While in Honolulu, we stayed at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel. Located close to Diamond Head on the south end of Waikiki, the New Otani is situated across from Kapiolani Park. It is a good value for many reasons. Its biggest selling point for me, was the view.
Sunrise from our balcony.
This position is ideal because the hotel is quiet, set apart from the touristy, shopping mall busyness of Waikiki. Plus, you look back at the entire beach and skyline and take it all in. If you were staying in Waikiki proper, you wouldn’t have so broad a perspective. Here are some of the pictures I shot during our two nights at the hotel.
Kapiolani Park with Diamond Head in the background.
Graceful palm trees backlit by the setting sun.
Other visitors stop to capture a picture of the sunset.
A trio of pictures from our balcony at different times of the day:
Just after sunset, I spotted the moon above the palm trees.
Near the end of our Hawaii trip, Tawn and I flew to Honolulu for two days. Our original plan was to visit Michael, a (nowadays inactive) Xangan whom we first met during our Kauai trip last year. Unfortunately, Michael had some health issues and ended up hospitalized. (He is out of the woods now, thankfully.) That meant two days in Honolulu under our own steam. For guidance, we turned to the New York Times’ travel section and their article, 36 Hours in Honolulu.
Arriving in the late morning and unable to check into our hotel until mid-afternoon, we started our visit at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. A visit to the Academy is worthwhile even if you have no interest in art, as it is located in a beautiful complex of buildings that is a pleasure to stroll around.
In front of the Academy is an engaging installation by Patrick Dougherty that evokes a wooded glen. The sculpture, composed of twisted sticks and vines, invites passersby to interact with it, coming inside and peering through the various openings.
Our first stop was the Academy’s open-air restaurant. Located in a shaded patio with beautiful sculptures and a waterfall nearby, the Pavilion Cafe offers a restful setting in which to recharge your energy. The food, mostly Mediterranean and Asian influenced, is surprisingly good for the setting.
Grilled chicken sandwich with a mango-pineapple salsa
Mixed greens with lamb
Apple-mango cobbler
Ice cream sundae
Tawn plays with his phone while waiting for our meal. Modern art?
Afterwards, we spent an hour and a half perusing the collections, which are very diverse. The emphasis is on Hawaiian and Asian art, but there is a respectable showing from other genres. There is also a partnership with the Shangri La, the Doris Duke estate’s Islamic arts museum. Located off-site, we didn’t get a chance to see that collection but watched a short video that shared some of the highlights. We will have to catch it next time we are in Honolulu.
Much of the art is incorporated into the Academy’s buildings, such as this whimsical steel screen that depicts all manner of animal life.
We worried less about trying to see all the collections and instead enjoyed the cool, serene courtyards of the Academy. Instead of rushing to see the madness of Waikiki or driving about with our suitcases in the trunk of the car, our first few hours in Honolulu were relaxing and refined.
Eventually, though, we had our fill of serenity and drove to the hotel to check in!
Took this photo this morning, the dawn of our last full day in the United States. After a four-week vacation, we will depart San Francisco Friday afternoon en route to Bangkok. In this photo, Tawn curls up on our friend Anita’s sofa with a Cafe Bustelo au lait. There is plenty more to share from this trip – heck, I’m still blogging about Maui and we left there nearly two weeks ago! – so stay tuned over the coming weeks.
Later in the afternoon, the living room turns into our staging area as we pack our bags. While it may seem like a lot for two people, we’re actually returning with my sister and brother-in-law in tow. They will each have a bag of their own and then will help us carry this extra luggage.
A Costco run this morning concluded the shopping list with bulk amounts of almonds, pecans, and maple syrup. We also purchased a Kitchen Aid food processor, which sells about about $450 less here in the United States than in Thailand. I love the idea of traveling light, but there are too many things that we can get here (or get more cheaply) that we would be foolish not to carry as much back to Thaliand as we can.
This blog is always a bit delayed. We’re actually already in Maui and have been in San Francisco for the last week – and yet I am still writing about things that happened last month in Bangkok! Anyhow, our flight over on EVA Airways, a Taiwanese airline, was smooth.
Our airplane in San Francisco after our arrival. Temperatures were cold and breezy, as only a San Francisco summer can be!
Flight over – “Elite” class, which is EVA’s premium economy cabin. Airfare is higher this summer than when I traveled over this past December. Nonetheless, I’m at an age (and height) where a little extra space makes the trip much more enjoyable.
While EVA’s food is generally good, this flight’s food was exceptional. Out of Bangkok, I had a Penang curry beef dinner with a duck pate over salad, fruit, and ice cream for dessert.
