Thailand Tour (Bangkok & Pattaya)

General Information:

• Travel Agent - SOMA Travels, Nagpur (Coordinated by DS Travels at Thailand)
• Duration - 6 days, 5 nights (2 nights Pattaya, 3 nights Bangkok)
• Airline - Indian Airlines
• Cities Visited - Bangkok and Pattaya
• Major Places / Activities - Coral Island, Parasailing, JetSki, Under Sea Walk, Alcazar Show, Thai Massage, Noong Nooch Village, Safari/Marine Park, Indra Market, Chaoparya Dinner Cruise, Golden Buddha Temple, Reclining Buddha.

Overall Expenses:

• Package - Rs. 26000 per head (Airline + Hotel Accomodation + Breakfast + Entry Fees + Transfers)
• Other Expenses - Rs. 12000 per head (Visa + Food + Water Sports)

Visa Guidelines:

• Indian Passport with ECNR check.
• We went for Visa on Arrival.
• Requirement: Passport + 1 photo + 1000 Baht

Tour Description:

Day 1:

• Departed from Mumbai International Airport by Indian Airlines at 12:45 AM local time and reached Suvarnabhumi International Airport (Bangkok) at 6:20 AM local time. The flying time is about 3.5 hours. Also Thailand time is 1.5 hours ahead of India time.
• We processed visa on arrival. We had a tough time because we were not carrying any Thai Baht or US$. Fortunately an indian (Jet Airways Caption) gave us some Baht for visa processing.
• Travel agent picked us at Airport and we directly started for Pattaya. We reached Pattaya at 11:30 AM. The roads and flyovers are excellent, Thailand infrastructure is damn good :)
• We checked-in at Hotel Pattaya Center, very close to Beach road. Nice hotel and location is great. You can find all outlets like Pizza Hut, Pizza Company, Burger King, McDonald nearby on beach road. Just 5-10min walk. (For veggies Pizza hut, Pizza company and Burger king are the only options)

• We went for Alcazar show in the evening which is about 1.5 hrs duration. It was included in our package, but otherwise the entry fee is about 600 baht per person. Good show, but not something exceptional.

Day 2:

• We had a nice American breakfast at the hotel and then we went to the beach at 9:00 AM for Coral Island. Our travel coordinator (Ms Indy, nice lady) was also present and she took us to the speed boat. After about 10-15 min, we reached parasailing platform in the sea. We did some parasailing. It was a great experience. It costs about 350 baht per head.

• We again took the same speed boat to travel for 10-15min more and reached to one more platform. This was something which I was waiting for a long long time, UNDER SEA WALK. This is something fantastic and we can hardly find places for this sport. We both did the under sea walk. It is about 20-25 min walk costing about 1400 baht per head, but surely worth it. They take us to the bottom of sea with that oxygen mask and all and make us walk around. Lot of fishes all around with some fabulous stones and sea creatures. Must too stuff...
• Again after 5-10min, we reached actual Coral Island. Nice clean beach with white sand. You can swim and do some jet skiing here.

• We came back to Pattaya beach at about 12:30 PM and went for the lunch at one hotel. There was a indian lunch buffet, some nice indian food. This was again included in our package.
• We enquired about Thai massage with our travel agent and she took an appointment with the parlour. You can find many thai massage parlours all over the place. But we will suggest you to go to professional parlours which are good and not costly. We went for the Thai massage in the evening. The massage takes about 2 hours and costs about 500 baht per head. Really worth doing it :)
• We went for a walk on beach later in the evening, and also visited a big mall on beach road which was just 10min walk from our hotel. We took the dinner at Pizza Company (being an Veggie) which costs about 250 baht (buy one get one offer).

Day 3:

• After the breakfast in the hotel, we started for "Noong Nooch Village" which is about 1 hr drive from Pattaya. There are many cultural and animal shows in that village. Elephant show was good and rest was boring. I will not recommend that this place to anyone. I heard the tropical garden is good, but we could not visit that because of rain. We will suggest you to cover crocodile park instead.

