Accomodation In The Chonburi Area, Sri Racha -towards Pattaya

[3stan]

Hi,

I have been living in bkk for 6 months (teaching english) and i am seriously thinking about relocating to the chonburi area. Bkk is just to Big and busy for me. I don't like dowtown pattaya too much (I am not really a big 'partier', and enjoy more quiet surroundings and less touristy places..). Has anybody got an idea about which area i should go to look for a place to rent (outskirts of pattaya or sri racha, or anywhere in between those 2 cities). I plan on renting a motorbike and just cruise around to check the area for a couple days and maybe some of you have good sugestions on which area i should go check out etc..

(I am not looking for a remote place though. I don't own a motor bike right now so has to be close to a main road (with songtaews) etc..)

Thanks

[nonameidentified]

Basically there are two towns. Bang saen and Sri Racha. I live in Sri Racha just about 3 months ago. So far, no complains at all. Nice little town with lots of activities. You can basically find all that you need at Pacific Park Mall which comprises Robinsons, loads of Thai shops and different restaturants.

Check out the condos and houses around. Usually they have vacancies still. Normally in a few years time this area will boom looking at the facilities it has. Hospitals, schools, everything. And if you want some live music, you can also find some bars having that during the night too.

Sounds like your criteria!

[sriracha john]

When compared to how it was six years ago, the explosive boom has already happened...

Sriracha is now the 8th most populated city in Thailand.... going from 21,000 to 149,000 in that span.

Bang Phra or Ao Udom are much more sublime.

Edited March 23, 2006 by sriracha john

[Artisan]

When compared to how it was six years ago, the explosive boom has already happened...

Sriracha is now the 8th most populated city in Thailand.... going from 21,000 to 149,000 in that span.

Bang Phra or Ao Udom are much more sublime.

John, that's incredible isn't it? I've lived in Pattaya for 13 years and I've seen this city mushroom way beyond anything that I could have imagined when I first came to live here. Just for interest, do you have information on the top ten most populated cities in Thailand?

[sriracha john]

When compared to how it was six years ago, the explosive boom has already happened...

Sriracha is now the 8th most populated city in Thailand.... going from 21,000 to 149,000 in that span.

Bang Phra or Ao Udom are much more sublime.

John, that's incredible isn't it? I've lived in Pattaya for 13 years and I've seen this city mushroom way beyond anything that I could have imagined when I first came to live here. Just for interest, do you have information on the top ten most populated cities in Thailand?

*sigh* when will I remember to bookmark pages I find interesting??

I ran across those figures at the Municipality Office late last year when I was talking to some of the workers there and they showed me a government website, which, of course, I can't track down now despite searching about in Google. The closest thing I found to the ranking and numbers that I recalled seeing on that very detailed government website is a 2004 listing (which hadn't included Sriracha yet) and is from

http://www.thai-info2004.com/thailand.htm#cities

The ten largest cities in Thailand

1 Krung Thep (Bangkok) 6,709,200

2 Samut Prakan 402,000

3 Nonthaburi 309,200

4 Udon Thani 234,100

5 Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) 217,000

6 Hat Yai 197,000

7 Chon Buri 193,900

8 Chiang Mai 178,100

9 Phra Pradaeng 177,100

10 Lampang 156,900

Note: The unofficial figures for Bangkok stand at around 9,000,000+

A search on Google reveals sites with wildly different numbers (expected I guess on something as obtuse as population counts for Thailand's cities), but this one seems closest to the best of my recollection.

[3stan]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I found a nice place (studio) in sri racha with sea view, AC, cable tv 5500bht/month, located next to the center (Robonson's mall) but quiet . I think i will go for it , i like it a lot. I can always relocate to one of the other places around there you mentioned (bang saen , bang phra..) after.

[sriracha john]

Sriracha Place is ok, but it does have some drawbacks. Feel free to PM me. If it was Pacific Park, I know less about it.

Edited March 25, 2006 by sriracha john

[3stan]

John, no, none of those two. Look at the price i quoted..I took a look at Pacific park, rent starts at 20 000baht/months!! It's a smaller building on the back of Robinson's near the sea. There are at least 3 apartment complex in this area offering similar rooms at similar prices.

Why so many Japanese in this city?? I don't get it. I went to some places (apatment) that only accepted japanese. Anyways, i don't mind them and overall, there doesn't seem to be too many farangs around sri racha ,which is good. As a general rule, i think that the more farangs , the less friendly thai/local people feel towards them..understandable.

John, Where can you rent motorbikes? Also, i took the bus back to bkk from a shopping mall (not the robinson's but another one) and it was slow/not express. Where do you catch the express bus to bkk?

Thanks

[sriracha john]

John, no, none of those two. Look at the price i quoted..I took a look at Pacific park, rent starts at 20 000baht/months!! It's a smaller building on the back of Robinson's near the sea. There are at least 3 apartment complex in this area offering similar rooms at similar prices.

