platinum status is achieved after 75 paid nights stayed in a calendar year. Gold is 50 and you get lots of perks with this too.

Have a fantastic time Bob. Looking forward to following your trip.

bob, sounds like a great trip for you and karen. wish i could tag along.

have a great time, take your meds, be safe, and don't give the girls at the bamboo bar a hard time.

btw, i think the tram ride to the peak in hong kong is well worth the money. its the best.

Bob & Karen - enjoy your trip. Our Korean air flight was wonderful once again, even in economy class. Hope yours is as comfortable. We look forward to hearing about your travels and meeting up with you and the other fodorites in shanghai soon!

Look forward to our GTG in Bangkok!

Bob - you can give me a call if you want to meet up in HK. My local number is five three two seven seven five four four.

We also leave for Asia one week from today. Regrettably our paths will only cross on this board. However, I'll be following along as much I can...

Safe travel, like hanuman looking forward to our gtg in Phuket
You will like the jw in hk , rooms r a bit small but the view makes up for it

Safe travels. I'll be following your TR. and look forward to our mini GTG (lol), to hear about your adventure, when you return.

Sounds like a wonderful itinerary Bob! Bon voyage.

Bob- loking forward to our dim sum lunch with you guys at the Penn on the 4th!

Craig...safe travels to you and Jean. We look forward to you TR also.

Safe travels. See you in Bangkok on the 1st of November, if not the day before (Platinum Fashion Mall with K and Linda???).

That Renaissance in Phuket... is that the same one where you dropped me off for a night in that GORGEOUS suite?? Maybe you will get the same upgrade!!!! Fingers crossed for that one!!

Have fun! I'm off to South America today, but hope to follow your trip on the road.

What a fantastic itinerary for 6 weeks! And thanks very much for sharing with us, I'll follow you every step especially in Shanghai, give everyone my best at the GTG!

Have a wonderful time, Bob and Karen!

I'm so sorry that we won't be at one of the gtgs this year. But next year, I assume it will work out.

Now you make sure to fly carefully, both of you. Have a blast and a drink on me. I'll be down under in OZ thinking of you all, leaving Saturday for a month.

Yes, safe and happy travels to you all! I note a timely report and even a report a day before it happened....maybe a fodors first. One can only wonder what Andy would have said about that....

We will be waiting for you in the club room on the 25th. I will be the one sitting at the bar making sure the bartender is properly chilling a bottle of wine for Karen......

Aloha!

Happy travels - I'm in awe of these live reports.

Have a wonderful time, really looking forward to hearing all, so envious your trip sounds fab.
X

Sounds like a fun-packed trip! Happy Travels!!

And they are off. Alert border controls!

Have a great time. We will travel vicariously with you.

Following along with pleasure.

Safe travels, B & K! Enjoy your trip on that double-decker beast and arrive in HK safely!

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Have a fantastic time! I can't wait to read about your adventures!

Leaving here on Singapore in a week ~~ our Korean Air schedule didn't work out, but they were very prompt with a refund. Look forward to flying with them one of these days ~ if only they would include a flight from IAH. We go straight to BKK for 5 days before taking Emirites to HK for a week +, then to CM for another week and then back to BKK for another 2 weeks. We are staying at the Marriott Sukhumvit Park in BKK and the MarcoPolo in HK.

Look forward to the several mini-GTGs and to meeting many new people from Fodors.

Stay safe, and we will see you in BKK on Oct 30.

Sandra

Safe and happy travels, Bob, Karen and Pat.

>>>Leaving here on Singapore in a week<<<


Warm greetings again Sandra (mcbeanie), and glad you'll be flying SQ61 once again out of Houston, all the way to SE Asia. Should you need any last-hour suggestions re preferred seating/special meals, kindly give notice. Savour your times with some special crews.

Now, warm wishes to you, Bob and Karen, and best wishes for sweet and smooth flights and sights. (I once read that one of your experiences flying economy with Singapore Airlines was a bit underwhelming, so in future, would be honoured to give similar seating/eating suggestions; SQ can have her moments.)

Have fun in Hong Kong. You'll be in good hands, but will still give the shameless promo to my current HK business travel hotel, the Island Shangri-La, and two of her restaurants I had the pleasure of enjoying over the past fortnight for meetings, Summer Palace and Petrus. Great staff and friends at that property.

Noticed some of your Bangkok evenings will be spent at one of my all-time Asia business travel favourites, the St. Regis. (Thanks to even more generous corporate enticements, it's back to the Four Seasons these days for me; as of last Thursday, fine as ever.) I look forward to your impressions of the St. Regis. (And do try to take it easy on the managers and staff; fine people.)

All the best and keep up the fine reportage. (And don't forget to return to our fine home of Singapore -- and you do know the airline.)

macintosh (robert)


... Singapore Girl, You're a Great Way to Fly ...

askoksana.. does your schedule include Bangkok anytime in October? I'm heading over next Monday and will be in the city until Nov 2. I recall we were supposed to meet up, a couple of years ago, at the Library (?) bar at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, but that had to be cancelled.
Carol

You can always go to Singapore and meet up with the elusive Macintosh Carol.

I guess so, hanuman. SIN is not on the itinerary though.

AskOsena: Thanks for the offer of help in seating selection, etc. We booked early enough to get pref seating, but there is not an empty seat going or coming as of yesterday. Crowded!!!! Looking forward to flying SQ61, however, as the service is always great!

Sandra

we made it with no problem at all. sitting on the 26th fl of the JW with an anazing view out to the harbour. I think if you are gone from HK for 15 minutes you might need directions when you return as things continue to change so rapidly.

now a jump back to tuesday and long island.

Sounds like a fabulous itinerary!

Welcome back to Asia sir Bob! At the basement level of Pacific Place where your hotel is situated there's a lovely dim sum restaurant - "Zen". The hotel lifts will take you almost to the front door of Zen.

Enjoy!

i just type 2 full days and fodors lost it!!!!

Try using the back space Bob. Sometime it will reappear!

i did, it didn't

pook, K just came back to the room with a zen business card

we've done the unthinkable for us... we had our dinner in the club. food ranged from good quality cheeses to delicious pork spareribs to smoked salmon to free flowing chanpagne to fruits to good hors to delicious desserts to a way too strong gin and tonic, etc.. again asia knows how a club should run.

some of what i wrote before... we loved korean air even more than the last time. the A380 is a fab plane. more smooth, more leg room, wider seats, high ceilings, huge luggage compartments, quiet. i can't say enough. the staff even helps with luggage.

the flt from jfk to seoul was 13 hours 20 minutes at 550 MPH at 38000 feet. the plane just glides. 2 hours in seoul and we returned to the same plane for the 4 hour 5 min flt to HK. all smooth. luggage was slow at 30 min.

taxi into the city with NO traffice was 375 HK$.

flopped into bed about 1AM. small but comfortable room with fab full view of victoria harbour. the jw marriott upgraded us to this full harbour view room with club privledges.

sleeping pills for K and me and we arose well rested and anxious to get moving in HK. we can't remember when we were here last but it was perhaps 1998. WOW have things changed. way more people, traffic and buildings.

after breakfast in the marriott cafe we headed out thru pacific place to the hong kong park--lovely, serene and well tended. our goal was the peak tram. waited for perhaps 5 minutes. roamed the peak building at the top, taking pics, etc before returning to central again. view was quite decent with just some haze. yesterday we were told there was no view.

we took a taxi to the peddler building for some shopping...naught.. the building is now a glitzy, dark, fancy abacrombie shop. K had her picture taken with a shirtless mussled young model. a taxi from there to the united center for dim sum on the 4th floor of this bldg at the metropole restaurant... 400$. delicious.

next we took the street tram for perhaps 1.5 hours and decided it was boring so reveresed direction and returned to our hotel. the girls went to the mall and i went to the room where i typed a lovely entry to fodors only to have it lost... so you get this less "lovely" one.

more tomorrow after spending time with Cicerone.

fare to peak 31$

Glad you made it, Bob and K. Thanks for the report on the A380. We're flying 'the big whale' in January, on our return from Bangkok holidays, but in first class on Thai, to FRA. Looking forward to it.

Hong Kong sounds as terrific as the last time I was there, a year ago July. But I like staying on Kowloon.

Happy shopping, happy travels, and lots of great food!!!

Bob- you should type your trip reports in Word and then paste them into Fodors. That way Fodors can't loose your reports.

Bob, I just 'shared' a short video of a barge practice down the CP on my FB page. My dear Thai friend, Nok, (you did not meet her yet) posted it. She is scoping out places for us to watch a practice on the 25th, I think.

Shame about the Pedder building they had some nice little stores and a lovely Shanghi Tang on the group floor if i remeber rightly!
Glad you made it safetly.

Glad to hear you made it all in one piece and thanks for the info on the Korean Air flight. Too bad about losing the report into fodors cyberspace....I HATE when that happens. We leave this morning to catch up to you folks flying on Korean Air.....our first time flying KE and anxious to see how they are.

Nice to hear the Marriott's in Asia go all out in their club rooms. You know where I'll be in Shanghai . We've been to several Asian SPG properties that went only half way and were disappointing and of course to those fab clubs at the Asian Hyatt's,lol. See you soon!

Aloha!

Sounds like you are having a great time! I'm glad to hear about the JW in Hong Kong. We have all those Marriott points to spend...

i was so mad that i lost that piece yesterday that i considered not posted at all. that is why the post was so brief and lacked details. i have recovered from my funk today and will pick things up from sat. AM

the plan for today is another good breakfast followed by a leisurely AM. Cicerone has graciously offered to lead us around for the better part of the afternoon. we are very anxious to meet Nancy and to hear her tales of life here in HK and perhaps other places she has lived in the world. few supply fodorites with better and more comprehensive info on the asia forum than does she. the sad part it is always 100% accurate and useful so we are never able to challenge her on anything.. haha.

the view this AM from my desk on the 26th floor of the jw marriott is of one cruise ship leaving its berth in kowloon and another slightly larger one arriving in its place.
there are a few dredging boats here and there and of course the star ferries scooting back and forth.

there is one large animated electronic sign on the kowloon side which is very colorful and constantly changing. it is as wide as the building and perhaps 3 stories high. the colors are vibrant.
from our side window we look directly up Hennessey Rd, past the Lippo bldgs and multi-leveled road ways. to the right we have a 3/4 view of the convention ctr with its spacship design. construction is on goibg at ground level and in future years i fear the view of the harbour will be reduced.

i should note that the tram passing the hotel is a real bargain at 1.30 HK per ride---a huge bargain if you are in no hurry. we sat up top (covered) and there was good air circulation and visability.

last night a number of the buildings on the island side of HK had constantly changing color decorations. i suspect this is part of the light show which we hope to observe sunday night from kowloon.

i will never forget the huge xmas and new years bldg lights from previous trips when tens of bldgs had animated scenes and other lighting.

time for breakfast

We were in HK during the Christmas light display and were totally amazed at how intricate the light displays were. It's one of those unforgettable HK memories.

Looking forward to your report on your afternoon with Cicerone. She was pretty much my primary "advisor" on our first trip to India. Many have followed since then. Give her my thanks and regards...

I would call the convention center more like 2 space ships over lapping. Pat and I are off to the tea musuem for an hour or so, before we meet Cicerone.

Our tram ride was only $1.10 HK for seniors. such a barging ...Boston MTA should learn a lesson about managing.

the above post is from karen

The tea museum is lovely. Obviously your day is already planned out, but the vegetarian tea house right next to the tea museum services great vegetarian dim sum, in a very cute setting.

as i8 sit here the girls have gone over to the park to the tea museum.

another ship has just arrived from star cruises... it looks like a carnival ship with tons of painting on its side. its saturday so i suppose it is cruise change-over day.

bon voyage P&L, i'm sure you will love korean. B&O enjoy your flts too and carol upfront as usual.

i'm taking a poll..how many people think hanuman now has an english accent after about 2 weeks in the UK?

Bookmarking. Looking forward to more!

just simply a fab day today with cicerone. she is charming and tons of fun to be with... too tired tonight...details tomorrow.

Rest up! Sounds like you are enjoying Hong Kong.

ok, so you are at home watching sports and i am here in HK sitting at my desk typing and looking over the computer at the sun drenched victoria harbour with boats zooming about and light traffic on the roadways below. all is well in the world, at least the world i can observe from here.

Saturday Oct 20---"Cicerone Day"

A lovely breakfast buffet at the marriott cafe on the 5th floor of the hotel with an outlook to the harbour. Very comprehensive offerings at 295HK per person (included in our perks).

The girls checked out the mall in our complex and reported it was designer heaven and a bit boring--no Walmart.

By prior arrangement we were meeting Nancy (aka Cicerone) in the lobby at noon. At noon I was approached by a very attractive American asking if I was BOB? From there a wonderful day unfolded.

We walked to a bus stop behind our complex where we boarded a bus (#6??) headed for Stanley (maybe 8HK). Stanley is up and over one of HK's steep hills. Roads are narrow and traffic was very heavy. We had a nice chance to get to know each other, to talk about fodors and travel and to talk about her current 8 years here in HK. She is an attorney for an American firm.
As most of you know from her well organized and informative posts she is well traveled. In person she is not only informative but very gracious. The four of us seemed to hit it off.

After winding around, up and down, we arrived at the bus stop above the Stanley waterfront, a site of a new mini mall and park area, served by escalators leaded up and down from the beach. We visited an old mariner's temple which was quite lovely, observed an old colonial waterfront building, whose function I have forgotten.

From there we walked along the waterfront, past many lovely sea front restaurant, finally settling in at The Boathouse for lunch. We sat on a 3rd floor balcony and enjoyed a very pleasant lunch.

When K & I were last in HK, none of this existed, or at least we never saw it. Today it is a real destination and i encourage everyone to make the trek on a nice day. BTW, we never visited any of the shopping stalls--no loss.

Our plan for return to Central was to sail on the scheduled junk boat set up primarily for tourists, although today there were mostly Asian folks on board. So at 3:30 we boarded and selected seats on the upper covered deck in very comfortable lounge type seating. I think the ride was about 1.5 hours (190 HK, including 1 drink). Aqua Luna is the name of the boat. The junk traveled from Stanley around the island passing the amusement park, Aberdeen, many small islands, the back side of the peak and Kennedy town before reaching Central Pier again.

We took a taxi back to our hotel where Nancy had parked her car. The plan from here was to travel some of the lesser known and lesser traveled roads on the peak and ending up at Nancy's for sunset viewing and a drink at her place.

We did just that. Nancy out did herself taking us practically into some of HK's most expensive properties and to overlook others and to see the slope of the peak tram.

We missed the sunset totally, but we had the best view of life on the peak that a non-resident can get. Nancy's open air car allowed for an even better view of green and horizontal HK.

We arrived at Nancy's small complex very near the top of the peak, had time for a lovely drink and conversation and viewing from the terraces around the property looking down on Happy Valley, Wan Chai and Central, plus the harbour and Kowloon on the other side.

We had really encroached on Nancy's day. She was super gracious with us for sure. She called us a taxi but none were available so she drove us back to the hotel about 8:30 on her way to a dinner party.

As has happened to us so many times, whether it be with Ingo, Simpsonc, mcbeanies, Gpandas, laurieco, tengombres, HItravellers, pook and dang, nywoman, etc, etc. some of our best travel days have been spent with fellow fodorites in their own localities. We count our blessings every day and look forward to our next encounter.

After this very exciting and busy day we returned to the hotel for a snack and fell into bed once again.

Sunday Oct 21

Buffet breakfast again. Sunny day.

We took a taxi to the star ferry and rode to Kowloon. Spent some time in the much changed Chinese Arts and Crafts store.

Walked up Nathan Rd a bit, headed across Middle Rd and into that section of Kowloon. We were amazed at the disappearance of at least 75% of the overhead signage---called progress, but to us it just didn't seem like kowloon.
The girls visited the Peninsula Hotel lobby and shopping arcade and we then walked some more. We ended up at an hole in the wall Thai Restaurant for lunch--good.

Taxi back to star ferry. I was disappointed quite honestly.
Taxi back to the hotel to type to you all.

You're in Hong Kong and you are eating Thai food? Oh Bob so many excellent Cantonese restaurants around you!

The girls have just returned from a walk over to the star street area hoping to find a few small shops open. They were disappointed with what they found.

We just had "tea" (no tea consumed) in the club. We remarked how clear the harbor area is today. Perfect for our last full day in HK.

Off to Xian, China on China Eastern airlines in the afternoon. For Karen this will fulfill her #1 place on the current wish list.

i haven't seen a single chinese restaurant.. i think all the owners moved back to china when the border re-opened.

Sounds like a wonderful time in HK. We are in Shanghai shopping, eating and having fun. Linda has her eyes on some pearls at Pearl City on the pedestrian street so might have to buy something tomorrow unless of course you want her to wait for Karen and Pat for approvals,lol. Walked the ped street and the Bund today along with Peoples Square area and I need a martini about now. FYI the taxi from PVG to our hotel(which is close to the Rennaisance)cost us 211 rmb last night and took about 45 minutes. We had the Le Meridien email us directions to the hotel in Chinese and lucky we did because when I told the dispatcher who spoke perfect English that we wanted to go the the LM he just gave me a blank stare and said where, so I showed him the directions we had and wallah he said ohhhhh, ok.

Enjoy X'ian and hope it fulfills Karen's expectations.

Aloha!

Bob - we are in xi an now. I didn't realize our time here overlapped! Where are you staying? We're at the mercure hotel. Tomorrow we are off to see the warriors. What are your plans while here? How many days do you have? We took the overnight sleeper from pingyao - interesting experience. Didn't see much more than the Muslim quarter, drum and bell tower today as the weather was rainy and we both have colds. You don't want to catch what we have so I will postpone any get togethers until shanghai, but I will be on the lookout for you tomorrow at the warriors! We'll be here until weds morning - how about you?

Hawaiiantraveler - how long are you spending in shanghai? You will be meeting us there for dinner, right? Since it will be our first night, I will rely on you and bob to steer us in the right direction.

Hi June
The gtg night will be our last in Shanghai.
Hope you are having a good time a looking forward to our gtg in Shanghai!!

Aloha!

we don't arrive until late afternoon on monday.. tuesday is our warrior day, tuesday is our around town day with our guide...

we will be at the sheraton north.

today was a fab day here today--our best.

I too did Aqua Luna but felt so sick when I was on it I honestly couldn't enjoy it.... Shame as I was really looking forward to it! I seem to think the Boathouse was were we went to in Stanley, but am useless with names. How great you got to meet Ciccerone, she sounds lovely.
We have been to Broadway today Bob, makes me think of you and Karen!

Sounds like a wonderful day. So glad you got to meet Cicerone. Fodorites are a wonderful bunch!

Sounds like a wonderful trip for the rhkkmk group and the ht's. Enjoy and thanks for sharing!

Bookmarking for 2014! Great report as always and looking for new and different adventures when we return to HK.

nicky, you and cicerone look alike in many ways and have similar style and temperament--all positive of course.

Enjoying your report, Bob! I'm getting some great ideas for our November trip to HK!

Checked in at my park/sleep/fly near OHare. Off tomorrow for Bangkok!!! See you guys soon. Safe travels everyone.

so our last marriott hk breakfast: heavy on the shrimp dim sum, large raspberries on top of which i put muscile in cream with slivered apples, chocolate croissant, ok also a plain croissant, tea, ice water, fresh grapefruit juice. no lunch today.

lux time to read the asia WSJ and to read that the election is now very close... lets remember there are plenty of silent voters..

taxi to the airport at 11---about 30 min-- 320 HK. the drive along the new roads and across many new suspension bridges is really picturesque. lots of little islands, lots of both empty and full container ships and other maritime vessels.


btw, i don't think i mentioned last night that the girls were nonplussed by the lite show. it was short and "simple". K is glad she did it, but would not suggest you spend much effort and NO $$ to see it. i was delighted to have stayed in the club chatting with a wholesaler of sports items from Australia, made mostly of leather, who was in hk for the semi-annual trade fair.

rapid check-in at china eastern air's counter.. even faster 2 stop immigration processing. 1.5 hr wait for our @:15 flt to XIAN.

Bob, I too the thought the light show was so so and glad we had the opportunity to watch it from our room @ the Peninsula, I also seem to think we had timed it so we could watch it from qua Luna too but at that point I was trying not to be sick.... ( how lame am I? )
Sounds like you are having the best of times, loving all the updates.

Thank goodness I remembered to search for you and your trip!! (Although I think of you every day, when I pass my mantel and see my GRAND PRIZE!! Many people question its authentic "SterlingSilverness" But I don't.

This is lots of great info, and I also love the replies from other Fodorites that we met at the Boston GTG! Hi everyone!

Your trip sounds like a super one, and I will be following along. You keep adding to my wish list, including going back to HK, but on Korean Air!!

Remember you are a great ambassador for Greater Needham, so behave! Hope Karen can keep you in line.

Taconic, you know we are all very jealous of that prize you won!!! Keep it nicely polished please.

