Travelling in Thailand

[cooked]

I thought I'd give a short report concerning my car trip from Buriram to Lamphun (750 K).

We went through what felt like slightly less police control points than usual usual friendly wave-through), even though there were more radar checks in place (we thought).

No problems concerning Covid, EXCEPT:

Waiting outside a 7-11 I saw a group of 6 people, being checked for temperature, all set off an alarm. They were from another province. Held in place, an ambulance arrived and whisked them away. Is that 14 days quarantine? I don't want to know, but just having a fever could result in your plans being wrecked. 

We had the impression that most resorts were open, we called to book at one place and they quoted double the price stated on their website, so that's something to bear in mind. 

I saw one Farang in the whole 4 days.... 

 

[Mitkof Island]

Less tourists double the price. Smart move.

[tonray]

50 minutes ago, cooked said:

I don't want to know, but just having a fever could result in your plans being wrecked. 

It's actually not normal to have a fever. If you have one, you likely have a communicable illness, whether Covid-19 or something else. It should wreck your plans !

[cooked]

11 minutes ago, tonray said:

It's actually not normal to have a fever. If you have one, you likely have a communicable illness, whether Covid-19 or something else. It should wreck your plans !

Actually, most people get a fever about once a year. Dengue and other diseases will raise your temperature. 

Covid wrecks your plans because they put you into quarantine, which Farangs have to pay for, whether you have Covid or not.

A resort owner told me that they had 200 people there in quarantine at one point, none of them had Covid.

 

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, cooked said:

We had the impression that most resorts were open, we called to book at one place and they quoted double the price stated on their website, so that's something to bear in mind. 

It's always cheaper to book through the website, apparently when the hotels sign up with the likes of Booking.com etc etc who provide them with their clientele through a huge platform, they must charge more so much more than on the website so as to force them to use the website so that the likes of Bookings.com make their commission.

 

Most hotels stay alive people these booking sites have them all in the bag, screw them and they drop you in an instant, and your business will drop by 80%.

 

I have on occasion walked into a hotel, told them I wanted to look around as I wasn't comfortable booking online as I had a bad experience in the past, checked out the room etc etc and said I wanted to book a room with cash and if they could do me a better rate, and they did, guess I was lucky because most won't if they have a contract with the likes of booking.com etc 

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Mitkof Island said:

Less tourists double the price. Smart move.

I know that is the old tired cliche but I don't see that happening... if anything, the other way... and the op did not mention such a thing..

[treetops]

From the OP:

6 hours ago, cooked said:

we called to book at one place and they quoted double the price stated on their website

 

5 hours ago, kenk24 said:

I know that is the old tired cliche but I don't see that happening... if anything, the other way... and the op did not mention such a thing..

Did you even read it?

[AlfHuy]

School holidays starting today.

Checking hotels in HuaHin, Pattaya. Just to get a few days at the beach.

The 4 and 5° hotels are not really discounting.

Yes, they put : 5000baht now, down from 20k (I'm not falling for that one).

 

Local schools back in action, no international tourists, rainy season.

Real deals? NO

[1FinickyOne]

2 hours ago, treetops said:

From the OP:

 

Did you even read it?

of course I read the comment that provoked my comment... it was short - the old one about Thai doubling the price when there is no business... I see many discounts lately. 

[spetersen]

10 hours ago, Mitkof Island said:

Less tourists double the price. Smart move.

That is Thai logic

[digger70]

Travelling in Thailand. 

Nah,

Stay at Home Less trouble and Cheaper as well. Plenty things to do at home .

 

[jackdd]

5 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

School holidays starting today.

Checking hotels in HuaHin, Pattaya. Just to get a few days at the beach.

The 4 and 5° hotels are not really discounting.

Yes, they put : 5000baht now, down from 20k (I'm not falling for that one).

 

Local schools back in action, no international tourists, rainy season.

Real deals? NO

You can find some real deals on Agoda for Phuket at beginning of July.

Sadly there are currently no direct flights from Chiang Mai to Phuket, and flights through Bangkok for 6k+ THB ruin the cheap hotel prices for me.

[treetops]

5 hours ago, kenk24 said:

of course I read the comment that provoked my comment... it was short - the old one about Thai doubling the price when there is no business... I see many discounts lately. 

So you read the OP, which was a live, foots on the ground report and thought you'd discredit it with some useless bias.  Stick in and you'll get the mod charlieh's job.

[cooked]

I suppose pro / anti booking in advance is off topic. I have never, ever booked in advance in Thailand, I travel a fair bit, mostly for family reasons,  and even around Songkran and Christmas I never had difficulties finding a room. I WAS once in a Bangkok hotel that became fully occupied on the Saturday night.

Google Maps shows the price, and that has almost always  been the price I paid. Drive 6 - 7 hours, start to feel tired and look for a place to sleep. There are 100 K stretches with no house, shop, hotel or resort that I have travelled through, but a little planning makes sure that this isn't a problem. 

[cooked]

12 hours ago, treetops said:

So you read the OP, which was a live, foots on the ground report and thought you'd discredit it with some useless bias.  Stick in and you'll get the mod charlieh's job.

Thanks for the support, but that actually was the point of my writing that. The hotel obviously wasn't up and running properly and was trying to take advantage of a supposedly naive tourist (my wife) to recuperate serious losses. Nothing wrong with that I suppose but these places can be avoided.