Experiences: Tong's Team

Hi guys,

Seeing as we cannot tour with Tong herself ( :-( ), has anyone had any experiences with other members of her team? I would like to know more about which guide to request and which to avoid. Albeit, I%26#39;m sure Tong%26#39;s standards are very high so all her guides must be good.

So far I%26#39;ve read positive and negative comments about a guide named Charlie.

Experiences: Tong's Team

Hey

I just found this link to a review on one of Tongs team called Tom in the Trip advisor review section.

tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293916-r608鈥?/a>

Hope that helps

Emjayxx

Experiences: Tong's Team

That guy sounds quite good! :-)

Hi Ash

My 3 friends and I have just returned from Bangkok. We were fortunate to spend a great day with Tong, but just as lucky to have had Charlie for a day. After reading a few negative reports about Charlie today I felt I needed to let everyone know how happy my friends (Janice ,Sherry, Helen) and I were.

We are returning in March and have already rebooked to have Charlie for a day.

Charlie used to work for the U.S. Embassy and is very well respected and looks after all the Diplomats (by their request) when they come to Bangkok. His wealth of knowledge about Thailand history is invaluable.

Tong';s standards are very high as you can imagine, she would only have the best working for her.

All I can say is, give Charlie a go, he is accommodating, considerate and a whole lot of fun.

Thanks for posting! :-) I%26#39;ve got a while to go yet, so I%26#39;ll wait and see who Tong suggests before requesting... I feel so demanding with all these e-mails going back and forth!

I decided on Charlie.

Here%26#39;s what Tong had to say about him... He sounds great!

';He is a very good guy..but he is an old guy with young at heart. Since he worked for long..that%26#39;s why he has many stories to talk with you in the car.';

';the kindest guide that can accommodate every case is Charlie';

';Charlie has strong accent but he is the most experienced one in the team. He speaks very fast..I have tried to tell him to speak slowlier.. He has been serving the US Embassy for 8 years..Very honest and kind..try to save money for you in every case..good consultant if you wanna find anything cheap..he knows best...he will know if you wanna buy anything..just tell him..he knows the best place. His historical knowledge is good too.';

Hi,

I have a day boooked with Charlie on 29 November so will write a review of my day when I get back!

We were in Thailand in October and could not get a tour with Tong due to short notice. But we were recommended a guide name Jai. Though he does not fluent perfect English(but we had really no trouble understanding him), Jai is very friendly, informative, and enthusiatic during the entire day. He picked us up in his comfortable AC Volvo sedan at 6am at our hotel. First we went to the floating market and he would help us bargain in Thai for fruits/souvenirs. Then we had a choice to ride elephants but we declined b/c it costs 600bahts/pp. then it was off to the wood carving village which was an eye opener. After that we had lunch at this delicious yet inexpensive, elegant Thai restaurant. Later after lunch we went to the Grand Place, Emerald Buddha, and also the reclining buddha. Also, He is a licensed guide so he is allowed to to take us into the Grand Place and give us a very informative history of the place which was really good and educational. We learned alot about Thai history. We finished our tour around 5pm. He also gave us alot of tips in terms where to go and eat, also spa recommendations. So it was really worth having him to show us around the 1st day b/c we had a good idea of where to go and what to do for the rest of our trip. I highly recommend him.

We were in Thailand in October and could not get a tour with Tong due to short notice. But we were recommended a guide name Jai. Though he does not speak fluent English(but we had really no trouble understanding him), Jai is very friendly, informative, and enthusiatic during the entire day. He picked us up in his comfortable AC Volvo sedan at 6am at our hotel. First we went to the floating market and he would help us bargain in Thai for fruits/souvenirs. Then we had a choice to ride elephants but we declined b/c it costs 600bahts/pp. then it was off to the wood carving village which was an eye opener. After that we had lunch at this delicious yet inexpensive, elegant Thai restaurant. Later after lunch we went to the Grand Place, Emerald Buddha, and also the reclining buddha. Also, He is a licensed guide so he is allowed to to take us into the Grand Place and give us a very informative history of the place which was really good and educational. We learned alot about Thai history. We finished our tour around 5pm. He also gave us alot of tips in terms where to go and eat, also spa recommendations. So it was really worth having him to show us around the 1st day b/c we had a good idea of where to go and what to do for the rest of our trip. I highly recommend him.

Charlie took two of us to Kanchanaburi on Saturday 11/11. He was fantastic and we felt like we%26#39;d known him for years. The restaurants at the Bridge were booked out so he took us to his sister%26#39;s restaurant further along the river. We had tom yum koong (with the biggest prawns farmed by his brother-in-law), chicken and cashews, beef with vegetables, rice, and a large bottle of pepsi. I asked Charlie to eat with us and the total cost was only 420 baht. We sat on a balcony right on the river and there was a lovely cool breeze. Charlie has a Honda Civic, which is plenty big enough for two passengers and the air-conditioning worked really well. He had lots of stories and a lovely laugh. I would recommend Charlie without hesitation.

We spent some days in October in Bangkok and we experienced quite a lot of Tong%26#39;s team.

The first day we were picked up at the airport by someone called Kawao. She was very nice but not very fluent in English, so we found it difficult to understand her.

The second day we did the Bangkok tour with Noi. He was also very nice and tried to transmit us all his knowledge, but his accent was very strong and his English not so good, so, again, it was hard to understand him.

Anyway, I have to say that English is not our mother tongue, so I suppose it%26#39;s more difficult for us to understand someone who has a strong accent.

The third day we went to the Floating Market with Tong and it was perfect. She%26#39;s such a honest, caring and funny person, that by the end of the day we felt really fond of her. Her English is very good and so is her knowledge. It had been my husband%26#39;s birthday 2 days before, and as I had told Tong when I hired her by Email, she bought a birthday cake for him.

The fourth day we visited Ayutthaya with Tom. What a great surprise! He%26#39;s not joking all the time as Tong is, but he is also really nice and helpful. We told him that we are quite lazy when it comes to taking pictures, so he decided to take all the pictures for us. He is really enthusiastic about his culture and his English is fantastic. Absolutely no problem with understanding him. We were so happy with him that we booked him again for the last day of our trip.

The fifth day we were picked up by Charlie at our hotel and taken to the airport. He is nice but in my opinion he speaks too much. He spent all the way to the airport telling us stories about trips he had done with people at the US Embassy. It was Ok but it wasn%26#39;t any kind of conversation, as we had had the days before with Tong and Tom, but just a monologue. Anyway, he just picked us up from the hotel and took us to the airport, so I really do not know how he does his work as a guide.

After some days, we came back to Bangkok and we were picked up by Charlie麓s brother. Charlie was supposed to come but he was not able to do it and sent his brother.

Next day we visited China Town, the Flower Market and the Canals with Tom. It was again a great pleasure. We hired him for half a day, which was Ok, but I wanted to do some final shopping and as we ran out of time we got a bit nervous. It was 17:30, we still had to find the shop I was looking for, get what I needed and be back at the hotel by 18:00. Well, he managed to do it even if it was the rush hour.

This same day we were taken to the airport by Charlie. As we knew him already, we tried to talk to him instead of only listen and it worked for a while, but then he started again telling us stories. There%26#39;s nothing wrong about him, there are some stories that are very funny indeed, but our personal feeling was that it was too much.