Is there any way to Tongs secret place without Tong?
 

We are leaving next month to Thailand - very, very excited. I have my N.Chandler map & some great guide books, but no Tong. I am so envious of the secret place on the boat that she takes everyone. Could anyone suggest an alternative to get there? Thanks!

If you want to go to Tong's secret place, you must go with Tong. This is a personal arrangement she has with a fisherman and his family.

Oops. New forum confusion.

The "secret place" is not just the place. It's Reed and his wife and the ambiance as well. Tong has an arrangement with this family. You could probably book a day there with one of Tong's team, even if Tong is not available. I can assure you it will be a memorable day.

Can somebody give us the link to Tong's website?

www.tourwithtong.com

she is also preparing a new website but i do not think it is quite ready

The little village actually seems to be a local vacation spot with restaurants, hotels, etc. I'm sure if you can manage to get there you can arrange with the fisherman. We paid him directly.

we went with nui from tongs team, and combined the day with a visit to the railway track and floating markets. marvellous. definitely go with a guide- it really is not just seeing a "village"

4bams, so is the railway track market, floating markets and secret place all included in the 2500BT per person tour?

degas, we paid 6400 bhat for 2 people for the railway market, floating market, and secret place, once you add up all the gas, monkey food, etc. See my trip report for the details of the trip as well as the cost breakdown. Tong was booked so we went with Kung, and she was great. We had a goodtime and thought the trip was worth the expense.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...s-cambodia.cfm

We recently had the pleasure of spending a day with Tong. We combined the Floating Market with the Secret Village and had an incredible experience. As others have said, the day is more than about going to the Floating Market and Secret Village. Even if you can do these on your own, you would not get the rich experience of spending a day with Tong. From the moment you step into her car, she will fill you with chatter and information about Thailand, the food and the people. She is a delightful person to be with and she truly enhanced our experience. I have heard that her guides are also wonderful. The costs of her services were a bit expensive, but to me the experience was well worth it. If it is the cost that troubles you, perhaps you can find someone else on the forum that would want to share in the day.

sorry I just see now that you asked about the cost (I cannnot get the hang of this new site yet)

no, there were some extras- a lot depends on the type of transport that you use (car vs van etc) I believe those costs are on the web site. we paid for gas, and incidentals like our lunch at the fishing village, bananas and melon for the monkeys. one reason to do the fishing village/train market/floating market on the same day is that the vehicle and driver are needed only once, and as the sites are all out of town there is far less driving to do one longer day than 2 half days. I cannot recall the final tab for the day, but we are a family of 4 travelling with a depressed canadian dollar, and I remember thinking that the tour was worth every penny. personally, this is not the place to cut back in my opinion- it is the experiences that you will remember later, not this hotel vs that, or this meal vs. that.

I'm going to contact the fisherman without using Tong. No middleman. Its win-win this way.

Win for you, lose for Tong?

Mango7-Tong brought the secret place to the attention of tourists. Going behind her back to cut out the middleman to save some money seems a bit distasteful. It has the feel of trademark infringement. Not to mention that the long ride down there and back would be much more enjoyable with her bubbling continuously.

How would you even find the village, and the fisherman, without Tong?!

I've just been and unless you speak Thai, I think you will struggle to get as much out of the trip without a guide as little English is spoken by the fisherman and the other staff at the place. Tong translated a lot for us and put our questions to the fisherman. This isn't like the usual tourist set up you go to in Thailand - we did not see any other people in the vicinity other than locals who live there. Very unusual for Thailand not to see a tourist on a tour...it felt like the most peaceful place in the world.

I think she also mentioned that people who book would have to pay a minimum charge - as if 5 people were going on the trip. With Tong, we paid for just the 3 of us - I think this is because she brings them so much business. You pay the fisherman direct though. We gave a tip as well though - it was such a fantastic day.

I really think it would be better with a guide. Would definitely recommend the trip - with Tong.

One other thing - you can stay the night in the fishing hut. I would definitely do this next time if I had no kids with me - or my kids were older. It would be magical.
BB

I would also LOVE to sleep out there!

i'm just thinking that if i stayed the nite there with gpanda i would kill myself before morning...

there is no air con bob - he might have to keep cool in his speedos!!

It would be a really tiny speedo. Plus, I get up around 4:30 a.m. (as anyone who looks at the time of some of my posts already knows) and it would be great to wake Bob up for an early morning view of the Bay.

I agree that the experience would be much less without a guide. The place is really magical, but so much would be hidden to a Farang without assistance.

Guaranteed that Reed won't work without Tong. They have an iron-clad partnership.

I'm sure someone could find one of the other fisherman that do a rip-off version of the tour that Tong created...but you'd really get what you pay for.

We passed some of those other tours and they looked like a total joke, so proceed at your own risk.

