RHK's 2010 Thailand and Vietnam trip
Nov 21st, 2010, 06:51 PM
#303
Bob, loved reading your very descriptive account of your day with Tong, although I think I'd still be a chicken about those large tigers! Just wish that Tong had been available for us when we were there....would have loved to have met her.
Nov 21st, 2010, 07:39 PM
#304
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We did the tiger experience in Chiang Mai and they seemed drugged. The tigers barely moved. We had photo ops with them, but it was relatively boring. Wish we had gone to see the tigers with Tong.
Nov 22nd, 2010, 07:33 AM
#306
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never got around to writing today... just too much runningn around...
hope to write in the AM before we leave for khoa lak for 5 days... relaxation at last...
jewerly is all in hand and most of the tailoring as well... all are A-1....
6 of us at the bkk gtg: us; pook, dang and mony; plus kathie and cheryl... lots of fun and yummy dim sum
hope to write in the AM before we leave for khoa lak for 5 days... relaxation at last...
jewerly is all in hand and most of the tailoring as well... all are A-1....
6 of us at the bkk gtg: us; pook, dang and mony; plus kathie and cheryl... lots of fun and yummy dim sum
Nov 22nd, 2010, 10:49 AM
#308
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Bob and Karen = 2
Their college friends = 2
Hanuman + family = 3
Kathie + Cheryl = 2
_______________________
TOTAL = 9
What happened to the college friends? Perhaps they were eaten by tigers . . .
Their college friends = 2
Hanuman + family = 3
Kathie + Cheryl = 2
_______________________
TOTAL = 9
What happened to the college friends? Perhaps they were eaten by tigers . . .
Nov 22nd, 2010, 01:48 PM
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LA doesn't have the problem. The problem is the chained tigers and other abuses that you mentioned but are obviously blind to. Even your precious Tong admits to the heat they are forced to endure in the canyon. You open yourself to lots of criticism endorsing this cruel abuse of tigers that you have just described for us all. Ask yourself what a hundred trainers would do for you if the tigers got pissed off and did what they do naturally mate. Maybe you can ask Siegfried and Roy what to do.
Nov 23rd, 2010, 12:21 AM
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It is about time that this awful place and others like it were closed down. Unfortunately they never will be as long as naive/irresponsible/uncaring western tourists and their Thai guides support them with their tourist revenues.
Nov 23rd, 2010, 04:52 AM
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Bob - I know this is unrelated to this thread, but I just came across info on shopping in India which I thought you and Karen would be interested in. Here's a link to the thread: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic..._of_Delhi.html
Nov 23rd, 2010, 08:15 AM
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Saturday
The intent of this day was a complete Bangkok sightseeing tour for the newbies, or as much as you can handle in one day. Tong came for us at 6:30AM…. UGH!!! She had had very little sleep, as after dropping us off she had to drive 1.5 hours to her house… It was nice then to have roger drive us and we enjoyed the added space of the van….
Btw, all of this time her daughter, age 5, was in the hospital with a stomach problem…
So first we headed to the marble wat, as tong thought by going there 2 things would be accomplished: alms to the monks and seeing the marble temple…. Very good idea. In the parking lot of the wat there were perhaps a dozen or more monks seeking donations so the newbies were instructed on this etiquette. Tong had brought the food to give to them… Then we toured the wat grounds and they went inside… I was too lazy to take my shoes off, plus I had visited previously… a great take anyways… I believe this is the only wat to be built entirely of stone (marble) in bkk…
From there we headed to the khoa san rd area to buy gifts for the monks. On the way tong instructed us on the proper way to fold, neatly, the blossom pedals of the lotus flower for presentation… I failed miserably…. Tong said I would go immediately to hell…
We bought a medical kit for the monks and the newbies bought a kit with coffes, sugar, etc in it…. Tong bought a huge parcel to give… We drove to Wat Indraram, home of the giant outdoor standing Buddha and made our donations to the monk on duty…. He asked us to repeat his prayers, then he blessed us and finally sprayed us with water using a flexible reed or grass….. he also blessed some water which we poured from one vessel to another and then finally symbolically watered a tree in the garden with it---all joining hands to hold the water vessel….
I feel no different after having done all this---perhaps it’s too late for me??
The standing Buddha is 35 meters tall and amazing… we had never visited here before…
Next we went to a local market, next to a klong, which specializes in live fish…. We bought a few different kinds. K & I bought a few small ones which are known for their healing abilities. We dedicated these to Andy when we released them… we all bought others as well… they were put in large plastic bags with water and we drove them two blocks to the river where we ceremoniously released them back into the river creating great karma and good merit for ourselves….
