Rose and Ron Krumpos in Thailand

---

Thailand

Lunch by the pool at the Siam InterContinental with Tiger Tops' owner
One trip to Bangkok was in August...in sweltering heat. Rose took tours while Ron was in sales meetings. She was wilting and grateful to return to the air-conditioned Siam InterContinental. At its pool we had lunch with Jim Edwards, Owner of Tiger Tops in Nepal, and his Nepalese secretary Uma. The next day we all went to the newly opened Ancient City, one hour south of Bangkok.

When Ron worked for Thai International, the Station Manager always met us so we didn't have to clear Immigration or Customs. Transfers from the airport to the downtown hotels should take 30 minutes, but took an hour due to the mind-boggling traffic. Many drivers sat to the right of their seat to allow room for the Buddha to steer them to safety. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel had a river transfer for groups...suggested by our international sales team. We used hotel cars in Bangkok: newer Mercedes and quite reasonable. Taxis? A hassle.

Barking deer with the Managing Director of Thai International
Niels Lumholdt, Managing Director of Thai, took Ron to Nick's Hungarian Inn to have venison of barking deer. These miniature deer were imported from Burma (Myanmar), but illegal to hunt in Thailand. Rose remembers lumpia Niels brought from Manila to a party at the San Francisco home of Claus Jensen, General Manager-Americas for Thai International.

Thai Airways International started in 1960 as a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines and Thai Airways Company, Thailand's domestic carrier. That ended in 1977 when the Thai government bought out the remaining 15%!o(MISSING)f SAS shares. Niels joined Thai International in 1964, rising from Director of Sales & Marketing to V.P. and Deputy Managing Director. Claus Jensen was one of the pioneers of in-flight entertainment on airlines.

Fumbling with escargot at dinner with Lars Lind in Bangkok
Lars Lind, owner of a tour company in Bangkok, invited us to dinner at the Montien Hotel. Earlier Ron drank too much at a reception for his friend General Chalermchai, Director of the Tourist Organization of Thailand. We both like escargot, but Ron used the clamp for holding the shell to try removing the snail...a fumbling attempt that failed. Lars provided cars and guides for us; he seemed to value both our opinions about tours.

As Sales Development Manager, Ron promoted destinations served by Thai International. Lars asked us to evaluate a 'real' floating market 90 minutes from the 'tourist' version in Bangkok...would Americans think it worthwhile? The next day we explored the market and made our first visit to the Rose Garden in Nakhon Pathom. At the Nipa Lodge (now Basaya Beach Hotel), our host in Pattaya, we had dinner with General Manager Anton Good. Together with the Pattaya Palace, the Nipa Lodge hosted Ron's first group of American tour wholesalers the following year. Since then, 30,000 hotel rooms have opened there.
Lunch at the Rose Garden with the InterContinental's sales director and family

Two years later, the Siam InterContinental's Sales Director, Niphon Palalikit, his wife Toi and their children were our guests for lunch at the Rose Garden (now Sampran Riverside), the restaurant and Thai cultural show park owned by Suchada Yuvaboon, daughter of the former Mayor of Bangkok. Their four year old daughter, a little lady, easily read the English menu. Quite a contrast with the young girls of the Karen tribe, smoking pipes, who we later met in a village near Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
Niphon and Toi visited us in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He opened Venus Jewelry in Bangkok and made a ring for Rose from a large star ruby Ron bought in Sri Lanka. The Rose Garden was included on Ron's first trade mission for American tour wholesalers and most of them added it to their itineraries, en route back from the real floating markets at Damnern Saduak. Suchada was so grateful that she gave us a 700 year old vase from Ayutthaya. Outside Chiang Mai, Ron had a Mountain Dew...bottled in Kenosha, Wisconsin (his home town).

Lunch served to us in the cockpit of Thai Airways en route to Phuket
We were 'bumped' on Thai Airways from Bangkok to Phuket...the flight overbooked. As a Thai International employee we were able to get on a cargo flight. The Captain invited us to sit in the cockpit, where we were served a box lunch. From the Phuket Island Resort - our host - we sailed 10 miles to Phang-nga island, location for a James Bond movie. We stopped for lunch at Ko Panyi, a Muslim fishing village built on stilts over the bay.