Closer look at the beef curry – instead of small pieces it was a petite steak. Very flavorful.
Strawberry ice cream, complete with little strawberry seeds. Of course, it arrived frozen so solid that I had to wait ten minutes to be able to make even the slightest dent in it!
Tawn on the air train to the car rental facility in SFO. Because we arrived in the early evening, there was no wait at immigration and customs. We breezed through immigration in less than three minutes and the bags started arriving within fifteen minutes of getting off the plane. In fact, we were in the rental car driving away from the airport within an hour of landing. Pretty impressive!
Despite traveling from one end of Taiwan to the other on the High Speed Rail, I was back in Taipei by ten minutes after noon. I rushed to one of the subway lines and a few minutes later, met my friend Jay for lunch at a large hotel.
Jay and I worked together during the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival many years ago. He has since moved back to Taiwan and is running a company that produces and distributes various media with an emphasis on television channels. After lunch, he invited me to attend a press conference that was being held to promote a competition held by the Syfy channel.
Lin Yu-hsien, Director of the 2011 Taiwanese hit film Jump Ashin, appeared at the press event with two young ladies who, if I understand correctly, work with the tourism board and produce all sorts of internet media. Their “thing” is that they plank all over the place in Taiwan. Why anyone would choose to lie face down on a hotel conference room’s carpeting is beyond me. How they relate to the Syfy channel contest is beyond me, too. Made for an interesting experience, though.
Afterwards, Jay and I embarked on a somewhat whirlwind series of events. First stop, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum where we breezed through several exhibits including one featuring works by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Maybe we weren’t in much of an art mood, but neither Jay nor I were particularly impressed by the artist’s works. The one above, “Forever Bicycles,” is perhaps the best-known work in the exhibit. It is visually interesting but I’m not sure that it really says all that much.
We also stopped for coffee at the downtown Taipei airport and hung out on the observation deck, which has good views of flights coming and going for “near international” destinations like Tokyo and Shanghai.
I headed back out to Taoyuan Airport, the main international airport, using the high speed train and bus connection. As our schedules worked out well, I was able to meet Xangan Jack (made2order), who had just returned to Taipei a week earlier and was helping a chef friend at the Novotel airport hotel conduct a cooking class. No pictures, unfortunately, but enjoyed talking food and cooking with him and the chef friend, an Indian man who has worked in Taipei several years.
Back at the airport, I zoomed through security and immigration and headed to the lounge, where my carry-on bag was waiting for me in the locker. Enough time to shower again, change clothes, and catch my breath before boarding the flight to Bangkok.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I used miles to upgrade to business class on this final segment of my trip. I did this primarily to make sure I had access to the airline lounge, lest I end up stuck at the airport for my entire 15-hour layover. The other benefit, of course, was that my final three-hour flight was an extremely comfortable one!
Menus were distributed before takeoff along with glasses of Champagne. EVA has started distributing menus for the economy class on long-haul flights, too, which seems a little silly but at least you end up feeling like your choice of meals is a bit nicer than just “chicken or beef”.
Business class cabin on the A330. The load on this flight, which continues from Bangkok to Vienna, was light, maybe 40% in business class and not much more in economy. The man sitting across the aisle from me was also taking lots of pictures so I guess someone else has blogged about this flight, too.
Appetizer of a chicken pate served in crust with salmon roe and salad.
Choice of various breads including garlic toast. The one of the right is a rustic whole grain bread.
My selection for dinner, poached noodles with braised beef shank and tendon served in superior sauce. Very tasty, although a little bit of tendon goes a long way for me.
On-board espresso machine produces lattes and other drinks to order with a rock sugar stir stick.
Dessert was a modest fruit plate.
Business class passengers were given an immigration priority lane pass, which was really pointless for a 2:30 am arrival as that is after the last wave of arriving flights and there are no lines at the immigration counters. That said, I breezed through and was the first to arrive at the baggage claim. I then had to wait fifteen minutes for the bags to start arriving. Thankfully, mine were among the first few bags to come off the belt!
Catching a taxi home, I was in bed by 4:00 am, exhausted from my more than fifty hour journey from Kansas City.
When booking my flight back to Bangkok, I was able to find a cheaper fare if I included a 15-hour layover in Taipei. Not only did this save money, it also afforded me enough time to finally take a ride on Taiwan’s High Speed Rail system.
A trio of trains sits in the winter sun at Zuoying station, the southern terminus of the Taiwan High Speed Rail.
I’ve prepared a seven-minute video that tells the whole story, embedded below. Or else you can just browse a selection of pictures and descriptions below. Your choice.
