Our holiday 5-15 March - Patong

Had a fabulous 10 days in Patong. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel, we had a superior room, with the largest King Size bed ever. The hotel is just the best, never had buffet breakfasts that good anywhere. The evening buffet had different themes each night and stayed and had meals here several times as well. We had great lunches at Sabai Sabai, and at the Irish Pubs %26amp; Italian restaurants, Roma %26amp; the once next to it.

Missed out on a trip with Captain Mark, he was fully booked but still did an Island hop to Khao Lak and surrounding islands and went snorkeling which was very pleasant.

Found a stall on Beach Street called Jinda Shop selling Tshirts etc and the lady there gives special prices for AUSSIES if you let her know your friends sent you, you do not have to barter and get Tshirts for 150 baht, billabong shorts for 320/300 baht, tang tops for 120 baht. The tailor at the rear of the shop is where we had suits made, we had three fittings as we had long arms, narrow necks, or shorter arms and wider necks, the suits fit perfectly and some friends in Patong at the time also had some suits and leather jackets made there as well. I would recommend this tailor. It is called Master Fashion World %26amp; Mr Dev looked after us. To get to JINDA, you walk to the right as you leave the Holiday Inn on Beach Street, walk past the turn off to Bangla and continue past the Macdonalds which is on the other side of the road to Jinda. Jinda is just a few shops further. It is usually open an hour before the other stalls.

We also booked a driver which I got off Cathy %26amp; Gary%26#39;s travel pages, Daj (pronounced Dared). What a lovely man he was. We spent a day seeing all the different sights, had an elevant ride, he was extremely pleasant and accommodating, but not in your face.

Bought DVD%26#39;s from several operators for 55-60 baht each.

Used a Tuk Tuk a couple of times but generally just got a taxi for 200 baht an hour and they just waited for us at each location.

Had a fabulous time. My sister stayed at Patong Merlin, when comparing the two hotels, Holiday Inn came up the best.

Our holiday 5-15 March - Patong

Hi,

Thanks for your trip report.

Where did you buy your dvd%26#39;s from?

What restaurants were your favourites?

Can you tell us a bit more about your day out with Daj.

Where was your best place for your shopping?

Cheers,

Stewie.

Our holiday 5-15 March - Patong

We bought a lot of our dvd%26#39;s from a back door behind the Kittys store which is in Otop markets, 60 baht very large selection, and 55 bahts for dvds from back door next to tailor behind Jinda%26#39;s, although they had heaps, some we were after weren%26#39;t available.

Daj took us to elephant riding, pearl farm, cashew nut factory, lunch in some lovely thai restaurant, the large buddah that is under construction and the gypsy village and just sight seeing. We had a list of things we wanted to do and he just put them in the correct order.

Also had great massages and foot scraping from Tantawan Massage %26amp; Beauty which was a side street off beach road on the way to Bangla. The street has many massage places and always had Europeans in them. (Close to Patong beach hotel exit). Had massage at another massage place but found the staff not really interested and they seemed to talk about us and we didnt feel very welcome. At Tantawan the ladies were so beautiful to us.

Also witnessed the princess of Thailand arrive in Patong, very interesting to see the security, police %26amp; street closures.

We ate at the Holiday Inn for buffet dinner several nights just because it was so fantastic and we didn%26#39;t have to go far. We went to Sabai Sabai for lunch and the Italian restaurants alongside on the same side of the street. Sabai Sabai is incredibly busy, worth the wait, especially if you are on a budget.

Forgot to say we also went to Fantasea. It was fantastic. Would not bother with the buffet, it is a bit of a long wait until the show starts at 9. Anyone that thinks this buffet was good, times it by 3 and then you have the buffet at Holiday Inn. Seriously....

Thanks for your trip report, have noted down Jindas. Did you do any of the activities organised by HI, i have noticed on their website they have trips to Phuket Town, cooking school etc, wondering if they over charge or are worth doing. Also whats the average price of the evening buffets at HI, thinking my husband and I might try a buffet but the girls can get pizza LOL. Any advice on HI would be appreciated. Many thanks Jude

Hi Thanks for your reply, can you remember what the exchange rate was for the Aussie dollar?

Cheers,

Stewie.

We got 2900 baht for $100 aud. The buffet dinners were different prices for the different themes, between 599 baht to 749 baht each.

Thanks for your report Cathy, will have a look in Jinda%26#39;s. Daj is such a lovely guy, so Im glad you liked him.

Cathy

Sorry, forgot to mention about HI tours etc to Phuket town. We didnt even enquire with them. We booked out Fantasea %26amp; day trips on the spur of the moment and we met up with a guy called CHA on the corner of a street near the massage street on the way to Bangla Road, his name was CHA and after he booked Fantasea for us 2000 baht each x 4 - 8000 baht for 4 Gold tickets including buffet and dropoff and delivery with a driver who waited until it was all done and dropped us back home. If we wanted to go somewhere we called him up and he sent us a driver for a couple of hours at a time for 200 baht. So we sat in very comfortable cars and he waited for us until we were done. (He - different drivers). Cha can be contacted on 081-5978285. Found this convenient for spur of the moment things. Drivers werent always very good at English. If you can book Daj before you come especially for a whole day that would be best.

Thanks for the advice about Daj, Cathy. What a lovely man. He told us he has a young daughter (not sure if she was 7 or 10). He is teaching her kick boxing.

Thanks so much for that info . I am compiling a book of tips to take with us and will put Daj%26#39;s name and number in as well.