What will we do?

Wondering what kind of new and neat things to expect from us with all we have learned in Asia this trip? Here's a list of things we plan to implement:

1. Starting Thursday, February 21st, our Thai Thursdays will be Asian Thursdays and might include a Japanese, Chinese, Indian or other Asian styled menu, but most offerings will be Thai. We will always include selections from our grill for non-Asian dining guests.
2. We will add an optional Prix-Fixe or "super size it" meaning you can choose any entree on the menu and turn it into a four course meal with soup, Caesar salad, dessert and coffee or tea for just $9.95 extra, a savings of over 37% if ordered a la carte.
3. Like our homemade ravioli of the week, we will add a curry of the week and have it available on our regular menu for those who find that Thursday alone is not enough Thai.
4. On Monday, February 25th, we will open on Mondays from 5:30 to 7:30 with a tapas only menu. Guests can choose 3 or 4 courses at a fixed price from an ever changing list of items. The word tapas comes from Spain and means "covers or lid" and is now commonly refered to as little plates or snack. Our selections could include meatballs and sauce, mixed olives, fruit & cheese, empanadas, calamari, ribs, salads and just about anything Victor wants to try out. Bring a deck of cards or a game of scrabble and hang out with us for the evening!
5. And more.....!

On Thursdays of each week I send out a email menu update detailing specials, the Asian Thursday menu and some of the Monday Tapas choices and anything interesting going on in the area that week. Please drop me an email at HotelCharlotte@aol.com to get on this mailing list.

Sneaking home

We are sneaking home. Not so much secretively, just haven't mentioned to anyone except our flight coordinator, Jack, that we are ready to return. Feels odd. Nobody is expecting us. We fly all day-night and alight in LA ready to hop on another plane to SF. Jeannie is working the 11am flight from LA to SF and we hitch a ride onto her flight. She treats us as if we are in first class, a real treat!

By the way, Economy Plus is a huge improvement over economy minus. The extra leg room makes the flight feel luxurious. We have one of the odd setup seats at the emergency exit row and Victor actually has no seat in front of him and has several feet of leg room. This doesn't help him sleep, but he isn't complaining either.

The weather here at home is rainy and in Groveland snowy, but not so hot as Bangkok!

Causeway Bay Hong Kong, buses & trollys

Now that we are seasoned travelers, we feel a certain freedom to hop on a bus, knowing with great confidence that it will take us where we are going.

That is not at all true! When we are certain that the bus is going where we are, we are still quite nervous about getting on: How much is it? How will we know when to get off? Needless to say, one afternoon we are trying to get home and are willing to take a taxi and I turn around and Victor is waving madly from the steps of a bus...come on get on! I can't believe it, I am the transportation manager, he shouldn't be leaping onto any old bus!

We do get on and do pay the right amount (usually a little over due to not having the right change.)

Off we are whisked from Central to Causeway Bay. One road the whole way, where every inch of scenery once you leave the downtown area of Central looks like every other inch. We are not at all sure when we should get off and keep looking for something familiar in a sea of landmarks that aren't ours.

Finally something we have seen before, the Wan Chai fire station. This means we are further down the road. We go one more stop and then get off. Dazed and confused by the swarms of people and chaos of the setting we roam the streets looking for more that might be familiar. We even asked for a little directional help and were sent 180º the other way. We eventually found this blue bridge that I remember, right in front of the bus stop that is a block from our hotel. I suppose if we had just stayed on the bus we would have saved all that walking and searching time. Ah well, we are far better trained now for the next time around. I am also thankful there is apparently only this one blue bridge!

We did know that we wanted to go to Stanley Market on Sunday, this is a half hour bus ride to the back side of Hong Kong Island. We also knew that the bus passed where we were, we just didn't know where to catch it. We walked around looking for a bus 6, 6x or 66 sign with no success, but did find the library. Having been out of computer touch for a few days, we went in to see if we could use a computer. Little miss smarty pants walks right up to the empty computers and you come into the library and tries to connect to the outside world, only to learn that this is an internal computer with access only to the card catalog system. We later have success on the 6th floor with signing on to a computer.

On our way out of the library we ask about this bus we are looking for and are sent to the front of the library where there is a mini bus station. We read all the bus routes and none are going to where we are going. We as the bus people what they think, they send us to the back of the library saying the bus will pick us up there. Off we go seeking the bus stop, again without success and decide the best way to find the right bus is to just head into central and get on the bus at the station, we know where this is.

Now we need a bus to the bus, but for this route, any pretty much any bus will do. We choose the trolly. The trollys are great fun sliding up and down the road with a clang-clang, but they are very slow. There is also a rotation process that we were not familiar with. You must get in at the back and at each stop you work your way up towards the front. When you get to the front, it is your turn to get off whether you have reached your destination or not. It is only $2, (27 cents). You can stay on until you reach your real destination, but folks will try to push you off at every stop.

When we get to Stanley, we go into the back side of the market, we are only going to one of the shops that is located right as you come out. We shop successfully for all of 15 minutes and then go have lunch. A great little dim sum restaurant just around the corner. The first I remember having this whole trip. Quite nice too.

Brochuring Asia

So, you think this is only a Recipe Research trip? That couldn't be further from the truth. I have distributed many Hotel Charlotte brochures throughout the region. We stacked up at Nick's Pickled Liver, in Pattaya, Hong Kong, Ko Sichang and all around Bangkok. No doubt we will get some interesting guests from around the world!

If you read this blog and see our brochure in Asia, take a photo and send it to us. That would be fun!

Did we stay in the smallest hotel room?

Checking back into Hong Kong, we don't need a big or fancy room, just something basic that will hold us and our stuff. Turns out our choice is the smallest hotel room in the world. I think it would measure in at about 10x7 feet, inclusive of a full bath with shower.

You open the door and directly across is the bath and then two twin beds with almost 6 inches between them. The foot of the bed had enough room for a two drawer dresser where the TV with no English speaking channels sat. We had a little window and stacked our luggage under it.

In the mornings Victor would get up and get ready, then wake me up. I had to send him back to his bed so I could get up.

This was not the type of room you plan to come back to in the middle of the day for some relaxing. There was none. Actually, the only tension we had over our full holiday was while staying in this tiny place.

It was only $50 a night and was supposed to include free internet, but we couldn't connect. The lady was very helpful and gave us access to annother area I couldn't connect at and she gave me a plug to recharge the computer and that didn't work either. I think they have it set not to work, but smile the whole time as if this is a great surprise. Doesn't cost them anyting either way. Actually, they save money.

But it is done now, and we liked the area. A bit about that later.