Leaving at 12:30 today for Bangkok. Had a restless sleep here at OHare Hyatt Regency. I'm always a bit restless when ready to travel again, but usually it's because I have a very early flight. This time I could have slept in to 8am, but alas, I'm up at 6. No sleep on the ORD-NRT segment as my upgrade did not clear. Right now I'm #5 on the list... that means I keep my exit row seat in the back of the 747. But I am upgraded from NRT to BKK so will lie flat and S-L-E-E-P then.

Bob, is the flight really 15 minutes to Xian? Or was it 15 minutes after the hour? If it was a 15 minute flight, a bus or train would do.....wouldn't it? Anxious to hear about your experiences there.

I've seen the HK light show 13 years ago on my first HK/BKK trip, in 2001. Don't recall being awed by it. Have not seen it since, in 2 more visits to HK. Not because I don't care, but because I never seem to remember to try to see it!!

I will try to scope out the Asiatique Night Bazaar and give a report. You guys will go past it when taking the shuttle from Anantara to the BTS at Saphan Taksin.

See you soon!!

Simpson: not to sidetrack, but Bob will enjoy this too, the other day a friend came over and said she wanted to see the "elephant in our living room.".
I told her we didn't have an elephant in the living room...she said Jim told her we did, and that it was a prize that I had gotten. LOL

I showed her my treasure on the mantel, and laughed a LOT.

Now, once in a while Jim says the wrong word, but I ask you, did that look like an elephant?

Enjoy the Far East, all of you! Waiting for more report!

taconictraveler - LOL about your "elephant in the living room!" I can't believe anyone would question its sterling silverness!

simpsonc510 - have a great trip!

Looking forward to your first Xian installment, Bob!

Bob: After the Shanghai GTG, walk to the Bund and admire the light show there.

HT: translations of hotel names from english to chinese is baffling, i.e. Peninsula Hotel is Half Island Hotel in chinese.

Let Linda know to check out 580 West Nanking Road Fashion Plaza (Hancheng in chinese), it's a mecca of faux stuff with an expensive Amy's Pearls; but on the top floor near the escalator there is a pearl shop worth looking at and comparing prices to Pearl City.

typing error and lack of a proofreader.. the flt was AT 2:15 and was longer..

ok, so let me catch you up a bit.. loading the flt was interesting.. the plane was perhaps 30 minutes late arriving but we began to load up 15 min before departure time. we were in row 34, which was in fact about the 5th row.

they announced all the usual boarding procedures but that is where it ended--they boarded on who was next in the fast dash to form a line. i was very fast and was maybe 15th in line. i only had to body check a few old ladies.

overhead compartments were perfectly sized for our rollies. we had a row of 3 seats. What I did not know was that the seats were sized for an american girl doll that my granddaughter might own. in fact my window seat was only big enough for a ken doll, which i am not!! i took up my seat and 1/3 of K's seat. leg room was ok. a box lunch was served. my tuna finger sandwiches with crusts removed had 1/4 teaspoon of tuna on each one.

despite the tightness of the seats we survived the 2 hour and 50 min flt. AND TO THINK THAT I ACTUALLY ENTERTAINED THE THOUGHT OF FLYING TO HK ON CHINA EASTERN--YIKES.

after we sat down an english speaking family sat down a few rows in back of us. one of their little kids yelled out: "NO TV'S DAD!!!". that said it all. there were some tiny drop down tv's after all, we found out, but they were useless and no earphones...

anxious now to see our shanghai to bkk flt on china eastern..

so we arrived at Xian on time give or take, at our "bus" gate... wow, the pollution!!

the bus pulled up to the immigration bldg, but we were not let off for perhaps 15 min---it got very hot in the bus.. people were banging on the windows to let us out, until finally they opened the doors but would not let people out for another 10 minutes. Immigration was poorly set up. suitcases were on an unmarked carousel...we survived.


A driver was waiting right outside the door for us with a huge name sign.. we had arranged him thru Jane, who I will speak to later.

Our van was decent but the ride to our hotel, the Sheraton Xian North City Hotel (opened in march, 2012) was slow--heavy chaotic traffic, although roads are good and 50% was highway. I think it took well over an hour and 1/2.

The hotel is beautiful, very lux, lots of marble and our room is huge with a fab bathroom, a chaise lounge, huge bed, etc. we are very pleased. Pat's price is 888 R, an opening special--our room is an an amazing cash and points deal of 1600 pts plus $30 US. Her room includes breakfast and 100 R food allowance.

Must stop for breakfast now.. fabulous buffet.

so the plane was pretty horrible, but that's not the end of the world on a short flt.

we were moderately hungry so decided on the chinese restaurant on the 3rd floor. we were the only people in the "non-smoking" area. we had interesting foods, some hot, some cold:

braised eggplant slices with dark sauce
whole roasted, then fried chicken semi-deboned, complete with head
shredded beef with mushrooms (looked like straw with seeds in it---very salty
noodle soup w/veggies, mostly noodles, little broth
beer

Service was horrible but food was good, quite expensive in comparison with tuesday's lunch--see below.

exhausted we hit the sack--a very large sack..


Tuesday Oct 23---Warrior day

Buffet breakfast downstairs--tons to choose from, but the pastry was fab---buttery and flaky.. good dumpblingd, cheese, meats, sushi, eggs, fruits, etc.

Jane Yang, our guide, who Karen had found on TA (she thinks) came for us at 9:30. her e mail is: hongjuan01yang@163.com
Her fee for 2 full days was 700 RMB (about $110). All admissions were extra. We chose to have a driver and van as well so for airport p/u, 2 days of sightseeing, and delivery back to airport, the fee was 1500 RMB (~$240).

We were delighted with those fees after a day spent with Jane in this crazy environment. Jane is fabulous, with excellent English. The traffic patterns are erratic and undisciplined (cars, people, bikes, etc just roam at will). Want to go the wrong way---just do it... want to stop in the middle of a busy road to itch your eye, do it..

BTW, Xian is a huge city of 9 million people. The area is also huge. The streets are well laid out and very wide. Many have beautiful shade trees. It has a real European feeling.

I cannot imagine however visiting here and using public transportation efficiently. A driver seems necessary.
There is minimal English signage, except near tourist sights.

So we loaded into our van and headed north of town to the terracotta warrior historical site. This took about 1 hour.
We entered the general area and had to walk quite a ways to the payment bldg. Cost: 150 RMB per person.

After entering via the short route, we walked a ways---there were wheelchairs for hire if you wanted-- we boarded some electric vehicles for a short drive to the excavation area, where the "sheds" are located. First we watched a multi-media Cinerama presentation, in English, about the area--15 minutes.

Next we headed into shed #1, the place where the local farmers first dug up warrior parts in 1974 while digging a new well. It is simply amazing what we saw---but most of you have read about it. We were surprised at home much is still to be dug in site #1, but they are waiting for better methods of preservation before doing much more. The near-by Emperor's tomb has not been touched at all for the same reason. Money is not the problem.

We headed next door to shed #2 next---it started to rain a bit. This is a smaller area and has not been touched since 1999. Several colors were found on warriors here.

Shed #3 was next. Also smaller. So plan to spend 2.5 hours roughly in the shed area. You must walk the entire way back to the entrance--not fun, esp. in light rain.

There is much more to be done here in generations to come. Karen has now satisfied her #1 travel destination from the wish list.

We had a chinese lunch at a "tourist" restaurant near to the entrance. For 150 RMB total we had a huge meal: a single drink per person (I requested more and it caused a stir), egg-drop soup, sauted eggplant, fried rice, stir-fried chicken with veggies and star anise, stir fried duck with veggies, steamed cabbage, sweet and sour chicken with pineapple (the best), noodle with broth, plus cookies and orange wedges and tea... A fest and way toooo much food.

From there we headed back towards town stopping at an ancient site: Banpo Neolithic museum with things dating from 6000BC found at that site when digging to build a power plant in about the 1970's. Moderate to no interest. 65
RMB per person---smartly bob stayed in the van.

We were quite honestly shot and cold and anxious to return to the hotel--about 5.

dinner that night was in the bar: hamby for K, lamb skewers for Pat and chicken club for Bob.

Andy would not be happy if I did not record my fist GM story of the trip... the GM stopped by in the bar to say hello. i could not resist telling him of the bad service the night before. He insisted in picking up the tab for our food this night and instructed the food manager to comp us.

After dinner we were in bed by 9... we did see the debate---
"ABO"...

Bob, you dog you... comped dinner! Why am I never that lucky (or unlucky...w/service... as it were).

Cold in Xian? BKK is great. My hair stylist said that he thinks BKK and the north of Thailand are a little bit cold, and he expects winter soon. I will take a Thai winter over an Illinois winter any day!

Keep the report coming. Sounds like a well-planned adventure.

Free dinner = the art of Bob! We visited the "warriors" in 1988 and I am amaze today that the digging is still going on. Perhaps it's on purpose to attract the tourist?

Well, between the flight and the traffic it sounds like an ordinary day -- in Needham.

I assume you took photos of yourself in the child seat onboard the plane? We must see those.

And, the sound we just heard was Andy saying, "I can't believe Bob yelled at the poor manager and got another free meal...."

Great report, so far.

Don't use up all your GM comp skills in X'ian.....save some for Shanghai and Bangkok. Nice report....I don't feel the need to do one with yours hanging around taking up all the oxygen on fordors
See you soon!

Aloha!

Great up dates Bob. I laughed outloud when you said you only body checked a couple of old ladies. .

peter--your public demands a TR!!!

Wednesday Oct 24

So, its getting boring to write but we had another good buffet breakfast.

Jane and the driver came for us at 9:30 again. We were touring the city today.

We began in the "old city" with the city wall, which ranges from 18 meters thick at ground level to 14 meters at the top. Today you can walk, ride or bicycle completely around the old city atop the wall. There are decorative corner guard towers as well as towers every 60 meters--the distance an arrow could be shot in olden days. 40RMB

Following our visit there we next visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The grounds are a beautiful park. Then we walked thru the North Square Park to observe part of the decorative water and music show (twice daily)--think Belligio in Las Vegas.

We drove past both the famous drum and bell towers on our way to lunch. We visited the 70 year old dumpling restaurant for which we only have a chinese name. It is near the entrance to the Muslim area. We had the set 128 RMB per person lunch. So many different types to name. I did not think it was as good as normal dim sum.

From there we spent way over an hour walking in the Muslim area. The food displays were very interesting but the shops held practically no interest for us. People watching was interesting however.

I guess I must interject here that I am a rock star this week in Xian. Being a man of size, read fat, I attracted huge interest. It ranged from people laughing and pointing, to many, many requests for photos of and/or with me. At some points they were lined up to do so. I take it fully in the friendly way it is given. It makes my day sometimes.

Karen and Pat each bought one pair of shoes just before our return to the hotel.

Dinner was in the bar again and we all had a chicken club with fries and beers. Perfect. We had a long chat with the Italian F&B manager. He has great stories about working all over the world.

With difficulty the conceige reconfirmed our flight for tomorrow--China is not ready for prime time.

Hoping to last to 11PM before bed.

We have enjoyed our time here. I think 3 full days would be ideal, but 2 would do. Again, a driver seems quite important to us for efficiency.

We highly endorse both Jane and our Sheraton North City Hotel.

Off to Shanghai at 1PM tomorrow.

Nicky---actually it is the old ladies--over 80-- who love me, its you young ones who just roll your eyes.

i should comment briefly on how we found this city's infrastructure. We are amazed. Xian is a show place. Streets are wide, and often tree lined. Sidewalks are in good shape generally. There are lots of trimmed shrubs and flowers. The city seems very modern in spite of itself.

Drivers---now that is another question--undisciplined comes immediately to mind. Drivers often don't signal, change lanes as wanted, stop without notice.. pedestrians are totally undisciplined as well-- they do exactly what they want. Spacial relationships are totally unknown. U-turns are frequent, even in the middle of busy intersections..

The general objective seems to be 1st regardless of your surroundings.

Are you sure the restaurant you found wasn't a Dunkin Donuts? Good luck on the domestic Chinese flight as they are often worst than the international one!

It sounds like you are having a great time! I'm enjoying your report.

Great to hear your impressions of Xian, the dumpling place is De Fang Chang, Xian dumplings pale to dimsum ...

I'm really enjoying your report, Bob! I do want to get to Xian and will make a note of your driver/guide's name. LOL about your being a celebrity! That happened a to me some in Hangzhou too. It was kind of fun! Hope you have a smooth journey to Shanghai. I'm looking forward to your reports from there!

Bob, you need to make money with those photo ops!!

I, too, am anxious to read about Shanghai as it is 'on my list' of places in the near future.

The sun is up in Bangkok! Looks like a lovely day here. Hope your weather isn't too nasty. I saw some big storm in the South China Sea swirling about on the weather report, but did not have the sound turned up!!

Following along from the Courtyard Gurgaon...

Heading for Bhutan tomorrow so following will be sporadic going forward...

We will get to Xian some day, I am sure. Thanks for you impressions.

craig--how is courtyard working for you??
have fun in B

Thursday--a travel day

Basically a travel day from Xian to Shanghai on China Eastern Air... Ken beat me to the seat today so I had even less room!

Driver picked us up at 10:30 for our 1PM flt. easy drive mid day to airport, maybe 45 min. We did love our stay at the sheraton north, but did also see the new Westin yesterday which has a wonderful central location next to a park and a large eating/shopping complex.

our flt was listed on our papers for term 2 but in fact was term 3, so we had to walk--not the end of the world. the 1 PM flt time i guess is only an estimate chinese style.. in fact we left 1 hour and 50 min. later. we sat on the plane for quite a while with no explanation. K did find a window seat and empty center seat in the row in front of us so pat and i shared 3 seats with ken.

Shanghai airport is huge but quite efficient. we were about 150th in the taxi line but it moved quickly. Highway into city was fabulous with limited traffic. Once we arrived at our Renaissance Hotel Yu Gardens we went right to the club to meet Peter and Linda (HItravellers)... we were late but they had had A drink while waiting for us... We had tons of laughs and several more drinks, plus a lite supper.

Our suite faces the river on the 11th floor. It is quite huge. We have club privileges as well. Renaissance was having a 50% off sale on suites so our rate is only about 1650 RMB...

taxi from airport was 171 RMB.

Peter has hired a vehicle for the 5 of us for tomorrow. We will check out a couple of water-towns.

time to turn in at 11PM

Hi Bob and Karen: anxious to hear more about Shanghai. So, Bob, please try to behave, so we can get a good long look at Shanghai!

Bob - reading along and laughing. Looking forward to hearing about the water towns and shanghai. We are now in nanjing, a remarkable city with tree lined streets, fabulous high end shopping (afraid no time for that) and crazy traffic. Yesterday our taxi came within inches of hitting a motorcycle. Off now for more exploring. See you all soon.

june, only once did that happen??

Friday Oct 29---Water town day

Another huge breakfast in the main restaurant---more choices than in the club. Met the F&B mgr in the elevator on the way to breakfast and he seated us so we got royal treatment.

Peter had pre-arranged with the hotel for a van for the day for us. As had been suggested he did some bargaining and the hotel arranged thru a travel agency (cheaper than hotel car---thanks Aline) for 8 hrs for 1300 RMB. FANTASTIC. We left the hotel at 9AM.

We drove on local streets for a couple of miles and then joined a super highway. Fantastic bldgs. on both sides of the road. Some very unusual architecture. The drive was just one hour to Zhujiajiao. The entrance fee was 60 RMB each. our driver parked directly opposite the entrance. A simple map comes with your entrance fee. We followed it about 1/2 way. There are many shops all along the main walks beside the canals. We visited a watercolor display which lead into a fantastic park like setting of water, trees, small bldgs., fauna and flora. it was very pleasant. The sun was out and i would guess it was 75-80 with moderate humidity and a slight breeze.

We continued our wandering and we passed more shops, food stalls, live crabs, hoofs, seafood, homemade candy and then canal side restaurants. We decided to eat at one place---the card is written in chinese. we sat just off the dock/deck area out of the sun and had a delicious meal: assorted fresh stir fried veggies, shredded pork with noodles in a delicious dark sauce, tiny fried whole shrimp (not great), roasted eggplant with garlic in a slightly sweet sauce. 235 RMB including 3 waters and 4 pepsi.

After lunch we continued our walk. We hire a covered boat for the "long tour" at 120 RMB. The boat was steered and powered by man power from a single large oar at the rear. Fantastic ride.

The ride back to the city took longer.

We went to the club for a drink and some goodies. The hostess made a res for us for 7 at an Italian restaurant near to People's Park.

Bob how is it that you manage to meet with all these hotel managers, be it the F&B and or the GM?

I take it that traffic was not an issue going to the water town? Looking forward to hearing more about it at the GTG in BKK.

pook, they see a fat man and are just drawn to him

after a club visit tonight and a few drinks we headed out for some Italian food---peter's hankering..

We had a 7PM res. it was a 10 min. cab ride--14 RBM.. Located in a very busy restaurant/bar/shop location VA BENE is charming and offers good, but expensive, Italian fare.. House 7, North Block, Xintiandl, lane 181, Talcang Rd--631-12211. 1332 RMB for 5 one course dinners and one drink and 3 expensive bottles of water, plus 2 desserts and one cappuccino. we would return there again for sure. The area was packed when we left at 9.

Back to the club for a nightcap.

With 3 "fastastic" in your message, I am so happy you enjoyed Zhujiajao.

HT: Impressed with your bargaining skills, was it a VW?

aline, the girls are all using your excellent suggestions... pearls tomorrow maybe... the fabric mart today--excellent. thanks. fodors bags are in a plastic bag read to go to GTG.

You must be turning Chinese as I can't make sense of "fodors bags are in a plastic bag read to go to GTG."

Thanks for being the transcontinental messenger, Bob, and glad the ladies are having fun. They should not miss Dianzifang/Art Alley.

Hanuman: It's kinda of a suprise, you'll find out when Bob writes about the GTG on Monday evening.

Saturday Oct 27

met peter and linda in the club for breakfast... less variety but much more quiet, until we arrived.

we walked a few blocks from the hotel to Yu Yuan Gardens area. Lots of shops, some old structures and some recreation very decorative buildings with traditional chinese roofs and did I mention throngs of people.

We took the hop on hop off bus tour from there. First on an open topped bus, later changing to a regular bus and still later to a two decker enclosed bus. There are two companies providing this service, one costs 300 and includes a boat ride but we chose the 30 one which seemed perfectly adequate to us for an overview. I would rate the experience as a 6-7. The commentary was in clear english but lacked lots of detail. If I went again I would just observe the scene with no commentary, which is what P&L did--their 2nd time on this bus. Would the 300 trip be better???

We got off the bus in the same place we started---Yu Gardens.
We walked further into the area and selected a huge 3 floor restaurant experience. The restaurant was in the Song Yun Tower (not a tower). Each floor had different offerings for food. We chose a variety of dumplings, pat had a shrimp soup, and we had our first traditional XLB's--dumplings with a hot soup inside and a bit of pork. My rating a 5. I don't see what the hype is about.. I had the same feeling when I had them in NYC.

So, after lunch we walked around this busy area a bit more and then took 2 taxis (max 4 persons per taxi) to South Bund Fabric Market. This is a 3 story warehouse full of individual small shops selling every kind of cloth you can imagine, plus hundreds of tailor shops. Peter and I took to a bench while the ladies made a roaming tour of each floor. They returned to us with some small bags with silk & cotton in them for projects to be made in Bkk. K dragged me to shop #223 to see a vest she was contemplating having made. It is black silk inside and out, with very decorative pleats all over the back. On the front is a hand embroidered scene--she says perfect for "formal" night on our transatlantic cruise next Spring. only 400 RMB after a bit of bargaining. We bought it on Sat. afternoon and it will be ready custom fitted on Mon. AM.

Peter bought a nice leather belt in the same area. We bought a couple of silk table runners and P bought some silk scarfs. Lots of bargaining. ended up generally pay 40% of asking price on average.

From there we took taxis back to the hotel. Pick me up drinks and cookies in club and then some relaxation in our room. Met P&L in club about 5:30 when the booze comes out and we stayed there until about 10, laughing loudly, telling stories, talking about fodorites, eating a snack dinner and even having a drink or 2.

Fell into bed in our very comfortable suite (1640 RMB at a 50% off sale).

Plans were made for a day of shoe shopping (hostess in club told the girls where to go), pearl shopping and a boat ride on the river.

Shanghai is, as we expected, a fab city---not as good, for us, as BKK, but still a place we could easily return to.

Sunday---same as any other day in Shanghai

Breakfast downstairs again.

9:30 taxi to a "local" shopping venue that the lady in the club had suggested to K for shoes: Shanghai South Bund Soft-Spinning Material Market; 399 Lu Jia Bang Rd. A huge complex of 4 bldgs on two sides of the road. We chose one bldg. We entered the basement level and immediately found hundreds of stalls with shoes, boots, sneaks, purses, etc.

