Help on BKK
 

Have a lot of questions about BKK. Even after months of reading all the helpful info on this site. Will be in BKK for 5 days in Nov. Have taken your advise and have contacted Ratt for four of those days (too much?) There will be four of us when you say Ratt charges about $100 per day is that for each person? She replied that someone will connect you at the hotel at 8am. Does this mean it will not be her. Will I need any other confirmation than her email? We will be arriving in Laem Chabang by ship. A travel agent who booked our hotel (Oriental) the cost of the ride form the pier to the hotel would be 7800 for the four of us in a van . Could we do better?Thank you all for the useful info and I will let you know how our trip went

1. The price is for the car. If there are four of you I assume you will have the van which her husband drives.

2. Having her for four days is fine depending on what it is you want to see and do/ What are your interests?

3. The price for the airport transfer is outrageus. You can have the Oriental pick you up in a van for less than half of that.

Oopd== just saw you are coming by boat. I don't know what the normal cost for that is.

If Ratt does not say it will be her, it will most likely be not. I think business is good and she is branching out. I had to be very firm that I wanted her and noone else for our two days in February.

The 7800 baht is insane for such a short trip regardless of where it is from.

Have had so much good advise as to what to see in BKK it has been hard to make an itinerary. Have your list (glorialf) from 09/15 of places to go and will probably incude those in are final list do you think it's worth emailing Ratt to ask if she could be with us at least some of the days or all. If we have the van (4 of us) is it more expensive and is her husband the only one who will drive it? Is his English good and is he kwoledgeable. Thanks for replying

If it is four of you you will need the van but I would confirm all of this with her. Make sure she knows how many of you there are. Her husband is the only one who drives the van.

your taking a van from where to the oriiantal for 7800 baht?
----------
using her for so many days seems like overkill.. plus you may not get the true essence of being in bangkok you need some time exploring on your own. I understad when people get guides in bkk and other countries especialy when they've never been. but I must say bangkok is a safe town with lots to see at every corner.
=============
lol, 100 dolloars a day.. Ratt is actually a multi millionar in thailand. pritty soon she'l be sporting a FENDI purse.. that is after she builds her litle hotel and pays of her toyota. GOOD FOR HER I hope more thais can follow her hard work.

I think everyone is missing the fact that you're arriving in Laem Chabang, which is about 10 minutes from Pattaya but two hours from Bangkok. The rate is still rather high. You could probably get a van rental for about half that, but as there are few people arriving by cruise ship, finding someone who knows where to pick you up may be the tricky part. That's probably why they're able to charge so much.

You do not need Ratt for 4 days. I would use her for 2 days at most. Navigating in BKK is easy and very much part of the charm. If you use Ratt all those days, it will insulate you from the essence of BKK.

Van rental here is about Baht 1,600 to 1,800 based on 24 hours (you will get the lastest model red-plate with T.V. and DVD players for that 1,800) and you only fuel at actual cost. One-way from Laem Chabang to BKK is not more than Baht 1,500 for fuel. Please try some local websites for car rental as sawasdee.com (very reliable one).

And I agree to many, BKK is so easy to travel by yourself and map. If the guide charges you Baht 4,000 per day, that means she gains Baht 120,000 per month excluding commission of 30 % she will get from jewelry shops or any souvenir shops she takes you to buy things. It is the salary of a manager in a big company here in Bangkok. Think twice.

I am a Thai by birth and I do not mean to discredit local guide business. However, I do not want Thais to lose the charm of our warm and sincere hospitality.

Enjoy BKK

I think the prices you were quoting was for the car/van itself. I think the original poster is also hiring a driver.

As for bangkok being easy to navigate. It is if you don't take into consideration the heat and humidity which most of us are not used to. The advantage of having a car and driver for some of your time is you can see and do much more without collapsing.

I'm with Gloria again! (I find myself agreeing more and more with her- pretty soon I'll be singing the praises of the Oriental!). One does not need Ratt, but as Gloria points out, with her you will be able to do and see so much more as your energy will not be zapped by the heat and humidity. We used Ratt and found that returning to her air conditioned car, cold towels and ice cold water served to re-charge us and we were ready to do and see more. On the days in which we did not use Ratt- we ran out of "gas" much sooner.

Thanks so much for all of your advise. Pehaps we will try three days with Ratt and two on our own. Not afraid of doing things on my own but the couple we're traveling with reallly likes the creature comforts. Getting off the ship after 16 days it is really nice to have someone waiting rather than draging your luggage around loking for a rental office. I would think that picking up people from the port and bringing them to BKK would be a common thing there but maybe not. Thanks again any other advise would be really helpful since this is our first visit there (I guess you could tell that)

I think a lot of people who arrive in Bangkok via ship are on a tour and they are bused to their hotel.

