A traveller's opinion of a city, restaurant or other site is often in inverse relationship to how quickly one is travelling.
If one stops amid a rain storm after a cancelled ferry ride then any friendly dry place with decent food near the bus station becomes a favourite spot suitable for recommendation to future travellers. On the other hand, somebody living for weeks in the same city will discover all the subtle differences that make one restaurant's cuisine good and another one's fantastic.
For example, in April 2019 I stopped in Surat Thani for a couple nights. This was after a day-long bus trip from Penang and I was looking for a medium-sized city north of Hat Yai where I could regain my Thai bearings. I stayed at a quite pleasant hotel about 4 km from the centre. I had a quite pleasant meal at a quite pleasant nearby restaurant. The second morning I took a taxi to the centre and — after quickly figuring out the competing bus stations — I bought my ticket and headed north.
I expect that if I was a professional traveller who has seen everything that Southern Thailand has to offer then I might have hated Surat Thani but instead I found it to be a quite pleasant place.
Hi Stuart. Great article. Yes, you have to go somewhere and find out for yourself. By the way, I still use Lonely Planet. I like it to get an overview of wherever I am going and then I surf the net and read lots and then figure out a plan.
Lol. I used to know someone who's review of a restaurant was directly proportional to how much she'd had to drink there - any 1.5 bottles of wine place had "beautiful" food....
Advice is a funny thing. I've come to realise that most people who ask for advice don't actually want advice - they already know what they want to do, and are looking for validation of their choice. Any advice that isn't in agreement tends to get ignored.
My advice : take the money and don't worry about it.
I hope that restaurant wasn't Cabbages & Condoms ... :-)
A traveller's opinion of a city, restaurant or other site is often in inverse relationship to how quickly one is travelling.
If one stops amid a rain storm after a cancelled ferry ride then any friendly dry place with decent food near the bus station becomes a favourite spot suitable for recommendation to future travellers. On the other hand, somebody living for weeks in the same city will discover all the subtle differences that make one restaurant's cuisine good and another one's fantastic.
For example, in April 2019 I stopped in Surat Thani for a couple nights. This was after a day-long bus trip from Penang and I was looking for a medium-sized city north of Hat Yai where I could regain my Thai bearings. I stayed at a quite pleasant hotel about 4 km from the centre. I had a quite pleasant meal at a quite pleasant nearby restaurant. The second morning I took a taxi to the centre and — after quickly figuring out the competing bus stations — I bought my ticket and headed north.
I expect that if I was a professional traveller who has seen everything that Southern Thailand has to offer then I might have hated Surat Thani but instead I found it to be a quite pleasant place.
Hi Stuart. Great article. Yes, you have to go somewhere and find out for yourself. By the way, I still use Lonely Planet. I like it to get an overview of wherever I am going and then I surf the net and read lots and then figure out a plan.
"My friends said Hue was worth skipping. They said it was boring..." A common one I battled with.
Lol. I used to know someone who's review of a restaurant was directly proportional to how much she'd had to drink there - any 1.5 bottles of wine place had "beautiful" food....
Advice is a funny thing. I've come to realise that most people who ask for advice don't actually want advice - they already know what they want to do, and are looking for validation of their choice. Any advice that isn't in agreement tends to get ignored.
My advice : take the money and don't worry about it.