rollied

My wife and I will be in BKK the week of Oct 15. We're staying at the Sofitel Silom and have a few activities scheduled, like a class at Baipai cooking school.

Any advice on day trips or overnights would be greatly appreciated. We're already thinking of a day trip by boat to Ayutthaya, and an overnight (by train?) to Hao Hin.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rampo

An overnight trip to Kanchananburi (JEATH War Museum and War Cemetery) and Erawan National Park is worthwhile. I did them both in one day and was sorry I had allotted so little time.

The island of Ko Samet is only a couple of hours drive and a short ferry ride away from Bangkok. There are many bungalow-style resorts ranging from posh to basic and beaches ranging from secluded to jumping with activity.

And Chiang Mai is always a less-than-an-hour flight away.

Shopping: The Chatchuchak Market in Bangkok is a must-do experience. Thousands of vendors selling everything from silk to spider monkeys. The place can get very crowded as Thai and ex-pats flock there to stock up on home furnishings and clothing. In hot weather it can be a bit grueling, but the savings are worth it. The Pratanum area is Bangkok's garment district and has lots of bargains. In Chiang Mai, the Sunday market at Thapae Gate is a great place to get good values on Thai arts and crafts. Outside Chiang Mai are many manufacturers with outlets stores with great deals on pottery (celadon is very popular), furniture, lacquerware, etc.

billp

Check out this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=599211 for off-the-beaten-track ideas. My recommendation in that thread to take the little train to Mahachai is one of my favourite excursions.

Otherwise, you shouldn't miss taking the Chao Phraya Express boats to their northern terminus in Nonthaburi and having lunch at the floating restaurant 5 min. walk down the river bank, and the picturesque island of Koh Kred, (in the Chao Phraya River) reachable by longtail from the pier at Nonthaburi, which has a Mon village and many handmade handicrafts, as well as a beautiful Buddha garden.

On the outskirts of Bangkok, the Rose Garden is a popular excursion and a chance to enjoy a beautiful park with flowers.

LHS

I spent a week at the Sofitel Silom last summer and it is a very nice hotel,centrally located. Try to get upgraded to an executive room. They have a nice lounge that serves a free breakfast, and cocktails and snacks in the evening. It also has a free computer with internet access. If you go to Hua Hin (about 2 1/2 hours by car), there is another Sofitel which is beautiful. It has lovely grounds and is done in the old colonial style. This is the closest beach to Bangkok and it is where the king has his summer palace. The hotel is waalking distance to the whole town. Restaurants in the hotel are very good.
I would not recommend going to Ayutthaya by boat. Hire a car service. Another day trip you should consider is the floating market which is interesting. You can combine this with a rather touristy cultural show at the Rose Garden and lunch. Kind of tacky, but fun. Recommend
hiring you own car and driver instead of using tour bus. Otherwise you spend time getting through Bangkok's heavy traffic.

billp

I disagree.

The absolutely best way to get to Ayutthaya is by train. From the Softitel it's about 5-10 min. walk to the MRT (subway) station and a short ride (2 stops) to Hualamphong, Bangkok's central station. Basically every train going north stops at Ayutthaya. The fare ranges from 66 Baht for 1st class, 35 Baht for 2nd class, down to the princely sum of 15 Baht for 3rd class and the trip takes about 1.5 hours. No traffic problems. The trains are comfortable although a bit old and clanky. There's no real need to pay for 1st class on this route and not every train has 1st class carriages, anyway. And at the trackside you see a side of Bangkok you'll not see any other way.

Once you get to Ayutthaya you can hire a tuktuk for the day to take you around to the various sights. Buy a guide book at Asia Books before you go for explanations. Be sure to bring a water bottle and an umbrella (for the sun). Go early to avoid the midday heat. There are trains leaving at 5:50 and 7 AM. Here's the timetable.

glob99

I have taken the Ayutthaya tour offered at the Shangri-La. It is quite nice, with a luxury bus to Ayutthaya and the luxury boat back to Bangkok. Good buffet on the boat ride and it is great to see life along the river. There was only about 10 people in our tour group.

KonaHi

For a really custom Ayutthayah tour on the water, try [email protected]. Very reasonably priced, and can provide overnight or day trip accomodations.

oceangirl

I was in Bangkok last month and booked a full day tour to the floating market, Rose Garden, and lunch. While I lost patience with the tour operator, the trip ended up being okay. Tacky for sure.

