Chic Thailand

[camerata]

Here's a good article from the Telegraph about Thailand as an upmarket travel destination:

From backpacker paradise to a jet-setter's dream

The driver of the electric buggy that ferried us from reception to our villas gave a potted commentary on the resort along the way.

"All your villas," he said, indicating the stylish buildings along a clifftop, commanding views over the Gulf of Siam, "have private pools. The people there," he nodded towards the bungalows set inland in rampant tropical gardens, "have no pools."

"Poor people," said fellow-passenger Suzanne.

"No!" exclaimed our driver, offended. "All rich people!"

"No, no," spluttered Suzanne, "I didn't mean poor people, I meant poor people. Poor people. Oh dear."

For some years now, Thailand has been aiming at the top end of the tourist market. The Thai tourist authority's new marketing catchphrase is "Chic by Thailand". And Thailand is undoubtedly chic. From island spas and mountain hideaways to designer-deft boutique resorts and sleek city hotels, the industry is courting the big dollar.

But do we really want a chic Thailand? Isn't there a secret part of us that, while stretched out on a cushioned sunlounger sipping cocktails, longs to slip down to the beach where the backpackers are revelling under the palms with Singha beer, eating tom kha gai (coconut and chicken soup) for a few pence a bowl, and dancing till dawn? Aren't we just a bit fed up with hip everything?

As the buggy pulled up outside our villa at the Sila Evason Hideaway on Ko Samui, it was clear we were in for a high-end experience. Wooden stairs rose from our private patch of garden to the front door. In the vast bedroom, silken fabrics billowed gently in the breeze. The private infinity pool blended seamlessly with the sea. Our personal butler assured me that just a press of a button would summon him on his mobile.

We dined that night outdoors under lanterns, on honey-lacquered quail and veal with coriander, apples and sweet-potato cake. A far cry from tom kha gai.

The next day did not begin well. I am not a particularly nice person before the morning hour reaches double figures, and my mood did not improve when I stomped into the bathroom to find there was nowhere on the freestanding basins to rest a razor or toothbrush, that the mirror above them was fixed at waist height, perfect for contemplation of my navel, and that the lighting, which the previous evening had seemed romantic, was in the morning just plain dim. I cursed all trendy architects and designers as I bent double, peering into the glass, muttering that I'd had easier shaves on a campsite.

But soon all grumbling vanished, as we sat chatting with Chang, the captain of a motor launch that was about to take us out for a day of island hopping. He'd had a highly successful weekend with his Siamese fighters - fierce, iridescent tropical fish, now lined up in jam jars with cardboard between them to keep the aggressive little things from catching sight of each other.

On Sundays, contests are held. Two fighters are put in a bowl together, and people bet on the result. Chang feeds his charges a special weed to toughen their skins, and had bred a champion. He allowed it to show off its skills - puffing out its gills and shaping up for an attack, sending a more timid cousin fleeing for rescue. Chang beamed with pride. It's one of the delights of Thailand that no matter how chic you may become, you don't disappear into a stratosphere of privilege. The legendary Thai ease and friendliness guarantees chatty encounters.

Eight of us sped off in Chang's boat to snorkel in a prime spot at a nearby reef, and sunbathe on the beach of a private island, dropping in on a fishing village for a slap-up Thai luncheon en route. As we passed crowded tour boats and people queuing for ferries, I began to appreciate our creature comforts and tailor-made timetable.

That night we visited Ko Samui's hippest restaurant, which despite its name ("Rice") served Italian cuisine - and, despite my severe misgivings, authentic, inventive and absolutely delicious Italian cuisine at that. Then we abandoned our hip credentials and hit the backpacker nightlife. Given the relaxed dress codes of a tropical climate, it's easy to make the transition and enjoy the best of both worlds.

Next day, back at the hotel, I was hugely appreciative of an "Oriental Massage", a blend of Ayurvedic, Malaysian and Thai techniques so soothing that it soon had me drifting in and out of consciousness. Retreat into a chic cocoon certainly had its attractions.

That's especially true when you encounter the bedlam of Bangkok. The most effective way of coping with the city's notoriously congested streets is to stay within a hop of a Skytrain station, or on the Chao Phraya river, where river-buses and long-tail boats can speed you with ease to most major sights. And some of Bangkok's grandest hotels - the Oriental, the Royal Orchid Sheraton and the Peninsula - are to be found along the Chao Phraya.

We stayed at the Peninsula - 39 storeys high, with magnificent views over the city and a garden terrace beside the water - and ventured out on manic shopping trips for swathes of silk and tailor-made suits, fake designer bags and real designer jeans. Along the way we feasted on superb street food - spicy noodle soup, boiled up while we waited; fish on bamboo skewers, grilled over charcoal braziers.

