While in Phuket, we stayed at Le Meridien Beach Resort (a Marriott Property) and we really enjoyed out stay and the facilities. This is a fairly large sprawling resort nestled in a cove between two jungled mountains.

The landscaping was immaculate during our stay.

As Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members we were upgraded to a nicer suite with a huge patio balcony.

This is a panoramic image from our huge balcony.

We had a view of the ocean to the west and view to the mountains & jungle to the north, east, and south.

This hotel has multiple restaurants and shops within the “campus” and we weren’t able to eat at all the restaurants but we never had a bad meal. Breakfast is free for platinum members so we gorged ourselves on the endless varieties of foods served in the morning.

Like most hotels we’ve stayed at, there are different types of foods to accommodate a wide ranges of tastes and dietary requirements including middle east, Asian, western and vegetarian.

Lots of options, you won’t go hungry here.

Plenty of cook to order foods as well.

Specialty foods. Pots below had Indian or Chinese dishes.

Large semi-private white sand beach with plenty of seating, umbrellas and palm trees. Bar nearby serving up alcoholic drinks and fresh squeezed juices and smoothies. During dinner, there was a live band and a dance show. We’re not sure if they do this every night but we were lucky to arrive just as they were starting and it was fun to watch.

Recommend?

The facilities, staff, food, and entertainment were all great. Having a semi-private somewhat isolated beach was also a big plus so if you’re looking for a quiet semi-private and isolated place, this is a great spot.

If however you intend on socializing with others in bars, clubs, or eating out you should be aware that this hotel is a bit isolated from the main city center areas and you’ll need some type of transportation to get to those spots from this hotel. This hotel also has a policy of NOT allowing outside food (e.g. Grab food delivery) onto their premises so if you like ordering take out, beware.

There are tours and transportation you can reserve with guest services and it may be at a cost, we had a car so we didn’t use any of those services. Also note that this hotel is located about 45 minutes (via car) from the main Phuket airport so plan arrival and departure accordingly.

There is a small mini-market, laundry, restaurant and two massage places right outside the hotel’s boundary within walking distance should you need variation or snacks.

Categories: Phuket
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We started the day with a short walk to drop off laundry then headed to an art class nearby our hotel.

The art piece involves using wax to create a structure on fabric then filling the outlines with paint.

Melted wax and the wax “pen” to draw the wax outline.

The wax is hot and yes, I did burn myself.

The Petronas towers above and my elephant below.

This beautiful artwork may be auctioned off for $100 million someday in the future.

After art class we went shopping at various places along our route back and stopped at the Pavilion Mall again to eat and do some more shopping.

After a long day of walking and hot, humid weather it was time to hit the pool and relax.

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We had a fiasco with our flight and got in late to Kuala Lumpur. Early the next day we hit the mall to buy some new water resistant shoes given the rolling monsoon rains here.

The mall is huge and very impressive! I bought some shoes, wallet, and got a haircut at this fabulous mall.

Next stop was the Museum of Illusions for some metaphysical fun.

We then had a four hour street food tour and we got to make some of the food we were tasting.

Amazing variety of fruits (images below).

Me Goren Noodle Dish (image below)

Roti (image below)

Grilled fish

Chicken

Steamed deserts

Our fearless leader and guide Jay! (sitting center back of table)

Achef Food Tour Sambal Street

Here is a complete list of food and beverages we had on the tour:

1. TEH TARIK / LIME JUICE
2. MEE GORENG MAMAK
3. ROTI CANAI
4. SALAK
5. LONGAN
6. MANGOOSTEEN
7. DURIAN
8. CENDOL
9. BAKSO
10. IKAN BAKAR
11. MEE AYAM
12. SATAY AYAM / DAGING
13. NASI LEMAK
14. CHICKEN RENDANG
15. MANGO SMOOTHIE
16. PUTU BAMBOO
17. TAUFU / KEREPEK LEKOR

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We started the day looking for a laundry mat and we found one that did two loads of laundry for 160 baht which is the bargain of the century! The laundry mat is Dr. Tiger Laundry if you’re in the Phuket area, they seem to be a chain with some laundry mats in Bangkok too.

Next up, we came across the only parking lot we’ve seen in all of Phuket in a nice shopping center with a Starbucks and grocery store so we stopped by to look at prices and have some coffee.

It seems beef is very expensive everywhere in Thailand as much of it is imported from Australia or elsewhere.

After our coffee we headed to the Elephant Sanctuary. There are NO elephant rides or animal exploitation here. This sanctuary exists to treat and save abused animals or animals that need care.

