Fish Out Of Water

[scottydel]

Hi,

37-year-old American here. My Thai girlfriend and I are traveling to America together to visit my family for 3 weeks, and I am remaining in America to work for awhile. On her return flight to Thailand - which she will be making by herself - she lands in BKK at 11:25pm. She is from the south, Krabi, and has little experience with big cities like Bangkok and airports in general. She has absolutely zero experience flying anywhere by herself. She has an AirAsia flight the next morning to Krabi. She speaks southern Thai, but does not speak the Bangkok dialect fluently.

She is 34-years-old, but has hardly ever left her home village in Krabi. It has about 500 residents and was just recently wired for electricity. So even though Thailand is her home, landing in Bangkok at night by herself will make her a fish out of water in a sense.

Can anyone recommend a safe, easy-to-understand, easy-to-find and direct route to a nearby hotel? Preferably a hotel that has shuttle service to the airport the next morning. Conversely, if anyone has had a bad experience with an airport hotel or landing in BKK at night, please share.

I mean obviously "take a taxi to a hotel" is the simple answer, but I'm looking for specifics if anyone has them. The more information I can provide her with, the better. If I simply told her "take a taxi to a hotel", I'm afraid she might wake up the next morning in an opium den in Laos! Any thoughts welcome!

-Scott

[cardholder]

I recently stayed at the Thong Ta Resort & Spa in Lad Krabang (where most of the hotels are). It was 890 Baht (790 Bt single) a night and they run a shuttle service to/from the airport.

They offer a complimentary roundtrip to/from Suvarnabhumi airport. Theirhotel`s representative standby at Arrival terminal level 2 exit door 4.

It was a simple transfer exercise on arrival once you have found the rep (they have a sheet of paper with your name on but it is best to stand opposite exit door 4 looking lost).

The staff at the hotel friendly and the breakfast is OK.

This hotel is the most suitable out of 4 similar priced/located hotels

[scottydel]

I recently stayed at the Thong Ta Resort & Spa in Lad Krabang (where most of the hotels are). It was 890 Baht (790 Bt single) a night and they run a shuttle service to/from the airport.

They offer a complimentary roundtrip to/from Suvarnabhumi airport. Theirhotel`s representative standby at Arrival terminal level 2 exit door 4.

It was a simple transfer exercise on arrival once you have found the rep (they have a sheet of paper with your name on but it is best to stand opposite exit door 4 looking lost).

The staff at the hotel friendly and the breakfast is OK.

This hotel is the most suitable out of 4 similar priced/located hotels

Thank you so much cardholder. Your response hit the bullseye

[afarang]

What a great reply!!!!!

[ShopBoy]

Should have a Thank You button in the forum or Like button.

[gk10002000]

I am sure she can figure the Thailand side of things out, find the correct baggage carousel, etc. She speaks the language.

My concern would be the Chicago O'hare thing. I have not had checked in luggage in a long time so I don't know what the heck Chicago will do. I assume she will have to get her luggage from the Cleveland flight and then bring it to the ticket counter at O'hare? And then possibly go through whatever sort of x-ray baggage screen they have there. I hope not. If possible, try to have her use just a small carry on. That would greatly simplify things. I don't know of any woman that can travel that lightly, but do it if possible. Then all she has to do is walk from gate to gate and not bother with the luggage.

Arriving in Narita, she will be in the same situation as everybody else. As long as she can say Bangkok and knows the flight number, there won't be much issue finding the gate.

[wileycoyote]

I recently stayed at the Thong Ta Resort & Spa in Lad Krabang (where most of the hotels are). It was 890 Baht (790 Bt single) a night and they run a shuttle service to/from the airport.

They offer a complimentary roundtrip to/from Suvarnabhumi airport. Theirhotel`s representative standby at Arrival terminal level 2 exit door 4.

It was a simple transfer exercise on arrival once you have found the rep (they have a sheet of paper with your name on but it is best to stand opposite exit door 4 looking lost).

The staff at the hotel friendly and the breakfast is OK.

This hotel is the most suitable out of 4 similar priced/located hotels

Good Posting

Wiley Coyote

[fatfather]

I recently stayed at the Thong Ta Resort & Spa in Lad Krabang (where most of the hotels are). It was 890 Baht (790 Bt single) a night and they run a shuttle service to/from the airport.

They offer a complimentary roundtrip to/from Suvarnabhumi airport. Theirhotel`s representative standby at Arrival terminal level 2 exit door 4.

It was a simple transfer exercise on arrival once you have found the rep (they have a sheet of paper with your name on but it is best to stand opposite exit door 4 looking lost).

The staff at the hotel friendly and the breakfast is OK.

This hotel is the most suitable out of 4 similar priced/located hotels

That's the perfect stay, I absolutely recommend it. I myself travel a lot (sometimes two three times a month) and always stay in this hotel. Close to the hotel there is an open air Thai food court and a seven eleven as well. Your girlfriend will have no problem to care for herself. Go for it, it really will give her all she needs.

fatfather

[pomchop]

I am sure she can figure the Thailand side of things out, find the correct baggage carousel, etc. She speaks the language.