The girls each bought some shoes and K bought 3 pair and some fur lined UGGS ($40). After about 2 hours we left there and took taxis to the walking street, Najing St. We got off right in front of the Henderson Bldg, which is where a restaurant we wanted to try is located--Classic Shanghai Cuisines--6th floor. so we decided to have a chinese lunch as it was about noon. English and picture menu. Service was horrible but food was good. see pics.

After lunch we walked almost to the end of the road to Pearl City. We rode the escalator to the 2nd floor and went to Mary's Pearls, a small shop that P & L had visited earlier in the week. Well from now on K will be known as Barbara Bush. all the girls bought several things with Peter's and my help and wallets. I think this was another Aline suggestion. After another hour there we took taxis to the Bund to secure tickets for a 1 hour boat ride--100 each. It was still very fogy, but we could see the tall and unusual bldgs on both sides very clearly. It was fun.

Ok, I have to say that I was not all that excited by the Bund. I love the traditional bldgs of Europe far more.

Taxis back to the hotel by 5:30 in time for the bar to open in the club where we had drinks and enough grub to suffice
for dinner.

The riverside lights seen from our room tonight are vivid and animated. The lights on the Citi Bank bldg change every 30-45 seconds and are bright and colorful... many are ads.

Good Morning from Texas:

Heading for the airport in a short while and boarding that SIN777 for Moscow, SIN and BKK. So excited! See you at Harmonique (hopefully, I won't be still asleep) and looking forward to seeing you and K and P and L.

Have a safe and exciting next leg of your trip.

Sandra and Richard

Bob:

The ladies should stroll the french concession and the Art Alley there. My suggestion for pearls is at 580 Nanjing Road West. Have you visited the Shanghai Museum? I guess you have enough budhhas in BKK you may not be interested in the Jade Budhha Temple.

The shopping in Shanghai tends to be so overwhelming so we availed ourselves of a custom day of shopping with Shopping Tours of Shanghai. Certainly not inexpensive but we felt it was more than worthwhile and it made for a very fun day. I had a beautiful quilted leather coat custom made and a friend had some clothes made as well. Everything was delivered to our hotel the following afternoon.

http://www.shoppingtoursshanghai.com/

Just a little sidebar to write that we are really enjoying Shanghai and especially our time here with the Kimball's and Pat. They have really made this part of our trip something special. I hate to admit this but it's like traveling with a true Rock Star(no U) when walking the streets of Shanghai with Bob. Luckily Karen is here to ground him when he starts feeling God like,lol. Really looking forward to this evening and our gtg at Lost Heaven on the bund and meeting new fodorites.

Aline,
We(Linda and I) visited the free admission Shanghai Museum which we found very interesting and did stop by your reco shop on W Nanjing but we did like the service, prices and candor of Mary and her associate in Pearl City. I guess we just hit it off.

Aloha!

we also found Mary and her associate very friendly, eager to please and charming. They also were able to freely bargain.
The merchandise they carry seems top notch.

McBeanies see you at harmonique. Did i set a time??

my local phone number will be: 08-3296-6163 once we get there about 4:30.

Monday--sadly our last day in Shanghai

Breakfast in the club.

About 10 we took taxis back to stall 223 in the cloth market to pick up K's vest. We had to wait about 10 minutes. While waiting we went back into shop #239 where K bought a couple of scarfs for herself and for gifts--all silk. about $25 each. As in all discount places look things over very carefully.

The vest fit perfectly and she was very pleased---400 RMB or $67. We were told that the embroidery is hand done, but K is not sure??

Peter bought several pieces of cotton to have shirts made in bkk. really nice quality. Pat bought 4 pieces of cotton to make bed pillow cases. Outside the market all the girls bought cheap jewelry from "Tibet" vendors.

From there we took taxis to the Xintiadi district. This newly recreated area houses mostly bars and restaurants popular with both upscale chinese and expats/tourists. We chose a German theme restaurant called Paulaner Munchen. We all had sandwiches: salmon on a baguette, hamburger-rare, and lady burgers (grilled chicken breast), some with fries and I had a reuban with sauerkraut.

From there it was back to the Renaissance. Pat went up to the pool, karen packed, I did computer and P&L escaped for a while from us.

We will meet again in the club at 5:30 for a couple of drinks before heading to the Lost Heaven Restaurant on the Bund for our Shanghai GTG. We look forward to meeting the coke smiths and to reconnecting with Dunbugs (sp).

the name of the shoe and bag place from yesterday is incorrect above. We are going to ask again for the name.

the correct name of the shopping complex is: Original Xiang Yang Market He Nan North Rd

Thanks for the correction, Bob, I was wondering about the name ...... Enjoy your last night in Shanghai!

It sounds like a good time is being had by all. You have chosen a great time to be away from the east coast. Sandy is creating havoc, lots of people being evacuated... they even closed the stock exchange.

If the GTG is anywhere nearly as good as the one we attended in Boston, it will be sensational! Good luck all.

When do you all arrive in Bangkok? Is it today (30th)? See you soon. Safe travels to you.

we arrive mid afternoon today.. i will call you

You have my number, right?

yes, but my phone will not work.. will fix it wednesday.

we arrived in bkk on time and got to the hotel about 6, only to dash out to Harmonique for dinner immediately, with P&L plus pat---mrs mcbeanie was sick... fantastic dinner.. more later.

hope to catch up tomorrow with my narative.

is anyone reading along??

Absolutely! I wouldn't miss it.

Reading along and am not bored.

Jumping in right now. Details about hotel would be GREAT for us. We will be there for Christmas, though visiting friends from BKK. Can't wait to see the next writing w/suggestions...

i thought i was just talking to myself...


Monday (cont.)

Taxi to Lost Heaven 1/2 block from the Bund. We were shown to a large long table on the 2nd floor in a corner--quite dark.

We waited and waited for the others. So we ordered drinks and an appetizer after perhaps 1/2 hour. Then out of no where June (Dhunbug) appeared at our table... They had been waiting for us at another table with better lighting so we moved there. So we were now 10 for our Shanghai GTG (HItravellers, rhkkmks, pat, dhunbugs, and coke smiths (3)). We distributed the luggage tags and pins from fodors and gave the smiths the bags from Aline.

We had fab food and lots of conversation and typical GTG fun.
Even 'Little Cokie' (4th grade) put up with us. He is a very cute kid.

Food: 2 eggplant dishes (one w/shrimp and 1 w/tomato sauce),
chicken stir fry, chicken with hunan sauce, tofu with hot chili sauce, rice, stir fried beef, vegetarian stir fried noodles and a hunan veggie dish.

A very pleasant evening for all, but then there was the getting away--it was raining and taxis were scarce. we all waited at least 20-30 minutes.

Tired again and another good sleep.


Tuesday

A travel day. Our China Eastern flt was at 12:25. We left the hotel at 10:05, a tad late. There was traffic but we got to the airport in about 40 min---174 RMB.

Check in moved well as did the 2 or 3 levels of security. Boarding was quick and we were in the 2nd row of coach with Pat in the first row (31). This plane was more comfortable, but not fab. We left the gate 10 min early and were airloft before the departure time. 4 hours and 20 min to BKK. Meal served was worse than worst ever.

Our arrival gate could not have been any closer to immigration which was a bonus. We were 2nd in line. Luggage came out in 20 min.
We had arranged AAC limo but could not find them so we took a taxi. Asked for large taxi and got an SUV (700 B + 70 B tolls).

Arrived at Anantara just before 6PM. There was quite a bit of traffic.

We had a dinner date at 6:30 at Harmonique across the river. Took a taxi and got hung up around base of Silom Rd. Peter and Linda were waiting for us. We waited for McBeanies but they were no shows (she was sick we learned later).

Fab meal--prices have increased quite a bit but still excellent food: combo appetizer plate, morning glories w/ garlic, yellow curry crab, 2 shrimp sizzle platters, rice, laab-chicken, lemon chicken---about 3000 B. vodka, and many, many Singhas.

more later

Hoping Sandra is better today! Not fun to not feel well when travelling.

Did you see Asiatique from Anantara? There is definitely a shuttle boat from your hotel to the Asiatique night bazaar. I saw one pull up there the other night.

Catching up today from the Bumtang Valley, Bhutan. Hopefully AAC will show up when we get to BKK.

BOB I had a small issue with AAC they were not there' when I came out of immigration but then 2 or 3 minutes later the lady turned up but wasnt clearly holding the sign with my name but I caught a flash of it as I turned round. First time for me ( and have used them numerous times - in fact i think it was Bob that first put me on to them)so hopefully Craig they will be there but may be worth an email.

Enjoying your reports! Glad you enjoyed Shanghai!

my problem in retrospect was that we needed to go to door 9... we were at doors 4-7

fab shopping day wednesday--more later..

Glad you enjoyed Lost Heaven - we ate there last time we were in Shanghai and had a great meal!

Craig, AAC gives specific info on where to find them - they tell you which door to exit. Follow the directions and you'll find them.

Thanks very much for taking the Fodors bags to the Coke family, glad you found each other at the Lost Heaven res and had a fab time.

Wednesday oct 31

We woke to rain, then it got really wild with torrents of rain.. tons of rain.. we decided to rearrange our day a bit, but essentially it was a day to shop.

We enjoyed our first anantara breakfast... btw, we see few changes from marriott days.. maybe more decorative items scattered around incl. in the market restaurant.

Our first stop today would be the jim thompson outlet on soi 93, sukhumvit. always fun and pocketbook worthy. we met P&L there. the girls were conservative in their purchases, except pat of course who bought extra. We had a bite of lunch (smoothies--pomello and shrimp salad for me, K&P had K's favorite pasta with bacon, P had a tuna sandwich w/fries and L had delicious looking fresh spring rolls).

From JT we took 2 taxis to ROS (the still dreaded place---good for a Halloween joke). We walked the sky bridge over to River City Mall and on the 2nd floor to JS Thai Silk, where we spent the 3 hours.. all the girls and P had projects..

sorry time for pool

Great trip report! And what a great time we had getting together with everyone in SHanghai! Safe travels everyone!

Coke, Som and Cokie

OMG, the projects those women can devise to spend peter's and my money---elegant dressy top in blk silk with gold bird embroidery for L, pj silk pants for P, shirts for peter from china cottons, silk tops for K to match china blk silk jacket, plus slacks, plus plus, plus and more plus. a couple of thousand ($) later we were out of there after 3 hours...

P&L headed for ROS bar next door to recover, and the rest of us took a taxi to Chang's (mr tong) optical shop near Khao San rd.
New computer glasses for me (brown and orange frames) plus repair of another frame; new lenses on 2 pairs for K with her new script, plus a whole new pair of reading glasses, all with progressive lenses; a repair for pat (she sat on a pr of glasses, plus one new pair---2 hours.

Taxi back to ROS and found P&L in bar---they were not there the whole time.. had a drink and then girls walked and P&I took a taxi to Himili cha cha indian restaurant on soi 47/1, new road. FABULOUS, FABULOUS MEAL:

plain and butter nan
palak paneer (spinach and cheese)
2 orders chicken tikka
shrimp korma
muter aloo (pots and peas)
saffron rice
papa dan (sp)
chicken kashmari

P snatched up the bill so no idea of cost, but fair.. excellent quality. not busy, but we had a res at 7.

btw, i told the taxi to turn rt on new rd when it should have been left so we had to repeat the long block twice--DUH.

LOVING THE CHEAP TAXIS... btw, the shanghai taxis were insanely cheap...

WE ARE HAVING SO MUCH FUN WITH P&L. THEY ARE JUST GREAT TO TRAVEL WITH AND SOOOOO MUCH FUN.

Taxi back to anantara. yummy pastry taken to room for late night desserts (P bought some dark chocolate "bark" with nuts too---sinfu)..

decent night's sleep.


our upgrade to a suite was a pleasant surprise. it comes with a paper, internet and full buffet breakfast---all for 3145 B++ with early internet booking directly with hotel. it does not get any better than this. It pays to be a long term customer. we have a nice view up the river from our main bldg (7th fl) balcony, overlooking the church for those of you who know the property.

We did ride by Asiatique on new rd the other night and can see the lights from here. will go some night soon. maybe tomorrow. expect to get a report from carol when we see her this PM.


Thursday Nov 1--- BKK GTG Day

Another nice breakfast this AM. Then, finally, we got to go to the pool for a couple of hours. Could not have been nicer, refreshing warm water and not very busy.

We plan to visit jack, at monet il sarto tailors, in the mall here shortly (i need a new pool robe, pat needs some tailor alterations). Then a quick lunch at McD or similar in mall.

we will taxi from here to soi 4 sukhumvit to K's jeweler at nana hotel--Thai Stone Jewelry for some repairs and new purchases for K & P.

From there we head to Marriott Sukhumvit Park for cocktails to begin our BKK GTG. We plan to see simpsonc510, maybe bradinbkk, mcbeanies there. Then we have a 6:30 res at Issaya Restaurant off Rama IV to continue the GTG where we will be joined by Hanuman et al. It should be fun.

Today is a little bit more balanced day, but still busy... glad we have no sightseeing to do here.

Sounds like great fun. LOL Bob re waiting at the wrong gate for AAC. I was at the right gate, but as I said she did turn up so all was ok.

Wishing I was spending my days in BKK shopping and eating .

RHK...no matter the disparaging remarks so many people make about you, you certainly do write a delicious report. Hi Karen, keep the old boy in check. Thank you both for remembering all of us you left behind.

Stu Tower

Quincy boys deserve to stay at home after 60..

the jewelry stop went well with 4 repairs being left and an xmas gift for K ordered..

pat got a couple of things too..

we arrived at sukhumvit park right on time and found P&L there already... carol arrived soon and so did the mcbeanies.

we had fun chatting for about 2 hours and then headed over to the Rama IV area to the restaurant where Hanuman and his daughter Mony were waiting for us.

The restaurant is located in a somewhat remote area but our taxi driver found it easily after a phone call. The grounds are lovely and the white house with lots of windows is very lovely. We had reserved the 2nd floor private room for our GTG, thanks to Hanuman.

Hanuman supplied several bottles of chilled Prosecco for our pre-dinner pleasure.

I have to give some thought before describing the rest of our enchanting meal. For tonight I can only say that it ranks in the 140th percentile.

more tomorrow.

Happy to hear that you like the place Bob Even more happy to meet new Fodorites of the right kind!

Enjoyed seeing everyone again. Hope your time in Bangkok is pleasant!! I'm leaving just as you are all arriving!
Carol

Quincy boys deserve to stay at home after 60..

Try after 80!..due to situation beyond my control, I'm a stay-at-home octo, Bob..but vicariously enjoy contributing wherever I can. Enjoy the rest of your lengthy trip.
stu

Bob,
Its good to hear you are helping with the Thai/USA balance of payments. And having a great time. Send a link to some photos.

The Indian restaurant is one on our list we haven't made it to yet. Next trip...

I'm starting at the top of your page....16th trip for Thailand? It will be my first. lol.

Love the references to 60 and 80! haha. Funny funny.
So, which hotel are you staying at in BKK? A decision will be reached soon on this end. The friend that I am going to meet in BKK, lives near where a flight attendant friend stays (for a hotel) however, it isn't near the river. If we stay near the river, then it won't be near my friend's house.
I have to head to the library tomorrow to get the fodors guidebook. Hopefully it will help us get our bearings once our travels begin.

A couple I know is returning from the BKK trip right now. He said they were charged 1400 BKK to depart the airport. Not sure what that was about.

I owe my friend this trip, so going is a long-overdue priority, however, I'm not really sure what to expect when we arrive. (angst)

Keep writing. We'll be reading....after work, as we are under the 60 and 80 cutoff.

don't know why your friend was charged... that ended 2 or 3 years ago and is now buried in your air ticket price... maybe his was not??

we are at the anantara resort and spa, the former marriott... its a favorite of ours.. we also like the peninsula, the plaza anthanee, the marriott mayfair, the sheraton grande, the marriott sukhumvit park, the jw marriott and many more.

later in the trip we will stay at the st regis and the marriott sukhumvit park

we are DEAD tonight...could someone deliver dinner to us??

That is just what we ended up doing tonight....room service....pizza and a hamby.

Aloha!

ended up with a club sandwich, chicken tikka and chicken wrapped in a leaf.

perfect

The lovely colonial house is about 100 years old. It has a royal connection.

There is lovely outside seating as well as inside. the old style rooms have been refitted and many are brightly colored with retro and modern furnishings. Some might consider it eclectic, but honestly it is very charming and works well.

We arrived in two taxis and some of us looked around on the 2nd floor before the others arrived. Pook says the house style is that of a 1940'/50's thai house. We enjoyed the bubbly and conversation before seating ourselves around a large oval table.

Mony was a perfect hostess and handled the menu selections. She chose 5 appetizers and 5 main courses, plus a surprise dessert.

The food is beautifully presented on interesting pottery. Flowers often accompanied each dish.

Appetizers:

the best ever slow cooked thai pork ribs, individually served out of a wooden box
tuna tartar in individual pastry shells with toppings presented in an old kitchen utensil with a handle
eggplant and shrimp in a delicious sauce
spicy beef with chiles and a sauce
smoked salmon slices with herbs

There were two plates of each choice

Mains:

Braised lamb shanks
soft shell crab towers with a pink sauce
filet steak thinly sliced, rare, with a finely chopped green topping
seafood thai soup in individual small bowls (shrimp and calamari)
a flaming chicken
rice

Italian Red wine and bubbly continued to flow during the whole meal---thanks pook.

Conversations continued to be lively, much of it centered on the food and its presentation.

The table was cleared and two giant banana leaves were placed in the middle of the table. We wondered what was next.

Pook announced that the young man who had entered the room was the restauran's pastry chef. The staff brought him a couple of trays and boxes with different ingredients in them.
In clear English he wove a story which related to the name of the dessert (Broken Barrel) and what it all meant.

So he proceeded to dobble items on the leaves, dump things onto the leaves, swirl things about on the leaves, toss other items onto the leaves until there was a complete mess. He then messed it up a bit more too. Finally an orb of dark chocolate about 6" in diameter was presented and it was smashed onto the leaves where it broke into many pieces. He then swirled it even more and we were allowed to serve ourselves from the "mess"... it was simply wild and delicious: chocolate, lemon curd, raspberry, vanilla cream and other flavors. With this 3 flavors of homemade sorbet were served from a coconut shell. A large rectangular platter of their famed petit fours were served as well.

simply amazing end to a wonderful meal... 1800 B per person.

First it was Gaggan recently, now it is Issaya, what will Pook come up with next?

You had to be there to get the full dramatic feeling from this meal.

each had a unique taste.

The staff summoned taxis for us and we were on our way. A fantastic evening had by all.

Friday Nov 2---Royal Barge Procession Day

Breakfast downstairs. Took a taxi to Platinum Fashion Mall on the other side of town where P&L were waiting for us right out front.

First stop was on the 5th floor--Coconut Banana--- the ultimate in cheap costume jewelry. Each girl left with a bag full.. Pat also bought a bunch of stuff from a shop called "Pink Pussy" , just opposite CB---mostly necklaces..

good place for ATM's there as well..

Next we moved next door to the new annex and to the 5th floor there as well--mostly shoes... Several pairs were bought as well as an additional suitcase for Pat ($11).

From there we headed to the four seasons Hotel where we were to meet up with the McBeanies. From there we headed to the Supatra River House Restaurant where I had a 1PM reservation.

From there we planned to watch the full dress rehearsal of the King's Barge Procession. It was quite amazing with perhaps 50 decorative barges with rowers in full dress. The rowers also chanted and sang, plus rowed in unison with great precession.

After lunch (thai food) and the procession, we had quite a difficult time getting taxis.

We took our cab to Chang's optical shop and picked up some of our new glasses. From there we went to River City Mall to JS Thai silk for Pat's purchases. We took the hotel boats back to the anantara, passing Asiatique on the way which was busy and brightly lit.

Simple american dinner in the hotel.

BED!!! exhausted.

Bob, can't remember have you been to Gaggan yet?

Issaya sounds just wonderful. Looking forward to trying it next year.

Checking your suggestions. Enjoying the read. Love to hear you're exhausted. This means GOOD TIME in BKK.

always a good time in bkk!!! can't get enough of it.

gaggan is on for the end of the month..

Saturday---

taxi after breakfast to jasmine ctr at the corner of soi 23, sukhumvit and sukhumvit--3rd fl. the periodic craft show is on this AM for 4 hours. met P&L there. bought a ton of hand made things there. the thai craft org. is a very worthy one. check out their website and schedule at: www.thaicraft.org


taxis back to the hotel. Pat went to pool, karen went for a haircut (500B) and i am a couch potato/computer rat, enjoying our suite and a/c.

plan to hang out for afternoon and P&L will take the boat over about sun down for a drink. we plan to take Anantara boat across the river to Asiatique and Baan Khahitha Restaurant for an easy evening.

btw, we had a very good driver this AM, with a med sized SUV who speaks decent english. i made a res with him for the airport on monday (700 B + toll). He also does sightseeing driving---floating mkt/tiger temple--runs to pattaya (2000 B), hua hin (2500B).
Chamnan Wanthana (Ong) 66-081-1163067
really nice guy and very good driver.

