David Filkin

Dear Jim,

I meant to write to you before but for reasons that will become apparent I could not get it done until now. My apologies.

First of all and most importantly, I want to thank you and all at Golf Asian for looking after everything so well. Every single transfer and golf booking and my hotel bookings all went ahead without a single hitch except for one minor glitch; my round at Gassan Khuntan was booked as planned but they had no record of having booked a prepaid cart for me. This was all sorted out while I played the back nine so no real problems.

Overall I was less impressed with Hua Hin than Chiang Mai. The weather up north was kinder, Hua Hin being very hot and steamy by comparison; and although the golf courses in both locations were absolutely excellent and well looked after, I prefer being in the heart of a city to being in a purpose built resort outside the town. The only drawback in Chiang Mai was that on some golf courses the rounds were extremely slow, usually because Asian players prefer to play at a slower speed than most Europeans and are not good about letting faster players through. This was particularly a problem at Green Valley, a lovely course but hopelessly badly organised as far as bookings are concerned. Both times when I turned up in good time for my allotted tee time there were queues at the first tee and the starter was adamant that there was no way of starting at a different hole because there was no room at any of the other holes to move more quickly. As a result I was over half an hour late off the tee and had to play a six hour round. It was less of a problem at Lamphun but there were still slow players holding up play even when I was started at the 10th; there was some delay at Mae Jo even though I was started at the 10th; but by contrast at Highlands they did all they could to keep play moving and I now rate the course as equal best in the Chiang Mai area along with Royal Chiang Mai, where I was always got off the tee swiftly and efficiently and had excellent rounds. This was in part due to the quality of the caddies and the starting staff. Apart from Royal Chiang Maii and Highlands the caddy quality was at least variable. The girls were always enthusiastic and good fun, great at finding your ball but less good at judging distances and the line of putts; and the standard of spoken English was not as good as in previous years. But in context these are minor quibbles about what was as expected a superb golfing experience.

My drivers were all extremely good and went out of their way to be helpful. The Royal Princess Hotel was extremely attentive and all the staff were outstandingly efficient, courteous and helpful. Overall it was a memorably good holiday and I will return next year for certain. Thank you once again for making it all happen for me.

David Filkin
USA March