Thailand - Bangkok and Pattaya

Bangkok is a full on dirty, crowded, constantly grabbed, constantly hustled, smelly, “you wan massaaaa?”, tuk tuk drivin’, ping pong show askin’, mecca. And I think I love it. The best scenario for me in any place is to have the ultimate luxury next door to the real world. If you’re in a foreign place, you want to feel like it, and Bangkok forces that upon you like no other. They have some of the nicest hotels in the world, some of the nicest restaurants and bars in the world, but inevitably across the street is some kind of amazing market, or a street food destination, or a ping pong show, haha. It’s remarkable and just so unique. Bangkok is what you make of it, and I prefer to try it all.

Pattaya incidentally, is like Bangkok on crack. It has only slight glimmers of high society and its “walking street” kicks the crap out of Soi Cowboy or Nana plaza any day. There is no real beach (it’s super tiny width wise) but the beach road is cool and walking street is like the Times Square of debauchery.

Feb 2023 Trip…

500 baht from the airport. He asked if no meter was ok and 15 bucks was great with me. Stayed at the JW again for the first night and they wanted me to go to the executive floor to check in and I was like come on man. Then I had to go to their lounge to wait for my paperwork :) The room was good though with a good view (basically looked right into nana). I pretty much left right away and hoofed it to the asoke area. Then to the nana area.

Bangkok feels bigger now. It feels like it’s caught up. I don’t know. 

Gotta tell ya, Analisa on Soi 6, a short walk from nana, is kind of the shit. Where have these massage tables been all my life. Crazy. 

At Nana, the top floor is no more. I felt kind of bad for their former stronghold on that top floor. Nana is like becoming much more respectable :)

Chinatown is cool. I don’t know if it’s like crazy cool. I mean Asia is full of stuff just like that. Sometimes when people gush about things like that there are 2 options, the writer doesn’t know shit and has never been anywhere, or, the place in general is boring and so the least boring things are fawned over. Bangkok isn’t boring, so I guess you don’t know shit :) Yaowarat road is the main drag.

The ICONSIAM, which is newer than paragon is pretty cool. The coolest part is easily it’s food hall with a never ending array of Thai street food (and fancier) options. It’s actually quite something to behold. I seek out food stalls and restaurants that are considered good (some of which are impossible for a westerner to find, but when you can get this much rad packed all around you, take advantage of it.

-For next time - Nai Mong Hoi Thod - cool food in Chinatown, Fai Kaew also cool food in Chinatown, Eathai Central Embassy basement - cool food, Tropic City Bangkok - one of best bars in the world. BKK Social Club too, Silom road Maggie choo speakeasy should be cool, Pimp club strip club? (this club looks bachelor party giant), Khao San road looks rad. Restaurant Krua Apsorn (best on Samsen road). Jib Kee for duck. Nang Loeng Market food stalls. For Michelin maybe Le Normandie at Mandarin Oriental. A guy was telling me about Eden club near Nana and every massage is a 2 girl massage threesome…so there’s that.

Jan 2024 Visit

I mean the Huai Khwang area might be the go to spot for soapies, but it’s nowhere near the other adventurous hot spots. Took me 30 minutes to get there and then I had to wait 20 minutes just to find a cab to leave. I went to Poseidon, which is an experience for sure. It’s giant and obviously nautically themed.
It is not remotely a fishbowl, so if you think you’re going to hell with those, wait till the girls are sitting right across from you. They have like 6 tiers which was even more off putting cause you’re squinting at these girls tags trying to figure out who is who. At the end of the day everyone was pretty and nice. The rooms are clean and the prices are high (6k baht or so) which is nice because it keeps out any seedy element. I don’t see how this was worth it, especially if you aren’t doing the deed, but you never know until you try.
You do have too give the Bangkok soapies one thing, they are massive. Poseidon and Maria’s, which is kind of across the street, are like entire apartment complexes. There is zero shady business about going in them. Like walking into a hotel at Maria’s.
The soapies in pattaya are far superior though.
In nana it’s gotten pretty standard, and they’ve gotten rid of any amenity inside of nana plaza itself. So you see these dudes doing like the reverse walk of shame out of the complex to go to some shady grady short time hotel down the road. It’s weird. Keeps getting worse.