ASK PETER HOW HE LIKES ROS....

BTW, SUNNY, HUMID AND HOT TODAY.

Bob, I've been to that Thai craft market at Jasmine, but found it a little bit lacking.

You might want to eat at Asiatique, once you get there and see the vast assortment of options. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Sounds like its all good - yet another Bangkok restaurant? We'll never keep up...

We think the craft show is probably the best priced and best quality venue we have visited in bkk since rasi sayan closed some years ago.

surprised carol that you found it "lacking". What did you think was missing?

Tong called this PM and said she is picking us up at 7AM and taking us to a local floating market.

we have to be back here by 11 to meet billT at the Penn at noon.

After searching places to stay in BKK, I had dreams of BKK last night and I haven't even been there yet. So glad to look at the craft website.

Bob, I frankly find better selection at Amarin (the building next to the Erewan Hyatt and shopping plaza. Maybe I did not go at a very good time the ONE time I went to the craft fair at Jasmine. Just my own take on it.

Have fun with Tong.

We loved our visit to the craft fair and the many items purchased there. Some very unique items all hand made. Am anxious to compare with the Amarin in a few days when we are back in Bangkok and staying at the Grand Hyatt Erawan. Will let you know our take on the two, thanks for the tip Carol.

Aloha!

we too will check out amarin...i forget about it...

Smeagol...Gaggan is on our schd, in a week or so. We are looking forward to it.

HT: The Hyatt is my favorite place to stay in central BKK (tho admittedly haven't stayed @ 4 Seasons. Pool area is terrific, location perfect, and staff exceptional. Only off-putting note for me is the very weird entrance to the hotel from street level (SkyTrain level is fine, though). Check out the You & Mee resto in the street/basement level: casual, convenient, decent-quality noodle shop.

Kimballs: In admiration here of your continuing resilience.

Aloha Don,

We were at The GH today waiting to catch the shuttle to the Hyatt Hua Hin and ate lunch at the You and Mee while waiting which was pretty darn good. There is also a small buffet there for 390 baht which includes one main noodle dish along with all on the buffet table. The lobby looked fab and can't wait to get back there to experience the rest of the hotel. Will do a tr whe we return to give my perspective on our places we have encountered. Hope all is well with you.
I personally am in admiration of Karen's continued resilience.

Aloha!

chopped liver again!!

we like you and me too... i think there is something similar in HH

we had some drinks at the elephant bar when P&L came over. We took the anantara boat over to Asiatique {btw--anyone coming to asiatique needs to skip their boat as it is very crowded and has long waiting lines.. instead take the anantara boat after 5:15PM as it stops each time at Asiatique (both directions)}.

we had a 7PM res at Baan Khanitha. They seemed a bit disorganized and then we found out that they had only been open 9 days. Good meal---more of the same thai foods.

After dinner we walked around a bit. There are some very nice "modern" restaurants here and lots of shops. P & I sat on a bench while the girls wandered one large section. there is lots going on here with tons of people. We suggest that you give it a try.

We bid our final farewells to P&L, sadly. They have been very fun to travel with. We look forward to a rematch, if they can put up with me again. They are off to Hua Hin on Sunday.

Back to our hotel; a visit to the bakery for some dessert.

A bit of fitful sleep as we anticipated a 6AM wake-up call.
We were very slow, but showered and had a quick breakfast.

Tong arrived right after 7 with one of her guides and a driver. She is thin, but otherwise seemed bright and in good shape. In her usual exuberance she jumped into my arms and i nearly keeled over... kisses, kisses for us all.

So we loaded up and headed west to the Sunday Floating Market called Klong Ladmayom. We found this market to be hugely larger in the food area than DS floating market, but we found the actual boats playing bumper boats superior and more interesting at DS. The boat ride was far more interesting at KL and included some on land touring and home-stay visits.
We told Tong that we needed to be back to the hotel by 10:30 and we arrived at 10:25.

Quick showers to cool off as we had gotten very hot and sticky.

Taxi to The Peninsula to meet BillT and Olive at noon for Dim Sum. I had made the res some time ago and they had requested that we pre-order as sundays are very busy. They ordered and so did we so there was much more time to chat instead of reading the menu. Expensive but excellent... We also ordered tooo much. We brought B & O some fodors loot and they brought us a couple of things from the Philippines, which are very nice.

A taxi took us back to the hotel where we were expecting the daughter of our jeweler to drop by at 2:30. She had been our guest in Needham last New Year's weekend---she is working in Pittsburgh on a project for the sky train.

They invited us to their house west of BKK. This proved to be an entertaining afternoon. They served us some dim sum and later we went to an Italian restaurant where K & I shared a pizza. They drove us back to the hotel by 8.

Tomorrow we have a 2:30 flt to khao lak via phuket on thai air -- 4400 B r.t. ($147). We look forward to our beach stay at the JW Marriott for the 3rd year in a row.

Aaaaah... the J W Khao Lak! Great choice.

Glad you enjoyed Asiatique. I thought it was quite nice too!

Now re-l-a-x and the enjoy that lovely hotel and beach.

NICE!!
OK, not to take away from your lovely story, here is the reply I received from my German friend about leaving BKK. Typos are his, and are included;
*********
no it was including in our ticket - but the system at koh samui was broken -so they cuttn send as right away to berlin over munich - so they ask as too check out in bkk and chekc in there - so thats amkes easy for us. so we did this...in bkk they told us - this is stupid, the system was not broken and why we listen to the woman at the airport - i truly ask them are they getting nuts - because we check out and in again in Bkk we had to pay - and in one minute the friendly thai person change to a very rude person with a bad attidude - thats the point- when ever you need help there - you dont get any - this is absolut for sure....they just can handle it - they look at you like a marsian ...and in the best - they juts walk away or just smile....land of smile....

**he's not happy right now, but will be again, when he returns hopefully later in 2013.


****now back to regular programming.

Rhkkmk, the trip to Phuket sounds like a heck-of-a-deal. I tried to look at Thai Air to Cambodia, but it si $350. No go.

Can't wait to hear more, and maybe someday, we can duplicate your travels

onetwothree.... So what you are saying is that your German friend check in for their flights to Samui in Germany but the German agent in charge there only check them to BKK and they had to go through immigration there before rechecking in for their flight to Samui?

If that is the case then the German's tickets didn't include airport tax for BKK as they were not suppose to go through immigration there and they were suppose to only connect to the flight to Samui.

Please tell your German friend not to blame the people at BKK airport when it was their fellow countrymen's incompetence!

Linda was just mentioning how much she missed her chopped liver this morning......and her shopping buddy. You were right about HH, it is fab here,so glad we came. Have a great rest of your vacation and let us know if Bali is in one of your future fall travel itineraries.

Aloha!

you create a trip and we will follow, maybe japan and bali????

last breakfast at anantara for this year..

no rushing this morning which was nice so breakfast was leisurely. our driver arrived promptly at 11:30 and he made fast work of the ride to the airport.

I need to put in a plug for him again as he is so reliable and a very safe driver. see his contact info above. he will do airport runs as well as sightseeing driving and especially drives outside bkk.

check-in was very easy at the domestic thai counter and the walk to B-3 was not all that far... right by the food court... that whopper with bacon, cheese and angus beef was delicious, but was about $10 with the upgrades and "set" meal.

While waiting at B-3 I was approached by a charming woman and man and it was a fodorite with whom i have had contact. They were on their way from Beijing to Phuket on our flt. She is Evelyne from Canada. Our plan was to meet them at the JW Phuket on nov 13 for dinner. We had exchanged pictures a month ago.

The uncomfortable seats were ok as the flt lasted less than 1 hr, 5 min.

The cases came out quickly and the rep from Pure car rental was waiting for us with our toyota avanza SUV.---1400 B/day.

The 1 hour plus drive north to Khao Lak was again extremely easy. There are perhaps 3 turns. The pavement is excellent.

Check-in was easy. We have an early book rate (done 12-29-11) of 3800++. We were upgraded to a pool access room---3 steps down from our terrace directly into the pool lagoon.

The food service mgr brought us a bottle of champagne and some fresh honey covered nuts--platinum bonus. Our status also gives unlimited drinks from 6-7 at any of the bars.

off to dinner at the italian bistro now--light dinner.

surprise, surprise, while we were waiting for our dinners to be delivered in walks evelyne and mr evelyne. They were less than pleased with the jw marriott phuket and took an hotel car to this JW. We were very pleased to see them and enjoyed our dinner conversations.

dinner:

minestrone soup for me
goat cheese and spinach ravioli for pat
spaghetti carbonara for K
ice creams for dessert

Do not despair! I and many others are reading your Excellent Asian Adventures.

When we were in HK, and less so in India, several people approached us for photos as Mr. Pearl is 6' 4". "you are so tall," they would say.

Love eggplant in brown sauce in Cantonese/Mandarin cuisine - one of my favorites!

Woke up one morning many years ago in the middle of the night - watched a show on the History Channel about the first emperor - the one whose tomb you saw in X'ian. It looked really interesting, but it sounds like you spent a lot of time walking in the rain and stooging around in sheds. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best, how would you rate it?

the sheds are really decent buildings with stone floors.

i have trouble walking thus my comments about it. for most it would be ok..

i rank it 3.5, my wife ranks it 4.7

Tuesday

a great night's sleep in our very comfortable room. The JW Marriott is amongst our favorite hotels worldwide.

Breakfast in the very large and bright breakfast room. a full buffet, including eggs, smoothies, pastry, pancakes and waffles, cheeses, fruits, cereals, yogurts, juices, meats, sushi, dumplings, breads, etc.... everything you would want.
one end of the room looks out across a lawn to the beach and sea. lots of staff.

Ty Collins, the low key GM, stopped by to welcome us and we chatted for quite a while.

Directly after breakfast, we all had a swim in the lagoon outside our room.

Later we headed out to take some laundry up the road to a lady we have used before... 80 B per kilo.

On the way we stopped at a new tailor shop, just outside the hotel. I needed some shorts. I ripped a pair yesterday. The tailor is from Burma. I ordered two pair. Because of my size they are quite expensive. While there I also ordered 3 shirts (9100 B total). WAYYYY TOOOO MUCH $$$$.

Returned to the hotel and stopped for a snack in the deli---smoothies and 1/2 sandwich.
Looked at the shops for 5 min.
Returned to the room to hang out. Girls are sunning and/or swimming. Expecting a storm this PM.

Dixville Notch, NH---5 to 5 voting results.
watching election carefully. ABO

expecting drinks in the bar tonight (platinum benefit) followed by dinner in town at The Candle (Thai food).

because of a pending storm we decided to eat here again tonight.. at 6 we went to the bar at Olive's restaurant. The GM joined us after a time and spent about an hour with us, relating lots of stories of his hospitality experiences as well as places to visit in this area.

i had 2 tom collins for the first time in years... the girls had wine.

K had sea bass, I had chicken sprittzle and pat had the same raviolis again. delicious.

watching early returns on the election. watched the next president of the US vote in Belmont, MA..

Japan and Bali sounds interesting... two NEW places for me!

Off to vote in about an hour. Hope lines are not too long, but will wait it out in any case.

Bob, is it the same mgr we met last year? He and his wife were both lovely people.

Tom Collins are known to cause hallucinations.

It's Wednesday morning now in Thailand, so Kimball should have the election results already.

Yes he does.....ABO

OK, you plan 10 or more days in Bali(since you are Mr Bali) and I'll plan the same slow moving itinerary for Japan. We'll compare notes in a couple of months.

The big question is "will Pat make it home with her camera". Hope you are taking care of her. I pulled a Kimaball last night and had a nice talk with the GM of this resort. Found out we had a lot in common and he hails from Nusa Dua(sp).

OMG, how much were the shorts? Looks like you were on the short end,lol. Hugs to Karen and Pat.

Aloha!

Thank you so much for all of the detail in your trip report. What is wrong with the ROS? We are staying there next month. Will give some of the restaurants you mention a try. Also appreciate the shopping tips. We will not be in BKK for very long so will just get a taste of it.

Re ABO: EYHO. (At 9:56 EST, Mittens is in serious trouble, having lost PA, NH, PA, WI, MI. His potential path to 270 now requires the pre-election polling to be badly wrong, and there's been no evidence of that happening to this point. Nate Silver is looking very good.)

who the hell is nate silver??

shorts were about $60---way toooo much $$ for thailand, even tho they are custom.

peter--its a deal... i have my plan already...

election looks dreary... we only have BBC here. i trust the majority and will not complain... have not seen any balance of power results for congress---the real problem in gov't.

We can forgive you for not knowing about Gangnam style, but Nate Silver...seriously?!?

Per the inquiry, about my german friend, I think it was someone at the beach location in Thailand who told him to check out in BKK. (they chanaged his route to return) No biggie at this point. He was disappointed in the way his trip ended.

Rhkmk, your trip sounds just awesome.

why should i know nate silver??

i just googled him..

he is the kind of person that i have no interest in. his subjects do not interest me and i suspect that he is just the kind of "know it all" that i have no interest in.

i view him as a 'new york times pseudo-expert', opinionated with a view of his view-points only, and dismissing all other points of view. good luck to him of making lots of money. I say this without having read any word he has written.

i will crawl back into my shell now.

Hmm...Not sure what you googled, but Silver is a statistician who analyzes polls and makes very accurate predictions. His findings were discussed in just about every conversation about the election (at least around here). And now, once again, he has proved that statistics is da bomb. Enjoy your trip while we celebrate!

Keeping an eye out for you at JW Marriott bfast, but haven't seen you there yet (we usually beach first and then get to bfast around 10). We are loving our stay here. Didn't rent that car, and I am glad because it "forced" us to stay here, relax, swim and gym. Loved the Thai Boxing class and had a great massage. We return to Bangkok on Friday, unfortunately for only one day. Are deciding if we should keep our reservation at ROS or move to the Anantara. Not sure how the King's Procession will effect river traffic even though we appear to be south of the route? We haven't yet seen the Golden Buddha, and I "need" to do a little more shopping. Thoughts?

IMHO if you are using points or the points + $30.00 deal then keep the ROS reservation. If you are paying all money then I would definately stay at the Anantara.

Aloha!

there will not be any traffic problems on the river around either of those hotels... i agree with HI T above.

we eat breakfast earlier maybe 8:30 or 9.

we are in room 3028--knock on our door.

Hmm... knowing your hotel's name, room number and the name you're registered with.... I can have a lot of fun ordering food and other things and have them delivered to your room! Expect some knocking on the door Bob and don't forget to tip!

Wednesday

very quiet day today... great day overall. sunny and warm.

breakfast in the breakfast room: custom banana and pineapple and honey smoothie--2 glasses; bacon; brie; 2 croissants, sliced pineapple; not good dumpling; lemon tea for me.

spent rest of morning in a/c in the room watching election returns. Girls swam the pool and then in the ocean.

i walked the lagoon a bit and stopped at sea bees office to talk about diving next year for s-in-l and daughter---$1100. per person for a 3 day, two night live-aboard.
\
We all then met up at the pool bar near our room and had smoothies and sandwiches (K&I shared a club).

By then it was mid-afternoon and i think i fell asleep on the chaise in our room.

At 6 we went to the bar for drinks and about 7 Evelyne and Jocelyn joined us. We all went into town to the candle restaurant for a thai dinner.

We had:

golden baskets
fried shrimp

yellow curry shrimp
massaman beef
chicken and cashew
papaya salad
fried rice with cashews served in a pineapple 1/2
steamed rice
water and a coke

$10 each---simply fabulous

E & J presented us with a lovely gift from canada. think small and silver. they would fit in sooo well at the boston GTG, I hope they will join us another year.

a stop at the tailor shop on the way home... the shirt is perfect as are the shorts.... i am very pleased.

bed time

2 shorts + 3 shirts for ~$300? Have tailor prices gone way up in LOS, or was this guy just expensive?

Still following along! Dinner last night sounds good! I want to get to some of the Thai beaches soon - have never been. Sounds like you've had a nice relaxing time.

Driving through Boston now, you're missing a snow storm.No a/c needed.

i love snow, but i love thailand more at this minute...

yes don he is very very expensive but i need the shorts.. he did a very good job, and at the fitting they were smack on, which never happens for me.

i do think prices are up a tad.

breakfast was an unplanned mini GTG today. not only were we there but also evelyne & J (evelyne13) and also m/m danfang from CA. We have now given away all of our Fodors goodies, the last going to danfang.

And thank you for that!
It was a pleasure to meet you, Karen and Pat. I really enjoyed your exuberance and wealth of knowledge about all things SEA!

so as i said today was another lazy day. some pool and beach... a light lunch at the big pool bar. A fun conversation with a family from bombay.

later a trip up the road to pick up a load of laundry. this was followed by a couple of drinks in the czar bar. really good G&T.

We drove back into town for dinner at Green Pepper. K had beef steak, I had shrimp yellow curry and P had shrimp and broccoli.

A totally lazy day... slightly cooler here today. lots of lightening and a few rain drops tonight... electricity has been on and off---generator back-up.

talked to P&L in bkk tonight. Their is winding down.

dinner was 1100 B.

Carol,

I know I am taking up space on rhk's stellar report but that's what happens when you are chopped liver....

Anyway I promised you an opinion and this is what we found.

L and I went to Amarin plaza today and loved the discounts the whole mall was offering at 40 to 80% off prices in ALL the regular mall shops. Linda and I bought quite a few items..... especially Linda. We also found that a lot of the regular mall shops offered shoes and clothing items at farang sizes. Linda bought a fab silk blouse from a French designer shop there for 50% off(about $60.00 US). I also bought several custom belts from a second floor vendor who sizes and drilled the holes of the belts and attaches buckels of your choice for great bargain prices,really nice.

I hope we don't offend but the Thai handicraft fair, which btw is held every Thursday and Friday on the third floor of the center weekly, we found that the kind of merchandise offered was not only more expensive but vastly inferior to the offerings at the Thai craft fair at the Jasmine center. I mean no comparison at all imho. Sorry to sound so negative but maybe it was an off week there? There were about a quarter of the vendors( we counted 14 in all)and most of the items for sale were very touristy(but we are all tourists right) ie. cigarette cases, small touristy handbags and mirrors, etc. and a very small selection of tribal jewelry that was way over priced and not very good quality. I would have to give the craft fair at the Amarin a miss but give the actual vendors in the mall a must see especially for the discounts they are now offering. I also had a much needed pedicure(ok too much info)done by one of the mall shops....very good at only 200 baht.

Aloha!

Thanks for the critique of X'ian. MP doesn't walk very well either. We'll skip it.

If Sheldon Adelson had consulted Nate Silver earlier, he would have saved himself a heap of money.

HT, I'm not quite sure what you were saying in your comparison of Amarin and the small fair at Jasmine. Amarin is not just on Friday and Saturday. It is a full time craft 'fair' from my experience.

Are you talking about Jasmine with its 14 vendors with tourist goods being more expensive and vastly inferior, or did you think Amarin was more expensive and vastly inferior?? I've read your paragraph(s) twice and I'm confused. (old age is settling in)

indiana, don't skip the warriors, hire a wheel chair for sure...

Friday Nov 9

Our next to the last K/L breakfast---I am eating less each day. The banana/pineapple/honey smoothies are hard to pass up and I have 2 old fashion glasses full each AM. Today I had toast for the first time and sushi and delicious thinly sliced sausage----oh, yes 2 croissants.

lunch at the pool bar again with the girls. Pat had her 1st thai massage and loved it--60 min. incl in her room rate.
a delicious, but "thin" chicken quesadia (sp) for me, a shake for pat and mixed satay for K. Not much, just enough to get us through to dinner at 7 with J & E.

Ty, the GM, suggested a place in town to have dinner. Home made pasta, so we will probably try that if E&J like the idea.

I spent about 2 hours in the lagoon until lightning and huge thunder booms drove me out. This has happened each afternoon.

I started reading a book called 'FARANG, Thailand through the eyes of an ex-pat', written by an ex-pat Aussie doctor. Entertaining, but not fab thus far.

Pat has started on Bangkok 8.

Looking forward to Beth's and Maureen's arrival in a few days. We will meet up at BKK on our way to Issan.

for the last hour we have watched the royal barge procession live on tv. it is just as exciting the 2nd time around.

In addition we were able to view the crown prince and princess preside over the presentation of the new robes to the monks at an elaborate, symbolic ceremony in a beautiful hall on the grounds of wat arun. He also gave awards to a number of civilians and military people. Each received a gold colored box. The ceremony ended with him riding away in a royal yellow RR.

The up close pictures were very interesting, including pictures from on-board some of the boats.

Bob - when do you leave Bangkok for eastern Thailandhotel? I'm most interested to hear of your adventures in new territories.

reading a book. must be really relaxing

reading beats trying to keep up with native people

we pass thru bkk on the 14th on our way to issan... i believe we have internet there so look for something on the 14th or 15th.