Back in Hong Kong, more on taxis

Did I mention that all the taxis have turned red and white in Hong Kong? Well they did. Took me a while to catch a cab with an English speaking driver, but when I did I asked about this phenomenna and learned that each district has its own colors and thoses taxis must stay in that district. Red and Whites can go anywhere. Blues have to stay on Lantau. Turns out all the taxis wanted to be in the city area and the more rural areas were complaining they didn't have any taxis. So this color coding system came to play.

The Hong Kong taxi drivers wouldn't think of not turning on their meter and charging some elevated flat fee. At least none we came across. And every time a taxi was hailed, it would go wherever we wanted, a nice change from Bangkok. We tested this a few times and it held true every time.

So, we like the Hong Kong taxi system better than Bangkok, but the Bangkok taxis are cheaper, if you can get one to work on the meter.

The Pickled Liver

What a great name for a pub. This is the name of the place we lose triva at and again stop in here after V9. Turns out they are in the last phases of the Triva game and Nick's team asks us to help with the photos. They have identified all but two, and Victor quickly gives them one of the missing names. This makes us popular for 5 minutes as they give us the scrambled page to see if we can identify any of these. We cannot. But my favorite of the page was a bunch of the letter b all over. Answer: a swarm of bees.

We wish everyone well, Nick, May and Lee and promise to visit again next year.

A thought on Taxis

What does one do on their final Bangkok evening? V9! Of course. We have another of their trees and it is wonderful, our meals and service again impeccable. The wine and views can't be beat. A lovely way to end our Thailand leg of the trip.

We head out of the Sofitel and are directed to a taxi. The doorman tells him to use the meter and the driver is MAD. At us? What did we do but get in? No, I think he is mad at the Sofitel door man. The drivers do not want to use the meter, it is too low a price for the ride. We ask him to turn the meter on, he does not. We offer to get out, we will find a taxi that will turn the meter on. He reluctantly turns on the meter and gives us an ear full. We drive in semi silence, I occasionally toss out an endearing question...not endeared! We are driving all over the place, but not where we want to go. I ask about his and the driver tell us we are about 50% there. We should have been there already. I say this isn't good. He tells me it doesn't matter to him. It is getting a bit scary. Victor suggests he let us out. I don't like this idea, we are on the highway and it is night....

When we finally get to our destination, paying the meter, and it is twice what it should have been...I give him the money and should get 25 back. He tells me I am not getting anything back. I can't believe this. I sit waiting for my change. He finally gives me 20, but not the 25 due. I slide out of the cab and turn to give him a couple of my thoughts on his performance, but Victor is steaming and pushing me out of the way. He only wants to slaaaaaaam the door, and does. We are glad to be out of the taxi and back in our friendly Soi 11 neighborhood.

So if you ever find youself flagging a taxi in Bangkok, avoid the green and yellow taxi number 1701.

There is no question that the taxi fare structure in Bangkok could use a review and increase. I imagine it is difficult to make it with the price of gas and the low fares. But until that is done, the price is the price. We usually tip very well in the case of the taxis to make up for this disparity, but it is causing a revolution around town. Many times we have tried to get a taxi and the driver will not go unless it is off meter for a flat fee of 3-4 times what the meter would have been. We found ourselves walking a bit more often than we would have because of this. We too are stuborn.

The taxi saga continues the next day as we are heading to the airport. This is a $6.75 ride, we have taken it several times from the airport. Our doorman tells us he can get us a taxi but that it will cost $500 ($17) This irritates! I tell him we will be going meter. He heads out to the corner and brings back a taxi and says it is $500. I really don't need this kind of doorman negotiating on our behalf and tell him he is wrong about the price we are paying. I lean into the taxi and suggest the driver turn on the meter for the ride and we will pay the fare plus $100 tip. (That is about a $3 tip, or nearly 50%.) He likes this idea and off we go.

Perhaps he likes this idea because another taxi has already lined up right behind him ready to take us should the negotiations fall through. Perhaps it is his sense of fairness when presented to him in such a winning way...Whatever the reason, we are all happy with the outcome and he speaks great English and we enjoy a lovely conversation the length of the way to the airport.

Ride a bus for 10 hours and then some more?

It is time to leave Bangkok again for the north. The plan is to get on the bus and go a few hours every day, finding some charming hamlet to spend the night heading our way up to Chiang Mai from which we will explore several towns that are 3-4 hour bus rides away. I do not want to do this. We did Pattaya on the bus, that was okay but I suffered a bit butt numbing and this ride was only for 1.5 hours.

I realize the cultural benefits of riding a bus vs flying in...but I just don't want to do it. I would rather fly into CM, then bus around. Not bus up then bus around and bus back....ugh. So we have a talk. We talk about the weather, the bus, aching.... It is just as hot up in Chiang Mai. This doesn't bode well!

We get online and look up AirAsia, maybe we can fly somewhere cooler and enjoy the rest of our trip. No...We cannot. Everything we can get to is hot or hotter or requires a visa.

We discuss Hong Kong. We both like Hong Kong and it isn't hot. We book the tickets for the next day and plan our final Bangkok experiences.

Is a service charge a tip?

This question comes up again. First with the Bishop Lei Hotel and now at a restaurnat. They have presented the itemized bill, but we have forgotten to look and see if the 10% service charge has been added and ask the waiter. He says that it has, but that they don't get this money, that it is for the restaurant.

How can this be? Isn't a service charge for the servers? We were completely under the impression that these restaurant service fees were "tip included" charges that go directly to the wait staff. Perhaps this is a line he is using to get us to tip more? We aren't sure, but do know that it is tiresom watching all these folks work so hard to separate us from our money, all day long....

So we keep this tidbit in our minds as we dine around for the next couple of days. While we don't know if the servers ever get any of the intended 10% we decide if we are getting some really good service that we will leave a cash tip for the server in addition to the 10%.

Our first night out we try this and the fellow that brings the check appears to be a manager, not one of our servers. This is fairly typical. They tend to hand you the bill and stand there until you are done doing your bit, putting in the credit card or paying with cash. Then they take it away and bring it back and stand there again until you finish doing your bit of signing, or pocketing your change. ...and then you are expected to leave. The check is paid. Lingering is done before the check is paid.

We take out 4 bills and ask that two of each of these get to our two servers. They did a nice job. In front of us he counts it separates it and then turns and we watch him put two of the bills in his pocket. We can't believe it! Grrr....

So now we decide we must personally give the money to the person who earned the tip. We try this our next time out and low and behold, the check comes, a different person presents it, we do our business and we wait and wait for our waitress to return, such that the manager wants to turn over our table. We keep waiting...only to find she has gone for the day.

Tipping is not nearly as expected in Asia as it is in the USA, but that might be because the servers don't even realize they may have earned tips. I think tipping will always be a bit of a difficulty for travelers. We try to do what we think fair and try to get it to the person that earned the tip...

What's next?

