Sarakham Accomodation

[THAILIBAN]

MahaSarakham is not listed in any of those superficial guide books, and not even in that excellent comprehensive guidebook in my mother-tongue, though it is a major student town in Thailand.

In the local accomodation-guidebooks and -listings of Thailand that I own, there are some hotels listed but I have no idea on what to expect. anybody stayed there before and can comment or give a recommendation?

the following hotels seem to have a acceptable standard :

New Phattana with 94 rooms

Phattana with 81 rooms (probably the older of two sister-hotels, same road address)

and there is a hotel inside Rajabhat Uni, called Suan Warun....

Nitsarawan Resort seems to be of a good standard too, but probably out of town....

thanks for any hints....

[Vegemite]

Hi there,

try typing Mahasarakham into the the white search box at the top of the page because there have been a few people ask this question, including me.

The wife says that she checked out the Wasu Hotel and it looked good but had no email 3 years ago.

Maybe different now.

There is another website by a bloke that lived and worked at the university there.

I will try to find it and post it here.

P.S. My wifes village is not far from this place.

All the best.

[THAILIBAN]

Hi there,

try typing Mahasarakham into the the white search box at the top of the page because there have been a few people ask this question, including me.

The wife says that she checked out the Wasu Hotel and it looked good but had no email 3 years ago.

Maybe different now.

There is another website by a bloke that lived and worked at the university there.

I will try to find it and post it here.

P.S. My wifes village is not far from this place.

All the best.

oh thanks for that...... I must admit, in that case I did not use the SEARCH function, as I didnt expect that a similar topic to such a unknown place did already exist.....

if you have a chance to find out about that website from that guy from the university, that would be a great help too....

[Vegemite]

Just checked,

Google john shield and then choose his personal site.

It is all around 2002 so a bit out of date but still interesting and some good pics.

Also searched the forum with Mahasarakham and came up with a lot.

Probably because of me most of them ( I wanted as much info as I could get before I went UP there ).

Hotel Taksila is another one.

[THAILIBAN]

Just checked,

Google john shield and then choose his personal site.

It is all around 2002 so a bit out of date but still interesting and some good pics.

Also searched the forum with Mahasarakham and came up with a lot.

Probably because of me most of them ( I wanted as much info as I could get before I went UP there ).

Hotel Taksila is another one.

thanks a lot, yeah, I did the forum-search now too and indeed a lot came out, feel stupid now .

most is from the topic that u started before u moved there. that Thaksila hotel seems to be really nice, and at Promo rates of 770-880 Baht, who would complain...... too bad their english version of the website isnt actually working....

that student-hotel inside the campus seems another good option too..... and is for a good purpose....

and as there is even a Tesco and Pizza-Hut, guess I wont be lost in Sarakham

thanks again and if I manage to travel there, will post some recent updates......

in most of the cases, this board is indeed more useful than anything printed available.....

I should have known before.....

[citizen33]

Taksila is by far the best hotel in Mahasarakham but its website seems to be down at present.

http://www.taksilahotel.com/

It is located beside the canal near the central shopping area (Tesco Lotus and Sermthai). The New Phattana and Phattana hotels are cheaper less attractive hotels under the same ownership on the same site. You may wish to know that the Sarakham red light district - Fang Klong - is down a soi beside the hotel - best avoided. The hotel itself is excellent in terms of general facilities (it looks about a 4 star), but it does not have a swimming pool. Prices should be around 1000 baht with some more expensive rooms available.

Of the other options, Suan Warun, the training hotel at the Rajaphat may be the best bargain. depending on demand the price can go as low as about 250 baht for an aircon room. There is a very nice restaurant in the building and the general decor and state of repair is acceptable. Suan Warun is on the opposite side of town from Taxsila on a road parallel to the Khon Kaen road. It is quite near an area of student bars and restaurants, so isn't in a bad location.

The other main city-centre option is the Vasu (or Wasu) hotel, which is a little way along the canal from Serm Thai past the hospital (opposite direction from Taxsila). This was once the town's number 1 hotel, but had gone downhill badly. It once had a very interesting coffee shop with singers that has now closed, though I think other parts of the hotel may have been renovated. It was located in the centre of Sarakham's student entertainment area, but again almost all the bars have closed in recent years. There is just a single large disco and a few karaoke bars nearby. The shopping area is just about walkable. Prices are from about 350 baht up.

