mattias33

I'm going down on 27/02 to play golf at the Santiburi course. Hope it is a pleasant experience. I've only heard good things about the place before. I'm a bit wary now after reading these posts.

you'll have a great time,this threads been going on for quite a while about samui being busy or quiet,right now there's a good number of people here having a good time and the weather's fantastic.

please don't ruin a perfectly good whining dooms day thread with telling us that there are a good number of people in samui.

its really not fair of you to dismiss those members who take a personal insult that samui has done a good year in 2008 and despite the massive problems in the world economy it will probably do not to bad in 2009.

Highdiver, you been trying for as long as i remember reading this forum, to claim that you know facts in every single thread. In tourism threads you are all of a sudden an investor and know much better than everybopdy else how tourism is doing. Well, i tell you what, i am not an investor in tourism related buisness, but i meet fair alot of hotel managers and restaurantowners. And as usuall, your oppinion of busy samui, is not at all what they say. I 2 days ago had a dinner with the chef of the biggest hotel in Fishermans village. He said they manage to keep 60 % occupansy during febuari, but it is only because of special promotions. Stay two nights for the price of one. He been the chef for 6 years and never ever have he seen less than 95% occupansy in febuari. You can bring whatever facts you want, this is still a very dead highseasion for samui. Anybody that claim else is just not experienced enough in the tourism buisness and i am convinced that highdiver for one dont work with tourists. I dont either, but the words from him is just not what you hear experinced tourist related buisnessmen say. Totally not. I am no expert at all. For sure. But one thing is even more sure. Highdiver is absolutely no expert. I seriously doubt you will succed in trying to convince anybody with this bs. But you are welcome to keep on trying.

He said 90 percent of the island's 25,000 hotel rooms are booked. Other nearby islands like Koh Phangan and Koh Tao also had high occupancy rates at the moment.

Well, that just proves that this guy dont know anything he is talking about so please stop reffering to this guy in future posts highdiver. 90 % of the islands 25000 hotelrooms are booked, hahaha. Yeah, right! .

bophud or what ever you "new" nick name is. and for Matias33

you are right I am wrong..

Samui is DEAD there are no people and all the hotels are dying. and samui is doomed..

ok ??

As for those of us who live in the parallel universe.

same story every year for the past 9 years. first there is a the peak season of December new year until the beiging of january then 10 days quieter then there is the European vacance and Chineese new year season and then a slow down again till the end of February then it picks up until after the end of Easter then it will slow down for may and june till mid july...

nothing has changed over the past 3 years...

and every year every time it slows down we get the dooms day predictions and samui is dead announcements.

and still there are those who refuse to understand that there are tourists coming but they have a larger choice and that competition is the name of the game.

if you let your business stay the same as it was 5 years ago you will not attract tourists who will favor the new design and new concepts as well as better quality and service for the same or even higher price.

those who will not be able to compete will soon be out .. and those who will compete will be making the buck.

just as an example... why should i go to a old rotten beach bar with lousy service in lamai when the new beach republic is state of the art, new exclusive, and is more attractive... so his neighbor is not seeing any tourist while the republic is jammed packed.

why is arc bar and Salinas packed.. why is the Irish bar always packed?? why is the new bamboo beach club packed?

even the Thai locals are filling up the Bier camp

Hotel bookings on Samui soar to 90%

Written by Chat Anupan

Wednesday, 28 January 2009 15:24

While tourism across the country has been in a slump from global recession and domestic political problems, hotel bookings on Samui have soared to 90 percent in the run-up to the Chinese New Year.

Mr. Phanu Woramit, head of the Suratthani office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said local tourists, along with thousands of Chinese from neighboring countries, would be coming to Samui for the Chinese New Year.

He said 90 percent of the island's 25,000 hotel rooms are booked. Other nearby islands like Koh Phangan and Koh Tao also had high occupancy rates at the moment.

Mr. Phanu said tourist arrivals on the island had been on the upswing since before the recent Christmas and New Year holidays.

The current wave of Chinese tourists, Mr. Phanu said, could be the direct result of the recent visit to Guangzho in mainland China by governor Phornsiri Manoharn of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

During her Guangzho visit, Mrs. Phornsiri made a pitch for Samui, along with other places in the country, as a perfect island destination for Chinese tourists, particularly during the Chinese New Year.

Tourism in the country took a dip after antigovernment protesters laid siege on Bangkok's two airports – Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang — late last year.

Highdiver. It would be easier to follow your bs story if you at least wrote it down and read it before you post it. And made up your mind how you are gonna present this lie. You sound like a very bad polititian when you in the same sentence say "nothing has change the last 3 years it is exactly the same as the last 9 years".

