Kitty for your information on things to buy and prices. But I have to say you have scared me also!!! We are going for 3 weeks and were planning on spending $100 for food, shopping etc. I better get saving. We're looking at buying things for home, and doing Phi Phi, Snorkelling, Fanatasea, Sunset Dinner Cruise so I better get cracking on filling my piggy bank.;

oggiedoggie (?) ... Im assuming you meant $1000 and not $100 for spending money for 3 weeks for food, shopping, etc.!!!!! I dont think anyone could do that! Even only $1000 for 3 weeks would be (for me) cutting it fine. As for food ... if your bfast is included at your hotel, then you just fill up on that and you prob wont need lunch! For dinner you can easily get away with $5 per person per meal, or maybe less. Most thai dishes are about 100bt each (at popular places in Patong - may be even cheaper in not so touristy areas) and that wd then depend on what you drink. Phi Phi will be minimum $40 per adult (but thats only if you go onto the street and get cheaper prices), Fantasea we cd only get down to $57 per person thats without the buffet dinner. Im assuming the sunset cruise wd be about $50 per person also. So ... when you add all this up, this wont leave you much change out of your $1000, and you havent even bought any goodies yet!!!

So ... yes ... I wd def take more than $1000 over. It also depends on how many of you are going ... you only say "we". Even if its only 2 of you, I still wdnt think $1000 wd be enough... but thats only the opinion of one ... me!!!

Any more q's - you know the drill - just ask!

Kitty

Hey Kitty,

Sorry I meant $1,000 per week so we are looking at about $100 per day. Will $3,500 be enough for the time we are going seeing as we want to see all those things.

After reading the Siam Safari - that's a definite also for us. My husband and I are so looking forward to going. My first time in Phuket!

Will they have larger size clothes for women????

Hi Kitty,
see Hubby had to be the cheapest on your shopping trips!!!

Did you keep track of everything you spent or do you have an excellent memory???

If you spent $70 on phone calls - what did you use - your phone or a Thai simcard?

Cheers

Karin

Oggiedoggie ... yes Siam Safari was gr8 and, as I said, it was my 12yo daughters highlight of the entire trip. I did ask at all the ticket booths on the street and also at the Merlin about the elephant trek at Kok Chang, but no-one knew much about it, or perhaps it was just that they wanted to push the "Siam Safari" trip. Forumites had said that the Kok Chang one was a bit better, and easy to get to via a taxi, tuk tuk etc. So ... being a Thailand virgin, I just went with the easiest option of Siam. When we went for our drive down the coast, we actually went past the Kok Chang place, so its not far from Patong, so maybe worth looking into, to get a taxi there. On Cathys website she talks about it and has photos, so have a look www.cathyandgarystravelpages.com
I would say if you budget $100 per day per person, that mite give you an idea, but, at the same time, everyone is different in what they spend on and how much. Im only saying $100 as a figure cos that is roughly what we spent, but I did buy a LOT!
As for larger clothes for women, good luck with that! I am a size 12/14 and I had to buy a size XXL in a bikini, does that help??!! It seems they cater well to larger men, with size XXL tshirts and clothes everywhere, but not so well to larger women. I didnt buy a lot of clothes there, just some t-shirts, couple dresses, black pants and the dreaded bikini!
Anyway ... have fun looking!

Karin ... yes the hubby did get the least spent on him! He didnt need or want much, just lots of sunnies, some t-shirts and the complete 3 seasons of "My name is Earl"!!!
No ... I do not have an excellent memory! I keep a travel diary (its the Secretary in me!) and everytime Id come home from somewhere, be it shopping or a trip, Id jot down everything, prices etc. I love looking back on it (and reminiscing about the fab holiday!) plus its also helpful for when people ask me questions, like now! You dont need to go out and buy an expensive travel diary, just a small book to write things in. Its a nice keepsake too.
The $70 I spent on phone calls was way too expensive for my liking. Im very lazy when it comes to modern technology, so I just rang from the room phones. When I was in Bali and Vietnam, call costs back to oz were no where near that expensive. eg. a 5 minute phone call cost me bloody $18!!!!!!! NEVER AGAIN!!! Ill just have to learn how to email or get a thai simcard! I did however have to ring up on one of the days I was away, as it was my 23rd wedding anniversary, and I dont think hubby wd have been too happy if I didnt call on that day!!!

