Smui Stay Aways

[Doppelone]

Every year myself and a friend visit Thailand for 1 month around this time of the year. We always spend two weeks on Samui book ended with one week stays in Pattaya. This year with the continuing economic uncertainty, the baht at 46 to the pound, and with the airfare costing 7600 baht return we've decided to skip Samui. After all the airfare alone is 217 singhas at 35 baht each (available at bars in Pattaya), or 10 buffet dinners at the Marriot, or 8 really good times on soi 6 (nudge, budge, wink, wink). And where on Samui can you find 42 sq m aircon rooms for 450 baht a night?

My question is this: are we being unjustly mean this year or are other people staying away from Samui essentially because of the high cost of the airfare during times when the exchange rate is not favourable to either the pound or the Euro?

Is Samui quiet? And if so, is anyone doing anything to address the problem?

[gotlost]

I don't think the air lines really gives a flying _cuk.

[Rooo]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

[lazygourmet]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

[sbk]

Come on guys, its a fair question, especially considering how much everyone on this forum complains about Bkk air's extortionate pricing policy for flights to and from Samui when compared to their flights to other destinations that they do not have a monopoly on.

[Tropicalevo]

Bangkok Airways (the initials say it all) really do not give a danm.

They have almost got a monopoly on flights and then fix the ticket prices with the other airlines. (The only exception is Firefly who they do not compete with.)

The only cheap ticket to Samui is the Early/Late bird. (First and last flights of the day) and these are usually full with locals trying to get on/off the island.

Travel agents usually do not tell you about this deal as they make less money. Also it might not be a saving if you have to pay for a hotel to stay overnight. Mind you Cowboy and Nana could make it easier.

I think that Pattaya - Samui - Pattaya is cheaper.

Yes Samui is empty at the moment - but it always is in May/June. There are usually some good deals in hotels about now.

Edited May 28, 2010 by Tropicalevo

[Rooo]

Probably is a fair question, if posed in a different manner. The OP is talking about saving money, the whole thing is not about cheap air fares, but also the price of alcohol & accomodation.

If the OP is that keen on Samui, he can fly to Surat, then ferry across. Accommodation? I'm sure he can get a bungalow for a week or 2 to equate to the nightly charges he is quoting.

As for the price of beer? 7/11 might be his avenue. Dinner? Lots of cheap eats if he looks.

His concern is to have more disposable cash for other pleasures.

So why come up with this post?

PS, For the pundits, please don't start the nothing bad can be said about Samui caper

[carmine]

Samui is very quiet at the moment, but isn't everywhere else? It will probably stay quiet for the rest of the year

Bangkok Airways don't help as we all know but they won't drop their prices or they will set a precident. If you want to get here cheaper you can always take the train.

I hope this does'nt sound rude but if you are looking for Singha at 35 baht a bottle Samui isn't the place for you anyway

[Birdman]

...agreed completely.

Looks like a typical get as much as possible for as less as possible

[smokie36]

The only valid thing from the OP is regarding the cost of flughts. Samui compares favourably with Phuket regarding beer prices and its fairly easy to drink beer in a bar for 60 Baht almost anywhere on the island if you're watching the pennies.

Impossible to compare Pattaya and Samui. One is a beautiful island and the other is ummm not.

Point is things are always that bit more expensive on islands the world over so no surprises. If all you want is a bar girl for the night stay in Pattaya no one on Samui will miss your business!

[Doppelone]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

Hey Roo, don't bite people's heads off for simply asking a question. FYI I don't drink alcohol, it was my friend who did the maths on the airfare equating to 200 and odd beers at 35 baht a pop, which is the going rate in many of the bars in Pattaya (perhaps reflecting the times). My question was really to do with the airfare. Are people staying away due to the relatively high price of getting to Samui in an age of economic uncertainty and when the the exchange rate is so low?

And by the way, if you'd care to look around you might notice that Samui isn't quite the paradise the marketeers would have you believe these days and the idea that its inhabited by elite tourists (though I am sure you are a revered resident) to whom money is not an issue is just plain nonsense. You may not like Pattaya and admittedly there is an ugly side to life here (not unlike Chaewang on a Saturday night, right?) but at least Pattaya is honest, whereas Samui is still living off the absurd myth its a tropical paradise - something which, while still being a fun holiday place, it ceased to be about fifteen years ago.

So, Roo, chill... and please, try not to generalise, not everyone is as bad as you think.

[Birdman]

It's not that quiet.

And in a tour package ex oversea the cost of the BKK-USM-BKK flights is not relevant, because tour operators can get much cheaper prices. Sometimes even FOC, because it will be the "extended" flight in the booking system for the route of a long haul carrier.

And you are wrong. Samui is indeed a tropical paradise for almost every tourist here.