Ratt for 3 days sounds like a good compromise to me. Don't use her to go shopping -- that's a read waste.

I have spent a huge amount of time at the Oriental in the last 20 years and would be happy to tell you about where to eat in it and around, where to shop nearby etc. It's one of my favorite places in the world.

The rate of van rental is with driver. It is known locally this price so I just quoted it in comparison with that Baht 7,800 your guide charges for transfer of 4 persons from the port. Too much charge.

Having her with van at Baht 4,000 lump sum (not per person) is O.K. I understand you can be melted by the weather. We Thais are not different.

where james A when ya need him.

anyways I may be hiring a van RT too Pataya soon;. my GF said it may cost 2000 baht for the full day.. but she was just guesing.. I really hope it's not 4000 or 7000.. if so, the group will be taking a fun filled magical trip to MBK.

I agree that Ratt or any guide for 4 days would be overkill. I'd say 2 days...3 absolutely max. Personally, I've never had a driver in Bangkok. Happy Travels!

orgy; got room for two more?

i think 4 days with ratt is too much also, but it depends on what you want to do...her van costs more than her sedan, maybe 30% more...$100 was for 13 hours with many miles driven outside of bkk which adds up fast...inside town might be 1/2 that price...

the van from the ship is a captive audience...i would contact my hotel and see how much they would charge to collect you or ask ratt to do it...its equal to $195 which is huge...problem is that you are 4 people...

my gf has been asking around on prices for vans she just called me to say we could rent a shoufer drivan van to hoi hin for 1600 (not including gas) for full day... now im waiting for her too do some window shopping for a van to pataya.. the new guess is 1200 (not including gas)

I'ts comman knowlage that farang pay a litle more compared to local thais. but the quote the original poster currently has is rediculous.. and it's only for a 2-3 hour drive. as opposed too hiring a van for the full day.

Thanks again for all lthe advise. I just emailed Ratt and asked her if she could suggest a driver or arrange one herself. Also I orignally told Ratt four full days if we got there and discoved we wanted to do more on our own would it be wrong to cancel the last day? I am now going to go on a search for a driver for Beijing. We were quoted $160 for four peiple from the airport to Hotel Peninsula. I gave Ratt the following places we wanted to see all from looking at this site. Grand Palace Temple of Reclining Buddha Marble Temple Chinatown Vimanmak Palace Jim Thompson's House Suan Pakkard Palace Prasart Museum(will she know where this is?) Floating market and River Kwai Did I miss anything or should I skip ;any of the above. Shopping will of course be on the agenda.

I would also add Wat Arun and possibly a klong tour. Two wonderful things that should not be missed.

The klong tour will give you a good taste of what life in BKK is like.

Personally I think it's wrong to cancel on one day's notice as she has held the day for you and may well have said no to other customers. If you cancel she is out the money. She may well let you do that but I think it's very very wrong. The money means far less to you (or any tourist who has the means to take a trip like this) than it does to her. I mean how would you like if your boss called you and said you shouldn't come to work the next day because he didn't want to pay you?
Contrary to what people say Ratt is not rich. She works very hard but not in order to buy gems or expensive clothes but so she can send her son abroad to college so he can succeed and do better than she. She lives in Chinatown --not in one of the new fancy condos.

I overbooked her on my last trip and I did not use her one of the days I had booked her for but I paid her for the full day. She didn't ask for it but believe me when I saw the expression on her face when I paid her I was very glad I did. She told me most people just cancelled. I was glad I wasn't one of them. I was glad I wasn't another "ugly American".

Ok-- I'll get off my soapbox now. But this is something I feel passionate about.

it was posted earlier that ratt and mr prasart had some sort of disagreement so she may not want to go there...she will know where it is however...

after reading the itinuary you posted. I will once again say "check out a map of bankok and use the use the distance scale. you will see that most of the sites you want too see are within 3 miles or less of eachother.

diang
how about 2 days with ratt. 1 day all along river. wat arun and floating market. and 1 day on your own. I guess you can also use ratt for the klung trips, so 3 days with ratt may be all you can really fit.
---------------

gloria. lol. she's not rich, yah right. she probably is saving up to 2.5 million baht for her kids collage in america, and has money too build a guesthouse plus ownes her own car.. I don't know about you but that seems rich too me in thai stantards. I could go on and on about why she may still live in a dumpy place in chinatown and so on.. Anyways, She seems to be a very smart person, Thais are not known for saving for the far futer let alone for the end of the month.
-------------

That transfer from Laem Chabang is way over the top..!!

Image Limo quote B 2,500 for a large Sedan and B 2,700 for a Van!

