Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
The transfer taxi had seen better days. In fact it was a wreck and had no seat belts in the back.
Holiday was excellent and everything was seamless. Hotels were excellent - one slight disappointment was the hotel in Krabi. While it was an excellent hotel it was a bit remote and we like to walk to restaurants and shops and had to use taxis.
Jamie was always available to speak with when necessary. We had a slight blip with our original hotel booking but this was thankfully sorted before we went away on a great trip to Thailand
Jerry is fantastic and wonderful - also so is Tristan who I spoke on the phone with yesterday
Mia is amazing - so easy to deal with and friendly. Lee also helped me out with a situation which was nothing to do with DialAFlight. Great company and looking to book already for next year.
All good - be booking another soon.
Best travel agent to book with. Always book through this company. Also family friends.
Everything went very smoothly and the flights were perfect. Thanks for all your efforts
Another amazing experience with DialAFlight
Thanks again for all the help you gave us. Big thanks to Hannah
Aidan did a brilliant job for us - everything went smoothly - will definitely be using him again
Jonathan very helpful with our complicated booking!
Totally dependable first class service as always
Everything was very good. Anantara hotel in Koh Samui has amazing staff and location!
Only problem was delayed in Manchester and missed my flight to Manila
It was a great holiday
The service was absolutely first class from start to finish - we will definitely be using DialAFlight for our next trip
All good with JAL. Excellent flights and food on both and excellent time between!
As ever, Tammy delivered a bespoke holiday package - absolutely perfect and a big thanks from us
Excellent service as usual. Ashley was spot on all the way through the process
Would recommend again and have several times, thanks again
We had a great holiday arranged for us by Tristan Chatburn. Five flights, a boat return transfer, two excursions and five hotels were involved and everything worked seamlessly. Destination Asia were amazing with all local arrangements, as was Tristan for putting it all together.
Thank you again DialAFlight. Everything exceeded expectations and we had the exact accommodation we requested.
Always 1st class service from your lovely team.
Thanks again to Matthew and his team. We had the most perfect holiday and got engaged! Have passed your number to my aunt as she has some holidays she’d like to book and we wouldn’t use anyone else!
We always tell others we meet on our travels about the excellent service Tristan offers. I need to give a mention to Destination Asia your representatives in Bangkok who give a first class service
As efficient and knowledgeable as ever. Great to know you always get excellent support from DialAFlight staff.
Great as usual
Great service. I have and would recommend DialAFlight to anyone. Keep up the good work
Smooth as silk
You all know Roger Moore, 007? If you are too young to know what he looks like, he looks like me,' said our small, squat, spectacularly un-debonair Thai tour guide, Captain Alex, with a deadpan face.
While not exactly shaken with laughter at his wry quips, everyone was stirred by the stunning scenery at Ko Khao Phing Kan, or James Bond Island, as this place is more famously known. It became a must-see site due to its double-O heaven setting in The Man With The Golden Gun, when Moore's Bond goes in search of Scaramanga, played with relish by Christopher Lee.
This was all heady stuff for a first-time visitor to Thailand, an exotic land that has also inspired on the big screen the sublime (The Beach) and the ridiculous (The Hangover, Part II).
Many writers, from Somerset Maugham to Graham Greene, have fallen for Thailand's bars, silk, curry and hospitality. Its ancient history, temples, islands and beaches, as well as the gentle people of unrivalled grace, have made it endlessly enchanting.
A small bit of detective work led me to deduce that John le Carré found his original inspiration for The Night Manager - his thriller televised this year - in Thailand after staying at The Mandarin Oriental hotel in Bangkok, on the banks of the Chao Phraya river.
I discovered his fascination for the legendary hotelier Kurt Wachtveitl, famed for decades for arranging everything with charm and discretion, just as we saw Tom Hiddleston's character do in the BBC series. More later about le Carré, a drunken night on champagne, and his eternal gratitude to the night manager.
But first back to James Bond Island. This speck in Phang Nga Bay is firmly on the tourist track as boatloads arrive to get their fix of the legendary spy.
Indeed, everyone else on our boat seemed to think they were wannabe secret agents, as the men stripped down to Daniel Craig-style swimming shorts and the women wore Bond-girl bikinis. They also donned their best Bond-villain shades for selfies in front of the limestone outcrops.
Captain Alex's tour included kayaking into sea caves, shopping for silk and a lunch of fresh grilled fish, before driving back to the Banyan Tree Hotel in Phuket, a tranquil base where smiling courtesy is second nature to its staff.
Phuket became a favourite destination of backpackers in the 1960s and 1970s thanks to its sleepy beauty and sensational beaches, and luxury hotel chains soon discovered its appeal.
Many of the villas in the Banyan have a private pool, and you can have spa treatments in your garden overlooking the lagoon. Bicycles make it easy to get to and from the main lobby and its zen-like spa.
The starting point for my trip before heading to Phuket was Bangkok and the splendid Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Leave so much as half an apple in your room and it will be replaced within the hour. As well as supreme service, there is nothing the staff haven't seen, from Billy Idol smashing up his suite to Somerset Maugham fighting off a bout of malaria.
Some simple sleuthing persuaded me that le Carré first came across his inspiration for The Night Manager here. The clues were staring me in the face in the le Carré suite on the tenth floor.
A typed letter from the author is framed on the wall. He thanks the hotel manager for the incredible care and hospitality, having arrived 'tired, dusty and unannounced' after a 'swing through divided Laos' while researching his novel, The Honourable Schoolboy.
He recounts how he met up with a friend in the hotel and drank copious amounts of champagne, which annoyed a journalist from 'a lofty London paper' who was also staying there. 'I fear we may not have seemed as funny to him as we did to one another.' A year later, when The Honourable Schoolboy finally appeared, the same correspondent took time off from his political musing to give it a perfectly dreadful review.
The fact that le Carré bothered to send such a letter to the manager indicates his fascination at how Kurt Wachtveitl looked after him and the dozens of others guests, all seemingly effortlessly.
Incidentally, the room opposite le Carré's is the Barbara Cartland suite, for those who are more inclined to soft romance than spy thriller.
Just outside the hotel, Bangkok shows all its buzz and brashness, with street food, shopping (incredible silver), mai tai cocktails at sunset at bars both grand and grubby.
There has always a sense of being about to enter the land of all possibilities, be it The Beach, Bridge On The River Kwai, or Bond. Just remember not to turn it into The Hangover…
First published in the Mail on Sunday - October 2016 More articles below...
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