After a nearly 15-hour flight from Los Angeles, of which I managed to sleep more than 10, I arrived in Taipei a few minutes before 6:00 in the morning. My extended layover had caught the attention of EVA staff, who met me at the entrance to the security screening for connecting passengers. The agent wanted to know what I was going to do for that length of time. If I was going to go into the city, she explained, they wanted my boarding pass back. That way they would know when I had returned and checked in again, reducing the uncertainty of a potentially missing connecting passenger.
Not keen on doing that, I explained that I was going to go through security and wait in the lounge. “Okay,” the agent said, “but if you come back please stop by the customer service counter and give us your boarding pass.”
“Sure,” I lied.
For this final leg of the trip, I cashed in some miles and upgraded to business class. The only reason to do this is that the lounge facilities are nicer and there was a risk I’d end up having to stay in the lounge the whole time if my plans to go into the city went awry.
First thing upon arriving in the empty lounge was to take a shower. My tote bag contained three changes of clothes: one for the previous night in LA, one for this morning after arrival in Taipei, and a third for the end of the day before heading home to Bangkok. One key to comfortable long-haul travel is to be able to change your clothes every so often. Fifty hours is too long for one outfit!
After the shower and a shave I enjoyed a spot of breakfast from the lounge. The food is better than you might expect and there is a variety of both western and Asian food. A latte helped wake me from my drug-induced drowsiness and steeled me for my day ahead.
On the way out of the lounge, I explained that I was going to go out for a while and inquired whether I would have any problem re-entering the lounge since they had already taken my invitation card. “No worries, sir,” I was told. “Do you want to leave your bag in a locker?”
That was a helpful offer as I would otherwise have had to pay for a rental locker in the main terminal building, something that isn’t very expensive but made for one more step. My bag securely stored in a complimentary locker in the lounge, I walked back downstairs through security (explaining to the guard that I had gone the wrong way and had meant to go to immigration), passed the EVA agent who had spoken to me about getting my boarding pass (didn’t make eye contact; just kept walking), and continued to Immigration, where I was the last person in a modest queue.
After breezing through Immigration and Customs, I followed the signs to the High Speed Rail shuttle bus. This is U-bus number 705. The ticket counter is inside the doors and the service, which runs every 20 minutes or so, was just 30 NTD (about US$1). Interestingly, I had thought that it was a free service, but it seems to only be free for the return portion.
The Taoyuan HSR station is a ten-minute drive from the airport. The station itself isn’t much to look at from the outside, although the interior is clean and inviting.
Across from the HSR station is the construction site for the Taoyuan Airport MRT line, which will provide direct rail service to the airport starting in 2013. This will ease some of the load off the High Speed Rail as there seem to be many passengers who use the HSR to connect to and from the city, causing a surge of passengers on this approximately 36 km portion of the route. Once the MRT line is open, the High Speed Rail will be used by the longer distance passengers while local passengers can just use the MRT. It will also provide an easier connection for passengers riding the HSR from points south and then connecting to the airport, eliminating the bus ride.
The interior of the Taoyuan station, modern but plain. Lots of clear signage, though.
The Zuoying station, the southern terminus of the HSR, has a much more spacious looking terminal, similar to many recently built airport terminals.
After purchasing my tickets and stopping by Starbucks for another latte (they have Starbucks at each of the HSR stations, save one, as I learned in the seat back pocket magazine), I descended to the platform and waited less than five minutes for my train to arrive. Service seems to run about once every half-hour, although there are some express trains that run in between, skipping many of the stations on the route.
For the southbound journey, I bought a ticket in the economy cabin for NTD 1330, or about US$ 44. This is for a roughly 300km journey that took 1 hour, 40 minutes. An airline ticket (although the HSR has resulted in a significantly reduced the number of flights offered each day) is about twice that much and takes about one hour, not including check-in time, etc.
The seating is five-abreast in seats very comparable to airline economy class seats. With the exception of three of the cars, seats are assigned. Unassigned seats cost NTD 1260, a modest discount.
While I haven’t done a lot of train travel, I can understand the appeal. These seats are similar to an airplane’s but have much more legroom and the ability to get up and move around the cabin any time you want. Compared to the experience on an airplane these days, the train sure looks like a nicer way to travel.
The train also offers two cars of business class, which I tried on the return trip. The fare for the same Taoyuan to Zuoying is NTD 1760, a 32% premium over economy class. For the money you get a wider seat – only two-by-two seating – and several other features. Notice, though, that the carpet in the aisle is badly worn.
