BANGKOK TRIP – MARRIOTT @ THE EMPIRE PLACE, YR 2019 – YEOW SOON TET

As a member of SGI VC, we took advantage of the membership and travelled via Interval International to Bangkok, Thailand in June 2019.

It was our 2nd visit to Thailand with our teenaged daughters and we stayed at Marriot @ The Empire Place for (6) nights. We travelled via the Interval International exchange system and it took us almost (2) years to get our booking confirmed. During the first deposit, we had put in 3 preferred destinations and the system will do the matching based on the resorts availability. The entire booking process required constant monitoring as once it matches, we will receive the confirmation email from Interval International. If we have changed our mind or wanted another resort, we can decline the match within 24 hours without penalty and will be placed in queue again for another match.

We went for the trip when we finally accepted the confirmation for the resort in Bangkok. We were very satisfied with the Service Apartment. To our amazement the service apartment came with a fully equipped kitchen just like how it would have been in our own home with a full set of cooking utensils. The excellent services provided by the friendly service staff including the doorman was beyond words (which included cold towel and refreshing welcome drink upon arrival) from the time we checked-in until our departure. We will definitely stay at Marriott @ The Empire Place if we were to visit Bangkok again. Our Air Asia flight tickets cost approximately RM2,000 for 4 persons. We visited a few interesting places and one of them was Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is the second Siamese Capital after Sukhothai which was destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th Century. Since we love history, we decided to head there and it was indeed an enriching experience for us.

When it comes to food, due to our low tolerance for spicy food, we indulged mostly in Japanese food. To our surprise, the Japanese food in Bangkok was much cheaper as compared to dining in Malaysia. We also tried the local Shabu Hot Pot and another difference between hot pot restaurants in Bangkok compared to the ones available in Malaysia is the wide variety of raw items and various types of dipping sauces. We spend approximately RM3,000 for both food and visiting places of interest.

Our day-to-day programme was pretty simple. On the first day when we landed, we took the opportunity to stock up the kitchen with pasta, cured meat, bread, milk and others items for breakfast. Days 2-5 were spent mostly visiting the malls (the one mall that every visitor should not miss is Iconsiam Mall – the newest mall in Bangkok located by the Chao Phraya river), sight-seeing, indulging in good food and getting souvenirs as memorable gifts to bring home.

The special highlight during our trip was the (2) theatre shows. The first one was Siam Niramit (Siam Niramit is a world-class performance of Thai arts and cultural heritage) and Nanta cooking show (Nanta show – a nonverbal cooking performance from Korea, this show is an energetic and engaging show that combines pulsating percussion rhythms with physical comedy and plenty of audience participation).

For us, SGI VC is reliable and have helped us to grow from being young naive tourists to more mature tourists by providing a doorway to their many resorts be it home-based resorts or via Interval International, and through educational workshops. If you can persevere to learn the booking process it will be very fulfilling as you learn to enjoy the best that SGI VC / Interval International can offer. Our advice to all members who would want to travel via Interval International, please book at least one year in advance (if possible) on your preferred destination, especially if you intend to travel during peak seasons eg. Summer or year-end.