2018

There are some things you have to see to believe, and in Bangkok we tried out a place called Dr BJs (which is still going strong), and it’s original competitor and maybe nemesis Lolitas right around the corner. This place is a joke. Like super bright, super quiet, with a dick for an owner. Like the guy doesn’t even know coffee shops much less these kinds of places. I’m not sayin I have “used” one of these places, but I have seen them and this one ain’t right. It’s right next to Nana Plaza so at least the location is easy. AND as an added bonus, pretty sure my boy and I had a nice long conversation with a wanted murderer at the bar across the street while waiting for our friend. Total bonus right!

Total sidebar, but my boy lost his credit card on the last trip, and when they declined his debit card he had no choice but to find an american bank to straighten it out. Big Problem! It took us an entire day of finding zilch in the world of bank of america to figure out, “don’t do that”.

BTW, after the military took over, Thailand banned online porn. So you can get anything you want in real life, but you can get almost nothing in fake life…so funny.

PATTAYA

Private car to Pattaya the next day was about 165 bucks (way back was a little over half that).

Sabai Dee is still the jam. 4 categories and everyone looks pretty damn great, cept the customers of course haha. 3300 for a full soapy and full action at the end (which just isn’t for me). Fun experience overall though. Compared to the other popular places this one has the grandest entrance, think valets and loud house music. Once you enter they tend to be mostly the same. Sabai has no glass and you may feel uncomfortably close to the ladies staring at you from the “fish bowl”. Honey 2 is right next door, same general idea.

Soi 6 is the mother f’n jam. I’m pretty stoked about it. Packed with girls. Music is blaring. It’s crazy. 25 year old me would have been on soi 6 all night easily, but now it’s honestly too loud to talk and the girls all look sooooo young. It’s funny. Also, the soi 6 spots are all “cocktail” bars where you are basically ordering a drink and hanging out with the girls. Alternatively, walking street is a tourist Mecca and much of the action is the more typical strip dancing on a middle stage all happening behind a closed front door. 

I hung out in both places and I wasn’t enamored with either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun, but each street is huuugggeee. Maybe the compactness of nana or cowboy in Bangkok deserves a bunch of points. I guess I felt like walking street just seems less interesting once you’ve seen all the gimmicky stuff. I’ve seen the ping pong show (a must but you only need to see it once!) and the muay thai kickboxing. There are some typical outdoor open bars where you can play connect 4 etc with a hot bar girl, but it’s much more pronounced in Phuket. I should mention that stumbling upon boyz town at soi 13/4 (right near walking street) is a sight to behold. Small ripped Thai dudes hanging around with their shirts off and the most glamorous of performances to boot. Like peacock shit. It was….I’m still not sure. But geezus that’s interesting that it exists.

Ladyboy stuff feels more limited. Mostly it seems like they are all standing along beach road but I didn’t ask!

The beach seems like they’ve brought in a bunch of sand, but it still seems dirty. The walk along beach road is filled with so many prostitutes I was honestly amazed. Like every 10 steps, and nobody looks gross or like a crack head at all. Many are gorgeous. Weird right? The average person still is probably not interested in that pick up though.

The floating market was cool enough. It’s pretty typical tourist market shit for sale but it’s perhaps more interesting than most gimmicks. The food was gimmicky but kind of in the perfect way cause you got to try a lot of unique stuff…like the scorpion I ate! But just as an example the mango sticky rice and pancake assortments were great.