Legroom is even greater than in economy, with wide armrests to ensure you aren’t elbowing your seatmate. The footrest confused me a bit. The only position it folded to was nearly on the floor of the train, which doesn’t raise your feet very comfortably.
Several channels of music are available, although you have to bring your own headset. In this day and age, I wonder if anyone is not already traveling with their own digital music player?
The business class seats also come with power plugs in case you want to recharge your digital music player, phone, etc. Interesting that they are not the three-prong grounded plug.
The back of each tray table has a map showing the amenities on the twelve-car train. These include a trio of vending machines as well as several lavatories. There are also phone booths but they do not actually have any telephones in them. Maybe just a quiet spot in case you need to make a call?
Attendants roll up and down the aisles with snack carts, featuring drinks and food items.
My business class ticket entitled me to a free beverage (coffee – not too bad, actually), snack mix, and a chocolate cake/cookie thing.
My overall impression of the system, which reaches its fifth anniversary on January 5, is very positive. The timing was perfect, as I had listened to a KQED podcast about California’s High Speed Rail Commission just a few days before and was thinking about the pros and cons of building a high speed rail system there. There is also an initiative here in Thailand to get Chinese investment to help build four high speed rail routes, so I was very keen to have the chance to actually try high speed rail.
Ultimately, high speed rail is an expensive proposition. But it is also one that can be very convenient to use and bring a lot of benefits to a state or country, not the least of which is a reduction in automobile and aircraft trips, which are less efficient than rail. I’m not saying that high speed rail is necessarily the right choice for California or for Thailand, but it is certainly worth exploring.
After about eleven days in Kansas City, it was time to begin the return trip, a lengthy journey that would take me more than 56 hours from door to door. The first leg was from Kansas City to Los Angeles, cashing in some credit card points I had for a one way ticket on American Airlines.
It has been nearly a decade since I’ve flown American. Now that they are in bankruptcy, the last of the major carriers (other than Southwest) to have gone through that process, I was curious to see if there was a perceptible air of distress among the employees.
I have to say, while none of the employees were spectacularly friendly, they didn’t seem to be any worse for wear than the employees of any other major US airline. They did their jobs, tried to smile from time to time and be pleasant, and got me safely from point A to point B. Knowing many people in the airline industry, and being a former employee myself, my sympathy extends to them during this uncertain time. The only thing that is certain is that they’ll not make it through bankruptcy without some amount of pain. Most likely, this will include losing a large portion of their pensions.
There was some holiday spirit in the air, though, despite the bankruptcy. This gate at Kansas City was decorated for the season, ready for a charity flight they do for disadvantaged children. I’m not sure if it is an actual flight – that’s become quite expensive to do anymore – but they board the children on the plane, let them visit the cockpit, have them sit down and enjoy snacks and a drink, etc. All in all, a nice treat for children who may otherwise never get such an experience.
Flying into the greater Los Angeles area, we were treated to clear skies and great visibility. Here’s a shot of the city of Riverside and, smack in the center (to the right of the freeway), the University of California, Riverside campus. I actually attended UCR for six months in the first half of 1990, before moving back up to Santa Clara University to finish my studies.
Video of our landing in Los Angeles.
A shot of my plane after arrival in Los Angeles. The construction for the expansion of the Tom Bradley International Terminal is in the background, the new saw-tooth roof clearly visible. Also, two Boeing 747s, the one on the left from Fiji Air and the the one on the right from China Airlines.
My cousin Jackie, Alex’s younger sister, picked me up and helped me kill several hours. We ran errands to Trader Joe’s and a few other stores. We stopped for In-n-Out burgers, where we saw a family of three who had dragged their suitcases all the way from the airport to get a burger. That’s about a two-mile walk, depending on which terminal they came from.
In the evening, we met Gary and William for dinner at Lukshon. I’ll share pictures from that fantastic dinner tomorrow.
Now that I’m safely back in Thailand, let me share some highlights from my recent trip to the United States. This first portion covers the trip from Bangkok to Los Angeles and San Francisco on my way to Kansas City.
Self-portrait on the Flight Information Display Signage. Thankfully, I scheduled a 12:40 pm departure which meant I didn’t have to get up too early or rush to get to the airport. Instead, time for a leisurely breakfast before hailing a taxi.
On the climb out of Bangkok, I could still see some lingering effects of the flooding. While these rice paddies normally have water in them at this time of year, you can see how the vertical boundaries between many of the paddies have been erased. The water is still high enough in this area to the northeast of the city that water flows across dikes and roads, combining multiple paddies into small lakes.
