Trip Report-Gpanda
 

Here in BKK at the Royal Orchid Sheraton. It's very comforting to return to a hotel with which we're very familiar.

Left on Air Canada (Bos-Toronto-Hong Kong-BKK) on 12/23/05. Surprise at the airport! The weight limit was 50 pounds and we had packed for 70 as in the past on NW and United. LUckily, we had an extra duffel bag which we had brought to bring home purchases. So, embarrassing Mrs. Panda, I unloaded from the overweight suitcases to the duffel bag. Avoided a $50 surcharge.

We were told at our Boston origin that we would have to get our baggage in Hong Kong and re-check it. This turned out not to be accurate. After no bags in HK, we were then told that our bags had been sent through to BKK. Consequently, we had the "opportunity" to pass unnecessarily through Immigration in HK. The additional opportunity to pass back through Immigration to leave. We had a 6 hour layover, so the extra opportunity was not really a problem. The HK terminal is impressive.

We flew Toronto-HK on an Airbus 340-500 (colloquially 345). This is a MUCH better plane than the 747's on either NW or United. The Airbus had more comfortable seats, more room, individual seatback screens and less people. The total flight time of 28 hours is approximately the same as NW or United through Narita with a shorter layover. The last leg was on Thai Air. Everything went smooyhly.

Today the young genius and his wife arrive from Germany on Gulf Air. Their first trip to T-land.

Glad to hear you've arrived safely. Enjoy!

K-I'm here in the Towers internet connection. It misses you.

Thanks! Have a Gin and Tonic for me!

What a wonderful way to spend Christmas and New Year. Have a great time Gpanda (and Mrs Panda)- enjoy the whole trip - I'm sure you'll love the Angkor temples and is it Laos too?

Regards Mary

what did you do with the duffel bag, leave it in a corner or pay someone $2 and tell them you would stop for it on the way home and there might be a 10 cent tip for them if they had ironed your shirts while you were gone...??

where did this happen....the poor long suffering mrs panda, aka beth the wonderful....

well do the geni like it....geni is plural of genius....

we expect a daily report btw seeing that you have free internet....

don't spoil kathie's next visit there by telling the staff what a good friend of yours she is, so that they will give you another free bkk ice tea....

gpanda
Do enjoy yourself. Sounds like you need a United premier exec card. I just brought home 3 heavy suitcases from Zurich and they didn't bat an eyelash!! I'm permitted three 70 lb suitcases with my premier exec status.

I agree with others, we need daily reports from you. Brad will arrive on Wed. night late, but maybe you will run into one another at the cigar shop sometime.

Have a great time. Happy holidays to you and Mrs. panda!

Carol

Merry Christmas, counsellor, from the top floor of the IC in Bangkok.

I spent a couple of nights at the Sheraton Sukhumvit, then left there a day early for a 4-day stay here.

Comparing the Sheraton and IC, the latter is certainly a step above the Sheraton. Clearly a far better staff/guest ratio at the IC. Nothing especially wrong with the Sheraton -- it's a very good business hotel, but not a luxury hotel to my mind.

Until today, the weather has been glorious: temps in the 70s and 80s in the day. Today it's back top warm and humid, with a grim haze.

Flying 1st class on Thai was a great deal of fun. The seats were from the 1980s, but the food and wines (Dom, Meursault 1er cru) were top-notch. The fun really starts when the plane gets to Bangkok, and you get escorted through immigration and customs and then plopped into a limo, courtesy of Thai.

Back to reality at the Suan Lum night bazaar yesterday. My first trip there, and yes it's overwhelming. Plenty of chaff, but occasional wheat.

The subway is terrific, but not a whole lot of people seem to use it, based on a hopelessly small sample of 2 trips to/from Lumpini station.

Cheers,

Rizzuto,
Will you be in BKK for a while? Brad is arriving on Wed night late. He'll be staying at Patumwan house (near MBK) for the first 10 days or so, and then will move to Omni probably.

I'm sure he'd love to meet up sometime.

DH and I will not be arriving until late on Jan 18. Can't wait!!!

DH and I stayed at IC a couple of times. I agree, it's a very nice hotel. And the location is pretty hard to beat, as far as shopping.

Carol

Essentially no sleep on Christmas eve. Wnt down to the second floor lobby area and read Pete Hammil's "Downtown". Very good. Gym early, wonderful sauna.

Pigged out at American Breakfast. Devastated the land record for Bacon. A sad note, they would only serve 5 minute soft-boiled eggs due to the Bird Flu.

Took ferry down to Oriental. The regular ferry was virtually non-existent on X-mas day, so we took the tourist boat for an extra 8 Baht. Sad to say pretty much everything was closed, Cigar store, Cotton House and most of the retail in OP place. There was a great X-mas tree in the O's lobby. Walked back to ROS noting almost all retail was closed.

By happenstance, we were in the lobby of the ROS when the young genius and Liz, his wife staggered in from Germany, by way of Parism Abu Dhabi on Gulf Air. More later.

Hi Carol --

I'm leaving late Tuesday night, so I'll just miss Brad. Maybe next time.

Shopping was no problem on Christmas Day uptown. Jim Thompson store open, as were all the shops in Gaysorn and the Thai handicraft mall a few doors down the street.

don---sounds like you and gpanda are having fun....

where are you guys eating so far?? anything new and exciting??

don- where are you going on tuesday?? next stop...

Flying back to Boston on the BKK-JFK flight at 1am Wednesday, then home for a (token) appearance at my office. End of vacation. No regrets.