Ok ok, so now having done it, Soi Buakhao and it’s surrounding area might be my new favorite jam in Pattaya. It’s huge, but with the pedestrian LK Metro area you feel like you get the best of both worlds, with far far fewer ping pong show types bothering you. Major clubs, open air bars, massage, restaurants. It’s fun and pretty sweet overall, and you have to hand it to the person who just named their gogo bar, “slutz”. What a douche. Overall I would call it the nice middle ground between soi 6 and walking street. The action street area of this district was pretty empty even while areas around it were not so I didn’t spend much time there. The walking tree pedestrian area is rad too. There really is so much in the Buakhao area.

I did, btw, hop over to walking street just to catch one of the so called Russian bars. It was fine, higher prices, much much smaller (like US style one dancer at a time), but it was also much fancier, and maybe it’s nice to have something different and totally separate from the typical Thai gogo bar.

2018

On my most recent trip, we also discovered that Soi 6 (in Pattaya) is jammin too. Like very surprising. We rode our scooters through there like bosses then liked it so much that we visited later on that night as well. Great bars, restaurants, and loads and loads and loads of girls. Plus, wait, who is that smokin girl, why is she so big, I don’t understand, our friend found out quickly how “real” the ladyboys on that parallel street were…if that’s your thing. (These salty dudes we met also recommended “LK metro”, they were the ones that told us about soi 6, but we didn’t make it to LK…they also gave us a pretty interesting and most likely disease inducing liquor he had whipped up and apparently was sneaking shots of at the bar, pineapple or some shit. Salty dudes for sure, but cool.).
We spent 80 bucks straight from the airport to Pattaya in a pretty nice SUV, spent less for a car on the way back. Went to PP Body Massage for soapies this time. I think everyone left quite happy.

Notes to self:

-Taxi lines are somewhat automated at the airport (you get a ticket and go to a specific taxi stand), and no matter where you are going it will generally be under 20 bucks.
-Bangkok cabs will rarely turn on their meters (so you should always ask) and tuk tuks don’t have them so negotiate right away. If you pretend to walk away the price always goes down. Don’t be a dick though, almost every ride is 5 bucks or less.
-The BTS (subway) is honestly pretty easy and it’s about a buck to go most places you would want to go…
-Street food is a must (anywhere in Asia really) and look for the busy places. People in suits will be lined up with people in rags.
-Go to a market. Patpong night market is big and cool and has girlie shows surrounding it…totally weird (they are a rip off compared to the red light districts though so be careful)
-If you are buying a girl a drink in a house of ill-repute (which you should so that the other girls stop bothering you and you can chill out and just talk or enjoy the dancing) make sure you agree to the price beforehand. Every bar/girl has a handler that will speak English and who will try to get you to take the girl out of there…
-Thai happy ending massages are as common as street food in Bangkok. They are all fairly the same and they always have women on their steps asking if you’d like a massage. Make sure you look at a menu and are clear about what you want (you can get regular massages in these places too but I don’t know why one would). I went to Soi 22 (Bangkok) which has a ton of places (Paradise Thai massage last time) but honestly it doesn’t really matter. They all have the upstairs rooms where you feel like you might get killed…but these places are generally very safe and surprisingly honest. You may see a list saying otherwise (quality wise) but that’s mostly bs.
-The soapy massage places in Bangkok seem to be lacking, though they would convince you otherwise. Annies, the classic and oldest, is pretty trashy and a waste of time in my opinion. My level of dirtiness only drops but so low.
-Go to a rooftop bar. They really do it better here than anyplace in the world…especially the US. They are all super upscale and hip, they are all outrageously high, they hardly ever have major railings, and there are a bunch of them. The Bangkok Banyon Tree is pretty sweet for dinner or just a drink. We did the Octave at the Marriott most recently. Killer views and a little easier than the banyon.
-Go to a movie at an upscale movie theater. The outrageous screens (which put US theaters to shame) cost a lot (we’re talking $100 per person), require 2 people (since you will literally be in a bed with them), but have amazing screens and sound, plus food, music, and cocktail hours prior to the show. It’s a hell of a thing. Even the slightly less posh theaters are cool as shit. I went to the one in Siam mall…which in itself is a pretty nice place to look around. Don’t forget to stand for their crazy salute to the king before each show…it’s propaganda and blind loyalty at its best. Long live the King though…I’m sure he’s great!
Last visit I saw Martian in 4D…almost tooooo much, but a hell of an experience, they fling you all over the place! This was at Siam Paragon btw (it is the one with the giant but underwhelming aquarium exhibit. Siam and World Center are both huge, but kind of Americanized store wise.). Siam has an amazing theater, but choose your screen wisely, as they all offer something a little different.
-Taking a river boat can be cool. You see a lot of palaces and it can be serene, but it can get annoying as you will be bothered by people selling shit, even on the water (probably why I never went to the floating market). Done this trip twice now, and if you make nice with the driver he will make it real interesting.
-Pattaya is only about 90 minutes away and almost any cab will take you there for 50 to 75 bucks…so it’s worth a visit every time. (Nothing is too far from Walking street but being within a mile of it so you can walk home is nice)
-Bangkok Terminal 21 mall (right down from the JW, and the one with the giant escalator) is pretty perfect for buying gifts and such. The major malls like Siam are kind of like the US, store wise. Terminal 21 has different levels dedicated to different countries, even though most of the stuff is Thai, it still has the feel of UK, or Paris, or Turkey, etc.

