Purple Dragon’s ambitious plans for the next two years include more Figo locations and continued diversification into hotels and other businesses in the hospitality industry. We are also considering applying their unique approach to tour packaging to new destinations outside of Asia.

Photo Contest Winners

Many thanks to our judges: Sujit Benarjee, Khim Bunlin, John Goss, Michael Howard, Robert McLeod, Roberto Pace, Nattaphat Ruaenwong, Daniel See, Tom Van Blarcom and Zhao Zhi Wei and our office staff.

New On Our Website

Everything on the Purple Dragon website is new. We have a bright new look with additional features to make navigating around the site easier.

Our Concierge service is new. Our concierge can help you with things like finding a serviced apartment in Bangkok, booking train travel, shopping for special gifts, restaurant and spa reservations, arranging for mobile phone for use during your visit, chartering a jet, or making sure the money you send for your friend's English lessons are actually spent on English lessons.

We have recently added several new packages:

Angkor Adventure. This is a new four-night Angkor Wat package that includes Beng Melea Temple, one of Angkor's most fantastic ruins. Until a few months ago it was hard to visit because there was no road.  DETAILS

Phuket Leisurely is the slow and easy way to enjoy Thailand's magical island on a budget for a week or more. The longer you stay, the lower the cost. Plenty of activities--from island trips to beach picnics, to nightlife adventures--can be arranged after you arrive. DETAILS

Sensual Samui has a new bumper crop of gay accommodation and nightlife. If you have given Samui a miss in the past, we hope will take another look at this oh-so-beautiful emerald island. DETAILS

On the Drawing Board. We are hard at work on several new packages that will appear on our website soon:

  Surf and Sauté: Learn to cook Thai food in Phuket
  Four new India packages, including an overnight stay in a restored fort in Rajasthan
  A "Phuket Adventure" package that includes sea caves and elephant rides
  A new "Ultimate Angkor" package, using Amansara, (see above)
  A new two-night Golden Triangle trip in Northern Thailand
  Guilin, home to spicy Chinese cuisine and some of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet
  And how about South Africa, Australia or Cuba? Let us know what you think.

If you can't wait to see details on our website please contact us.

Where to Stay

We constantly fine-tune our programs and we listen closely to what our customers have to say about the hotels we use. Here are two hotels we have added to our packages. We know you will love them:
 

Amansara King Norodom Sihanouk's villa in Siem Reap was too small to accommodate the many glamorous celebrities who visited Angkor Wat in the sixties. So he built a marvelous "guest house" not far away. It suffered from neglect during the dark time of the Khmer Rouge. But in 2002 it became what many consider to be the best hotel in Cambodia. The plain, high walls that surround Amansara make you think you may be passing a jail. However, they conceal an oasis of peaceful luxury of low-rise Zen minimalist architecture, lush, manicured gardens, grand swimming pools, a spa, and twenty-four suites. (Twelve with private pools opened less than a year ago.) Amansara is heavenly. Your stay includes breakfast and either lunch or dinner, open bar in your suite and in the restaurant, house wine, a private tuk-tuk and driver, an Angkor Wat expedition at dawn and a ride from the airport in Sihanouk's vintage Benz limousine. Expensive? Of of course it is. But Jackie Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle stayed there. You deserve to stay there, too.

Metropole Shanghai Hotel We were more than a little surprised when we first visited the Metropole in Shanghai, our new "budget" hotel. We fell in love with the place. This grand seventy-odd year old structure is in the old "Jewish Quarter," just two blocks from The Bund. The lobby is elegant and the rooms are spacious and well decorated. We use the Metropole's deluxe rooms at our "value" (least expensive) price level. But if you feel like splurging for the "superior" level you will get an enormous suite. Most of the suites have expansive terraces overlooking the neighborhood's charming post-deco high-rises. You will want to host a cocktail party al fresco. You can find our Shanghai package here.

Thailand's Political Situation

You have probably seen news stories about demonstrations in Thailand to remove/retain the current prime minister, Taksin Shinawatra. While these often-noisy public gatherings have become a regular occurrence in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand, they take place well away from areas tourists normally visit. There has been no violence and there probably will not be any. Police have shown a great deal of restraint. Many people in Thailand are very passionate about this issue one way or another. We think it is an exciting opportunity to see democracy at work as Thai people exercise civil rights that people in many other countries take for granted. We do not feel unsafe here, and you should not either. The street demonstration phase is probably behind us anyway as the battle moves to the courts.

New Directions for Bangkok's Pride Celebration