These guys have a 'class' service. They are Jomtien based so quite near to Laem Chabang. There is just B 100 for the car of B 200 to add to those rates for the entry of the vehicle to the Cruise Terminal.

Here are the rates:

http://www.imagelimo.com/rates.htm


Their services:

http://www.imagelimo.com/services.htm

Sorry orgy I was sleeping, Didn't know it related to Laem Chabang !

I actually see them waxing and polishing their vehicles! They have CD music choice, cold towels and if you behave yourself you also get a candy ( so NO candy for you! )

Orgy-- I'm sure she is rich by thai standards but not by our standards. Seems to me if you can spend between $200 and $300 a night to stay at the Pen or Oriental as diangolf you don't screw someone out of a day's pay which is less than half of your hotel room rate. If you cancel a plane or hotel room you often get charged and these are big corporations. Personally I care more about individuals than businesses but I guess I just have different values.

Diana, I don't know Beijing but $ 160 sounded high, I checked on Asiaoz and it came up with Gray Line who have an operation there for transfersand it's $25 per person one way or $38 per person return, might be of some use:

http://www.affiliate.viator.com/broc...&AUID=2832

I didn't mean I would cancel with one day notice. I meant when we got to BKK. on Tuesday and got the lay of the land we may want to do Saturday as well as Sunday on our own. It's difficult never having been there and not knowing how badly the climate may effect me (I'm more a cold climate lady). I guess we still have a few days to decide. I have another question (one of many) Ratt emailed me the following A license guide driver cost 3000Baht/8hours Out of city more for gasoline. The Mercedes Benz Van cost 3000 Baht 8 hours out of city charge more for gasoline My Husband will be the driver. Is the license guide her husband & will we still have the Mercedes Benz with the guide? What is the difference? I am really beginning to feel dumb. Will Ratt take a charge card or does she prefer cash. Thanks once more for all the help.

If you have 5 days then I would do at least 3 with Ratt. Maybe the first 3 and then strike out on your own for the last 2. Where do you live? Have you experienced 90+ degrees with 90%+ humidity? If not then you are in for a shock! Thats why I advise using Ratt- you will conserve your energy- hey I live in this heat/humidity 5 months out of the year (Houston) and even I get run down in the BKK heat! Ratt can be your driver/guide- you don't need a professional guide.

She only takes cash. She is booked weeks and months in advance. cancelling when you get there means she will not be able to rebook. Thiis is absurd. There are four of you. Divided between you the money she charges is peanuts (less than you will probably spend for dinner). If she was booked every day of the year she would only be grossing around $30,000 and obviously she isn't booked every day. So she can't aford to lose money because rich tourists are too cheap to honor what they booked.

When I had Ratt neither she nor her husband were licensed guides but that may have changed. Just ask her.

But most important -- decide now how many days you are booking her for and stick to it. If you think you only want her for two days, book that and if you discover you want her more when you arrive take your chances on her being available. But, please, don't put her in the situation of losing what to her is a lot of money and what to you is very little.

Well put Gloria! Sometimes people don't realize that by backing out on her she loses a day's pay as you have said she is booked months in advance- she does not get bookings same day so yes she would loose out.

I did not intend to cheat Ratt out of any money and I don't think that I am being cheap. After reading some of the advise on using Ratt the general consenses seemed to be that four days may be too much and we may enjoy having more time on our own. I intend to let Ratt know as soon as possible which is why I asked how far in advance she should be notified. She does not seem to mind that we are booking this late and seemed to be flexible.

I would say as long as you and Ratt have an understanding as to how much time you will need from her and her flexability with regards to dropping the last day or so- then I think you are fine. My reference was in regards to people who cancell out on her without any agreement upfront that this could happen.

Me too -- agree with Bill. Bill, this is happening way too often these days. :-)

Gloria great minds think alike ( except of course wheh it comes to 5 star hotels!)

I think Ratt and I have it all worked out. She will be picking us up at the ship also (or her husband with a van). Having worked in social services and dealing with people just trying to get by I tend to over tip and over pay. It kind of upset me to think that someone would think I would not treat someone fairly. Could someone suggest where we could go at night for some Thai entertainment even if it's touristy since that what we are. Thanks

Diane-
Sorry if I misread your post. But so many people aren't like you that I become a bit hysterical on the subject.

Sala Rim at the Oriental Hotel has a dinner and thai dancing. It is definitely touristy. Dancing is good. Costumes great. Food ok but nothing to write home about. Since you're staying at the Oriental it's even convenient.

Say hi to Ratt from me (Gloria Friedman) and say hi to the Oriental -- my favorite place in the world.

When are you leaving?