Vietnam + Thailand // ICS September 2023

Flew into Da Nang airport in Vietnam.  I flew in a day early, as the flight got in late in the day, so I wanted to have a day to recover, so I stayed in a $60 hotel in Hoi An the first night, which I wouldn’t really recommend… when I got there about 11pm, the reception had gone home, and there was a guy sleeping on a cot in reception who let me in and gave me a key.   The reason I chose this hotel was that it was 5 minutes walk from the beach.  The beach at Hoi An was really beautiful and deserted, so it was great for walking to brush away the jet lagged cobwebs.

The first official hotel of the trip was the Anantara Hoi An (this was an all-Anantara trip)

Lovely room with dark wood and a seating area separate from the large and very comfy bed.  All the Anantara hotels had fruit left for you in the room, and had ample bottled water available for drinking and tooth brushing, etc, as you should not use the tap water for those purposes.

Without exception, the breakfasts were amazing… huge variety of choice and quantity, and the venues overlooked water in all cases except Bangkok.

The hotel was within walking distance of the town of Hoi An, and there was plenty of shopping, with an active night market, and lanterns on the long boats in the evening along the river which was fun.

We had an activity at the hotel of going to the food market with the chef and choosing ingredients which he then cooked us for lunch.  I chose fresh bamboo shoots, which I had had before in China, and they are so yummy.

After two days here, Anantara has a special feature between this hotel and the next one we visited, in Qui Nhon… a luxury train car for the 5 hour train trip between the two cities, where we went through the Vietnamese rice fields, seeing water buffalos and houses.  They served a three course lunch on the train, and unlimited drinks both soft and alcoholic flowed… they had flights of craft Vietnamese gin which sounded wonderful, but 10 am was a bit too early for gin for me!  😀    We then arrived at my favorite hotel of the trip – Anantara Qui Nhon. This was my view opening the curtains the next morning:

It’s a very small boutique hotel with only 36 villas, each with their own plunge pool, indoor and outdoor shower, etc.  Mine was beachfront, there were some 2 bedroom villas that were further back, but were two stories, so great for a family with older children.

Again, beautiful beach, but had kind of a drop, so maybe not as safe for swimming for youngsters.  But in addition to the personal pools, there was a large infinity pool with swim up bar.  Not a ton to do in the area, but great for a few days of chilling.  A young Vietnamese -American gentleman proposed to his girlfriend while we were there, and she said yes.  😊

On to Bangkok.  The Anantara there was right next to an above ground transit station, so good for exploring the city.  It was in the center of Bangkok… a very large hotel… didn’t feel as 5 star as the others.  Arranged around two open air courtyards, it was kinda cool when it was raining as it rained down into the central areas around each room block.   More traditional fussy décor.

This hotel was in the center of Bangkok… It used to be traditional for the “nicer” hotels to be near the river, but I guess it is not true anymore.  But we did visit the Penninsula hotel which is down at the river, and it was very nice, with beautiful views over the river, and has it’s own helicopter port on the roof, which they let us visit, with spectacular views.

The next stop was most people’s favorite stop… the Anantara Golden Triangle Hotel and Elephant Sanctuary.  The Golden Triangle is where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, and you could see both countries from the hotel.  But the main draw there is the elephants which are rescued from all over Thailand and very well cared for here.  We arrived at the hotel by long boat down the river, and were greeted by two elephants, and carers who gave us bananas to feed them.  Our rooms were beautiful and huge with a large balcony that ran the length of the room.  I could see elephants in the field beyond.  They had binoculars in the room for viewing.

Amazing pool area with large infinity pool overlooking the jungle.

One of the activities at the resort is the “Walking with Giants” tour, where you get a denim uniform to wear, and spend several hours walking with the elephants through the grasslands next to the river, and then watching them bathe in the river.  You can pet them, but mostly you just hang out alongside them.  We also had an evening dinner in the jungle area with a couple of elephant greeters.

After two days here, we went cross country to Chiang Mai, our last stop on the journey, stopping at the White Temple, which a guy built in the 70s with his own money… he actually happened to be there when we visited, so we took a pic with him.  It’s a weird temple.

The Chiang Mai Anantara was really lovely… had a Japanese aesthetic to it.. very simple.  It was in the center if Chiang Mai, so you could walk to lots of different areas and day and night markets galore.  Think I walked 14 miles one of the days there.  But it had double doors to the room, and once in your room, and in the hotel generally, you had no idea that you were in the middle of a fairly large city.

Another interesting thing about this Anantara was that there was an additional building across the street with more “aparthotel” type rooms with cooking facilities.  Very popular with Chinese tourists… and they had a rooftop pool.  Not as luxurious as the rooms at the main property, but well priced.  The main resort again had a restaurant overlooking the river, and a British themed bar, all secret agent themed, with a great range of mixologist cocktails.  The one I had was amazing.

On the way home, I had a 14 hour layover at Incheon airport, so I had wanted to try one of their “transit tours”, as I arrived there at about 6.30 am.  These are “free” (only payment is if there is an attraction that you visit that has an admission charge)… there are 6 or 8 different tours, some only take place on certain days, varying in length from 1 – 6 hours.   I chose one that went to a main palace in Seoul, and then to a shopping street.  The palace cost $3 entrance fee, so that was the only charge.  You have to go through customs/immigration, but there is a desk where they can keep your carry on bags so you don’t have to take them with you, as my checked bag was checked through so I didn’t have to worry about that.  The palace was interesting… they had a “changing of the guard” done by actors, based on what they would have done in the 17^th century.   But shopping in Seoul was wonderful!!!   We were only supposed to have an hour to shop… but as I didn’t need to be back at the airport until late afternoon, I opted to stay in Seoul longer, and just took the subway back to the airport, which took about 65 minutes and was easy to negotiate, just one change.   I would highly recommend this for clients who have a long layover in Seoul.   Or if they have less time, there are a couple of tourism activities that are at the airport, including dressing up in traditional Korean costumes.

ICS did a very good job generally with logistics, though once or twice they underestimated the time it would take to do things so the schedule fell behind… but the guides were very good and spoke good English and were knowledgeable about local interests.  The ICS representative, Lisa Hollenberg, was very on the ball, and she is one of the main liaisons there with people on the ground in Asia.  She is based in San Diego.

It was a great trip, and now I can’t wait to find some nice high-end clients to sent to the Anantara resorts!   Please feel free to ask questions or ask for more pics.

-Julie