At night, we forswore the tacky Patpong district and headed instead to Suan Lum Night Bazaar, where in addition to carved frogs, coconut cutlery and the usual knick-knacks, stalls run by Thai artists and designers sold ceramics, lanterns and furniture that made us dream of a shipping container to send it all home.

One evening we ascended to Sirocco, a bar with an outdoor terrace on the 63rd floor of the State Tower, which boasts a vertigo-inducing open-sided staircase and in places has nothing but a waist-high glass wall between you and oblivion - the cocktails at appropriately sky-high prices. More often, though, we responded to the tug of the un-chic, and ended up in the big, central beer garden at Suan Lum, where young Thais hang out, with the rock music from the local bands improving dramatically as our beer tankards emptied.

But after each sweaty shopping trip or wild night out, it was (despite the premium charged by the tuk-tuk drivers who ferried us) sheer heaven to return to an enormous, air-conditioned room with a view, or to sip cocktails in the garden as fairy-lit boats passed on the river. And as is so often the case in big cities, the smartest hotels harbour the classiest chefs. Tom kha gai may have remained elusive, but at the Peninsula's Thiptara restaurant we enjoyed supremely healthy Thai haute cuisine - soya-bean soufflé with palm hearts, and mouth-watering steamed sea bass with fresh peppercorns and asparagus.

A few days later, we headed north, into the smartest realm of all. Just outside Chiang Mai, Suchet Suwanmongkol, a local business magnate with a passion for antiques, has realised a dream: on 60 acres of land he has built a habitable paean to Lanna architecture. The Lanna kingdom - at its height from the 13th to the 16th centuries - stretched across much of northern Thailand, with Chiang Mai as its capital. Culturally, it absorbed influences from China, Burma and Laos, and was famed for its gilded temples, sweeping, turned-up roofs, mosaics, woodcarving and intricate latticework.

At the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi (the result of Suchet's dream), you can stay in villas inspired by Lanna palaces, set in exotic water gardens behind whitewashed walls, or in replicas of rural homes or rice barns, ranged around a rice paddy complete with water buffalo. Gilded gables and beautifully carved stone towers poke up between the trees. And there are later styles, too - 19th-century Burmese villas in private courtyards with marble fountains and pools, colonial-style suites with 16-foot-high ceilings. Wind chimes tinkle in the breeze, mingling with cicadas and cooing doves. The only traffic (apart from the ubiquitous electric buggies) is the occasional mule cart.

Sounds a bit Disney? Not in the slightest. It's all been done with obsessive authenticity. The spa alone - modelled on the ancient Royal Palace in Mandalay - took 150 artisans more than three-and-a-half years to complete. Carvings and designs throughout the complex were copied exactly from originals; traditional craftsmen hand-built the villas - and from La Grand Lanna pavilion restaurant to your bedroom, the resort is furnished with antiques from Suchet's own collection. Just outside the replica medieval city gate is a real Thai village, with free-range dogs and chickens, tiny shops selling everything from fabric softener to popcorn, and a buzz of mopeds. But for once, I was happy to remain in a world of fancy, sampling the finest Chiang Mai cuisine and being treated like a 15th-century princeling in the spa. Fantasy, after all, is a crucial element of any vacation.

I never did have that tom kha gai.

[khall64au]

Where does one find tom kha gai for a few pence a bowl these days? Let's get real folks ... it's at least GBP1 (75 baht) a bowl these days - Thailand ain't so cheap anymore!!!!

[asanee]

Where does one find tom kha gai for a few pence a bowl these days? Let's get real folks ... it's at least GBP1 (75 baht) a bowl these days - Thailand ain't so cheap anymore!!!!

I always pay baht here in LOS.

A bowl (can also get it as 'on rice/ na raat khao" sells for 20 bt aty my favorite seller here in BKK. also the kheang massaman/chicken and very aroy mahk goes for 20 bt/ on rice.

Besides just yesterday I read an interview with ther new lady in temporary charge of the TAT; the amazing Thailand comes back, it seems to be unforgettable by now, and Ive never 9even working in the ''hospitality'') seen the frase 'chic'. some incention from some wined/dined/ etc. travel-writer?

[my friend I]

Where does one find tom kha gai for a few pence a bowl these days? Let's get real folks ... it's at least GBP1 (75 baht) a bowl these days - Thailand ain't so cheap anymore!!!!

Plenty of restaurants in the north at 20 Baht for all dishes - seafood 30BT