Thailand Maps   Thai Visas come in 4 flavors: Tourist, Work, Marriage & Retirement Thailand Newspapers in English     Thailand Resources Choosing the right / perfect hotel is fun .. & vacation enhancing..  Often our suggested hotel will be better located, 1/5 the price w/ better amenities and personalized Thai Smile Service than the western chain hotels. Choose Wisely to Benefit Greatly...many special opportunities & activities are available   but NOT available universally.  Decide on a Bangkok area or Thai region you are interested in .. 1 or all .. Phuket Island is very different for Chiang Mai or Pei & equally different from Bangkok .. Travel light to the country side on a train .. take the deluxe railway ..  private room cars w/2 beds & sink & picture window .. wake up at dawn with the Himalayan foot hills out your picture window. Or travel to Phuket or Koh Samui or Phi Phi .. .. dream islands. If you are going to travel trans-oceanic to visit a place .. study it. Ideas.  Very few persons who have not been to Thailand know of the diversity of recreation opportunities. Multi-day elephant treks in Chiang Mai / Pei.  Scuba / deep sea fishing from the Island & Beach Resorts. Assorted and varied shopping opportunities Books obviously can contain more information than web sites .. not as current information, but lots of it .. few web sites have several 100 pages of text. Think about activities you enjoy .. Beach Sports, trekking, sight seeing, scuba, antiquities, golf .. shopping .. resort luxury spa? A convenient central location is worth a lot for activity logistics! .. In Bangkok ALWAYS consider proximity to Sky Train & Subway stations .. you can save literally hours a day using the ultra modern skytrain & subway over taxi. Then narrow your choice down by price. Factor in the value of amenities, extras that add to enjoyment .. like free WiFi, free breakfast, free transit to the BTS / Subway .. offer air port pick-up. In Thailand usually there is a room upgrade for 100Thb or 300Thb .. often there is a major improvement in your environment with this few Thb / $5 / 3.5EU upgrade 24 hour room service? Don't forget jet lag .. you will be up at all hours of the night for a couple days.  A room service fruit plate at 4AM .. or coffee ... or a cheese burger w/ fries.. or curry ..&  cheap!

a former Peace Corp volunteer's photo journal of an incredible adventure, a bus trip across Europe & Asia in the '70s .. quite an adventure worth a look! Mike has now retired to remote Thailand .. Mike's web site has everything from Issan restaurant reviews to an Issan web cam to directions for building a Koy pond!! Mike is a most interesting dude that did it his way!

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• A complete list of Thailand Hotels.. no web site links.  Telephone & Fax #s, managers name & street address.

  • October, 2006: Thailand's NEW 10 telephone digit dialing .. international calls & domestic calls .. details.

• Bangkok coffee shop / resturant/  barhot spots here.

• The Peninsula.. The Oriental.. true 6 star

• Thai beach areas have 15,000 BT ($350.) per-day resorts adjacent to 900 BT ( $20.) per-day hotels.

• On Phuket, the $300 per day hotel guests have to walk past my favored $22. hotel to get to the beach!

• Thai hotels usually have a 'flow activated hot water system'.

  • A wall mounted water heating device without reservoir tank, heats water in line & on demand as it flows to the faucet.

• 1000 BT or $25., will secure a little nicer & more centrally located hotel.

• Often 900 BT Thai hotels are immediately adjacent to 5000 BT / $100.+ "Marriott / Hiltons".

• 2400 baht, $60.00, will get a multi room Thai Hotel suite & true luxury.

• 15000 BT ( $350. ) per month will get a very nice multi-room serviced apartment.

• Even the most moderately priced Thai hotels have full amenities!

  • The 'Thai hotels' are often '90% built out' in teak wood.  Teak floors, doors, furniture, cabinets...Beautiful!

• Therapeutic massage, room service meals & laundry are usually available even at the most economical hotels.

  • 1 hour 'Wat Pho Temple style' therapeutic massage in your room for 400 BT ( $9. )

  • Excellent meals delivered to your room for 180 BT ( $4. )

  • 500 BT ( $12. ) will get laundry for 2 for a week done.

• The infamous Vietnam era  "US Army R&R Hotel" ( for you nostalgic Vietnam vets ) is now the 'mid level' Ambassador Hotel on Sukhumvit.

• The 'old' BOQ / BEQs ( Bachelor Officer Quarters / Bachelor Enlisted Quarters ) are now the Windsor Hotel on 'Suk' Soi 20 and the Rajah Hotel on 'Suk' Soi 4.

On Phuket you can get a house near the beach  for a month for what one night at Club Med costs.  

Thai Hotels near the beach are under 700 baht, $20. per night as low as 400 baht, $10 per night.