The tour guide made several unscheduled stops at tourist shopping areas and tourist "cultural shows." He clearly was getting a commission for whatever we spent. Several of us declined these extras and just hung out until it was time to leave. Sometimes we were hustled into a different van in our group so we could move on to the next stop. The last stop was at a jewelry store. Very impressive but we were "forced" to watch a movie then walk through the showroom. It was an amicable kidnapping I suppose.

The upside of the trip was that I met other travelers and enjoyed their company...families from Sri Lanka, Israel and Taipei; couples from Belgium and the Netherlands; and a young lady from London. As a solo traveler, it was especially interesting for me to meet these folks. The other upside was driving through the backrounds in the country, through villages amd farms, etc.

JDiver

oceangirl,

Sorry you had the bad part of the experience. Meeting people is great, but paying a tour provider or guide to be taken - literally - to "carpet schools," "papyrus institutes" and various other "crafts" and "culture" venues where the emphasis is on fleecing the visitor with medirocre but high-priced products so the guide can line his / her pockets with hefty commissions is a vicious way of robbing travellers of valuable time and money, in my opinion. It is also too common worldwide. Perhaps you could post the name of the provider, so the rest of us could avoid them?

Thanks!

oceangirl

Ah yes, and don't forget the wood carving school and snake show. I used Buddy Travel at the Buddy Lodge on Khao San Road. The hotel was recommended by Frommers so I thought the tour people would be okay. I did use them to book my flights to/from Cambodia and that went well.

Rampo

As a general rule, you will have much better luck avoiding the unwanted stops at shops and factory outlets by booking a driver or an individual guide rather than going with the group tour booked out of the hotel lobby. It may work out to be a little more expensive (although often not that much more), but it will cut down on your frustration.

billp

Even then, there's no guarantee. My very 1st trip to Thailand, light years ago involved a 3 or 4-day package deal at a 4-star hotel including an individual temple tour with driver and guide (as well as a bunch of other things which turned out to be just fine). And at the end of the temple tour they insisted we come with them to the proverbial jewelry factory for the tour and the movie. We just flat-out refused, but ended up going through the motions anyway.

There's no real need to take a tour to see the Rose Garden and the floating market. Just grab a taxi or use public transportation to get there and then walk around yourself. Sometimes tours are useful if you want explanations or historical/cultural details from someone who knows what he or she is talking about, but otherwise they're usually a waste of time and money.

That's why I recommended the OP get a guide book at Asia Books and then take the train to Ayutthaya. So easy. So much cheaper. So much more fun.

allthai

What most people don't know is the guides in Bangkok have to pay the tour operators there just to get a job with them. To make up for this they are encouraged by the operator to take their clients to as many shops that pay commissions as possible. This is the only way they make money, it is sad but true. You don't even have to make a purchase as they get 50 Thai baht for everyone that walks into the shop and so do the drivers. The commissions go to the tour operator first and they take out their cut and then give the guide what is left over, which is sometines 30% of the commission. This is why they are so aggressive.

The question should be, which company, guide or driver doesn't do this.

I guess I will need to write a travel tip on my Thailand travel pages here at VT about this subject. For now, if you would like information on how to avoid this please email my wife and I here at my VTemail. You don't need to waist your time going places you don't want to go to.

Have fun
Randy and Ning

Rampo

Agreed. No guarantees - more of an improving of the odds. I find that almost any package such as you described which includes one of those tours will invariably involve being dragged to souvenir and jewelry stores/factories. (Same thing happened to me, only in Hong Kong.)

billp

From the way I wrote it, it sounded as if the tour included those many things. In fact the tour was of the temples and Grand Palace only and the other things included in the hotel package were a seafood buffet, a dim sum lunch, a dinner cruise, I forget what else. The temple tour was the only time we got dragged somewhere. It was actually a pretty good deal.

As you can probably tell I'm not much for being taken to places in herds, so with that trip I started a long independent exploration of Bangkok which has continued ever since.

@@allthai - Randy & Ning - No, I had no idea that the guides have to pay the tour companies and then make their living from the commissions. What an appalling racket!