I'm happy fiona i love your reports (must be because your a teacher) i'm glad this holiday put you right i'm jealous thinking you were sunbathing on new years day and i was here freezing to death.Ha Ha.After this holiday (Goa in march) i'll have to pick your brains on where to go in nov,i keep up with all the posts on here so know a bit about thailand/malayasia but its nice to be able to ask person to person.And i feel i can trust your judgement on places..Will i be seeing you in march by the way our dates are 15th-30th.

Haven't been out in November but Krabi or Phuket would be ok then. Re March - we arrive sometime on the 28th.

Just the thought of you lying around Landmark pool makes me green with envy.Then you had to get up in the morning and have that fabulous breakfast !

Landmark
we stayed in a deluxe corner room on the exec floor again. Very spacious- plenty of storage. A great sitting area. Lovely bathroom.
A great bonus is that you don't need an adaptor. The club lounge had changed since our last visit and had relocated to the top floor. Very contemporary -in browns and creams with mood lighting. I have to say that I liked the old lounge and found it less formal. Breakfast was good as usual- plenty of choice. We also made good use of the happy hours from 5.30 to 7.30 where you get alcoholic and soft drinks and a good choice of nibbles. Staff are great throughout the hotel.
There was also a new cocktail bar on the reception floor but we never got round to using it. Looked very nice though. We used the Huntsmans bar on the lower ground floor. The group there were quite good.
One huge advantage of the Landmark is its about a minutes walk to the Nana skytrain stop- so handy.
A tip- pay for as much as you can there and then- it will be cheaper in the long run. Unfortunately if you sign for things you will find that the bill is quoted in dollars and then changed to bhats. Result- you pay more than you had bargained for as the dollar/baht rate is a lot poorer than sterling/baht. For us it meant we paid about £11 more a day- even though the rate the Landmark used was far better than you can get elsewhere.
The pool area is good and a great bonus is that if the loungers are all taken there is a sundeck two floors further up with more loungers.( and you can get away with taking your own drinks up there instead of paying quite steep poolside drink prices )
OH can vouch for the health club- he likes to train when on holiday and was impressed with the range of equipment.

oap
yes- it was a bit of a novelty being able to get up on New Years Day in time for breakfast. Living in Scotland usually means we don't get to bed till 6am!

Restaurants and places we visited- tomorrow

We leave on Jan.25 for our first visit to Thailand. As we live in Turkey to get there is not as straight forward as for you guys in the UK. We go Antalya --Istanbul ---Bangkok. Istanbul part is nine hours which is not bad. When we arrive we are staying at The Lebua at State Tower on Silom Road. Looks pretty good. I let Mrs RIK choose it then I don't get into trouble ( yes, coward ). We are there for six nights and then we will take the train to Hua Hin, staying at The Regent Chalets Cha am. Five nights there and then back to Bangkok for two nights.Then back to Istanbul and on to Antalya.We did it all DIY.Can't say if it worked out cheaper as Turkish Holidays are a lot different to the way UK ones are.Will let you know how we got on.

Ian

RIK...if your going to eat in at Le Bua make sure you take plenty of dosh. Its pricy by Thai and even UK standards - and rather posh in the restaurants

Hi Sunbear. Thanks for the warning. Fell into a similar trap in New Delhi last year. Just told Mrs RIK that we will be eating out.Thanks again.

Ian

Restaurants
we visited 2 that we had been to on our very first visit. The first one was Cabbages and Condoms. This time we found the food quite average unfortunately. On a positive I saw some unique Christmas decorations. That full sized Santa on close inspection turned to be 100% made of condoms Very realistic too! The tree was also beautifully decorated with red and white condom flowers. It was a pity we had forgotten to take the camera.
The second restaurant was Lemongrass, 2 skytrain stops and a five minute walk away. It is in an old Thai house. This one was as good or even better than it was 5 or 6 years ago. It was so good we also went on our last night. Try the red curry chicken skewers as a starter
On New Years Eve we went to Mango House just past Patpong Market. We had booked it before we left for our holiday. Beautiful food and very relaxed, despite the fact that a fast turn around would have meant a lot more profit. From there we went back to Nana skystop and got to Gullivers 10 mins before midnight. Huge place, brilliantly thought out, with music bar, quiet bar which even had board games there( !), pool tables, sports screens etc. The tv screens were showing the Bangkok countdown( which had christina aguillera leading it). 5 mins before midnight the party poppers were given out- at midnight there was 5 mins of celebrations and then it went back to normal- perfect We phoned everyone at home to say happy new year- it was only 5 pm there The strange thing was the closing of bars at 1am. Most bars seemed to close then( everynight)
We tried to go to Harmonique but it was closed for a few days unfortunately. We went to nearby Tongue Thai where we had a brilliant meal- I would really recommend you try it.
BedSupper Club was about 10 mins walk from our hotel but I really didn't fancy it. I also didn't like the fact that there are 3 sittings - I hate being hurried.
Not a restaurant- but if you are going to Harmonique or Tongue Thai, call in for a drink at the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental( and it may be only one as you might blanch at the price). If you like jazz there is a brilliant singer there.

Hi fiona we are staying 3 nights in the landmark club floor rooms 22nd feb 1st time in thailand then onto holiday inn regent cha-am for 11 nights. Are the restuaurants in landmark alot more expensive than the lemongrass etc. Also have you stayed at cha-am, would be nice if you had any imfo on cha-am and holiday inn regent as we normally holiday in goa. thanks denham.

thanks for your help fiona we will try the restaurants you recomended they sound good

I had to pm as it just would not accept the reply I had written- but I'm sure the error will be fixed soon

As said before, our holiday was not what was originally planned but we did have a wander round some areas. One thing we managed to do properly was Chatachuk. The first time we went we got caught up in a typhoon and the place quickly flooded out
Going in December we found it to be so much more comfortable to walk around as it was not humid as it was at easter or in the summer. It was still hot though. It was a bit of a novelty to be able to walk for a while without being soaked in sweat.
We used the river taxis a lot and the cheap ones are a bit of an adventure- are you going to be able to push your way through the jam packed bodies to get off at the right stop?? I saw one of the funniest things of our holiday on a river taxi. As usual there was a group of monks on board. I watched one young monk take his mobile phone out from his robes, pass it to another monk to get his photo taken, then the mobile phone disappeared in the robes folds again. Something just doesnt didn't appear right there
We revisted China Town and I managed to buy a couple of handbags there We went to Wat Po again. The reclining buddha had been under scaffolding the last time we went and other areas were shut off - we had not therefore realised what a huge complex it is.
We had a real look around Banglampoo and Khao San road. We found many lovely bars and restaurants in the district around Khao San. I would have loved to have gone for an evening but it seemed a bit of a scutter to get there and back. We did think that perhaps we might look at staying there for a night or two sometime.
We also had a good wander round some shopping malls but didn't actually buy anything- which surprised me.
We spent a few afternoons and one complete day sunbathing- something we dont usually do when we visit cities but it was especially good to do when we knew it was freezing at home
So- it wasn't an action packed holiday but we really enjoyed it. I don't think I could ever tire of Bangkok.

Me neither Fiona , Bangkok is fantastic , we have been 5 times and would go back tommorrow