We also bought a few large frogs/toads which we released into the garden and into the river…. More good deeds…. The frogs were huge and some were pregnant….
Next we were driven to the new sight of the wat housing the golden Buddha which was discovered in 1959 when a large plaster Buddha image was being moved and it was dropped revealing the solid gold Buddha inside… valued in the millions today….
When we first visited it about 12 years or so ago, it was located in a dumpy one story building….. Today a new very impressive and very tall building has been constructed to house this national treasure…. I was too hot and lazy to climb the many steps to visit, but the others did and said it was beautiful…. K says it is now in a place where it is show-cased properly. Also on the property is a new Chinese museum, which we did not have time for, but which others report to be very interesting…
We were not finished with our morning’s activities yet… Based on a suggestion a few years ago from laurieco, we went to buy coffins for the poor… Another merit making mission…. I expected a dirty wood workshop, but instead we went to an office with desks and chairs lined up and a very efficient method of paying (anything you wish to give) and doing some simple paperwork… you are then given a square of paper to paste onto a pile of wooden coffins on display… there are young girls there to paste for you…. You then stick the paper yourself onto the coffins… OMG are we holy… nearly at the gates for sure….There was an interesting small wat attached to this which we visited as well.
From there we drove tong and the newbies for a flower mkt tour and as this was loy krathang, a national holiday, involving flowers, the place was swinging…. We left them there for a tour with tong. From there they walked to the coconut palm restaurant for lunch, which they loved, and then on to wat pho for the reclining Buddha and finally to the Grand Palace….
Roger, tong’s fantastic drive,r drove us (K and me) to the Conrad hotel on wireless road for our mini GTG….
We found Kathie and Cheryl patiently sitting in the Conrad lobby when we arrived…. Together we went to the 3rd floor Liu restaurant where Hanuman and his family were waiting for us… We had a lovely private alcove room. Pook chose most of the dishes… Each was better than the previous… We had a great variety of dim sum. Dang added in at the end a favorite soup like dish which was very nice. We also had a unique pork dish. It looked like a 5 inch pyramid. The dish is made from the stomach of a pig, which has been cut into strips, and is really like soft bacon…. I did not care for it honestly, but I was glad to try it…
Lots of hugs and kisses were offered after we had been there about 2 hours…
All of our luggage had been traveling around in the back of the van all day, as we were changing hotels this day…
K & I took a taxi to the Marriott riverside to have fittings with jack…. K and pat showed up with tong after a while for their fittings… We all went by van to our new hotel, the Chatrium Suites directly on the river, south of the Shangri-la hotel…
We were quite impressed with the exterior and lobby of chatrium. I had reserved a 2 bedroom, two bath unit. I was not happy with the unit we were taken to…The primary reason for moving here was to watch the fireworks on Sunday night… But this suite was located on the downriver side of the building… Added to this, the rooms were small and the rug in the living room was very soiled as was the sofa…. I was mad…
I asked to speak with the supervisor… She arrived in a few minutes and was correct, but very cold… She said the only option was 2 separate double rooms at an increased price of almost 40%... Karen suggested we stay for the night and deal with it in the AM…. I asked the woman for the name of the GM… She gave me 2 names: the GM and the director of rooms…
The double (king) rooms were fine, until we discovered the bathrooms were dirty… Now I was really mad…. Up came the supvr again and a cleaning staff…. At this point I was ready to move in the AM…. But we loved our new view and balcony on the 30th floor… We looked directly up river with a full frontal view for the fireworks…. The newbies were directly next door with the same view… The bed was fine and after a sleep I just bit my tongue….
