samui04

FWIW, when I was looking for a place 2 years ago my budget was about 25k/month. I based that on what I had been paying back home. I booked my first month in a bungalow for 15k/month while I looked for a long term place. A friend showed me several in the 10k range - and I took one, just 50m walk to the beach. I'd guess that the offers you see on the Internet have higher prices than what you can find just by looking around.

For a bungalow in the 10k range i would look at the roof before asking the price.

You can find roof with rotten asbestos, rotten asbestor painted brith green and new asbestos painted green.

Probably the last case is acceptable (not for kids) but i like roof with classic tiles......

Remember we are talking about long term....

I was there for one year, no problems. If you know Bangrak, it's one of those places next to that new Indian restaurant which used to be Sloaney's. The Landlords were really sweet as well.

btw - I'm living in a new resort (10 months old) close to Fisherman's Village and only paying 10k/month. Prices aren't what they used to be.

uhm....asbestos kill in 10-15 years......no cure for that cancer, HIV is much much better....

yes, price must be down, crisis and too many new rooms are a very bad combinations for renting

Going down in the range of 10k i can rent yearly.....

FWIW, when I was looking for a place 2 years ago my budget was about 25k/month. I based that on what I had been paying back home. I booked my first month in a bungalow for 15k/month while I looked for a long term place. A friend showed me several in the 10k range - and I took one, just 50m walk to the beach. I'd guess that the offers you see on the Internet have higher prices than what you can find just by looking around.

For a bungalow in the 10k range i would look at the roof before asking the price.

You can find roof with rotten asbestos, rotten asbestor painted brith green and new asbestos painted green.

Probably the last case is acceptable (not for kids) but i like roof with classic tiles......

Remember we are talking about long term....

Your post, Samuian, reminded me of something: Men with "girlfriends" who speak very little English.

This has always baffled me. I mean a shag is a shag, sure, but after the fireworks are gone, what the hel_l do you do? I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone in their right mind would want to live with a woman who you cannot communicate with beyond inane sentence fragments. When I see these older men with their opposite numbers babbling like a grammatically challenged three-year-old I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

This seem the nadir of loneliness.

This is the real problem for me, education is relative, having frequented a university does not make people more intelligent....

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

I assume you mean 15/20k for a private villa?

Not sure about bungalows but I saw apartments for rent 1min from the beach for 7k earlier this year.

Much cheaper than any other beachside place i've found on Samui

A beach single bed bungalow is called a villa if not on the beach.

An apartment on the beach road above a bar must have a negative price, that is they must pay me at least 20k for noise reduction stuff....Last time I've asked the WWWwill wait apart were 50k month.....

I admit that i checked prices 2 years ago and there was only expensive rooms after the ring road very up on hill, with noise.

Now the building mania has spread and until there is a single coconut they will cut it to make room for an apartment so maybe this winter i'll go around a bit, but for a 3/4 month stay the choise is usually with furnished apartments and the price is not so low. With pools no way, cheaper an hotel monthly rental 20k, everything included, no beach but close by foot. Using a car to go for a breakfast remind me of Milan, a tropical paradise has no car...

Mae Nam, Soi 1, not far from the police station. (and the one next door is empty - except for the last guy took the air with him!)

BUT that 7,000B bungalow in Lamai sounds good.

If there is really a 7000b bungalow in Lamai it cannot be empty, the first person asking will take it full year around and sub-rent for summer.....

In Lamai 15/20k is a good price for a villa based on 1 month occupation.....

Cna yuo raed tihs? fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aula!*&y uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

The real problem is that the public perception is terrible. Fares with zero cost can have hundreds of pounds of charges.

Last year I used Jet Airways on the LHR-BKK leg as I could not get on my Etihad return at my fare level (August). Much cheaper (arounf £500 return versus £900 on others at that time) but the point in this thread is that the actual fare before fuel was something like £160 return. The charges were more than the ticket.

Recently, Singapore Airlines offered fares on LHR-SIN-SYD return for £399 of whic £64 (yes £64) was the actual fare component !

Well, see my post above, there is always an exorbitant fuel surcharge...

But UK is getting really out of market for flying, particularly for connections.

Airline should start avoiding London, i'd love Air Asia from a Shengen country like Holland....

Hmm...

What's interesting here is different people's differing ideas of what CHEAP means to them!