An Italian film company was at our resort...an actress had her body covered in blue paint. On Phang-nga, a Thai movie was filming. After our trip together, Ron's second trade mission introduced Phuket to American tour wholesalers; it is now included on many of their tours of Southeast Asia. Sets for "The Man with the Golden Gun" were being built on Phang-nga when they were there. The seafood dinners were wonderful at the Phuket Island Resort. Later, 33 resorts (7,000 rooms) were built on Phuket's 12 fine beaches; ours was the first.

A dinner service performance at Le Chalet in the Erawan Hotel
Le Chalet was the Franco-Swiss restaurant in the old Erawan Hotel (now site of the Grand Hyatt Erawan). Its ebullient Thai Chef was Cordon Bleu trained in Europe. He prepared or finished most dishes at each table, with a flourish and much chatter. The decor was of a Swiss chalet, with a cow bell at the door. At Baan Thai, a Thai-style house/restaurant and gardens, we watched graceful Thai classical dances from tables sunk in the floor.

For one trip to Bangkok we stayed at the Dusit Thani, which had a baby elephant standing next to their doorman. During a later hotel strike, the little elephant died. At the eclectic Weekend Market, a fortune teller told Rose never to return to the place of her birth. After joining Mandarin Oriental, Ron conducted seminars on incentive travel to Asia. One result was Chevrolet booking three back-to-back charter flights for their dealers to stay at the Oriental Hotel. They were cancelled when Bangkok had its first ever student riots just three weeks before departure.

A hilarious lunch with the Oriental's manager and his wife in Bangkok
At the Oriental (now Mandarin Oriental) in Bangkok - 10 years rated the world's best hotel by business travelers - we dined with Kurt Wachtveitl, then its General Manager for 30 years. We will never forget one lunch on the outdoor Riverside Terrace with he and his Thai wife Penny. A female French journalist, known for complaining about everything, exited the hotel and Kurt sat under the table to avoid her. Penny put a napkin over his head, which made everyone laugh, including the waiter. His staff adored him.

Every hotel sent us a basket of heavenly Thai fruit: rambutan, mangosteen, pomelo, and pawpaw. At the Oriental, Mrs. Ankana, Front Office Manager, always met us. She was with the hotel for 50 years and full of energy. Pornsri, Public Relations Manager, was sweet and helpful. As we were leaving the Oriental, Kurt and Penny saw us off. The Bangkok Post, English-language daily newspaper, published our photo together.

A sumptuous buffet on board the Oriental Queen sailing the Chao Phraya River
On the Oriental Queen - a luxurious riverboat operated by the hotel - we sailed from Bangkok up the Chao Phraya River to the former summer palace at Bang Pa-in and the ancient capitol of Ayutthaya. On board was a sumptuous buffet of tropical fruit, Thai specialties and Continental cuisine...with an impressive and appetizing presentation. We were also Kurt's dinner guests at the Oriental's legendary Le Normandie, on the rooftop, then considered the best French restaurant in Asia.
Kurt hosted Thai International's sales staff on the Oriental Queen, entertained by a lady with a bullwhip. We first stayed at the Oriental Hotel when the River Wing was being constructed, given the lovely Somerset Maugham suite in the original building, then 75 years old. On a hard hat tour of the River Wing, Wally Gress fell one storey onto a pile of bricks; bruising both his ego and his back. On a later stay, we were in one of the spacious new rooms overlooking the Chao Phraya.
A shellfish banquet at the Sea Palace with Mandarin Oriental's sales team

The Sea Palace was a large, attractive restaurant outside central Bangkok. In the elevated brick structure we were greeted by pretty hostesses who led us past glass tanks of live fish and shellfish awaiting our selection. Most tables were on the patio where Mandarin Oriental's sales team had a banquet, laughing and gorging ourselves. On one of our six trips together to Bangkok, we had a Thai dinner on a converted rice barge on the Chao Phraya.

Chalie Amatyakul, the Oriental's Director of Sales, took us to a high class massage parlor next to the Sea Palace where every masseuse wore a different outfit. He then brought us to a risque club down an alley off Patpong Road. Wally Gress, Armando Tirona, Chalie, and Robert King (HKG) had brunch with us in Sausalito, before they went with Ron to make audiovisual presentations for travel agents in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, and New York.

---