Glad to hear you've arrived safely. I'm typing from the internet cafe here at the Emporium Mall in Bangkok. Isn't the weather great? Cool and very little to no humidity. The little bit of humidity started yesterday. Before that there was none. I hope this weather holds. So, tonight is our GTG at Face. I went by there yesterday and was given a tour of the place by a very nice Indonesian guy. I didn't want to be stumbling around trying to find it this evening that's why I went yesterday. Hopefully I'll get there this evening as I have a bit of stomach upset at the moment....to say the least. Happy Travels!

Ate lunch at Gallery Cafe around the corner from the ROS. This place as as good as I remember. The high points of lunch were the River Prawns in Tamarind Sauce, Crab cakes (served in the shell), papaya salad 9spicy) and corn fritters.

After lunchh, we all went on a Klong tour. We just got a long=tail boat from Si Phraya pier next to the ROS. This was great. The super houses in Thonburi were an eyeful. Our hands got tired waving at all the people who waved at us. About 3/4 the way through, my son and his wife actually began falling asleep. It was amazing. They'd be talking about the great things they were seeing and then dozing off.

Walked to Tongue Thai for dinner. Highlights were actually the Chicken with Cashews (Bob strikes again) and the deep fried mornig glory. The deep fried sea bass was good, but inaccessible under all the vegetables piled on top. S and W had napped and had more energy.

Don, sorry we missed you. Maybe next time. I'm jealous over the Thai Air flight. It serves me right for being so cheap.

Up early again, gym, sauna and breakfast at the Towers Lounge. This is not as extensive as the American Breakfast, but more restful. Today they had a wonderful dish that they called Coins of Potatoes topped with eggs and lobster.

Met Tony, a driver arranged through Ratt, downstairs. He was to take S and W sightseeing the basics. He was very receptive to my plan of Wat Tramit, Chinatown, Flower Market, Grand palace, Wat Pho, Lunch, Viramek Palace, Marble Wat and Jim Thompson House. he is also a guide and Ratt claimed he could provide more information to newcomers than she. We'll see the results when S and W return.

Beth and I went to Gaysorn Plaza. It was not as interesting as last year. More stores were fashion related and fewer with Thai items. Again, I became enchanted with thye Burmese bells. I spent an inordinate amount of time ringing them and listening to the wonderful tones they emitted. Bought some pomegranate and jasmine hand cream as a gift from Native Thani store.

Visited Erawan Shrine for the first time. This is a good brief stop when shopping the area. The people making offerings are impressive.

Cab up to Siam Paragon. Sorry Guenmai, but this was disappointing. It's brand new and reeked of New paint and other unpleasant chemical odors. We wandered the Department store until our eyes began burning. I did buy some suspenders in a nice argyle pattern.

Cab down to Chitlom Central Department Store. This place is a treasure. The Loft is a GREAT place for lunch. We had Chises buns and Chinese Broccolli. Super. The tie selection was not great, but I did find one I liked. We also went through the food store on the first floor. This was impressive. It was sort of like a Thai Whole Foods Market with a great produce selection as well as an organic collection. It would go over great in Cambridge.

Cab back to ROS. Stuck in bad, but not horrific Traffic.

The BKK GTG should be going on now, as I'm typing. I hope everyone has a great time. Be sure to report back to those of us who cannot be there for this one. Maybe "next time!"

Andy, I will now have to see what my own opinion is of Paragon. I can certainly be bothered by the smells from new construction. Guenmai makes it sound so terrific, I'll see for myself in a few weeks.

Enjoy your time in BKK. Talk to the weatherman and tell him that this lovely weather needs to continue until the end of January!!! (just for ME)

Carol

sounds like a good day for you guys...

btw, the people in thornburi were not waving to you in welcome....they were waving you off as they could smell attorneys even from that great distance....probably had the idea that you would put together a class action suit against the city for the water pollution....

treat beth to some new jewelry!!!

Met with S and W after their day sightseeing with Tony, a guide driver arranged through Ratt. They thoroughly enjoyed the blitz of sights. Amazed by the Grand palace and taken with the Jim Thompson House. They commented that the windows at the teak palace were the cleanest they had ever seen. Tony was very helpful and informative. He said he did this as a side job when not part of a family business selling fish products to people in the Mid east.

A slight diversion on Ratt. I had arranged for her services on 12/26/05 back in March, confirmed in September and again in December. After my last confirmation, she siad that Tony would be providing services. I E-mailed her that this was not what I had arranged. I noted my early reservation and subsequent confirmation. She apologized (sort of) and pointed out that Tony was a licensed guide and she was not. I finally decided that going with Tony was the right thing. I suspect that if I had attempted to force the issue, she may not have been quite as friendly to my S and W as reported frequently here. As an aside, she mistakenly sent me an E-mail addressed to another client with the same song and dance about another guide/driver. Everything went well for S and W, so no problem, but I regard this as another example of the old "Ratt and Switch".

Son, beth and I went over to River City while S's W did computer work on the WiFi at the ROS lobby bar. We got glasses straighted for the pricely sum of 80 Baht at Sheraton Optical. Son decided to get three shirts made at Hong Kong Tailors. This is on ground floor, right next to J.S Thai (Bob and Karen's favorite for women's clothes). S needed shirts for upcoming interviews. He got two Oxford cloth and onbe silk blend. We'll see what the results are.

Dinner at Thara Tong. We were all bushed (no, we did not become Republicans) and even a venture to Harmonique seemed exhausting. The food at Thara Tong was nothing special, but they did have a spicy catfish salad that was quite good. The Pad Thai was less than mediocre.

Tomorrow, cooking class for me and S.

Yipes! Thara Tong has gone downhill. I guess it was a good thing we didn't have time to eat there in November.

K- Unfortunately, this may be accurate. We enjoyed it every other time we tried it. However, I do note that I'm starting to think there may be a jet lag taste bud phenomenon. Specifically, is it possible that for the first several days after the long flight one's taste buds are as sleepy as one's physical being?