Cheers for now Kitty

Hi Karin
I have tried the whole different phone thing --International roaming,public phones and finally settled on the Sim card from whatever country I am in.
I have not long come back from Bali and spent about $20 AUD on local phonecalls ,calls home to Aus and many many text messages--that was over a 15 day stay too. Will definately be taking the same option when I go back to Thailand.
I keep my old unlocked phone as a spare for holidays save all the numbers to the handset then its ready to go when i arrive at my destination.
Cheers laurs

Thanx Laurs, I will def do that on my next o/s trip. So ... any unlocked mobile phone will be ok?? And you can pretty much get a local sim card in most asian countries?? Sounds like a much cheaper and easier option ... thanx!

Just for anyone who is interested, a MBK floor guide ....

There are 8 floors and 4 zones on each floor. The zones are A B C and D, with A being near the skytrain end and E being near the Pathumwan Princess Hotel end.

Ground floor Apparel, fashion goods, leather, jewellery, silk, supermarket (we never found the supermarket!), DVD's and CD's in zone B

2nd floor Apparel, fashion goods, leather, gold and jewellery, and I think cosmetics on this floor too

3rd floor Same - apparel, fashion goods, leather, gold and jewellery, CD's, DVD's. Also on this floor (in ZoneD) is a really cheap area called "The Image" much like a market area. You'll know you are there cos there are these coloured circle things hanging from the roof. Unfortunately we didnt discover this area until 3rd day!

4th floor Mobile phones & asseccories, cameras, appliances, IT, banking and exchange in zone D

5th floor Furniture and home decorations, Fifth Avenue Food court in zone A (this place is gr8, very very cheap and quick and lots of variety!)

6th floor CD's and games, food centre, Thai handicraft products and cheap market clothes this is in zone D i think with some good bargains to be had in here.

7th floor Theatres, bowling alley, karaoke, games zone

8th floor Theatres, MBK's Offices

So ... hoping this is of some help to anyone going there soon. There are touch screen directories scattered everywhere, but I still found it hard to find what I wanted on them. There are food outlets on every floor, but the main ones seem to be on 5th 6th and 7th floor. Beauty/Massage places are on either 3rd or 5th floors. All money exchanges are on 4th floor zone D. Post Office is on 2nd floor zone B. Tokyu Dept Store is 4 floors in Zone A and worth a look at.

Kitty

Small travel agents usually have quite cheap(Well a lot cheaper than hotel) o/s calls, and in some areas you will see people outside shops with a mobile phone or two on a table,you can use these phones at a faily cheap rate.

we always just go on international roam and text but the roam calls are there for emergency calls. Tracey and I text to find each other when we get seperated so if we got new sims we would have to get two.

den.

Re. phone calls from Thailand. You can get a sim card in many places......heaps of places selling them in MBK and Pantip Plaza but also 7-11. One thing you need to know about these is that they are valid for a particular period of time only so you need to be there to add baht or pay a whole lot before you leave. With one card that I had, I stood in 7-11 buying 200 baht top up cards one after the other until I'd put 800 baht on the phone. It ran out before I got back to Bangkok - grrrrrrrrrrrr . very inconvenient because next time I went, I had to get a new simcard/new phone number and all my BKK numbers (dentist, hairdresser, hotel, limo service etc) were lost. Awhile ago DTAC had a special offer - original simcard lasted 12 months and could be topped up during that time or afterwards. I've still got it. Look in DTAC shops to see if they still have these special deal cards.

The other cheap option for phone calls is internet cafes - they often have signs on their windows advertising "International Phone Calls". These are at cheap rates. There are several of these places in Sukhumvit Soi 5 and the little soi that runs between soi 5 and soi 3.