We have the Lonely Planet books with us and they are well written to pique your interest in the many destinations and laid out so that you feel you know a place before you even get there. We keep the books in the bathroom for reading. Victor has discovered a few places he would like us to visit. We are both spending a good deal of time in the bathroom, not necessarily for the reading.

We are not feeling well. Victor believes his malaise is the result of using ice in our freezer that was probably made with water from the sink instead of bottled water. Apparently the ice tray had that look not so much of someone making ice as someone cleaning the ice tray and returning it to the freezer for lack of somewhere better to put the tray. What froze was the water drops from the rinsing. For some reason this did not stop Victor from using the ice. He paid for this chilling over the next two days.

I think I just have sympathy illness and make it to the pharmacy for a little pepto-bismol type medicine. I am soon back on my feet and find it empowering to be the one to "head out" for the day, planning to return "whenever" with something that will make Victor feel better. The first trip is quick and necessarily so, toilet paper, soda water, saltine crackers...all the things mom taught us we needed for ailments of the digestive sort.

Later I try to go out and enjoy a bit of the city, but it is too hot and not nearly as pleasurable on my own. I stop in the internet cafe and blog for a bit and return home with reinforcements. We have a early and light evening.

By the end of the next day we are both well back on our feet and Victor has a whole plan for what is next on our itinerary: Chiang Mai, Pai, Burmese Massage...

Cheaper by the dozen: Bo Bae Market

Both this year and last we have wanted to go to Bo Bae Market, but it isn't near anything. No trains stop there, no water taxis, too far to walk. It seems to be a concept market as it takes up what must be a 15x10 block radius with half of the market on each side of the canal. We decide to take a taxi and have our good map with us...just down the road a bit, no turns.

The taxi driver is nodding like he knows exactly where this is. We settle back and it soon becomes clear he doesn't know where it is. We give him our map with English subtitles, but he can't read it. I whip our a Thai map, but it doesn't have very many streets on it so I circle the area where it is. He decides to turn.

Well, I no longer sit silently as the drivers turn off a course I know to be sure and true to my destination. He turns back around. While he may not know exactly where it is that we are going, it is exactly located on the street that we are on and does not require a turn. We settle back each looking for landmarks like the railroad tracks and the canal and easily steer our driver right where we want to be. We get out and enjoy an hour or so of the market.

Bo Bae is the wholesale market and we see folks buying during the day the items they will sell us on Sukhumvit Road that night. Fascinating. We love the prices. We aren't great negotiators, so when they start out at t a price we want to pay, everyone is happy.

We find the elusive King's shirts. These are yellow polos with the King's emblem on the pocket. We are able to find a similar shirt but it has a bunch of other comical icons on the shirt, lessening its interest to us. We buy our 1/2 dozen shirts.

This is the first market I have found in Bangkok that has the larger sizes that I need and I scoot about the place looking for items I like. I find a top and pants set that has an elephant motif. I ask for it in Large and what the price is. He only has the smaller elephant sizes. I find this ironic. He shows me the ugly large size selections he has and at $4 for a setI buy merrily buy three.

We enjoy this market and look for an airconditioned place to cool off and have a cold beverage. There is nothing. Even the map shows this. Nothing is here except the market and an occasional cart seller. We find an outdoor spot with a few seats and lots of shade and Victor goes over to the refrigerator and points to Singha and gives the two-fingeredV as in please may we have two of these icey-cold beers. The fellow hands Victor two beers and gives him the two-fingered V back which we take to mean 20 Baht. The father steps in and gives us the 3 fingers and we take this to mean we just got a quick price increase and pay 30 Baht each for our beers. Still, a tad under a $1 on a hot day. Okay.

Plate Update

Remember the plates we are buying for practically nothing to bring home to the restaurant? Well, if we only bring 500 pounds of dishes through DHL it is $3500 if we arrange it from Bangkok. If we arrange it from the USA, it is $4800. I think we aren't getting the dishes.

Now though he is talking about how much we could carry on with us for the ride home with plates stuffed between each shirt. UGH!

We have such fun ideas. I think I will make up some ridiculous plan and see how he likes it.

Tee Hee!

Back to Bangkok

We head back to Bangkok and meet our waitress from lunch and dinner at the ferry terminal. She too is going to Bangkok. I tell her we will follow her, but what I really mean is that we are going to stick to her like glue. When the ferry lands she gets into the first tuk-tuk and we squeeze right into her tuk-tuk with our suitcase for the ride to the bus. I figure this would be okay we are going to pay. And it was. She even took me up to the bus counter to get the right tickets, very nice. We got the first seats in the bus.

When we return to our little appartment on Soi 15 they still remember us and do have a room for us. This is all going just perfect. When we go down to the basement to get our stuff out of storage it is all stil there, undisturbed. We are very happy and settle down for a bit of a nap before heading out again.

Parasailing today?

So get up early on this, our last day in Pattaya and put on our swim wear and head out to breakfast. On our way back we decide instead to catch a bus to the next town instead. Such flexibility of plans! There is a system to the parasailing that while not confirmed, looks like it would take hours on the water (parasail jail) to get a 15 minute ride in the low visibility skyline. I am not inclined to sit in the sun like that waiting my turn, then waiting other peoples turn for our boat to take us back into shore....

So we enquire about the bus. We have to take a taxi to the bus which will take us to the town then we take a tuk-tuk to the ferry to get to the island of Ko Sichang. Seems like a lot of transfers. So we find a taxi to take us to the ferry. That is the way I like to travel, no waiting for others, just get in and go. We had a 40 minute ride for about $20 door to door and only had half an hour to wait for the ferry. Perfect!

While we are waiting, a fellow name Walter from Taiwan asked us where the ferry was going, how soon it left and how long the ride was. I wonder if he thought we looked like we knew. Apparently we did! We knew when the ferry left and how much it was, $40 Baht, abotu $1.30 and made the leaping assumption that it couldn't be too far for that price....And it wasn't. It came to a Baht a minute, same as internet cafes.

When we got to the island we found a tuk-tuk with an English speaking driver and headed up the hill to the only thing we knew about on the island, Pan & David's Restaurant, well written up in the Lonely Planet Guide. We figure we will have lunch and plan our visit from there. Heading up the hilll we see Walter and he asks where we are going. To Lunch of Course! He joins us. It was a very nice lunch and Walter ordered whatever Victor ordered, in this case, smoked salmon.

We arranged for our driver to return in an hour and he did. The three of us then toured the island together. Our driver would take us somewhere, then leave for a bit then come get us.... He showed us every lodging place on the island. Half way through our tour Walter got a call and went back to the harbor while we continued checking out the little island. We decided to stay at the cabins behind the restaurant so we were onsite for dinner. He took us back there and we checked in, put on our swimming suits and took advantage of our waterfront lodging. The driver said we had to go to the proper beach. We thought it was more like a jail beach and stayed right where we were.

