brencara

My husband and I just returned from two weeks in Thailand. I spent months (actually years) planning this trip and ended up spending two of the best weeks of my life there.

I would like to thank all the people that answered my questions and, in return, thought I would post my comments for somebody else who is going and may have some questions of their own.

We arrived in Bangkok and checked into the Oriental hotel. I must say that this is one of the nicest hotels that I have ever stayed at. It is beautiful and the service is fantastic. We had a room directly overlooking the river. Breakfast on the terrace was wonderful. (Usually, I don't care about those things, but it was beautiful, serene, fast service (important because we were out early every morning - but we never felt rushed.) I would normally never post what I ordered, but I just cant get the waffles with coconut ice cream and mango out of my head. It was great. I also didnt think that the pool was important to me - but I did find it very relaxing after a day of sightseeing. Anyway - the Oriental is worth every penny.

The first day was for some shopping and a massage.

Then, I reserved three days with Tong almost a year ago. Unfortunately, she was sick for the first two days, so she sent a young lady named Tai. Although I had truly hoped to spend all three days with Tong, Tai was very sweet and extremely accomodating.

The first day we wanted to make merit. Not that I have any ties to Buddhism, but it is something that I thought I would never have a chance to do again. So we went to an old world market early in the morning. I felt that we were transported back 100 years to an ancient land. The monks walked in their orange robes among the crowds and were often given food by the people. We put together a full basket to take to the temmple and offer the monks. In return they gave us a blessing (at least I think they blessed us!) This was a truly unique experience. Then we went to the Grand Palace (rivals and actually surpasses the palaces I've seen in St. Petersburg and Madrid), the reclining buddah, the emerald buddah, klong tour and lunch at Coconut Palm. By about 4pm my husband was worn out, so we set him up for a massage at Wat Po and Tai and I continued our sightseeing - picking him up when we were done.
This was a truly fantastic day.

The next day, we set out for an orphanage about 3 hours outside of Bangkok. This is where the tour companies don't take you. This is part of the real Bangkok. We arranged for cake for apprxoimately 130 children. When they heard about the cake, the children (and dog) came running. They quickly formed a long line and each one offered thanks to us. We happily served the cake but the line never seemed to get any shorter. We then realized that after the children got the cake, they went to the back of the line for more. My husband played ping pong with some of the children and even had a short boxing match with one little boy (who was actually very good.) The children were happy and apparently well cared for. However, we expect to make regular donations to the orphanage. Following that we went to the Tiger Temple. Although this was nice, I don't think the Tiger Temple would have worth the drive. It is more of a photo op with all parts being very well organized. This, of course, is necessary, because you can get hurt. We heard that somebody was hurt a few days after we were there and needed some stiches. We hoped to go to the weekend market after that, but traffic was terrible and we never made it. Now I will tell you why Tong and Tai are so accomodating. I told Tai that since we werent going to the weekend market, my husband wanted to go back for another massage. Could the driver please drop us off there; we would happily take a taxi back to the hotel. I heard her talk to Tong a little while later and she announced that she would take us for the massage, but under absolutely no circumstance would she leave us there. She would wait and arrange for another driver to take us back to the hotel. We were already gone 11 hours and I knew she had a family to get back to. I explained to her that we had no problem getting back to the hotel on our own, but she would have no part of it! She said that was not the way she and Tong did business. They would wait. (What can you say when people are so nice? Thank you is not adequate.)

Our final day in Bangkok we finally got to meet Tong. If you look in the dictionary under "tong", you will see her picture (just kidding) and the words, Fantastic, Wonderful, Funny, Enjoyable, Perfect. I know that she prefers that people not expect much of her, but she is GREAT. It was the best day of our trip. We went to the railroad market, floating market and secret place (FISHING VILLAGE). It was great from start to finish. So much fun - both my husband and I loved every minute of it. We could have done that day with somebody else, but it just wouldn't have been the same. Thank you Tong.

I'm going to skip the next few days in Chiang Rai. (Well, not skip, but I will keep in short.) We stayed at the Four Seasons Tented Camp. I will say that is is very nice, having the elephants at breakfast with you with a thrill and the service is incredible. That being said, it really wasn't worth the money. We had a much better time in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Ok, off to the Four Seasons Chiang Mai. I will say that this is the best hotel in the world! Everytime I walked into, or out of my room, I kept saying "This is Magical". Beautiful, beautiful beautiful. Fantastic service. Beautiful and magical.

I had briefly thought about cancelling Chiang Mai - and I am so glad that we didn't. By the way, if Tong is the best person in Bangkok, Sgt. Kai is her counterpart in Chiang Mai. We had two unforgetabble days with him. He is much more subdued that Tong, but is is intelligent, informative, and, like Tong, will do anything to please his customer.

There is no way that we would have had such a good time if it were not for St. Kai. Because of my research on the message boards, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. We started with a saturday cattle market. You don't often see that in NY. We drove through the National Park and saw two waterfalls. I had told Sgt Kai that it was my husbands birthday, so he arranged lunch at a restaurant, preordering a terrific meal. (By the way, we started with chicken soup which is nothing like chicken soup in NY; there it is made with coconut milk at HOT CHILI PEPPERS! The meal ended with a birthday cake and candles. My husband never expected it! We ended the day going to a hill tribe village. I told Sgt Kai in advance that I didnt want to see any tour buses or tourists. I can assure you that we did not. this was not an organized group of people in costume. We went up a dirt road in the mountains and walked around. We were invited into people's homes. We saw their kitchens which consisted of a fire on the floor. women were weaving, young girls scrubbing clothes. We saw a bird (hawk I think) that had been killed, blind folded and hung in front of a home as a warning to other birds who might come and hurt the chickens and pigs.

All of this is also part of the real Thailand that I wanted to see.

(Oh, we also saw the super bowl at 6:30 am in our room) - very nice for my husband and myself before our massages.)

Our trip ended way too soon. I am already planning on our next trip because there is so much more I wanted to see.

One final note, and I know this has been said many times before - The people of Thailand of the nicest people that I have ever met. Everyone had a smile for you. Everyone was sweet and helpful. Before I left, I never understood, but I can tell you that that is reason enough to go back.

Again, thank you to everyone who helped make this such a wonderful trip.

Judy (brencara)

Kathie

It sounds wonderful! I'm so glad you had such a good time!

Craig

Another convert - nice report. Hopefully this is the first of many trips for you.

Gpanda

Thanks for the report. Tong and Sergeant Kai are wonderful guides. They enhance the Thai experience. One can navigate without them, but they add so much to the experience. The forest orphanage was wonderful. We loved the children and the entire place. Tong schlepped a lot of clothes for the kids when we went there with her. Prompt report, no penalty.

Gpanda

Forgot to add, that we took our "trip of a lifetime" to Thailand in 2002 and returned the next five years. It sounds as if Thailand has worked its magic on another Farang.

rhkkmk

such a good report...i'm glad that it all worked out for you....you certainly had the best of the best...

tell us a little more about the tented camp as it might interest some....not many fodorites have reported on it...

and yes the CM 4 seasons is above above!!

Ruebarb

Brencara, Your trip sounds like it was wonderful. I am going to BKK in three weeks, my first trip to Thailand. We are also staying at the Mandarin Oriental and I can't wait for breakfast based on your description.
You mentioned shopping and I would love to know if you shopped near the hotel..any particular stores that you can recommend? I am interested in clothes, silk, jewelry, particularly silver w/gemstones.
Thanks!

Bella_Bluebell

Lovely trip report - thank you for posting! We also have spent happy days with Tong and Sergeant Kai. We are seeing Tong in a few days - can't wait to catch up
BB

brencara

Rhkkmk: The Four Seasons Tented camp was a definate splurge. Based on the reviews that I read, it seemed that it was more than just a hotel, but was a destination. The extremely high cost included the room, (gourmet meals), liquor and various activities. I was convinced that the combination of things to do and manner that they would be done, would be better than I could ever imagine. My husband checked it out from a "hotel" perspective. It seemed great. Now don't get me wrong, there is very little to complain about there and I will go into more detail. However, even though it is a unique setting and experience, it does not warrant the cost involved.

We were picked up at the airport and driven to a landing, where we entered a small boat which ferried us to the tented camp. It is a beautiful way to approach. I felt like Aladin on a magic carpet (ok, it was judy in a boat, but you get the idea.) There were two people to greet us. We were shown to the reception area and given a keepsake itinary (which I had worked out in advance) and then taken to our tent. The tent is lovely. It was very secluded. The bed faced the magnificent landscape. There was a large deck in back to relax and and outdoor shower (very cool). Oh, by the way, the staff is unbelievable and when they see you walk by, will run to walk beside you with lanterns.

So what is there not to love? Again, please don't take this as complaining, I am sure a lot of people would enjoy this. There is one restaurant. The food is ok, not great. At dinnertime, there is a choice of two western dishes and two asian dishes. Not a large menu and again, nothing spectacular. The liquor that is included is "house" brands only. (I did not realize this until later.) Most of the drinks were not great - obviously because they are not using top shelf liquor. (I have better wines in NY at $10 per glass than what they served.) I am sure I am not the only one who noticed, because people would order one drink and then not order another. The one time my husband asked for a top shelf tequila, we were charged an additional $20. for the shot. We are not big drinkers, but when you are paying more than $7000 for three nights, it doesn't seem right to me. They included a trip to the Golden Triangle which was nice. After lunch we opted for a "extra" excursion to Burma, which we heard was very good. Again, very expensive at $100. per hour. In our three hour excursion we spent half the time in transit and going through customs (not their fault) and the rest of the time at two temples (nothing special) and a row of souvenir sellers. I am wondering if it was just our guide as somehow we never got very far past the border. As for the elephants, they were brought to the restaurant area in the morning so you could feed them bananas. That was very cool. The full day Mahout training was actually 1.5 - 2 hours in the morning learning how to get on and off the elephant and a short course in "telling" the elephant to stop, go, or turn. The balance was 2 hours in the afternoon, riding the elephants through a trail. Again, this was all very nice - but it seemed very basic and I probably could have done that someplace in Chiang Mai. It didn't seem that their Mahout training was something that couldn't have been worked as well somewhere else for a lot less money.

