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Excellent service as usual! I continue to recommend you to everyone I meet
Thank you Les. It was seamless
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The organisation through Tamarind in India was excellent however when we were not met in Delhi by the Tamarind representative we called your 24 hour helpline and they were able to make contact with Tamarind and connect us to them.
Thanks again - it was a beautiful hotel with stunning views from our balcony.
Perfect service by Stan - friendly and helpful
All went smoothly and incredibly good service from Ewan. Will certainly use again. Much appreciated
A very good trip well organised and provided by DAF
Always excellent service from Kelly
One of the best companies around - staff can't do enough for you
Your service level has always been good. My last Swiss Air flight return from Bangkok via Zurich to London was an awful experience.
It was very clear and straightforward from the DialAFlight team. I was also very pleased to have a quick reminder call on the Friday before my departure to ask me about preparedness e.g. visa status.
We had a very enjoyable holiday.
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Excellent service, recommendations for hotels were spot on. Flights, transfers, hotels and arrangements were all very smooth.
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This was not an issue with DialAFlight, but on our trip to Japan, we booked a beach hotel for the last four days of the trip. We planned to relax in the hotel swimming pool and on the beach. However, when we arrived, we were told that the pool and beaches were closed despite 36 degrees. The Japanese swimming season finishes on the 27th of August for the season no matter the weather, and pools and public beaches close. (We did break the rules and snuck a swim in the sea! But obviously couldn't use the hotel pool).
We have used DialAFlight for 18 years and enjoyed multiple trips per year. Never an issue, always a hassle free enjoyable time. I know we are safe and all of our bookings are handled expertly. Happy to recommend to anyone.
Joe Orton always incredibly helpful.
Everything went very smoothly. Thank you very much for organising the holiday and making it so easy. We really appreciate the excellent customer service - nothing was too much trouble and the two weeks were problem free.
Great people
Always great service Vinnie
Thanks for the help when UK air traffic control went down, much appreciated
First class service again
As ever service from Nick and Joe was excellent.
Staff very polite and helpful, thoroughly recommend
We are happy with the personal interactions and using the same person who knows us and what our needs are.
First rate service, thank you.
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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