The Gpandas and RhkKmks Return to Bangkok
 

Following up on a great price from JFK to BKK, Bob and Beth immediately booked a two week sojourn to Thailand from November 13 through November 29 including Karen and me. The cost for two is about what it has been costing for one. It's on Singapore Air through Frankfurt and Singapore.

This is a complete add on and a total disruption of our carefully calciulated vacation plans. We are still going to Bali in May as planned. I choose to think of it as a bonus for all of my hard work.

I know several of you will be there in November. When we firm up exactly where we'll be and when, perhaps we can plan a mini GTG.

wow! what a great fare and route. i guess you can stop over fra or sin for free? and on sq. what more do you want? and traveling with his bobness. better yet.lol.

sounds good to me.

Take your bonuses whenever you can, am sure that as task master of the Asian Forum your workload has been heavy.

A GTG sounds great. I know I will be returning via Bangkok towards the latter part of November before heading to Burma.

What an incredible deal that Singapore airlines is offering.

So now we'll have to suffer through another bout of dual trip reports...

Well, at least things won't be dull on this board in November.

Oh oh! Do they have fares for us to leave Thailand as well?

Needham and Cambridge won't be the same with BOTH of you away!

lol, Bob & Beth aka on this trip as the two fall guys(persons)

Here we go again.....you'd think a Cambridge Panda would have learned by now.....must be trouble in the genes or something,lol

Aloha!

Great news. Tong will be looking forward to that. She told me that when Bob and Andy get together, there is no reason for her to talk, in fact, it is not possible to get a word in.

This is unbelievable. Bob is pressing for us to commit to our hotel choices the very day we made the air reservations. His reason...................so he can work on his restaurant schedule. A restaurant schedule? Just kill me. What have I signed up for? I'm hoping againsy hope he chills out. Otherwise, mayhem may ensue.

Why can't you four be in BKK when I'M there?? I'll be in Tulsa and then heading for Europe when you guys are there. Have a great time! Has the city been warned yet?? Do you think Singapore Airlines has any idea what's coming???

Restaurant schedule? (ugh)... too organized for me!! lol

Carol

A restaurant schedule! LOL, that's funny, but why not?

You guys behave when you go there. Don't want to see you on the news!

My goodness -- what some people will do to avoid cooking a turkey and having folks over for Thanksgiving. Of course, they better start looking for someplace that serves a turkey in red curry now.

SIN is known for their service. But, when those two get off those long haul flights, whatever stewards were working their seat section will be entitled to a medal. If those same stewards are working the return flight I have no doubt we will see a whole bunch of red shirts suddenly appear and the flight crew will be on strike quicker than you can say Suvanabumi.

We want to tag along. We can step back, let Andy and Bob do the planning, and coast on that. You will have a great time, again.

Honestly, Carol, Tulsa in November??? YOU are the one who should re-schedule, don't you think? :-)

It's nice that you're all coming for my birthday, although you'll actually land a day later. I'm expecting lots of presents!

So little vacation time! :((

Come on Femi you deserve it, how many times does SQ do this, when things like this happen your just supposed to leap in eyes shut.....

That said, I have no vacation time either,lol

Aloha!

Hey, Michael, I happen to enjoy Tulsa! I go there at least once, sometimes twice, in a year. But I'd rather be in BKK! But Europe calls, right after Tulsa, and I don't want to miss Switzerland and Germany.

Bob and Andy, Maeng fixes turkey. You might put the Pickled Liver on your T'giving dinner restaurant list...

Carol

At the risk of offending any Sooners, BKK is a bit higher on my list than Tulsa. By a long shot.

Femi-I just went ahead and took the plunge without thought of consequences. The people in my firm will not be happy, when they realize I'm going to China for two weeks in September and Thailand for two weeks in November. Billable hours drive my business and that's two big holes. Upon reflection, it might be best to control what they complain about. Left to their own devices, they can be creative and I get blind-sided.

A restaurant list is just the beginning. If we let him, Bob would plan how many laps I get to swim in the pool.

VERY funny, any chance you can make a side trip to HCMC to vist Muffin and I?

Or.. perhaps Smeagol and "muffin" could drop by BKK.

Since Gpanda only needs a Speedo, Bob can use Gpanda's luggage allowance for his stuff!

Now i would love too but am already up to the limit on flights to be taken allowance!!!

actually looking forward to it....we are up to 5 persons in our group with another 7 thinking about it... but i expect we will be the happy 5....

i badly need a bkk fix so this should work just fine...boy are the hotel prices still high....i guess they don't get it...??

if we stay at ROS i will check in with a fake name..

>>>It's on Singapore Air<<<

...

... (I've always known there was a reason for stickin' round this fine family friendly fodor's forum and yes, shamelessly promoting a certain Singaporean airline!) ...

