Field Trip

DPS - Nusa Dua, Bali Sunday June 8th.

Once again we were up at the crack of dawn. We could hear the birds chirping in the garden outside our room. Evelyn ventured up first and wandered over to the Palace Club for coffee. I followed a short while later. We decided to go for a walk on the beach before breakfast. The beach proved to be very challenging to walk on with our feet sinking with every step. So we made our way to the footpath and wished we had worn tennis shoes. After walking down the beach in front of the Sheraton and the Westin, we turned around and headed back to the Palace Club for breakfast. The watermelon juice wasn't very sweet and there wasn't any dragon fruit. It was a nice breakfast but by far the weakest one we've experienced.

After breakfast we decided to break out of the resort and walk towards the town. Shortly after our exiting the gate, Evelyn decided to get a manicure and pedicure. Rather than wait for her, I bought some shoes and then wandered through the little stores on the side of the road. Everyone would have given me good morning price. I checked back in with Evelyn and headed back to the hotel while she finished her manicure and pedicure.

Once back at the hotel, I put on my bathing suit and made my way to the pool/beach area. I sat on the lawn between the pool and the beach. It was delightful to hear the waves crashing, the breeze drifting over me, the quiet hum of people around. I popped into the pool to cool off and then returned to the room to get ready for the rest of the day. 

Evelyn and I met Tita and Angela at 12:45 in the lobby for our tour. Nusa the young tour coordinator was there and I paid him $80 for the two of us. And then we were off to the Sheraton to wait for a bit for the two people who were going to join our group. Then finally we were off again, off to a craft market and then a batik shop. What a rip off both of them and a  waste of time. Expensive crafts we could get elsewhere for less, this was a disappointing start to the excursion. Off we then drove and drove and ended up off a road and then walking through the rice patties. The terraced levels had walls between them with stepping stones on the walls for a place to walk. Once we got to a pavilion, there was a young man there playing traditional Balinese music. We went upstairs to the top of the open air pavilion where two ladies met us with sweets. They were fried sweet potato, and tapioca balls with brown sugar inside. They also served Fanta. Just as we were about finished with our snack, out in the rice paddy came another group. Hmm, perhaps just another racket int eh jungle.

Then we drove a short ways to a Temple. The temple was gorgeous. It reminded me of what Angor Wat probably looked like during its heyday. After wandering around there for a bit, we hopped back in the bus to go to the monkey village. The monkeys at the monkey village were very cute, but were very aggressive when it came to food.  After following the tour guide around and seeing the bats hanging in the trees, she led us back to her shop to buy things. i bought a sarong as did Evelyn who also bought a cover up top. Evelyn thought it was the monkey parking lot. 

The young Indian/ British couple from the other hotel had an obvious fascination with animals. They were obsessed with getting their picture taken all the animals on their trip. So they paid to take pictures with  a huge python snake and then a bat. While they were doing this, Evelyn realized she had probably paid the women too much money for her purchases. Evelyn and the guide went over there to try and figure things out, but nothing was worked out. 

After leaving the monkey village, the bus headed to the Temple in the Sea. The temples themselves were reminiscent of Sounion but filled with thousands more people and of course Indonesian architecture.  Upon jumping out of the bus, a little boy immediately attached himself to me trying to sell postcards. His eyes implored me to buy postcards, and he whimpered by my side as we walked towards the temple through the maze of stalls.  Finally, unable to stand it no more, I started bargaining with him. His price had been 30,000 for 30 postcards, and I offered him 10,000. He immediately accepted. Perhaps this was the going rate. After receiving his cash, a smile can to his face, he clearly said thank you and scampered off.

We wandered around the temple complex and then left shortly thereafter as it was cloudy and the sunset wasn't that great.  The Indian-British guy one of the couple was with us brought us all ice cream back to the van. And then we traveled for forever trying to get back to the hotel. The traffic was horrible and traffic jams were everywhere. We dropped the other couple off in Kuta which probably caused all our traffic problems and then drove another half hour to the hotel. 

