thailand questions

Doglover88

cheers people

what travel adapter will i need to charge up my camera, camcorder etc and will they work over there, or will i need to take a shed load of AA batteries?

alison74

Take one of the 2 thin flat pinned ones, the ones that say aus.nz down the way and push them up (yes they are moveable) for USA. This type of adapater fits into most asian sockets and did me in Thailand for charging camcorder etc.

Donnie

glenbat wrote:

thanks again erveryone! great news too im a sunworshipper..
my friend tells me its better to change up your money once out there, get a better rate is this true? was worried about buying a load of counterfeit bart's (however its spelt?!) with my english pounds

Don't even think about changing money at a hotel reception or the like or before you arrive in Thailand.
The place to change money is in Thailand, in an exchange booth affiliated to a bank or at the bank itself. Most everywhere else will offer poor rates.

The currency is pronounced thus; "Baat".

Better still, apply for a Nationwide Flexaccount and take the debit card with you.

Failing that, take American Express Travellers Cheques in £. If your bank gives you Visa Sterling TCs for free, then that is better than nothing.

Cash should be the last resort.

You can change money safely and a good rate at the airport when you arrive in Bangkok. No advantage in waiting until you get to town.

The electricity is compatible with UK appliances. Only a different type of plug is needed. So, buy a cheap travel adapter and a small extension block.

AA batteries are cheaper there anyway.

Don't forget travel insurance. Direct Travel Insurance and insureandgo are a good place to start. Get Annual travel insurance if you intend to go again within a year(I'm thinking that you will).

Anything else?

Doglover88

thanks Donnie
i bben told electrical goods are very cheap out there, im after a good ultra-compact digital camera (branded such as casio, sony etc) 5Mp and also a good branded MiniDV camcorder for the trip, is it best to buy out there or safer to browse on Kelkoo/pricerunner etc and purchase before i go?
heard stories of a lot of electrical goods in thailand being fakes?

Donnie

Cheaper to buy in the UK. Less problems too.
Bought a Samsung for £100(£80 with extra discount) in the UK. Cheapest I've seen it in Thailand is £200.
Don't bother, wait for a deal in the UK.

alison74

glenbat wrote:

thanks Donnie
i bben told electrical goods are very cheap out there, im after a good ultra-compact digital camera (branded such as casio, sony etc) 5Mp and also a good branded MiniDV camcorder for the trip, is it best to buy out there or safer to browse on Kelkoo/pricerunner etc and purchase before i go?
heard stories of a lot of electrical goods in thailand being fakes?

I agree with Donnie, buy it here rather than out there. You will then be familiar with it before you go etc and not worry if it is faulty. I was not overly impressed with the prices out there, no realy bargain to be had.


What you can get in thailand when you travel are places to download your digital media to CD (and then check the pictures are on it ) The booths/internet cafes/photo shops are everywhere, catering for the digitial tourist. Saves you having massive memory cards !

Donnie

Bear in mind that modern digital cameras have reasonably good video shooting capability. So unless you need really high quality video, you could do quite well with one of those.

A current good buy is the Panasonic DMCFX9BS for £149.99 at Comet.

The Canon IXUS 50 for £163.50.
Though you will only get 11 minutes of high quality video on a One Gigabtye card with these cameras.
You can choose a lower quality setting to extend the time available.

Another option would be to choose a Samsung, as they use MPEG4 compression to achieve over an hour of video on a One Gigabyte card.

Samsung are also doing some cheap DV camcorders.

Doglover88

thanks again
next question:

what things should i take with me medicine wise? stuff for bites, stings or any bugs i might catch?

serena

Hi,

I have just returned from a month in Bangkok. It is very hot and humid, and it would be wise to have a brolly, we certainly made use of ours.

I found the electrical goods were much the same price as here, and it is a very long way to go back if it doesn't work. I thought clothes and household textiles, as well as 'dodgy' dvd's were the best buys! Due to the circumstances I didn't have very much time for shopping or sightseeing,but we bought so much, I had to buy a cheap bag to bring it back home in , I had only taken a small backpack out.

We bought an adaptor in Boots before, and it worked fine.

You can take money out from ATM's with your debit card very easily, and change it at banks ( I got 68 baht to the £.)

I will definitely return.

Have a wonderful time.

Serena.