Gonna give you big guys, and your wives, props for booking SQ Y revenue (and yes, thank you very much for the bookings - looking forward to the next SIA fiscal report), and as for ultimate props, well, you need to be crafty enough to use miles to fly SQ F/J for free! (And if you don't believe me, check out one of the world's finest websites, SQTalk - but don't cross that 'flyergirl'.)

But now, it's all back to you guys in sweet Massachusetts (a fine 02138 "academic" 'hood, forever), and as a bit of a 'peace offering', an offer to buy the first round for 'all' of you this November, at the riverside hotel of your choosing. (Two options, please, thank you.)

Congrats (and thank you) again for booking with SIA - not such a bad way ...

macintosh (robert)


... All Around the World -- Singapore Girls ...

I actually live in 02140. However, I did live in 02138 when in law school.

Check Chatrium Suites, on the river. Stay 3 nights at $76 & fourth is free. Saw that on Agoda, so you probably got it to. R24 has the Marriott 'on sale' at around 4,500 Baht.

So would it really kill you to think about staying downtown, even if it's only for part of the time?

Hyatt for example is at SkyTrain (not even any stairs to the station) and has an excellent Speedo area/pool.

Don-we're booked at the Plaza Athenee for four of our BKK nights. Is that downtown enough for you? The current thinking is:

BKK-4 days
Beach-6 days
BKK-4 days

Also, we're trying to book Tong for a day. It will be a challenge for her to come up with something amusing, but she's probably up to the task.


BTW, the fifth person is a freind of beth's who was actually one of the newbies that we took to Thailand in 2004. That was back when we could fly from BOS-BKK for $808. That's about equivalent to the Singapore Air cost.

So you are staying in Thailand the entire time? Good for you guys!!!!! Which beach have you selected? Bet I've met that 5th person at the BOS GTG on Saturday evening... right? Starts with "M"... That's great that she is joining you once again.

Plaza Athenee? How come? Well, at least you are getting closer to my favorite area. You might have enjoyed Sukhumvit Grande (used to be the Sofitel Sukhumvit). Nice pool area, not huge, but nice. Kinnaree is about 5-7 minutes walk from there, skytrain as well. I agree with Don that the Hyatt would also be a good choice. What about dogster's favorite? It has a rooftop restaurant/bar that is not bad. I haven't seen the pool area.

In any case, enjoy yourselves. I'll alert the red and yellow shirts to make sure they stay calm during your visit.

Carol

Carol - They are probably staying at the PA because it is a Starwood property. It also has a pretty nice pool.

Craig... I'm sure it's nice. If I recall correctly, you and Jeanne stayed there as well.

See you in October in BOS. I'm all booked!

Carol

Craig-we're actually paying for the Plaza Athenee. We'll get Starwood points for our stay, but we're paying cash. The rate was really good.

Here's the latest Bobism. He's already rented a car for 5 for our ride from civilization to JFK. His daughter has noted three Jet Blue cancellations that interfered with a European connection, so we're going by horse and buggy. 5 months to go and he's already rented the car. I'm I the only one that thinks this is a little over the top?

At least he hasn't started packing!

One never knows about his packing habits. There's a good chance he just keepd his suitcase packed at all times, so he's ready at any moment. Also, I'm sure his family would pack for him in a NY minute if they knew he was leaving.

> <i>He's already rented a car for 5</i>

Oh good lord. Eventually, one reaches an age where comfort is recognized as having a value that trumps cost/etc. 5 alte kakas driving to JFK in Nov, catching a 9pm flight that gets into Singapore 22 hours later? Good luck, my friends.

[On the other hand, I'll admit that getting to JFK from the Billerica/Cambridge/Boston metroplex is not necessarily always easy. The shuttle flights to LGA are more reliable than the AA/DL/JetBlue flights to JFK, but even they can get stuffed up by bad weather. The train from BOS/Rt 128 is the most comfortable way, and it's not a horrible alternative: the train goes to Penn Station, then it's a simple transfer to the LIRR and Jamaica Station and the AirTrain to JFK. But maybe not for 5 people + bags. Come to think of it, maybe driving is the best way.]

Don-you're agreeing with the POB? Has reason deserted you? Plus, this adds extra "with Bob" hours to my travels. I'll bring along a fork to poke in my eye. Equally enjoyable.

HA HA HA .....

I disagree with everyone, sort of like last week's shellfish.

Pleasantly surprised to hear you'll be heading to the beach this time--I'm super-curious to know which one.

Don-there are great bargains on last weeks shellfish. Don't be such a snob.

FW-it looks like Krabi, but it could be Phuket or Khao Lak. we toyed with Hua Hin, but decided we would rather have more likely beach weather, i.e., hotter.

Andy - been to both Krabi and HH in November HH weather was MILES better (but that may have been freak rubbish weather in Krabi!)