Naris Phu View Resort, Satun

There seems to be a lack of modern mid-range accommodation in Satun town, but I did find one great offering a bit out of town.

Naris Phu View Resort (sometimes spelled Phuview) is situated 17 km north of the center of Satun town, right next to the main highway to Hat Yai. The location is not ideal if you don't have your own car or motorbike, but on the other hand you can probably catch some buses or songthaews on the highway.

The resort has modern bungalows in two rows, two rooms each, with spacious bathrooms. There's also a small swimming pool, a rarity for this price. The bungalows overlooking the pool cost a bit more. The resort has very good online reviews and I had a good experience as well. The room was clean, everything was working as expected and the service was friendly.

There's a small inexpensive restaurant next door and they can deliver to the rooms. The food was great for the price but the service was a bit slow. You can also find a big Tesco Lotus shopping center 2 km to the south.

We paid around 750 baht for a double room (October 2017) directly to the resort without advance booking. Current prices on booking websites apprear to be slightly higher but still well under 1000 baht. I would definitely stay there again if driving to Satun.

Hotel website: Naris Phu View Resort

Unlimited mobile data in Thailand (really!)

Until recently there weren't any unlimited mobile data packages in Thailand. After you used your fixed amount of data the connection speed dropped to sub-3G speeds. Luckily that has changed now.

Photo: David Erickson / flickr

All of the three big operators with their own nerworks, AIS, Dtac and True, have packages with both unlimited data and unlimited or very good connection speeds. It's practically impossible to maintain an always-up-to-date list of their offerings, but I will provide here a list of prices for monthly packages at the time of writing this article (and some updates later) and links to find the packages.

AIS

300 Mbps -  1,500 baht
4 Mbps - 450 baht
1 Mbps - 300 baht

Links: Packages ; Front page

Dtac

4 Mbps - 649 baht
1 Mbps - 449 baht

(Unlimited speed currently not available for prepaid customers.)

Links: Packages ; Front page

True

300 Mbps - 1,500 baht
4 Mbps - 500 baht
1 Mbps - 300 baht

Links: Packages ; Front page to packages ; Front page

These packages should be available for prepaid customers. Postpaid customers may have different packages. A VAT of 7 % will be added to all prices. Operators also offer cheaper weekly or daily packages. To activate a package, you usually have to add credit to your sim card and dial in a code.

The highest speeds unfortunately cost more than 1000 baht per month, but that may change in the future. 4 Mbps is still quite useful for HD video and other bandwidth-intensive content.

Broken links? Incorrect prices? Other feedback? Feel free to leave a comment below and help fellow mobile phone users.

Get Google Assistant on your phone in Thailand

Google Assistant for smartphones hasn't officially rolled out in Thailand yet, but here's how you can already get it working on your Android smartphone.

You may not need one of these to use Google Assistant anymore.
Photo: NextDayBlinds.com / flickr

Google Assistant is Google's virtual personal assistant found in its Google Home smart speaker. It can answer questions, help you with daily tasks and control Chromecast and other smart home devices hands free via voice commands.

Let's start with the requirements for your phone. You should have Android 6 (Marshmallow) or newer, at least 1.5 gigs of memory, a 720p or higher resolution screen and Google Play Services installed. Supported languages are English and German, but you might get lucky with French of Japanese quite soon. You should probably change the main language of your Android if you're using another one.

If your phone meets the requirements, follow these steps to enable Google Assistant:

1. Become a beta tester of "Google Play Services" by going to Settings, Google, three dot menu, "Help & feedback", three dot menu again and "View in Google Play Store". Now scroll down and you will find the option to become a beta tester.

2. Become a beta tester of the "Google" app as well. Find it on Play Store, scroll down and you will find the same option.

3. Wait for a few minutes for the beta sign-up processes to finish.

4. Go back to "Google Play Services" (now Beta) in Play Store (through Settings, like in step 1) and update it. Or if you prefer to wait, it will probably update automatically later.

5. Find "Google" (now also Beta) in Play store and update it too (or wait).

6. Then clear all data of both "Google" and "Google Play Services" by going to Settings and Apps. Choose each app and tap Storage, "Manage space" and "Clear all data".

7. You should be finished now. Long press your home button, and the phone should open your new Google Assistant instead of the old Google (search). If not, try to open the settings in the Google app and enable Google Assistant. If that setting is not available, I guess you're out of luck then.

These instruction are not country specific. They may work in other countries as well.

I don't guarantee that these instructions work for you but they did work for me. (My phone model is Huawei Y6 II.) Follow these instructions at your own risk. It's unlikely that anything bad will happen and you can leave the beta programs later if you wish, but you may have to through the settings of your Google app again.

And lastly, this update is completely free!

Siritrang Boutique Hotel, Trang

Siritrang Boutique is a new good value budget hotel in the town of Trang worth checking out on your way to the islands of the province.

I believe this hotel was opened just a few months ago (at the time of writing). It's a budget style hotel with smallish rooms, comfortable high quality beds and bedsheets and modern bathrooms with the addition of some creative decoration.

The hotel is located near the bus station and a big Robinson shopping mall. The center of the town, on the other hand, is not very near. The distance to the train station is more than 4 kilometers.

There's a small buffet breakfast for two persons included in the room price, served in a separate small building. They served at least fried eggs, sausages, ham, Thai style breakfast rice soup or porridge, toast, fruit, juice and coffee or tea. I wouldn't expect any more for this price.

I found the hotel to be good value for money and I would definitely go there again. There's also another good budget hotel - Hop Inn - in the town with a slightly better location opposite to Robinson. It's a bit cheaper (I believe 650 baht) but a breakfast is not included.

I checked in at the hotel quite late and I was too tired to take photos of my own. All the photos I used are from the hotel's Facebook page but I can confirm that the actual rooms look as nice as the photos.

Facebook page of the hotel: Siritrang Boutique

Price: 790 baht for standard room (checked 19 May 2017)

Which destinations in Thailand have the cheapest hotels?

Do you want to save money on hotel accommodation or extend your stay and make your money last longer? This comparison might be useful to you.

Photo: Gary Bembridge / Flickr

The data comes from 2015 Hotel Price Index by Hotels.com and was published on Pattaya Mail website. It has the average room prices per night for most popular travel destinations in Thailand.

As you can see, the most expensive destinations are Koh Samui, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Chang, Hua Hin and Krabi. The least expensive are Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Rayong.

What happened to "under 1000 baht" then, you might ask. Well, these are the average prices on a booking website. Some hotels will be cheaper than the average. And some hotels, usually the cheaper ones, are not listed on the booking websites at all and don't pay commission to those agents. This chart is still a useful overview for the relatives prices between different destinations. If you pick a different destionation, you might get a hotel nearly 50 % cheaper.