My concern would be the Chicago O'hare thing. I have not had checked in luggage in a long time so I don't know what the heck Chicago will do. I assume she will have to get her luggage from the Cleveland flight and then bring it to the ticket counter at O'hare? And then possibly go through whatever sort of x-ray baggage screen they have there. I hope not. If possible, try to have her use just a small carry on. That would greatly simplify things. I don't know of any woman that can travel that lightly, but do it if possible. Then all she has to do is walk from gate to gate and not bother with the luggage.

Arriving in Narita, she will be in the same situation as everybody else. As long as she can say Bangkok and knows the flight number, there won't be much issue finding the gate.

She would check her luggage in on her first flight in America all the way through to Bangkok..all security screening of luggage takes place at your originating airport .no need to get luggage in chicago or narita..all she has to do is change planes....standard procedure

[gk10002000]

I am sure she can figure the Thailand side of things out, find the correct baggage carousel, etc. She speaks the language.

My concern would be the Chicago O'hare thing. I have not had checked in luggage in a long time so I don't know what the heck Chicago will do. I assume she will have to get her luggage from the Cleveland flight and then bring it to the ticket counter at O'hare? And then possibly go through whatever sort of x-ray baggage screen they have there. I hope not. If possible, try to have her use just a small carry on. That would greatly simplify things. I don't know of any woman that can travel that lightly, but do it if possible. Then all she has to do is walk from gate to gate and not bother with the luggage.

Arriving in Narita, she will be in the same situation as everybody else. As long as she can say Bangkok and knows the flight number, there won't be much issue finding the gate.

She would check her luggage in on her first flight in America all the way through to Bangkok..all security screening of luggage takes place at your originating airport .no need to get luggage in chicago or narita..all she has to do is change planes....standard procedure

That sounds good to me, and I hope it is true. However, I am pretty sure that when people are connecting through the USA, say LAX, Los Angeles coming to the USA, they make you pick up your luggage and then head over to check in again. Everybody on the plane when I come back from the USA that has ongoing connecting flights always has to go claim their luggage. A horribl thing in my opinion, but that is what they do. I hope Narita is different as she is just transiting and connecting through there.

[keeniau96]

Arriving into USA into LAX, NYC, anywhere, all arrivees have to claim baggage to go through customs, then immediately recehck the baggage. Not relevant to departures.

[scottydel]

Thanks for the replies. I feel a little better now regarding ticketing and baggage check-in. I'll try and equip her with a global phone as well before she leaves the USA, and keep her carry on super light. Again much thanks to cardholder for the original reply - agreed this site needs a Thank You, Like or Thumbs Up!!!

[pomchop]

I am sure she can figure the Thailand side of things out, find the correct baggage carousel, etc. She speaks the language.

My concern would be the Chicago O'hare thing. I have not had checked in luggage in a long time so I don't know what the heck Chicago will do. I assume she will have to get her luggage from the Cleveland flight and then bring it to the ticket counter at O'hare? And then possibly go through whatever sort of x-ray baggage screen they have there. I hope not. If possible, try to have her use just a small carry on. That would greatly simplify things. I don't know of any woman that can travel that lightly, but do it if possible. Then all she has to do is walk from gate to gate and not bother with the luggage.

Arriving in Narita, she will be in the same situation as everybody else. As long as she can say Bangkok and knows the flight number, there won't be much issue finding the gate.

She would check her luggage in on her first flight in America all the way through to Bangkok..all security screening of luggage takes place at your originating airport .no need to get luggage in chicago or narita..all she has to do is change planes....standard procedure

That sounds good to me, and I hope it is true. However, I am pretty sure that when people are connecting through the USA, say LAX, Los Angeles coming to the USA, they make you pick up your luggage and then head over to check in again. Everybody on the plane when I come back from the USA that has ongoing connecting flights always has to go claim their luggage. A horribl thing in my opinion, but that is what they do. I hope Narita is different as she is just transiting and connecting through there.

When LEAVING america you check bags all the way through to BKK as you do not have to clear customs. However, when arriving in America you must clear customs at first major airport and then recheck bags to final destination as not all American airports have custom and immigration facilities, in fact most do not. So usually LAX, SFO, HNL, ORD, JFK, ATL etc are the airports where you wil have to clear customs. If she were flying from Cleveland as it said above via chicago to bkk she would check her bags in cleveland and not see them again until bangkok...makes a difference if you are coming or going.

[cardholder]

It is nice to get a "thank you" (although I didn't post for that reason ).

This is what ThaiVisa is about for me - sharing experiences.

I really do think that the Thong Ta hotel will fit fit the bill for a single female traveller. It is a very safe environment with easy access to/from the airport.