mediakzar

We're frequent visitors to SE-Asia including a trip last month that also included KL and Bangkok among other places. If you are looking for locals restaurant suggestions see our report from a trip a few years ago at A perfect First Day in Bangkok - Southeast Asia Travel. It mentions two places: Krua Apsorn for lunch and Pud Thai Thip Samifor dinner. We've eaten at both multiple times since then including both again in November-18 and are happy to report both are still great. A couple notes: Krua Apsorn no longer serves the stuffed chicken wings we raved about in the review (but there are still plenty of dishes to get excited about) and Thip Sami has opened a back room adding additional tables but there was still a wait of about 30 minutes before getting seated. Portions are a bit small at Thip Sami and we often find ourselves ordering multiple plates.

lancasteruk

@mediakazar - thanks very much for the recommendations. We were only in Bangkok for a couple of days and had left by the time I managed to read your post.

lancasteruk

Bangkok

Our joyful and excited bounding towards immigration at BKK was only temporarily halted when we saw the massive queue for immigration control and the looks of despair in people's faces as they slowly inched forward, the end of the line (presumably) somewhere over the horizon. We then remembered that the lovely folks at Malaysia airlines had given us priority immigration passes, which in this occasion turned out to be a real godsend. After realising this and waiting in the the demonstrably shorter priority queue for a couple of minutes our passports had been stamped and we were ready to see Thailand. Thankfully our bags, which we'd check in at Schiphol, had also been on the long journey with us and emerged intact from the bowels of the airport.
We then headed to the taxi rank and got into a cab, the excitement and anticipation building. We agreed that neither of us had ever seen traffic like it; within 5 minutes of leaving the airport and joining the highway we were stuck with many other taxis and assorted cars and trucks in a slow-moving mass of vehicles. It was so slow that after 45 minutes of "driving" we'd only travelled 8km! The wait was worth it, however, as we eventually reached the Sukhumvit district, where our hotel was located, and watched in amazement as one massive and unusually-shaped skyscraper after another whizzed by the taxi window. An hour and a half after leaving the airport we finally arrived at our hotel, paid the very reasonable 380 bhat (around Ł10) fare and checked in.

As this forum's all about flying, I'll not bore you all with details of our holiday and post too many photos. Suffice it to say that we had a great couple of days exploring Bangkok, which was every bit as insane as people had told us it would be. Luckily we had a very comfortable hotel with a pool and breakfast buffet to retire to after exhausting ourselves with wats, markets and tuk tuks. Compared to what one gets in Europe or the States for the same amount of money, hotel rooms in Thailand really are like palaces.










Flight 5: FD3223 (AirAsia) DMK-KBV
Aircraft: HS-ABN (FD 3223)
Seats: 22F/22E (very much economy)
Avios/tier points: Sadly, AirAsia are not part of the OneWorld "family" so no avios or BAEC tier points.

Although we'd arrived in Bangkok through its main international airport, Suvarnabhumi (BKK), this is primarily used by full-service/legacy carriers and our el-cheapo AirAsia flight was due to depart from Bangkok's somewhat less prestegious and considerably older Don Muang (DMK) airport. The friendly hotel staff arranged a Taxi for us, which arrived almost instantly and we were on our way back across Bangkok. Luckily, being a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was considerably lighter than it had been when we arrived and we got to DMK with plenty of time to spare. After check in and baggage check, during which you have to wait for your bag to be scanned before being allowed to proceed, we went through security and prepared ourselves for a couple of hours of "enjoying" DMK's festive atmosphere. Let's say that I can understand why the likes of BA and CX have chosen to go with BKK - DMK feels old and really busy. Anyway, we grabbed a coffee and some kind of Japanese cheesecake and waited for our first ever AirAsia flight. DMK is pretty much exclusively used by low-cost carriers, so there's not a whole lot of variety in aircraft to look out for - just the usual shorthaul A3XXs and B737s. That said, the absolutely insanity of Nok air's livery, which seems to be different for each aircraft, did lessen the monotomy somewhat.