-Try not to forget that the fried rice we have in America is garbage. In Asia it’s delicate and smooth and thoughtful.

Marriott Surawongse - Feb 2023

Wow this is an impressive hotel. Anywhere else and it would lead the pack, but strangely in Bangkok skyscraper roof top bars and infinity edge rooftop pools have become the norm here, crazy I know. And you can do all that for like 200 bucks! Why doesn’t everyone live here for real.

The room was a major upgrade, 2 bedroom suite and even by 2 bedroom standards this thing was huge. I truly didn’t even touch the second wing but their bathroom was rad, and only slightly less rad than my giant bathroom with awesome shower situation. The mini fridge was a full size fridge stocked like a mini fridge, which was weird, there were no ppv movies, but there was room service. The club lounge breakfast they touted was weak sauce, but had more than enough for me because they had a lonesome egg/omelet station.

At the end of the day the hotel is great, but I’m not sure why I need to stay in Silom. I cabbed to the mall. I cabbed to nana. I cabbed to Chinatown. Just being next to one of those things would at least be one less ride. Patpong is nearby but it’s like my least favorite area, and the fancy/rooftop bars of silom you can just visit. Tuk Tuks are still rad though. I bet people die all the time in those speedy fuckers. I just kept my head down :)

The pool is rad of course, but it’s only so big (we’ll let that pass since it’s cantilevered 200 feet in the air).  The rooftop bar is also rad. Octave at the other Marriott is better, but let’s not get too nit picky about a place that lets you dine and drink in the open air of a skyscrapers roof. There truly is not much separating you from the abyss.

Hard Rock Pattaya - Feb 2023

The Hard Rock Pattaya, is definitely NOT the Hard Rock Phuket, which is what I thought it was :) this hotel is good, and it’s right next to soi 6, which is convenient, but it’s basically a family hotel with a truly rad kids pool area. Not having a kid with me it felt more off putting than anything else, ha!

The rock royalty floor has its benefits with the lounge available for snacks etc, but overall it’s nothing crazy. The breakfast was huge enough and good.

Totally weird, but while you literally aren’t allowed to go on a porn website, as it’s literally against the law, so are sex toys by the way, but this hotel had rentable adult movies on the TV. I mean Thailand is funny right? 24 hour room service and mini bar were great.

The one in Phuket was much more adult focused.

JW Marriott Nana - Mar 2018, Aug 2018, Feb 2023, Jan 2024

The location for this place is second to none. Right near the Nana BTS station, right next to the Nana entertainment complex. Next to a great massage place. Next to food, stores, etc. I’ve stayed at the Aloft enough times to know that being way off Sukhumvit can be very very annoying!