No parasailing today

We find we are a bit late for the best seas for parasailing. Calmest in the mornings. We have this ritual that seems to work for us, but we are never early in starting our day. Victor goes and gets himself coffee and reads the paper. On his way back he picks me up a coffee. When he returns to the room he wakes me up and we go out to breakfast. By the time all this is done, it might be after 11 am. I love it and hope he can keep this pace up when we return to Groveland and the Hotel Charlotte!

So, we go to the beach just down the street from us. Umbrellas are opened up onto each other so not a lick of sunlight can come through. We find this completly acceptable. I have planned that we will leave when the sun hits us. Victor can't wait that long.

So I am making these little blog notes in my note book and ask casually ask Victor what he thinks of Pattaya and he is so funny, he thinks almost the opposite of me!

• Subdued from expectations based on his readings
• No Nudity and no in-your-face advertising
• Cooler than Bangkok (This one I agreed with)
• While it seems anything goes, you don't see anything going

We have such different trips together!

So there we are sitting on the beach, I with my notes and Suduko and all the eye candy of everything going on around us and in an hour and a half we were approached by sellers of everything you could think off. We made a list of the beach parade:

• Fresh Fruit
• Fish
• Maps
• Thai Crafts
• Sunglasses (Which I needed! but didn't buy)
• Tatoos
• Beer
• Thai Whiskey
• Ice-Cream
• Corn and Eggs
• Watches
• Fried Eggrolls
• Tempura
• Silks
• Mosquito repellant
• Jewerely
• Wind Chimes
• Stuffed Monkeys
• Potions for quitting smoking and "man power"
• Waffles
• Rice Cakes
• Peanuts
• Rice
• Embroidery
• Manicures
• Toilet paper
• Cotton Candy.

What an interesting collection. I thought we were in for a very special luncheon with excellent service. Instead, Victor got bored and we got up and went for a walk. This beach was great entertainment and not at all like a jail, we could leave at any time!

Beach Jail

This morning we get up and head out to find breakfast and good coffee. As luck would have it we found good coffee and bad breakfast. We continue our walk to the pier and find there is a ferry leaving soon. We get some water, tickets and join the folks on the ferry.

Perhaps we should have studied this one a little before buying our tickets! When we get to the island they anchor the boat, bring out a long tail boat to ferry us all to shore and we find our selves not in a cute little town demanding exploration by a couple of odd Americans, but rather on a beach that is only a beach, beach jail. A few folks selling towels and trinkets, no town. And we paid a premium for this! Since breakfast wasn't so good we head over to the tables and order a beer and snack that we called lunch. Neither of us has swimwear, he in his jeans and casual shoes and I uncomforabley clad in pants that are too tight. I know that we are not going into the water.

We stretch the lunch out to an hour and ask when the boat goes back. 4:00pm. This can't be true! It is only 1 o'clock, whatever in the world will "Lilly and Alibaster" White do for three hours on a beach in Thailand with nothing else to explore.....We buy a trinket. Victor buys shorts but wouldn't put them on, saving them for parasailing the next day. We are in Beach Jail!

We stroll to the other end of the beach and take some lovely photos. It is now 1:20pm, we stroll back to where we started and get foot massages on the beach. This should have passed an hour, but they were keeping a different clock. We were charged far more than a mainland massage, but we expected this. We decide to head back over to where the boat will pick us up and have a beer so we are right on time and ready to go when the time comes....

The time comes much quicker than we thought. The 4 o'clock boat leaves the beach a little after three, getting back into Pattaya at 4:00. Such a simple confusion. Why would we think the 4 o'clock boat leaves at 4 o'clock? We make so many assumptions.

So we quickly pay our bill and head out to catch the long tail ferry that will take us to our ferry. Alas, we have to walk up to our waist in the water to board the boat. If I had known that, I might just as well have gone for a bit of a swim, tight pants and all.

We don't want to fly to the beach

Thailand has a great deal of coastal area, some of it quite famous but best accessed by a flight. We decide instead to go down the western side of the Bay of Bangkok by bus and visit Pattaya, a very crazy waterfront place! The whole economy is based on the tourism industry which supports a healthy trade in the sex industry and it is all quite there, in your face with girly and go-go bars everywhere. One guide book said that if you bring your children, be prepared for some awkward questions, perhaps too if you bring your wife!

We find a nice guest house a block from the beach and take a walk. This is just an amazing place. There ARE lots of families and many wifes and many men with Thai "girl friends." (These are not the ones with their wives!)

Awestruck, well fed and tired, we go back for a nap before the evening. We find that everything becomes far more exagerated than it was in the daytime. Neon, Chaos, bells and whistles, girls, guys and fresh seafood galore.

We stop for dinner. The biggest restaurants are all famous for their fresh seafood and have their whole menu posted in the front of the restaurant by way of plates under glass and you choose the courses you want not by looking at a menu, but by seeing the actual plated order. No mistakes! The hostess walks us through the choices noting our every selection, a few appetizers, a salad and a steak and lamb for our main courses. We are then escorted to a table on a huge pier over the water.

On our walk back toward the hotel we stopped and listened to no less than three live bands and passed as many more. While the singers can rarely speak English, they learn the songs through mimic and sound exactly like the original band. We actually heard John Lennon and other long dead favorites. Shut your eyes and you were certain the star was there performing on your behalf. This was as different a place in the world as I have ever been!

Lumpini Park (not Lumpia!)

I wish we could say this was a great walk. The heat here is so consuming, it is all I think about...getting out of it. The books all say to visit Lumpini Park at sunrise until 8am ish or after the sun sets. It is 10 am when we arrive. There are lots of trees, but not enough to keep the road completely shaded. We purchase some water on our way in and head over to the lake where we take our first shaded break. We can see many folks out in the paddle wheel boats. While these have shade covers on them, the sun attacks the paddlers from the front, sides and the back, just not from the top. The enterprising paddlers had steered themselves over to the bridge to find shaded relief under it.

We quickly veto a boat ride but do consider a return trip one day at dusk. The park is very pretty and while it gets good use, doesn't overwhelm with the hordes of folks one finds on the regular streets.

We go on down Silom to find the great Japanese place we had lunch last year. They had the prix-fix Binto Box that was just delicious. On our way we stop for a foot massage, this tends to happen fairly regularly as in almost every day—a fantastic treat. We eventually make it to the lunch spot, but find they have transitioned to a buffet. We don't enjoy buffet style dining and head out in a new direction.

It is time to leave bangkok, we are ready for some new sites and challenges.

Another day of Cooking School

What do you think happens today at the Blue Elephant? A day I choose not to join Victor and the class, careful not to wear our the welcome. There is a group of 8 people in class from Groveland! I can't believe it. Victor, (Thank goodness for Lynn who always tells hiim who everyone is) can't for the life of himself remember who they were. But they know us... Oh great!~ Hard to have a memory with someone if you aren't sure who they are. He did give me a clue though, they know Rob & Regina. Well isn't that grand.

