LouiseUK

As part of our trip to Thailand in April, we are staying at Le Meridien Baan Boran for three nights, and obviously would like to see a bit of the culture. <BR><BR>I know there is a tour operator in the hotel, but I expect that it is much more expensive and restrictive to go through them than do it ourselves. Does anyone know how easy it is to arrange a car and driver, I imagine the hotel to be in the middle of nowhere but I am probably way off the mark. I am particularly interested in getting off the beaten track to see some remote hill tribes, but I guess a four wheel drive vehicle would be needed for that!?<BR><BR>Any suggestions or ideas?

Elainee

Read the Thailand travelog by Colin in this bb. His experience with tours from Le Meridien Baan Boran was like ours from that excellent hotel. It makes sense to let the hotel make the arrangements. They know the people they are using and the going price of the arrangements. If you do it yourself, you may end up paying more for people you would not want to be with for several days off the beaten track. When we went, 8 years ago, our driver had a gun with him under the dashboard, much to our surprise. There was still a need at that time. Now, with whom would you like to be.. off the road, in the woods, up the mountain?

LouiseUK

Hi Elainee<BR><BR>Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have read Colin's travelogues, very informative and amusing! I know he used the hotel tour operator, but I just wondered if there was an alternative!? Bit scary about the gun though!

orgy7

up in Sop Ruak, thailand, you can check out the &quot;opium meseum&quot; which is located in the center of town open daily 7 am too 6pm, 20B (rougyh guide southeast asia) <BR><BR>I've yet too go there, but sounds cool. if a museum dosn't have aleast one shrunken head in it's collection its not a museum..

IngridG

Opium museum is a must!!!!<BR><BR>Ingrid

peg

Hi Louise:<BR><BR>The hotel in now just Baan Boran and is owned by the Marriott chain. <BR><BR>The hotel tour operator is very good. We were going to just hire a car and driver but proved a little difficult. Suda was our guide, excellent, I would see if you could request her. We did not think they were all that expensive, given the exchange rate to dollars.<BR><BR>The have quite a few tours you can do. We did Laos one day (already had our visa's), and the next did the hilltribe tour. We went to a couple of different hill tribes and saw a show at the culture center. We did not like the hilltribes all that much so elected not to go to all of them. Went to Myanmar instead (which costs extra).<BR><BR>The opium museum was not open yet when we were there, but it is right across the street from the hotel. <BR><BR>I would also recommend a long tail boat ride on the river. It is different. <BR><BR>We enjoyed the hotel very much, spa is great.

LouiseUK

Thanks for your replies and especially to Peg - I think we will stick with the hotel tour guide then, and will ask for Suda!

peg

Hi Louise:<BR><BR>I wanted to also mention, to go to the tour office shortly after you arrive. I noticed that you were only there for three nights, same as us. I think they are open until 6pm or 7pm (don't quote me). You can pick out your tour for the next day. My recommendations if you can get Suda is to tell her what you want to see and she could help you pick out the tour for the next day. That is what we did. She speaks perfectly good english, we all joked that is was better than us and were American. You also pay separately, not add it to the hotel bill. <BR><BR>One other thought on the hotel, is food was quite expensive for the area. There is a nice restaurant up the road that is very quite at night so you get great service. Also, an Irish couple told us the Imperial Triangle Resort (hope I got that right) had a good dinner. Not to say the hotel food was not good, but just pricey. So I wanted to give you heads up on that.<BR><BR>If you would like to see some picks, or I might still have the brochure, I could possibly scan some of the tours in to give you an idea of the cost. Let me know, and I will post my e-mail.

LouiseUK

Oh yes please, Peg, that would be brilliant!! I e-mailed the hotel about 10 days ago asking for details of their tours, but all I got back from them was a virus!!

peg

Louise:<BR><BR>My e-mail is: [email protected]