After drinks tonight we went to a small restaurant as you enter khao lak proper. it is on the left side of the road when heading S. The name is a mystery but you can identify it by a large lighted sign that says "Pizza" and under that a sing saying "wine". I think they are both round. There is an ATM just to the left.

Basically an Italian place, they offer fantastic home-made pasta. J&E joined us and we all had pasta preceded by delicious brushetta. J treated us to a nice bottle of red wine. Good It. desserts. A charming evening.

Picked up my stuff from the tailor on the way back to the hotel.

Sadly, our last sleep at K/L for 2012.

What a wonderful trip! Can't wait to see your pix. I'm so jealous of your non stop travels and how "social" they are. You two pick up great friends everywhere. You are friend magnets.

Turkey was great. Istanbul the best. You will have lots of postcards upon your return : )

Like Tower, I am vicariously enjoying the trip. Thanks for the trip report, keep updates coming. (BTW, I knew when I tripped over the damned Scott Brown sign on your lawn last month that it was an omen he'd lose.)

BC

Yes, Bob, you and Karen are "friend magnets" as BostonHarbor says. I too am happily reading all the entries and comments, which are much more amusing now that I have had a taste of the Kimballs "in the flesh."
Keep writing. I would love to be a fly on the wall!

we welcome both 'flies on the wall' as well as in person..

Saturday---move day

sadly we are leaving this glorious resort for an almost equally enjoyable place the Sheraton Krabi. I think it is about a 3 hour ride. Our toyota is working out well and its fabulous to have automatic instead of shifting every few minutes---one less thing to think about.

K is packed and impatiently waiting for me..

We are going to miss u Bob,Karen,Pat....we loved having supper with u guys. Today we finally went to the beach, I loved it. Tomorrow last day of work..then relax till Sunday. Thanks to u we have a few restaurant in town to keep us happy for the week. Jo is still renting motor bike, we will let u know how it went.
Have fun in Krabi, be safe on the road
E&J

the drive from K/L to krabi was about 2.5 hours, just as we remembered. it was very easy except for one very twisty section as we climbed up and over a mini-mountain---reminds me of the mts. in europe where we have driven. All along the way it was very scenic with rubber plantations/wooded areas, coconut palm oil trees which were being harvested, small wats and mosques and small settlements.

We arrived at the Sheraton Krabi and it all seemed very familiar.

We were seated and given coolish towels and a sweet drink. I presented our starwood card and a credit card. After a few minutes she returned and said I have 3 reservations, do I have any documentation and/or vouchers. I did have my starwood printouts for both rooms. Ours is cash and points, and pat's is a pre-pay. She goes away again. There are now by my count 10 people at the small reservation desk dealing with us and one other guest... It is hot and humid in this open-air area with no fans.

We wait some more. She comes back again and tells me that I have to cancel one of the reservations with the agency I made it with. I tell her that it was made with sheraton, and you are sheraton. She continues to insist that I must do it. Now I am not only hot but getting mad with this inefficiency. This is our 6th hotel check-in this trip and the only one with even the slightest problem.
I ask for the front office manager and again in a few minutes a woman appears and the situation is repeated. She tells me the party line. She says she will fix it and to sit down. More time elapses and I go to the counter and ask for the GM---who else?? I am told he is in a meeting (later I find out he is not even here today.
So eventually, like after 30 minutes, we are loaded into a buggy and taken to our bldg. When she opens our door it is still being cleaned---no problem, we don't mind, just let us sit in there while he finishes. NO. Please sit and wait. Pat's room is the same thing.
Eventually we are driven back to the lobby where the front mgr. takes us to two "up-graded" rooms--read re-furbished as they seem like our rooms in the past but with fresh walls, etc.

She asks what else we might like and I answer that free internet and dinners might be nice. She arranges free internet.

She just returned my paperwork and I reminded her of my desire to talk to the GM. She said it is Saturday and he is not here.

Ok, its out of my system for today but not closed.

Update on the tailoring. Everything appears to be fine, but several things we discussed were not done--- no extra buttons on anything; no extra zipper area buttons on my shorts as discussed; front seems to be missing a couple of buttons at the bottom--need to try on to see. As K says you need to check things carefully and I did not do that. I will e-mail him and ask them to be sent to BKK.

I trust this is the only woe of our trip.

Bob u want Jocelyn to go and take care of him?????? But seriously if u need us to do something we will

HI T---eat your heart out...

The GM just called. He has only been here 2 weeks and seems overwhelmed. He was very nice and extended an extreme apology and 20,000 B in credit.... I told him that was totally not necessary but that I accept it gracefully. My philosophy in my business career and now in life is 'make it right' for the customer and admit faults and inefficiencies where they exist.

btw, a few minutes ago a small tray arrived with a rose in a jigger and 5 small candies that look like sugar cubes... are they telling me to sweeten up?

Evelyne... while you are speeding by on the motorbike one day i would appreciate it if J would ask him if they were sent.. if not could you mail them to me from canada.

you guys are the best.

and I thought that I was the best!

20,000 baht credit....that around $660.00 US. That clap of thunder you just heard was Andy hitting the clouds above. I would have made him(or her) give back the points paid too,lol. You lucky dog. Looks like steak and lobster every night in Krabi! You should have had your shorts tailored at the Krabi Sheraton too.

Our last evening in Bangkok.....so sad we have to leave late tomorrow evening. Penny has yet to deliver our tailoring but I just called and she said she would later this evening. Hugs to Karen and Pat.

Aloha!

I thought I was the best?

Ok, ok, in my mind you are alllllll the verrrrry best!!! we are so lucky to have found you amongst the dregs of society...

and maybe we pick one from each country.

a hand written msg arrived from the mgr tonight saying he had posted a 10M credit to each room... now we need to spend it..

i feel very guilty...naught. he needs to buy new pants too cause he wore out the knees crawling toward me.

karen is eying the wine list... any suggestions pook? one bottle could whack the whole thing.

@bob check ur msn email

Sorry for the late reply Bob we were having dinner with the HTs! Wine in the South of Thailand? I suggest a local favourite Chateau Fou Yuck!

My other suggestion for spending the hotel credit:

1 Spa for the ladies!
2 Take home some fresh new towels.
3 Have your hair braided at the hotel's salon.
4 Order all the hotel food with white Alba truffle on it.
etc, etc.

Bob the Chateau Fou Yuck is a joke so don't go ordering that in any Thai restaurant!

OMG. International relations have been set back a few hundred years, at least. Bob used to hate driving me to the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, because technically, they do not have a "GM"!

BC

Laughing my a** off at the credit and Pook's recs on how to spend it...

pook, i wasn't born yesterday. for sure the HT's are fab.

i'm not sure that in my long saga of checking in that did I mention it took 45 minutes...

the girls are looking for an interior design contract here as the new rooms are absent of color totally, have no rug at all, are totally sterile except for the wood panel over the bed... everything is beige or natural wood color.. closet is only tall enough to hang karen's capris and there is only one clothes drawer.. all very odd. tons of hangers however. sliding glass door to the bathroom is opaque however rather than see through. lots of flying bugs, inside and out--annoying. they did spray last night.

grounds are lovely and very spread out---this is a huge piece of property.

girls are at the pool, it's overcast today. i am sulking in the room.

i have written TA reviews on each hotel we have stayed in thus far, but am holding off on this sheraton for now.. I want to be fair and not over react to yesterday.

we took a drive after lunch today around our cove area. we wanted to show pat a bit of the area. we went to the end of the road at the national park.

we stopped at the ritz carleton and they went in for a tour. the report is that it is amazing... huge units, only 54 total.
prices start at about $700 per day. attention Nicky.

we next stopped at amari vogue, just before entering the national park. we have been there twice before but only for dinner. This is a small hotel built into the hillside and is just beautiful. I often suggest it to honeymooners. Pat loved it.

Next hotel saga... when we returned there is water pouring out of the light fixture in our shower. The repair man came with some WD-40. He looked at the seal on the shower wall and we said no the light. he went and turned the light on. I said to K 'he is going to get electrocuted'... he simply wiped off the shell around the fixture which had now stopped dripping and said "ok" and left.

Hello mr GM, please come to my room. He did and apologized at great length. K took the opportunity to speak to him about the decor, etc. He said you have no idea.. nothing but problems with these units.. the finishings are cheap.. lighting is in the wrong places... wood is horrible... tiles will not last and will begin cracking on the floors... storage is almost non-existent, etc., etc....

he said i will call you shortly and we will move you. I suggested the ritz might be a good move up the road.

hey, what's a trip without a little excitement... the water is pouring again and it smells a bit.

Soon you will own the hotel Bob!

funny you should say that, i just signed on to ask you to have your best attorney contact me so we can arrange the conveyance.

we are now in our room two floors directly above our last room.

the people now below us made quite a bit of noise thru the floor last night---pay back..

its thundering again... Indian on the menu for tonight. Pat had it for the first time in BKK and now is in love with it. so are we.

we felt no earthquake here today

Sounds a little like our time at the ROS.....

I see a suite in your near future. Watching the horse races from the Hyatt club room across at Lumpini waiting for our limo driver to take us to the airport. This trip has been fun thanks to you all. Pook and Mony were fab again last night. Now back to work ugh. Will be following along

Wow, just felt another earthquake. Not as strong as this morning. Hope you are on higher ground.

Aloha!

i need suggestions as to how many bonus starwood points i should respectfully ask for???

Bob went to see your tailor for buttons tonight , they don't really know what a was talking about, so after explaining in details he finally remembered but he needs to know what size the buttons should be for the shirts and for the pants....told him I would check with u and will go back tomorrow. It has been raining all evening here also. We had a great day sampling all the excursions for next year conference, but happy to finally be on vacations.......

When Hyatt screwed up our room in Japan they offered us 20,000 points.

evelyne... tell him to check his e mail... i wrote him yesterday.

i need 20 white buttons, the ones from the front of the shirt

i need 10 black buttons, the size for the front of the shirt..

its too late for the shorts, i will have them fixed at home.

i spelled it out for him on giorgiobettoni@mailcity.com

here is what i wrote to him:


hi sam (sahm)...

we have gotten to krabi and i have unpacked what you made for me. I love the clothes but a few things are wrong.. I asked you for extra buttons and there are none... i asked for buttons on the back flaps of the shorts and there is Velcro which I hate... the buttons on the front of the shirts do not go down far enough, each shirt requires 3 or 4 more buttons... and lastly I asked for no buttons 1/2 way up the sleeve opening from the cuff, but they are there (this is not a problem, but i asked for none)..

Can you do this for me? I will be back in bkk on nov 21. Will you please mail 10 black buttons and 20 white buttons to me (Robert Kimball) at my hotel: Marriott Sukhumvit Park Serviced Apartments; 90 Sukhumvit, soi 24; Klongton; Klongtoey; Bangkok 10110.

This will teach me to look at things more carefully. Thank you.

robert kimball

again thank you... don't worry if it does not work out.

May I suggest velcro?

No problem Bob will try again tonight, it is nice to take a walk

Lets get this straight - the khao lak tailor confused or couldnt rememeber Bob's shorts, that he made just a few days ago, because so many other Farangs his size also just had a bunch of custom shorts made?

Bob, when you ask for that Starwood credit dont forget to ask for points for all that shaking in the room. No, not from the neighbors, from the earthquake.

And, if I were a betting man, I would bet that poor GM will pay a boatload of points just to get you to check out already.....

Have fun.

i sent him a letter this AM with a thank you and a points request... lets see what happens..

i just had a nice swim and lunch at the pool with the girls... spicy chicken roll up and raspberry smoothie for me and K--she had mango smoothie... fried spring rolls for P and her banana smoothie.

swim was fantastic, water fab and from the infinite edge a great look toward the beach and sea thru the pine shaded grassy area, which andy loved sooo much. Only thing missing was his elephant friend RaRa. We may leave a tiny bit of Andy here tomorrow before we leave.

The program for this afternoon is a ride over to Carol's favorite place the enclave called Ao Nang. No agenda, just a bit of exploring.

We have a res for dinner tonight at the Italian restaurant at 7. We were a bit disappointed by the Indian food last night although the setting was lovely.

Dinner last night:

palak paneer (spinach and home made cheese)--lacked any pizzazz. K's fav.
expensive tandoor giant shrimp-good 980B
chicken korma- blah
saffron rice-very good
chicken tikka
dal bukkara--good
plain and butter naan-fair

I had 2 singhas and the girls each had a wine tasting---3 whites for K, and 3 reds for P--330 each flight/ 1/2 glass each--quite reasonable--French, Italian and Australia.

about 4500B

You should have cc'd the regional vp of Starwood when you sent that letter.....

Is tonight Pat's turn to use her credit or did she buy jewelry at the store instead?
Maybe she should have gotten a new camera,lol

Aloha!

GM was at the restaurant when we arrived and greeted us but made no comment about my letter... the tension grows. he served us our 1st course in fact. He stayed through most of our meal.

peter, we have spent about 14,000 0f our 20,000. Pat may have a massage in the AM and we may have lunch before we leave.

Aside from the problems discussed above this is a lovely hotel with fabulous expansive grounds and a decent waterfront. All of our problems have been made right, which afterall is the sign of a good organization.

Dinner:

beef capacchio for K & me
tuna steaks for all of us
a bottle of french chard.--1460 B
singha
3 not so great desserts -- disappointing
lemoncello for K

6200B--$170.

Sorry your Indian food was suboptimal. It's my favorite cuisine. Were the cooks Indonesian or Indian?

Waiting for the final tally of points, or the police to come escort you on your way.......

I wonder which it will be??

Just catching up after being away (from fodors) for nearly a week. My!!! My!!!! My!!!! Yes, I do believe international relations have been set back a few years.

Evelyne, are you still in Khao Lak at JW? Fabulous place, for sure.

Carol

evelyne is in K/L for another week..

carol, which hotel did you stay at in ao nang?

tac---we check out in tne next few hours.. decisions are being made..

after lunch we will drive back to phuket to the renaissance hotel near the JW Marriott for an overnight before flying the next AM back to bkk, meeting beth and maureen at the airport and then flying to udon thani in issan.

Maybe Regent? Can't recall name... I'll have to look it up. Journals are not handy right now.
"Hi" to Beth and Maureen.
Eve, have a nice relaxing time in Khao Lak !!!

Bob, maybe you already answered my question and I just didn't see it. Is this the same Renaissance where you and K dropped me off, and you came for a look at my suite (upgrade)?

Thanks carol, just love it here, back in Montreal next Sunday only.... Bob going for buttons tonight, last might was raining too much

Carol...what hotel in Ao Nang did you stay at?

yes carol, same hotel..

well we have left the sheraton.. my total bill was only $15. and pat's was zero, although she pre-paid plenty..

no response to my letter to the GM... interesting.. maybe he felt i was being greedy--- and he may be right.

Bob the tailor saga is still on, no buttons ready tonight but they I will have them tomorrow, went to eat at candles tonight, just love it, will keep you posted.

Is anyone else wondering how it is that Bob spends days at a Thai beach resort and leaves with more money and more miles than when he arrived?

We hear the poor GM has asked for a week off. To recover from Bob's visit.

in fact his staff should do their jobs right in the first place... reminds me of the way the obama administration worked the last 4 years... with new blood i hope he gets some good people finally (mrs clinton did fine).

Hmmmm ....... GM may be friend of Obama, trying to reduce deficit with points. Maybe Bob has stumbled upon solution to falling off the fiscal cliff.

Should probably demand to see GM's birth certificate & college transcript.

I heard that the GM is petitioning to get his Sheraton to secede from the other Starwoods.

ghecko is excellent... poor internet.. more tomorrow

i'd like to see that birth CD in fact.. think about it.. why not just produce it in the first place?? why all the big deal??

the gm must be looking for another job.. in fact i received an e mail from him today

Been waiting for the report on the GG. $800.00 +++ per day and no wifi??? Or was it the 4 distracting you....

we need details

we made it to vientiane, laos this afternoon right after lunch.. so far its quite charming and we love our hotel the salana botique. more later

Looking forward to hearing about Vientiane...

Tuesday 11/13

We had a nice sleep our last day at the sheraton krabi. Would we return there I am not sure. There are many things we like about the place, and it has memories for us, but it just not seem like us, as does the jw marriott in khao lak.

After breakfast Karen and pat took a few of Andy's ashes out onto the sheraton lawn where Gpanda used to entertain RaRa the elephant with his tricks, placed them on a couple of flowers and left them there. see photo.

We paid our bill and jumped in the car for a drive over to Phuket where we were staying that night at the Renaissance.
The drive was interesting as it had been going to krabi. Lots of roadside activities and huge rock formations.

We arrived at the R and were told we had been upgraded to a pool villa which turned out to be very lux with our own small pool, a bathroom the size of a small house, a deck with 2 loungers next to the pool... The girls swam.

We had dinner in our room around our coffee table with the pool lights reflecting on the water. The girls loved the bottled of red wine sent from the manager. Breakfast was a bit quick in the breakfast and was quite nice with all the usual breakfast suspects.

Our flt back to bkk was at 10:55 on thai air with a connecting flt to Udon Thani in Issan. We met up with Beth and friend maureen at the gate in bkk.

PLEASE NOTE: If you buy tickets on thai air and some other airlines, you will be required to show the credit card you used at check-in. I have now had problems with this twice.
So B&M were stuck at check in and we were in transit and I had the card used to charge all tickets. Thai would not help out by meeting me as i deplaned at bkk. It was a mess and they were stuck at check-in for 1.5 hours.. Totally my fault, but....

Anyways it worked out in the end. We arrived at UT right on time and found our host waiting for us outside the terminal.
He loaded our luggage into the van and we were off with a ride of 1 hour to Green Gecko, the private villa we had rented for the next 3 nights. Cost: 25,500 B for the villa (sleeps 4 in two guest rooms w/shower), pool, transport and all meals. That's $819 for 3 nights. This included beer and soft drinks too. Wine available for about 700 B per bottle--decent.

more after dinner.. French tonight

The villa is very nice and the surrounding area of Issan (poorest part of Thailand) is very agricultural. We saw veggie farms (not many); tons and tons of rice, mostly now being harvested; arrowroot plants at all stages of life; new rice plants; harvested rice drying; sugar cane; some fruits, but not many and more. K loved the colors of the maturing rice plants: sort of a golden brown, all blowing in the gentle breezes. We saw some thin cattle, lots of free range chickens and dogs of course.

The villa is 3 northern thai style buildings with peaked roofs set on a platform with a small pool built into the platform, which is chest deep. Water was lovely. The bldgs are a red color, not unlike the jim thompson house in bkk. The owners are thai: Ten and his wife Euang. Ten speaks english if you speak slowly. She speaks some, mostly about food. They have two women helpers.

The villa has 3 bldgs: one is an open sala with table and 6 easy chairs. One contains 2 bedrooms with a king bed and a double bed... the king room has a large bathroom with a shower outside on a covered balcony, the other has a shower in the bathroom. Rooms are not large but adequate. the king room has a safe. Bedrooms are well air conditioned.
The other building contains a sink food prep room, a kitchen with a large fridge, a combo dining, entertainment and living room area. The dining table has 6 straight back chairs, the entertainment area is sunken and has music facilities, a tv and dvd's and books. the living area has a large table 2 sofa's and lots of windows---they look out into the wooded area and to the pool.

The food: breakfast was normally fruit, juice, rice soup with chicken, and tons of toast, butter and jam, plus coffee and tea. lunch, for which we returned from sightseeing each day for was a one plate meal. One day it was rice, shrimp and veggies, another day it was phad thai. bananas for dessert. dinner was 4 thai dishes cooked with the amount of spice you desire: beef, chicken, pork, veggies, rice.. bananas for dessert or fruit platter. I bought cookies.

Beer and water were in the fridge all the time.
There is a pool table under the villa.

You can bike ride but the roads are mostly dirt. In a car you are 15-20 minutes off a main road thru farming country.
I consider the place to be rural.

We took a few excursions. We went to the museum of the oldest pre-historic dig in Asia or maybe it is SEA. We went to a clothing market (cotton and silks). The girls bought cheap clothing there, but basically it was not that nice.
We went to an open air food market near to udon thani. The most fun thing we did was to visit the lake. It is a large body of not deep water. We hired a motor boat for an hour which slowly took us thru the floating water lilies, lotus flowers and other flowers, plus birds, including an endangered grey herring. At some points we were surrounded by pink flowers for as far as you could see. 500 B. We all loved this. The boat had a 9HP motor and the boat was a new fiberglass 16-18 footer.

One afternoon we lazed around at the villa.

We don't think that we would return but we loved our time there and especially loved being in Issan.

E-mail: geckovilla@gmail.com
Charles Coleman, an english speaker will respond to you for the owners.

www.thaivillarent.com


We had pre-arranged for a ride from the villa to Vientiane, Laos thru Ten.
The price ended up being 5000B. Two sedans drove us to the border where we had to do thai immigration, then we crossed the friendship bridge into Laos where we were passed off to a van and driver. They transferred our luggage from one car to another. The paperwork took almost an hour and cost $36 ($1 extra for overtime--saturday---only in asia). One picture required. I did not see a picture facility there but there probably one there. Extra cost for weekends????

