THAILAND
Arriving in Bangkok, we were feeling down because we did not want to leave Singapore, and Marika was starting to get sick, so Bangkok’s odds were against weren’t great from the get-go. As we navigated our way through the airport trying to find a taxi, we got stopped by a person dressed in an airport staff uniform, and they guided us towards the “taxi stand.” We had been looking for the taxi signs for 1.3 seconds before they intercepted us and led us to a booth inside the airport. Having never been to Bangkok, and Marika being no help with her blinding migraine — we didn’t think much of it. We were fresh from Singapore, where airport staff was extremely efficient and helpful. They were helping organize people to taxis and guiding to pick up zones, so we didn’t think twice in Bangkok. The man in the booth explained we could either take a fare taxi which he explained is risky because it does not include tolls, and if there is traffic and takes a long time it could cost a lot more, or we could take an “airport taxi” which is a fixed price, and includes all tolls. He sold us on the airport taxi as it sounded like the easier option. During payment, he began asking what we were doing and if he can offer us any special tours. We said we just wanted to relax the two nights before we have to head to Phuket, they were weirdly persistent for a “taxi company,” but we were adamant as Marika’s head was about to explode. When I looked at the receipt, it was for a tour group, the “airport staff” was a tour company that tricked us into overpaying for a taxi. They led us through the airport, past the actual taxi stands, and into a random unmarked Toyota and off we went to our hotel (or so we hoped). The whole ride we were worried not only that we were being kidnapped but that we paid for our kidnapping. We googled the tour company and found an overwhelming amount of 1-star reviews about how the tours we awful, and on these tours, they just intimidate you into buying more tours or merchandise. We were a little concerned but were relieved to find out they were a real company — just a rip-off. We closely followed our map location to make sure we were heading in the right direction. Thankfully, our driver got us to the hotel, he didn’t try to sell us on tours and was an overall nice guy (nice because he didn’t kidnap us? maybe!) We quickly made our way into the hotel.
Marika picked this hotel, The Okura Prestige Bangkok. It’s a gorgeous hotel; every hotel staff member we came in contact with was friendly and accommodating. The hotel chain, being a Japanese Chain, has a heavy Japanese influenced; everything was effortless, clean, and beautiful. We spent a fair bit of time at the pool, which had great snacks and drinks at reasonable prices.
It was a strange time for us to be in Bangkok because we happened to be there for King Rama X’s coronation. Many of the places and landmarks that we wanted to see were closed for the holiday/occasion. Everywhere that was open played the national anthem on repeat. The Central Embassy mall was one of the places that were open, but being that it was the king’s coronation, most of the population was at the Grand Palace. Due to the closures we spent split our time between the pool and the mall. The mall had lots of food options (both international and local food), shops (high end and regular), a few cute shops, and coffee shops.
The one thing we wanted to do in Bangkok was to check out the Grand Palace. It looks spectacular, but because of the coronation, the whole palace, including the surrounding area, was closed off. We did not adventure too much since Marika was sick, and it was already week 4/6 of our trip — we needed some rest.
Leaving the hotel, we took a regular taxi and found out it is $10 from the hotel to the airport, but with the tour group taxi, it’s $40 Canadian. We got to the airport, checked in, and headed toward bag drop when a lady dressed as hotel staff walked over and started helping us load the luggage. She asked where we were going off to next, and we told her we were heading to Phuket. She asked if we had anything planned yet, and we said we just wanted to relax…. You know where this is going, right?! She started to guide us to her tour booth, and we took off in the other direction.
Takeaways from this experience:
-Don’t go during coronation week; you miss the highlights.
-Avoid “airport staff” and fake taxis!!!!!
Phuket
Where We Stayed: Twin Palms Phuket
We were quite excited to leave Bangkok, given our experiences. When we landed in Phuket, we had learned our lesson. Go straight outside, ignore the “staff”, find a real taxi stand. We arrived, we went outside and found two taxi stands right across from each other—both with different logos. We took our chances with one, wrong! As it turns out, the real taxi stand is past these two “tour “stands. While the taxi itself was actually on par with standard taxi rates, we did stop at a random tour office where staff came outside and opened our car door and tried to sell us on tours. We said we weren’t interested as we only have two nights and wanted just to relax and they respected that which was great.
We stayed at the Twinpalms Phuket resort, which was gorgeous. We highly recommend this resort. We booked a penthouse villa, a three-story hotel room. The third floor had a private rooftop pool, which was so underrated. It made us wish we had gone straight to Phuket and started relaxing. This room came with a personal staff that you could text to help schedule tours, restaurants, massages, or if you have any questions about the hotel or things to do, which was a crazy cool feature. We had a few good meals at the hotel restaurants; we didn’t venture out too much as Marika was still recovering from the cold and we just wanted to relax. Overall, we enjoyed Phuket over Bangkok.
