In Reply to: Isn't that funny? posted by dromomaniac on Wednesday, 11. July 2007 at 14:18 Bali Time:
I have kept a very comprehensive budget and I also think that Thailand is more expensive for both hotels & meals. All hotels were booked by myself over the net after much research. Centrepoint Silom studio apartment approx AU$98.00 per night, special at Petchaburi AU$60.00 per night. Villa at Krabi low season special 350 Euro for the week, no breakfast included in this. Serene Hill Koh Samui AU$78.00 per night. Kata Palm AU$90.00 per night low season special. The Marriott AU$148.00 per night. None of these prices are over the top for the quality of the hotel but we have stayed at similar hotels for less in Bali. Food was great quality but more expensive than similar quality in Bali. Overall we spent a lot more than we would spend on a similar holiday in Bali
Staff in all hotels & restaurants were good but not overly helpful, as were store keepers & taxi drivers, overall we both found them a bit indifferent with only the occasional person being more friendly and interested. Most store people and taxi drivers were not really prepared to move much on the first price and some of this was way over the top, quite often storekeepers would not even get up from where they were seated, you had to approach them. In particular Krabi & Koh Samui taxis, we took a taxi from Koh Samui airport to Lamai for 700 baht a 40 minute drive yet local taxis constantly asked for 500baht to drive us 5 minutes to our hotel. A local service station charged us 800baht for 8 x 1 litre bottles of petrol (AU$3.30 per litre) as their tank was empty, we paid but it left a bad taste. As I said, to us something was missing, these were not the happy, smiling, friendly people I remember from 20 years ago. Bangkok was different, people were friendlier and more interested in helping us to get around etc;
One very funny incident in Koh Samui was the lady who owns Harry's restaurant, she is well past 50, may be Chinese/Thai, very funny lady who had us in fits of laughter, her language was F this & F that as she told us how hard it is to get good staff, this was after we had just watched the faces of two tables of customers as they tried to figure out what they had just been served.
She then launched into stories of what she had been through with her latest cook & just now she had caught her putting filler in the hamburger meat & mamma Harry has the best burgers in town with no breadcrumbs added. Just then a very old man went by with his very young Thai girl, mamma Harry asks H if he wants a girl, H say's no and points to me saying this is the love of my life. Mamma Harry say's "but I am very good girl, why you no want me" she then winks at me and say's "I get you very handsome boy" and then continues, "how about my very lazy husband you can take him home and I will keep this one" pointing to H. As we left she said "come back if you change your minds".
Coco