The new driver was very nice and a bit of a character. We have hired him for 4 hours Sunday for a Vientiane tour--$50.
The drive into town was about 12 miles. Roads were very good.

They are getting ready for the asian games shortly so there is lots of sprucing up and some new facilities.

Our hotel is on a side street in the center of town. The salina botique hotel. We are paying $110 (single), $120 (king), $130 (twin). Our rooms were not ready until 2 so we had a lovely lunch in the dining room---cheap--soup and sandwiches--all home made style.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring our section of downtown--its quite small. We did shops and tried to get $$ from atm's--still no luck. Some really lovely shops with almost everything priced in dollars. A few things purchased--clothing.

can't write more tonight.

ATM problems? That's why I don't rely on them when in Thailand. Can't risk being short of funds.

Thanks for the description of Issan and Green Gecko. The lake sounds nice. The Gecko sounds very Thai.

Enjoy Vientienne.

for sure Issan is the "real thailand" that everyone looks for...

ATM's--- i would not do it any other way, especially in thailand. Bkk atm's are very reliable. if one doesn't work, move to the next.

Dinner was just around the corner at L'adresse, cuisine by tinay; wat ongteu, ban watchan-chanthabouly D.
strange address but near salana hotel.

this is a small place with both inside (a/c) and outside seating. the owner is 35, french trained and well spoken. he is a whirlwind, running the kitchen, front of the house and the staff. he is charming.

food was diverse and outstanding. dinner was $204. for 5, but don't let that scare you off there was an inclusive fixed priced meal at 160,000 kip or $20. we had escargot, not in shells but served on a bread with a lightly scrambled egg... a fried spring roll with goat cheese (yum--house special)... lao tenderloin which he had aged for a week with various sauce choices and fresh made FF... lamb ribs from rack of lamb.. shepherds pie... wine by the glass--excellent... delicious desserts... offered house made lemoncello after the meal...

interior of rest. was fresh and nice. front was was rustic brick.. nice place settings.. comfortable relaxed setting... a keeper as they say.


Sunday nov 18


breakfast at 8:30... ok, but not fab.. adequate.

Driver came for us at 9:30. dropped off laundry near-by--ready at 10 tomorrow. taken to an international atm site a few blocks away on street bordering park and river. some cards worked, some not. i got 2,000,000 kip.

Were taken to a nearby wat which was quite lovely. girls stayed at 2nd wat across the street from 1st while i returned to hotel with some stomach issues. decided not to return to sightseeing. girls left to fend, quite well, for themselves.

The following is written by karen.

Our tour included Haw Pha Kaew museum. This houses some of Laos oldest historic relics, It is also the site the Siamese stole the Emerald Buddha from and took it back to BKK.

Across the street is Wat Sisakit the oldest remaining Wat. It's murals are still very colorful despite age and water damage. It reminds one of wat Pho in Bkk with the Buddhas. It's historic claim to fame is it is where the Lao loyalist swore loyalty to first the Siamese and then the French.

The third stop was Wat Si Meuang. The new Jade Buddha is here. In addition couples come here to pray for children. There is a resident stork in the court yard to give credence to the place.

Thatluang Stupa was next. One of the most sacred places in Laos for Buddhists. Very important politically also.
Patouxai is Vientiene's arch de Triumph. This is made with American cement that was supposed to be used to build an airport after the war (Vietnam). Great use of our tax dollars. It stands looking unfinished in a park.

A quick trip thru the morning market left us nonplussed-- not very exciting merchandise for us. Back to the hotel for lunch and to cool down.

We shopped in several neighborhood stores after lunch. Found Saoban where we all bought something. It is a village handicraft store where profits are returned to the villagers.
Located on Chao Anou Rd, same as our hotel.

I continue to be amazed at the Kimballs' energy. Well done.

Not much has changed back here. Winter is on the doorstep, ushered in as always by November's grim collection of increasingly-short, gray days. (Though admittedly the last few have been sunny, though cold.) And here in Mass., they'll be playing The Internationale as the anthem before all of the Thanksgiving Day football games, so progress is being made.

that is the same song being used at the coronation on jan 21?

we lazed around for the rest of the day and had a very pleasant dinner in the hotel.. combo lao and western.

purchases here are generally more expensive than in luang prabang and also more than thailand as a whole.

prices are quoted in us dollars, euros and kip.. you can pay in numerous currencies... visa and m/c purchases uniformly have a 3% service charge, and amex 4%. very little bargaining, maybe 5-10% or none.

Monday 11/19

Not much planned for the day, excvept for more shopping... we decided we would prefer to have a driver, so contacted yesterday's driver again and he came at 10. BTW, there are no conventional taxis in most of Vientiane, some modified tuk tuks, but not many.

The girls had a list of a few places to visit and a lunch spot.
The driver stopped at a travel agent friend for a little direction in lao. Almost next door we picked up our finished laundry---10,000 K per kilo.

So our first stop was at Sandra Yuck's Caruso Lao shop. we had made purchases from her in LP in 2007 and have been very pleased with them, including a small table. The shop is directly across the road from the new riverside park at 008 Fa Ngum Rd. Her products are mostly home goods, decorative items, furniture, silks and various items. She is Canadian and has lived in asia for decades. Her items are high end carrying an appropriate price as well. We ended up bying a set of 3 small stacking tables with hard wood burled tops and flared painted legs... For small tables they are very heavy.
They are being shipped to our house for $250+. I remembered them from our 2007 trip and was pleased to see them again. K says they are my Christmas present---maybe for the next few years I added.

We bid Sandra goodbye and moved on to the infamous Carol Cassidy's textile shop. Also located in a fab old house- a mansion of sorts, we got there just before their noon closing. we were given a tour of the work shops behind the house and were pleased to view any number of works in progress and perhaps 20 women busy weaving. One interesting project was silk being woven for a custom order for drapes for a house in manhattan. These were fabulous and involved an intricate pattern of gold and black.... two panels were being woven on looms side by side to assure an exact match for each window.

From there we headed off to lunch.

Speaking of the coronation.... HE's in Thailand/Cambodia for a few days right now. Probably causing traffic headaches, etc...

Are you heading to BKK or to a beach next, after Laos?

Carol is right. This morning traffic was paralysed in Bangkok so that the president can travel from the Four Seasons to the old airport. Traffic had been bad all week with several US VIPs coming prior to the president and the police closing roads for their motorcade.

Bob: you must feel so goid that your Pres is nearby!

betsy--i would feel that way if MY president were near by, but instead the faker is here causing havoc and reading from his teleprompter.

in an hour we will start the drive back to thailand and then fly into bkk this PM for a bit of lux at the st regis..

looking forward to dinner with pook et al in a few days at gaggan.

i will catch things up later

so back to our wonderful lunch. Beth wanted to visit the wonderful old colonial hotel (c.1932) called Settha Botique Hotel in the center of the city so the driver took us there. Now back in the hands of the original chinese owners after the communist era it has been completely redone and modernized. The current owner lives in singapore and runs things via telephone from there. The bldg is a lovely sprawling colonial structure of 2 or 3 stories. The main rooms are very bright with lovely decorations and lots of wood accents. We ate in the La Belle Epoch Restaurant which is also bright with wood beams, ceiling fans and large black chandeliers with blk shades making for a busy but effective overhead. The tables are covered with starched linens and shinny silverware, making for a most pleasant but formal atmosphere. During lunch we were the only guests. There was a staff of perhaps 4 or 5 to serve us. It was great fun.

The matre d' suggested we start with larb salads (laab), so we ordered 2 chicken and one pork which was delicious and perfectly seasoned for our tastes. I chose a yellow noodle dish with chicken and lots of other bits and pieces; K, P and B had the same on a shared basis plus 3 pieces of steamed fish with herbs wrapped in banana leaf for steaming and was accompanied with a spicy tomato sauce; M had chicken cashew.

The fish was a huge hit... The whole meal was memorable both for the food and the atmosphere. $16 per person.

Following lunch we went to a couple of more small shops, but honestly we had had it with shopping.

We returned to the hotel only to be warned that they would be mosquito spraying for an hour at 4:30... horrible timing and I told the manager this. She claimed it is the law monthly. I was not pleased and made a bit of a stink...

more later..

to think how nice this trip report would be without political commentary. guess that ain't gonna happen. where's the channel changer?

Thru thick and thin we are your friends one and all

No matter the politics or whatever we know and love you all whatever and whoever you chose

Political is emotion

Friends are forever

Aloha!

You might do well to show a little more understanding and respect, filmwill. Report is 98% travel, 2% politics. No, wait, it's 7% travel, 91% discussions with the manager, and 2% politics. Which makes for a great read. And whenever you see the political stuff, think Schadenfreude.

And a bit of compassion is called for, too. With the new taxes on the MegaRich, some people may have to cut down on their vacations to, say, 274 days/yr.

The rich would be happy to pay more in taxes if the revenue were used to pay down the debt but we all know thats not going to happen. Next year add another 1 trillion to our debt which our grandchildren will have to shoulder some day!

billy, i'm disappointed in your comment especially when so much of your social media content is full of politics... still friends i hope..

it's just my way of attempting to be "funny".. and amusing.

ok, now back to the travel, AND EATING AND SHOPPING.

For dinner an italian restaurant in our neighborhood had been suggested as the best IT in town... It is Aria and owned by a chef from Genoa. It is a very relaxed and casual place with a good menu. Sadly i had a pizza, which was very good, K & B had gnocchi with ham and mushroom filling served on a long plate with the G in a straight line with a tomato/basil sauce with a dab of Parmesan on top---delicate and delicious and M had a chicken/mushroom/mashed pots plate. We all had ice cream for dessert. I had a large lao beer and 3 of the women shared a bottle of white from Umbria... 987,000 K.

We waddled back to the hotel afterwards. A perfect ending to 3 nice days in Laos.


Tuesday

M&B were picked up by our driver at 7:30 for their 9AM flt to Luang Prabang, Laos.

We had a lazy AM with showers, packing and internet with a so so breakfast. Pat went out and took some more pics.

The driver came for us at noon and we started out for Udon Thani airport for our flt back to bkk. We breezed thru lao immigration but while going thru thai immigration our driver came to us and said he could not go cause his passport had expired. No problem he found us another driver immediately.

Between them we paid 3000 B for the drive. The total drive took about 1.5 hours.

Checkin at UT was swift, no wait. The flt was on time and was to be 50 min, except we had to circle at 5PM over bkk cause the PM of china was landing at the old airport at 5 so i think everything was slowed down.

The drive into bkk was swift except for the last 1/2 mile which was slow around sukhumvit/plenochit. Thank god we did not come yesterday as Pres. O'Bama was staying next door at the 4 seasons and our entire street was closed down.

We arrived at the newish St Regis and were whisked to the 12th floor where the reception area is. Check-in was swift and we were escorted to our lovely room on 19. Our butler brought us tea and offered to unpack for us, but K prefers to do this.

We relaxed for a while and then decided to have room service for dinner. Good move. Just had hamby's, which really tasted good.

Talked with Tong briefly about this weekend and going to the orphanage on Sat. to deliver the items we are presenting in Gpanda's memory. We have lots of shopping this week to get ready.

Tried to call the McBeanies but there was no answer.

Busy day planned for tomorrow as we begin our shopping.

omg, he spelled gnocchi right.

I haven't been to the St Regis. Same street as Hyatt & 4 Seasons?

Bob, you are absolutely correct: my social media page is exactly that -- but that's why it's not my Fodor's trip report...or anywhere near Fodor's. The two are completely isolated -- and for good reason. I have a feeling that a bunch of us here might have slightly different relationships if we were all Facebook friends.

When I travel (and hey that's just me) I talk about my trip. Not what I think of Bush or Obama or whomever. For me, the two have nothing to do with each other.

Of course we're still friends. But as for me, it takes away from the ability to enjoy a report that really was about the joy of traveling. That's what connects us all on here. The minute politics gets introduced it goes downhill.

Anyway, I've hijacked this thread enough -- and it's Bob's trip -- so I'll remove myself now.

Wow we got out of there just in time before he who cannot be mentioned arrived. Would have been a big PIA being at the GH or the FS this week. We already had to undergo mirror checks under the cars before we entered the premises last week. The doormen were already getting ready for the influx of security teams as they scoured the area ahead of time. The GH security even swept Hanuman's BMW when he graciously picked us up for dinner. BTW, Hanuman's BMW was like riding on a cloud with a serious sound system.....really fine. Money can hardly wait to get that car

Bob, have you been to Zanoti's before? Best Italian we have had in Bangkok and our local friends greased the tracks for a great time. I know, you already have all your dinners planned,lol.

Where's Pat?? Does she have a butler too?

Aloha!

That would be Mony....sorry.

HT Mony want something smaller! Bob promised her years ago that he would buy her one after she graduate. She's looking forward to that!

that's right, i think a '54 packard would be great for tooling around either london or bkk...

pat went home yesterday.

a few years ago we had a res at zanotti and they called that AM and cancelled it. that made me mad so we have never visited even though pook always speaks highly of it. i'm sure it is good, if not excellent. it's their loss not having us eat there..

don---spell check is really helping out these days on fodors..

Where all did you decide to shop for items for the orphanage? When we went to one (a different one)for Thai friend Pong's birthday (for good karma) we stopped and shopped at a Big C. I think my own donation was about $100 give or take. We took a HUGE amount of things... mostly baby stuff, as this was an orphanage with little ones, not of school age yet.

Leaving for Amsterdam on Thanksgiving day. Will you manage to find turkey for your dinner Thursday, or are you looking for that sort of meal?

Zanotis is good, yes. I still like Via Vai's pizza better though.

no turkey for us, probably just another platinum fix..

funny you should ask about the shopping--read below..


Wednesday

A fabulous night's sleep in a very comfortable bed.

I walked next door to 4 seasons to get some pastry for a light breakfast for a change. K phoned the butler for coffee and our day started a bit earlier. It was humid and a bit smoggy/overcast this AM. After nice showers we took a taxi to River City Shopping Center where K's tailor is located. We got there before it opened at 10. We sat outside where it was almost comfortable---this proves my point that it is cooler near to the river than in the central city.

Penny was already in the shop when we were let into the building. She had a problem with the piece of silk K brought her from Shanghai (thanks to peter for letting us know). Seems there was too little material to do the top the way she wanted it---i said have one short sleeve and one long one and create a new style. Problem was solved and that project moves forward now with all the others in progress.

From there we took another taxi to the Anantara (too hot to take the boats .. We had our kept luggage there and also wanted to check on my new robe with jack (monet il sarto)---too small, back to the drawing board with different cloth totally (3rd try). We picked up some pastry for tomorrow's breakfast--pat says they have the best croissants.

Another taxi to pantip, via the St Regis, where we dropped off the left luggage and pastry to be placed in our room.

Pantip---for those who don't know this is the electronics super store for bkk.

Our goal was to begin the shopping for the Orphanage in memory of Gpanda.

IT City on the 5th floor is the fixed price major brand, 1st quality store. We had some trouble finding an true english speaker but finally found a young guy who worked with us....

First we selected 2 Acer desk tops with decent guts... we added 2-25" HD screens, 2 different style Epsom printers with 3 extra cartridge sets. We also bought a 2010 version of Microsoft office home and student, which includes word, excel, power point and one note which the orphanage had requested for the kids to be able to learn from (i was concerned with 2+ year old software, but decided it would be fine for kids {cost 2790 B or $93.}).

Our plan is to go back to Pantip at 10:30 on Saturday to pick everything up on our way to the orphanage.

On the way out we also purchased a Wii unit with quite a few games for about $450. We bought 3 extra control units with that.

And on the next floor we purchased some bootleg DVD's for the kids, some educational and some fun ($75).

We found a taxi near the exit driveway (always the best place) after 2 or 3 tries. It took us 1 hour (105B) to get back to the St Regis---not all that far really.

K went swimming and i did this and relaxed with my iced tea from the butler.

Time to head next door for our res at Biscotti for dinner... K's favorite place.

Next it was 2 TV's---first we saw a sale one at 9990 B but the salesman suggested a HD LG's for which he would adjust the price to 9990. We added 2 LG DVD's to that.

Next we bought 12 reims of all purpose A-4 paper.

Look forward to our GTG tomorrow night Bob. Gaggan asked me what you look like, in case you get there before me, and I told him Justin Bieber so wear a cap backward if you get there before me.

That would be Bibendum, not Bieber.

i've lost weight while eating thai..

whaddya mean, while eating thai? You've gone to nothing but Italian restaurants, except for the 1 lousy Indian place.

so back from dinner and my computer runs out shortly..

Biscotti did not disappoint, it never does...

The chef greeted us when we arrived at 7 as few people had arrived as yet. He is Italian unlike his predecessor hailing from Rome.. After we sat down near one of the streams in the floor, he came to our table to ask if he might make suggestions to us. We chatted for quite some time and he asked if we might like of the signature apetizers---a thin pizza with mascapone cheese between two layers of crispy crust... it was fab,... rich, crispy and enjoyable...3 small wedges each. K enjoyed wine with it and I had a draft singha.

time is about up... more in 2 days, or maybe tomorrow.

Sounds like the shopping is off to a great (tech) start!! I'm sure your many gifts, in memory of gpanda, will be much appreciated.

C

don--we kept lots secret so we save good things for ourselves so they don't get over run by nasty tourists...

have jack make you a yukata for use in a japanese ryokan.....

can't believe no robe after the third try. i remember the story you told me of the first one....haha

sounds like lots of quality goodies for the kids, great.

Happy Thanksgiving!

so back to the biscotti dinner:

first we were welcomed with a small lemongrass drink and a cold towel
next came a board with some flavorful bread and a 1/2 clove of roasted garlic (yum) plus fine oil
following that was a small dish with celery, carrots and lettuce leaves with a blue cheese dip..
and of course our wine and beer.

the pizza arrived next and was very rich, crispy (top and bottom) and delicious.

K chose the crab salad as her entree (actually an appetizer). This is her favorite dish at Biscotti. It is a bed of radicchio, fennel, and other greens with deep fried soft shell crab on top. Boiled potatoes and green beans plus a herby dressing are accompiants..

I chose, based on chef's suggestion, a very creamy risotto with 2 seared scollops and a few bright green young fava beans on top... Filling and delicious..

For dessert, I chose the granny smith apple tart with chocolate and vanilla sauces on the side. A bit tough and lacking pizazz...

K on the other hand chose the signature dessert, carmello spuma. This arrives with smoke caused by dry ice escaping from the unique glass dish. The dish is a large bowl of a red wine goblet, sans stem with dry ice and water in it. seated in it is a tulip shaped glass dish holding, from bottom to top, frozen coffee crystals, chocolate pearls, and caramel foam on top with amaretto chocolate sauce on the side to be added if you wish. Unique, dramatic and delicious.
about $105.

A lovely and relaxing evening meal.

an easy walk next door to our hotel. btw, the greeting you receive each time you arrive at st regis is amazing... you enter on ground floor, elevator to fl 12--lobby. change to another elevator with key security to your floor--our floor is 18. we view the 4 seasons and over towards pratunam mkt and platinum mall.

our driver is coming shortly for another day of orphanage shopping

Awesome meal! Not like the turkey we will have tomorrow, but a feast nevertheless.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to the Kimballs and all Fodors friends. Your shopping for the orphanage is Thanksgiving "on the hoof". -and it is really nice to hear about.

Sounds like your first romantic meal ALONE these past six weeks you lug.
Karen must have loved it. You on the other hand too busy rating the crispness of the pizza crust....go figure.
Practice the Gangnam Style dance for Pook & Mony later this evening...at least you'll look cool.....maybe not.....

Aloha!

i found my hat and have the dancing shoes on... please bring the wheel chair around...

another pretty busy day... we need a break..

breakfast in our room overlooking 4 seasons and as far as Bayoike tower, clearly seeing platinum..

Roger came for us at 10. First we swung by chang's to pick up ordered eyeglasses and have a small repair on an old pair of mine.

Following that we attacked Big C... This is a walmart sort of store, only multi-levels. We went to the one directly across from Cental World Plaza.

First I changed $1900 into baht to finance some of the purchases for the orphanage. rate: 30.31B=$1.

Next we picked up some AA battries... then some DVD's and CD's and finally we found the kids clothing section. We bought T shirts in various sizes for girls and boys... we bought shorts and some longer shorts... then it was flip flops---a whole shopping cart full... then it was mesh shorts, and more T-shirts...

next it was more cd's and blank notebooks and pens, and pencils... then tons of flat balloons....

we bought some whiffle ball games, some balls of different sizes, for kicking and throwing... and undoubtedly things i have forgotten about..

check out took well over 30 minutes even with automated scanning. $570.

Separately we bought some books from a concession within big C---some fun, some educational.

Roger brought the van around and we threw what seemed like hundreds of bags inside.

