Welcome to Our 2007 Travel Log
Welcome to Our 2007 Travel Log
Neal has uploaded his photos for Hong Kong, Macau and Chiang Mai.
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Here are pictures of Koh Samui,
an island we visited in the Gulf of Thailand. The pictures are of the
Waterfront hotel where we stayed as well as the Big Buddha statute,
beaches, elephants and other sights we saw.   |
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Check out more
pictures of Siam in Pattaya
 February 1, 2007 We are now in Pattaya at the beautiful Rabbit Resort. It feels and looks like paradise. The weather is cool evenings & mornings and warm during the day. We came here to Pattaya to visit Sally, Podam & Siam. The Rabbit Resort is on a very quiet beach in Pattaya in a beautiful setting away from all the craziness of Pattaya. Our room is large and beautiful with teak floors and ceilings. The furniture is Thai antiques. Our bed had fresh orchids on it in the shape of a heart when we arrived. We had a fabulous lunch of river prawns in red curry, pad thai and salmon in green curry. We spent the evening witb Sally, Podam and Siam and watched Siam take some of his first walking steps. Later we took a walk on the beach at low tide. The beach is brightly lit at night. Thais dig up shellfish, use metal detectors to find coins, & walk into the water to fish. Tourists stroll (& in our case, pick up bottles & dispose of them properly).    
  
January 29, 2007 Time flies when you are having fun. It's been awhile since we've uploaded anything new. Internet access has not been readily availble or has been too expensive or we have been having fun. We spent four days in Hong Kong and one more in Macau before we returned back to Bangkok. We spent one night in Bangkok at the CentrePoint (washed clothes, reorganized our luggage and left some of it there) and left early for Chiang Mai. We spent two nights at the PornPing Hotel and we are now at Tao Garden Wellness Center in Doi Saket about 20 km. away. The Kalare and Anusarn Markets n Chiang Mai have been remodeled since we were last here. We saw many traditional dancers, looked around the Night Market and had many delicious meals. The GingPai restaurant in our hotel still has some of the best Chinese food in Chiang Mai and we ate the oysters in gravy and crab in curry at the Anusarn food market. We also had some clothes made and repaired, and we went to the zoo where we saw some wonderful animals, and tried to see the pair of giant pandas. We only got a peek as they were both sleeping. Neal had two massages. It was a quick two days. We moved on to Tao Gardens and have been relaxing and undergoing various treatments. The vegetarian meals are still some of the best vegetarian food we have ever eaten. They also serve excellent fish and chicken dishes. Neal played basketball and swam on two days and only missed the other day because there was a bit of rain--the first time we've seen any rain in Thailand in January on our four visits. January 19, 2007 We spent the afternoon traveling from Macau to our hotel in Hong Kong via a ferry, local bus and taxi. We got a real feel for how this place works. By the way, the picture above is of "The Golden Mile." That is the nickname for Nathan Road which has zillions of blazing neon signs, great restaurants, shops, you name it. Our hotel is about a block away from Nathan Road. We walked around in the evening. It is buzzing with international cuisine and shopping. We had a Korean barbecue dinner as Neal wanted something spicy. We cooked scallops and pork at our table. Excellent food and lots of it, albeit very pricey. Much more expensive than Macau. In fact, Hong Kong prices are like New York. We have a fabulous harbor view from our hotel, the YMCA Salisbury. The room looks like it is brand new too. It is an excellent hotel and right next door to the Peninsula which we hear costs three to four times as much. We were able to take pictures of the harbor from our window with no tripod. We started in the afternoon and took pictures through the night. Although the sky is overcast, one can still see the view. Follow this link for those pictures. The visitors and convention bureau puts on a light show at night on the harbor. We captured the multimedia light and sound show in Quick Time especially for our nephew James. It's amazing what Yvonne's digital video camera can do with little light, no tripod and through glass. Follow the link to see it. |
| January 17, 2007 We are now in Macau. After a two or so hour flight on AsiaAir we landed in Macau. The flight was lively because we sat next to a young woman from Hong Kong who was educated in London and has worked all over the world. She was very talkative and our discussions ranged from good restaurants in Hong Kong to the Iraq war which she vehemently opposes. We're staying at the Holiday Inn hotel, which was recommended by our friend Arthur, who travels to Macau yearly. The hotel staff have been especially warm, friendly and helpful. What has impressed Yvonne the most so far: the FOOD! Last night we ate Portuguese and Macanese food. Everything was delicious. Today we had an international lunch buffet at our hotel. The buffet was spectacular. Yvonne's favorite: the Macau egg custards. So much better than the Chinese ones she buys in Chinatown