Dear Audie,

If you are staying in a hotel, the front counter or lobby should have a desk or information counter for tours outside of BKK where you would not need Thai. Tour companies normally make runs through several hotels to pick up guests, so no telling how many others would be in your group.

My couple of recommendations for the Sukhumvit area would be the Queen's Park between Soi 22 and Soi 24, and the Emporium shopping center right at Soi 26. Not much else to see other than rows of shops of all kinds for tourists, department stores, smaller shopping centers and hotels and restaurants. The Asia Books retail store near Soi 15 is the original bookstore of its genre in town and provides a nice respite for browsing if you are walking up and down Sukhumvit.

In BKK, fairly close by BTS skytrain, National Stadium station, is the Jim Thompson house down a small lane backing onto a canal. One of my first recommendations for first time visitors to Thailand. Jim Thompson started the Thai silk industry and the house is marvelous for its architecture and its antiques.