We were hungry but decided to wait till we crossed the street to central world where we wanted to visit asia books. Roger skillfully crossed the 6 lanes of traffic from one driveway to another with very heavy traffic and no one giving way.. no horns either..

On floor 6 we had a bite to eat (soup and a not so good sandwich) at Black Canyon Coffee.

AB was near-by. K had help from a clerk who spoke some english---i was beat and just sat there while K brought her finds to me. We bought an atlas and a number of other nice books, some of which were requested items. $150.

Next was a toys r us... we bought puzzles, games, activities, miniature toy trucks, paddle/ball games, friz bees, hulla hoops, jump ropes, etc---$185

We met roger for the long drive back to the hotel--traffic.

On the way we stopped at a friend's new Patisserie, called Masatomi, on fl 3 at The Portico, a small shopping center, next door to Starbucks on Langsuan (left side of street).
great stuff..

Roger cut thru Villa supermarket's little lane to take us out to our street...

We had been out 6.5 hours..

Some hot tea and good a/c revived us in time to meet Hanuman and Mony at Gaggan Restaurant... All I can say is WOW..
So I don't miss any details (I have tons of pics), I will write in a day or so.

i forgot to mention that Biscotti is currently having a white truffle promotion.... dishes seem to run slightly north of $100.

We were unlucky last night Bob as the premium class 1 white Alba truffle arrived at Gaggan this morning! Oh well I guess I will have to return there ALONE!

pook, its tough but someone has to do it!!

totally, totally exhausted after another busy day...

tomorrow is finally our day at the orphanage to present to them all the items we have bought with the memorial $$ for Gpanda...

I need to tell you all with some detail about that but first i need to tell you about dinner at Gaggan--in a word unbelievable..

however i need to wait till Sunday probably..

In Kathie's honor we ate tonight at Lemongrass on soi 24.. It was quite good..

Bob, now you know how it feels to be a real shopper!!! I'm proud of you for withstanding the workout at Big C (what a great place to buy loads of stuff to donate!!).

I hope the trip to the orphanage goes well. Had really hoped to be part of it LAST year, but alas, the flooding did not allow it! I'm with you in spirit.

Hello from Amsterdam. We arrived this morning, and are being very lazy on this rainy and chilly day... but, hey, it's Amsterdam, so it's not all THAT bad...

You've got e-mail.....
C

So wonderful meeting you all!! Rat wants to see you, too. We cannot thank you enough. We all wished we had more time together. Another time, for sure. More soon.

Am back from OZ will post trip report on the Australian Forum.

I know I am late in catching up with you, but better late than never. Have enjoyed your postings and relived some of the places through your eyes.

Bob, what a wonderful set of thanksgiving messages--gifts from gpanda to the children of Thailand. I'm loving every post. Thanks to you and Karen for being there for all of us. The shopping sounds both exhausting and exhilarating (albeit more exhausting) . Can't wait to hear about the delivery!

And, relative to politics. You are very light on the politics. And, I figure it's your thread Bob. That's why we love you. Your reports are more a smorgasbord than a plate of petit fours.

the visit to the orphanage was amazing, overwhelming in some ways.

tomorrow is a total down day---finally.

i will be catching this dull report up to date..

we are not up on the political situation here as there was to have been another huge rally in town today... by mid morning we were told the government had stepped in to defuse things... I'll see what the paper says in the morning...
we were out of town from 8-7 today.

i plan to restart the report with a narrative on the Gaggan restaurant.. don't miss this..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/24/thailand-anti-government-protests

So I haven't been on fodors for some time, and was unaware of the protests. My neighbor asked me if we were still going, and I said yes. Then I came to read the article, and come back to you. So, at this point, I am glad I didn't choose the hotel near the embassy area. (*as I almost chose)

I would love to hear about the orphanages. (*I'm not up on your current report. Is it in Laos or Thaland?)

Our departure is in 3 weeks. Now, if I could only find my wallet.....

onetwothree..... I have seen the protests on TV here in Amsterdam. I was in the city a couple of years ago for the red shirt take over of the city center. You would not have known about it from soi 8. I too will be in BKK in a few weeks and hope things are quiet.

Bob rest up and give us a report on the orphanage. Anxious to read about it.

Looking forward to waking up to your report tomorrow...

1234.. in you opinion where is the "embassy area" and why are you "glad" that you didn't choose that area?

yea what is this area?? they are spread all over the city..

two days ago they said there would be 100,000 protesters, but with only 7,000 it is tiny..

we see no affect at all...

Looking forward to your details on gaggan and on the orphanage visit.

WOW!! I have just made the epic read from the Boston fall, around SE Asia, with flights on Korean Air, stops in China, a riotous read about the stay at the Sheraton Krabi and other hilarious comments, along with a food blog sufficiently detailed to make my salivary glands start working even though I just ate. And how timely......as I will be making my 1st trip to SE Asia in February. Thank you Bob, Karen, and all of your Fodor friends. Its so much fun to read about your circle of Fodor's friends as this forum is something I've just recently discovered.

I tried to cut and paste the restaurants, shops, hotels into some kind of useful framework of reference as we will be visiting Bangkok, Vientiane, and Krabi (no, not the Sheraton), but I'd also love to talk/correspond with you directly once you return and are recovered from your fantastic trip. I don't know if that's possible -- but if it is, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I'll just say thanks for such a terrific and amusing travel post. I look forward to reading about the rest.

The McBeanies just spent an hour with us and we had lots of laughs..

BACK TO MY REPORT

We took a taxi to Gaggan, which wile located almost directly in back of the St Regis is on a tiny dead-end soi. We allowed 35 min. for the ride and it took that entire time with the heavy traffic on Wireless and Plenochit (Langsuan is one way starting from Plenochit). Pook and Mony were just inside the front door at a lovely corner table with a full view of the tiny restaurant (only 30 tables total on 2 floors).

I had champagne and the others had long island iced tea a la gaggan (the booze is fast frozen into a ball and placed in a large cocktail glass, hot tea is poured over it and the booze slowly escapes into the drink, allowing for a refill of tea)---unique and oh so Gaggan as we were to learn.

We were constantly attended by a very friendly effeminate older thai man in immaculate dress and jewelry and an assistant or two. Gaggan, the very funny, creative, and likeable Indian owner was often at our table during the meal with explanations and funny tid-bits to share with us. Pook is certainly their #1 customer and cherished client. Our attendant gave clear explanations for each of the 13 course, often bite sized treats.

Pook brought his usual supply of wonderful wine with him, this time a young delicious italian red which would stand up perfectly to the food without over taking it.

So to the meal....

Course one: on individual asian soup spoons a yogurt infused white egg looking mound was individually fed to you by our attendant who perched himself on the arm of your chair. We were instructed to bite directly down onto it to release the wonderful flavor. YUM...

Course two: curried potato puree on a rice cracker served individually on a large stainless twisted tray... good

Course three: small lamb burgers were fried on hot stone table side. they were served on the most amazing bite sized tomato air bun with a shelf life of minutes before it would self destruct. It simply melted in you mouth and the delicate lamb taste flowed.

Course four: a small individual cheese souffle with truffle oil... yum, yum.

Course five: two wooden boxes were placed in the middle of the table. they were opened and in each was an oyster shell sitting on a bed of sparkling salt with a lemon foam covering the oyster. individual oysters were presented to you on a small plate... delicious..

Course six: next a plate with 2 pieces of foie gras with a line of freeze dried foie gras granules on one side and a wide paint brush stroke of red something on the other side...

POOK PLEASE CORRECT MY DESCRIPTIONS...

more courses to follow---eat your hearts out!!

Shades of El Bulli!

You got it crosscheck! Gaggan and 2 of his chefs did work at El Bulli. IMO after the closing of El Bulli you have the Bazaar in L.A. and Gaggan in Bangkok. The Bazaar I think is more El Bulli like, I've not eaten at El Bulli, where the food are pretty much of Spanish influence while Gaggan has Indian influence.

Course seven: a small white interestingly shaped bowl was presented to each of us next. In it was a single egg which had been cooked at 62 degrees C for 2 hours. It was topped with truffle foam. Interesting--- egg was very much like a coddled egg.

Course eight: two pices of chicken tikka served over green chutney and covered by another foam

Course nine: a piece of sea bass poached in a spicy curry sauce and served with naan.

Coarse ten: a small dish of rich risotto with truffle pieces.

Course eleven: Mango mousse with crunchy cereal like bits on top.

Course twelve: Mystery box desserts. two ceramic painted boxes were put on the table. each had a few small drawers. you got to choose your own drawer. Inside you found a dessert treat covered in tin foil, which was actually an edible substance which dissolved in your mouth. Under it was a piece of carrot cake with freeze dried carrott decorations on the side... unique for sure with great presentation and delicious, but not as good as karen kimball's karrot kake...

course thirteen: a frozen orb was placed on the table. it was cut in half and then quarters. it was white chocolate and truffles combine... very rich and delicious...

all of this coupled with the most wonderful company and a fabulous staff and congenial owner made for one of the most pleasant evenings for us.

cost: about 5000 B for 2.

not to be outdone by peter and linda, pook drove us home to the st regis in his new BMW. It has get up and go, superb comfort and great sound.

Sounds unreal....... Not sure I would have survived all of it. Food allergies... Thanks for the in depth reporting. And now I want to hear all about the visit to the orphanage!

Amsterdam is very windy and grey today. We might just vedge out at the Renaissance (our favorite Renaissance, by the way).

Bob, why am I thinking that you are at the Marriott apartments on soi 24? But it sounds like you (and mcbeanies??) are at the St Regis?

BTW, that was our Thanksgiving dinner.


Friday, Nov 23--

we were changing hotels this morning and also beth and maureen were rejoining us from laos.

K & I had a lovely swim in the St Regis pool before breakfast. the black bottom has white/silver spots in it that makes for a sparkling appearance. The pool over looks the Royal Sports Club with its green lawn, golf course and horse track.

Roger came for us at 10 and drove us to the marriott sukhumvit park serviced apartments on soi 24, sukhumvit. We had a 2 bedroom unit reserved for our final 4 nights in Asia.

Problems started the minute we walked in the door, and 5 minutes later B&M arrived. for some reason they had no 2 bd rm units available even though i made my res on 1/24/12. I was back and forth with the front desk staff until the manager of operations became involved and progress was made. we ended up with 3 rooms and 20,000. FF pts---THUS FAR, because it did not end there.
The next day we were to be moved to a 2 bd rm unit while we were away for the day. we put our valuables in a safe in the lobby.

Fast forward to the next evening... we returned from our day at the orphanage around 7.... beat, hot and tired the last thing we needed was more room issues.

our newly assigned room stunk of smoke. I refused it. also K & my suitcases were missing from the new rooms... Now i was made, really mad---i did not yell, but i wanted to.
In the end we ended up back in our original 3 rooms and our suitcases were found in our original room.

Remember that 20,000 points.... well in my mind that is now only a starting point of an apology.... and this time some cash has to be added in... the brass will be back to work tomorrow and will for sure want to talk with me...

Sat. Nov 24---a day 2 years in the making..

Some background.... Andy Levine, a Boston attorney, and much beloved on this forum reporting under the name GPanda passed away after a short illness 1 1/2 years ago. Memorials to him were collected to benefit the Moo Baan Dek Orphanage in
Thailand. Many fodorites as well as the boston legal community contributed to this fund... In 2011, K and I brought the proceeds with us to Thailand, but because of the unprecedented floods were unable to make the trip out to the Orphanage.

So this year we were prepared again to make the trip and andy's widow, beth, was here to join us.


So we had two vans full of the 4 of us, tong, one of her guides and two drivers and we set off into the country about 8AM... tong wanted to go earlier---NO!!!!!!!

After about 2 hours we stopped at a Tesco/Lotus store to use up the rest of the funds---about 10,000 B... We bought some sweaters (polar fleece), blankets, quilts and 4--24" bicycles. we squeezed all of this into the van and set off again for about another hour's ride. We had sandwiches and cheese along the way which we had brought.... boy did that smoked salmon and cream cheese taste good.

We arrived just before noon and the kids were already lined up, sitting on the floor, awaiting their lunch servers---us..

Through tong we had ordered lunch for them (1500 B): rice; fresh chicken and the giblets, which they love; chicken coconut milk soup; sliced cucumbers and water.

Tong also bought 4 large cakes, which the kids really love.

The kids were orderly in line and had been taught to say thank you to us. some asked for bigger helpings than others... there was plenty of food. each kid come through the line with a large cereal bowl..

During lunch our contributions were piled high on tables under a banner which had been painted to greet us. The kids eyes were big looking at all the bags.

After the cake was given out by karen and maureen we asked the kids to sit on the floor around the administrator after having taken a book or two out of the boxes which Fodors had sent directly to Tong last summer. RANDOM HOUSE, PARENT OF FODORS, AND ITS EMPLOYESS HAD SENT 4 LARGE BOXES OF BOOKS IN ANDY'S MEMORY. I took tons of pics of this. the kids loved the books and we had added a bunch in thai as well. I don't mean liked the books, I mean loved and horded them.
they just sat there and "read" and looked at those books for the longest time.

Near the end of this time, I went to the tables and unpacked some balls and hulla hoops and threw them outside and the kids were off and running, having a ball..

more later

Great start! Wish I had been there. I'm sure Beth was really enjoying this, and I'm so very glad she was able to be there!!!

Bob... what is it about YOU and hotel rooms/managers???? Sometimes you get what you get!! Travel is an adventure, after all.

but carol with 4 and 5* places there is an expectation and level of service...

i find it my responsibility to remind them

Beth did the same thing... we all tossed balls, etc and generally encouraged fun...

one very touching moment happened when tong identified to me the young boy who had attached himself to andy on our last visit.... he remembered andy's muscle trick and after i reintroduced him to beth (touching moment as you might expect) she was photographed with him holding her arms up in the same way as the muscle trick..

FYI, the muscle trick was an andy's by-line---he held his arms up and whistled jingle bells while alternating bulging his arm muscles to the tune of the music...

We were all very tired and decided we needed some a/c relief so piled into our vans and headed out. We stopped near the tiger temple for a good meal at a nice restaurant which tong favors... her treat...

The 3+ hour drive to bkk was far too long and ugly... roger knew a few short cuts which saved us tons of time...

We needed a little something to eat upon our return so we ate in the marriott restaurant which is quite good actually. I had really good minestrone soup, K had indian and M&B each had something simple.

well deserved rest for everyone..

Sunday---time is getting short...


after a breakfast downstairs at a decent hour, FINALLY, we lazed around for the rest of the AM... it was raining on and off, so we skipped our intended pool time.

we had a couple of cookies for lunch and about 12:45 K, B and I taxied over to platinum fashion mall. We needed an additional suitcase which we found for 1400 B ($45). it is a 24" moulded super plastic.

This led us directly into yet more shoe shopping... score: beth 2 more pair; K 6 more pair---prices 250-450 B each ($8-15).

taxi back to marriott... BTW, the taxi there took 1 hour and only cost $5.

M, K and I went to L'Opera Restaurant; 53 soi 39 (on the left at a corner, just after the traffic light). Excellent IT food. K had fried veal chop, M had grilled lamb chops and i had the best ever ravioli on a bed of fresh red sauce. fancy pastry for dessert. 1/2 carafe of wine and water---about 3400 B.

Beth went to a night weekend market where they sell used items... it rained and she got soaked but had fun.. she said she was the oldest person there---60.

its 9:30 and we could easily fall into bed

Does Beth know that you've announced her age to the entire Universe?

How many more months before this trip ends? I've told my wildebeest pals that your trip makes their Great Migration seem like a walk over to the convenience store.

(6 pr of shoes? Really?)

(6 pr of shoes? Really?)

yes don, really,.....6 are only a light stimulation for the fetish

wow what a whirlwind time you are having in your final days in bangkok. so great to hear of your triumphs at the orphanage. lots of lives will turn around because of it. we made it back to platinum mall on our own for what seemed like an eternity as I didn't have my bench partner with me so I had to ply every nook and cranny we(she) missed on her first time there with you guys, jeeze. more costume jewelry, shoes and the like were taken that day.

i think your hotel situation calls for the 50,000 point curtsy followed by the $$$$ resort dollar credit bow. i wouldn't be surprised if you get the ultimate and a comp room but i doubt that, lol
on second thought.....

Aloha!

Hope you took lots of pix at the orphanage.

I'm glad you could remember all of those courses at Gaggan. It was one big fabulous blur to Jeane and I - but now having read your descriptions, I recall that we had many of the same...

Thank you for filling in the background re Gpanda for us newcomers. I was very moved by your description of the trip to the orphanage and muscle trick . Yes, there are good Republicans -- just not very many, but the same could be said about Democrats so we just have to keep moving forward......

Enjoy your last few days and have a safe trip home.

What a great day at the orphanage and how fortunate that Beth was able to share in it. The drive couldn't have been too boring with tong for company.
I love hearing about your hotel escapades. No wonder you can afford to travel in such luxury. Waiting to hear about all your latest freebies.

Karen here...One thing Bob forgot to say is, Tong bought 2 large brass Buddhas. She had Andy's name and birth date inscribed on both. One was given to the orphanage, and on June 7th, every year, the date of his death, the kids will remember him in their prayers. The second one Tong took to the turtle temple here in BKK, along with some of Andy's ashes to be blessed by the monks. The ashes are placed in the Buddha and it resides at the temple.

Ah, Karen, I'm reading about the Buddhas just before going to bed. I'm so glad you posted this. It is giving me warm feelings to know GPanda is being so loved and cared for in Thailand.

I can't wait to see your photos. Thanks again for letting us tag along with you and Bob on your journeys.

i can't believe that i forgot the Buddhas, that was such an unexpected, and important part of our day Saturday.

The fact that something permanent remains in Thailand connected with andy warms all our hearts and more.

And again thank you for those of you, including Fodors staff, who contributed to this...

There are tons of pics that i will begin to work on at the end of the week.

We leave here on Korean Air tomorrow night about 11. We will be home the next day by dinner time...

So what did we do for our last full day in BKK?

Roger came for us after breakfast at about 10AM. BTW, during breakfast we were approached by Alex the german ops manager. He is really a very nice man. He told me he had heard about our "smokey rooms" problem. I asked if we might have a meeting later in the day and he said sure...

So our first stop was the Bangkok doll factory and museum... A new place for all of us. It is actually not far from Platinum Mall, set down a narrow soi in a working class neighborhood. Roger had to twice ask for directions once we got into the neighborhood.

R & I stayed in the van and the girls took a tour. They observed the construction of the dolls, their painting, and decoration. They said it was interesting. B & K made purchases. The dolls being produced are all small traditional thai figures, the museum has dolls from all over the world. K says a great take for ladies. Free

I forgot to mention that on the way we made a quick stop at central chitlom dept. store to see if i could get a new watch band but they no longer carry them... i got a nice leather one a few years ago.

This was followed by a lunch stop at the Jim Thompson House restaurant. K had her usual pasta with ham, M had a pasta with cheese sauce, I had a pomello salad with shrimp (they have the best in bkk), and B had a pomello salad and a brown rice dish.

After that we made a stop at Langsuan to buy some pastry cookies from our friend to give to the girls at js thai silk who have done really good work on K's new clothing.

That was followed by a longer stop at River City at K's dressmaker, JS Thai Silk. K had a number of items to pick up, some needed a few more tweeks, and the girls each found some ready made items. There was a Loy Krathang show going on at RC in their exhibition hall. The girls bought some clothing there and other items.

Poor Roger was patiently waiting.... Bravo, this finished our last day almost. Back to the hotel.

Alex came to our room as I had requested for a brief discussion of the last few days at his place of employment.

I smiled as much as I could but I was very serious. He was extremely courteous and we had a frank discussion. I told him that I had received an email notifying me of 20,000 pts being deposited into my account and I thanked him for that BUTTTTT that was based on the initial problem. He agreed and said 'here is what I would like to do....'

Please pay for the first night of your stay and I will offer you.........................

the rest of your nights free. I thanked him and told him that I thought that was over generous, BUT that we accept that. Being the PIG that I am, I asked if he might consider some additional points as well. His response, "let me see what I can do..."

We shook hands and he made me promise that on our next trip that I contact him first. Oh, I just could never do that..... like shall I contact him tomorrow??

I think I mentioned that there were 99 soccer players (kids and some parents---farang---you know the entitled kind) from HK staying here over the weekend. He said they drove the staff crazy and the staff, being polite, did not know how to handle them... sounds like a usa hotel weekend with the same crowd... we observed them out of control.

saga ended... we are happy, but would of course have been much happier had things have gone smoothly.


Face Thai for dinner tonight... Hope it is as good as the last time we were there...