• We came back from village at around 2:00 PM and then visited Gems Gallery. This is a very big gems/jewellary store and its worth visiting it. Superb store.
• We left Pattaya at 4:30 PM and reached Bangkok at about 8:00 PM. We stayed in Hotel Ambassardor which is very much centrally located. Nice hotel.

Day 4:

• Hotel Ambassador is good. The street market and indian restaurants are nearby. We took the breakfast in the morning and started at 9:00 AM for Safari World. Our travel coordinator Ms Mona accompanied us till Safari world. It was about 1 hr drive from our hotel.
• We reached Safari world at 10:15 AM and directly went for Orang-Othan (Gorilla) show. There were many animal shows in Marine park, but we liked Dolphin and Sealion show. We can hardly find those animals in India. Safari park tour is like a bus tour in jungle, and we found it very boring. We did not find Safari world exciting except above two shows. But its tiring walking around the whole park. We took the lunch in park which costs about 160 baht per head. It is called as international buffet lunch, but we hardly found anything to eat being an Vegetarian. However the cook specially prepared few dishes like veg fried rice and noodles especially for us. It was nice.

• We came back to city at 4:30 PM and we asked our driver to drop us at Indra market. This is really a very good and cheap market for shopping. Its like a street market as well as a mall. We found some good watches, bags, clothes out there. There are couple of malls close to Indra market.
• We took "TukTuk" (similar to out auto-rickshaws) to go back to our hotel. It costs about 50 baht from Indra market to Hotel Ambassador. Then we went for the dinner in nearby Indian restaurant called "Bawarchi". The food is good but very costly. Even if you are not very hungry, it will cost you about 250 baht per head.

Day 5:

• We took the breakfast in the hotel and started for city tour at 9:30 AM. Our cab driver was good and he was the only one with good english speaking skills.
• We reached "Golden Buddha" temply in about 30min drive from hotel. Though we not very enthusiastic about visiting temples, but still we will recommend to visit golden buddha and reclining buddha temples. This golden buddha status is considered to be largest in the world.

• After golden buddha, we went to see "Reclining Buddha" temple. This one is a huge status with golden plating. The statue is kept is big hall and its worth visiting.

• We came to back to hotel at 4:00 PM after visiting Indra market once again for some shopping.
• We took some rest and started for "Chaoparya Dinner Cruise" at about 7:30 PM and reached the place at around 8:30 PM. This is something highly recommended, and please dont miss this. This looks costly with charges of about 1000 baht per head, but its worth it. This chaoparya rive cruise duration is about 2 hrs duration and passes through of the wonderful locations. We can see some good hotels, building and bridges from the deck. There is a separate deck for indians with hindi music and indian buffet.

• We came back to the hotel at around 10:30 PM.

Day 6:

• We checked-out from the hotel at 12 noon and went to street market. We also went to the nearby "StarBucks" outlet.
• After some timepass, the cab picked us at 2:00 PM and we reached airport at 3:00 PM. We catched Indian Airlines flight at 5:00 PM and reached Mumbai at 7:30 PM IST.

Don't Miss:

• Coral Island for Parasailing and *Under Sea Walk*.
• Chaoparya river - Dinner Cruise
• Marine Park for Dolphin & Sealion show
• Thai Massage

Checklist:

• You need ECNR check on your passport for travelling to Thailand.
• You need 1000 baht for processing visa on arrival. Also you will require about 1000 baht as check-in deposit in the hotel. So it is better to carry atleast 5000 baht or equivalent US$ while since you will not find any exchange counter at Airport accepting indian currency. Once you settle down, you can go to any exchange counter and convert as per your requirement.
• Exchange counters accepting indian currency are available in Pattaya as well as in Bangkok at various places (Ex Kasikorn Bank, Bangkok Bank), No need to worry about.
• Though you can use your credit card (Visa/Master) at the Airport for withdrawing Thai baht, but you will have to withdraw at least 5000 baht in one transaction. You need to have sufficient cash credit limit. American express cards are not accepted.

Recommendation:

• Neither a family destination, nor honeymoon destination. Take your call...
• The tour duration of about 6 days is sufficient and one can stay little longer in Pattaya.