I agree with all of the people re;tong & her crew. Beleive me after touring in Bali & Thailand in 07 and going to Portugal in 08 you see what a bargain it is there. Tong is wonderful & we were so lucky to have her for 2 days. The secret place is a specality of hers. What an experience-Chris

Actually when I visit the fisherman he will receive MUCH more from me. I'm quite sure what Tong gives him is a filthy pittance. He and he alone is the one that owns the full desired feature here, not Tong. The reason she dubs this excursion as a "secret" is to keep a monopoly on it. Also, I'd much rather patronize the person who only eeks out a living from what he does, and this fisherman and his family deserve better.

Btw, my wife is Thai so language won't be an issue when we see Reed. And he WILL work without Tong, no doubt about it.

Why so bitter, Mango7? You don't know Reed or Tong, so why so angry? He may work without Tong, who knows. No one can stop you from asking.

With Tong, we paid Reed directly, not through Tong, and it was not a "filthy pittance." Compared to the time and energy Tong spent, she got a pittance.

There are other tours that visit the same place but with other fisherman, according to Tong and Reed.

One of the pleasures of the secret place is the tranquility of the bay. If it were well known it would be more crowded and less enjoyable.

how will you find reed? there is a huge coastline of thailand....are you going to walk from beach to beach and from area to area to save a dollar or two....??

tong is entitled to reap any benefits she can from the secret place as she developed and marketed it for the sole pleasure of her customers and to earn a meager reward for herself...

Please don't pay him any attention. He's obviously off his meds again.

Just when you think he's becoming slightly human, he goes and shows his true colors.

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mango, you won't like the secret place because reed only serves chinese food and other things chinese

Bob,

I heard that the "tong" are a secret society so could this be where their head quarter is located?

Come to think of it one could walk around Yaowarat in Bangkok and ask around where the Tong's secret place is. I'm sure they will get a very interesting answer.

Is it me or is there a Scrooge-like tone to the concept of attemptiong to visit Tong's secret place without her? I can assure everyone that going there with Tong is magical. Visiting it on your own may carry its own punishment. Maybe you could spend the drive down there and back counting all the money you saved. I'm sure that would keep you entertained.

This place is in the back of beyond - not on a tourist trail, tong has brought this family very many people to somewhere they would not happen upon and which is not advertised anywhere in English so vastly increased their business from what it would otherwise be - and you pay them direct, 1000B per person. So we paid 3000B to Reed for half a day - £60. That is a fair amount of money for us to pay for a half day trip. A filthy pittance? I am shocked that you consider that to be a filthy pittance. By UK standards, that is not a filthy pittance - it would cost us that to visit a theme park here and we would consider that expensive. However, it was well worth the money. I am sure if you can find the place, you will be able to organise this with Reed directly. Good luck to you and hope you do pay him more given you are clearly very wealthy.

lucy---he is just a pain in the neck about some things...

But wait--Would it not be possible for Tong to set the OP up with one of her affiliated guides?
Why not write to her and ask her about this?

I'm not cheap, so you can rule this out. In Thailand I do see a lot of people working for nearly nothing for those who are doing well (by Thai standards).

Filmwill- You are my least favorite fodor poster. Looks like we have something in common.

Khun Hia,

I feel honored. By you saying that, I really, actually and truly do feel honored. To be disliked by the most distasteful, rude, and slightly psychotic poster on this message board is probably something most of us would aspire to in life.

I'm curious, Mango, if it ever gets tired being a universally miserable person. In case you need a reminder: the spirit of this board is about helping people, which many people (myself included) try to do for you (even against our better judgment)...and then you come along--out of nowhere--and spout off just complete and utter crap, and start attacking people for things and places they profess to enjoy about Thailand for absolutely no reason at all.

If you're the face of tourism authority for Thailand, as you often profess to be (somehow just by nature of having a Thai wife) then, my friend, someone in their tourism board is about to lose their job. Good day! :)

Finally! There is at least on Fodorite for whom I am not his least favorite poster.

Technically, if each poster is the other's least favorite poster, they do not have that in common. Reciprocity does not equate to commonality.

Actually, I rather like mang's curmudgeonly outbursts. They make me laugh.

Now, let's try and unpack this. Think of mang as iconoclastic. What I think he's reacting to is the overwhelming dominance of Tong on these boards - in effect to the detriment of others. I have doubt she and her team are great and perfectly pitched to this clientele - I have no attitude at all here.

But, surely there must be others.

Mang, I suspect, is reacting to the group-think we all have a tendency to fall into; if it's Bangkok, it must be Tong, if it's Chiang Mai it must be Sgt. Kai - if it's Siem Reap it must be Ponheary.

This group-think, of course, stems from the best of reasons. People have had a great time and want others to share their great experience. But I, too, have observed a certain same, same, sameness in the proceedings. There is no balance. Maybe that's what mang is saying, in his own manglish way.

There's a little bit of the mang in me too, just on principle.

Now, I'd quite like not be abused for these comments. Will you grant me the space to consider them before you attack? heh. Things are getting overheated in here.