[OriginalPoster]

I don't know if you can really get beers for 35 baht at bars in other places in Thailand but I think that Samui is slowly pricing itself out of the market too. Definitely I spend a lot of money when I visit Samui; it's been years since it's seemed like a cheap holiday to me. I don't doubt that Phuket is just as (or more) expensive than Samui but I seem to spend at least twice as much per day when I'm in Samui than when I visit Hua Hin and probably 3 times as much per day than when I visit Chiang Mai. That would be fine if I had twice or 3 times as much fun in Samui but I find that enjoy those other places just as much. Thus I now think twice before heading off to Samui.

Also, even though Europeans on package tours might not be troubled by Bangkok Airway's pricing policies I do think that it hurts the island when it comes to attracting tourists from elsewhere within Asia. For instance, a one way ticket from Singapore to Samui from now costs S$386 (about 9000 baht). That's just plain absurd. And before someone points out that not many people from Singapore (and other Asian countries) go to Samui anyway, maybe it wouldn't be that way if it didn't cost twice as much to fly to Samui as it does to fly to Bali, Phuket, and Sri Lanka and 4 times as much as what it costs to fly to Penang.

Edited May 28, 2010 by OriginalPoster

[MSingh]

The Island needs every S*x Tourist it can get imo, like the OP & Friends for example..

[OriginalPoster]

The Island needs every S*x Tourist it can get imo, like the OP & Friends for example..

I think that it's counterproductive to write off people as being riff-raff merely because they balk at the prices in Samui.

[Rooo]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

Hey Roo, don't bite people's heads off for simply asking a question. FYI I don't drink alcohol, it was my friend who did the maths on the airfare equating to 200 and odd beers at 35 baht a pop, which is the going rate in many of the bars in Pattaya (perhaps reflecting the times). My question was really to do with the airfare. Are people staying away due to the relatively high price of getting to Samui in an age of economic uncertainty and when the the exchange rate is so low?

And by the way, if you'd care to look around you might notice that Samui isn't quite the paradise the marketeers would have you believe these days and the idea that its inhabited by elite tourists (though I am sure you are a revered resident) to whom money is not an issue is just plain nonsense. You may not like Pattaya and admittedly there is an ugly side to life here (not unlike Chaewang on a Saturday night, right?) but at least Pattaya is honest, whereas Samui is still living off the absurd myth its a tropical paradise - something which, while still being a fun holiday place, it ceased to be about fifteen years ago.

So, Roo, chill... and please, try not to generalise, not everyone is as bad as you think.

Oh I'm super chilled in my revered resident status, believe me.

Firstly read my second post. Secondly look at your original post, airfare, beer, accommodation & the girl scene. How do you wish me to respond?

[Rooo]

The Island needs every S*x Tourist it can get imo, like the OP & Friends for example..

I think that it's counterproductive to write off people as being riff-raff merely because they balk at the prices in Samui.

Bar prices have nothing to do with it OP. Read the original post, then read his reply to me. I given him alternatives to what he perceives as expensive. He didn't bother to answer or comment on that, did he now?

[KTD]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

lol! to funny!

[OriginalPoster]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

lol! to funny!

Yeah, it's funny commentary, but I think that the OP already knew that it would be even cheaper to stay in his home country, get drunk in his living room, and xxxxxxxx to dirty magazines than to go anywhere in Thailand and buy beer and broads in a bar. Frankly I don't see the need to land on the guy like a ton of bricks.

[itishothere]

Back to the OPs question about what people are doing about the lower level of visitors, I'm not sure there is anything that we can do.

Given the Thai business model of increasing prices when volumes are low, the major contributors to the increased pricing are not likely to do anything.

Add to that the strength of the Baht, the unrest in Bangkok and - according to our embassys - elsewhere in the country, the volcano in Iceland, the ongoing recession, and maybe the inability to get travel insurance, then it shouldn't be a surprise that tourists are looking elsewhere this year. A few cheap Changs isn't going to tip the balance surely?

The only thing we can do is encourage more people to come here. It is in our best interests. Samui is a paradise, but without tourists it will start to fall apart.

With that in mind, if you look around you can still get reasonably priced lodgings, and reasonably priced beer. The food on the island is excellent and still cheaper back home. I have no idea about the extra-curricular activities. But I do know that the sun shining most of the time is free!!

[KTD]

Obviously you are the type they are trying to keep away. Singha 35 Baht? So you hold a 7/11 loyalty card do you? Last of the big spenders. Better stay in Patters, more your style.

lol! to funny!

Yeah, it's funny commentary, but I think that the OP already knew that it would be even cheaper to stay in his home country, get drunk in his living room, and jerk-off to dirty magazines than to go anywhere in Thailand and buy beer and broads in a bar. Frankly I don't see the need to land on the guy like a ton of bricks.