We made it back to the hotel at almost 8 and Evelyn and I booked it to the Palace Club lounge to grab a bite to eat and a drink as we were starving. The group, Al, Tita and Angela decided to go to the Bali Collection for dinner. Evelyn and I debated whether to go with them or go to the Tropical. We decided to stop by the Collection and see if we wanted to stay with them or go on. Of course we decided to stay. They had chosen a restaurant which was celebrating its first anniversary. They had a singer singing though this appeared to be pretty common for all the restaurants in the complex. They offered games and prizes. Evelyn stepped up to accept our prize for our table and play the game. She had to pop a balloon with what looked like a penis taped on a stick. She won a shirt which she gave to Al. Dinner was steamed fish in banana leaves which was very good. We wandered around the complex and went to the grocery store before heading back home. Then we were exhausted and were off to the hotel and to bed. 

Traveling to a Beach

BKK and Denpasar, Saturday June 7th

Evelyn and I both woke up early again. It appears 5:30 is becoming our regular wake up time. I didn't sleep too well and had dreams about massages and too many people touching me. Perhaps I need to take a massage break.  

We were both glad to be quit of the Novotel airport and were out the door by 6:35, checked out, paid our internet bill and caught the shuttle bus to the Bangkok airport. We checked in at Thai Airways. Our flight was going to be full. We journeyed through passport control and then went looking for breakfast. Of course we started going towards the F and G gates, while we were leaving from a C gate. This proved to be somewhat of a mistake after we realized how far we had journeyed. On the way to look for breakfast, we stopped and bought Evelyn some readers since she had somehow lost her glasses. She decided to order breakfast from some restaurant since she wanted eggs. I looked at the picture in the menu and decided Burger King was a safer bet. So I ordered a double cheeseburger in honor of Roger and a pink Fanta for Carolyn. Then we did a little bit of shopping, bought Allen's birthday present, realized the time and hustled our way down the whole airport to the C gates. This proved to be a trek, not a walk. We went through security, checked in for our flight, caught a bus to the airplane parked out on the tarmac, found our seats 41 f, 41g and settled in for the flight.  Luckily there was no one sitting next to me.

The flight to Bali lasted 4 hours. I thought it wasn't so bad. Evelyn thought it was very long and was going out of her mind with boredom. Typical. We arrived in Bali. The airport is very pretty, built like a temple with lots of stone carvings adn statues, and buddha statues dressed up with parasols. We bought our visas for $50 for two. Evelyn thought the line I chose wasn't short enough so she moved us over to another line. Murphy's law and the law of the subway, always stay where you are as where you move will inevitably be slower. We waited and waited and then the guy in front of us obviously had something wrong with his passport or it was going to expire soon because he was ranting about getting a new passport. Whatever, the immigration guy finally came back and we were in teh country with a pretty awesome visa in our passport.  We then waited forever for our luggage. Evelyn's black and white bag was the last bag off the plane. We ventured through customs and then Evelyn was pulled over. Seems the food dog had smelled food in the bag. No wonder it was the last one on the belt. The guy dug around, found Evelyn's stash of vitamins or green tea or whatever the stuff was, smelled it, realized we had no food and waived us through.

  Upon exiting to the departure hall we found the guy with the sign that had my name on it, checked in, gave him our luggage, visited the toilets, Evelyn got some money since my ATM card denied me and we were off. Evelyn asked the guy to visit a store on teh way to a hotel, we stopped at a Circle K just like you'd find anywhere in teh world. Supplied with some randomn snacks, we made it to the Nusa Dua Beach and Spa hotel. The hotel is beautiful, being old enough to have the grounds filled in lushly. Main check in was at a big open air pavilion, but we were staying in the Palace club area. We walked over to the Palace Club to check in. Evelyn got upset when she realized we wouldn't ahve a beach view. All the palace club rooms overlook a beautiful garden filled with fountains and a lake. We agree though that perhaps they could hav put a pool in this area as well. Check in took forever, but finally we were in our room. We then wandered aruond the grounds of the hotel, saw the beach, gorgeous. Evelyn challenged me to a game of ping pong and which she proceeded to trounce me, compettive person that she is. 

We debated going into town to get dinner, fought with the people at the hotel over the internet access. They only have free access in the Palace Club if you have a wired computer. Evelyn hated the hairdryer and called down three times for a new one. Turns out it is the only one and it is anoying you have to hold the button down to use it. By this time, it was getting late and we decided to just go to the little Italian restaurant by the pool.

Evelyn ordered wine, we ordered bruschetta adn a big salad. Bruschetta turned otu to be lame, it was premade and they barely heated it up. We asked them to heat it some more, the bread got hot but evelyn kept making them heat hers up more. She then asked for more lettuce for her salad. Just about then we were saved as Al, and Tita and Angela all showed up. Oh happy day.

