Will be in Bangkok in April for 5 days, staying at the Shangri-La. Interested in taking a thai cooking class as well as indulging in a thai spa/massage treatment. Any recommendations that are easy to get to from my hotel?
Thanks.

the blue elephant restaurant which is not far from the hotel offers a cooking class...look at their web-site....probably the shangri-la offers one as well....send them an e-mail and ask for their suggestions...

let us know how the hotel treats you..i'm going to be there twice in june...are you on priceline??

bob

The Oriental Hotel, next door to the Shangri-La probably offers the best classes; however I believe you have to commit to a 3 or 5 day course. Take a look at mandarin-oriental.com/Bangkok.

I have taken a 3- hour cooking class at the Landmark hotel. I chose this because I was there Christmas week, and the Oriental school was closed. I thought the Landmark class was a lot of fun. You don't do a lot of work, as all the chopping (the main pain of Asian cooking) has already been done. It is a good way of learning the techniques and the various spices that are used. Their website does not seem to contain info (www.landmarkbangkok.com) you might call, fax or e-mail them at tel 66- 2-254 -0404 , Fax: 66- 2-253-4259 E-mail: [email protected]

The Jim Thompson house also offers cooking lessons. Take a look at www.jimthompsonhouse.com. They look interesting to me, and I will probably take one next time I am in Bangkok.

As for spas, your hotel offers various treatments, take a look at their website. The Peninsula (across the river) has an excellent spa, take a look at peninsula.com. The Oriental Hotel has a good spa, as does the JW Marriott, the Marriott Riverside Hotel and the Sheraton Royal Orchid (have not been to the latter, but it is operated by Mandara, which operates the spas in the Marriott which are great.) Take a look at www.mandaraspa.com. Also run a search at www.spafinder.com under "Day spas" in East Asia and about 6 will show up. I don't know anything about them, but have used spafinders.com to find day spas in the US and have been generally pleased with the ones I found there. For hotel spas, I would make a booking well before your trip, as the spas are popular. You can contact them by e-mail to make a booking.

I took the Blue Elephant cooking class and enjoyed it thoroughly. I would make a reservation ahead of time and choose the morning class as that one includes the market trip. We were there from 8:0am until 2:30pm -- it cost about 70. US. My 2 colleagues and I thought it was an enormous amount of "bang for the buck" -- and high quality instruction and food. Only advice -- don't fill up on your own food -- as they will serve you a complete lunch after the class.

Their website is: http://blueelephant.com/school/index.html

You should be able to see my pictures of the class at: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=71rkkun...&y=-rplzdt

For spa, I would go right across the river to the Oriental Spa. It was an amazing experience.

I did an entire spa day and felt like a queen the entire time. During my Thai massage, I actually FELL ASLEEP! You wouldn't think that was possible considering how they jerk you around but oh man, is it relaxing!


This is what my day included...

My own changing room w/ bathroom, shower and matt area for massage. It was gorgeous. The shower itself was almost as big and my entire bathroom at home with 3 heads and 1 coming from the ceiling.

There is a locker to lock your things so you should take your camera. I didn't because I wasn't sure where I could put it but I know regret I don't have pictures of that room!

Juice and water when I wanted it.

Lunch in a private room with plants, matts and a small shrine.

My services were...

A full body mud mask and rinse
A hydro therapy session
50 min. Thai massage
Full facial treatment
Manicure
pedicure

I took a couple of showers throughout the day in my gorgeous room with their shampoos and such.

And of course, the BEST thing about all this was......THAI HOSPITALITY. No where in the world are you going to have a 5 star experience like this except in Thailand.

And the price? About $220. A bargain in my opinion.

Various packages around the States will run you $200-$300 and only include 3-4 services, not 6. Plus, you don't get the Thai service, lunch, etc. included in that.

I did this in 1999 and I'm STILL talking about how great it was! I'm not a spa expert at all as I only do this now and then on vacations and such but to this day, in my limited experience, this is THE best I've had.

In Bangkok I've also tried the spa at the Westin and the Sukhothai and they PALED in comparison.

Do yourself a favor and go to the Oriental.