As our expected departure time drew near, we walked to the gate to discover that our aircraft was nowhere to be seen, the inbound aircraft still being enroute. More loungeless time at DMK. Hurrah! The inbound AC arrived around 5 minutes before we had been due to depart but, impressively (worryingly?!), AirAsia managed to turn it around in less than 15 minutes and so we managed to depart with only around half an hour of delay.
I'll not say too much about our AirAsia flights, other than that for a LC carrier, the level of service was quite impressive and, as we'd booked a "value deal" we got a checked bag, seat selection and a free meal each. This turned out to be a rather tasty Penang chicken curry with Thai omelette. However, as we were to discover, AirAsia don't alternate this, so we ended up having 4 of these over the course of the trip!




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Hawes7701

lancasteruk

Thanks @Hawes7701. We're back home now but had a really fantastic time. And, with that in mind...

Krabi/Koh Lanta

After a bit of a wait in Krabi airport for our shuttle to Koh Lanta to depart, we started making our way south to the island. This, perhaps unsurprisingly, involved a vehicle ferry. What was surprising was that the ferry in question was sea-worthy as, having travelled on it, I can't say I'm too sure that it was! Regardless, we arrived at our resort on Koh Lanta and spent a fantastic 5 days there over Christmas eating lots of Thai food (ok, and a club sandwich) and, other than taking a hair-raising scooter trip down to the southern-most tip of the island, did very very little indeed.







Flight 6: FD3211 (AirAsia) KBV-DMK
Aircraft: HS-ABO (Airbus A320-216)
Seats: 21F/21E (economy!)
Avios/tier points: not a sausage

After a lovely final breakfast on sunny Koh Lanta we got back on the shuttle bus and, surviving the rickety old ferry once more, were back on the mainland and at Krabi airport where a slightly odd system presented itself. Krabi airport has 2 terminals - 1 domestic, 1 international - and, although our first flight was only to Bangkok, our connecting flight would take us (hopefully!) out of Thailand and into Vietnam. We checked in at the domestic terminal, where our visa status etc for Vietnam was checked and where we were relieved of our bags. We were told, however, that we needed to proceed through security and emigration at the international terminal, so we would technically be leaving Thailand right there in Krabi, even though our flight would be to Thailand. We were given little stickers to wear so that ground staff at Bangkok knew we were transferring to another flight. A little embarrassing!



We dutifully did as we were told and waited in the internal terminal where, confusingly, they didn’t seem to use boarding screens at all. Luckily, around the time our flight was due to board we saw a queue and decided to join it, which turned out to be the one for our flight. How one was supposed to know that, I have no idea. We then were directed downstairs to a bus which took us back to terminal 2, where our plane was situated, to join us with the non-connecting passengers who has boarded in the domestic terminal!
On arrival in Bangkok we were herded into a little group of other badge-wearing transfer passengers by a slightly harassed-looking AirAsia staff member. After some time she shouted “follow me please” and we headed up some stairs to the most overheated, chaotic and packed terminal I have ever seen and we had over 2 hours to kill before our next flight (uuugh!)



After persevering with this for what felt like days we finally began boarding our next flight to Hanoi. We were not too sad to be leaving Don Meung behind, truth be told, and were excited to soon be entering another new country. We were less excited, however, about the prospect of our second Penang chicken curry and Thai omelette of the day and our third of the trip. Oh well!

Flight 7: FD644 (AirAsia) DMK-HAN
Aircraft: ?? (Airbus A320-216)
Seats: 22A/22B (economy!)
Avios/tier points: nope

lancasteruk

Hanoi:

I'll update this with text later on but thought I'd upload some photos first!



Hanoi military museum.

The Hanoi "street train"

Temple of Literature

Uncle Ho's place

Hogmanay in Hanoi

Ngoc Son Temple at night

Bai Tu Long bay

Spelunking in Bai Tu Long bay

ffI

Can't wait for the rest.

lancasteruk

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long and thanks @ffl for reminding me to update this!