Tita is delightful, Angela is a character and Al is a sweetheart. They could not be better companions and  a wonderful influence on Evelyn. We sat around talking at a table for a while, ordered a Beach Club pizza had a few beers. Well they did. Then we walked towards the beach adn found the party. A DJ was playing and an australian guy dragged Evelyn up on stage with everyone else to dance. Soon Tita and Al were both out there. Later, Michael Jackson's beat It came on and a man came up on stage in a bath robe and started dancing with a red umbrella. He was a true character and soon the bathrobe came off revealing a not so great body and a red speedo bathing suit.

Finally the night was over and we crashed. 

Ahh, Bliss

Friday, June 6th, Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand

The morning dawned cool and delightful in Chiang Mai. We had breakfast at the same table in the restaurant overlooking the pool. Breakfast was spectacular with the best fruit juices I have ever tasted. The watermelon juice splashed with a bit of pineapple juice was cool and refreshing. Evelyn ordered an omelet and i ordered scrambled eggs from the young girl who was cooking them out in the courtyard. I asked the girl to stop cooking them when they were done to my satisfaction and she didn't understand so I grabbed the pan off the burner startling the poor girl. It was extreme, but I am particular about scrambled eggs. 

We then decided to walk through town looking for some reading glasses for Evelyn. It proved to be a wild goose chase though we got to see the walls around the old city of Chiang Mai. We then tried to go to the complex for Lanna architecture and it too was a bust. So we went shopping.  There was a cute open air shop near our hotel, and Evelyn bought two dresses and a shirt and I bought two shirts. And that was all our time in Chiang Mai.

We returned to the hotel, asked the hotel driver for a ride to the airport and checked out of the city. At the airport we had just enough time to look around and to try and grab some Thai food from the restaurant upstairs. Some rice dish with chicken and egg arrived fast, but the pad thai took a while and they were calling our flight. We took the pad thai to go, went through security, bought snacks and water in a shop. I ate a little bit of the pad thai and then we boarded where Evelyn ate the rest of the lunch. The flight was quick just under an hour and we were back in BAngkok. 

We collected our luggage and took a taxi to the Face spa in the Sukhumvit area. While driving to the area, the taxi driver had to stop for gas, that was a little weird.  Evelyn ran upstairs to make sure they could accommodate us, and we were in for an afternoon of bliss. Face spa was located all on the second level up a long, broad flight of teak steps. The open reception area had couches and seating areas where we sat while trying to decide which spa treatments to do. After deciding on the whole package, body scrub, massage and extra massage, foot for me, head for Evelyn, we were in for a treat. We sat down in two relaxing chairs and were brought hibiscus tea while our ladies washed our feet in a wooden bucket filled with warm water and orchids. We were then led into our individual teak houses for our treatments. I put on disposable mesh black underwear and that was it. I laid down on the mattress and the woman proceeded to rub every part of my body with the salt scrub. It was so rough and she was working so hard at scrubbing that at times it was almost painful. After 30 minutes of this, I took a shower in the room that was a big copper bowl/drain surrounded by white curtains. The salt instantly turned to oil and my skin glistened was utterly smooth. On went some more black undies and the massage. It was two and a half hours of bliss. She pounded, smoothed, pressed and pushed on every part of my body. And then when she was done with a section, she would take a warmed compress and pound it all over the area with such a delightful smell. On and on it repeated, one area to the next. It was mesmerizing. 

Finally the massage was over and I dressed and met Evelyn back outside. We were both equally relaxed out. They handed us a glass of warm ginger tea and we debated what to do. After deciding that it was too difficult to go anywhere or to the night market with our luggage, we decided to eat dinner at the Thai restaurant at Face. The restaurant was equally gorgeous with tall ceilings and generous spacing. Not being that hungry, we ordered veggie summer rolls, chicken satay and fried calamari. All pretty good. It was a very ex-pat type of place as almost everyone in there was not Thai. 

We then had them order us a taxi and the taxi driver agreed to swing by the Night Market where I was to buy a purse. I hopped out at the night market, found the stall that had the purses we liked, asked how much they were 750 baht. Too much, i offered a lower price and she just scoffed at it. Said it was Thai silk. She obviously wasn't going to bargain this night. I suppose that's what you get when you go on a Friday night

The taxi took us to the Novotel at the International airport. Upon entering the hotel grounds, they swept under the car for bombs. We checked in and knowing we were a day early played dumb when they asked what day our reservation was and whether we had any documentation. They asked me to go to the business center to print out my confirmation email. Once I did and handed it back to the reservation desk, all was well, we were given a key and a room. Evelyn figures that they were paranoid about security and just wanted to make sure we were who we said we were especially since were a day early.

