We are now one island further Ko Pha Ngan in a place called Power Beach Resort.
From now on every travel we’ll do will bring us closer home. After the moment I booked the flight home to Zürich in Bangkok some days ago, it really dawned on us that our adventure will soon be over. And there still is a lot to do. But I guess no one will pity us.
We are currently doing nothing. Just some work like doing this blog or sorting pictures. The days just fly by.
Now to the theme of this blog. Some people asked me to describe how we travel and give some tips on how to do.
What happened to us recently can serve as a starting point. I might make a special page just on such themes, how to book flights and hotels, especially with children.
You get what you pay for really is true. If something seems to be too cheap it usually is not good. If something was expensive it usually was comparatively good. Value for Money. You need to do a reasonably check. After a short time in a country usually the price level becomes clear.
We were quite proud so far that we never really got cheated in Asia. Ok, we paid 10$ for a towel worth probably 3$ and stuff like that, but never for much money. Occasionally we were tired of haggling and thought 10$ makes them happier than us.
So here how we usually book hotels:
Go on booking.com.
Search for Hotels at destination for just 1 day on the first round (in $) but at correct date (because price is give as summary, makes comparing difficult)
Sort by “review score”
Click on some of the hotels especially and then on the map to get an impression where the hotel must be (if well prepared by guide book you already know)
Hotels too far out or with no restaurants close by especially if no breakfast included are a problem
Set price filter if too many results
Now you know the price range and where the hotels are or your hotel should be
Now Search for 2 Adults and 2 Kids
In many countries this is a problem. This might reduce the answer set to 0. At some places it gives you 2 Rooms as answers but that does not always work. We found out that many hotels actually have family rooms or rooms with 2 double but do not have it on the internet. Most hotels in Asia have a double and a single! If you can live with that with 2 Kids you are fine. Almost all hotels have a “free if using existing bedding below 12 policy”. Otherwise you have a problem we also could not solve. If a policy says: “Kids above 6 are considered adults”, boycott them.
Note: In Canada and USA you are fine, because all hotels have 2 double beds with kids staying free. If not, skip them.
Read the “Hotel Policy” kids section
Now enter correct starting/end date and search again, if lucky your hotel is still on the list
Now a sanity check. If your 4 people room is more then double the price of a 2 people room, then there is a good chance your hotel will not deliver the proper level for the price! Exceptions: the room is a suite with a kitchenette and the other rooms are much simpler.
book
Note: some steps get repeated or order might change, this is just a guideline.
Now, agoda.com. I do not like them, because you cannot search for 2 Adults 2 Kids (you can set it but this does not influence the search result) and because they have hidden costs.
Booking.com is almost always all inclusive (i.e. taxes, service-charge) while agoda has them separately. Also the additional child bed charge you only see at the very end and some hotel charge almost more for that extra bed than for the room. So you end up paying double as a couple would and have a crowded room. Also at agoda you do not see the actual bed size. Very important with kids.
Agoda has much more hotels, so occasionally I used them. You can also use Tripadviser but they will direct you to other sites and you cannot search for kids. Was of no much use for me.
(just for me, to do: score rating, cancellation policy, laundry)
Almost forgot.
The story:
In Bangkok a tuk-tuk driver wanted to show us the 5 usual monuments for just 40 Baht (1.2$). This is impossible. Such a trip should cost at least 3$. So too good to be true. We took it anyway and decided to be on our guard.
However, he really showed us the promised sites and then asked us if we wanted to see the official government jewelry promotion selling place (forgot name). He told us, he’ll get free gasoline if he brings tourists there. Well, a honest man. OK, why not. What happened there, Astrid has to tell you in person, but all was OK.
Anyway, we then saw another place and then just wanted to have one of those nice maps he had of Bangkok.
So he brought us to an “Tourist Information”. For people not used to travel in this parts of the world: A Tourist Information is simply a travel agency. We knew that of course by now.
A nice guy named Cris of Vancouver Canada (if true) gave us a map for 1$ and gave us a lot of tips about travelling in Thailand. He also knew of the problem of booking hotels for families so he proposed us a fancy resort on Koh Phangan. Very expensive but right by the beach, and the pictures looked really nice. So we decided to indulge in luxury and booked it. Without checking. Something I always did so far. OK, I had not yet mobile internet, but I should simply have asked him for the agoda score and looked myself.
So we arrived on Koh Phangan and even were picked up for free by not less then 4 employees.
Then we arrived at our family Bungalow. No words for it. I took some pictures, just one here:
We really payed a lot for it. That room was worth about 1/3 of what we payed for. We then got another room with an extra mattress, somewhat better but still worth only a fraction.
Now we checked. The agency was difficult to find (on TripAdvisor) because they change name frequently. I had to use the street address and the name on the credit card bill. Sure as hell, full of warnings.
Also for the Hotel on Agoda and Booking.com, tripadviser, ratings below zero.
Tripadviser:
Never saw such a bad review.
Interestingly, Agoda has it at 6.7 Pleasant (out of 10)
Agoda also has:
for every available room type.
The resort has about 90 Bungalows. We only rarely see other guests. No kidding: I think at the moment only 2 Bungalows are occupied. That place even is somewhat eerie, big but no one around. So much for Agoda.
Booking.com has it at 6, about as low as it gets. More useful then Agoda again.
So we got cheated, we even booked 5 days, and paid luckily not much more then we would have to pay on Agoda.
The place is completely strange. Actually only the rooms are enormously overcharged. The rest would be somewhat OK.
There is a pool table, the laundry pricing is OK (normally a quality sign ), it is decently clean and the restaurant is OK. When they do the room, 6 employees show up.
When Astrid asked the Manager to have the beach cleaned, actually 2 guys showed up, to our utter surprise.
Just to throw everything back into the sea.
Astrid got quite agitated and explained them with a lot of patience what can stay on the beach and what is actually garbage and has to be taken out and put into a bin. It was funny but in a sense also very sad.
We got asylum on the neighboring resort “First Villa”, we often eat there and are allowed to use that pool and WiFi. We’ll move on once our 5 days are over. We actually would stay in “First Villa” but there is no snorkeling here and it seems there are better places on this island.
flaatworld 