Nobody beleive you, (and i dont even know your reasons) but what we do see is that samui is dead. And Bkk airways, seatran and lomprayha ferry is here to confirm that they never ever sold so little tickets to samui in februari as this year, and the hotels say the same. Bkk air even cancelled two flights per day during late januari and it for sure was not because they where overbooked! Get real highdiver. You are not convincing anybody with this bogus.

I am getting more and more convinced you are trying to get a job at samui tourism assosiation. But even they dont go this far. Even they say now it is slower than previous years. You have to have a little touch with ground in your lies if you want anybody to read your posts and beleive them. You are making a fool of yourself at this point.

You can eat and drink cheap again. If it was not for bangkok airways scam and the taxi scams i would start reccomending this island for tourists now. Bu those 2 factors are still there to rob the hel_l out of you.

PG TIX are already included in the holiday package and almost no tourist complains about taxi prices, because songtaeows are very cheap and/or many tourists stay at their resorts or nearby and/or they have their own (free or cheap) hotel shuttle bus.

Why do you care about the taxi clique so much? If you have your own car/motorcycle, you have absolutely nothing to do with them.

Situation on Samui: Not packed like every Feb., but not quite too. Certainly cannot call that dead or a ghost city.

I made myself unclear, sorry for that. I have my own transportation and do not personally care about Bkk air or the taxiscams. What i ment to say is that those two scam the hel_l out of tourists (that assumably dont have their own transportation) and for those two reasons i wont reccomend Samui as a tourist destination over lets say Chiang mai or Phuket. For an expat owning his own vehicles it is a different thing. Clear enough?

Any update on the Samui situation?

2009 seems not so bad as forecasted, at least until end of chinese year.

now it is getting worse, lot's of bike to rent everywhere......

horrible....hotels, bars, restaurants...empty...it is a ghost-town. kind of nice though, reminds me a bit of Samui 20 years ago.

Got to be a parallel universe ou there!

think I am on a different Samui then....

yesterday Bar and several Restaurants in Chaweng packed on the 12th Anniversary of the RP packed out,

never ever before I saw that many people there!

Green Mango Square, not packed but still enough of People around..

Last weekend Mae Nam the live Music event @ lazy Coconut - packed!

And Yes, at certain times Beach Road pretty busy...

First of all it was their 21th anniversery, and second of all it is always packed. You offer free food and free drinks and you get all the expats to go there and celebrate what they dont even know they are celebrating. Have nothing what so ever to do with tourism being up or down.

Any update on the Samui situation?

2009 seems not so bad as forecasted, at least until end of chinese year.

now it is getting worse, lot's of bike to rent everywhere......

horrible....hotels, bars, restaurants...empty...it is a ghost-town. kind of nice though, reminds me a bit of Samui 20 years ago.

I´m glad i´m not in a tourist depending buisness nowadays. Hotels are offering "pay one day-stay 3" and still with 70 % vacansy. I´m sure samui tourism association, and thaivisa poster "highdiver" and others that for some reason like to paint a faulse picture of the situation will come in and say "samui tourism is doing better than ever", but the truth being, this was the shortest "peak season" samui ever saw. Its a ghost-town again. And the bargains came back! You can eat and drink cheap again. If it was not for bangkok airways scam and the taxi scams i would start reccomending this island for tourists now. Bu those 2 factors are still there to rob the hel_l out of you.

Weather is nice now though. If you want a cheap beach-hotel and sunshine guarantee, you go to Samui for holiday now! Bargains are here!

First of all, you can not make crepes on a grill ...

Of course not. It would be ridiculous - just like your proclaimed expertise at making crepes. But as usual, the post went way over your head.

Next week we can have lunch and you can choose a place that is up to your standards. As I recall, you didn't mind that Indian place in FV or even that Lazy Coconut place down the road (although like most places on Samui, they don't know what a Caesar Salad is. ). Anyone here know where to get a proper Caesar Salad?

Thats right, i did enjoy both those places. The ceasar salad at lazy coconut looked like a good salad but definatey not a ceasarsalad. On the other hand they had good fish and chips so i forgive them!

(crepes on grill, get real!)

Hin lad would be the closets waterfall to Nathon, not that it is in Nathon but anyway. I also go eating there. Relaxed and good pricing.

But as you posted above, it is one of those "shitty spots".

Yeah, your friend would need a better guide if he is only spending 2 weeks here next time also.

Maybe you'll offer to be the guide? That is if you can pull yourself away from grilling crepes and posting to Thaivisa while drunk.

First of all, you can not make crepes on a grill (discussing foodculture with you is pointless, all you know is burgers and egg/bacon so lets leave that out before its getting to embarrasing on your behalf). And secondly i am not the right kind of guide for your friends since they most lightly like to drunken up and hangin around only with men (quiznights and sportevents with no women around what so ever is not my cup of tea, you are better at that). But, i can however suggest to you what a 2 week first time tourist is suppose to see on the island. If you want. Thirdly, i am almost never drunk nowadays. I builded up a resistance against alcohol , and if i ever do get the chance to get drunk, i have way more interessting things to do than to post on thaivisa for sure, dont worry!!

