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