After spending a fantastic New Year in Hanoi and taking a little extra trip out to Bai Tu Long bay (right next to the more famous Ha Long bay, equally as stunning but with far fewer tourists) we left and headed to Chiang Mai with a little help from a AirAsia A320. I don't really have any notes about the flight to CNX, other than to say that the views over Laos were pretty stunning. This flight was also our final Penang chicken curry with rice and Thai omelette. Thank God!




Chiang Mai

We'd heard a lot about Chiang Mai and I get the feeling that most people who visit Thailand come here for at least some time. It has, perhaps unsurprisingly given the huge difference in size, a totally different feel to Bangkok and is much more relaxed. It's still Asia, though, and crossing the constant traffic on the ring road around the old city certainly wakes you up in the morning! We spent 4 days in Chiang Mai, saw a lot of the famous Wats, enjoyed some great local food and spent a wonderful day trekking with elephants. This is something I can very much recommend but just make sure you research the company you're going with as many are unkind to their elephants and it's really not worth giving them your money. If they offer rides on the elephants' backs then this is generally not a good sign. We went with Into the Wild Elephant Camp (https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheWildElephantCamp/) and we thoroughly recommend them.


The beautiful old city of Chiang Mai.

Local cuisine. If you visit make sure you try some Khao Soi (the thing on the right).

An extra guest for lunch!

One of Chiang Mai's many stunning wats.



Train trip 1: Chiang Mai - Bangkok
Aircraft: Nope. Definitely a train.
Seats: 2nd class
Avios/tier points: nope

To get from Chiang Mai to Bangkok we decided to eschew planes for a bit and try a slightly older and more "sedate" form of travel. We took a Thai Railways train from Chiang Mai station to Bangkok, which takes a leisurely 14 hours to travel just 430 miles. We booked two 2nd class tickets, meaning we each got a seat which was converted in the late evening into bunk beds. This was quite a fun way to get down to Bangkok and it does save you paying for a hotel for one night, although we'd be lying if we said we arrived in Bangkok feeling refreshed. We got some sleep but certainly not enough!

lancasteruk

Bangkok (again)
We arrived at Bangkok's Hua Lamphong station at around 7 in the morning and, having failed to pack anything like enough food, were absolutely starving. As we were carrying our heavy backpacks with all of our stuff, we thought it best not to dally around the centre of Bangkok and decided the best thing to do was to get to the hotel as quickly as possible. We tried to get a cab but for some reason had trouble finding a driver who would take us to the hotel. We never really did figure out why; maybe it just wasn't a large enough fare or perhaps it was that we only had the hotel's name in Latin script and not Thai, although I did also trying showing the drivers the route using Google maps. Eventually, on I think the 4th or 5th attempt, we found a driver who would take us and headed to our hotel, which wasn't all that far away from where we'd stayed a couple of weeks prior but was even more luxurious and spacious. We couldn't, however, check in yet, so we left our bags behind and went out to find some breakfast. It turns out that this is not easy early on a Sunday morning in Bangkok but we eventually stumbled upon a hotel that did a reasonable cooked breakfast. Sufficiently fortified, we went for a walk to Bangkok's Lumphini park and, after being allowed to check in at around 1 o'clock, proceeded to crash out for a few hours. The combination of the train journey, not getting enough sleep and a cold I'd been fighting since Chiang Mai took their collective toll and, after sleeping, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. This is not normally something we'd do but it actually turned out to be a good idea as the food was excellent. The hotel also benefited from having an outside pool with a fantastic view over the surrounding skyscrapers, so we relaxed out there for a while before heading off to bed.


The lounge of our hotel suite.


Lumphini park.


Our last taste of Thai food for this trip - red curry chicken.


Our last taste of Thai food for this trip - some Pad Thai.