Hin lad would be the closets waterfall to Nathon, not that it is in Nathon but anyway. I also go eating there. Relaxed and good pricing.

But as you posted above, it is one of those "shitty spots".

Yeah, your friend would need a better guide if he is only spending 2 weeks here next time also. But for a expat that seen every corner of the island, sure hin lad waterfall will do for a lunch. No arguments there. .

Don't use Siam Commercial, they charge 20 bahts every transaction for a UK debit card.

Bank of Ayudhya was still free last time I used them.

Not sure about the others.

All of them charge 20 baht when i use my Swedish VISA card. But have maximum of 20 000 baht so 40 eurocents on that amount is not to bad, is it?

This was not the place for this question and i found my answers already as have most lightly anybody that needed it, on other places.

Moderation, whenever you are ready you are more than welcome to push the botton. I dont see the need of this thread here, its bringin nothing but bs.

Do you missread the topic? The topic of this thread is if Alan Sadd is back in Samui. Its not "what do msingh think?". Possibly the only one interessted in that is you.

Get a life.

Mattias, just out of curiosity, why do you care personally about whether this Man comes back ot the Island or doesn't ??

Does it influence you either way if he does or doesn't ??

Not stirring here, i'm just curious ??

Does it influence you in either way if i have reasons to care about this or not?

Im also just curious.

I asked a question regarding a Post YOU started Mattias so please don't answer my question with another one, it really isn't polite...

But anyway, i think your answer actually answers my original question anyway, thanks Mattias...

Msingh, why dont you start a new style. Read the topic title, and if you have nothing to contribute you actually dont have to post. What is this urgent need to highjack threads with your bs?

Mattias, just out of curiosity, why do you care personally about whether this Man comes back ot the Island or doesn't ??

Does it influence you either way if he does or doesn't ??

Not stirring here, i'm just curious ??

Does it influence you in either way if i have reasons to care about this or not?

Im also just curious.

Please "joolz", as the newbie you are, dont ost this info one more time, i think we got it by now.

Whenever is thaivisa admin gonna see true this "newbie" advert thing? Common guys, you are not this stupid......

There is a waterfall in Nathon.

And there is good food from 80 baht with beer up to $200 without wine.

I have had good dinners at Dr. Frogs but found the prices a bit up. Good pizza.

But Antica Locanda in Banrak is more real italian.

You can find most anything here, except a pressed duck, or roast rappit.

But there is a HUGE shake out of restaurants here right now.

To many for the available trade.

So the winnowing is ongoing.

Remember the food has ferry fees tacked on to supply costs,

so it will be a bit up compared to mailand costs. It IS an island.

Still I can eat well for a week on around 1,500 baht if I want to.

I usually don't want to though.

Hin lad would be the closets waterfall to Nathon, not that it is in Nathon but anyway. I also go eating there. Relaxed and good pricing. Allthough i prefer the namuang of the waterfall spots. Most lightly a tourist would also with all the stuff they have there now. Elephant trekking and souvenir sales. It´s a fun thing to sit and watch the tourists there. And cheap.

A plastic bag tax has been very successful in reducing the amount plastic bags used in my hometown of Seattle. The majority of people now bring their own reusable canvass shopping bags to the grocery stores. I understand numerous other US cities and Ireland and Australia have similar systems in place (can you Irish and Aussies confirm this?). Problem is, trying to get anybody other than a few foreigners to go along with this in Thailand would be very difficult. "Mai saduak" you know. Any start would be helpful though. I would support the effort.

In my country we have a system were grosseri shops charge you for your bags. It is heavily critisized, ("why should i pay for a bag with their commersial on it?"), and also i myself have critisized it. However, i think it would work perfectly well over here. I´m not here to show 7/11 or tesco another source of income, they can take it off the prices on the grosseries. But i think the number of Thais trowing plastic bags on the street would seriously go down, if they charged lets say 5 baht for a bag in 7/11. Also the stupidity of putting sometimes only one item in a plasticbag in tesco would stop. After a while, when people learned a different behavior with plasticbags the charge can be taken away again (thats were my country failed, its still there, greedy mf:S!).

There are different methods to the plastic in nature problem. And western countries all use some of those methods and they all work. It´s in questions like this you realize that Thailand is still a third world country. But us westerners over here can do the little job of informing the Thais around us. My wife dont trow stuff in nature anymore for instans, she use to do it before i pointed out how stupid it is. Nowadays, she sometimes even tell her friends to not do it.

Good initiativ from Jens to start this thread. We gotta start somewhere.....