Sorry, I didn't want to seem like i was coming down on anyone. Just thought it was pretty funny bit "7/11 loyalty card".

I wish the OP well and hope he enjoys his holiday where ever it might be.

Personlly I don't think the cost of a holiday dictates how much fun it will be, any place

is only what you yourself make of it.

Air fares quite often suc but not much we can do about it, I say spend your money while you still can.

[smokie36]

I would still recommend Lamai for a cheap holiday on Samui and the beach remains top quality.

Really interested to know OP where are you spending the two weeks you have free?....up north or elsewhere??

[LamaiCat]

I would still recommend Lamai for a cheap holiday on Samui and the beach remains top quality.

Really interested to know OP where are you spending the two weeks you have free?....up north or elsewhere??

Sure? After 3 years of winters in Lamai i decided that the beach is not really so great....

Pack of dogs going around, rubbish everywhere...beachside resort very expensive.....

Next winter i'll try Vietnam but unfortunately i'm finding the same flying problem of Samui.. Flights to Saigon are very limited compared to Bangkok and a connection with AirAsia is cheap but complex (i need to enter Thailand)...

Basically my vacation will depend on Singapore Airlines, no offers from them, problems....

After Changi who wants to stop again in BKK?

[smokie36]

I would still recommend Lamai for a cheap holiday on Samui and the beach remains top quality.

Really interested to know OP where are you spending the two weeks you have free?....up north or elsewhere??

Sure? After 3 years of winters in Lamai i decided that the beach is not really so great....

Pack of dogs going around, rubbish everywhere...beachside resort very expensive.....

Next winter i'll try Vietnam but unfortunately i'm finding the same flying problem of Samui.. Flights to Saigon are very limited compared to Bangkok and a connection with AirAsia is cheap but complex (i need to enter Thailand)...

Basically my vacation will depend on Singapore Airlines, no offers from them, problems....

After Changi who wants to stop again in BKK?

Lamai is as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. As for dogs they are everywhere in Thailand and indeed most of SEA with the exception of Korea.....eek!

Seems this has turned into the whinge about Samui for no other reason than we can thread so I'm baling out now....

Yes there are problems but you'll find those everywhere if you stay long enough....

Still a wonderful island for me.

[Doppelone]

I'm beginning to think my OP gave the wrong impression - so let me put the record straight...

Not unlike many people who holiday in Thailand I set myself a budget.

This year the 7,600 baht return airfare has turned me (and my friend) off popping down to Samui for a couple fo weeks.

It's psychological, a bit like .99 pricing. If the airfare were 1000 or 2000 baht cheaper I'd be on the plane, no problem. But this year, with the low exchange rate, that little extra irks when you consider where else you could spend that money (I gave examples of cheap beer [even though I don't drink alcohol], girls and dinners at the Marriot but I could just as easily be into Thai cooking classes, shopping for shoes, jet skiiing, pet rescue, exotic spa treatments, tantric yoga classes etc etc).

So, as a result of the psychological impact of the relatively high airfare, low exchange rate and consummer confidence, I + one guest, will not be travelling to Samui this year.

No great loss you're thinking but don't forget Samui doesn't just miss out on my 7,600 baht (that goes to Bangkok Airways). Samui misses out on my entire two week holiday spend of 100,000 baht or so. Which of course is multiplied by 2 because of my travelling companion.

Still no great loss, you're thinking.

But if 1000 people make the same decision, suddenly its a chunk of change that could contribute to Samui's economy but hasn't reached the island due to Bangkok Airways' (perceived) high pricing policy.

Of course there are cheaper ways of getting to Samui, but I've always flown direct, and I guess I'd consider anything else second best.

My question being, am I an isolated case, a minority, or are the numbers percetibly down?

As for comments like this...

The Island needs every S*x Tourist it can get imo, like the OP & Friends for example..

You weren't being serious were you? If so, oh, dear... you might want to save some of your moral indignation for the un-evolved sub-culture of ex-cons on Samui, the scammers and the property developers who wantonly despoil the once beautiful island and its environs out of sheer, unapologetic greed. Or are you quite happy in their company?

[Rooo]

I'm beginning to think my OP gave the wrong impression - so let me put the record straight...

Not unlike many people who holiday in Thailand I set myself a budget.

This year the 7,600 baht return airfare has turned me (and my friend) off popping down to Samui for a couple fo weeks.

It's psychological, a bit like .99 pricing. If the airfare were 1000 or 2000 baht cheaper I'd be on the plane, no problem. But this year, with the low exchange rate, that little extra irks when you consider where else you could spend that money (I gave examples of cheap beer [even though I don't drink alcohol], girls and dinners at the Marriot but I could just as easily be into Thai cooking classes, shopping for shoes, jet skiiing, pet rescue, exotic spa treatments, tantric yoga classes etc etc).