The pool!

lancasteruk

After a leisurely breakfast and a last walk around in Bangkok, we asked the hotel to arrange us a cab to the airport. The first cab that arrived didn't have any seatbelts in the back, although the driver's seatbelt was installed and the driver was using it. I enquired as to where the seatbelts were and was told "no problem - don't worry". Perhaps we were being a little overly cautious but, having heard that Thailand has one of the highest road traffic fatality rates in the world, we asked him to turn around and take us back to the hotel. He was quite shocked about this, as were the hotel staff when we suddenly reappeared, but they kindly called us another cab anyway. This one, luckily, had seatbelts for all passengers!
It was quite busy at BKK but we managed to get through security without any bother and after some searching managed to find Cathay's Bangkok lounge. After checking in we headed straight to the noodle bar and ordered a couple of dishes and followed this up with a strawberry shortcake from the buffet. I do like how consistent Cathay's lounges are and the idea of getting food cooked for you, even if it is just some basic noodles, is a very good one.

Flight 9: CX712 BKK-HKG
Aircraft: B-LAR (Airbus A330-300)
Seats: 19A/20A

We boarded the aircraft at 16:05 to find an almost completely empty J mini-cabin - only the two of us and one other person. First impressions were very good - the staff were courteous almost to a fault and addressed us every time by name and the reverse herringbone seats are certainly a step above BA's Club World seats from yesteryear. PDBs were offered (a Piper Hiedsieck will do nicely, thanks very much) and some hot towels followed by the menu for today's flight. Our Aussie captain, Craig, gave his welcome and we pushed back on time at 16:25 and took off at 16:41 heading to the north-east and Hong Kong. I think it's fair to say that, while Cathay are undoubtedly a super airline, their safety video is a tedious abomination. A first-world problem, obviously, but with most other airlines making an effort to produce entertaining safety videos that passengers might actually want to watch, I think CX could do a lot better.
Pre-lunch drinks were served 20 minutes after take-off, starters were served only 2 minutes later and the main courses arrived promptly 10 minutes after that. Finally, I was offered some Haagen Dazs ice cream, which I reluctantly accepted (all in the name of producing a thorough trip report!) This turned out to be caramel and speculoos flavour and was fabulous. I was then offered tea or coffee, but declined, and plumped instead for one of the "famous" Cathay "oriental breeze" mocktails, which was pretty tasty.











We began our descent into HKG all too soon and unfortunately, due to clouds, only got a few very brief glimpses of the city. I was here for a conference back in 2011, so it was nice to see it again, even if only fleetingly. We landed a little ahead of time at 19:56 and were on our way to exploring the delights of HKG's OneWorld lounges by 20:06.

offerendum

Lunch with elephant is great^

lancasteruk

Apologies for the delay in completing this trip report. I'll get there in the end!

Hong Kong
Before heading to any lounges, it was apparently necessary to do some duty-free shopping and who am I to argue? Once some somewhat overpriced "Hong Kong biscuits" had been purchased we headed off to the Bridge. First impressions were actually a little bit disappointing until we realised that the lounge had an upstairs as well as a downstairs. Like all of Cathay's lounges, there is a pretty decent selection of buffet food available, a very solid drink offering and, of course, the famous noodle bar. The bridge also has a separate coffee bar area with some cakes and patisserie to get your blood sugar level really going! In a moment of uncharacteristic self-awareness and restraint I managed to avoid eating any cake, leaving plenty of room in my stomach for delights BA no doubt had in store for us.





Our flight was due to depart from the other side of the terminal, so we decided to hightail it to another lounge to await boarding. We checked into the wing (I think - Cathay's HKG lounge maps aren't great), which to be honest is a little on the small side. I happened to notice that we were pretty close to the Qantas lounge, which I'd heard good things about, and suggested that we go there. My wife by this point was getting a little tired of lounge swapping (who could blame her, really) and announced that she would stay in the Cathay lounge and wait for me. This was just as well as either I was in a delirious state from lack of sleep or it's incredibly difficult to find the Qantas lounge at HKG. Please do let me know if I'm being an idiot but it seemed like there was hardly any signage for the lounge and it took me a good 10 minutes of frantic wandering before I managed to locate it. I must say though that it is indeed an impressive space and has some very cool decor and a massive bar. After a quick wander around here I returned back to the nearby Cathay lounge, where my wife was (thankfully) still waiting for me.

