As you may have already a number of my previous posts on the topic, but I'm into the "itinerary" stage of our honeymoon and I am trying to put together a number of things that we would like to do and see while on our honeymoon.

I've got a great list of temples to see and restaurants to eat at, but can anyone recommend a personal/private tour guide while we are there.

We would love to have a local guide that can take us to some of the amazing places!

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Also (this is slightly off topic!), I was looking into the dress code for the various temples we would like to see and I noticed that shorts are not allowed? Given the high temperatures that we would expect during our visit, are they more acceptable of shorts duing high temperature days (in Italy, they we're allowing people to visit the churches with shirts because of the intense heat)?

Thanks everyone!

Although the company is more oriented toward the gay community,Purple Dragon Tours (http://www.purpledrag.com/redirindex.htm) is very good (if a bit pricey) and very professional. Don't worry, they won't bite :)

As for no shorts at temples, sorry - that's the way it is at most of them. Many will have cotton fisherman pants available for men and a sarong style wrap (patoong) for the women. Actually, in most of Bangkok you will stand out wearing shorts at any time of the day or night, but especially at night. I get by with a couple of pair of the lightest weight khaki trousers I can find. Lots of younger people - the ubiquitous "backpackers" - get by with locally purchased fishermen pants, but again this type of clothing marks you as member of the Khao San Road crowd and is not at all Thai-style urban wear.

It was hot as hell when we were there on our honeymoon last year and I asked our Thai friends the same thing, they all laughed at me and said the temp dosent matter you have to follow the dress code period. we both wore really light khaki pants and made sure the wifes feet were covered. we will be back again at the begining of dec.
what are you wanting a tour guide for? just for the grand palace? that sthe only thing we had a actual guide for, and it helped to explain what everything meant inside the palace. for the rest of the trip we did everything on our own. except that we used Julie Taxi to take us to the floating market. Julie just runs a driving service and i think just got the guides license. i will try to find out who we used for the grand palace. We thought that BKK was very easy to get around, unlike when we went to Africa and had to have a guide most of the time!

I guess I'm really interested in a guide for as much sightseeing as possible.

This will (most likely) be our only trip (ever) to thailand and we have one week in bangkok and one week in koh samui.

I've been reading guidebooks (frommer's guide) and have made notes of all the recommendations on FT.

We just want to make sure we can see as much as possible and really experience thailand to it's fullest (well, as much as you can experience in one weeks time anyway). I would like to have someone explain all the wonderful places we're going to see while we're there.

We're both VERY excited to go and we want to MAXIMIZE the experience :D

Make sure to visit Jim Thompson's House before any other site in Bangkok, except maybe the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace compound. You may also enjoy an early morning or late afternoon "walkabout" of Lumpini Park in central Bangkok for an authentic view of Thai and Chinese recreation activity and authentic food stalls, etc. (Late at night Lumpini becomes pretty sordid streetwalking territory.)

In which hotel(s) are you leaning towards staying? Depending on the area of Bangkok, I can give you some other suggestions, such as riding the river taxis if you're in one of the hotels along the Chao Phya.

Authentic shopping (and very, very crowded) at Mah Boon Krong (MBK for short) or nearby throughout the network of small avenues known as Siam Square.

All of these places are very convenient via Skytrain, the elevated train system.

FYI, this is a repost of my trip report from the "First BKK trip... advice" thread. We did not use a guide. And, while we may have missed a few things, we squeezed in quite a bit.

Here's the report:

Thanks again for the pre-trip advice. It helped quite a bit.

We got back a couple of days ago. In all, we had a great time in Bangkok. The one less-than-perfect aspect was the feeling of having to be on guard whenever we were in heavily touristed areas -- e.g., around the Grand Palace, at the Chao Phraya ferry stop Tha Chang, outside the hotel, and Patapong -- we just had the sense that we couldn't get a straight answer from anyone.

We did most of our traveling by river ferry, skytrain, and foot.