Hope you're going by BTS as it's raining cats and dogs! Enjoy your last night in Bangkok for 2012 and we hope to see you again in 2013. You will probably be persona non grata at all the Marriott hotels so I will keep an eye out for new properties for you to stay at.

thanks pook, i can always count on you...

we no sooner got our seats at face and it began to rain...finished by the time we left...

we had a wonderful dinner. Face is very attractive both inside and out. it is on soi 38, sukhumvit. we had not been there for a number of years. The food was even better than we remembered. we ate thai, although they have Indian too.

we had chicken satay
white rice
pineapple fried rice with shrimp and chicken
a whole grilled fish in a banana leaf
chicken cashew
coconut giant shrimp--fab
eggplant and yellow bean sauce

2 glasses of wine

4896 B

we will return again on our next trip
its very dark inside which is a bit of a shame as the decorations are so attractive.

taxi back to the marriott... BTW, we saw the new marriott and it is out near to soi 55---probably further out than we might want to be, but i expect we may try it---both hotel and serviced apartments. opening soon??

a farewell in the lobby to B&M as they leave here at 3:30AM.

we will be leaving at dinner time

In looking this over a bit, I think that I failed to mention that coming here on Korean /Air we were treated to our first exposure to the new A380 jet. It is simply fabulous... very quiet... very large---2 decks... huge seats in economy.. decent overhead room.. big screen tv's.. good bathrooms, etc.

it will be hard to revert to some old favorites like the 747 and 777

Safe travels! I enjoyed your report as always.Hello from Amsterdsm but we leave on an overnight 1st class train for Zurich shortly.

What a tale! Perhaps we should all travel with you for the extra miles and perks. Safe trip home. Enjoy the Korean air flight.

who is roger???

yes you already mentioned the A380 you flew out on to INC then the same plane to HKG.

hahaha a comp room....good for you!!! we all try for that in our travels but none of us can pull a kimball out of our hats....all ends well.....
wonder what the mgr says when you call next year as a gold, his reaction should be interesting.....

looking back on this report shows you had a wonderful trip to be envied by most on this forum except maybe for the likes of spygirl, AO or Don Topaz......

where is your last dinner going to be in bangkok this year? L & I have a bet on what it will be.....

if your flight out to ICN is like ours two weeks ago on KAL it will be at the g gates a long long way(the last) to the end of the terminal.

thanks for doing this report so i didn't have to

Aloha!

YOU STILL HAVE TO DO A REPORT HT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

our last dinner, or in this case will be it a lunch will be at Lord Jim in the Oriental. They have a fab seafood centered buffet each day at lunch. we think we can eat enough to carry us all the way home, or at least we hope so.

Roger is one of Tong's drivers, although he freelances too. We have used him for a number of years on various excursions..
He is a really sweet guy with a wonderful personality. His driving is both careful and reactive. he knows all the short cuts too. I paid him 2500 B per day plus we gave him a sizable appreciation tip last night. You can arrange for him thru tong. He drives a large comfortable van which I believes belongs to tong and/or roger.

We had a leisurely breakfast with the mcbeanies at 9:15 this AM.. They are here for several more days... Alex, the operations manager stopped by to say hello and in fact we got to meet his mother who is visiting from Germany.

While saying goodbye to the McB's in the lobby we got to meet the GM who apologized for our problems here and hoped that things were fine now, which they are. We talked to him briefly about his history in thailand and about the industry in bkk as we move forward. it was interesting.

I will write something later about our lunch today, but K has just returned from a swim and i need to get ready to leave for the across town drive to the oriental.

A car has been ordered for us for 7:00, but as alex says TIT (this is thailand) so he made the time 6:30PM.

SAD, of course to be leaving, but glad to be going home to the festive christmas season and seeing our grand kids. Secure to be knowing that we will be returning to Asia in less than a year, for sure. LIFE IS GOOD..

THANKS FOR READING ALONG....

so last entry before we fly...

the last of K's new clothes just arrived by messenger, so she feels good about that.

my robe from jack is yet another mystery..

Lunch at Lord Jim--

After several years of bypassing this buffet lunch we returned today and were not disappointed. The sushi is amongst the best in BKK... the turkey, roast beef, duck and other roasts looked wonderful... the grilled 1/2 lobster tails were very fresh tasting.. the shrimp in many forms was delicious... the raw tuna was heavenly.. the dried meats and cheeses were very european... the salads looked and tasted great... the tempura looked good... steamed bass was good.. lots of stir fries of every sort... asian soups... breads.. to name some items, and then there was dessert.

There must have been 50 varieties of desserts, most individually plated. There was fruit and cheese too.

And then there was the bill... 1400 ea++... cheap for the quality and variety. the place was full... we had a res for a window table for our last river fix for this year.

proper attire required--no shorts, T's etc.

Did you not speak with the mgr @ Lord Jim?

no need to speak to him, everything was perfect...

its mostly thr managers who want to speak with me. certainly you have felt the same way in our prior encounters??

I have never actually wanted to speak to you, but have on occasion put on a false smile and pretended to be vaguely interested in your opinion or comments.

I couldn't possibly say, of course, whether this sentiment also applies to the various GMs in your Roladex.

Can you let us "newbies" know who Tang is? Is Tang someone we should be in contact with if we are visiting Bangkok for the first time -- or is she a friend?

Thanks for letting us all live vicariously through your wonderful 6 weeks of travel (it was 6 wasn't it?) -- not something I have been able to arrange since I was young and carefree.

Have a wonderful holiday season and thanks for all of the restaurant reviews. Can't wait to try some of them out.

How old is RHK? Five? My 6 year old thankfully behaves better than this. Seems like he is content spending his days "sulking" in his room and making general managers grovel because The King wasn't happy. Delusions of grandeur syndrome?

Pompous jerk comes to mind.

Tong has a company Tour with Tong and is an excellent tour guide.

Outofhere1, I see that is is your first posting. Welcome to Fodor's where bantering humor and variations on the themes of some long-standing shared jokes are part of the charm for many of us. You are missing the tongue-in-cheek humor.

First appearances may be deceiving. Or, in the words of Gilbert &Sullivan, "Things are seldom what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream..."

marya - agree with your comment.

Out of here, clearly you are posting to make mischief.........you must be a fan of our lovely Bob if you registered to post.........

i am still working hard to achieve 5...

like most worthy fodorites my tongue is stuck in my cheek.

rhkkmk might be pompous but we all know who the jerk is on this thread......

bob get that tongue off my left cheek please

It was a LOOOONG trip home, but so many fond memories from this trip. We met so many Fodorites in Hong Kong, Shanghai,Bangkok, Khoa Lak, and then again back in BKK. A lot of laughs and travel stories and of course good food was shared.

Our day at the orphanage dedicated to sharing Andy's (GPanda's) menmory was very moving. I hope Bob gets the photos up soon so the rest of you can shared that day. The books from Random House made a big hit with the children. It was paritcularly nice to have Beth (Mrs GPanda) with us to share the day.

We certainly visited many new and interesting palces, along with some old favorites. As ususal time ran out and there is still a list of things to do in that party of the world. Oh well, there is always next year. Thanks for following along. It is always nice to hear form "home" when your are on a trip.

i am barely functioning today, as K says it was a long trip home.

i promise to work on the pics and to cut them way back this year over previous years. i may try to divide them into subject matter: GTG's, Food, Hotels, etc. That way you can watch only what you have interest in..

"pompous"--now that i will have to ponder on a bit..

What is "pompous" (i.e., vainly and grandiloquently exaggerating one's own importance while alienating others) is barging into an ongoing conversation and delivering a sweeping indictment without bothering to first understand the social dynamic that preceded his/her arrival on the scene. HT got it right, I think, in bestowing the "jerk of the thread" award.

The poster's "contribution" to the discussion reminded me of that old chestnut:
"I try not to tell people that I own my own Caribbean island as soon as I walk into a room because I don't want to seem pompous."

That was a long trip. No wonder you're spent. Looking forward to the day when you decide that, especially when one reaches a certain length of tooth, it really is worth the effort to find a way to fly in the front.

Looking forward to pics, with the certainty that you'll be as selective as always in choosing only the very best ones.

I seem to have signed up twice for this forum -- once with this name and once with "FromLA" -- now you know everything worth knowing.......

Thanks HappyTrvlr for filling me in on Tong. I found a link to her website on another Fodor threat.

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your delightful bantering. I'm totally addicted -- something new to do now that I'm retired.

No one would argue with moving to the front of the plane, even those of us long at tooth -- but some of us are short of dollar and short of points. He who is short must sit in the back.

i am short of everything except weight, but i could fly all my flts on a korean A380, the cattle car would suit me..

i'm saving the front till i have no 'tooth'

This has been a hoot to follow, plus it has made me really want to suffer thru the flight to get to Bangkok, but only with instructions from the Kimball Crowd! Many thanks.

Taconic... you really should make the long journey to BKK. You would have a fantastic time. Try to go when the Kimballs (or MOI) would be there as well.

betsy---we would welcome you guys to bkk.. you would love it.. think fall 2013 as we will be there, probably in nov..

Here is the first set of my pics.

They represent our day spent at Moo Baan Dek Orphanage in rural Thailand.

The purpose of our trip there was to present gifts purchased with memorial monies donated when Andy Levine (GPanda) died.

We were very happy that his widow, Beth Boyer, was able to be with us. It was a very emotional day.

While it does not show very clearly in the pictures, Tong purchased and had engraved, a large (perhaps 25") Buddha statue, in solid bronze, to memorialize Andy. It will be on display in an area of devotion at the Orphanage.

I hope you enjoy these shots.


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Great photos Bob. What you have all done in memory of Gpanda is really wonderful.

I've been following along quietly the whole trip and enjoying reading. I was particularly interested in what you thought about Green Gecko as I've been looking at it off and on for a few years - now I'm not so sure its right for us as its maybe a bit too like home - isolated and quiet - when what we need is a bit of a city hit. Also interested in how you found Vientiane. I love it there but haven't been for about 3 years and I think its grown even busier. Still hope to be back next year though.

Finally Gaggan especially with Pook and family is a great place to be. I loved the food but want to go back for that white chocolate treat.

Thank you

V was nice for a visit, but i do think it is probably changing quite quickly. When nthe new mall gets built along the waterfront i think it may change the place in a negetive way..

green ghecko is very rural and quiet for sure..

Here is my 2nd set of pics. we visited the unearthed terracota warrior site near Xian, china which was discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a new well. He is seen in one of the pics sitting at a small table signing books.
Only a small portion of the artifacs have been unearthed because they are waiting for superior technology to be developed which will protect the objects. The emperor's tomb has not been touched at all.
This excursion represents Karen's #1 item on her wish list.

I have not titled the pics as they seem self explanatory..


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You've been duped. Those are crated oranges, not unearthed warriors.

Oh Bob I was just about to say the same thing. Peaches not ancient warriors in the lead picture!

I think pomegranates.

oh, you too are so observant... look onward young men..

Karen's #2 on her widh list was to see the King's royal barges in action, and we got to do that in early Nov with a few other fodorites. Our vantage point was the supatra Restaurant on the river, next door to the hospital where the King has resided for over a year. We felt we had a royal vantage point.

The occasion was a full dress rehersal for the religious ceremony held on Nov 9 to present new robes to the monks. On nov 9 we did watch on tv as the Crown Prince presented the robes in a very elaborate ceremony.

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t/s/b two instead of "too"

Bob you have 3 guesses as to what type of fruits are in your first picture. Fess up!

Peaches or Pluots

Let me look for the pic...

Now back to the beginning of the trip. Hong Kong does not disapoint, especially when you spend time with a local. On the peak we got into corners and down lanes that only a local could know about.
We have been there many times but always spent most of our time in Kowloon, so it was nice to stay on the island this time. First visit for Pat. We did not do most of tourist route but hit only a few highlights, like the peak and star ferry, plus stanley..


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i'd recognize them anyplace---those are giant red grapes...

wait a minute, no those are pink chinese apples...NO

how the hell would I know, I hate fruit, but if i have that last guess you promised me i would say they are locally grown (Xian) pommergranites. Had I not been told taht day i would not have known however, but with my superior memory I remembered. I still can't spell however

in picture no. 97 is that a voodoo doll of you? Where can I get one?

Marija won the prize...pomegranates. They were every where along with persimons.

Welcome home Bob and Karen. Loved following your trip! Hope you have a fabulous Christmas with your wonderful family, and we need to plan a Similians lunch soon.

Thanks particularly for keeping us so connected to the gifting for the Moo Baan Dek Orphanage in GPanda's memory. I loved reading about the exhausting shopping trips (I had to stop for a glass of wine half way through your post!) and the photos of the kids--Simply wonderful, spiritual, and endearing.

Good luck with the jet lag.

Bob and Karen-Jim and I just finsished looking at the orphanage photos on Shutterfly. I must say it brought a tear to my eye, as well as a big smile.

If anyone wants to see what some money, and some caring individuals can do to improve a tiny part of the world, take a look at the photos. I am so glad that Beth was able to accompany you to share in the experience.

I just got a look at all your pictures. The pictures of the trip to the orphanage -- breath-takingly touching. Of Xian: We were there in 1980 -- 1 hotel, tiny building for entrance, no KFC but many pomegranates. The King's barges -- Do they close the river to all other traffic when they do that? Lovely! Yul Brynner could relate (did they ban him from Thailand or just the film?)
Hong Kong -- Made me think it's worth revisiting. Thanks for sharing!

Tong took us one morning to a new, to us, floating market 30 min. from BKK. It operates only on Sundays. She hired a long tail boat and we cruised the canals, getting off at one point and walking to see a couple of home stay places..

The food is mostly in stalls on shore and looked delicious as you will see. There were only about 6-10 boats selling and cooking food, unlike SD FM.


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they do close a large section of the river to traffic during the practices and during the actual procession. In fact they even have frogmen in the water plus lots of other security. The area closed is upriver from wat arun.

HK is always worth another visit...

Enjoyed these - especially the orphanage, royal barges, Hong Kong (nice to see photo of Cicerone). I think what we saw of the Terracotta Warriors in Singapore was pretty representative of what you saw, at least based on your photos and if that is all it is, we don't need to go there.

Craig, you are right... I would not spend the $$ or time to visit there, but K really wanted to.


Some time ago, K saw an an article on TA about a villa in Issan Province, near Udon Thani, and we decided to rent it for a few days. It is all inclusive and sleeps 4-6, with 2 not comfortably--ask Pat.
There is little else to do in the area. There is a nice pool on the deck and lots of DVD's and books. The included food and drink is excellent and served at your pleasure.


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Like everyone else, I love the pics at the orphanage. Wish I'd been there.

I totally disagree with you about the terra cotta warriors. To see them on site is awesome, not the same as seeing a few in a museum in Singapore, or in Canada, where I saw a travelling exhibit of 5 warriors years before I was in Xian. To see them in situ is definitely worth the trip IMO.

Most informative group of photos, Bob and Karen. Glad you are home safe and sound. I appreciate the whole story and esp the orphanage series of photos.

Great pictures! I loved being able to hear about and see photos from the visit to the orphanage - such cute kids! What a fabulous trip!

sorry about the poor quality of many of my pics...

OK, so some of you have wondered about the missing food pics... here is my first group. I try not to use flash in restaurants so some are dark. the food and its presentation in Asia is always unique and interesting.


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ok, here is more food.. this is at the end of the trip... give Gaggan a try and also Lord Jim at the oriental at lunch..

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This is the end of my food pics...

The chicken soup with spinach, pasta and veggies K made for lunch today beats almost all od what we ate in 6 weeks, and we had some swell meals.

oh, yea, the link:

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finally some sights---Hong Kong


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Hi Bob, I've enjoyed your photos - it looks like you were all well-fed and that a good time was had by all!

some general thailand pics from bangkok, khao lak, krabi, ao nang, and phuket...


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this is about the end of the pics---some general one from laos and back in bangkok:


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The Gaggan portions seem substantial, much larger than El Bulli, where everything was amuse-bouche size. But I think we might have had more courses.

Bob: I have been following along from the very first day, reading every one of your entries and now admired all the pics. What a fantastic trip -- sights, sites, history, culture, shopping, food and more food, what a great trip you had. And the Fodorites you met, are there pics of the Shanghai GTG or did I miss it? Many thanks!

aline--i want to do a set of pics of GTG's and also shanghai watertown and xian, plus shanghai... don't know how i missed them.. for today i am pictured out.. actually the ones i have not done are amongst my most clear, which isn't saying much. BTW, cookie fell asleep at the table--we wore him out.

i bet the price at Bulli was substantially more also.

We ate at El Bulli for lunch in 2000. It was about $80 pp for the tasting menu - well worth it for the quality of the meal and the novelty of the experience, years before foam became a culinary craze. This was when foodies from Paris were driving all night and waiting in line for hours to get in, but before it had gained international fame.

We were invited into the kitchen after the meal because our older son, then 10, had ordered the tasting menu instead of the kids' meal (pasta and steak). Apparently he was the first kid to happily eat all 21 courses (all bite size, unlike your photos) and Fernán Adria presented him with a signed cookbook.

We've since eaten at Bazaar - good, but a totally different experience. Will have to go back to Bangkok to dine with Pook and try Gaggan! Is it as hot a spot as El Bulli was?

it is busy but not crazy...

Any time crosscheck!

here are street pics from Xian, China.. starting at our sheraton north hotel, then the city wall, then a large park with drum and bell towers and finally the muslim quarter.


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Peter arranged a van to take us to ZHUJIAJIAO, a watertown about an hour outside Shanghai on day 2. We loved it.


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Great pictures! Forgot how much fun that day was. I see by some shots that I was wearing the camera equipment that day so there must be some shots taken somewhere. I still have to get to our pictures yet. Some of us have to work
Thanks for posting!

Aloha!

you call that work?? you are the boss man and just sit around and let the ladies do all the work..

a couple of thoughts before i finish up with the pics..

over the years kathie and I, in particular, have made a big deal about appropriate dress in BKK. On this trip i noticed a huge change. Thai women are looking more western by the day... tons of short shorts, much more cleavage, etc. things are changing fast.
men are much more frequently wearing shorts, sandals and T's.

for my own part, I wore shorts in the city for the first time. I not only was cooler and more comfortable, but I felt appropriate in them. I still wore a polo or shorts shirt however. Would I wear shorts to lunch at the Oriental, no, but there were a few people very casually dressed there. K continued to dress in a comfortable capri and top fashion with sandals 24/7.

The trip home...

Alex arranged a car for us for 6:30PM (fantastic time to be leaving BKK). we were given late check out, as late as we wished. It was an SUV taxi and he charged me 800 B incl the tolls. Nice to not be crowded into a corolla taxi with bags all around you---trunks are very small because of the LPG tanks. trip was less than 40 minutes.

Korean Air check-in did not open till about 2 hours before flt time. We waited in line--ugh. At the appointed hour, the staff appeared. they came out in front of their desks and on signal all bowed towards us. The check-in for some reason then seemed very slow to me in comparison to c/i in new york.

In any case we were on our way. seating was 3X3X3.. we had an aisle and a window with a free seat in between, which was a miracle because we had been told the flt was very full, but promised that on the korea to usa flt we would indeed have an empty seat, which we did. The first plane was a 777 and the longer flt was again on a super comfortable A-380. K notes that she was actually able to curl up on the two seats and sleep some.

we had the "bee-boo-boop" or what ever it is called on the 2nd flt. its the korean rice/veggie/soup bowl one pot meal which is so refreshing, satisfying and delicious.

we arrived at JFK about an hour early and breezed thru the formalities with some small waits. A bag drop was just outside customs for our continuing delta flt to Boston. then there was a long wait--i could have driven home faster, but we were tired.

good to be home to our own bed!!

In retrospect, I am thinking that this was perhaps the best trip ever. We met up with so many friends along the way, had great travel companions, bought wonderful things, ate fabulous foods, stayed in fabulous hotels, had many GTG's, had fab wi-fi availability, ticked off 2 must visits on K's list, revisited favorite places and new ones too, and generally just had a super time..

Even with my diminished mobility issues, we generally did fine. Yesterday I made my first hotel reservation for a Fall, 2013 Asia trip. The cycle starts again, but in the meantime we have a big spring trip plasnned which includes a trans-atlantic cruise, time in several Italian towns ranging from Umbria to the lakes district, followed by a week in Collobriers in southern France with old friends.

it's bibimbap

In this final 2 sets of pics, i have tried to show some of our Fodors GTG's which we had along the way. read the write up on page one to identify the players...


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ok, you are off the hook now, these are the final pics i think...

mostly of peter and linda.

i can't find the shanghai gtg pics??? they were not that great


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THIS FORMALLY CONCLUDES MY TRIP REPORT.

Hi Karen and Bob!

I have been following your excellent trip report. What a fabulous adventure and a pleasure to read! Thanx so much for your thorough report. My husband and I are going to SE Asia, our first trip to that part of the world, in January. Now after sharing your experiences, we are even more excited about our upcoming trip! Many thanks to you and all the other Fodorites whose expert advice enabled me to plan this trip, over many months this past year. (Initially, I did not think that I'd be able to plan/book the many steps of our journey; but I did it, many thanks to all of you). Upon our return in the end of January, I will post a TR (as I did with our various other trip destinations). For me, writing a TR is an important part of the travel experience.

Again, many thanks for your outstanding and enjoyable report!

Carole