Phuket Facts for the traveller
VISA and Mastercard works fine in the ATM machines
you'll find everywhere in Patong and Karon beach. You can also get
money from the exchange booths but why should you when you have ATMs?
Hint!
If you destroy the magnetic stripe on your card your only way to get
cash is to visit a Bangkok Bank office or exchange window, they can
help you.
My hotel room keycard destroyed my cards due to magnetic inside the
keycard, I had to visit a lot of banks before getting help from Bangkok
Bank! Thanks to them!
The rates at exchange booths of major banks
are pretty good but avoid these at the hotels or airport, they give
you bad rates. You will get the best rates if you withdraw cash from
ATM machines, but it also depends on what fee's your bank charge,
so you should withdraw larger amounths rather than small amounts.
Thailand´s timezone is GMT+7, seven
hours ahead of GMT/UTC (London). Sweden and central europe belongs
to GMT+1. Thus, when 16:00 in Phuket the time is 10:00 in Sweden
and 09:00 in London.
The official year in Thailand is reckoned
from 543 BC, the beginning of the Buddhist Era. Year 2005 is equal
to 2548 in Thailand.
220v, 50 Hz. The wall electrical outlets
are usually of the round, two pole type or two flat type. Some outlets
accept both. What I've seen thais mostly use the flat type and in
hotels there are often the type that accept both. It's easy to find
adapters in electronic shops for any international plug shape.
The video format is the same as in europe;
PAL, 50 hz.
(Except France, they are using SECAM, a slightly different format.)
Value Added Tax is 7% altought this is applied
to the manufacturer price, not the retail price.
Hotels often add 7% VAT and a service charge of 10% to your room
bill.
Airmail letters are charged 17 Bht to Europe
and Australia and 19 Bht to USA. Postcards are charged 12 Bht.
Thailand's country code is
66. For international calls it's cheapest to call abroad from CAT
(Communications Authority of Thailand) offices, often attached to
the main post office. Althought there are many internet/email shops
that offer telephone/fax services too.
Avoid to make calls from your hotel, tought. (Expensive!)
There are two kind of public pay phones in Thailand, the red one
is used for local city calls and the blue one for both local and
long-distance calls within Thailand.
At bangkok airport you can use your credit card at card phones to
make international calls, I am not sure if Phuket airport had such
phones.
European GSM cellular phones works fine in Thailand. Local cellular
phone numbers begin with area code 01. If you make local calls from
your cellular phone, don't forget to put 076 before the number,
which is the area code for Phuket.
Internet and email shops are
increasing all the time, you can find it in every corner. However,
in Phuket they often use dial-up connections and and the traffic
can be slow. (The internet connection from Phuket to Bangkok has
a limited bandwidth too). These shops often offer other services
like printing, scanning and telephone services.
(November,
1999)
| Honda
Dream, one day rental |
200B (low-), 250B
(high season) |
| Suzuki
jeep |
900B (beach rental),
990B (Budget) |
| Singha
Beer |
35B (small bottle),
60B (large bottle)
50-70B (small bottle at the beer bar)
80-110B (small bottle at a-gogo) |
| Budget
Hotel, double |
1200B (low-),
2100B (high season) |
| Hair Cut |
100B |
| Noodle
soup (at street) |
30-40B |
| Fried
rice + chicken (at street) |
30B |
| Coke |
12B
(7 Eleven), 40B (beer bar) |
| Pizza |
120-160B |
Dinner
for two persons at simple
restaurants |
200-300B |
| Bangkok
Post, Phuket Gazette |
20B |
| Water
(small bottle) |
4-10B |
McDonalds;
Big Mac, Large coke + fries |
114B |
Clothes are relative inexpensive
and take the opportunity to get tailor made clothes at modest prices,
but avoid the cheapest ones and those who offer 24 hours service.
In my opinion, leave your clothes at home and buy your traveller
wardrobe here.
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