Flight 10: BA32 HKG-LHR
Aircraft: ??? (Boeing 777-300)
Seats: 16A&16B / 16E&16F

Our gate was not far away from the lounge and we arrived there to find that there was a fairly orderly set of queues forming and were soon boarding. Whilst waiting I noticed a very nervous-looking lady waiting by the gate but thought nothing of it at the time. We boarded at 23:00 with priority being properly enforced and entered our slightly elderly 777-300ER to a very full Club World cabin. This aircraft configuration really does have an absurdly massive J cabin and my seat had the (apparently fairly common) extra feature of wobbly armrests but, unlike the 787 on the outbound, a wobble-less screen. Amenity kits and water bottles were distributed promptly, as were PDBs. I continued my policy of being polite when offered champagne and graciously accepted! We received a kind and fairly brief welcome from Scottish FO David and were given menus to peruse at 23:18.

We pushed back at 23:38 and took off at exactly midnight. Some incredibly hot towels were offered at 00:12 with drink orders from the bar taken shortly afterwards (the malbec will do nicely, ta) and promptly served with nuts in one of BA's lovely new ramekins. Dinner orders were taken about 20 minutes later (I had the salmon followed by the duck) and starters were served a little late at 01:17.







Due to the sheer volume of food eaten already that day, I sadly had to refuse the offer of dessert, although I did have a little room saved for another glass of wine. We began to settle down for the evening to watch something before trying to get some sleep when we noticed that a number of cabin crew kept rushing by us. A member of the cabin crew then approached me and asked whether I was a medical doctor (I'm not - I'm the less useful kind) and then asked my wife (also a PhD and not an MD). We stopped watching the film and started to discuss what might be going on when the cabin crew brought a very ill-looking woman into the cabin and laid her down on the previously-empty seat on the opposite side of the aisle from us. This was the very same woman I'd seen looking nervous at the gate and, while we never managed to ascertain what exactly was wrong with her, she was intensely anxious, threw up frequently and had to be administered oxygen. We were later told that it was touch and go whether or not we'd have to make an emergency landing in China! We obviously felt terrible that the woman was having to endure this and, given that we still had the majority of the flight time left to go, would have to continue enduring it for some time yet. The cabin crew asked if my wife would mind moving to one of empty seats in the middle of the cabin so that a nurse could sit in her seat, which was directly opposite the patient. She, of course, moved without objection and we both, now separated, tried to get a little rest.
It is very difficult indeed to sleep when another human is so clearly suffering just a few feet away from you and, although unable to do so, I felt a constant desire to try to help in any way I could. The lady eventually stopped being sick and managed to fall into a fitful sleep and, shortly afterwards, so did I. I woke up a few hours later and, knowing that my wife is often nervous when flying, felt I should try to get moved closer to her. The cabin crew agreed that this would be fine, so I managed to swap with the very kind gentleman in the seat next to her, meaning that we were now occupying the "honeymoon" seats in the centre of the cabin. She was delighted when she woke to find that I had been able to move and we were actually able to have a little breakfast together, which was excellent, if not especially healthy (I couldn't resist the waffles!) and was served at 03:12.







At around an hour before landing, the ill passenger, who was now directly to my right, woke up again and, unfortunately, became almost immediately ill again. This more or less continued until we landed at Heathrow at 4:30 and we all waited while paramedics came on the plane to attend to her. I have to say that, although this was an unpleasant experience (and of course a much more unpleasant one for the lady who was ill), the cabin crew dealt with everything extremely professionally and with a great deal of care and compassion.