The connection through Taipei was smooth and we landed about thirty minutes early in Los Angeles in the mid-afternoon. Here, I snap a photo of my plane before boarding a bus at the remote parking area. Winds were very high and were blowing offshore, the opposite of the usual direction.
Los Angeles is a great place to see the world’s largest passenger airplane, the Airbus A380. Qantas sends multiple planes there daily, one of which is hidden behind the other in the picture on the left. Singapore Airlines also sends an A380 to LAX (above right) and Korean Airlines and Air France will soon join them, too.
I connected to Southwest Airlines for a flight up to San Francisco. Had I realized that my 6:00 departure was going to be delayed, I would have hustled over from the international terminal and tried to make the 3:30 flight instead. While waiting for my flight, a teenager practiced his violin, playing very well for an appreciative crowd of passengers.
A young girl gets her start as an aviation enthusiast, watching the planes as her father “flies” her through the air.
My high school friend Ryan, pictured above with his 2-year old son, picked me up at the airport and we were able to catch up over dinner – Vietnamese noodles! – before I crashed on an air mattress at his house. While I was only in the San Francisco area for about 12 hours, it was very nice to be able to see Ryan and his family again.
After some coaxing, Elliot decided it would be okay to pose for a picture with Uncle Chris before heading to the airport.
The weather on Friday morning was crisp and clear, allowing for a beautiful view of San Francisco as we took off to the north, climbing towards Oakland.
After buying Midwest Airlines, Frontier adopted their practice of serving fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies onboard. A nice touch at an airline that is hard to distinguish from all the other domestic carriers. After a tight connection in Denver, I arrived in Kansas City about 5:45 Friday evening.
Today I start tracing the reverse of the course I traveled twelve days ago, heading from Kansas City, where many of my relatives live, back to the west coast, then on to Taipei where I connect back to Bangkok. It has been an exciting and busy twelve days. While I initially thought I would have a lot of free time on my hands, in reality I find myself not having blogged since the day of my departure and with a list of friends I have not had time to visit.
My grandparents with my cousin’s son and my two nieces.
Most of the time was spent with family. My two nieces are here in Kansas City. They are now 5 and 8 and as they mature a bit (especially the older one), spending time with them is more interesting because we can do and discuss a wider range of things.
We had time to bake Christmas cookies. I was a “mystery reader” at their school, going to talk to their classes about life in Thailand. I cooked several meals and had the extended family over.
I had to spend a few days working. Anytime I’m in the US, my boss can’t resist the urge to meet me! That’s actually a good thing as it reinforces that I provide value to the organization and am worth a special trip.
I also had the opportunity to meet a Xangan – Ruth Ann – who lives near Kansas City – and her husband Pat. They lived in Thailand for a few years in the late 1960s and Pat is fluent in the language. They are a wonderful couple and full of great stories about their experiences.
Anyhow, my resolution upon my return is to re-engage with Xanga. There are lots of things I do that I document (photographs) but never take the time to write. And there are a lot of online friends whose blogs I have not been following faithfully.
After two trips to the old city on Saturday to visit a lock store (which gave me the opportunity to see horses on the expressway while driving there), I needed to make a third and final visit on Monday, since the store was closed by the time I arrived on my second trip Saturday. This time, facing the prospect of weekday traffic, I decided to ride the Khlong (canal) Saen Saeb express boat into the old city.
I’ve written before about the Saen Saeb express boat in an entry about a journey on seven modes of transport in Bangkok. It is an 18-kilometer water route that cuts east-west through the middle of the greater Bangkok area, running from the northeastern outskirts of Bangkapi all the way to the edge of Rattanakosin Island, stopping adjacent to the Golden Mount. While the water is filthy and the boats are very crowded during rush hour, the express boats are not only an interesting way to get around, they are also a bargain with fares topping out at 20 baht, or about 65 American cents.
While the inbound ride was packed – some 50 people sitting and another 30 or so standing – the return trip from the heart of the city at 9:00 am was almost completely empty, just me an a handful of passengers. This gave me a chance to appreciate the breeze, which makes the canal express boats one of the coolest ways to travel. However, with the murky water sometimes splashing over the plastic barriers, your risk of Hepatitis A infection is also higher on the boats than on any other form of transit.
While enjoying the less crowded ride back home, I noticed the safety equipment that is lashed to the inside of the boat: flotation devices with a rather sinister man demonstrating their proper use. His reminds me a bit of Sean Connery as James Bond. What disturbs me, though, is not that James Bond is demonstrating the floatation devices. What disturbs me is that the man appears to be standing in water that is only hip-deep. If you’ve seen the water in Khlong Saen Saeb, you wouldn’t blame him!
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