Personally, I'd consider 15,000 baht a month for rent extravagant - the sort of price that people coming here to stay for a month or two would delighted to pay.

My 2-bedroom (unfurnished) house costs me 5,500B a month and has aircon, hot water, cable TV and a TOT broadband connection. On top of that I pay another 2,000+B for electricity and broadband.

I'm only coming to Samui for a long winter, for now, and last year I was delighted to find a bungalow/villa in december for only 25.000b.

For long term the situation is different but even unfurnished 5500b a month is really very low, maybe the location is a bit far away....if it is so cheap to build houses to rent for near to nothing maybe I will have to change strategy. I could just rent the house for the year and use it 4/5 month, hoping to find the forniture when i'm back......

Does anybody know what the tax is from other European countries, it might be cheaper overall to fly from elsewhere even if a tad more inconvenient.

I found only Lufthansa give detailed explanation on taxes, (example is Milan/Frankfurt, no special taxes in Italy) and they are around 40E round trip, increasing for every airport used.... It's really astonishing how every airline still use fuel surcharge.....just to add it to "free" miles ticket, that at this point are more expensive that "non free" ticket....

Taxes, fees & other charges (per person)

Fuel and Security Surcharge (YQ) EUR64.00 ------NO, FUEL.......

Airport Security Charge (DE) EUR6.55

Security Charge (VT) EUR1.81

Other Tax/Charge (MJ) EUR0.58

Security Bag Charge (EX) EUR2.07

Embarkation Tax (IT) EUR5.36

Passenger Service Charge - Intl (RA) EUR19.20

Council City Tax (HB) EUR4.50

Total EUR104.07

SAMUI - BANGKOK

"Web Freedom" price: THB 3,515

"Web Flexi" price: THB 3,250

"Web Delight" price: THB 2,800

"Double Bonus" price: THB 2,680

"Early Bird/Late Night" price: THB 2,200

I have a Samui Resident card and that gives me the giant benefit of not having to pay 100 baht in tax.

Last year i paid 4.190b, so they are cheaper but with the lowest fares I loose what I like most of BKKair, jump on the first flight available after the usual delay on the international flight....To have that "privilege" you need a business ticket on any airline....

Here in the Land of Scams, as it's sometimes lovingly dubbed, I would think twice about entering even my Hotmail username and password in a public kiosk.

What about the thousands of internet cafes everywhere across the country?

I would think at least three times before using one of them.

Hotmail protect only the entry, all Gmail session are crypted.

Try Swampy's real competition - Changi.

No competition at all, Changi it's on another level, probably due to the host country.

Swampy is very close to the level of middle east, police came, you go away forever....

Taxes will be distance related. London to Bangkok is 5,931 miles so is in the third band.

Tax currently 40GBP will increase to 50 in Nov 09 and then 75 in Nov 10.

Remember that Air Fares are VAT exempt so it this type of departure tax is just like have VAT added

75P for one way?

Air Asia will move to another airport in Europe , and nobody will come to London for a connection.....

It's not due to the flu; rubbish. There is not a single article in the European newspapers that confirm that people stay home BECAUSE of the A (H1N1) Flu, and therefore would NOT fly to Thailand or other Asian countries. It's purely misleading and rubbish talk by those people.

LaoPo

It is summer, there is no flu in summer. Even idiots can understand that.

For december/january the projections are as usual 4/6 millions of people with influenza (flu), Italy only.

The type A doesn not seems worse than the last australian, but we will have no vaccine ontime.

So for now any info about flue is totally false.

In december we will see and hope for the best......

The airplane started late, due to a passenger who was in fact booked for another KL flight, but refused to leave the plane.

"Of course", I couldn't get ANY refund for my now void (changed but not possible) flight I had booked before again (just as above). That's how an "Economy Promo" of AirAsia can suddenly turn into a very expensive flight, and you start to understand how their system works.

I like that guy

Airasia like every low cost is good for a long planned trip.

If you need flexibility use Bangkok airways, no need to change ticket, they will put you on every plane available at airport at no cost...

Bringing cigarettes in to Laos ?? Why ??

The cigarettes are cheaper in the shops in Vientiane than in the Duty free shops in Nong Khai or in Thai shops , and they are not fake.

