2 Questions About Phuket

[angiud]

I'm going Phuket on Thursday the 22nd. Do you think I'll have problems to find an hotel room? (half million people going for veg festival??)

How is the situation today?

2nd: I'm going to buy a Garmin GPS. Is therer any (serious) shop/dealer in Phuket? Where?

Thank you for your inputs.

[seaeagle]

I'm going Phuket on Thursday the 22nd. Do you think I'll have problems to find an hotel room? (half million people going for veg festival??)

How is the situation today?

2nd: I'm going to buy a Garmin GPS. Is therer any (serious) shop/dealer in Phuket? Where?

Thank you for your inputs.

Bear with me on the GPS - one of the mothers at my daughters school runs a business in Phuket Town selling all kinds of GPS / Radar systems to the local fishing fleet.

I'll get her contact details, and post it later.

Plenty of rooms, me thinks.

[LivinLOS]

GPS equipment is FAR more expensive in Thailand than elsewhere, partly due to the high price of easily findable online maps.

I bought my GPS's outside Thailand, big saving !!

[pagallim]

On the 2nd (middle level) of Central Festival, there's a shop that sells Garmin, with Thai map/voice directions that can either be loaded in Thai or English (they'll do that for you). It's in the left hand corner near the Sony shop. I bought a Garmin Nuvi from there about a year ago, excellent piece of kit.

[LivinLOS]

The Nuvi is an excellent bit of kit.. But price in Thailand (nuvi 2xxW widescreen) about 14k baht.. Price in UK 75 Quid +- 4k baht.

I got one a couple of months ago new on ebay for 60 quid.

[pagallim]

The Nuvi is an excellent bit of kit.. But price in Thailand (nuvi 2xxW widescreen) about 14k baht.. Price in UK 75 Quid +- 4k baht.

I got one a couple of months ago new on ebay for 60 quid.

Great deal! However, the OP appears to already resident in Thailand, only coming to Phuket on this Thursday.

[angiud]

Thanks to everybody for the fast GPS answer.

For SeaEagle, I wait for the address of that shop. My hotel is in Phuket Town, so easy to go there!

What about tourists in Phuket now, can I survive for 3 days (fireworks, traffic, crowded town)?

[LivinLOS]

The Nuvi is an excellent bit of kit.. But price in Thailand (nuvi 2xxW widescreen) about 14k baht.. Price in UK 75 Quid +- 4k baht.

I got one a couple of months ago new on ebay for 60 quid.

Great deal! However, the OP appears to already resident in Thailand, only coming to Phuket on this Thursday.

I also bought a 60csx via ebay.. had em mark the package as 20 USD and paid no import taxes..

I paid I think 200 and something USD my buddy paid 28k for the same unit here in Thailand.

[seaeagle]

Thanks to everybody for the fast GPS answer.

For SeaEagle, I wait for the address of that shop. My hotel is in Phuket Town, so easy to go there!

What about tourists in Phuket now, can I survive for 3 days (fireworks, traffic, crowded town)?

Hi,

The number of her shop manager is 081-8272617 and his name is Mr. Aurit / Avrit.

Sadly, she only left a message for me at reception, and didn't leave the shop address. However, sure you can find it from the above, but I'll try and ask her again myself.

[angiud]

Thanks, Aquila di Mare

[Peterocket]

Anyone with a decent Nokia can download the thailand maps for free and then pay 2000 baht for directions if necessary. Seems like the best option by far. Plus it means you then have your satnav built into your phone instead of 2 devices.

[LivinLOS]

Anyone with a decent Nokia can download the thailand maps for free and then pay 2000 baht for directions if necessary. Seems like the best option by far. Plus it means you then have your satnav built into your phone instead of 2 devices.

At this point none of the phone systems really compares favourably to a dedicated unit. They are getting better but having tried them all they are still not there and most phone systems EAT battery when in GPS guidance mode. Garmin XT running on nokia or win mobile is a big step up from the default nokia maps.

[Peterocket]

You get about 6/8 hours GPS use off the N95 and N97 but obviously its best to use a car charger.

The new Nokia OVI maps I find are pretty decent for general use, although dont include many of the smaller soi's. The POI's are of a high standard though. Maybe not ideal for a delivery driver but for getting to a hotel, beach, car park, supermarket etc they are perfectly fine.

Plus remember that Nokia maps arent just for Thailand they are pretty much the whole world.....for free

I dont believe any other company offers that?!

[LivinLOS]

Plus remember that Nokia maps arent just for Thailand they are pretty much the whole world.....for free

I dont believe any other company offers that?!

Well garmin XT and all its maps are posted on forums so are effectively free.. Not legally but..

[angiud]

I got a Garmin Nuvi and downloaded (you can choose) with the last Thailand ESRI map in Central Festival 2nd floor. It works wonderfully and i can find easily my hotel in a very secluded Haad Yao beach east of Krabi.

I didn't think a GPS could be so useful!

Holy technology...