well, if you really want to know...
I think I paid about $3300 for my 3 weeks to Purple Dragon. My flight arrangements to/from Thailand were made on my own. And I did tip my guides generally about Bt1000 per day. The guides all speak English and are TAT licensed.
I first spent about 4 days in BKK staying at the Tarntawan. I thought it was a decent enough place. I liked their guest policy of hanging onto his ID card and calling to check that everything was OK before giving it back to him. The breakfast was OK. They collected me from the airport on arrival.
My first day of touring was to Wat Pho and Wat Arun and then a longtail boat trip around the canals of Thonburi. Then we had lunch at the Oriental and then the Jim Thompson house museum. That was all included in what I paid. That night I had an evening guide to show me the scene. He was very cool and seemed to know everyone. He was one of the original "Thai Friends" guides who has been with the company from the beginning. We had dinner at Sphinx and then took in the shows at Boys Bangkok and Future Boys. They claimed at the time that the full sex show was not going to happen because there were too many police around.
The second day I had my guide's service from 10 AM to 10 PM. We went to see the big teakwood mansion that used to be a royal residence and then to the big Italianate throne hall that is in the same park and the white marble temple nearby that was built with the leftover marble from the throne hall. From there we had lunch at a little Thai restaurant with traditional music right by the Democracy Monument. From there we went down to the Ancient City Muang Boran which I thought was very interesting and enjoyed very much even though it was quite hot. In the evening we went to the Calypso cabaret show which I could have done without. The tickets were very expensive and I am not really a big fan of those sorts of shows. It was also odd in that the audience was mainly Asian and Russian tourists who didn't seem to really understand when they were supposed to applaud.
Day 3 was the Royal Palace and then the National museum. After lunch we went to Paragon to look around there for a bit. I went and got a massage at Bonny massage which was actually pretty good and the massage boy was very cute and sweet. I also had dinner afterwards at Dick's which I really enjoyed. I thought the food was good and so was the service. It was fun to watch the world go by out on the soi.
The next day it was off to Pattaya. The Ambiance's driver came and picked me up at the Tarntawan. I really liked having the transfers taken care of. The problem with Ambiance was that it has the most uncomfortable beds I have ever attempted to sleep on. That evening my guide took out to see the scene. We had dinner at some touristy restaurant first. Then he showed me how the baht bus system operates. We went to Sunee and stopped in Krazy Dragon for a drink. We didn't go to any of the other bars that night. I also went to Splash to see the water show and saw part of the lip sync show at Throb. The mamasans were not too pushy but since there were few customers they were really fighting over me. I also had a quick drink at Boyz Boyz Boyz.
I stayed in Pattaya until Monday. I spent some time at the beach on Friday and found it to be very pleasant except for the constant attempts to sell me everything. I loved Thailand, but the ever-present hawkers trying to sell me "sexy movie", "lady massage" and all sorts of other things was the most annoying part. I went back to Sunee that night and stopped in at a couple of bars which frankly shocked me. This was my first time in Thailand and I thought that the police had worked hard to eradicate the whole underage sex thing, but these places were pretty much exclusively boys too young to be doing what they were doing, especially so openly.
Saturday I spent the day with my guide. We went to the botanic garden/elephant show place...I can't remember it's name. They also have what is supposed to be a Thai cultural dance show too. We also went to the aquarium and to the "Sanctuary of Truth" and up to the big Buddha on the hill.
It was a pretty full day. That evening I went to Funny Boys. There were several cute guys there and I was one of maybe two customers so all pleading eyes were on me which made me rather uncomfortable. The ladyboy mamasan was actually very nice and I ended up offing a very sweet boy...number 10 whose name I frankly can't remember. He spoke English very well and gave my a nice massage among other things.
Sunday I woke up feeling very unwell. I think lunch at the Sanctuary of Truth had some very negative consequences. By lunch time I was feeling a bit better and since I was leaving the next day I thought I would try the beach one more time. Which ended up being a mistake. I was getting a massage at the beach and more or less blacked out for a second, started sweating profusely and tossed my cookies all over the beach...several times. It was quite embarrassing. Everyone was asking if I had too much whiskey the night before which was not the problem. There was an American doctor nearby who suggested I go to the hospital. Once I made it back to the hotel I asked the front desk to arrange for the car to take me to the hospital. I spent the night at Bangkok Pattaya hospital with an IV stuck in my hand. The care was excellent and amazingly cheap, about $350 for a very nice private room and all of the medication and care. The Ambiance did a very nice job helping me out getting me to the hospital and coming to pick me up when I was discharged. At that point it was obvious that I would miss my flight to Chiang Mai so I asked the front desk to call Purple Dragon and let them know so they could contact the hotel in Chiang Mai. As we were driving to the airport the folks at Purple Dragon called to say that the had me rebooked on the next flight and that everything was arranged.
