BKK-Phuket input reqd
 

Hi,
My wife and me plan to visit Phuket and BKK for 3 days each.
For Phuket:
1) Since we just have 21/2 days, is it worth making a visit to Phi Phi islands?
2) Is Phuket Fantasea worth the money?
3) Any "decent" massage/spas places? I believe the ones at the hotels are pretty steep? How much should I expect to pay?
4) Again regarding night-life, places where the two of us could have a good time without feeling akward?

Bangkok:
1) Again 21/2 days here...Is it worth visiting the croc farm or the floating market since I believe they are far away?
2) Best way to locate "decent" spas?

Currency Exchange:
Are Credit Cards widely accepted?
Best place to get BAHT's?

Thanks!

do visit koh phi phi. it will be the highlight of ur holiday and the islands can be visited as a day trip (all phuket hotels and travel agents can arrange this for u). haven't been to fantasea, so can't comment on that. there are many massage and facial places: 200 baht upward, depending on what u want.

i've been only to kata beach, which is rather quiet and not known for its nightlife, but the kata center inn has a danish bar that's open all night (not the most lively atmosphere and certainly nothing like patong beach). there will be beach parties most nights of the week, somewhere on the island.

haven't been to the croc farm. i have been to the EVENING floating market at amphawa in samut songkhram (this is the one where u don't have to rise before dawn), reached by bus from the southern bus terminal. as the sun sets, u can buy two seats on a boat tour to see the fireflies (very romantic).

credit cards are widely accepted, especially if u are willing to pay surcharges for using them. in bkk, most hotels will accept mastercard and visas without surcharges. u'll find a suitable atm almost anywhere a tourist goes, but not on koh phi phi. i always use an atm to withdraw cash, then use cash for my purchases. if u're from the uk, then nationwide has the best exchange rates for withdrawing cash at a thai atm (zero surcharge); there is an atm at bkk airport. if changing cash, then bangkok bank gives better rates than any uk bank, but not as good as using a nationwide card at a thai atm.

ian. :)

Get your baht at the airport. Though there is some disagreement - in Thailand the bank rate is the bank rate - no matter the location. Most exchange places will be happy to give you small change too - so ask for it.

Best to NOT use credit cards - use cash. Thailand is safer than "back home" and carrying a bit of cash about is not a problem. Just be discrete with it.

"Decent" spas are everywhere - assume that most are decent. Where are you staying? Phuket is a big island and it is hard to recommend somewhere without knowing your location.

Only my opinion, FantaSea is mediocre at best.

I am not sure that Phi Phi is worth the visit - I would, personally, probably prefer to just hang out on a beach and relax. But, that's just me!

On Phuket, you can feel comfortable almost everywhere. Go, enjoy!

some out-of-the way places in thailand do not give the bank rate, especially on the smaller islands, such as koh samet, that do not have banks. there ought to be no problems of this kind on phuket island. if u're trying to change us$ into baht, then banks will normally give an inferior rate for small us$ notes (the rate for small us$ notes is printed on the daily exchange rate schedule), although this does not happen with most other currencies.

ian. :)

You can get baht from most ATMs at a decent rate, but beware that your financial institution may charge an additional conversion fee, and the VISA or MasterCard affiliated checkcards and credit cards also charge a conversion fee.

Since your Phuket stay is rather brief, rather than the long ferry ride back and forth to Phi Phi, I would recommend a longtail boat ride through the mangrove waterlands and out to James Bond Island. I think it takes about half a day and provides plenty of photo ops.

Am I the only one who doesn't like Phi Phi Island? I Don't like what they did with it. It's not like Thailand has the market on lovely beaches (Phi Phi really is lovely). With time so short, I'd just stay in Phuket.

Fantasea. I really did like this show. A brief review of Thailand, it's got the tacky elephants mixed with little cultural history, Lanna dancing, etc. Done as a broadway type show, I thought it was well put on. However the Disney type park it's located at was super tacky. We had the buffet. Only 3 star type food, but delicious and plentiful.

Massage shops around Phuket are everywhere. Of varying prices and qualities, you should pay about 300 baht for 1 hour Thai massage (in Patong). At that price, you can just keep trying different places until you find a good one.

There is nightlife for everyone. From Imitation Elvis, to Irish Pubs, beer bars, Discos, Karaoke lounges. Hotel lobbies have live music. All types, all ages. For dancing, the main discos close after most other places and get busy after 2am. Police usually close them down quite late (once 2:30, now seems more like 4am). After that the young crowd hop tuk-tuks up the mountain to Safari. Usually busy after 3:30am, they open a smaller hut up top as the crowds thin. I've been told they close about 5am.

I'd pay with CASH (Baht) unless at the Airline counter, Finer Hotels, or Large Departement stores.

Thanks everyone for their time and effort...
Hi...regarding our stay...we will be staying in Patong...Any spas you would recommend in that area?
Another thought I had was extending our stay in Phuket by a day and cutting a day in BKK? So that would give us approx 31/2 days in Phuket and 11/2 day in BKK....Good idea?
Thanks again everyone!

If it were me, I'd stay longer in Phuket and shorter in BKK. Unless you have very important activities in BKK, avoid it for the day in favor of the beach climate and atmosphere.

Phuket police seize over 5,000 fake credit cards

PHUKET: -- Police have arrested three Sri Lankan men for credit-card fraud, seizing more than 5,000 bogus credit cards allegedly encoded with information from real credit cards.

Police suspect the three men may be part of a much larger ring operating in popular tourist areas throughout Thailand and other parts of the world.

Lt-Colonel Boonlert Onklang of Kathu Police Station identified the three suspects as Pathmathas Ganeshamoorthy, 26, Srikanthan Veerasingam, 29, and Sivagnanam Gnanakanthan, 35. The passports of all three men revealed that they had been frequent visitors to Thailand.

Boonlert said police had arrested Ganeshamoorthy and Veerasingam at the northern end of Thaweewong Road in Patong early on Tuesday evening after a closed-circuit TV camera caught the pair using a fake credit card to draw money from an ATM in front of the Kon Thai Pub in Karon.

At the time of the arrest, one of the men was sitting in a silver-coloured Honda car, the other was on the beach.

A search of the vehicle uncovered a notebook computer, 2,703 fake white credit cards and three flash drives. After the arresting officers turned down a Bt2-million bribe in exchange for their release, the men were questioned, Boonlert said.

The two men told police the cards and equipment belonged to Gnanakanthan, who had arrived in Phuket earlier that day, Boonlert said.

The men had picked up Gnanakanthan at the airport and dropped him off at his hotel, the Pen Villas in Surin, he added.

A visit to Gnanakanthan's room just after midnight early on Wednesday uncovered an additional 2,533 fake credit cards. Of these, 483 were green and the remainder white. Unlike the cards seized earlier that day, all the cards were marked with a four-digit number.

Police also seized an MSR206 card magnetic-strip reader and encoder.

All three men were arrested and are now being held at Kathu Police Station. They were taken to Phuket Provincial Court on Thursday afternoon, and each was charged with one count of electronic-card forgery and one count of possessing a fraudulent electronic card with intent to use.

All three men denied the charges. Bank officers plan to inspect the cards and determine how many of them have been used. It is still too early to estimate the cost of the men's activities to Phuket businesses, Boonlert said.

Police believe the Sri Lankans may have been operating as part of a larger fraud ring, he added.

The cards seized in Phuket were similar to cards seized in earlier raids in Bangkok and Chon Buri. Those cards were encoded with data from genuine credit cards issued in the UK, Boonlert said.

-- Phuket Gazette 2007-01-06