zpenci

My wife and I have just returned from 18 days in Thailand, where we had an absolutely wonderful time. The Thai people are incredibly friendly, and the facilities and excursion opportunities were fantastic. Our itinerary was as follows:

Chiang Rai -- stayed at the Dusit Island Resort; visited market in Myanmar, Golden Triangle, hill tribe villages, etc.; took longtail boat ride.

Chiang Mai -- stayed at the Westin; shopped for furniture (bought solid teak dining table, six chairs and serving table for total of $700), visited Doi Suthep temple and elephant training camp, took cooking class and received spa treatments at the Regent.

Phuket -- stayed at Le Meridien Yacht Club; took Sea Canoe trip to nearby islands; lots of rain here.

Ko Samui -- stayed at Tongsai Bay in Hideaway Cottage -- snorkeling trip to Ko Tao, elephant ride to waterfall; beautiful weather here.

Bangkok -- stayed at Peninsula; visited temples/Grand Palace, trip to Ayutthaya, shopped at Weekend Market.

I can recommend all the hotels we stayed at except perhaps the Tongsai Bay. Seemed overpriced for the facilities and the service. I'm happy to answer any questions people may have. If I had to do it over again I probably would have spent more time in the north and less time in Phuket. I was also extremely happy to have hired a guide in the north (Sargent Kai of Chiang Mai Action Tours (www.chiangmaitours.com)) who accompanied us on all of our tours during the day. He and his staff were wonderful, and I cannot recommend him highly enough.

I_am_anonymous

> "bought solid teak dining table, six chairs and serving table for total of $700" <

Does the $700 include shipping? Did you have to bargain much? Any recommended shops?

peg

I was curious about the shipping also. When we were in Chaing Mai at wood carving place on "shopping highway" (can't remember the name) a couple of us were looking at some things and it was going to cost twice as much to ship it, so our bargin items turned out to be too expensive.

veron_lam

Hi Zpenci

Did you join the day tour to Ayutthaya ? Was it good ? I am planning to take a day tour to Ayutthaya, but don't know waht is the best way to go there.

zpenci

Sorry to take so long to respond to your questions. Blackout issues. =-)
Regarding the furniture purchase, we paid $700 for the tables and chairs, and then another $700 for shipping them to New York, which was arranged by a shipping company our tour guide was familiar with. I didn't feel I could bargain down the shipping at all, and was only able to bargain down the furniture prices about $75. I'm a pretty lame bargainer, though, so maybe others could do better. I will check my receipts tonight and post the names of the furniture store and the shipping company here tomorrow. If anybody is interested in seeing pictures of the pieces we bought, post your email address or email me at [email protected], and I will send you some pictures tomorrow as well.

zpenci

With respect to the day trip to Ayutthaya we took with the Shangri-la hotel, we enjoyed it and are glad we went, but wouldn't want to spend any more time there than we did. In fact, if we had to do it again, we would probably try to hire a guide to drive us up and back, and only to Ayutthaya (the Shangri-la tour also visited the Summer Palace), as we didn't have a ton of time in Bangkok and felt like we wasted half a day on the boat ride back to the hotel (4 hours long). FYI, the tour cost us 1600 Baht ($40) per person, and you can get more information by emailing [email protected].

fiona

agree with last poster- I felt I could have done without the amount of time spent on the boat( as we only had 3 nights in BKK) We enjoyed Ayutthaya and also the Summer Palace. Would have loved to have spent more time at the Palace- that part was rather rushed.

BillT

zpenci:
Would like to know (if you don't mind)
1) What type of room did you get at the Penn?
2) price paid and did they offer to upgrade you?
3) What floor were you on?
4) Did you find the river taxis usefull?
5) Did you have the breakfast buffet and if so what was on the menu?
6) Where did you book your stay at the Penn?
Thanks

Bo2642

Ditto to Zpenci and Fiona's feelings regarding the trip to Ayutthaya. Last December we took that same kind of group trip--outbound by minibus with return to the city by boat. Our trip was arranged for at the Royal Orchid, but there were other hotel pick-ups, too, so it may have been the same company. The visit to the summer palace was interesting, but we were rushed; and the time we spent at Ayutthaya was also pared down because we had to get to the boat at a certain time. That return trip was a long four hours (more or less). There was an adequate buffet, but after that there was nothing of great interest on the river banks, and we, too, felt that we were losing precious time. Were we to do it over again, we would hire our own car and guide/driver for the day. From the inquiries I've made, that shouldn't break the bank. That way we would not feel rushed or part of a herd, nor would we feel frustrated at losing several non-productive hours on the river. By the way, I'm reading these boards with interest because in February 2004, I'll be making another trip to Thailand. That four day stopover that we made in Bangkok last December certainly whetted our appetites for more Thai experiences, and this time we'll have a little over 2 weeks. Thanks everyone for your postings. They're certainly appreciated.

mwclayton

I can also recommend the services of Sargent Kai. I spent 5 days with Kai and Nui in May traveling all over the northern region. I wanted to get off the beaten path and we really travelled to some remote areas. Nui was great fun to walk the markets with.

Two incredible people.

zpenci

Responses to BillT's questions:
We had a Grand Deluxe King Room for $140/night which included breakfast. We booked the room directly on the hotel's website. The room was their basic room, but on a higher floor (we were on the 29th). They did not offer to upgrade us, even after we mentioned we were on our honeymoon. The room was great, though, with plenty of space (especially in the bathroom) and a great view. Buffet breakfast was great, with a mixture of western foods(scrambled eggs, meats, breads, fruits, etc.) and eastern foods (fried rice, etc.).

The river taxis were EXTREMELY useful. We took the shuttle to the Skytrain station every day, and that took us anywhere in the city we needed to go (including the weekend market), except for the Grand Palace. For the trip to the Grand Palace the hotel arranged for a private longtail boat to bring us up for $10, and we then took a public boat back to the skytrain station. I was SO happy to not have to deal with Bangkok traffic.

BillT

Zpenci:
Thanks for the info about the room. How was the weather in August? Also were you able to bargain at the markets? If so approx. how much off % wise were you able to get?
Did you buy any jewelrey there? if so do you reccommend any places?

zpenci

No problem, BillT. The weather in August for us was nice and cool up in the north with a little rain (not so cool that you would ever need a sweater, but cool compared to Bangkok), very rainy and incredibly humid in Phuket, warm and dry (and a bit buggy) in Samui, and hot and fairly humid (though not rainy) in Bangkok.

I am a horrible bargainer, so my discounts were limited to somewhere between 10 and 25% off what the sellers were asking. I would pretty much just ask how much something was, then ask if they could give me a discount, then purse my lips and look like I was considering it for a little while, and then agree on the discounted price. If you enjoy bargaining, I bet you could get closer to 50% off most things.

We didn't buy any jewelry in Thailand. We aren't experts in gold or gems, and all of the stories of scams scared us away. Sorry!