We had a delightful tour of the Grand Palace and What Pho with Tour with Tong. Our guide was Nang and the experience was more than we expected. She customized the tour for our requests. One of the things we wanted to accomplish was to learn to ride the public transportation. We road the sky train, the river boat, tuk-tuk, taxi, bus, and canal boat. I highly recommend Tour with Tong and Nang.

Thanks for posting this. I have contacted Tours with Tong with a few queries. I'd like to have a day like you had, sort of an introduction to all of that on my first day and then I can be on my own for the next week. Hubbie scoffs at the idea of needing a guide and tells me I am not adventurous.

Tell him that having a day with Tong, you'll be a lot more comfortable being adventurous for the rest of your trip.

ditto what Lcuy said! Even though I've never toured with Tong, I've met her. She would be very helpful to you, as you get acclimated to the city. And yes, you could become much more adventurous once spending time with Tong.

We just returned from Bangkok. I highly recommend hiring a guide to see the main city sights. The weather is SOO hot that it was wonderful to be picked up at our hotel and driven to each spot in a nice air conditioned vehicle. Our guide had cold water bottles and towels waiting for us after each stop. I tried contacting Tong a few times but never received a reply. Instead, I booked our tour with Absolute Bangkok. They provided excellent service and were always quick to reply to my e-mails. They arranged our tour with one of their freelance guides Mr. Oats. He was fabulous and so friendly and spoke English very well. I highly recommend him. He bought different fruits during the day for us to try, water and cold drinks and even gave us each a gift when parted. We spent six hours seeing all the city sights. His direct e-mail is[email protected]

There has been a debate over the years about who is the better driver/guides in BK. Tong has a lisence and RATT does not but having used both it is diffucult to tell the difference except we felt RATT was more informed. But at 2 temples out of 6-7 RATT had to hand us over to a Temple guide for the short tours so it cost an extra $4-$5. But Ratt took us out of town to a cottage industry that hand painted teapots, cups, etc.on one of our visits to BK using her services We saw a beautiful teapot that we wanted but but that was not to be. The staff of about 12 had an order back up of 4 months. We showed the manager the one we wanted and she said it would be de done by one of the craft women in 3-4 months and 1 teapot of the size we wanted takes 6-7 days. Ratt said we should give a deposit of $30 USD (total price $120) and she would make sure she arranged that we received it in good condition. Her sister was coming from Boston in 4 months and would ask her to hand carry it back and then UPS it to us. We could not believe it in 5 months, quite a longe wait the teapot arrived and I sent Ratts sister a money order since Ratt paid the balance.
That is the type of guide Ratt is. I cannot speak for her team. A teapot of this quality in NYC runs $350-$400.

both of these ladies are fantastic... anyone would be more than happy with either... both go 120% to please every tourist and both love their country..

Hi all- Just want to say that in our experience a Guide does add real value to the Holiday. It is fun to self discover but a Guide brings it all to life and smooths out the bumps. I have enough bumps in my working week it's why I need a break lol. Great to have someone to explain what it is you have just seen or are about to see . Our Guide has been Wandee a great girl, very resonsive to e mails, knowledgeable and good fun to be with. [email protected]
Who ever you hire I am sure it will only add to the magic Bangkok experience