Gloria I like your itinerary. We were going to do day trips from KL. Since we were flying through Kl, it made since to stop. But I really want to do Thailand justice and have a good experience.

Happy,
Please let me know how easy it was to get around the city from the Marriott.

yin

Yin--
On my last trip I flew Malaysian Airline using ff miles. Coming home we had to stay over night in KL so we took the train into the city and spent about 4 hours there. Then returned in the morning for a couple of hours. It was enough to give you a feel of the city.
But I would definitely NOT shortchange Thailand for it.

Re: clothes. Once you decide on your hotel you can pick your tailor. If you stay at the Penn I would recommend that you go to tailors in Oriental Place. Cotton House does superb work. There is also a tailor called Tramps which specializes in men's stuff. Oriental Place is half a block from the Oriental Hotel which is across from the Penn. Personally, if I were going to splurge on a hotel, I would stay at the Oriental rather than the Penn but that's another issue. Pick out your fabrics (don't bring your own) and have initial fittings etc during your first stay in Bangkok. Next fittings etc when you return. Jim Thompson has gorgeous fabrics but I've found that most of the best tailors these days have what I want.

By the way, if you're flying Malaysian Air it is wonderful. I flew first class with them and had the best flight of my life.
By

Penn or Mandarin Oriental?

gloria thanks for the tailor info. We are flying first class too with ff miles on Malaysian Airlines. I think the are the worlds #2 airline. So we can not wait.

It is funny that you bring up the Mandarin. My husband was able to get the Mandarin for $150 a night in the Superior River view room. So my question to the board is now what do you think. The Penn or the Mandarin Oriental?

Also I am hearing conflicting answers about dress in Thailand. Some people are saying that Thais are very class conscious and you should dress up when visiting. Personally, the weather dictates my dress. I am planning to wear the broomstick type skirts and knee length shorts or capris. What do you think?

Yin

The one place where dress REALLY matters (you won't be let in if dressed incorrectly) is the Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buddha complex in Bangkok. Shorts or Capris won't make it there, you'll need your skirt or long pants.

Dressing conservatively is respectful in Thailand, it's not so much a class issue.

Yin-- re: the Oriental vs. Penn. Everyone has their favorite and feel strongly about it. You can read lots of opinions on this forum. Bottom line is they are both superb hotels but the are very different. The Oriental is the better location and is old world elegance. Filled with history. Many of their staff has been there 15-40 years so it's their home. The Penn more high tech, larger rooms and, for me, a bit more sterile and commercial.

I much prefer the Oriental but others feels just as strongly about the Penn.

You might check out trip advisor for some very informative reviews that point out some of the differences.

yin:
For $150 a night it's a no brainer in my mind. Definitly the Oriental. Where did your husband get that price? I'm really interested as we might be staying there on our next trip.
Aloha!

The Oriental often has good rates off season (in the summer). They tend to have fewer deals from November - March. Generally the best price I've seen is around $200-225 for peak season.

I don't have time to read this entire post right now,but I would not give Kuala Lumpur 4 days. It's architectually fasinating and I had a wonderful stay at the Ritz Carlton(club level)...but I would never consider it a "gem of Asia" as you put it. I would definitely put more time into Bangkok...like five or six full days at two different hotels if one is on the river then choose the other one in town and I give thumbs way up to the Four Seasons...in the heart of the shopping,city,and action. Plus it's across the street from the skytrain station. As for where to stay on the river, I have stayed on the river, but am personally not a river fan and although I did stay at the Pen(Aug2004),it wasn't for me.To each his own. The Four Seasons wins out as far as I'm concerned. Happy Travels!

i agree that K/L is not all that great when compared with bkk...bkk is by far the world class city...k/l has some interesting new buildings a few old ones but that is about all we got out of it....one full day did all the in town sites for us...

Hi "Yin and Yang"
re: Please let me know how easy it was to get around the city from the Marriott.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I'm not easily accessible to the PC.

The shuttle from Marriott Riverside to Saphan Taksin (i.e. the BTS station at the pier) runs every 15 minutes from the hour. It is quite ok. This 15 minutes lets you cool off before you have to get into the heat , so it can be a good thing.

Bob is right that I shouldn't com pare the Pen and Marriott. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Having tried 3 BKK hotels on this trip, I know now that Pen is the ultimate one for us. We think it's worth paying USD175 per night. I will write more about my trip in more details when I am home i.e. after May 17. I have pictures to show and convince.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Hawaiin Traveller,
We used a travel agent discount to get the rate at the Oriental and the Penn.

We are not staying in KL, we are flying into KL and exploring Malaysia from there. You are all correct Kl is not BKK, but from people that have been to Malaysia it sounds wonderful.

FYI to everyone: Also we found an airline that flies direct Chiang Mai-Phuket, it is NOK air. We were able to get Chiang Mai-Phuket- Bangkok for Gaht 3,800. Is this a good deal?

i'd say its good....not fabulous but above average....is nok reliable?? schedule wise??

the people that I've personly met, that said KL is great are those (backpackers) who were making thier way up from Indonisia.. anyways..

did you check the other discount airlines

air asia
one- two- go


SO what does you flight itinuary look like..

here a link for opinions on NOK
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/nok-air.htm

Air Asia has flights from BKK to Phuket for 499 Baht through Oct 29.

http://www.airasia.com/general.php?p=pmain&l=en

I forgot to add, Chiang Mai to BKK is also 499 baht.

Here is our flight schedule that we found. We thought this was great since we would not have a layover in BKK, coming from Chiang Mai, which all the other airlines do.
Flight details:
12 Jun 2005 Chiang Mai - Phuket/ DD8307: 10:40 - 11:50
16-Jun 2005 Phuket - Bangkok / DD7514: 20.30 - 21.55

Also NOK is fairly new from what I understand. I would say NOK is like Southwest Airlines in the US. They are a discount carrier.

Don't want to worry you but Flight DD8307 dep 1040 arr 1150 is a Chiang Mai to Bangkok flight.

I noticed that as the flying time you mentioned Chaing Mai to Phuket as 1 hr 10 minutes and that's the CM-BKK fliying time. Chiang Mai to Phuket is 2 hrs, was when Thai did the route. I had a look at the website for June and doesn't show direct flights but shows that flight number as a CM-BKK flight. I think you will find yourself routing CM-BKK-Phuket by the looks of it. But with only 2 flights BKK-Phuket the departure from BKK shows 1840 hrs.

I am just going on what you say you booked, not trying to be a smartxxxx or anything but strange I can't find any directs on the website and that flight number shows as a BKK flight.

The fares on Thai Air Asia promoted are the lowest 'from' fares and they exclude tax and other charges, they are still very very cheap though.

Nok Air is owned by Thai Airways and aircraft are ex Thai and Thai do all the maintenance. The 737-400's they use still have the 12 Business Class seats at the front which are sold as 'Nok Plus' and are a bargain for the extra.

Nok Plus is just B 500 ( $ 12.50 ) per sector extra.

They haven't packed any more rows and use the planes as they were configured for Thai so legroom etc is good. They are one up of Thai Air Asia in that respect.

Never had any joy even trying to book One-2-Go.

Just to add on Nok Air that their flight crews are Thai Airways crews. I guess close to the 'Song' offshoot of Delta. It's also great that we can pay at the local 7-11!!!!

The taxes and fees that Air Asia adds aren't very much. I booked a bunch of flights with them within Malaysia and the taxes and fees only added up to a few dollars more. The cheapest flights are generally the two earliest which is fine with me since I'd rather get where I'm going early and not waste a day.