Sunday
The breakfast room was nice with a lovely river view…. The pool, while a bit cool was fantastic with a full river view from its 6th floor location… EK--- fine for laps….Lovely sculptures adorn the pool area…
Breakfast was good, but not outstanding…. A huge buffet… pastry was stale and not imaginative… eggs good… limited dim sum good… limited sushi good… cheeses excellent… fruit adequate, but limited…. Good service and friendly but not well trained staff…
We are fine to stay here as a move would be disruptive… Initially we had scheduled to go to the weekend market in the morning… As pat had purchased everything that was not tied down already, and we were tired, we decided to bag a visit there… Instead we had chatrium arrange to have a long tail boat come for us at 10:30… We would do a Klong Tour in Thornburi. The boat was over a ½ hour late, so we just sat by the river and watched the traffic… fun…
When the boat arrived we got underway and proceeded way up the river and entered the klongs just north of the Navy headquarters…. As the water is so high, we had to wait about 15 minutes for the locks…. Btw, the cost was 1000 B per hour… high but acceptable as we were picked up and returned to where we wanted…
Once the lock opened we entered and were lowered maybe 6 feet… We roved through a number of klongs… there was a medium amount of klongside activity… the girls loved it… Just short of our 2 hour time, we arrived at the barge museum and all the woman went for a quick look…. Presently you can get much closer to the boats than you could in the past…
The driver seemed to stall in moving forward, so I decided I would not pay for more than 2 hours unless we got in an argument….. He stopped dead in the water and waited for another boat to come alongside and he gave them a can of gas…. At the beginning of our ride we had spent almost 10 minutes getting gas… we would then move forward slowly then fast… all very odd…. When back in the main river there were large swells which made the ride slower…
We asked to be dropped off at the Peninsula Hotel. I gave the driver 2000 and walked away… no comment…
We went into the lobby bar and decided to have a drink and listen to the live music…. It was a nice interlude…
We knew that the hotel has an internal contest each year on loy krathang. It was scheduled to commence at 4, so we hung around…. Each department creates a large krathang from fresh flowers and has them judged… After each is floated a winner is declared…. There were 8 I think… The winner was mistky white and perhaps 5-6 feet tall---it was amazing, as were all of them…. There is also a beauty contest with each department having one of it’s women parade the pool area in traditional costumes. Everyone is given ballots to vote…. I voted for #12 who had lovely purple orchids around her neck and in her hair… The fellow employees whooped and hollered as the women walked the cat walk around the pool…. PLEASE NO NEGETIVE COMMENTS ON BEAUTY CONTESTS!!!
From there we took a boat to river city for some fittings at the JS Thai silk… Things are looking good… We walked from there to Harmonique for dinner with a friend of Pat’s who has lived in Thailand for 24 years and now runs a PR firm here. He brought along his thai partner, a really nice guy who is just about to open a pastry shop near Marriott Mayfair serviced apartments… The food was excellent as always… the yellow crab curry a favorite and of course the fried morning glory with garlic….We had lots of fun and enjoyed stories of 24 years in bkk…
Taxi back to Chatrium in plenty of time for the fireworks to begin….
I received a phone call from the Director of rooms…. His colleagues had informed him that I was unhappy…. He agreed totally with me after reviewing my e-mails about room location, etc… He informed me that we would pay the same rate as we would have for the 2 room suite…. I thanked him… he also threw in free internet. He said he had viewed the rooms during the day and had ordered the toilet seats replaced (unnecessary) for which I thanked him…. I felt much better after his call..
There was a decorated (bright lights) boat parade along the river… About 9:30 there was a small, but nice, firework display in front of our hotel…. About 9:45 Marriott and Montien hotels had a moderate show down river which could be seen from our bedroom floor to ceiling windows….About 10 the major hotels up river commenced their huge show… It was really nice… We enjoyed them from our balcony… The girls polished off our wine…
Bed and good sleep
The intent of this day was a complete Bangkok sightseeing tour for the newbies, or as much as you can handle in one day. Tong came for us at 6:30AM…. UGH!!! She had had very little sleep, as after dropping us off she had to drive 1.5 hours to her house… It was nice then to have roger drive us and we enjoyed the added space of the van….
Btw, all of this time her daughter, age 5, was in the hospital with a stomach problem…
So first we headed to the marble wat, as tong thought by going there 2 things would be accomplished: alms to the monks and seeing the marble temple…. Very good idea. In the parking lot of the wat there were perhaps a dozen or more monks seeking donations so the newbies were instructed on this etiquette. Tong had brought the food to give to them… Then we toured the wat grounds and they went inside… I was too lazy to take my shoes off, plus I had visited previously… a great take anyways… I believe this is the only wat to be built entirely of stone (marble) in bkk…
From there we headed to the khoa san rd area to buy gifts for the monks. On the way tong instructed us on the proper way to fold, neatly, the blossom pedals of the lotus flower for presentation… I failed miserably…. Tong said I would go immediately to hell…
We bought a medical kit for the monks and the newbies bought a kit with coffes, sugar, etc in it…. Tong bought a huge parcel to give… We drove to Wat Indraram, home of the giant outdoor standing Buddha and made our donations to the monk on duty…. He asked us to repeat his prayers, then he blessed us and finally sprayed us with water using a flexible reed or grass….. he also blessed some water which we poured from one vessel to another and then finally symbolically watered a tree in the garden with it---all joining hands to hold the water vessel….
