Hi, we arrive in Bgk on May 29th around 9:00pm. We have booked a service to collect us from the airport and take us to (as yet unbooked) accomodation anywhere within Bangkok. I haven't been to Bangkok before and wondered if anyone of you kind forumites would suggest a hotel for approx $100 aussie per night.

I would like to make an early morning dash to the floating markets en-route to Kanchanaburi and would love some advice as to which area of Bangkok would be the closest driving distance to the floating markets in order to reduce the time taken to travel to the markets early next morning.

Advice would assist me soooooooo much as I have a lot to cram into this particular day of our trip. Thanks, any takers?

Personally I rank the Imperial hotels just off Sukhumvit for value. Yes, Bangkok is the place for the floating markets, unfortunately, as they are a ways out of the city. May I suggest you get a taxi to take you there as well, not a tour thing. Even if the tour thing says you will start early to avoid the mobs that descend the floating market at the same time; they lie. If you take a tour thingy, they will tell you early start and then put a note under your door that evening to say the tour is rescheduled to a later time, then the bus will stop at at least two tourist places where they earn a commission en route. Find a cabbie to take you and get there early so it is a pleasure and real, not some cramped camera clicking zoo.

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thanks for your suggestions Mark. I had actually forgotten that I had posted this question . I posted a similar question a few minutes ago under a new thread. Sorry to double up...

Hey Mark

Well, despite the subtext in your postings I take the chance of "picking a fight with the admin guy"

You don't seem to have much confidence in the Thai/Bangkok tour agencies, which I think isn't quite fair. From my daily experience I'm every day seeing lots of limousines, van cars and buses with tourists from various tour agencies, and the tourists are seemingly pretty happy with the services provided to them - so don't be too hard on them.

On the other hand, on my frequent trips to Bangkok I have also - among mostly nice ones - experienced pretty annoying taxi drivers, who definately knows about tourist venues "not opened today, because...", or "you should meet my uncle, who owns a jewelry shop..." or "this is not my direction", or "no, I won't switch on the meter, price is fixed...", etc.

What I try to say is that there are good guys and less good guys everywhere, you just have to be sensible in your choises.

Thanks for your input.
We have employed the services of Tong from Tong's tours to take s to Kanchanaburi for two days and we will leave from bkk and make first stop at Floating markets. I arranged the itinerary myself and there is a lot to take in given it's so short a trip, so I am fairly confident no EXTRAS can be squashed in. ( no uncle's or aunt's shops etc! )
I have heard of this happening, but Tong came highly reccommended. Since there are 6 of us to share costs which are pre determined it works out to be quite inexpensive.
Regards Jodie.

Try to get to the markets really early as it becomes a joke later in the day,once around the market in 1 1/2 hours pushing other boats out of the way and getting nowhere in the heat takes the edge off it a bit and makes you wonder why you just didnt walk around in 10 mins instead.



Den

When we booked a tour to the floating markets all was good untill we got dropped off at the wood carving center afterwards for 3 hours! And then there wasnt enough room on the minibus and people were doubleing up on seats just to get home,then to top it off even though I insisted I did not want to go no where near the place we were taken to the jem center,Tracey and I refused to get out of the minibus even though the driver said we had to change vans,so we sat there until the poor others in the van returned not happy as by now it was past 7pm and had started our floating market tour at 7am.

Get a taxi.

Den

Hi, thx for taking the time to reply. Sounds like your day at the floating mkts was very tedious, but as you suggested, we are going there first and early and continuing to Kanchanaburi from there. The tour we are going on goes something like this.
DAY 1
1 floating markets
2 Royal Thai Handi craft
3 Jeath museum Kanchanaburi
4 War cemetary Kan
5 Elephant bathing Kan
6 Train ride on death railway
Back to Kanchanaburi for the evening

DAY 2
1 Hellfire pass
2 Erawan Falls
3 Bamboo Rafting
4 Tiger Temple

Hopefully there is no time, surely no more available... for any other stops! I think even the guide will be too exhausted! LOL!

Will post of our experiences and advise as to professionalism of the guide. Sure hope I don't end up regretting not getting a cab!

Like I said "I wish I had your energy" once me and tracey hit that humidity its an effort to do 1 thing a day,given everything is done in "Thai time"! Make sure you take your Barocca's

Den

Since Kanchanaburi is my second home town I know that even if you will have a couple of busy days here, you will most certainly also be in for some very nice experiences.

To me, though, it looks as if on 'Day 2' it might be pretty hard for you to make it all. Hellfire Pass is 60 km north in one direction (same way as the Tiger Temple), but Erawan Waterfalls is 60 km north in another direction. Depending on your preferences I might want to skip the Hellfire Pass despite it historic value, and go to the beautiful Erawan Waterfalls in the morning (don't forget your swimwuits for a swim in the water) and be back for a trip to the Tiger Temple in the afternoon.

But you may want to contact one of the local tour agencies, like 'Good Times Travel', for further information, or you can have a look at the link below.

Enjoy your stay here in Kanchanaburi!

Kanchanaburi-info.com: destination guide to Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand