at the Keerati have in-room safes? I prefer having one when I stay in Pattaya!

Good deal on Cathay Pacific... the airline I fly to Asia on the most! I'll most likely book a flight for Sept/Oct sometime in the up coming week or so. It comes out to be $830.57 from SFO... about what I paid when I went to Thailand this past Feb. 2007.

The Pattaya Bay Resort hotel website looks very nice plus they have airport pickup at a reasonable price ( 1200 bahts). I may looking into staying there on my next trip to Pattaya!