So, as a result of the psychological impact of the relatively high airfare, low exchange rate and consummer confidence, I + one guest, will not be travelling to Samui this year.

No great loss you're thinking but don't forget Samui doesn't just miss out on my 7,600 baht (that goes to Bangkok Airways). Samui misses out on my entire two week holiday spend of 100,000 baht or so. Which of course is multiplied by 2 because of my travelling companion.

Still no great loss, you're thinking.

But if 1000 people make the same decision, suddenly its a chunk of change that could contribute to Samui's economy but hasn't reached the island due to Bangkok Airways' (perceived) high pricing policy.

Of course there are cheaper ways of getting to Samui, but I've always flown direct, and I guess I'd consider anything else second best.

My question being, am I an isolated case, a minority, or are the numbers percetibly down?

As for comments like this...

The Island needs every S*x Tourist it can get imo, like the OP & Friends for example..

You weren't being serious were you? If so, oh, dear... you might want to save some of your moral indignation for the un-evolved sub-culture of ex-cons on Samui, the scammers and the property developers who wantonly despoil the once beautiful island and its environs out of sheer, unapologetic greed. Or are you quite happy in their company?

Unfortunately, your original post did come across as something else.Back to BKK air, this has been ongoing for ever.They built the airport, they control the #'s.

A few years back, the locals went up in arms over price increase, BKK air withdrew it at the time, but re introduced it quietly at a later stage.

There are different avenues, as in Surat, there is also talk about transfer from airport, to high speed ferry (45 minutes) to the island.

You would think if you just boycott the airline & use different methods,they might get the hint,but to be realistic I doubt it.

Really spending an extra few hours getting here, is not a big deal, just treat it as an adventure & wind down.

[carmine]

I don't know if you can really get beers for 35 baht at bars in other places in Thailand but I think that Samui is slowly pricing itself out of the market too. Definitely I spend a lot of money when I visit Samui; it's been years since it's seemed like a cheap holiday to me. I don't doubt that Phuket is just as (or more) expensive than Samui but I seem to spend at least twice as much per day when I'm in Samui than when I visit Hua Hin and probably 3 times as much per day than when I visit Chiang Mai. That would be fine if I had twice or 3 times as much fun in Samui but I find that enjoy those other places just as much. Thus I now think twice before heading off to Samui.

Also, even though Europeans on package tours might not be troubled by Bangkok Airway's pricing policies I do think that it hurts the island when it comes to attracting tourists from elsewhere within Asia. For instance, a one way ticket from Singapore to Samui from now costs S$386 (about 9000 baht). That's just plain absurd. And before someone points out that not many people from Singapore (and other Asian countries) go to Samui anyway, maybe it wouldn't be that way if it didn't cost twice as much to fly to Samui as it does to fly to Bali, Phuket, and Sri Lanka and 4 times as much as what it costs to fly to Penang.

Whats the point here?

Edited May 29, 2010 by carmine

[Doppelone]

Whats the point here?

Its a discussion board where people post opinions. If everyone adopted your brevity there wouldn't be any point, would there?

[carmine]

Whats the point here?

Its a discussion board where people post opinions. If everyone adopted your brevity there wouldn't be any point, would there?

Isn't it more a case of "you don't seem to like it here, apparently it's too expensive for you, there's perhaps better suited places elsewhere so why are you wasting your time with this thread?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Make me laugh when I hear the indignation about Samui and sex tourism. There were certainly girlie bars in Lamai went I visited Samui in the early nineties. Not only that, but Lamai was well known as a place where Scandinavian girls would hook up with Thai boys and have to go home at regular intervals in order to raise cash for life on the island. Not so different from the 'sex tourists' who think 'their girl is different'.

Every time I returned there were more bars with girls for rent. Clearly it wasn't only the tourists who were paying a visit to these bars.

So it amuses me when the 'residents' plead ignorance of the girlie trade on the island, when it was clearly established long before most of them settled there. Yes, shock horror! People have been visiting their 'girlfriends' and 'boyfriends' on Samui for at least fifteen to twenty years.

So the holier than thou remarks from some of the residents sounds disingenuous to say the least...and this assertion that somehow beer should be much more expensive because Samui is a 'paradise' is equally nonsensical.

I remember paying 10 baht for a fried rice with chicken at Charlie's Huts on my first visit. The island was certainly more beautiful than it is now. It's only because there are more people trying to make a living from the island that we here such 'elitist' comment.

Personally, I've not willingly entered a girlie bar and certainly wasn't a fan of the freelancers entering the mainstream bars. Also not a fan of the foreigners obtaining land and selling it at a profit...ruining the island in the process. The place has been spoiled by greedy pigs and speculators. More sex tourists would be the least of it's problems.