From now through March 2003, you can join this tour, which departs on Mondays from Los Angeles on Northwest Airlines. Included are the following: round trip airfare from Los Angeles to Bangkok, 16 nights at deluxe or superior first-class hotels, 15 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 11 dinners, sightseeing and entertainment, all air and land transport in Thailand, local guide, transfers, baggage handling, hotel taxes and service charges, as well as frequent flyer bonus miles and $100,000 of flight insurance. Add-on fares are available from 82 North American gateways, up to a maximum of $190.
In addition to seeing Bangkok rather extensively (including the Royal Grand Palace, the wat of the Emerald Buddha, the Floating Market and more), you'll see Nakorn Pathom (where the country's oldest and tallest pagoda is located), the summer palace of King Rama V in Bang Pa-In, the ruins of Ayuthaya (former capital), a full-day tour to the River Kwai (and its famous bridge), Chiang Saen and Chiangmai, where many temples or wats await your visit.
You'll also see a Buddhist ordination ritual, Thai boxing and sword fighting, the fingernail dance and a traditional wedding. Throw in folk dances, a demonstration of working elephants (they're getting harder to find), lunch about a motor launch, dinner with a family, and a longboat cruise to The Golden Triangle, and you have a pretty comprehensive trip. In the Triangle, you can make an excursion to a Meo hill tribe village, if you're not exhausted from shopping at Chiangmai's Night Bazaar.
Pandering to Pandas in China
More expensive is a new family package to China, with prices for the 14-day (12 night) trip starting at $2,970, air-inclusive (from $2,240 for land only). Add-on fares from 81 North American gateways are available, also up to $190. The package works out to about $247.50 per person per night, the higher cost being due to your excursion to see the pandas in the Woolong Nature Preserve, the world's leading research and breeding facility for the Giant Panda (of which there are less than 1,000 in the world today, 300 of them in Szechwan Province). You get a lecture here and then walk with a guide through the grounds and viewing the exhibits.
The package includes round-trip air on Northwest, deluxe lodging in Beijing's Palace Hotel and Xian's Sheraton, outside cabins on the Yangtze River cruise, all air and land transport within China, sightseeing and entertainment, most meals, transfers, baggage handling, hotel taxes and service charges, and bonus miles and insurance as described above.
The tour begins in Shanghai, where you stay at the five-star J.C. Mandarin Hotel. You visit the Children's Palace and watch a class on some Chinese cultural topic (kung fu, opera, calligraphy, painting, etc.), tour the marvelous Shanghai Museum (I think it's one of the world's best), and the Arts & Crafts Institute.
In Xian, you visit the terra cotta warriors, take in a Circle Vision (360?) movie about the site, and more. Then you cruise for four days on the Yangtze on the MV Dragon, through the Three Gorges and past its dam. If the water level is right, you can take small boats pulled by human "trackers" up a side stream at Badong, and you can visit the "ghost" town of Fengdu. On the boat, you can learn to make and fly kites (haven't you always wanted to do that?).
You end your trip in Beijing, where you visit the hutongs (alleys), an art college, have a home-style dinner with a local family and celebrate with a farewell dinner featuring Peking Duck. Earlier, you can plant a tree at the Great Wall while visiting that once-fearsome site.
For reservations, information and brochures, contact your travel agent or Pacific Delight directly at 800/221-7179 or 212/818-1781, fax on demand 877/738-2742, Web site www.pacificdelighttours.com. If you book with a deposit by April 30, 2002, you'll get a $50 discount on the Thai trip and a $100 discount on the China tour.