Alas, if anyone in Groveland knows of a couple that recently moved to Thailand and then had their family come visit and the whole group took cooking class at Blue Elephant....Well Victor ran into them. Small world.

Grrrr-Frustrating News

Contrary to our exuberance on the last post in finding off-shore internet access...we were hacked and bad stuff put on our computer. We can't get rid of it...grrrrrr. So I have to go to the internet cafe to post now. I can't sign on with any passwords and am a bit concerned that I might infect the system at the hotel if I power up on their system.

It all looks harmless and helpful, but is really anything but and won't go away...That's okay, we don't need a computer-centric holiday, but it was nice to have to look up addresses, menus, hours, schedules and the like.

Being No Where

This blog post will be out of date order, we haven't been where there is internet for a while.

We are on a small island in the Bay of Bangkok called Ko Sichang. A 30 minute taxi ride and 40 minute ferry from Pattaya. There are 4 place you can stay overnight. We had our tuk-tuk driver take us to all of them. Some have air, some look at the water, some are 700Baht, (21) some are more, some are less. There are motor cycles, tuk-tuks and walking. And we found free internet access. And a new friend named Walter from Taiwan. Who received an international phone call on his cell phone while we were exploring the island.

How backwards the USA is when we can't get proper cell coverage in Groveland and internet is sporatic.

We chose a little motel like room on the beach and might be the only people here. We found a private lagoon and did some swimming, tomorrow another island and snorkeling/fishing...I will catch these posts up later.
L

Thai Cooking School Begins

Although we have surely been researching many new recipe ideas by dining in a variety of different restaurants and meeting with some chefs, Victor began his regular class schedule on Monday. It was fun to join him for the last course, a few photos and a fantastic lunch. Ohhhh, I do like the green curry with coconut milk! Good thing too, Victor doesn't like coconut.

And most of the same people were there teachng the courses and assisting and they all remembered us. What fun that is! We will take another course in early February when they have a new menu.

I spent the morning getting our photos online, but since I don't have all the tools with me that I have at home, you will have to view them through snapfish. The photo albums are online.

A million pieces dinnerware

Finding the condo, we are now fortified and ready to hit the weekend market. This is an unreasonable 1/2 mile by 1 mile semi-enclosed space with endless rows of booth after booth after booth of stuff and just as many people as there are things.

We get here about 10 am and are surprised by how seemingly quiet it is. We enjoy a leisurely pace roaming the narrow passages and head to get a cooling beverage. Having been out on the street now for several hours, we have lost most of our water retention and need to refuel. I enjoy the best treat! They call is a shake, but really it is just crushed ice. I choose a fresh squeezed lime-soda flavor and it is the perfect remedy, tart and sour but refreshing as heck. We watch the hordes arrive.

Deciding to join them, we pay our bill and head into the chaos. I have a map. We look up where the pets are, maybe they have a cute dog like Bob that we can hold and coo over. They have many cute ones, none like Bob. We meander here and there, looking unsuccessfully for the eyeglasses. Victor needs some new frames. We find instead dishes, millions of plates, bowls and the like all priced at pennies! We think we will replate the Hotel Charlotte and talk to the seller about shipping. She gives us a phone number. This is not very helpful, we don't yet have a phone.

Time for lunch. Something light and fruity with rice, green rice. Odd but delicious. Victor reads the map and finds several exporters have booths at the market. We head out again looking for the exporters. We find some great furniture, but no export offices.

We taxi home for a siesta before heading out again for a big Saturday night. At home we look up everything on the internet. It looks like we will need to load a cargo container. Hmmmm, that is a lot of plates! Victor suggests that we can bring in a whole container of these plates and sell them on ebay. Sounds like a whole new job for Lynn. I am not sure about this and hope that something will happen to dissuade him without me having to say NO WAY!

Around the world the different climates set the pace for the day. Mexico famous for siestas has them to escape the heat of the day. Here in Bangkok siesta would go from about 8am to 9pm. I would like to get up at 4 in the morning and get a good days bit of touring in by 8 have breakfast and then spend the day napping, lounging and the like out of the heat until dinner time. The rest of town is not on this schedule and we would be quite lonely those early hours.

Finding one amongst millions

Victor is excited about finding the condo and we have looked its location up on the internet. It is an artists rendering map, but gives fairly good direction. I send him off one morning with the camera to tackle this task. He returns with a half dozen blurry pictures of a building about the right height. They have the framework done and maybe they will finish later this year. He has walked around the block taking blurry photos from several view points. I tell him these are very nice.

Then he tells me he took a motorcycle home. OH MY GOODNESS. These are fine perhaps for a quick ride down the slow side streets without other traffic, but they were on the busiest of streets. Victor is glad to still be alive. He plants a fact on me that there are 281 motorcycle deaths a day in Thailand. Weeding out the silly people that use this method of transportation no doubt.

So, today he wants me to come with him to see the condo. Hmmmm, why I ask. Well, turns out he isn't at all certain he has the right building. There were no signs. Okee-doke, I don't have anything else planned. Off we go to breakfast and condo seeking. Turns out he was right, he didn't have the right building. When we got off the train he pointed to a building and said that was the one he took all the photos of...exactly in the opposited direction of the map. But in his defense, clearly the only visible bit of construction going on in that area.

We head out in the right direction, walk further than it should have been from the train and turn around. We get back to the corner and walk the last remaining direction. High in the sky I see two cranes, perhaps this is the location, it too is about the right distance. We walk and walk and finally get to the construction gate and it is clearly sign posted: PG Rama 9. Yes, this is the one. But they haven't built any floors yet so I can't take any good photos. But they have rebar in and were working hard on a Saturday morning. They might not finish by this year, but they are working on it.

Perhaps you are curious what this condo bit might be about? Last year over breakfast Victor saw a presale advert for this building, PG Rama 9. No big deal. Then he goes to the dentist and the presale is being held at the Emerald Hotel, right on our walk to the dentist, big huge sign. The next day at breakfast the newspaper has another notice on the presale with a big advert that says we can own a condo in Bangkok for only $15o USD. He wants to go and we add it to our itinerary. I figure we can go, we will never walk out with a condo. Each step of the way I am waiting for something to happen that will make the process stop without me having to say NO WAY. Needless to say, by the end of the day we left having made our $150 payment and are now the proud owners of some paperwork in Thai language that should say we have the right to own studio unit 302 when they are finished. Not a bad price either, as long as the USD dollar stays where it has been to the Thai Baht!

