Paul and Reisa George told us many, many years ago about the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. They raved about it and of course Ken and I had to try it. Now called the Mandarin Oriental, the hotel has ranked in the top lists of hotels in the world in just about every travel and lodging list there is.

If there is a better place to stay, I’d love to find it.

Ken and I have fallen in love with this place and now Kelly is a raving fan, too! We have stayed here on every visit — except for once when the Peninsula hotel was brand new and was offering some crazy cheap rates. Ken will be sure to tell you that the phones were so new they rang all night long. We haven’t been back to the Peninsula.

Why is this hotel number one?

It starts when you walk in the door. The doorman bows to you and offers you a flower as he escorts you to your greeter.

You don’t check in at a counter. A beautiful lady in a pink Thai silk suit takes you directly to your room and fills out all the necessary paper work for you. She shows you around your room and introduces you to your butler.

Every floor has its own bulter, who brings you a welc0me drink and asks if you would like him to unpack for you. I’ve never had the nerve to ask him to unpack for me, but how decadent is it to be asked?

The rooms are not large but elegantly decorated with Thai silks, of course. Every detail of the room and bathroom is carefully designed. Oh, how I love a good design! The hallway to the room has a knee-high shelf that is roomy enough to open two large suitcases. There is a compartment to put your shoes at night so they will be shined in the morning and another compartment where a newspaper is delivered to you every morning.

There are orchids everywhere. On the desk (which has lots of plugs for your electronics), in the entranceway, by your bed and in the bathroom.

Every day you get a different fresh fruit with a little card explaining what the fruit is (sometimes exotic), plates, forks, knives and napkins.

When you leave your room, the butler rushes to the elevator to push the button for you! Whew.

There is ice in your ice bucket all the time. Fresh. Perfect and never melted.

Lights are easily controlled from your beside. There is even a night light so you don’t trip when you are getting up in the middle of the night.

One wall of your room is glass from ceiling to floor so you can see the incredible view of the Chao Phraya river below.

Everyone smiles and asks you how your day is. And they are sincere and happy to see you!

If you have laundry done, it comes back looking better than when you bought it. Here’s the beautiful box, lined with linen with your clothes.

When you use the pool, you have your own little cabana. The pool attendant brings you a cool cloth, fresh towels, ice water and mango sushi to refresh you.

It is a bit of a splurge to stay here, but not crazy expensive. On this trip, I rationalized by saying, “this could be my last time in Thailand and Kelly needs to stay here at least once.”

Besides this wonderful hotel, the people here are the sweetest and kindest anywhere. They smile, bow and are all around happy and accommodating. Taxies are much less expensive than in Tokyo and pretty much everything else is less expensive than Japan.

The food is incredible, beautifully presented and flavorful beyond description.

And of course the shopping is world class. Suffice to say we bought a new suitcase to take home our treasures.

We’re off on the bullet train back to Tokyo after spending three days in Kyoto. I gotta tell you I am still in love with these trains. They are just amazingly efficient, fast and smooth.

But enough about the trains. A bit about the city of Kyoto. Home to 1.5 million people, this is the old capital. You can’t throw a stick in this town without hitting a shrine. I mean it, there are shrines all over the place. Big ones, silver ones, gold ones and small ones. There are actually 1600 shrines and 17 are world heritage sites!

My favorite day was walking the Philosopher’s Path — a narrow paved trail along a crystal clear creek elevated a bit above the city. It was peaceful and quiet and the neighborhood of the silver pagoda — which really isn’t silver — they just call it that because the guy who built it was going to cover it in silver leaf. We spent the day wandering around and had lunch at the cutest little cafe with a husband-and-wife team who ran it. (or at least that’s what we told ourselves).

Kelly led me all over the city and we saw many, many more shrines and walked miles and miles. It was beautiful and exhausting. But fun!

We stayed in the Westin hotel, which I had selected because they had a deal on bed and breakfast and it was located near a lot of shrines. The location and the clean PJs every morning were the best things about the hotel. Oh yeah, they did have a great hamburger and french fries, too! The place looked like it had been built in the 80s and then added onto again and again and again. It was so chopped up looking that we even had a huge pillar in our room. The beds were nice and the room was fine, but if you are looking for charm or a bit of Japanese history, this isn’t the place to stay. I’m not really sure where is good, but a little research should give you some other options. There is a Ritz Carlton, but it is located out of town and I was afraid that location would be problematic for walking around.

On our last morning before returning to Tokyo for our flight to Bangkok, we stumbled upon the Kyoto Ceramic Arts Association store. It was full of gorgeous pottery and we found out the neighborhood around this store had lots of other cute pottery shops. This was near the Kiyiomizudera shrine.

This is our last day of our JR train pass, so we are heading back to Tokyo and then out to Narita Airport to spend the night at the Airport Hilton before our morning flight to Bangkok. Thailand here we come!!

There’s a lot to like about Japan.

For one thing, English is everywhere. If your Japanese is like mine — I know sushi and teriyaki and that’s about it — you’re fine. Every sign, label and street name is posted in English as well as Japanese. Everyone speaks English or at least enough to answer simple question and they are eager to chat with you.

The women are gorgeous. They’ve figured out that the sun is not good for their porcelain skin and carry the most beautiful lace-trimmed and scalloped umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun — not the rain. I wanted one of the umbrellas until I found out they run a cool $200. (Update, our shopping revealed they can be had for $25, but I talked myself out of buying one when I tried to figure out how to get it in my suitcase.)

It gets light early here. When I woke up at 3:46 — thank you jet lag — it was light.

The people are orderly and polite. Even in a city like Tokyo — with more than 38 million people — there are no unruly crowds, no people bumping into each other and no yelling and screaming. People are down right nice. They bow to you whenever you speak to them and treat you like you are some kind of special.

Tipping is considered in poor taste. They pay their service people enough so you don’t have to tip them to compensate for a low hourly wage. What a novel concept! Waiters and waitresses in our hotel actually ran to retrieve requested items.

Tokyo is more modern than most major US cities. Before World War II, fires got rid of most of the buildings. After World War II, well — we all know what we did to each other. Now, if a building is old, they simply tear it down and build a new one. No renovations or remodeling. They like new and shiny.

They have the most incredibly high tech toilets I have ever seen. They warm your seat, spray water and do all kinds of things I don’t understand — because this is one item I have found that isn’t labeled in English. Oh yeah, they put the toilet in its own little room, as I found out when I went in our bathroom and said to Kelly, “where’s the toilet?” She had already found it across the hallway in its own little compartment.

Tokyo is one of the cleanest places I have ever visited. The streets are spotless and I haven’t seen one bit of litter — anywhere.

Public transport is amazing and easy to navigate. Well, especially if you are traveling with Kelly Thomas, the wizard of directions, maps and finding your way. We bought a 7-day rail pass in the US and it will get us all around the city and to Kyoto and back. The trains run frequently, are air-conditioned, clean and color-coded so you know which line to use. Again, English is everywhere and even announcements are made in English.

The Japanese have planned well for disabled and handicapped folks. There are plenty of elevators, ramps and every street has raised pathways to help the blind navigate streets and road crossings.

These guys have thought of everything. Most restaurants have these cute little baskets or bins that sit under your seat or behind it to hold your purse and shopping bags. No oversized purses taking up space in your lap or on the floor. And by the way, it is safe enough in Japan that you don’t have to worry about purse snatchers!

Wi-fi is everywhere and it is free. America, take note.

Iced tea is as good as anywhere in the South! I’m in heaven.