The tour consists of viewing elephants in their daily routine. It’s possible to pet the elephants and feed them. The image below shows how some of the food is made by mixing and meshing rice, watermelon and banana into a ball.

The elephants also eat watermelon and bananas.

After the elephant visit we were hungry so we chose the closest restaurant on the map and it took us up a mountain to the View Cafe and boy did it have an amazing view. It was good to have rented a car or we would have otherwise missed this place.

Food was great. Pineapple stir fried rice.

Pad Thai

The view

Headed back to the hotel to reflect on our last day here.

Categories: Phuket
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We left Bangkok a couple of days ago and between traveling by car, boat and plane, it’s been hard to catch up on this blog with all our movements.

Upon arriving in Phuket, I checked the Grab app (the “Uber” of SE Asia) and it was going to be about 1200 bhat ($36 USD) to take us from the airport to our hotel. Given that we would need to repeat that same trip, we were already at $72 so I checked with the local car rental and we could have a car for 4 days for $150 so it made more sense to rent a car.

Phuket is a fairly large and our hotel was on the outskirts in an isolated part of the peninsula. We checked in and it’s an amazing hotel (more on that in the review). We got upgraded to a nice suite with a huge balcony overseeing the ocean to the west and the mountain and jungle to the east.

This morning we took our rented car and headed to old Phuket town. Driving there and parking were a nightmare but we checked would a Grab would have cost and it would have been 600 baht ($18 USD) each way so we’ve already paid for most of the car rental.

Our first stop was the Phuket Museum which showcased the history of Phuket from fishing village to Chinese immigrants moving in to mine tin then blending in with the local population and ultimately turning to tourism.

Our second stop was a massage place where we couldn’t help but get an hour long foot massage to sooth our aching feet and legs. An hour long foot massage for two people were a total of $30 USD.

We then stopped and had what we’ve both been longing for since we got here…a really good burger and this place delivered. It was a market street stall and the burgers were cooked fresh to order.

Our third stop was a temple but it was closed and we weren’t dressed properly to enter anyway so we walked down the famous market street and did our own street walking tour.

After that with storm clouds billowing we headed back to the hotel where we hit the pool and beach for a couple of hours.

Categories: Phuket
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We left Bangkok a couple of days ago and we left our hotel the Royal Orchid Sheraton so it’s time to do a review. The hotel is in a good location across the river from ICONSIEM shopping complex and that’s good and bad in my opinion. It’s good because it’s so close but it’s bad because you have to take a ferry boat back and forth.

We ate quite a few meals at the ICONSIEM and spent the last day at the movie theater there because we had a massive rain storm that came through that day and got wet heading back to our hotel from ICONSIEM.

The hotel has fairly good amenities such as gym, two pools (one with swim up bar) and another deeper pool for lap swimming. We used both pools and thought they were good enough for intended use.

There are numerous shops inside this facility including a tailor and I had a couple of custom made shirts created while I was there. We also bought some gifts from one of the gift shops.

Food

While the Sheraton features an impressive buffet of options similar to the JW Marriot we stayed in Bangkok, the food didn’t seem as flavorful. I’m not sure why there was a difference in food taste but I certainly preferred the food over at JW Marriot over Sheraton. We ate breakfast every day at the Feast restaurant but only had one dinner there.

Executive Lounge

The main negative we experienced at the Sheraton was the huge volume of people in the executive lounge. On two occasions we walked in, saw every table taken up, and simply walked out. I’m not sure what was going on during our stay but I’ve never seen the executive club lounge anywhere so full at capacity.

The lounge itself has a great view of the river and city so it’s definitely worth a visit for a drink or two but the lounge, in my opinion, is usually a place to relax for a bit before dinner or to come to after dinner for desert.

We were able to use the lounge a few times without crowds by avoiding the 6 p.m. food opening times.

Recommend?

This is a tough call. I don’t plan on staying here again because if I had to do it all over again, I’d likely stay at the Hilton two blocks down from the ICONSIEM. If the Hilton were full, I’d likely stay at the Marriot but would seriously consider other hotels on the ICONSIEM side of the river.

I liked the Sheraton and it’s a great hotel with a great staff and excellent service but it will boil down to what you plan on doing while staying near the river. It was really a hassle to have to wait for the ferry and check the schedule to move back and forth. No matter which hotel you stay at you will need to take boat ferry as not all the tourist attractions are on one side of the river so you’ll need to go back and forth. We spent a great deal of time at ICONSIEM for its huge selection of restaurants and shopping that it would have been easier to say on that side of the river.