Why so many Japanese in this city?? I don't get it. I went to some places (apatment) that only accepted japanese. Anyways, i don't mind them and overall, there doesn't seem to be too many farangs around sri racha ,which is good. As a general rule, i think that the more farangs , the less friendly thai/local people feel towards them..understandable.

John, Where can you rent motorbikes? Also, i took the bus back to bkk from a shopping mall (not the robinson's but another one) and it was slow/not express. Where do you catch the express bus to bkk?

Thanks

I see Pacific Park's rents have gone up considerably from when they first opened.

The Japanese are all here for the industrial park factories and companies that surround Sriracha. They are extremely well paid on full ex-pat pay packages and serve as managing directors, plant supervisors, upper-level management, etc. Many of the apartment buildings and almost all of the Japanese-styled bars/nightclubs cater exclusively to them and don't allow any non-Japanese to rent or to enter. This by the way doesn't reflect the Thai owners views, but rather their Japanese clientele's insistence that non-Japanese be excluded. It's blatantly racist, of course... but that's the way they want it and their yen talks very loudly in this city. If you ever go to Japan, it's the same thing.

Even though, there's not too many farang overall, there's a lot more than used to be. When I arrived, there was just one other Swiss guy and that was it.

There's no place in Sriracha to rent motorcycles. You'll have to go to Pattaya to do that. Rentals are geared towards transient populations such as tourists and Sriracha doesn't get them in enough numbers to make it worthwhile. I rented from a shop in Pattaya for just a couple of months before buying one and of course, there's lots of places to buy a motorcycle here.

The station for express, first class bus to BKK is next to Tukcom/IT City mall on Sukhumwit Road (is that the place you were referring to?). The first class busses are a blue, that's how you can tell. If they have blue and orange, those are the second class busses, but they don't pull out of that station, only the blue ones do. Travel times to BKK on 1st class range from one and half to two and half hours with 2 hours about norm. They have 2 destinations, one is Ekamai and one is Mo Chit. 2nd class bus trips range up to 3 and half hours. 3rd class fan bus (all orange) take about 5 hours, but provide an interesting insight into Thailand and it's people and well worth an adventurous trip when not in a hurry, at least once.... especially if the driver is blasting music through the stereo....

[3stan]

i see, thanks for the explanations John. Yeah, i know Japanese can be pretty racist. But they are usually more quiet and 'behaved' than a lot of Brits etc from my experience.

So no motorbikes rental in sri racha..hum, too bad. What kind of rate where you getting for a monthly rental (motorbike) in Pataya? Also, i do not hold an international driver's license (just a US one)..can it be a problem when checked by the police? I know it can around bkk, but i never experienced any problem driving one in north thailand.. I see lods of falangs driving around Pataya

Si i guess i did catch the express bus (next to IT center). I thought that there might be a non stop express way bus (not going thru chonburi city etc..). It took about 2hours 15 minutes. As for 3rd class bus, i'll pass on that. I took plenty of these during my back packing years..i just need to get from A (sri racha) to B(angkok) fast , because i will have to go to bkk often.

[3stan]

..oups, a few typos in my previous email..

[sriracha john]

i see, thanks for the explanations John. Yeah, i know Japanese can be pretty racist. But they are usually more quiet and 'behaved' than a lot of Brits etc from my experience.

So no motorbikes rental in sri racha..hum, too bad. What kind of rate where you getting for a monthly rental (motorbike) in Pataya? Also, i do not hold an international driver's license (just a US one)..can it be a problem when checked by the police? I know it can around bkk, but i never experienced any problem driving one in north thailand.. I see lods of falangs driving around Pataya

Si i guess i did catch the express bus (next to IT center). I thought that there might be a non stop express way bus (not going thru chonburi city etc..). It took about 2hours 15 minutes. As for 3rd class bus, i'll pass on that. I took plenty of these during my back packing years..i just need to get from A (sri racha) to B(angkok) fast , because i will have to go to bkk often.

I was paying 2,300 baht a month for motorbike rental. Not sure how much higher or lower they are now, but it wasn't that long ago when I rented so probably still somewhere around that figure.

You should certainly have an international driver's license OR a Thai driver's license which you can get with your non-immigrant visa.

There are no non-stop busses to BKK from here. They all travel along Sukhumwit and make stops in Bang Phra and Ban Saen. With the huge population jumps and resulting traffic, I'm afraid the two hour (plus) trips are becoming more of the norm and that my personally experienced best time of 87 minutes (frequent trips resulting in some type of record-keeping to pass the time ) from 4 years ago will probably go unbeaten from here on out. If anything, the bus trips will likely get longer and longer as the development of this area goes on unabashed. I'd expect closer to 3 hours will likely become the norm.