Scenic Mekong Review, December 31, 2022-January 10, 2023

[Lynnie7562]

Terry & Mike

    I so appreciate all your information on your adventures on the Scenic Mekong cruise. I’ve taken your advise from an earlier msg and we’re going to stay for 6 nights in Hua Hin at the end of our Scenic cruise in Jan 2025. If I could ask one more thing,,,we would like to do 2 or 3 nights in Bangkok before we fly home to Canada. Do you have an area or hotel you would recommend or activities we should try to see or take in?  There are 6 of us all over 55. I feel much more comfortable getting suggestions from you than a random internet search. Thank you again for any help you can give. 
Lynn

[terry&mike]

15 hours ago, Lynnie7562 said:

Terry & Mike

    I so appreciate all your information on your adventures on the Scenic Mekong cruise. I’ve taken your advise from an earlier msg and we’re going to stay for 6 nights in Hua Hin at the end of our Scenic cruise in Jan 2025. If I could ask one more thing,,,we would like to do 2 or 3 nights in Bangkok before we fly home to Canada. Do you have an area or hotel you would recommend or activities we should try to see or take in?  There are 6 of us all over 55. I feel much more comfortable getting suggestions from you than a random internet search. Thank you again for any help you can give. 
Lynn

Hello, from Krakow, Poland! We are currently on another one of our adventures, having left home in February. We started in Rwanda and Uganda (gorilla trekking), then Kenya and Tanzania (safari), then Zanzibar for beach. Next we spent 2 weeks in an apartment in Antalya, Turkey, exploring. We are here in Krakow for a week, then will head to Warsaw, Poznan, Berlin. We’ll end in Amsterdam where we will meet a group of friends for a bike and barge trip through the tulip fields. Home at the end of April. 
 

Happy to answer.
6 nights in Hua Hin may be a long stay, 4 or 5 nights is probably plenty, as I’m thinking you could grow bored.  If you were saying 6 nights in Hoi An, Vietnam, I’d say yes, as you could have some clothes made, which is fun. Centara Grand is a lovely hotel here. 
 

In Bangkok, we stayed at the Century Park Hotel. While not luxury, it is a very nice hotel, considered deluxe, at a great rate. Clean, good staff, nice rooms, good breakfast. The location is superb, near public transport, a night market, a mall, restaurants. We took the trains/metro all over from here. 
 

Probably our favorite activity in Bangkok was a Street Food Tour by Tuk Tuk, with Bangkokfoodtours.com. Fun, interesting, and lots of great food.   
 

Visit a floating market, which is enjoyable. Several tours available on Viator.com

 

One evening we went up to Skybar to have cocktails and watch the sunset, expensive but lovely. 
 

We also took advantage of the affordable massages nearby a couple of times. 
 

Hope that is helpful! Enjoy! 

[franski]

On 4/1/2024 at 9:39 AM, Lynnie7562 said:

Terry & Mike

    I so appreciate all your information on your adventures on the Scenic Mekong cruise. I’ve taken your advise from an earlier msg and we’re going to stay for 6 nights in Hua Hin at the end of our Scenic cruise in Jan 2025. If I could ask one more thing,,,we would like to do 2 or 3 nights in Bangkok before we fly home to Canada. Do you have an area or hotel you would recommend or activities we should try to see or take in?  There are 6 of us all over 55. I feel much more comfortable getting suggestions from you than a random internet search. Thank you again for any help you can give. 
Lynn

For Bangkok - we stayed in the Theatre Residence.  It is a bit further from the airport - and not easy to find for the average taxi driver - but we arranged arrival and departure transfers through the hotel so it worked out great.  The restaurant (attached to the hotel) is across the road on the river -so great night time views of the palace. It has a great pool in the courtyard that we enjoyed on our last afternoon there (our friends went to get a massage...)

 

The hotel is close to the palace - and we  booked it for the proximity - but by the time we got to Bangkok we were completely templed out so decided to skip it.  Instead, we booked a tour through Tours by Locals and went to the floating market & railway market.  Our guide was Angela - and she was awesome. The markets are close to 2 hours out of town, but (IMHO) worth the trip.  We also went to see the reclining Buddha while we were there.

 

Bangkok was a great place to stop on the way home.  BTW - not sure if you have your flights yet, but we booked Toronto to Taipei direct with EVA air and it was a great flight.  We then went from Taipei to Hanoi - and the trip was quite seamless (although it was VERY long...)

 

Fran

[999andretired]

On 4/1/2024 at 3:39 AM, Lynnie7562 said:

Terry & Mike

    I so appreciate all your information on your adventures on the Scenic Mekong cruise. I’ve taken your advise from an earlier msg and we’re going to stay for 6 nights in Hua Hin at the end of our Scenic cruise in Jan 2025. If I could ask one more thing,,,we would like to do 2 or 3 nights in Bangkok before we fly home to Canada. Do you have an area or hotel you would recommend or activities we should try to see or take in?  There are 6 of us all over 55. I feel much more comfortable getting suggestions from you than a random internet search. Thank you again for any help you can give. 
Lynn

We are also on the Mekong cruise in January 2025, starting in Siem Reap. We decided to go to Chang Rai from Ho Chi Mihn to do the temples in that area including the White temple which looks amazing. 

[999andretired]

Forgot to mention we are currently bobbing around the South Pacific on Scenic Eclipse II en route to Fiji as a final destination next stop Alofi.