I arrived in Chiang Mai and was picked up by the good people from the Lanna Mantra hotel. The hotel is really beautiful and located right on the Ping River. I had a river view from my bed. The only problem with the hotel is that it is located about 15 minutes away from town so it is not easy access, but if you want a quiet sanctuary it fits the bill. My guide came out to meet me in the evening and took me to eat but since my stomach was still not well we didn't go out after that.
The next day we toured some temples around Chiang Mai including up the mountain to Doi Suthep. That night after dinner we went to Circle Bar to see the show. The bar is very dark but they have an OK show, but not a full sex show. The guys are more muscle-y than I usually go for but they were quite handsome and hung.
The day after was a quick day trip to Lamphun to see the big temple there and the museum. And I did a bit of craft shopping including an umbrella factory. We also went to the Shinawatra silk factory but I didn't want to buy anything there. :-) That night after dinner we went to the show at New My Way which was much more twink-y. I liked the show. It was the usual mix of naked guys, and ladyboy lipsyncing. They also had these two skinny boys who did music video type choreographed dance numbers. I liked them very much but wish they had smiled more. I like it when it's obvious they have put some work into and that they really enjoy dancing.
The following day was a longer trip to Lampang which was also very interesting.
Then it was a drive up to Chiang Rai through the mountains. I enjoyed the drive but the van drivers are a little crazy. Almost like Bangkok taxi drivers. It was more temples up there and then a trip up to the Golden Triangle, the opium museum, and the little town on the Myanmar border whose name also escapes me at the moment. It was lots of driving around but I enjoyed it. I stayed the night at the Wiang Inn in Chaing Rai which was frankly a dump. The common areas were nice, but the guest room was smelly and a bit dingy.
Saturday we drove up to Doi Tung. I really enjoyed the beautiful flower garden and the King's late mother's house on the mountain. We also stopped in at the hill tribe craft village briefly.
Then from there I flew back to Bangkok. SUnday was an all day tour of Ayutthaya which I found really fascinating. My guide that day was excellent. We saw lots of temples and all of the old ruins and took another longtail boat ride around the island. We stayed until after dark when the old sites are lit up by floodlights. It was cool but since the sites are all closed you can only see them from the outside and it was difficult to photograph them which had been an aim of mine.
After that my time in BKK was fairly quiet. I did some shopping at all of the big malls. Tuesday I had a guide again all day but I had seen most of the sites already. So went to the flower market which I enjoyed and then spent some time wandering around Chinatown. We also saw the solid gold Buddha.That night was supposed to be one of the highlights of my trip...a concert by ModernDog out at the Party House Pub by Seacon Square. Thanks to the band and the guys at Purple Dragon we were able to get a map and find out how to get there. We arrived rather early and had dinner at the pool hall across the street. We went inside the venue and I was very impressed. Party House is a great live music space. Well laid out and and excellent sound system. The opening band was pretty good but I thought they played longer than they should have. They started around 10 and played to 11:15 or so. As they were changing over between bands the club put CNN up on the big screens with coup coverage. I was a little perplexed. Most people either didn't seem to notice or didn't much care. ModernDog came out around 11:45, played half of one song and were promptly stopped by the club's management. So the coup scuttled what was going to be a great show. We were a little worried that it might be hard to get a taxi back to the city but it turned out to be not so hard. My guide was concerned that he might have a hard time getting home because he lives out by Bang Sue. I was up late watching the news.
On my return to BKK I stayed 2 nights at Tarntawan before moving around the corner to the Siam Heritage hotel. I had a 1 bedroom suite which was beautiful and overlooked Suriwong Rd. They have a fairly strict no unregistered guests policy though which might be bad for some. The staff were all quite nice even though the folks at the front desk don't speak much English.
Overall I had a great time in Thailand. Almost all of the people I met were super nice and I felt very much welcome. I liked having a personal guide showing me around and it was definitely worth it to me.
I don't know when I will return, but I do plan to go back and see some of the other places that I missed. And I would like to visit Angkor Wat as well while I am in the neighborhood next time.
I took about 900 photos. It will take me a while to sift through them all.