I can see a big market for fake cigarettes, if they are made with harmless vegetable

Having been away for a week, I took a look at Lamai last night at about 11pm and was, well, not shocked, but very surprised to see such places as Outback deserted. I honestly don't think I have seen it so empty around here in the last 3.5 years. I mean it's off in Bangkok too, but this is insane.

Well, i'm not really surprised. It's windy with some rain, maybe it is time to forget about "high season" in august. In Europe the weather is better and there are nice beaches in spain and greece very cheap. Thailand is good when here it's cold.

I hope not too many place will close down, i hate walking under the sun for a good breakfast in january

Who knows, maybe next jan I will find lower prices...

I was wondering if its better to carry cash and exchange in Thailand baht there or just carry ATM card??

Do you get the same rates for ATM withdrawls as the Thai banks??

Not a good idea to carry cash. Most atm machines now have a fee of 150 baht for using them!!!! However (figure the logic in this) if you go into the bank and use your card to get a cash advance, dealing with a living person, there is no fee. I live here and this is what I do, drawing the money from my US bank.

You mean using the ATM card (Cirrus usually) in the bank?

Any credit card used for cash advance will incur in a very bad exchange rate....

Tesco recently announced major cutbacks in stores and workforce worldwide, so I wouldnt be at all suprised if it dosent make its 2nd birthday anyway

I'm curious, how is going the construction of Tesco Lamai?

People insiste it will be even bigger then the main chaweng store....

the traditional hoax everyone is laughing at when people speak about it

The forum is so full of useless stuff (Formula 1....) that Samui must be really dead.......

One thing tho, since I fly every year, is United has a very good ff program (frequent flyer) miles do not expire, you just have to make sure you add miles once a year. I have a United mileage plus visa card and use that whenever I am in the US and that combined with the very long flights has really given me quite a few free flights (well plus tax). They also reward people who rack up the miles with them pretty well too (I am a premier member now and get economy plus seats at no extra cost and get bumped up to business quite regularly)and booking award travel with the United Bangkok office has always been painfree.

SBK, actually United miles never expires if you know the right trick.

Donate 1000 miles to Red Cross....it counts as a new flight...

I agree, two flights last week, both 2 hours late.

Not really worth the savings when you have to sit in the airport all that time.

Agree, also my last two flight were late, but they were from Air France and Cathay

I picked up the last connecting flight to Samui for a miracle.....

Hmm it is not very very far from Lamai beach it is under a 10 minute walk and you do not hear any noise from the road at all. Fair enough though if it is a beach property you want unfortunately I cannot help.

Lamai Boomerang do the best pizzas in town with prices starting at 180baht, quite a lot cheaper than the 350 you suggest and also cooked by an Italian chef. I have never had a better pizza!

I also know of a few places that do a full english breakfast for 99baht, and that includes the whole lot! Samui is not too expensive if you know where to go.

There are not beach villas avail, only 5 star resorts in Lamai, i can live with a place "close" to the beach, better if I dont' have to cross the ring road with the usual concrete trucks speeding day and night....

Boomerang pizza is very thick and for 180b you get the small one, all crust burned out....remember i'm italian, we invented Pizza

If I eat for more than 3 days a full english breakfast i would go to hospital, again, i'm italian

Cappuccino (with real coffe), fruit, yoghurt, musli, toast, jam and real orange juice is my usual breakfats/lunch and it was a miracle to find a place close by for only 150b, i hope they will be there next year or I will starve

Remember, oily fried bacon will kill you, slowly.....

Koh Samui has been given top Honors in this years International Gilligans Island Rating

Can anyone verify this?

So what are we supposed to say now?

I'm sure Samui got the highest score on polluted water and noisy bars...

Well, the minimum for a good breakfast/dinner is 500b per day ...

food cost is more like 150 baht per day in here, even cheaper if you cook at home.

a pizza in a restaurant is around 180 baht, i do pizza myself at home, a pizza with 100G of mozzarella cheese costs me 50 bath.

A full breakfast is 150/200 baht.

A basic pizza in Lamai start at 350 up.....(450 at Il Tempio).....beer extra. I know it is more expensive than in Italy but the italian on the island say they have to live, rent expensive, etc, etc

I suppose soon everybody will have to cut prices, Samui is simply too expensive.....

and thai people are paid nearly zero....