Are Thai Beds Too Hard! :-(

[chicowoodduck]

All you need to do is go to Carrefoure or Tesco and buy "mattress covers". If you have a double or queen sized bed you need to buy 2, they are cheap and soft, about an inch thick and make hard mattresses much softer.

Quite true but for about 150,000 to 200,000 baht you can buy a good western style mattress.

Yikes! 200,000 baht is my rent for the next 2+ years!

[Donnyboy]

All you need to do is go to Carrefoure or Tesco and buy "mattress covers". If you have a double or queen sized bed you need to buy 2, they are cheap and soft, about an inch thick and make hard mattresses much softer.

Quite true but for about 150,000 to 200,000 baht you can buy a good western style mattress.

are you sure its mattress & not mistress?

[IanForbes]

If the beds are too hard then just get a couple of soft, tender Thais to sleep on top of. When it gets cold have another to sleep on top of both of you.

[needforspeed]

All you need to do is go to Carrefoure or Tesco and buy "mattress covers". If you have a double or queen sized bed you need to buy 2, they are cheap and soft, about an inch thick and make hard mattresses much softer.

Quite true but for about 150,000 to 200,000 baht you can buy a good western style mattress.

are you sure its mattress & not mistress?

The mistress is free with the matress only during the Chinese New Year promotion .

And no guarantee on her

150-200 k expensive bought a good one for 59k (kingsize)

[jfchandler]

I had the same issues as the OP. So the wife and I recently bought a new mattress, box springs and frame set from a Tesco store in BKK. The brand was "Lotus" (part of a big, multi-brand Thai mattress company) and the version was "St. Luther." All in including delivery, the price, on sale, came to about 15,000 baht.

The St. Luther model was/is nice because it has a built-in foam topper permanently attached to the mattress on one side. The cheaper versions were just the straight mattress only, and mostly hard in the typical Thai style. I found that while the St. Luther felt good but a bit hard when trying it at the store, that it softened up once we got it home and started using it for several months. So now, it feels perfectly fine and I'm a happy side sleeper.

When shopping around in BKK, I found that Carrefour carried the same manufacturer's mattresses, but all of them had a different model name. That's a pretty common trick in the mattress retailing industry, so it's theoretically impossible to price-compare the same mattress at difference stores, because each big retail chain gets versions with their own unique model names, even though the various mattresses from the same company are in fact the same. Carrefour had a similar version by Lotus at a similar price to Tesco.

Before getting the new bed set, I had gone from the extremes of a relatively cheap and old mattress provided in my rented home, which felt like you were sleeping directly on the springs, to topping that with a retrieved from the U.S. 2 inch good quality foam topper. The latter certainly felt better when lounging about in bed in the evening before sleeping, but I found I was always waking up sore in the morning, presumably because the topper was too soft for my big/tall frame.

Now I'm a happy, contented sleeper... . It was well worth the 15,000, though we could have paid much more -- 40K, 60K, 80K -- in looking at fancy models on sale at places like Central, Emporium and CentralWorld in BKK.

I know the OP was asking about outlets in Pattaya (where of course there are Tescos and Carrefours). But for whatever it's worth, in shopping around BKK, I have seen a variety of the so-called memory foam products. Mostly it's been pillows and toppers. But I've also sometimes seen the regular ''mattresses" of that variety, and of course, they were very pricey... But quite comfy too... and not in Tesco or Carrefour...

[andyww]

The best part about Thai beds is the huge sizes they are available in. The bed in our BKK house is so enormous you can practically see the earths curvature in it!

I prefer the harder foam matresses, not only for sleeping but that "other " bedtime activity. Nothing worse than bouncing around with springs making boing-boing noises to put one off the stroke!

[MJP]

Koncept aren't bad for mattresses. Around 10,000 to 13,000 Baht budget I reckon for a decent one.

[lazygourmet]

At home, we have a Pirelli matress on Latoflex laths. They did not come cheap, but regarding the amount of time we spend in bed that was an good investment.

By the way, we only have Sumberland in the guest room!

[MJP]

All you need to do is go to Carrefoure or Tesco and buy "mattress covers". If you have a double or queen sized bed you need to buy 2, they are cheap and soft, about an inch thick and make hard mattresses much softer.

Quite true but for about 150,000 to 200,000 baht you can buy a good western style mattress.

are you sure its mattress & not mistress?

The mistress is free with the matress only during the Chinese New Year promotion .

And no guarantee on her

150-200 k expensive bought a good one for 59k (kingsize)

What's wrong with you lot?

I got a hotel standard, last for ever sort of thing, double not king size . . . for 5k Baht!

Had the bed custom made out of teak . . . 8k Baht.

Really now . . .

[Lancashirelad]

Yes Thai beds do tend to be hard. Very noticeably so when you first arrive in country, then after a few days of "conditioning" follows some very good nights sleep. Definately better for your back.

Here's a tip - how to tell if a mattress is too hard or soft for your body weight:

Lie on your back, now put your hand into the gap between the arch of your back and the mattress.

No gap? Can't get hand in? = Mattress too soft.

Can waggle your hand up and down? = mattress too hard

Hand just slides in comfortably? = mattress just right, sleep tight.

[moonboot]

My landlord has agreed to buy me a new mattress. what's the price difference between a "normal" mattress in a furnished appt and a sealy?

Thinking I might be able to subside and get a nice comfy mattress...