Hotel Review, Golden Sea Pattaya Hotel

The Golden Sea Pattaya Hotel – visit this website – is located in a quiet neighborhood between Central Pattaya and South Pattaya (pattaya.thaibounty.com). Despite the peaceful immediate surroundings, however, it is just a short walk from a busy commercial strip and a bustling bar street close to many key tourist attractions. I was planning to spend a total of seven nights in Pattaya, Thailand, a beach resort located about two hours from Bangkok and 90 minutes from Bangkok’s impossible to pronounce Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Faced with a gap in my schedule, I went on line to find a hotel to spend two nights at to fill in the gap. After checking out of the Hotel Baraquda Pattaya – MGallery by Sofitel, I asked staff at the front desk to arrange a taxi for me to my next hotel, which I assmed would be only a few blocks away. They wanted to know my budget, but I wasn’t sure how much I should be willing to spend as I was still struggling with the exchange rate and didn’t really know how much a short trip like that should cost in Thailand.

I could survive a short trip without it.

“Don’t the taxis have metres? No, I was told. When a price was suggested, it seemed a bit high considering the short distance. So I was asked if I wanted to go by motor scooter, but I said no. I didn’t have a lot of luggage, but I certainly had too much luggage to be accommodated by a scooter. A fare needed to be negotiated in advance. I was told to sit down in the lobby while a member of staff ran down to the street to see what he could come up with. Was air-conditioning necessary? No, I said. I could survive a short trip without it. They usually hold several people, but I was to have it all to myself. Several minutes later, he came back to fetch me, and he escorted me to one of the flatbed trucks that have been converted into a sort of minibus in Pattaya. This seemed like a bit of an adventure. I climbed on board with a sense of exitement.

Ploen Pattaya Residence

I made sure to double check the price before departing from the hotel – you have to be careful in this part of the world, and I didn’t want any unnecessary drama upon arrival. The fare was supposed to be 1,500 baht. As we negotiated the side streets and back alleys of Pattaya, however, I suddenly remembered that I had tipped the guy that had arranged transport for me. I looked in my wallet and discovered that – to my dismay – I didn’t have exact change to pay the driver with, and that could lead to the kind of drama I had been hoping to avoid. When we arrived at my destination, the Golden Sea Pattaya Hotel, I got out of the truck, pulled out two 1,000 baht bills and held on to them as I asked the driver if he had a 500 baht note. He looked surprised – or maybe it was disappointment. But he extracted a 500 bill from his shirt pocket and handed it to me.

I could be wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I had handed him the two 1,000 notes first, he would have insisted that he didn’t have change, and I would have been left in an awkward position. The hotel seemed nicer than I had expected. It also seemed larger than I had expected. There appeared to be three or four separate buildings, and one of them had its own lobby. There was also a strip of what appeared to be row houses opposite the buildings. Were they one hotel or a collection of hotels? I later learned that these were villas targeted at long-staying guests. A bellman had come out to the street and escorted me from the van to the furthermost lobby. After I checked in, I was told to sit down and relax while my room was readied. I was housed in room 315, a superior room measuring 40 square metres, but – if truth be told – it seemed much larger than that.

There was a half refrigerator, coffee and tea-making equipment, and a decent sized clothes closet. Two single beds had been shoved together to create one large bed. I found the space quite comfortable to work at. There was a long workstation along one wall, which accommodated my laptop computer, a flat screen television, and my suitcases. The bathroom was a bit old-fashioned with a brown and beige colour scheme, white fixtures, a brown marble counter, and a combination bathtub and shower. The decor was quite attractive with cream coloured walls, dark brown wood, artistic golden accents, and two burgundy armchairs. At least it was clean, and the towels were fresh. There was a spacious balcony with two wooden chairs, a wooden table, and a rack to dry clothes on. The balcony had a view of the hotel’s swimming pool and the rowhouses across the alley. The hotel has a total of seven room types. In addition to the 27 superior rooms such as the one I stayed in were …