The hotel itself is pretty great. But maybe leaves a little to be desired from your generally great JW Marriott. It just feels a little lower class than it should.

The rooms were big with hard wood floors, nice TV’s, and big bathrooms with a good glass shower. The beds are typically great. I guess I felt like the room was more like a Westin than a JW, but whatever. The location really is nice.

The staff and front desk were killer great.
Mini bar was particularly good. Room service was 24 hours.
Spa is pretty freakin sweet with typical services but then a lounge with a hamam, a dry sauna, private showers, a cold tub, a huge hot tub, and other various relaxation areas. It’s not unisex which blows but it’ll cure what ail’s ya.

The pool was really nice. They had grass mixed in with typical modern concrete walkways. It was long and worthy of laps. It was also pretty empty while I was there which gives it extra points. The one complaint might be the “hot tub”, which was not even warm, much less hot. It was cool in that it was 3 separate tubs but ugh.

Notes to Self:
-The JW is still fine. The buffet breakfast is pretty wow.

-This hotel is in the process of being renovated in 2018.
-What kind of idiot leaves their ATM card in the hotel ATM as their first act in a city. Like no way of getting cash kind of stupid. I still cannot believe it. The front desk was nice enough to give me a credit card advance, which was crucial, but they charged 7%, so thank you soooo much, but also fuck you.
-Executive club amenities were worth every penny (though I was upgraded). The booze was higher level than expected (and extra thanks to the lady who let me take beers out of there even though it was against policy), the breakfast was actually killer with everything you would need, and the service was perfect.
-WiFi kind of sucked in my room, but I had a suite kind of at the far edge of the hotel, so I suspect it was great elsewhere (as for me I had to move a chair into my foyer hallway to get good reception).
-Because of when my flight left, I also stayed at the Majestic Grande Hotel for about 6 hours. It is right down from the JW so is equally in a great location. It is pretty cheap, but it’s still probably not worth it. I mean it’s fine, but spend the extra 50 bucks. They did have room service and a decent mini bar. It was fine, I’m probably being too critical

Westin Bangkok - Jan 2024

The Westin Bangkok is a grand dame at this point. I wanted her because of the location, but she’s 30 years old at this point.
My room was gigantic as a suite. 2 bathrooms, multiple sitting areas, huge. I had breakfast in the club and it was very good. Had a nice chat with the hotel GM about sustainability and food waste, he was great. Pool’s on the 8th floor so not exactly rooftop, but still nice. Renovations coming I bet.

Aloft Bangkok - Oct 2015, Oct 2017

What a great hotel. Cheap as all hell and right in the heart of where we wanted to be. Nana and Soi Cowboy are a short walk away, and Soi 11 (which the hotel is further down on than you’d expect) is happening as shit.
My room was pretty perfect for this situation. Good size. Bed was great. View wasn’t of much but I didn’t care. Digital everything, including curtains (I got this stupid ass “urban chic” room which is supposed to be more advanced with this ipod control system, but the other rooms had the same shit, just not controlled from an ipod. Total scam and I didn’t use it after the first exploration). The TV was big and had plenty of channels but no pay per view. Mini bar was fine. Room service was nada but that’s how aloft does it…pantries and all.
The bathroom was fine.

The pool area on the roof was super small but the bar worked really well for us on the last day. 2 for one drinks until 3pm daily! I didn’t use the pool itself, but it did attempt an infinity edge off the front of the building (it wasn’t a true infinity but still cool enough). The menu at the pool was pretty great too. The bar in the lobby area was great for us but the bartenders sucked anus, and they had a little “pantry” area that worked great for quick snacks.
I mean the hotel was 80 bucks a night. It was a steal for this style and this area. As a side bar, they do have mega suites (they weren’t so expensive, just unavailable while I was there) that have an outdoor area attached to the rooms, some with Jacuzzis. I mean, I would absolutely target those rooms when coming back.
My boy did have serious trouble with the wifi…but I did not.

