Amazing Thailand doesn’t disappoint

An invite to stay in a top Bangkok hotel, watch some former All Blacks try and train an elephant, and soak up the calm of Hua Hin was enough to lure Barry Coughlan back to Thailand’s shores.

I DIDN’T need any particular excuse to pay a return visit to Thailand. People love the country for a host of reasons; its diversity, brashness, calmness, but mostly for its welcoming people. It is every bit what the Thai tourist people like to call it, Amazing Thailand.

However, the invite did catch my eye; it included a one-night stay in a particularly favourite Bangkok riverside hotel and a really nice few days in the city of calm, Hua Hin. The excuse was to go watch elephant polo and stay in a couple of top five-star hotels, a five-star in Thailand generally being somewhat grander than many similarly rated hotels around the world.