In comparison,Four Seasons Chiang Mai had better restaurants and a better spa. The rooms were much more beautiful and more comfortable. Everything about 4 SEasons Chiang Mai was magical - I just didn't get that with the Tented Camps. (To be fair, I wasnt thrilled about the little snake on my deck in the tented camp or the five 8 inch lizards on the outside ceiling of my bathroom. Clearly, that was not their fault, but it didn't enhance my experience there.)

On to other things, Bella, please say hi to Tong for me.

Ruebarb - one of the reasons that I want to go back to Bangkok is to do some shopping. Prices there are very good but I did not get to do as much shopping as I would have liked. Bargain everywhere, even in (nice) stores. I bought a beautiful custom dress down the block from the Oriental at Thai style. My husband bought some shirts but I don't remember where. Tong's guide suggested that we should not have to go back to the store for a second fitting, that if you ask, the tailor will probably come to you. We did that for my husband's shirts (which was not near the hotel). They came to us in the evening for a second fitting and then delivered the shirts to us on the last night. If I was more of a shopper, I would have brought some of my clothes for them to copy. I can't buy based on pictures, so I only considered shops that had "samples" for me to try on. Had I brought some of my nice pants from home, they could have been copied for a fraction of what I pay in NY. as for jewelry, sorry, I didn't have an opportunity to do that. I should have spent more time that first day shopping, but you never really know until you get there.

Mango7

What a cool era we live in, where we can electronically converse from anywhere in the world at any time. Yes I've been drinking..

Guenmai

Glad you had a wonderful trip! Happy Travels!

easytraveler

What a beautiful report! Thank you for sharing! Yes, <i>&quot;The people of Thailand of the nicest people that I have ever met.&quot;</i> - so true!

BTW, lst year when I went to Thailand, Kathie had recommended a jewelry store to me

JT International.

Ask for Lily.

Fantastic service as seems to be the usual case in Thailand.

I hope Kathie sees this and can give you the address and phone number as I am in the midst of redoing my library and can't find a thing in there!

Femi

Thanks for the details on the Four Seasons in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

SiamJai

Great informative read, thanks for that. Your time sounds brilliant!

krishnax

Thanks for the report Brencara as we are planning to take a trip to Thailand too hopefully before the end of the year.

Kathie

Ruebarb, I do have a jeweler in Bangkok I've been using for over 20 years. But my jeweler really doesn't make silver jewelry - just gold. She has wonderful gemstones - sapphires and rubies are the bargains in Thailand. If you are interested in more info, let me know.

If you are looking fro silver jewelry with semi-precious stones, Guenmai recommends January in the Oriental Place Shopping center. There are also many stores selling silver jewelry on New Road, close to the Oriental.

Ruebarb

Thanks for replying Kathie, I have been taking notes on your postings since I found out I am going to BKK and am definitely planning to visit Lily and mention your name! Everyone who posts about Lily has only positive things to say and I don't want to miss out on something beautiful. I also like silver an I have also taken notes on Guenmai's postings & know that I will go to January, especially since it is so close to the hotel. I am traveling with a dear friend who lives in Los Angeles and I live near Chicago and we are going to meet at the airport in Tokyo. We don't arrive until 11:30 PM and can't wait for the next day which we already have planned out: The Cotton House, January and tea in the Author"s Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental. We haven't gotten to the evening yet....just hope we don't crash with jet lag. The second day we are taking a tour of the klongs and the Grand Palace. We are going with a private guide that my friend arranged. I am disappointed as we emailed Tong several times and she never responded, so we are going with someone else.
I do want to thank you and everyone else for sharing all of the wonderful and valuable information that makes it so much easier for a first-timer to plan and not feel so bewildered.

wassala

wassala,

Can you tell me how much does Tong charge for that one day trip to the railroad market, floating market and the secret place for two people? Also, my husband and I aren't into or know about Thai foods,what choices would we have to eat at the fishing village, besides our favors, shrimp and lobster?
Does Tong charge a lower price if she is unavailable and gives us someone else at the time we will be in Bangkok? We will be arriving into Bangkok Nov. 19th thru Dec.2nd.

Istarr

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. We are planning a family trip in August.

Where did you get your guides Tong and Sgt. Kai? Do you have contact info for them?

Hanuman

Istarr,

Use the "Search the Forums" search engine at the top right hand corner of the page. Just input Tong or Kai and you'll see a lot of post about them and their contact information should be in one of the post.