The room was bland and decorated by the Chinese with an odd feeling. There was a large window over the bathtub that invaded the whole room. It was an expensive room for not much atmosphere and service. We would be glad to fly out early in the morning and leave this place.  

Thursday

Wednesday

Hot and Sticky

BKK Bangkok June 3, 2008  weather: Hot! Hot! Hot!

Evelyn and I awoke before 7 a.m. this morning and puttered around for a bit then threw on some clothes and went for a brief walk. We walked for maybe 45 minutes. Even at 8 a.m. it was already hot humid and muggy. We walked through stands and stalls on the streets near our hotel. We saw lots of different food being prepared and fruit and even shoes for sale. While walking back to the hotel, we talked to a man who told us to go to the Thai Center because it was the last day of a sale in honor of the King's birthday.  Evelyn hearing deal was bound and determined to go.

After returning to the hotel, we ate breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental overlooking the water. Breakfast was beautiful with an omelet station, all kinds of different bread, twelve different kinds of juices, pastries, waffles and french toast and even dessert. It was a wonderful way to start the day.  After breakfast we talked to the concierge about what to do today.  Evelyn asked about the Thai center and she had never heard of it.  Ding, ding ding, this should have run some bells. 

After grabbing a longer than it should have been shower, we caught the hotel shuttle boat that would take us to the Skytrain pier. As we were walking to the Skytrain, we were approached by a beautiful woman who said she worked for the Oriental hotel and had just seen us. She told us to go to the Thai Center again because it was the last day for the sale. So this was twice we had heard this information. She told us to take a tuk tuk there and then we could take a tuk tuk to the Jim Thompson House. She told us that we couldn't get into the JT house until 2 p.m. because they were having a lunch there. I should have clued in on this one remembering that there was a restuarant at the JT house and there wouldn't have been a luncheon in the actual house.  As we were walking to get to the Tuk-Tuk another woman came up to us and started talking about all she had bought at the Thai Center. Despite her jewelry being looking fake and cheap, Evelyn was more convinced that we should go.  Our Tuk-Tuk driver dropped us off and it was  a waste. Everything looked very cheap but was priced very expensively. We then caught another Tuk-Tuk and told him to take us to the JT house. He decided we should stop at a store for Thai silk and Cotton. We went in and they were making men's suits.  He seemed very disappointed when we turned around and came right back out.  But he was able to go grab his free water. He then took us to another store, where he would get free gasoline for bringing us there. This jewelry store took you through the factory part where they were making the jewelry and then into a very large store. Once again expensive and not great looking. We were soon out and the driver wanted to take us someplace else and if he did, he wouldn't charge us as he would get free gas. By this time, Evelyn was very mad and upset at wasting the day and herself for believing all these people. She ordered the driver to take us to the JT house.  Of course when we got to the house, it had been open all day and there had been no dignitaries there for lunch. Evelyn had to have a glass of wine just to cheer herself up after all that. 

The Jim Thompson house was as wonderful as I'd remembered it. He combined 5 or 6 Thai houses to create one complex. The teak wood was just gorgeous and the entrance and gardens along the canal were beautiful. We wandered around in the store for a bit before the tour and the silks were exquisite. Neither Evelyn nor I purchased anything.

We were going to go to the MBK mall, but decided to go back to the hotel for our free lunch. We caught the sky train and then the boat to the hotel. The restaurant for lunch had a Thai buffet. Food was very good though not as good as lunch. That took a while, and then we went back to the main hotel, checked out, cleaned out our room and took a taxi over to the Sheraton.

Once we arrived at the Sheraton, Evelyn decided she wanted a massage. I had seen a nice looking place on our drive over to the hotel, so we walked back there. There were two very nice Thai woman who took us upstairs to a teak room with a mattress on the floor and curtains separating the two areas. Evelyn choose an oil massage while I had a Thai massage. First the woman washed my feet, and then she brutally massaged me. Oh baby, it hurts so good. Thai massage contorts your body in all sorts of different directions. She walked on my legs and ground her feet into me. Parts of it were extremely painful, but it was oh so good.  After the massages, we walked down the road a bit and looked for pants for Evelyn. She found some black pants but they had funky Chinese writing on them, and then she found some white linen pants. Sold!