Where the Sheraton shines though is if you intend on using the train stop at Sathorn pier which is on the same side of the river as Sheraton. The Sathorn pier is steps away from the Saphan train station and makes it easy to get to different parts of Bangkok. The Sheraton boat ferry moves from the Sheraton pier to ICONSIEM then to Sathorn pier then back to Sheraton pier and repeats the cycle every 30 minutes but they do have a break around 11 or noon so check the schedule.

It’s only been a couple of days since we left Bangkok and I’ve already got the Bangkok blues longing to return…..

Categories: Bangkok
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The weekend was a whirlwind of activity and we’re only going to write about a few of the highlights. We visited the River City Bangkok which includes a wealth of art from local artists. There are many amazing things to view here and many are for sale and definitely worth a stop if you’re nearby.

Some samples of the great art from local artists featured below.

From the River City center, you can book a river tour so we booked a 90 minute tour through the Chao Phraya River. The river is huge and the largest in Thailand so it’s worth the trip to look at how the hidden parts of Bangkok exist. The cost of our 90m private boat was 2800 baht ($83 USD). There is an evening river cruise that includes dinner on a much larger vessel that costs 2400 baht for two.

Many homes on pillars to keep from flooding. Some sections seem to be abandoned as well.

But there are also amazing temples, parks, bars and restaurants and a market along some parts of the river.

After our River Tour, we asked the captain to drop us off at IKONSIEM which has become our go to place for dining. There are so many food options at this mall that we keep coming back for more. My heart skipped a beat when I found my favorite pastry shop in a hidden corner of the 5th floor. If you’re hungry for cars, there is a Porsche, Volvo and BMW dealership INSIDE the mall.

We also ate lunch at a hot pot place that was amazing. You’re given wooden crates of raw veggies and meats and you cook it yourself in the water pot or the soup mix for added flavor.

The local beer here is different, the image below is of a very sour beer.

The rest of Sunday was wind down time at the two pools at our hotel.

Monday

This post is going out Monday evening here in Thailand and today we spent the morning getting to know the train system. We took a train to the airport on the city link line and paid a whopping $1.35 for the ride. We also took the green line back to the river then waited over an hour for the Sheraton boat that never came, we ended up buying tickets on anther ferry to get us to lunch at IKONSIEM and then another Sheraton shuttle back to our hotel.

Categories: Bangkok
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An amazing day today visiting The Grand Palace but before we get to that a few words of caution. The taxi & tuk tuk drivers have been fairly aggressive in offering rides. Most of the time, we ignore them and use Grab (the “Uber” of Asia) to get moving but when we landed at the pier and headed to the Grand Palace, several tuk tuk drivers told us the palace would be closed until noon. They offered to take us sight seeing elsewhere to other tourist sites then bring us back to the palace at noon when the ticket office opens. It was all a lie, we kept walking toward the Grand Palace, bought tickets and entered without any problems whatsoever. It was clearly a scam to get us to buy long rides to other tourist areas.

It’s always best to check with a reputable travel agent or book tours through known services such as Viator before falling for these types of scams.

Depending on where you’re staying in Bangkok, it’s likely you will need to ride one of the many confusing boats to get to where you’re going. I say confusing because there are many different classes of boats. The big hotels here have their own boats that ferry people to certain piers. There are also boat taxis, boat tours, and other boats. Depending on where you want to go, you have to visit a specific pier and get on a certain type of boat. Most of the people at the piers are helpful to guide you on your way but it does get confusing.

Outside the Grand Palace (image below)

The Grand Palace (image below)

The detail around each structure is amazing. Some buildings are adorned in gold, others in green emerald colors and some are multi-colored.

Caution: The Grand Palace is mostly concrete or stone flooring and it gets very hot in the area so take plenty of water with you when you go. You can’t wear certain clothes such as short skirts and tank tops so be careful to check before you head out.

There is a ritual to cleanse and water the green emerald Buddha.

Amazing adornment of most of the structures in the Grand Palace.

After a half day spent at the Grand Palace, we headed to Wat Arun Ratchawararam (image below).

The ferry from Than Tien to Wat Arun Ratchawararam is about 20 baht although pricing seem to change and was confusing at times.

You can toll the bells…if you wonder who the bells toll for, they toll for thee…..

The image below shows how busy the boats can get during peak traffic times around noon. It was standing room only on this boat ferry.

After Wat Arun Ratchawararam, we wondered around looking for the right pier to head to Iconsiam which is a large multi-story high end shopping complex. Our goal there was to eat and buy some needed supplies for our aching feet. I picked up a new pair of sketchers sandals after wearing out my walking shoes. The image below shows Iconsiam from our hotel. There are public concerts, water sport games and other activities to celebrate the new year.