Notes

-The “club” at the Aloft gets absolutely packed on the weekends. This was a great spot for us.
-The breakfast is no joke. They don’t mess around. Huge.
-Don’t forget how far away it is from Sukhumvit. It’s not short when you are going back and forth a lot…and you will.

Metropolitan Bangkok - Oct 2015

Supposedly 5 stars. Supposedly modern. Highly recommended. I just don’t know. I mean the restaurants are pretty modern. The lobby is pretty modern. My friend and I had a great time in their lobby bar, which tried to be modern but it was just a little…not quite right. Like shoestring modern. Not cool enough.
More importantly, the rooms were just not great. They are stark white as shit, and not the cool Delano stark white. I thought even just a large mirror would have made the room dramatically better. The couch area was huge and the bed was great, but they accent it with this 30 inch TV. I mean 40 inches should be minimum in a place like this (it was that W rotational style where it acts as the bedroom and living room TV). The lighting was just terrible and you could hardly see at night. The bathroom was huge and had a tub and a shower area, but it was all the same color like it had been chiseled out of one giant block of stone. Again too stark, and could it of killed you to do a rainfall shower? Would have been fun with a girl for sure, but there are easy improvements to be made. Almost nothing was digital, including the thermostat (but the fan sound was truly great here). They could have at least made the curtains push button though as they were super hard to open with the giant couch in front of them.
No pay per view but to be fair they did have a ton of English movie channels. Mini bar was fine and was in use quite a bit while stayed there. Free water was abundant but it was in those glass bottles with the tops that are always suspect. Room service was pretty extensive and was 24 hours.
The pool was huge! And was actually super modern and great. The only problem is there are like 10 chairs…so if you don’t get one it’s weird. I got a great spot but saw others leave quite disappointed. The pool itself was just great for me, and the service and menus in that area were perfect.
The breakfast restaurant was an insult to hotel restaurants. Buried inside the hotel like in Europe. The buffet was dumb, but my a la carte dishes were delish and cheap. I mean they served me like 10 eggs.
I basically stayed here because of the recommendations and the ridiculous price (120/night). It was fine, but the walk to the Paragon (why I stayed in this area this time) was waaayyyy more ridiculous than expected. I probably should of died on that walk.

Notes

-My boy and I drank about 50 glasses of vodka while waiting for his cab to the airport. I swear he fell flat on his face while getting into that tuk tuk, but who can remember such things

Siam Bayshore Pattaya - Nov 2013, Sep 2015

I like this hotel. First of all it’s on walking street. It may be near the more boring end, but it’s on it, and it must be the only decent hotel on it. All the rest are short time motels for meeting up with hookers. Siam has security all around it and it’s a sprawling complex for its perfect location. The lobby is typical but big with a couple restaurants and a bar. As far as I could tell they had tropical rooms (where I stayed) and ocean view rooms (which I imagine being a lot less interesting). At the Siam all hallways are traditional breezeways but you are walking through meandering paths of tropical “forest”. Yes, it’s a hotel made to look that way but it still worked. They have streams, and waterfalls, and a pretty sweet topical pool area. They also have a pool that’s right on the bay, nice view, but not as serene if you ask me (ocean view rooms face this side and it’s really just not very interesting). The rooms are typical Asian beach town, which means bare floors, nice size, good balcony, and basic necessities. They had room service 24 hours but no pay movies. The water in the bathrooms was that glass bottle recyclable shit. I know its waaaay better for the environment than plastic, but it still freaks me out.

Breakfast was included and it was fine. Wifi was not included and it was pricey by Thailand standards.