What ever will we do with a Condo in Bangkok? Well, perhaps we will visit once in a while, though it is far cheaper to stay in a hotel than to buy a condo for casual visits. We can invite our family and friends to use the unit, a nice thing to do. We can rent it out on VRBO.com or sell it. We will see how this all goes down, it doesn't look like they will be done anytime too soon

Everything old is new again

We are most excited about dining at V9 again. This is without a doubt the best dining experience I have ever had. The views are lovely, the service faultless and the ambiance incredible. So off we go...at rush hour in a taxi again! We get out about a mile before the Sofitel and walk up "shopping" through the Patpong market on our way there. Shopping with Victor means walking swiftly from one end of the market to the next. No dallying.

Walking around Bangkok will qualify you for a position with the circus as an acrobat. The ground is very uneven, everywhere. You must train your eyes to always be watching your feet and the next steps forward while also taking in the wonderful sights all around. We have become quite accomplished at the pavement dance.

We don't have a phone hooked up in our room and so I have emailed for reservations. While I had checked several times, no one had emailed back before we left the hotel. Too bad. I hope they have a seat.

And they do. Not only that, they have our reservation on the book for Ms. Lynn & Mr. Victor. Excellent! Even better, they have a guest Michelin Starred Chef, a treat we had missed last time around.

The Chef's menu has main courses we will like, but the sides, soups and such are not my style, Foi Gras and similar choices. The suggested coursed menu is nearly $100 per person, also not my style. And apparently, this is all that is available. We order and decide we will be adventurous with some new items. We will come back another night for their regular menu and the appetizer trees they are famous for.

A table near us gets the Tree! How did this happen? We ask our waiter if we too can have the Tree. Yes they are available, but we have already ordered. How very unfortunate that we weren't told we could have the Tree, this is what we love. They tepidly ask the kitchen if we can change. Great news, our order was not yet started, changing is okay. Yippeee~

The Tree we choose has six small plates including snails in tiny quiche cups, a carpaccio bruschette, a raw salmon salad and some other treats that are all delicious. Victor has ordered the veal loin and I the duck. Both are served with fruit and are good, but not remarkable. I had ordered the duck prepared as the chef recommends, Medium, but he must have changed his mind this night as it arrived very rare.

We enjoyed watching the host visit nearly every table, some two and three times. It reminds me that I must be certain to visit with every table. Those who are missed really do feel slighted. We pace our meal out for the whole evening and have a lovely night.

Water Taxi Loss

We are now settled in, have had lunch and have no plans until 8 o'clock when we will lose the triva game at the Pickled Liver. We most enjoy the people watching here in Bangkok and decide to go down to the river and watch those people for a bit at the tiny beer hut where one can still get a beverage for under $1.

We successfully remind ourselves how to get there traversing the transfer station heading in the right direction on the first try! We get to the end of the line and the river only to find that our oasis has dissappeared. This is a great loss as this is a fantastic meeting up place. Now just a chaotic merge of people, hawkers and boats in and out....

We jump on the tourist taxi and head over to Banglampo where there are yet more interesting people to watch. Somehow we almost miss it as I steer us up deadend alleys where the residents tell us no tourists. It takes us some time to find our way out.

The heat we didn't feel on the night of arrival is sufficating us now. We stop for a shaded, fanned beverage. I will stay hydrated on tons of bottled water, Vic prefers a beer.

We seem to find ourselved in need to move about the city in great distances right at rush hour. So here we are all the way to the west at the river and want to go downtown. Nobody really wants to go there in the congestion of Five PM. We negotiate hard, they negotiate harder. Most will take us for a good price if we agree to one stop for shopping. Somewhere along the line they have established a shopping commission. We think not.

Finally one tuk-tuk driver says okay, 190 baht, (divide by 3 for a rough USD conversion) We say okay and off we go on our one hour open air ride during rush hour. Exhausting! and very exciting. Any time there was no oncoming traffic, we took that lane. Imagine that, along with a few other tuk-tuks and all the motorcycles. When a car would come, we would squeeze as far as we could into our real lane, but were still mostly in the on-coming lane. Victor thinks my parents would love the adventure of Bangkok.

Time Zone

Victor is excited to be here and wakes up early. This is not a problem, except that he insists that I too get up and begin our Bankok exploring with him. It is still dark out. I stumble into and out of the bath and off we go, tip-toeing down the three flights of our walkup hostel.

We hit the street and head over to our usual breakfast joint only to find that most everything is still closed. Bangkok is a night town, not awake for early morning adventures. We pass a tiny bar and last night's party is still going on. We find somewhere for breakfast and enjoy an hour reading the paper.

We decide to walk to our next lodging just to see where it is and if they are ready for us. I have booked Star Suites on Soi 15. I wanted to be walking distance to the MRT and BMT. I have asked them several times how far they are from the main street. They say they are close, but it doesn't matter they have free Tuk Tuk to the main street. We get here, it is nearly a mile away. They aren't open yet.

We decide to head over to Rama 9 where the condo is being built to see how they are doing with our Asain investment. Turns out we have no idea where it is. We get off where we think it is but are sorely wrong. We start walking back toward Sukhumvit thinking maybe they moved it closer in...Somehow neither of us thought to bring any of the documents on the condo with us. We decide to walk until we find an internet cafe and we can look it up online. Ah, there is the dentist office, we stop here to make an appointment, they have free internet for patients. I make appointments that we might keep and Victor looks the project up.

We are about 2 miles off where we thought it was. But it is two miles in the right direction, closer to the main part of town. It is hot and we decide we will go check out of Suk11, get a massage, check into our new hotel and come back another day to find the condo.

Just like I remember

It isn't hot hot! I love it already.

We come out of the airport and are accosted for taxi rides. We have read the book and have been here before and know these folks to be gypsies. We need a minute of "fresh" air and a quick cigarette before we head into the chaos. Again and again we are asked again and again to take taxi. We continue to decline, again and again.

We find the right taxi line and get into Bangkok without hassle. Victor suggests staying at the hotel above where we like the foot massage. I think we should stay at Suk11, the hostel a block away. Great price, good reviews and looks nice, all teak and plants...We go and get an airconditioned room with private bath and king sized bed in the heart of Sukhumvit for all of $24, tax and breakfast included. It is a large, but plain room and fits the bill just right. We like this neighborhood. I muse that it is too bad they don't have email or online reservations or we would have been staying here for our whole Bangkok trip.

We look for our regular tuk-tuk driver from last year but don't find him. Considering the outrageous price we paid to get home every night last year, I am sure if he was in the area he too would have recognized us.

The neighborhood is otherwise the same. Cheap Charlies is bursting outside its imaginary boundaries with many people enjoying the cheapest beer in town. We stop in our British Pub, the Pickled Liver. The owner Nick recognizes us and gives a cheery Hello. We have a beer and promise to return Thursday for a round of trivia. (Certain to lose!)

