The weekend of 2nd October-15 was special as apart from extend weekend holidays, it also marked the completion of mid-term exams for my son or for that matter many more kids. My son was eagerly looking forward to a holiday abroad ever since his passport was renewed in January this year and we surprised him with a short Thailand (only) trip. Here is what was the trip worth for
Well, we did not do lot of planning and decided to go all on our own and chose not to take any holiday package even though they were available at competitive rates.
Booked Indigo flight from Delhi to Bangkok with change-over in Kolkata as not only it was the cheapest option but also enabled my brother-in-law to join the same flight from Kolkata. A request at Delhi check-in ensured that we all were sitting together on our Kolkata-Bangkok flight.
Trip Details
Total No of people: 3 adult + 1 teenager (now that my kid is 12+ years old, hate to be called kid)
Flights: Indigo (Delhi- Kolkata- Bangkok)
Hotels
Pattaya: Marriott Resort & Spa (3 Nights)
Bangkok: Holiday Inn (1 Night)
Food & Dinning
Plenty of option in Pattaya. Seafood lovers would cherish fresh prawns. However we liked the Indian version of the prawns better due to absence of seasoning & masala in Thai grills. Although the Thai curries were much like Indian curries except that it got handful of coconut milk. Most of the 3-5 star hotels in Thailand have Indian section in Buffet spread, however can't say much on the choice of the food as we found limited option in Marriott & Holiday Inn. I would recommend Thai curries and live noodles.
There were Indian Restaurant everywhere. Pattaya also had Jain as well as pure vegetarian restaurants. Bengali restaurant even had sign-boards in Bengali. We liked "Zaika" located across the road opposite Marriott. The food was really good and hence we did not feel need to try any other.
Apart from Indian Restaurants, we had McD, Burger King, KFC and Pizzahut. All of them except KFC had at least one vegetarian option.
This was same with Bangkok except that the prices were on higher side.
Sight Seeing
Pattaya: Coral Island, City Tour & Tiffany Show
Bangkok: Safari World, River & City Tour
Shopping Guide
Pattaya is cheap and somewhat like Goa. We had option from street shops as well as some real good malls. Go for street shops for a difference. Malls are no different that India.
Bangkok: Malls have better collection than street shops, which are also in plenty. LED TVs are cheaper than India, however mobile phones list price were more or less same as India and with type of discount raining in India, net cost of mobile phone would be much less here.
Foreign Exchange
Plenty of option for currency exchange in Pattaya and Bangkok. The exchanges were everywhere and opened till 10 PM, however not many of them accepted INR. Dollars most welcome.
TIP: Use credit card at all possible place but do not choose to pay in INR, pay in Thai Baht by credit card. The VISA/MASTER Card conversation rate is most competitive (much better than what I got for my INR, which I had negotiated hard with local currency exchange in Delhi).
When you opt to pay in INR in foreign country, the card machine owning banks, say Bangkok Bank, covert the local currency into INR at their rate and not VISA/MASTER Card rate.
Rate difference: 1.86 Vs 1.94 INR for every Thai Baht
The Journey: Delhi- Pattaya
The Delhi-Kolkata flight time is 2 hours and Kolkata-Bangkok is another 2 hours 20 minutes. No wonder guys from Kolkata would find it easy to travel to Bangkok than Goa with Visa on Arrival requiring no advance planning. Later, we also discovered that stay option available in Pattaya were much cheaper than Goa. Food, travel & sight-seeing were a bit more costly than India, however it would not be a deal breaker for "frequent tourists" from India.
The flight from Kolkata was uneventful. Indigo was on time and we only missed the hospitality of a full service airlines, even though buy on board was available like domestic sectors except that you need to pay in dollars or currency of the destination (Thai Baht). No INR but credit card can be use to pay in USD.
I had pre-booked a SUV to pick us from the airport and drop at our Hotel at Pattaya. We landed at 3:15 PM and it took less than 30 minutes for Visa on Arrival. At 3:50 PM we were all inside a Fortuner, which was going to drive us to Pattaya located 120 Km from Bangkok Airport. No the Fortuner was not the newly launched one, which we would have loved. In fact it was first generation Fortuner automatic and burning Petrol.
We arrived to overcast cloudy sky. It started raining as soon as we left Bangkok and it rained all the way to Pattaya. The drive from Bangkok to Pattaya is 1 hour 15 minutes and we all were inside our rooms by 5:30 PM.
A quick check on weather forecast disappointed us as it showed thunderstorms & rain for next few days but the God was Kind as rain did not play spoil sports and we were more happy with weather being pleasant even though it turned humid in evening (somewhat like Mumbai)
We had early dinner at a Thai seafood specialty restaurant- Namsing. Prawns were fresh & roasted live after taking out from aquarium.
We had a long walk on beach Road before going for bed. We had 2 full day in Pattaya and first was a long one.