Day 1 -- A quick walking trip from the Sofitel Silom to orient ourselves and visit Lumpini park. After an errant taxi ride, and some "Amazing Race" style antics, get ourselves to the Grand Palace area. Meet a nice "student" who obviously hasn't read any of the guide books that descibed his scam from start to finish. Was kind of fun dealing with him knowing it was a scam from the outset. We kindly declined his offer to take a tuk tuk to the "open" wats as we waited for the Grand Palace to "open." The Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and wat Pho were epic. Took the Chao Phraya Express down to the Hotel Orient for a couple of Singhas and a lovely dinner by the river. Walked to the skytrain and got back to the Sofitel in the late evening. Slept well after a short swim and a long steam.

Day 2 -- Cooking class at Baipai Cooking School. Started with a trip to a market near the school, very informative. The class was great and we're looking forward to trying the recipes on our own. R&R in the hotel for a few hours in the afternoon. Patpong.

Day 3 -- Opted for the tourist trip to Atthuya. The air conditioned bus was nice. The tour was fine, but we felt a bit trapped. The river cruise/dinner back to BKK was OK.

Day 4 -- Lazed around a bit in the morning. Went to MBK for some drugs (the wife picked up a sinus infection) and lunch. Toured China Town. Went up to the hippy/backpacker area around Khao San to get roti at Roti Mataba. Had a couple of beers at one of the guest houses to watch the westerners wander about. Picked up a couple of roti and ferried/skytrained back to the Sofitel.

Day 5 -- Tried to "For a fascinating round trip, take the Klong Bangkok Noi taxi from Chang pier, near the Royal Palace, which travels north through Thonburi, terminating at Bang Yai. Then walk to nearby Wat Sao Thong Hin to catch the Klong Om water taxi to Nonthaburi, from where the Chao Phraya River Express will take you south again to Chang pier. Fares on river taxis are up to 40p (30 baht)." but could find no sign at Tha Chang for the taxi to Klon Noi, only several folks looking to sell us longtail boat tours. Cut our losses, walked around the grounds at Thammasat University. Idled away some time in the hotel then to Chatujak to do our gift and souvenir shopping. The market was pretty much set up in prep for the weekend, but the crowds were thin, which made getting around much easier. Skytrained back to the river and walked up to the Hotel Orient for drinks and our last dinner in Bangkok.

In all, a good time. Now that we know Bangkok a little, our next trip would use BKK as a stepping stone to other parts of Thailand and SE Asia.

Drop the shorts.. Get local. Get some thin - very thin - local pajamas - i.e. the fisherman pants or whatever. They are "cool" in temperature & prevent mosquitoes & insects from biting.

Thanks for the trip report! And also for the suggestion on pants ^

We're staying at the Marriott Bangkok Resort and Spa (Thonburi side of the River). We chose the Marriott as part of a reward travel package (not bad for a free hotel, I suppose).

So, all of our trips will originate from Thonburi, Bangkok.

Thanks for the trip report! And also for the suggestion on pants ^

We're staying at the Marriott Bangkok Resort and Spa (Thonburi side of the River). We chose the Marriott as part of a reward travel package (not bad for a free hotel, I suppose).

So, all of our trips will originate from Thonburi, Bangkok.


Thats where we stayed last year and will be there again this year!!!! When are you going? We arrive Dec4th. We loved the marriott, it has one of the best pools in BKK.IMHO.
Are you going to go to the floating market? if you do, go really early, because after all the people arrive later in the morning, its a real pain with all the tourists there.
As mentioned before by someone else, you should check out MBK. It was a cool experience. We bought our $10 diesel jeans. All the other clothes I bought I had to have the tailor make for me. I am 6'3" and they dont make clothes that size very often in BKK. My wife couldnt find clothes either, she is short like Thai women, but busty, and the Thai women at the stores would smile and say "oh no, you too big" and point to their chests. I think it got on her nerves after hearing that for the 20th time. You can PM me your email and I can send you some of our pics if you want to see them. Jeffrey

PM is on the way! Thanks! By the way, what is MBK?

