Listening To Music In My Hotel Room

[californiabeachboy]

I will be coming over to Thailand for my second visit in a week or so, staying for three weeks. I will not be bringing my laptop, but I will be bringing my samsung MP3 player. The biggest thing I miss when traveling is having good music in my hotel room - not the songs on my MP3 that I listen to at home all the time, but a variety of music (I have satellite radio here at home)- jazz, sometimes rock n roll etc. And I don't want to walk around the room with earbuds/headphones, so I have trying to think how I could get music while traveling and I would like some advice.

1. Is it possible to buy a cheap, old computer (say for $100US or less) that would still allow me to play Internet radio. As far as I know most of the places I will be staying have free wi-fi. That would give me the most variety

2. Can you buy a docking station for a MP# player there (not an Ipod) so I could hook up my MP3 and listen to local radio stations (how many local stations in Bkk?).

3. One possibility is to bring a bunch of cd's and buy a cd player while there. How much for an inexpensive CD player?

Any other suggestions on how to get music for under $100 while visiting Thailand. Whatever I buy there I will probably just leave there.

Thanks for your help.

[nikster]

This all depends on what you already have. There is no $100 device for internet radio, though there are some hotels that have a PC in the room - they're rare but I've been in one once. Cheap netbooks (small laptop) start at around $250 or so.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, there's an app for internet radio - forgot the name now but it seemed to have all the U.S. stations.

Radio in Thailand is terrible, I'd forget about that - on the other hand buying a normal FM radio is dirt cheap if that's good enough for you.

If you have Sat radio at home, they have an online solution, apps for iPhone and other phones, and so on see here:

http://www.xmradio.com/player/home/xmhome.action

Not sure why you'd need a docking station? You could bring your mp3 player and buy speakers for about $10 here. You need to get those that have a separate power supply, available everywhere in Thailand, and plenty loud for a hotel room, and small enough to pack in your suitcase.

[Godolphin]

You could also go to any of the huge number of vendors who will sell you compressed CDs with 12 or 15 albums on one disk for $100 baht and listen to them on a cheap cd player which may cost you as little as 700baht upwards.

[h90]

my mobile phone can use Wifi and browse internet.

If it works with internet radio? I don't know. But worth to test. Might be uncomfortable to use it, but once the radio runs it runs

[californiabeachboy]

Thanks for the info. I have done some more research. The satellite radio app from XM looked good (I have XM here in the US) until I called my mobile phone service (T-Mobile) and she told me that to listen to Internet radio on a smart phone would cost about $200US per hour because they charge for audio streaming.

My conclusion is "back to the future". I will bring my MP3 and maybe find some external speakers. Also, I will buy a cheap cd player (as one of the posters suggested), pick up some cds, and go from there.

Thanks for the responses.

[tominbkk]

If you have an iPhone, you can download one of many apps that radiostations, many for free. I like "finetune" myself, it is like Pandora, you put in a name of an artist you like and it searches out music that would fit that feel of music....magical. then buy a pair of speakers here at a Panthip like place for about 400-500 Baht for a nice little setup, plug your phone into the hotel's wireless, and you are ready to rock! If you have a smart phone different from an iPhone, I'm sure it will have some kind of streaming music app.

Edited November 7, 2010 by tominbkk