I feel no different after having done all this---perhaps it’s too late for me??
The standing Buddha is 35 meters tall and amazing… we had never visited here before…
Next we went to a local market, next to a klong, which specializes in live fish…. We bought a few different kinds. K & I bought a few small ones which are known for their healing abilities. We dedicated these to Andy when we released them… we all bought others as well… they were put in large plastic bags with water and we drove them two blocks to the river where we ceremoniously released them back into the river creating great karma and good merit for ourselves….
We also bought a few large frogs/toads which we released into the garden and into the river…. More good deeds…. The frogs were huge and some were pregnant….
Next we were driven to the new sight of the wat housing the golden Buddha which was discovered in 1959 when a large plaster Buddha image was being moved and it was dropped revealing the solid gold Buddha inside… valued in the millions today….
When we first visited it about 12 years or so ago, it was located in a dumpy one story building….. Today a new very impressive and very tall building has been constructed to house this national treasure…. I was too hot and lazy to climb the many steps to visit, but the others did and said it was beautiful…. K says it is now in a place where it is show-cased properly. Also on the property is a new Chinese museum, which we did not have time for, but which others report to be very interesting…
We were not finished with our morning’s activities yet… Based on a suggestion a few years ago from laurieco, we went to buy coffins for the poor… Another merit making mission…. I expected a dirty wood workshop, but instead we went to an office with desks and chairs lined up and a very efficient method of paying (anything you wish to give) and doing some simple paperwork… you are then given a square of paper to paste onto a pile of wooden coffins on display… there are young girls there to paste for you…. You then stick the paper yourself onto the coffins… OMG are we holy… nearly at the gates for sure….There was an interesting small wat attached to this which we visited as well.
From there we drove tong and the newbies for a flower mkt tour and as this was loy krathang, a national holiday, involving flowers, the place was swinging…. We left them there for a tour with tong. From there they walked to the coconut palm restaurant for lunch, which they loved, and then on to wat pho for the reclining Buddha and finally to the Grand Palace….
Roger, tong’s fantastic drive,r drove us (K and me) to the Conrad hotel on wireless road for our mini GTG….
We found Kathie and Cheryl patiently sitting in the Conrad lobby when we arrived…. Together we went to the 3rd floor Liu restaurant where Hanuman and his family were waiting for us… We had a lovely private alcove room. Pook chose most of the dishes… Each was better than the previous… We had a great variety of dim sum. Dang added in at the end a favorite soup like dish which was very nice. We also had a unique pork dish. It looked like a 5 inch pyramid. The dish is made from the stomach of a pig, which has been cut into strips, and is really like soft bacon…. I did not care for it honestly, but I was glad to try it…
Lots of hugs and kisses were offered after we had been there about 2 hours…
All of our luggage had been traveling around in the back of the van all day, as we were changing hotels this day…
K & I took a taxi to the Marriott riverside to have fittings with jack…. K and pat showed up with tong after a while for their fittings… We all went by van to our new hotel, the Chatrium Suites directly on the river, south of the Shangri-la hotel…
We were quite impressed with the exterior and lobby of chatrium. I had reserved a 2 bedroom, two bath unit. I was not happy with the unit we were taken to…The primary reason for moving here was to watch the fireworks on Sunday night… But this suite was located on the downriver side of the building… Added to this, the rooms were small and the rug in the living room was very soiled as was the sofa…. I was mad…
I asked to speak with the supervisor… She arrived in a few minutes and was correct, but very cold… She said the only option was 2 separate double rooms at an increased price of almost 40%... Karen suggested we stay for the night and deal with it in the AM…. I asked the woman for the name of the GM… She gave me 2 names: the GM and the director of rooms…
The double (king) rooms were fine, until we discovered the bathrooms were dirty… Now I was really mad…. Up came the supvr again and a cleaning staff…. At this point I was ready to move in the AM…. But we loved our new view and balcony on the 30th floor… We looked directly up river with a full frontal view for the fireworks…. The newbies were directly next door with the same view… The bed was fine and after a sleep I just bit my tongue….