W Bangkok - Nov 2013

Great hotel! Gated entrance and driveway make sure you know that you are in W territory. The lobby is very cool with a pretty sweet bar and lounge area (the bar was always hoppin’ with well dressed caucasions and Thai alike. The pool area was a little smaller than I wanted it to be but still very very nice and hip (and it’s open 24 hours!). The restaurant was cool enough but I didn’t have the greatest breakfast experience (both service wise and because they make you buy this ginormous buffet even if you just wanted some eggs and coffee), cool restaurant terrace though. Staff was really nice all around.

The rooms (I was a wonderful here) are probably the best looking standard W rooms I have ever seen. Great amount of space, great lighting, and subway tiled bathrooms that are really sweet. They do have a nice mini bar area and 24 hour room service…but no pay per view!!! Come on W!

Location is 5 bucks close to everything and right next to the train, but not so walkable to much.

Royal Cliffs Pattaya - Nov 2013

This place is more of a resort than anything else. You can’t walk anywhere from it, but it does have multiple pools, restaurants, and room buildings on site. The hallways are huge and even though they are enclosed, it feels like breezeways in Caribbean resorts. The rooms are big with old school but large bathrooms, nice ocean view balconies, hard wood floors, and a colonial style. No pay per view and room service but not 24 hours. It served its purpose.

They separate the resort into 3 areas, each one more expensive (and smaller) than the other. The idea being that if you buy the top tier, you can also use the amenities of the two tiers below it. I stayed in the middle tier. I saw no amenities that knocked my socks off…even in the top tier.

The included breakfast was pretty amazing. The beach is super small and dirty with a pretty gross feel. The Cliffside pool is actually pretty nice…but not enough to get me back.

One should stay on the beach road in Pattaya, preferably within walking distance to Walking street (like it or not that’s where all the action and people are).

Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit - Jun 2012

This place is awesome. Brand new. Fantastic location. Great service.

I stayed on both the club level and the standard level. I liked the club level because is it was high up and their club amenities were pretty sweet (full bar, fantastic food layout, service that was perfect). I liked the standard level rooms better however. The club room was bigger, but the more standard room had integrated the shower/tub into the room which just worked so well. Super sexy.

The pool area is top notch. Well designed, and they have girls come out from the spa and offer really quick but awesome shoulder massages (for free…I think they are just trying to drum up business). The spa is also really cool. I got a traditional Thai massage and they did a fantastic job. Really professional (this place is very upscale) and they really worried about whether or not I was enjoying the entire experience.

Great hotel.

Hilton Pattaya - Jan 2011

This hotel is pretty sick. Brand new, or close to it. Nice location right in the middle of the Pattaya beach road (still a bit down from walking street, but maybe that is good…and there are no real beachside hotels along this road). I absolutely love the architecture of this hotel, and the rooms are swanky, as is the lobby. The pool is pretty sick. It’s about half way up the building and offers great views. I would say the seating is very limited (if you can get one of the neat poolside “cubes” you are in good shape) and the pool loses its sun quickly.

One bitch is that the hotel is inside a mall complex and you have to go up 2 separate elevators to get to your room (lobby is on the 16th floor). That being said, the mall is pretty nice and we had a pretty sweet time at the bowling alley while waiting for a ride to the airport…

Great hotel.

Dusit Thani Pattaya - Jan 2011

This hotel is all the way at the end of the Pattaya strip…quite a bit out of the way if you ask me (it’s on the far end from walking street).

The hotel itself is very nice but it reminded me of one of those all inclusive hotels in Mexico. Built for tourists and catering to what the tourist thinks Thailand should look like.

That being said, they did have some great pools with swim up bars and the rooms were nice too. This place isn’t for me, but I can see the draw.

Furamaxclusive Asoke Bangkok - Jan 2011

This hotel is right across the street from Soi Cowboy in Bangkok. It is rather nice for what’s it’s primary purpose is…and you can hear it’s primary purpose all night.

I’m not saying this place is great, but it was much better than what I expected. Good location, spacious rooms (with flat screens and DVD players), staff was great, and the restaurant at the front was very convenient. Much better than other options one might look at right next to one of the Bangkok “plazas”.