Central Patong — Local services in Patong

Patong beach has a few more shopping mall like central.

At central mall you can have a good and cheap food at the food court. There is a BBQ that sells BBQ pork for 20 baht.. it is heavenly. Pack a few more back to the hotel after our day at Patong beach..

We were there at about 12pm. There are a lot of stores that sell clothing, food and tons of pharmacy for your daily dose of anti histamine and pain killers or even mosquitoes patch.

Lots of shopping and bargaining. One thing I learn is that never settled on the first store for the items that you want. If you must have it. Always said the other store offer you at a cheaper rate than what they offer.

When to the beach.. finally.. It is full of people, riding jet ski or para sailing. It is a melting pot of people. You can have a massage by the beach, coconut juice, beers, photo taking and sea sports.

Overall you just need to bargain with those offering jet ski or any services to you.

If you are hungry just grab a bite at those not so fancy looking restaurant to score an awesome and cheap deal.

Buy your water from The Family Mart not from the other stores as the price varies very much.

At about 6pm, the Bangla street comes alive.. with all the pub and kick boxing show and live band all started to open for business. I personally feel any pub or drinking is good as long as you with the right company. Just keep out of trouble.

Overall nice and beautiful beach for all your needs. Massage and spa for your loves one.

Will surely visit patong...

I had a very bad experience today at this mall. Anyone with rented motobikes and want to park here, please be careful!

I had rented a motobike and tried to park there to eat in the mall. I asked the security in the side of the mall where I could park. He couldn’t speak any English, which is fine, he just pointed at the corner. I rode to the other side of the mall and saw cars and motobikes parked there without any signs of no parking and noone was there to guide us. We parked in the Andamanda earlier and we just parked in the place where I saw bikes parked, which is the right place to park.

At 9PM, I came back and the motobike was locked. There were 3 security guides that told us to pay 500 baht to get that unlocked. We tried to explained that how we were guided to park there. They didn’t speak English at all but we used Google translate to communicate. It was back and forth and he “bargained” to reduced to 200 baht. To this point, it was quite obvious that they tried to get free money from us.

The hilarious thing is while we are talking, people kept coming and try to park there motobikes there, which can explain to you how easy people can mistake that spot as parking lots because there are no signs

At the end, I was so frustrated and “paid” 200 baht. I asked if they would give me and fine document but obviously they wouldn’t since they were trying to get free money.

I will send this to the mall as well but to repeat myself, please be careful and park in the basement if...

We’ve been here at the food court several times for lunch. The station selling pork by the escalator is delicious and the pad kaproa station is also nice

Unfortunately, during my last visit I went to the stall serving fish dishes. I ordered crab fried rice and the guy went somewhere and came back with a frozen jar of crab meat, with no labels or dates or anything.

The meat was DEEP frozen, possibly weeks. He took it out and blasted it on full power in the microwave for about five minutes and then started stir frying it. I didn’t say anything at this point because I wasn’t sure if this was my order. He then said my dish is almost ready.

I stopped him cooking and said I’m not eating this because I stood and watched how you cook with the microwave and frozen crab meat. He looked at me, smiled, and has that look which says “yeah you’re making the right decision” and immediately refunded me and apologized profusely.

I think I was just unlucky here on this day but I do hope that this is not the new normal? I will come back and try again. Just be careful if you’re ordering from these stalls and always watch the chefs cook. It’s fun to see the process but also it’s safer. Also, the food court across the road in...