After returning to the room, we both fell asleep, but were awakened to the sound of hammering. When the hammering wouldn't stop and realizing that the room was extremely hot, we requested a room change. We would change rooms after dinner. We then left the hotel and went to the Night Market. (find name)  The market was huge. Evelyn found a very cute dress for 530 baht. We wandered to the restaurant the hotel had recommended but it looked deserted, so we went back to where all the people were. We ended up in a Thai Italian restaurant, but we ordered all Thai food. Pad Thai, Green Curry chicken and some kind of crab dish.  It was good, though perhaps Thai food is not my thing. We then wandered around the market until 10:30 or so when we decided to come back to the hotel.

Up next tomorrow, Grand Palace and the Wat Po. I am also determined to have Evelyn get a Thai massage, because you can't come to Thailand and not have one. 

Ahhh, the smell of orchids

What a wonderful way to be greeted at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok by a smiling woman giving us fragranted flower wristlets.  It was so wonderful to be in such a luxurious place after traveling for so long. The second flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was 6 hours and we sat on the runway for a long time before taking off. The flight had scattered bumps the whole way and the landing was very bumpy. We figured out why once we got in our taxi and headed off to the city, it was raining and pretty hard. 

Evelyn typically has brought only shorts and skirts and no long pants and only sleeveless tops. It looks like we'll be doing a bit of shopping for her if she wants to go to the Wat Po and get a Thai massage or to any of the other Wats. Hmm, maybe that was her plan to do only shopping.

We are only at the Mandarin Oriental for one night. Our room is in the garden wing, it has a little sitting room and the bedroom and bathroom are above the sitting room on a landing. All very lovely though in a few years it is going to need to be updated. There was a plate of fruit in the room which we devoured and then we went to the Veranda restaurant to catch a bite to eat. Evelyn had french onion soup that I thought tasted strongly of sherry and I had chicken sew ew. Must branch out in my Thai food choices.

Tomorrow, both breakfast and lunch are complimentary at the hotel. I am not sure we know what we are going to do yet besides get out and explore the city. 

Greetings From Tokyo

NRT - Narita Tokyo, June 2, 2008

Evelyn and I have made it on our first leg of the trip. We are exhausted after over 12 hours in the plane despite the fact that JAL business class was very nice. Evelyn watched 5 or 6 movies while I watched 4 or 5. We are looking pretty worse for the wear. Right now, we are sitting in the JAL lounge waiting for our next flight to Bangkok.  More from Thailand.

On Our Way!

Ord (Chicago) June 1,2008Isn't this a tiny little plane to be starting such a big journey? Caught Continental Airlines from SHV to ORD through Houston (IAH) yesterday, May 31, 2008. The regional jet was actually very quick getting to Houston, only 37 minutes, then a little bit of a layover and a nice comfy seat in First Class on the way to Chicago.

I feel that I am all outfitted for this trip. FLIP, MacBook Air, Verizon Cell phone, two unlocked cell phones, Kindle, digital Elph camera and the magnificent Sonicare Toothbrush. I had so many things charging last night at the Westin Airport Hotel that I ran out of plugs. Got to get everything charged up one last time.

I am now in the JAL lounge waiting for Evelyn to arrive. Her plan has landed, she just has to make her way from the national terminal to the international terminal. Chicago is sunny and beautiful today, about 70 degrees. Makes me wonder what kind of temperatures we are going to encounter in Bangkok when we arrive. Intellicast tells me it is 86 degrees in Bangkok currently.

I am not impressed with the Chicago international terminal. The shopping and restaurants are outside of security. The JAL/ Swissair lounge is merely adequate with black leather seats that are very modern and not very comfortable. It reminds me a little bit of the Continental lounge at LaGuardia. This is basic compared to the Continental lounges in Houston. 

We board our flight at 11:45 and the flight leaves at 12:15 though flightstats.com tells me we won't actually take off until 12:48.  Then it'll be a 13 hour flight to Tokyo and then a 6 hour flight to Bangkok.  I have plenty of books on kindle, and I'm sure there'll be movies to watch. Hopefully the hours will pass by fast and then we'll be in Asia.