Dinner is around the corner, Italian and sitting at the window for more people watching. In front of is are two English men with two Thai girls who are having a blast. We enjoy their antics. They are buying baubles and trinkets from all who pass in the street. Such fun!

Empty Pockets

Here we are in familiar territory, an airport. No fluids allowed in carry on and what do we have, a bottle of wine and two beers that we bought in Hong Kong but never consumed. We head over to the garbage can and unload our bags. I wonder why I have carried all this weight all day knowing that this was the likely outcome....

Now we are into the security area and Victor is unloading his pockets of his metals. A line is building and he keeps pulling stuff out of his pocket, then the other pocket, then his back pocket. I am embarassed by the amount of metal in his pockets. Coin from USA, Hong Kong and Macau all in different pockets...He finally goes through, the whole security staff is laughing (with us?) and promplty sets off the buzzer of the metal detector. Now nobody is laughing. I toss my bags onto the rollers and open my bag to pull out my clear 1 quart zip lock with properly secured 3 oz packages and am stopped from doing this. Not necessary. I wonder if we could have brought out recently disposed wine and beer.

I go through the detector ready to give Victor some instruction on preparing in advance future security passes.... Hahahaha! Who sets off the sensor next? Me!

This doesn't seem right, I never have anything in my pockets. But this time I do. We laugh at each other and head into the waiting area.

Hello Lynn!

Imagine that! We leave Hong Kong, jump on the ferry to Macau were we will catch our plane to Bangkok. (Flights on AirAsia are really cheap) We have planned a couple of layover hours for lunch and head over to Senato Square and Le Bonne Huere where we enjoyed a great meal the year before.
i
We are sitting with our luggage wrapped around us on a quiet bench on a side walkway enjoying the setting and people watching as we await the noon opening of our little hidden restaurant.

HELLO Lynn!

I mean really! Right out of the blue in this tiny little island-peninusula in the middle of Asia. How very small is this world?

Okay, so it is Soji, the Chef at Le Bonne Huere and this is where he works 6 days a week. Not unusual that he should be here. It is definitely a welcome surprise that he remember us by name. We talk throughout our visit. Koji has followed our website and blogs. We hope he will visit us in California and extend an invitation.

We leave our luggage here while we take in some of the tourist sights in the area. Last year this is where the camera broke so we got to get some new photos. My favorite is a sign for a medical clinic with some rather large print: NO FAKES!

Thinking that US companies abroad should provide the same services they do at home, we head into Starbucks for a coffee and some free interent so we can check if our room in Bangkok will be ready a day early or not. I have written to ask, but haven't gotten a reply yet (not their fault, I haven't been able to get on line to check) Alas, no internet at Starbucks Macau.

Check out

So, let's say you make a reservation and miss that night, but subsequently stay 3 nights. Okay, you have no problem paying for the four nights. Really, no problem at all.

But when you get the bill, they are charging a service charge of 10% on the night you didn't stay. Discussions on what service fees they incurred are met with silence. Questions as to what exactly that fee includes are met with senseless jibberish. No hotel should be charging a service fee on a room that wasn't serviced. Not to mention that we were charged a service fee on the last night of our stay when the room wasn't serviced because they were waiting for us to move to another room. Very inflexible.

It is too bad when the front desk cannot see an anomally and make decions outside the scope of the usual. Our situation was somewhat unusual and should have been compromised. While the location was perfect and very easy for getting to-from anywhere we wanted to go and the room well laid out for us, this approach to our circumstances will not see us choose the Bishop Lei again when in HK--All for the value of about $15.

That $15 compromise could have purchased a priceless review on TripAdvisor, future visits by us and unlimited recommendations to others heading to Hong Kong. We need to minimize the circumstances that cause the unusual things to happend, but on the rare occasion when they do come up, the folks who interact with the public must have the confidence and freedom to offer appropriate customer friendly responses.

Transportation-walking

We walk alot, perhaps too much. I think we do this wrong. We should get a ride to where we are going, then walk alot. Not doing this has affected our night shopping trip. We leave the Bishop, head down the escalator, walk over to the ferry and then walk to the night market. Then we have to walk the night market. ugggh! And I wanted to do all those other markets too. We got off track because we wanted to take the ferry when what we needed to do was get on the train to Mong Kok, the ladies market and then walk to the other markets.

The night market was full of junk and tons of people looking at the junk. This stuff must sell though, its been here for ever. Victor is running through the market. I suppose there might have been some things worth purchasing, but I never found them while hustling to keep up with
Victor. No silks, not pretty shirts, not items of interest. Too bad. This is our last day.

We do enjoy the people, energy, sights and lights. The night market seems to be surrounded by a single restaurant with outdoor seating everywhere and servers hustling folks into and out of their seats a constant flow of glutony!

Buy it when you see it

I know this rule, learned it last year. Reminded myself of it this year and promptly failed to follow it!

So, we have already done most of the outlaying islands in our last trip so I get us to the bus terminal where we hop on a 6 bus to Stanley Market famous for silks. When I was to Hong Kong in the early 90s this is where I found scarves, ties, shawls and some very nice gifting items, well priced.

Since neither of us are shoppers a market is perfect, you walk quickly through the loop picking up just what you want knowing after the first 3 stalls that all items in the market are, a) the same, and b) the same price. Simple! We scurry through, I find a few tops I like and Victor a few t-shirts. We step out of the market for a beer to people watch and gaze at the sea. I know to go back in, get those lovely items to bring back and to shop a bit more for me. I know that our itinerary takes us to small people world and nothing beyond Hong Kong will fit me.

Instead we make plans for the night market where everything is cheaper.....Cheaper than 4 for $15 on silk? I should have noted that is not likely and if it is, so what do we save a dollar? Instead, I agree and off we go to the bus home. We are not good shoppers.

When we get home I map out a series of markets, the ladies market for me, bird and fish market for eye candy ending at the night market for entertainment and dinner. I know the way and am ready to shop on this our last night.

Marketing School

Some say I am a good marketer. But I could learn alot from the Asian approach to advertising. No surface is immune from publishing. Everywhere you look something is beinging sold. I could spend a year here and find a new surface to market each day.

The most beautiful advert so far was for an English Language School. A series of ads with lovely young Asian ladies very natural looking, no make up except for a very vivid painting of the lips in the red-white and blue in the design of stars and stripes of our flag and the UK flag, same colors with the cross lines. Stunning.

Some interesting places for advets included the riser part of an escalator, the inside of a toilet lid, the back side of the head rests in taxi cabs and private label everything: napkins, toothpick wrappers, sugar packets, plates, the bottom of coffee cups, give away lighters, key chains.....Very intriguing, makes my head swim with new ideas for the Hotel Charlotte!

A bit of a booking problem

We have returned home for a nap. We have done much better this trip with the timing and sleep. Last year seemingly took a week to get back on schedule, this time, no time at all.

