Mining Travels

Bangkok has been styled the “Venice of the East” for its thoroughfares and highways of traffic are simply interesting. Canals and branches of the river, and the majority of the houses are withering floating, built up on rafts, or upon piles on the sides of these water ways.

- Frank Vincent

Accompanied by our son Marc, Diane and I visited the “City of Angels”. Bangkok, the city that bustles and never sleeps, the city of non-stop traffic, the city of timeless traditions, shimmering temples and saffron coloured robed monks, the city of 20th Century Technology that’s is full of oriental magic.

We had been told about the Dusit Thani, a five star hotel that boast eight restaurants. The food we were told had to be sampled to be believed as did the world famous Dusit Thani Health & Spa.

Although we only had three days, our mission was to try all the restaurants as well as force ourselves to explore the secrets of the health & spa.

Although Bangkok is a maze of expressways, roads and alleyways, Bangkok traffic is normally quite congested and hectic. But there are a variety of ways to get around.

The sky train system is a simple, safe, clean and efficient way of traveling over the roads with a minimum of fuss. Alternatively, there is a large number of air conditioned, metered taxis on the road but be aware many of the taxis drivers do not speak English.

Dusit Thani

The Dusit Thani is a five-star hotel in Bangkok, world-famous for the excellence of its facilities and services. The hotel is located in the heart of Bangkok's entertainment, business and shopping districts, close to Lumpini Park and other Bangkok attractions such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and the night markets of Patpong. The Dusit Thani is also only 25 kilometres from Bangkok International Airport.

Setting the standard in luxury for Bangkok hotels, the Dusit Thani features 517 luxuriously appointed guest rooms with elegant Thai design. Rooms include Superior Rooms, Dusit Club Rooms, Dusit Club Corner Rooms, Dusit Grand Rooms and the Thai Heritage Suite.

Facilities at the Dusit Thani, Bangkok include the Devarana Spa, offering premium spa treatments, a golf driving range with a resident professional, and a swimming pool set in landscaped, tropical gardens. The hotel also offers a fully equipped Fitness Centre and shopping arcade.

The Dusit Thani features eight restaurants with international menus and featuring cuisine such as Thai at Benjarong, French at D'Sens, American at Hamilton's Steak House, Cantonese at The Mayflower, Japanese at Shogun and Italian at Il Cielo. The hotel also features several sophisticated spots to enjoy a cocktail, including My Bar, the Champagne Bar, the Lobby Lounge, and the rooftop D'Sens Bar - with its stunning views over Bangkok.

From the time we arrived at the hotel to leaving we were looked after by their friendly staff. Having only three days to achieve our goal of sampling the food in all the restaurants we took the time to locate each of the targets and then agreed on how we would attack.

I will not detail each of the restaurants as words would not do them justice. They were all great we didn’t have one meal that we didn’t enjoy and we could not faulter any of the service.

Unfortunately we failed in our mission although on one evening we visited two restaurants and took in way to many calories we failed to try the Cantonese at the Mayflower. Seeing how we hate to fail it means we are just going to have to go back.

Diane being a professional shopper meant we had to venture outside the hotel to check out the many centers that sold anything and everything, needless to say the cards took a hammering. The Sky train makes getting around the various shopping centers very easy and is good value for money. The night markets are well worth a visit and there are many locations that you can rest and par-take in a nice cold beer.

Although we failed in our mission, we had an absolute ball. The hotel is everything we were told it was and more. The food was spectacular as was the wine we chose to accompany the meals.

The shopping was great and we visited a number of big shopping centers that sold everything you can imagine. Our excursion down the river was very interesting but we would recommend if you do it, take the tour one way and organize transport when you stop to visit the Temple. We found it was a little long on the river and on the way back you are only seeing the same sights as you seen on the way down. We think the time could be used better with a little planning.

The feature of the trip was definitely our visit to the Devorona Spa being pampered by beautiful ladies for four hours, is very easy to take, Diane was a little disappointed there were no young bucks but “them’s the breaks”.

The Dusit Thani is a long way from being the type of Hotel you would select if you were on a budget holiday but if you want to spoil yourselves you would go a long way to find better.

We had a great three days the food was fantastic and the friendly staff could not do enough to make our stay one that we will never forget.

Dusit Thani, thank you and the Lee Family will definitely be returning.

Diane & Garry