Thai voyage...
At the beginning of my review, I want to sincerely thank our tour operator Ekaterina, Vivanta travel agency for our organized vacation. It's nice to deal with a professional, and as a result get a quality product (in this case, a tour).
. We went as a family of 3 people, my daughter is 12 years old (turned during the holidays). We arrived in Bangkok in the morning, after receiving a visa (as of October 2016, the cost of a visa is 2000 baht per person, at the airport the rate is terrible 1 dollar = 31.5 baht, change at a minimum! ), We were met by representatives of the host Sayama Travel, put on beads from live orchids and carried out in a transfer to Pattaya. The road to the chosen hotel took 1.5-2 hours, during which we were briefly instructed on key points. The hotel was called the Long Beach Garden Hotel, located directly in Pattaya on the shores of the Gulf of Thailand. A good hotel, corresponds to the declared star rating and has a fairly favorable location for those who want to see the city. Everything is within reach - shops, cafes, transport interchanges. Nearby are 2 transvisit shows "Alcazar" and "Tiffany", the Embankment, the Temple of Truth, we even walked to Walking Street. I had to walk a lot in Pattaya. I wanted to go everywhere, what we could cover as much as possible, we went around. Whoever has planned a trip, I advise you to take comfortable shoes and tune in to the “marches” for the first days. After 1-2 days, you can figure out the routes of tuk-tuks and already drive up to the necessary places by transport. Tuk-tuk is cheap and there are a lot of them. You just stop it, get in and drive. When you need to get off, press the bell and give the driver 10 baht per person. But if you stop an empty tuk-tuk, then this is an ordinary taxi and the price will be completely different. Get ready to bargain! Maps of Pattaya with the necessary information are available in any store and even just on the stands on the street for free. The host also took care of this, in our backpacks and envelopes there were maps of Pattaya. The cost of the tour included an excursion to the crocodile farm, with a visit to the garden of million-year-old stones, a latex factory, a snake farm and a jewelry factory. The tour is very interesting, useful, informative. We were very satisfied. We visited Alcazar Show on our own, later regretted that it was not Tiffany. At the “Tiffany Show” at the end after the performance, the artists go out to the audience, you can look at them, take pictures up close, and examine the costumes. "Alcazar" did not suit this. Performances every 2 hours, 1.5 hour show, half an hour smoke break and change of audience. The show is beautiful, interesting performances, rich scenery, costumes. Recommend. The cost of the show is the same - 600 baht. Also, during our stay in Pattaya, we visited the Temple of Truth (not far from the hotel), walked around the city, visited local markets, large shopping centers. We got tired of Pattaya very quickly. Resort town, busy streets, endless traffic, parties. Of course, you can't judge Thailand by Pattaya. Therefore, after staying in the city for 4 days, we went to the next destination on the island of Koh Chang, Trat province. The road together with the crossing took about 6 hours.
On the island, we chose the Koh Chang Paradise hotel according to the rating of tourists and according to the recommendations of Katya from Vivanta. As the guide told us at the first meeting: "You're lucky, this is the best hotel on the island. " It's hard to disagree with this. I was very worried before the trip that it could still rain in October, as it turned out - in vain. It rained only at night, and sometimes it was partly cloudy, but we sunbathed under the clouds perfectly. The hotel is located in a picturesque place, Klong Prao bay surrounded by beautiful hotels. There is a sandy beach, there are rocks and jungle. Again, we tried to walk, look, enjoy. On the island we were again taken to a crocodile farm, to a latex shop, we went to Thai massage on our own. While on the island, my daughter had a birthday. The hotel congratulated us very warmly, gave us a cake, a postcard signed by almost every employee of the hotel. Well done!! ! Very nice!! ! Thanks to our tour operator, guide for organizing congratulations. The hotel itself looks like heaven, photos are attached. The staff is working tirelessly - cutting branches, cutting grass, removing coconuts from palm trees, cleaning the beach. In the room, everything changed on time, all consumables were replenished, everyone tried very hard. Only on the island did I feel that Thailand is rightly called the “land of a million smiles”. Everyone is really very nice and sincerely smile at you, meeting their eyes. This is not the case in Pattaya, Pattaya is tired of tourists and is no longer smiling like that. As for living creatures in the hotel, I did not see snakes, although guides and locals warn that there are many of them on the island. There are interesting birds (they make unique sounds), eagles fly over the sea during the day. Butterflies flutter, colorful, bright. There were no monkeys. In the evenings we went with a flashlight. Be sure to take mosquito repellent with you or buy it on the spot - there are enough shops around. Mosquitoes are rampant in the evenings. The sea during our vacation for 3-4 days was slightly stormy, the water was muddy. And when the wind died down, the sea calmed down and became transparent like a tear. But there were jellyfish. Apparently - the season was like this... We spent 7 days on the island. I didn't want to leave the island. But we had to see Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, the stone jungle.
The road to Bangkok took 7 hours, we made 2 stops. In Bangkok, we stayed at the Prince Palace Hotel. Multi-storey hotel, was chosen on the recommendation of Katya and not in vain!! ! Located opposite Bayok Sky, 10 minutes walk from SIAM Paragon (the largest shopping center in Southeast Asia), right from the hotel itself you can see the highest skyscraper (the one with “broken pixels” 77 floors 314 meters). The entire infrastructure of the hotel is located on the 11-12th floor. From the observation deck offers a breathtaking view of Bangkok. In terms of food (we only included breakfast), the hotel exceeded all expectations. These were the best breakfasts of all our 3 hotels. In Bangkok, we were taken on a bonus tour to the Temple of the Golden Mount, arranged a short overview of Bangkok with a visit to a jewelry factory. Back we ordered a transfer not to the hotel, but to Siam Paragon, it is within walking distance from the hotel, as I already noted. Siam Paragon simply shook the imagination with its scale. We enjoyed wandering around it, there is simply nothing like it in our country. Bangkok is the city that never sleeps. It seems that the movement in it never stops. Until late at night it seethes, and then again from early morning. I have never seen such a number of modes of transport as in Bangkok in any country I have visited. Here and ground and underground and water. Life is in full swing!! ! After walking around Bangkok, we returned to the hotel and were already waiting for the transfer to the airport.
Some price statistics:
Taxis in Bangkok - meters are everywhere, on average 100 baht
Non-carbonated water in a bottle 0.5 l-8 baht
Orbit-10 baht
Pancakes with a banana in a macaron - 40 baht
A huge portion of rice with seafood in a cafe - 80 baht
TOM Yum soup - 100 baht
Serving of large shrimp 8 pieces - 100 baht
Thai rum - 150 baht
Canned beer - 30 baht
Cigarettes-100 baht
General massage - 200 baht/hour
This concludes our trip to Thailand. Everything was very interesting and informative. I really liked the host side - everything is organized, thought out, the transfers are clean, modern, not large, maneuverable in megacities. Informative excursions, educated guides, experienced drivers. Everything is always clear, necessary, punctual!! ! All at the highest level!! ! Thank you very much Sayama Travel!! ! Thank you Vivanta TOUR!! ! Thanks, Kate!! ! It was an unforgettable vacation, a very interesting tour, an amazing country from which we brought vivid impressions, warmth, smiles. We are sure that all these memories of the holiday will warm us up to our next trips.