We're staying end of May - beginning of June 2007.

By the way, what is MBK?

MBK is one of Asia's biggest shopping malls (http://www.mbk-center.com/en/index.asp). It's great for inexpensive clothes, both knock-offs and local brands, cell phones and other electronics and gifts for all your Christmases and birthdays for years to come. My women friends love the amusing t-shirts from the Tokyu Department Store (which is part of MBK). But above all, MBK is fabulous for people-watching, and has a very good food court. In some ways, it's a western-style mall. In other ways it's like an air-conditioned version of Chatuchak Market without the crowds, heat and stink. It's fun to at least spend a few hours there. You can take the Skytrain directly to it: National Stadium station and then follow the crowds on the walkway right into the Tokyu, through the dept. store and out into the mall.

Hello e erybody i am new to this site but in the short time i signed up i learned a lot, anyway these last posts were very helpful, since im leaving on my honeymoon in 2 weeks to thailand .

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Also (this is slightly off topic!), I was looking into the dress code for the various temples we would like to see and I noticed that shorts are not allowed? Given the high temperatures that we would expect during our visit, are they more acceptable of shorts duing high temperature days (in Italy, they we're allowing people to visit the churches with shirts because of the intense heat)?

Within Bangkok, I found the mosquitoes to not really be a problem unless I was eating dinner right on the Chao Phraya.

As for shorts, I wore them everywhere including the temples. Yeah, I know, I could've blended in more but wearing pants in itself doesn't make you blend in. ;) The only temple that enforced this rule was the Grand Palace. However, for a refundable 100 baht deposit, they would lend you some baggy sweat pants.

We used World Travel Service (http://www.wts-thailand.com) for our Ayutthaya tour. They're in most of the hotels and will pick up/drop off from your hotel.

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Dear Chewie,

If you are staying at Marriott Resort, recommend most of the trips you take go by river ferry up to the BKK side near the Oriental, etc. or take hotel taxis (pricey) to your destinations. This hotel not only in Thonburi but also quite a ways south, away from the Peninsula that's right across from the Shangri-la and Oriental, etc.

You can take the Skytrain from Saphan Taksin, which is right at the water's edge next to the Shangri-la, for lots of places throughout the main area of Bangkok. As another has written, MBK is at National Stadium stop, pedestrian footbridge from the station into the MBK building. Jim Thompson house also within easy walking distance from this stop. The house layout and the antiques are so impressive, it's my #1 recommendation for friends when they visit BKK.

Recommend you carry small back pack with two or three bottles of water just to have in case you need liquids and don't have a 7-11 handy for soft drinks or other cold liquid. May and June are just after hottest month of April, so very high temps and very high humidity, maybe a "mango shower" ("fone ma muang") or two during off rainy season months of May & June.

Also great local shopping, especially for textiles, etc inside the lower floors of the Baiyoke skyscraper in Pratunam -- most tiny shops are outlets for major textile wholesalers, but again, authentic and fascinating. This is near the Indra Regent Hotel on Rajprarop Road, approx 30 minutes or so walk from Chidlom Skytrain stop. (Walk this far during midday heat and humidity can be brutal, so you might want to take a taxi or tuk-tuk.) Pratunam ("Watergate") area used to be overrun with multitudes of Nigerians buying all sorts of clothes to ship out of country. And some of whom probably involved in smuggling as well. Amari Watergate Hotel nearby quite a cool respite from the midday crowds throughout Pratunam. Henry J Bean's restaurant below the lobby tries to be good ole' look alike to Bennigan's, Chili's, and other casual dining with funky atmosphere.

Plenty of other more Western type shopping malls around central Bangkok like Silom Center and Emporium and the new Siam Paragon. Many office buildings also have first couple of floors dedicated to variety of shops.

it's not a matter of blending in. they consider it outright disrespectful.

Then they were holding their disdain quite well for me... and the other few hundred tourists doing the same. :eek:

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