Upon arrival at Bangkok airport, you will be met by your guide and transferred to your hotel.
This evening you’ll be picked up at your hotel by your guide and driver and transferred to Maya restaurant for an unconventional Thai cultural dinner show. The dining venue is staged like a theater, yet with lounge-style chairs or day beds from which to enjoy the performance. Take your seats at 1900 for a pre-show drink, enjoying the river views and sublime luxury of the venue.
After the curtain goes up at 1930, watch the amazing theatrical and culinary experience unfolds. Over the course of 2 hours, a 15-course meal of Thai classics and innovative delights will be served as well as a choice of drinks, including wine and unique cocktails. While dining, and in between courses, a live show of cooking, dancing and theatrical performance will be taking place throughout the venue- bringing the show off the stage and right up to your table.
Finally, after the curtain drops, retire to the bar for post-show drinks before returning to your hotel.
Overnight in Bangkok
Meal Included: Dinner
An early start will get you to Wat Po in time to experience the monks early morning chanting ritual (chanting starts at 09.00 Hrs). After this uplifting and often private experience visit the temple grounds and the famous 45-metre reclining Buddha. Continue to The Grand Palace, Thailand’s most important landmark, where you will be awed by the grandeur and majesty of the building and its throne halls. Then, of course, marvel at the mysterious Emerald Buddha, the most revered Buddha image in Thailand.
Driving to “Chakrabongse Villa” – a former house of Prince Chula Chakrabongse built in traditional Thai Style a century ago – settled in a lush tropical garden by the river. A Sumptuous Thai Set lunch is privately arranged and exclusively served at the elegant open air riverside pavilion where you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the river of kings and the magnificent temple of dawn as a wonderful backdrop of Bangkok’s Chao Phrya River.
The afternoon is free time to experience Bangkok or shop on your style.
Overnight in Bangkok
Meal Included: Breakfast, Lunch
Board a private long tail boat taking guests onto the peaceful Klong Bang Luang. Pass by shop houses, local temples and vendors on this waterway which was once a major trading route and lined with impressive homes of aristocrats. The guide will point out local landmarks and cultural idiosyncrasies of the area. After observing this lively area the boat stops at Baan Silapin, a 100 year old renovated house now home to an art gallery. Here stop for up to two hours to enjoy the gallery, take part in an art workshop or explore the local community, before experiencing a unique puppet show performed by puppeteers trained under the Joe Louis School of puppetry. Enroute back to the city stop to visit the Temple of Dawn – Wat Arun, arriving back early afternoon.
Lunch at the delightful restaurant overlooking the Chao Phraya River.
Continue to a traditional wooden Thai Houses that set amidst the leafy grounds for real Thai traditional experiences.
After an orientation to give an overview of the arts they are about to study and the ways they inter-relate with each other.
- Thai Etiquette (Marayaat): introduces how to move and act within Thai society: how to wai, sit, stand, pay respect to an elder, a monk, etc., and how to give and receive things.
- Thai Design (Lai Thai): learn the basics of drawing the uniquely Thai flame-like and flower design patterns one sees everywhere from temple eaves and wall paintings to the lion emblem on a bottle of Singha beer. After practicing basic patterns for a while, students then receive a brocade-bound book to draw a finished design in. First they outline the design in pencil, then trace the pattern in natural glue, and finally gently lay gold leaf over the glue, leaving a final design in gold. This is the traditional way that artisans of old created Thai designs. The students take their brocade-bound books home with them as a souvenir.
Return to the hotel for relaxing.
Depart in the evening to “nahm Bangkok”, a Michelin-starred chef creates authentic Thai cuisine restaurant at The Metropolitan Hotel.
This is the first venture in the country that first inspired David Thompson. The Australian-born, award-winning chef, author and TV personality is internationally renowned for his renditions of traditional Thai cuisine. His talents secured him the first ever Michelin star for Thai cooking in Europe; it is an accolade, awarded annually, which David retains to this day at nahm London.
Overnight in Bangkok
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Breakfast at the hotel and take you to visit Jim Thompson House. Located along a canal in the city center, this beautiful teak mansion was the former residence of Jim Thompson, the charismatic American silk merchant. Comprised of several traditional teak buildings amid a leafy compound, Thompson spent years filling it with priceless antiques before his mysterious disappearance in 1967. You will take a tour through the house where you will learn more about the man himself, his involvement in the silk trade as well as about Thai culture and tradition.
Then cross the canal to Baan Krua, a Cham Muslim village whose artisans used to weave for Jim Thompson. Today, some of the original weaving families still remain and welcome visitors to learn about their history and traditions. You’ll visit local houses and view artisans at work. The community also has a silk shop and gallery which showcases high quality Thai silk products- perfect as travel keepsakes or souvenirs for family and friends
Following your visit to Baan Krua you’ll be transferred back to your hotel or on to your next tour stop.
Return to the hotel for check-out, and then transfer to Bangkok International Airport for your flight.
Meal Included: Breakfast