The latest issue of Samui Express (6 feb-18 feb) claims to have interviued the new manager for coco and that he stated Alan Said was in Taiwan collecting founds. He also said that Alan in an e-mail promised to come to a meeting on the 6th of februari. A meeting with the investors if i remember correctly. Anyway, its now the 12th. Did he come?

Anybody know?

We are walking on eggs here. Better not discuss too much in details

My question was : what happened if two moderators disagree ? One close a thread, and another one wanted to keep it running ?

Is there a hierarchy ?

Agreed.

I noticed that there is 2 names. "moderator" and "super-moderator". Is this the hierarchy or does it only means how many forums you are allowed to moderate?

Also, how do you become a mod? Ive seen some mods only have less than 100 posts and are new to the forum. In some forums you need to be very experienced to get it (it also pays then offcourse) but here it seems to be something you just apply for?

(No, im not interessted of becoming one, just curios!)

Yes, I admit I thought the same also. There was a post from a Mod requesting no more discussion of moderation, and to go back on the topic of the new forum adverts. The next post did exactly that, giving an opinion on advert and forum layout. Then, one post later, the thread is closed because of too much "misbehaviour". Very strange...

It is pretty obvious that the mods dont always agree with eachother. This is nothing strange, it happens in all big teams that there is different takes on the rules. But if a few mods accept whats going on (like in this case) and anther dont, i think they should have a discussion in between them before closure. Then again for all i know, they ight have that already. Still very strange behavior sometimes though......

Well, how about this one then.

When my wife (who is Thai) and me visit western friends of mine (with Thai wifes) she will sometimes stop at a nudle shop and by a bag of food with her. To herself! To me it is really rude and i many times dont allow her to take it inside if she not gonna bring out food for everybody. However the thai people we visit seem ok with this. I just think it is so rude.

Now, she learned a new approach to that one. Since we have a one year old boy, she claims its for him and borrow plates and everything, and then he have one bite and she eat the rest!

When i give her the look in the car she says "it´s for him!". I sometimes answer with "som tam, pet mac mac for a oe year old?". She say, sorry its for me!

On this busy forum, do any of the mods recieve compensation?

No... none of the ThaiVisa moderating team receive any kind of compensation.

Back on topic, I think Endure has answered for most of us... if we contribute in any way to a thread by way of offering a personal opinion or comment, most of us will tend to leave that particular thread unmoderated. Should any moderation be required we will step back and allow another moderator to intervene.

If a Moderator disagrees with another one, what happens ? Example: a moderator closes a thread for some reason, and another moderator wishes to keep it running , what happens ?

Thanks.

You mean like that one yesterday where one wrote what a good thread it was and 3 hours later another closed it?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Goodbye-Nice...um-t241750.html

I also find that one very strange. George said he wanted the thread and was reading and was gonna answer our oppinions. Another mod came in and said it was a very good thread and wanted it open. 3 hours later its closed. .

I guess because it turned into something against the rules, but still, strange.

On this busy forum, do any of the mods recieve compensation?

No... none of the ThaiVisa moderating team receive any kind of compensation.

Back on topic, I think Endure has answered for most of us... if we contribute in any way to a thread by way of offering a personal opinion or comment, most of us will tend to leave that particular thread unmoderated. Should any moderation be required we will step back and allow another moderator to intervene.

I do the same on the forum where i am a mod. Allthough i sometimes press the "report" botton to make other mods take quick action. Moderating a thread and participating with oppinions is against all manners.

I bet some of the mods sit at their monitors only wearing their superman undies and a cape! ....I'm just left wondering which mods are the ones that do that?

I got that one figured. Pm me for details!

Many thai language boards have been shut down, blocked or charged with lese majeste. Something the owners of this site would like to avoid. It astounds me that members of this forum cannot grasp this basic premise.

'

I think this is fair enough, and though it totally annoys me at times I understand that the annoyance is misplaced- I should be irritated with the Thai government and their lack of attention to basic human rights such as free speech (by the way this seems to be escalating and if it gets much worse this is gonna be a really scary place to live).

What I don't like is that sometimes topics are closed for no reason other than the mod is personally offended by it- not because the post breaks rules. That is not acceptable in my opinion.

As far as the ads go, they are easy to block, so that should be the end of the complaints really...

No, that is not acceptable in my opinion either, but in all fairness, thaivisa has alot of mods and percentagevise most of them do a very good job. And for free as i understand it. Offcourse with any job (if we should call moderator a job?) you find somebody that are not suppose to have that job and not qualified for it. Thaivisa mods are in general very good. With very few exceptions.

As for the discussion about ads, its easy really. People enjoy a freeservice but cant understand that its free because they can sell ads. It´s been said before in this thread but i´m sure they would be able to take away all ads if they start charging us to use the site. Nobody works for free. Simple.