When we get home, we get a call from the front desk about what time we are leaving. We let them know sometime tomorrow morning. They don't have us listed for staying tonight. Hmmmm. This doesn't sound good. They are sold out of our room and we must move. A more serious Hmmmm escapes my lips. So here's the story. Our flight out was cancelled, so we missed our first night rervation. I wrote them post haste hoping we would get our cancellation in on time, but alas, this was not the case and we had to pay for the missed night. No arguement at all. We own a hotel and know how this is supposed to work. When we check in we talk to the fellow at the desk and extend our stay by one more night as we do need three nights in Hong Kong. He wants us to stay even one more as the room is available and we have said we have the free night.


We decline the night of the 9th, but do sign up for the 8th. Alas, come the 8th we aren't listed and they have sold the room. They can move us to a cheaper room. We hold tight for a better offer. Perhaps they will consider reducing the fee of our missed night...Perhaps they will comp us this night we are forced to move. The manager says she will call us back.

Victor naps, I wait.

She calls a few times, I still am not being flexible. This is not our mistake. I wait some more.

Now it is frustrating as it is time to go out and I haven't had my nap! Phoooooeee!

The lady finally agrees that we can stay here for the night, but it will cost us more. Hmmmmmmm!



We agree and head out on our next adventure.

Hong Kong Sushi

We enjoy the dining and our location at Bishop Lei puts us right in the middle of some of the best international restaurants in the area. It also a bit of a party location. Not night clubs, just good people watching, all next to our escalator, the main souce of transportation for us to and from the hotel.

Oddly we find ourselves hiking up and down this big hill all hours of the day, sometimes we are going with the flow of the escalator and sometimes not. Neither seems to bother us as we walk our way around town.

We are finding the price-fixed lunches to be a great bargain and a good way to try new items. Soup or Salad, entree and dessert are usually included as is coffee, which is almost always cappaccino, a nice finish.

One night we find a sushi buffet to enjoy. This is not really a buffet, but their regular menu, all you can eat for a fixed price. You get one and a half hours in your seat. We think this is a grand idea and try to try everything. There is the motorized track that the fresh raw fish treats twirl around in a circle with partons sitting around the track taking whichever delicacy interests them. We watch our little plates stack higher and higher. We can also order from the menu and add two salads to our collection of plates. I don't want to try any raw fish but did order the earlier mentioned chicken balls. I also order some baby shrimp which seem particularly slimey. Victor eats most of these and tells me they are raw, not slimey. I am supposed to know that Sashimi means raw... well, I do now! Maybe I need cooking school!

Chicken Balls

One must wonder when they deliver your order if it is truely Chicken Balls. It never crossed my mind that this might be the case when I order them, but upon delivery...Well, Victor wouldn't try them and I won't order them again.

Day one, Hong Kong

We immediately take note that every taxi is exactly the same, a 4-door red and white Toyota. Like little bugs buzzing around the streets. A bit of a order begins to esstablish itself on the streets. Reminds me of a song, where have all the taxis goine, long time...The other thing we notice walking around is that while there is a great deal of surface contruction, fixing a pot hole here, a sidewalk realignment and so on, we can't see any new big buildings going up. Has Hong Kong reached its capactiy?

We decide to get the exercising thing out of the way on this, our first day. Neither of us are avid anythingers and here we are walking up, down, up and down again all over town. More steps than I have done in the last year....all of the last year. So we will ache later, but we have broken ourselves in. Gearing up I suppose to all those Thai massages! Can't wait.

We have found a tiny little restaurant that has custom printed sugars. We have talked about doing this forever, but supposed it would be too expensive. Well we have searched, and it is not. We shall supply sugars all across the central valley with Hotel Charlotte on them!

We found our new favorite breakfast place, unlimited coffee. The best!

Victoria Peak tram and the peak, which really should be explored in the afternoons after the fog has burned off. It was cloudy, misty, smoggy when we were up there, but several hours later the whole bay is bright and clear.

Lunch was one of those prix fix places which with wine was still $70. Will have to budget for dinner. We have come up with a dozen ways to serve price-fixed at the Hotel Charlotte and might start that upon return. Good ideas are popping up daily. Glad we take these trips, they are very refreshing for opening the mind to new ways to do stuff!

Hong Kong-again

We want to visit all the places we were at last year, and do! We hit the escalators, just a few blocks from the hotel and find the international food court block. A great little area called Soho with something for every taste. We eat where we ate before and enjoy it even less. Odd how the familiar calls without the reminder that it wasn't that great before. We will have to rethink this doing of similar things.....

The hotel is just fine, I have booked the great room in the house at Bishop Lei. The bedroom appears to be cantalevered over all of Hong Kong, just hanging in mid air. Floor to ceiling windows. Quite lovely and very convenient to where we want to go.

We have a plan to fight off the week we suffered last year getting onto a proper time schedule. Neither of us slept on the plane and when we arrived forced ourselves to stay up to regular Hong Kong bed time, for us this was 10pm. Thankfully I slept through the night and awoke at the late hour of 7am, Victor however did not, waking at three. I hope he catches up with me. It is much easier if we are both cranky and tired together rather than just him!

Into the air, a two day process

Jack wakes us up with an ominous message: "shit, I over slept!" This doesn't bode well as I have planned to take a shower before we leave. I must post pone this task to another time.

We fire up our computers, check email and airplane loads and head out to SFO. We arrive on time, close though. We are ticketed to first class, Los Angeles where we will catch our flight to Hong Kong. In passing I thank the gate agent for the great seats and tell her we are hoping for the same on our leg to Hong Kong. She is curious as to our LA-HK choice vs. SF-HK. We tell her its the loads. LA looks like we might get on the plane in business class.

We wait, get beverages and our gate agent returns with good news. With our STORM, many seats on the SF-HK flight won't make it into the airport for their connection. Cancelled flights. We are delighted and deplane. She rebooks us on SF-HK and we start waiting. And Waiting. And Waiting. We change gates 4 times. There are planes to go out, but none came in to turn over to the out bound flights. I think our HK plane was reallocated to a new route, better ticket sales or something. We continue to wait, certain to make business class if the flight takes off as there are so many who have missed the flight. Waiting until 5:00 when they cancel the flight until next morning.

We call Jack and Jeannie to pick us up and enjoy a fantastic meal at Le Petite Cafe in Mountain View. Return to San Jose and repeat the next morning.

All goes smoothly and we are boarded into economy plus. A no hassle smooth flight. Movies aren't great, but we do okay. A little cards, a little Suduko, some crosswords and we land in HK.

Departing the Hill Jan 3

All goes well. We have set a deadline of 2:30 to leave the hill and almost make it on time. We travel to SF into the STORM, a huge one at that. We meet Vics's parents for dinner then head to San Jose for Jack to take us to the airport. Everything is on schedule and looking good.