Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report/thoughts & observations from a Thailand newbie

We had 2 weeks in Australia before arriving in Bangkok for 1 night at the Oriental before flying to Ko Samui the next morning. We flew all routes with Qantas Business Class. Excellent flights on all sectors, the flight crew were very good, the pod seats were very comfortable, my only complaint would be the entertainment system. The choice of films was poor as were the games.

We arrived late and was picked up at the airport by the hotel car and had a smooth ride to the hotel. We had a nice welcome drink and posy of flowers and were shown to our river view wing room. You may remember my post regarding my issue with the bathroom setup at the hotel! We still cannot understand this glass panel and wooden louvred door, only that it may be that you can use the toilet and view the river at the same time!

We had a superb buffet breakfast the next morning on the verandah. The teapot was constantly changed by excellent waiting staff and it was just so nice looking out onto the river watching the boats etc. We had quite alot of luggage and we left some of it at the hotel and we'd pick it up when we returned.

Our Bangkok Airways flight to Ko Samui was delayed by an hour due to bad weather over the island, but we finally arrived to low dark clouds and rain! The journey to our hotel by the hotel's car took almost an hour. The roads were flooded in some parts. Our room at the hotel was a bit shabby and well worn, but clean and comfortable. We had arranged a car for the duration of our stay and on our first full day went island exploring. The weather hadn't really changed much, still very cloudy and damp. We toured the island, did some shopping and had dinner in the indian restaurant at the hotel. It was just ok, expensive for what we got. The same can be said for the thai restaurant there as well, we weren't overly impressed with either.

The next day was still extremely cloudy, it was almost foggy out to sea and we couldn't even see the horizon at all and by the afternoon made the decision to see if we could change our flights and return to BKK. The weather forecast wasn't very promising either! We got our flights changed and the Oriental booked the extra 2 days, although the Meridian wouldn't refund our unused days as it was peak season. We understood this as it was short notice of our departure. So we still had 2 days to amuse ourselves! More sightseeing and shopping again! We had a nice dinner at the Five Islands Restaurant just down from the hotel. Unfortunately the location of the hotel and the poor state of the roads with the rain and potholes stopped us venturing out very far for restaurants.

Christmas day didn't start too well as I took a tumble on our balcony! The floor of the balcony is tiled with ceramic tiles and as it had been raining it made the surface like sheet ice and I slipped. I landed hard but only bruised my knee and scraped my hand and foot.

Boxing day was the day we were due to leave and also the 1 year anniversary of the tsunami. We expected there to be some sort of memorial/minute's silence at the hotel but there wasn't anything!

We were so glad to be returning back to BKK! We had a car again to take us to the Oriental. We had emailed the hotel to request a non-smoking double room away from the lifts. We got shown a smoking room, right opposite the lifts! We were then shown a non-smoking room, away from the lifts but it had twin beds! But it was arranged for housekeeping to come and re-do the bed to make it a double. We also waited 3 hours for our left luggage, despite 3 phone calls.

The next morning it rained and the breakfast buffet was held at Lord Jims. We weren't impressed! Our tea came from a large pot which had obviously been made earlier and was stewed and cold and we couldn't make any staff understand that we wanted fresh hot tea! We overheard some other people complaining as well so I knew it wasn't just us! The buffet was ok, but not as good a selection as it was on the Verandah and we left disappointed.

So, onto Bangkok! We absolutely loved it! We didn't think we would! I had pages and pages of notes that I'd taken from this board and we had a Fodors guidebook and we bought a Nancy Chandler map so we were all set for exploring! We used the Skytrain and the riverboats all the time and found BKK easy to get around.

We did a guided tour of the Grand Palace. Our guide picked us up from the hotel in a mini-bus with another family and although we arrived early it was very crowded. But our guide was excellent, spoke great English and really knew her stuff. We had a great morning.

We went to Vimanmek one day but it was a very hot day and we walked from the ferry pier so by the time we got there we were exhausted. We weren't impressed with the guided tour there either, the guide didn't speak terribly good English and started talking before the whole group had assembled so some people missed what was being said! We also felt very uncomfortable inside the Palace - I got very hot and stood over one of the floor air-conditioning units to try and cool down and was told to move rather sternly! We left early and didn't finish the tour. We couldn't get a taxi or tuk-tuk to take us back to the boat pier so ended up walking again!

We stopped off at Wat Po and the reclining Buddha, we were approached by a man on the road who said it was closed until 3pm. Fortunately, I knew of this scam because of what I'd read on here! It was very hot, very crowded and we just couldn't stay very long as we were wilting!

We visited Jim Thompson and found the young guide there to be very sweet and friendly and we enjoyed looking around the house there and gardens. We didn't stop for lunch but did buy some things in the shop.

We went to Face one evening and had the most fantastic time. Again we went by Skytrain, took a wrong turn, but a local pointed us in the right direction. The food was excellent and the service was friendly. We didn't know what to do with the bowl of condiments on the table and the waitress approached us and showed us what to do! The whole meal was superb and probably the highlight meal of our visit.

We did Siam Ocean World, not too crowded, just comfortably busy! We did so many shopping centres I just can't remember all the names - Paragon, Siam Centre, Central Chitlom. We did the Suan Lum night market which was good fun. We found some lovely nik-naks to bring home. We are awash now with silk cushion covers!

On our last day we went to the Chatuchak weekend market. It was a very hot and sunny day but we enjoyed ourselves just wandering around looking at so many things, my bartering skills need some fine tuning though!

We had peking duck at The China House which was excellent, fascinting to watch the waiter carving the duck skin off. We thought he was finished when he gave us a plate of 10 pancakes, but continued on until another 10 pancakes were presented to us, we just couldn't manage them all and have room for the next course!

We had a dim sum lunch at The China House one day and again it was excellent, the waiting staff were so friendly and helpful. We would have liked to have gone back but sadly ran out of days!

We ate at the outdoor Thai restaurant at the hotel one evening and I can remember it as if it was just yesterday! It looked so beautiful with the lights on the trees and we watching the boats moving up and down the river. It had such a nice atmosphere, the staff were so helpful and friendly with the menu and we had a lovely meal.

We also ate at Ciao, the italian restaurant at the Oriental. Very nice food and atmosphere, good service and some cocktails I won't forget in a while!

To sum up our trip - unforgettable! We loved Thailand, despite the blip on Ko Samui! The Thai people were so friendly and helpful. There were some occasions where we were approached for a massage or a taxi, but we politely declined and we were left alone. We never felt uneasy or uncomfortable and with the problems with have here with groups of yobs roaming around, it was refreshing not to encounter this.

Of course, the culture is different to ours, but we accepted it and were rewarded with so many memories we will never forget.

I am now in the process of returning to Thailand next year!

ap