Oakland or San Francisco. Neal was less impressed by dinner--we are in Quangdong (Canton) province, & Neal prefers spicier food--but he agrees that dinner was good and the lunch buffet was excellent. The prices for everything are much higher here than Thailand. In fact, some prices are higher than US. For example, the hotel's wireless costs $11.00 for two consecutive hours. We have to pay the same price again, even if we want to use it only for 30 minutes or less. Meals so far are running easily $10+ per person and much more in some restaurants. Drivers are not as courteous as Thailand. Here they drive extremely fast, run red lights and do not give pedestrians the right of way. We were thrown around in the back seat as our taxi driver drove us from the aiport. We tried to hang on for dear life as we rolled from side to side. Taxis here and in Thailand do not have back-seat seat belts. Finally: casinos and jewelry stores (mainly watches and diamond rings) everywhere. People come in from Mainland China and other parts of Southeast Asia and the world to try their luck. Yvonne saw people at the check-in line with wads of Hong Kong dollars, paying for their rooms in cash. One guy had a roll of $1000 Hong Kong notes that she estimated was at least $5,000-10,000 US cash. Neal read that Macau rakes in more gambling profits than Las Vegas. We will post more pictures of Macau's World Heritage Centers soon. |
 We walked to the Macau Centro (downtown). It was in raining and overcast but we had fun. Most of the pictures we have are of the downtown architecture. Please use this link to see those pictures. Yes, that is Neal. By the way, many of the women here dress very stylish and the clothes are the latest. And, there are casinos everywhere!  |
 Seems that old MacDonald is
everywhere!
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 Colorful kites.
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| January 15, 2007 - BANGKOK We had a good flight to Bangkok on Eva Air thanks to their "Evergreen Deluxe" class that offers roomier seats spaced further apart. But, we were still very tired when we arrived at the CentrePoint apartment at 5:00 AM Thai time. CentrePoint is still everything we've said before. It feels like home. So far, so good: 3 nights, 3 massages. Yvonne gets Thai massages, Neal gets oil massages. We're going to Macau tomorrow, and then Hong Kong, so we'll probably be massage-less for 8 days. Also, we still love the food. We went to an absolutely beautiful restaurant tonight that we haven't been to before, The Gallery (we've been to a restaurant with that name in Chiang Mai). River prawns (huge) with tamarind sauce--delicious! Crabmeat in curry sauce--delicious! A kale dish that was good, but not delicious like the one Cyrus made. Singha beer, of course. (Singha is the name of the type of stylized lion pictured on the label.) We ordered items we've had at Sonboom before. This is a much nicer location, more beautiful furnishings and the food is much more refined. Yvonne is not sure which one she prefers. They are both outstanding. We haven't done much sightseeing yet. Tried to go to the National Museum today, forgetting to check their schedule (closed Mon. & Tu.). But we got to take a nice, cool ride on the river (they've mostly cleaned up the weeds that were growing in the river), ate a nice lunch and chatted with two Austrian guys (who are paying more for a dirty, crummy room that one said was smaller than his bathroom at home than we pay for our big, fancy serviced CentrePoint apartment). The first two days were cool for here; today was 93. We also met Rod Stewart and Cher impersonators on the river boat. They are from Philadelphia and came here to perform for a gig that fell through. But, they are excited about having costumes made. The Rod Stewart guy actually looked like him. We were both sure he was British and then he spoke with an American accent. We were surprised until he showed us his card. It was yellow shirt day today. In celebration and honor of the King's 60th year on the throne, the Thai people have been asked to wear yellow shirts or blouses every Monday for the entire year. Many of the shirts have the King's emblem or people simply wear something yellow. Stalls all over the city are selling yellow crew-type shirts. It is remarkable to see such devotion. It looked to us like a majority or close to a majority of the population was wearing yellow today. We found a new restaurant called Queen of Curry. The woman who owns it won best Thai curry in the region this past year. We only tried her green curry and found the flavor to be outstanding. The CentrePoint still has the best Pad Thai around. For 80 Baht, about $2.00 US, you get a large plate of Pad Thai with three kinds of prawns: small dried ones that are hydrated when cooked, large prawns and one huge King Prawn. We also went back to Chinos in the Robinson building for their food. It is a small restaurant in the food mall with cowboy and Native American paraphernalia for decoration. Better than any food mall food you can get back home. OK, we shopped. It's hard to resist. We promise, pictures soon! |
| January
11, 2007 We're traveling on Eva Air to Bangkok, Thailand. It's a long flight that crosses the International Date Line. We arrive in Bangkok on January 13. Stay posted. |