Sunday
The breakfast room was nice with a lovely river view…. The pool, while a bit cool was fantastic with a full river view from its 6th floor location… EK--- fine for laps….Lovely sculptures adorn the pool area…
Breakfast was good, but not outstanding…. A huge buffet… pastry was stale and not imaginative… eggs good… limited dim sum good… limited sushi good… cheeses excellent… fruit adequate, but limited…. Good service and friendly but not well trained staff…
We are fine to stay here as a move would be disruptive… Initially we had scheduled to go to the weekend market in the morning… As pat had purchased everything that was not tied down already, and we were tired, we decided to bag a visit there… Instead we had chatrium arrange to have a long tail boat come for us at 10:30… We would do a Klong Tour in Thornburi. The boat was over a ½ hour late, so we just sat by the river and watched the traffic… fun…
When the boat arrived we got underway and proceeded way up the river and entered the klongs just north of the Navy headquarters…. As the water is so high, we had to wait about 15 minutes for the locks…. Btw, the cost was 1000 B per hour… high but acceptable as we were picked up and returned to where we wanted…
Once the lock opened we entered and were lowered maybe 6 feet… We roved through a number of klongs… there was a medium amount of klongside activity… the girls loved it… Just short of our 2 hour time, we arrived at the barge museum and all the woman went for a quick look…. Presently you can get much closer to the boats than you could in the past…
The driver seemed to stall in moving forward, so I decided I would not pay for more than 2 hours unless we got in an argument….. He stopped dead in the water and waited for another boat to come alongside and he gave them a can of gas…. At the beginning of our ride we had spent almost 10 minutes getting gas… we would then move forward slowly then fast… all very odd…. When back in the main river there were large swells which made the ride slower…
We asked to be dropped off at the Peninsula Hotel. I gave the driver 2000 and walked away… no comment…
We went into the lobby bar and decided to have a drink and listen to the live music…. It was a nice interlude…
We knew that the hotel has an internal contest each year on loy krathang. It was scheduled to commence at 4, so we hung around…. Each department creates a large krathang from fresh flowers and has them judged… After each is floated a winner is declared…. There were 8 I think… The winner was mistky white and perhaps 5-6 feet tall---it was amazing, as were all of them…. There is also a beauty contest with each department having one of it’s women parade the pool area in traditional costumes. Everyone is given ballots to vote…. I voted for #12 who had lovely purple orchids around her neck and in her hair… The fellow employees whooped and hollered as the women walked the cat walk around the pool…. PLEASE NO NEGETIVE COMMENTS ON BEAUTY CONTESTS!!!
From there we took a boat to river city for some fittings at the JS Thai silk… Things are looking good… We walked from there to Harmonique for dinner with a friend of Pat’s who has lived in Thailand for 24 years and now runs a PR firm here. He brought along his thai partner, a really nice guy who is just about to open a pastry shop near Marriott Mayfair serviced apartments… The food was excellent as always… the yellow crab curry a favorite and of course the fried morning glory with garlic….We had lots of fun and enjoyed stories of 24 years in bkk…
Taxi back to Chatrium in plenty of time for the fireworks to begin….
I received a phone call from the Director of rooms…. His colleagues had informed him that I was unhappy…. He agreed totally with me after reviewing my e-mails about room location, etc… He informed me that we would pay the same rate as we would have for the 2 room suite…. I thanked him… he also threw in free internet. He said he had viewed the rooms during the day and had ordered the toilet seats replaced (unnecessary) for which I thanked him…. I felt much better after his call..
There was a decorated (bright lights) boat parade along the river… About 9:30 there was a small, but nice, firework display in front of our hotel…. About 9:45 Marriott and Montien hotels had a moderate show down river which could be seen from our bedroom floor to ceiling windows….About 10 the major hotels up river commenced their huge show… It was really nice… We enjoyed them from our balcony… The girls polished off our wine…
Bed and good sleep
Nov 23rd, 2010, 11:05 AM
#319
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Well...in regard to your soul (note, I did not say K's soul), I think Madison is your only hope! If she can't come through for you, you might want to look at investing in asbestos in the future...
Interesting good works, though.
I'm slightly surprised (and disappointed), however, that you didn't ask for the CEO of the Chatrium Suites, as trifling with the GM will get you nowhere, as you probably now know. (Well, live & learn.)
And don't worry, Bob--I don't mind praying for you!
BC
Interesting good works, though.
I'm slightly surprised (and disappointed), however, that you didn't ask for the CEO of the Chatrium Suites, as trifling with the GM will get you nowhere, as you probably now know. (Well, live & learn.)
And don't worry, Bob--I don't mind praying for you!
BC
