Kok Chang Safari Elephant Ride

 I had three main reason for coming to Thailand: first, to ride in Cathay Pacific's 1st class cabin from JFK to Hong Kong detailed here, second, to ride an elephant and third because I wish to visit all 7 continents before 60.  This post is about Rainbow, at 2 1/2 tons she was kind and gentle and loved to be scratched behind the ears.

Bus to Phuket

One of the most stressful parts of this trip was all the extra planning which had to occur because I decided to terminate the flight to Asia in Hong Kong rather than my final destination of Phuket.  Simply put it meant that once we deplaned in Hong Kong we were on our own to get to the point where the departing plane back to the US would be.  I previously described the plane trip from Hong Kong to Bangkok here and the private drive to Hua Hin here but we still had an 8 hour ride to get from Hua Hin to Phuket.  Our options included driving back to Bangkok and taking a plane, hiring a private driver, driving ourselves or taking a bus.  We opted to review the last two: driving or public bus.

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Hua Hin

I was a hectic time in Bangkok and now came the time to relax.  Hua Hin has a 5 mile long beach about a 3 hour drive south of Bangkok located on the Gulf of Thailand.  It was discovered in the 1920's by King Rama VII and today houses the official royal residence of the sitting King.  Our stay here would be for 3 nights with the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin, a Category 4 property.  This 5 star 204 room hotel located on 12 beachfront acres was meticulously landscaped and private.  In one word the property was magnificent.  Upon check-in were were ushered to the Regency Club check-in desk and provided a beautiful room.  Everything here spoke of lush gardens and greenery.  Once we arrived at our room we found a great bottle of wine, a decadent chocolate cake and some local fruits as our welcoming gift.

Bangkok as I saw it: A pictorial

I'm finishing my cities (Hong Kong and Bangkok) portion of this trip blog today. So I'm going on a  rant with this post.  These two cities are like oil and water.  Hong Kong clean, Bangkok dirty.  Hong Kong wealthy, Bangkok dirt poor.  Hong Kong rife with fascination for the Western lifestyle but not our traditions, while Bangkok is just trying to survive a Western influx of tourism.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

We left Bangkok early morning.  A private driver was hired for the 3 hr trip to Hua Hin.  The city part of the vacation was over and now it was time to head to the beaches.  En route to Hua Hin we would be stopping at the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market about 2 hours outside of Bangkok.  Basically, its a bunch of canals in a jungle setting with people living densely along both sides of the narrow waterways.

Hotel Review:Park Plaza

There are currently three Club Carlson properties in Bangkok, the 4th a Radisson Blu is being readied for a February 2014 delivery.  The new property was within walking distance from the Park Plaza, I did cruise by the construction but, I did not see any of the other Club Carlson Bangkok properties.
Contemporary, quiet and centrally located can best describe our small hotel.

Bangkok's Royal Palace

After 12 straight hours of sleep I was ready for Bangkok or so I thought.  We did the first thing we could think to do in a third world country, find Starbucks.  Today, we were riding the metro, taking a water taxi, visiting the Royal palace, Wat Pho (largest reclining Buddha) and Chinatown with a little bit of this and that thrown in.

Trip Report : Introduction to Bangkok

Arrival in Bangkok was without issue.  Again, I had no transportation from airport to hotel set up but we decided to take a cab rather than navigate yet another metro system where we knew English would not be spoken.  We paid for a cab (about a $14 fare) to the hotel which was located in Sukhumvit, a  very well respected part of the city.  I made sure I had the driver use the meter rather than a flat rate which is how the drivers like to charge.  Being that it was early we had only a few traffic issues, Bangkok is known for horrendous traffic conditions.

Typical Bangkok intersection

Playing Tourist in LA

This post comes to you from West Hollywood, CA  I'm out here for a quick trip playing tourist with my daughter.  I've been trying to keep on top of the posts and I most certainly will be providing a trip report of my stay at the Hyatt Andaz, West Hollywood in the near future.  But for now a few pics of celebrity homes will have to suffice.

Prince's house in Malibu

Matt Damon's house in Pacific Palisades

Bill Cosby's house in Pacific Palisades

Trip Report: Last Tid Bits from Hong Kong

A ride on the star ferry from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon peninsula should not be missed.  For an amount totaling less than $2HKD or .26 cents US you get a spetacular water view of the harbour.  For an extra special ride catch the ferry right before the 8pm laser light show that takes place on the promoninade, the ferry captain will stop in the middle of the harbour to allow passengers to take photos or have an extra few minutes for taking in the sights.  While I did not ride the ferry at night I did see the evening ferry stop from my post at Ozone Bar 118 floors above the harbour.

Hong Kong: Night Market

Everywhere we went in Asia some sort of market activity was popping up.  Hong Kong proved no exception and it would be our first exposure to the market culture and a memorable one at that.  Let's be frank...call it what you will to get visitors to attend but I referred to them as "shit shops"  After our visit to Ozone (read post here)  we headed over to to the Temple Street night market.  Starting at 5pm a busy street transforms into a place where vendors hawk their wares, everything from t-shirts to jade to fruits/vegetables to any kind of street food one could imagine.  We were so excited to explore the colorful marketplace before us.

Trip Report: Ritz Carlton Ozone Bar

Hong Kong is know for its architecture especially when it comes to skyscrapers so it would not be a complete visit without a stop to what currently ranks as one of the highest bars in the world, it occupies the 118Th floor of the ICC (International Commerce Commission ) building completed in 2010.  Ozone as it is more appropriately known is part of the Ritz Carlton properties and the views from this bar are spectacular especially if you arrive in time to watch the lights from surrounding buildings illuminate the evening sky.

Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Sha Tin

As I mentioned in yesterday's post there are three Hyatt properties in Hong Kong.  In planning the trip several factors went into selecting what property I would chose for my stay.  Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula are very densely populated; basically they are located at the heart of Hong Kong proper, Sha Tin is out in a more relaxing mountainous setting just a 30 minute metro ride away.

Hong Kong: Victoria Peak and IFC Building

I have to admit that while I spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to defray my out of pocket expenses on exotic vacations I spend very little time deciding what I want to do when I get to the destination.  Same held true for Hong Kong.  My final destination was Phuket, Thailand and I could have had a decent layover in Hong Kong before catching a business class flight to Phuket but I decided I wanted to see Hong Kong so I booked three days at a Hyatt Regency to take it all in.

Cathay Pacific Flight to Hong Kong

It arrived, the announcement I had waited for, the culmination of many months acquiring points and understanding how to best utilize them, finally, first class passengers were called to board. Not only did I have priority boarding I had my own lane, my own jet walk, my own entrance onto the plane,  I did't even have to board with the masses.  I arrived to my suite, yes suite, not seat.  Suite 1A and Diva Ridge my travel companion occupied suite 2A.  Our first class cabin had only 6 suites; our two are marked with an arrow.

Napa 2012

I'm still playing with the construction of this site.  Having said that you'll notice the recent addition of a Trip Reports header, I plan to post  comment and pics from my trips and link to those pages. This is my attempt to do just that...