Bangkok and Manila
 

It's becoming a habit, on my birthday I seem to find myself either in Bangkok or at 30,000 feet over the Pacific! We begin our journey on November 6 flying out of Houston. We will be in Bangkok thru the 12 then fly on to Manila for 5 nights. We are staying at the Westin Sukhumvit. We stayed there last time and found the location excellent as both the sky train and MRT out out the front door. Also it is next to Terminal 21 where we like to go for some of our meals.
On this trip we will eat, shop and relax having done all the tourist venues several times.
In Manila we are staying at the new Holiday Inn Makati. Now the Philippines does not get a lot of exposure on this board for reasons that always escape me. Here are some pros and cons that may shed some light on the issue.
Cons- poor tourist infrastructure in Manila, few 5 star hotels (although that has changed over the last few years), traffic is terrible must use taxis to get from place to place.
Pros- your dollar does a lot farther, everyone speaks English and they love Americans, plenty of shopping and eating venues in Makati. Beaches - some of the best in the world and great for scuba diving and cave exploration.

have a fab trip... after 2 days I miss bkk already

I will spend my birthday in Tulsa once again! But we have folks from around the globe (Thai, German, Italian, Australian) joining us so it's OK.

Missing Bangkok also. Next trip to the land of smiles is Dec 17 to Jan 5!

Bill, my son really enjoyed his September trip to Manila and Gensan (?) for about a week. He was playing in pool tournaments there.

Enjoy your trip!

Bill, I'll be spending my birthday packing for Peru. I hope to be in Bangkok again next year for my birthday.

One more pro argument for Manila- it has by far the best deals on pearls- but don't spread the word lest these deals disappear!

We are strongly thinking about the Philippines Bill. In fact we may drag the rhkkmk's along. Taxi is the magic word lol.
Have fun!

Aloha!

BUT no more pearls