Thailand Debauchery Ensues

[motion]

You guys are sick of my incessant travel questions by now, but I trust you over the snobs on FlyerTalk, so here I am again

I'm taking my 19 year old son on a RTW trip in a few weeks and one of our stops is in Thailand, for a week. I know Bangkok pretty well, so have that covered. We'd like to travel south to the beaches. I know ****et is a bit of a cliche these days, so maybe something not quite so overrun? Any reccos? I need 4 star, but also like to play in the gutter, if ya know what I mean. The underbelly, as it were. Imagine yourself as a 19 year old young man in the midst of all those young Thai girls... I was in Bossier City, Louisiana when I was 19, so I am a bit jealous of my kid.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Koh Samui, great island, spent a week with my wife to be scootering around it, easy to get to on a domestic flight from Bangkok, don't book any accomodation, get an early flight, hire a Jeep and do a drive around to see where you like best.

Also only a short boat ride to the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan and Koh Phi Phi where they filmed the beach

You and your son will be approached by beautiful lady boys, don't be fooled by their looks as a lot of them are packing meat and 2 veg, if you know what I mean

[cairns]

How about the other side of Pha Nong Bay? Not as sleazy or as overrun with Russians as ****et but still lots to do...

[Laneco]

Another vote for Koh Samui. We spent a week or so there, great place. Plenty of "vibe" in the tourist areas, but wonderful open air markets, beautiful beaches, great scenery elsewhere. Rented a couple of scooters and explored the island.

A boat tour to the marine sanctuary is definitely worth it. We also went on a dive trip - absolute blast. The dive trip took us over to Koh Tao which had absolutely beautiful scenery. If you take a dive trip, find out who owns the boat. A lot of the dive shops will "pool" their customers into one boat. Ours was a piece of ****. Literally kept stalling and shutting down. They had to "work" on it several times with their high end tool kit which consisted of a hammer, a kitchen knife and a pair of pliers in a big red metal box...


angela

[HardDrive]

Make sure your son is practicing AGATT

[ted]

Pattaya beach seemed fun when I was 20.

[onlycafe]

like ahab said........
you do know that quite a few of those young thai girls are not exactly girls, right?

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by ted

Pattaya beach seemed fun when I was 20.

Yeah, it was great fun for me at that age, too. But that was a long, long time ago for me.

[Tishabet]

Koh samui, koh Tao are both nice albeit quite touristy (but not as much as ****et or Pattaya). I recommend an overnight trip up country to Chiangmai if you want a change of scenery and cuisine.

Wikitravel.com has a good breakdown of islands if you want to do some more research, it was my go to when I was living in SE Asia.

[crustychief]

Pattaya beach changes a man.........

[dewolf]

Tourist attacked with high heel by transgender Thai dancer at nightspot

[Drisump]

I took my daughter (and wife) to both Koh Samui and Koh Tao a few years ago and we had a lot of fun. On KT we took our PADI open water diving certification which was a fabulous experience. KT is much smaller than KS and caters to the dive crowd. I hesitate to make recommendations since that area has grown exponentially. About 25 years ago KS was the largest coconut plantation in the world...and now there's mega cruise ships visiting. No idea of population growth but suffice it to say...extreme. Cheers and have a good trip.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

like ahab said........
you do know that quite a few of those young thai girls are not exactly girls, right?

So curious, what's the protocol for verifying that? Do you just do a crocodile dundee?

[Laneco]

Protocol is absolute respect. Transgender is viewed very differently in Thailand than in the United States. Here, transgender are often ridiculed. In Thailand, they are nearly revered. Believe me, many of them are just drop dead gorgeous.

angela

[motion]

Awesome, keep it coming! Do you all think doing ****et and Koh Samui both would be redundant? Are they similar? We only have 4 days to do that part of Thailand, so it would be 4 days in one place, or 2/2.

[Tishabet]

I would choose one or the other. ****et has been a major tourist destination for at least 30 years and is more on the debauchurous end, koh Samui is a much more recent "discovery" and started to really build up in the early 2000s.

****et is fairly large and has different areas with very different feels, some are backpacker oriented areas, others are more family oriented, some beaches are packed and some are relatively deserted. The last time i was in samui (8 years ago) it was more uniformly upscale all around the island, but still plenty of tshirt shops and other foundation touristy stuff. It was close clearly on the rise back then, depends who you ask re whether thats a good or a bad thing... better tourist infrastructure etc but no longer a "secret."

[Synchro Joe]

Kathoey, as they're called in Thailand can be deceiving as hell. Especially after consuming beverages in dimly lit joints. Always check the package first.

[Rick Lee]

I knew that was a ladyboy before scrolling down. Not remotely deceiving or attractive, IMHO.

[Gogar]

PPOT: Where old white guys clamor to prove they know the most. Even about trannies!

[speeder]

L'olz.