It was a long day, we arrived back around 3:30 p.m. so we’re off to get some rest then head for dinner later.

Categories: Bangkok
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It’s Friday and we wanted to do something fun so we took a Thai cooking class. It ended up being about 4 hours long but it was worth every minute.

Our chef, April, was amazing and walked us through creating four dishes but first we started our journey at a hidden grocery shop in the heart of Bangkok.

After shopping at the produce market, we took a wild ride on a tuk tuk to the cooking class.

Our Thai chef instructor had us make many of the ingredients from scratch. Below is an image of coconut shavings being mixed and squeezed with warm water to make coconut milk and then a filtering processes makes it into a thicker coconut cream.

Below is the final product of spicy basil chicken after putting all the elements together and cooking in a hot wok.

Papaya Salad

Red chicken curry

Sweet Sticky Rice and Mango

Muay Thai Boxing

After our Thai cooking class we headed out for a classic Thai boxing at Rajdamnern Stadium.

We managed to get ring side seats and be up and close to the action through the hotel concierge. We were seated by the stairs into and out of the ring so we high fived the boxers as they got out of the ring after their match. The seats cost 5000 baht total or about $150 for two seats.

The arena looked fairly high tech and modern. The arena has a dome and there are projections on the ceiling that look amazing. During the intermission, they played a video of the history of Muay Thai boxing and it’s origins and how it fits into Thai culture. There were two large TV screens playing the action in the ring as well.

There were seven matches total but only two ended in knockouts and the rest were judges decision.

Above last match, below first match.

There were a total of seven matches with plenty of entertainment in between. The arena offers typical arena food, beer and other snacks. The service was good and several rounds of cleaning took place in between matches to keep floors and trash out of the way.

An observation we’ve made about Thai culture is the attention to detail and pride in keeping areas clean. There are many parts of the city that have trash given the size and population but in general, concerted efforts seem to be made to deal with unsightliness as often and quickly as possible.

Tags: thai cooking
Categories: Bangkok
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We wanted to be close to Bumrungrad hospital for our medical visits so we decided to stay at the JW Marriott on Sukhumvit Road, Sol 2 and we’re glad we chose this top notch hotel.

Staff

The staff was always helpful, friendly and ready to take care of any issues we had. Fortunately, we didn’t have any issues with our stay. Our room was clean upon arrival and had our luggage promptly delivered to our room.

Food – Breakfast Buffet

The JW Marriott has a stomach gorging rich and endless buffet. The buffet costs around 990 baht ($30) but if you’re a Marriott Platinum member, it’s free. We ate here almost every morning during our 8 day stay so that saved us about $480.

The hotel does an excellent job catering to its wide array of guests so you’ll find western foods, middle eastern and Asian cuisine at various stations in the restaurant.

Arabic food (pictured above)

Pastries (picture above)

Seafood/Salmon (above)

Fresh squeezed juice bar

Food – Club Lounge

Marriott Bonvoy platinum members also get access to the executive lounge where we enjoyed tea time every day from 2:30 p.m. with various pastries. The club lounge also has breakfast and evening light meals which are also provided free to platinum members. We opted to eat out and try the many restaurants in the area but the meals here are hearty if you’re on a budget and a platinum member.

Facilities

We made use of the hotel’s spa, including the sauna, heated pool and the outdoor pool (photo below). We also received an excellent and amazing massage service at the spa. The only sour note here is the pool area is a bit dated and need of a cosmetic refresh but we did see surveyors on site so perhaps some upgrades will be coming soon!

Location

The hotel is situated in the heart of the city and the Bumrungrad hospital is a short 7 minute walk over a bridge crossing the major freeway.

There is plenty of shopping, restaurants, street food markets, banking, and bars all along the various areas. The area does have heavy traffic and there is a constant flow of vehicles and motorcycles in the area so be aware of loud noise. Our room was in a higher floor and we did not hear much of the noise from down below.

Recommend?

We highly recommend this hotel if you’re doing business in Bangkok, want access to the heart of the city and the medical center at Bumrungrad hospital and Edelweiss dentistry. Note that the tourist areas such as The Temple of the Buddha, The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Chetuphon, and Wat Arun Ratchawararam are further west in Bangkok by the river which is about a 30 minute drive from this hotel.

We did not wish to be stuck in traffic all day long so we switched hotels to be closer to the river and tourist attractions which is why we left the JW Marriott.

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