I do not know the Nitsarawan resort hotel, but it will be a few killometres outside town and to my mind not so convenient. The other option that will soon be available is the training hotel belonging to the Tourism department at Mahasarakham University (i.e. MSU) at Kamrieng, about 7 kilometres on the Kalasin Road. It will be big and allegedly very cheap. There is a contractual dispute about the quality of the building which means that it has been in limbo for about a year, but you will see it on the left hand side if you drive towards Kalasin. Although out of town, this will be fairly close to the thriving Kamrieng student bars and restaurants on the two main university roads. At least three of the restuarants on the old university (Kamrieng) road are steak-style eaties, where you can buy western items like fish and chips. The new Mahasarakahm University Road also has good restaurants, including Chavoala, which is owned by a Dutchman and his wife. So this hotel could be good in future. There are many other small hotels in and around Sarakham.

If you feel the city is not for you, the nearest other options are the Rimpao Hotel in Kalasin or the Petcharat Garden in Roi Et. Then you are looking at Khon Kaen. I'd go for Taxsila, if about 1000 a night is okay.

Just remembered that I posted a similar thread a while ago (everything is there is you look)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...p;#entry1267696

Edited January 31, 2008 by citizen33

[citizen33]

P.S. I have just found a neat map that helps locate some of the hotels.

http://www.thailand-guide.org/thailand/mah...ham/map-big.htm

[ubonrthai]

Anyone stayed at the hotel on Rajabhat lately? Do they have any internet access? Thanks!

[ubonrthai]

Just for future reference for anyone.

I stayed at the Suan Warun Hotel on Rajabhat. I had booked a week and checked out the first day. The website is here. There was no internet even though they said there was when we called. There was no restaurant even though advertised. The room was tiny, dirty, water didn't drain and their were ants in the bed. Also, it's 500 baht which is a ripoff for the quality of hotel. It is very conveniently located on campus, but not worth the low quality to me.

I quickly moved over to the Taksila Grande. The website is here. Taksila has 4 different qualities of hotels and all of them are quite nice. Pattana isn't great, but it's clean and cheap. Internet was slow, but worked good enough for what I needed. The service was fantastic too. They have some of the best trained staff I've ever encountered.

[lukey1979]

I just got back from a couple of day's at Mara Sarakam after staying at the New Phattana. My advise is steer clear of that hotel it was truly awful: Bad bed bugs. Cold Buffet breakfast (Eggs below zero by 0700) , Awful service in the restaurant during the evening, there was food left outside of 1 room for well over 24 hours, I could go on and on. I looked at Taksila and it seemed very pleasant with excellent gym facilities.

There was a shopping plaza around the corner i forget the name with the usual Suki hot pot, Canyon coffee and Pizza Company etc, Other than that i didnt see much except shed loads of schools and Uni's. Not a bad looking city though i have seen worse in Isaan, I noticed that if you followed the klong (canal) in the direction of Kohn kean there was an abudance of restaurant/pubs. Probably quite a good night life.

[citizen33]

I just got back from a couple of day's at Mara Sarakam after staying at the New Phattana. My advise is steer clear of that hotel it was truly awful: Bad bed bugs. Cold Buffet breakfast (Eggs below zero by 0700) , Awful service in the restaurant during the evening, there was food left outside of 1 room for well over 24 hours, I could go on and on. I looked at Taksila and it seemed very pleasant with excellent gym facilities.

There was a shopping plaza around the corner i forget the name with the usual Suki hot pot, Canyon coffee and Pizza Company etc, Other than that i didnt see much except shed loads of schools and Uni's. Not a bad looking city though i have seen worse in Isaan, I noticed that if you followed the klong (canal) in the direction of Kohn kean there was an abudance of restaurant/pubs. Probably quite a good night life.

Apologies to Ubonrthai if Suan Warun has gone downhill. There was a good restaurant last time I was there, but that was a while ago and things change quite quickly in Sarakham. The new hotel at MSU is still not open, so it looks like the Taksila is still the clear winner. The nearby shopping centre is Serm Thai Plaza. Lukey1979 is right to say that, if you follow the canal from Taksila past Serm Thai and the hospital, you'll come to a long strip of bars and restaurants. They are rather variable but can be okay. There is a newish partly-developed plaza along this route to the left over the canal called Centre Point, which also has a number of bars. The strip winds around a couple of corners and almost reaches the Rajabhat. I had a wander around myself last night and discovered that several old bars I knew in the Pantip area (on the road to Kamalasai) have all closed or changed now. I had a chat with the proprietor of a former sing-song cafe known to me who said he has changed to karaoke because he doesn't take enough money to pay the singers now. I suspect the economy is a big factor just now and also found Kalasin very quiet on Saturday night just past. The most lively bar in the Pantip area now is Tawan Deng (concert tonight). The highlight of my Sarakham excursion was the occasional sight of sao Beer Chang at work. The other big cluster of bars and restaurants is near the new MSU campus at Kamrieng. Haven't so far had time to explore that at night on this trip.