Very possibly my most traumatic trip I ever took began on March 1, 2011, when I left Honolulu on a first class flight to Bangkok via Tokyo. In the United First Class Lounge I had a maguro and hamachi sushi, edamame, cream of mushroom soup, soba and some Yamazaki whisky. While the Thailand and Singapore stops were wonderful, all hell broke loose in Japan...and I finally returned to Honolulu on April 11.
It took 20 hours from home in Honolulu to the Sheraton Grande Sukhamvit Hotel in Bangkok. On November 12, less than a month from now, I do this again, but with a transfer in Seoul, and again staying at the Sheraton Grande. My philosophy on travel is that getting there and back can be most of the fun: every drink not drunk is money wasted. So I have more than a few.
To quote: The Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit has become my favorite hotel in Bangkok. I've stayed at the Oriental and Shangrila, but now that I'm a Platinum member with Starwood, I got upgraded into a suite (the largest hotel room I've had in all my years of traveling), will have free internet, evening cocktails, laundry and breakfast:
On March 8 of 2011 I took the
Eastern and Oriental Express from Bangkok to Singapore. Quite an experience, over the Bridge on the River Kwai and visiting the Death Railway Museum. I stayed at the
Marina Bay Sands. Everyone should experience a stay there, with 2561 rooms, a major convention center, seven celebrity chef restaurants, and a casino with 500 tables and 1600 slot machines.
Eerily I reported that day the occurrence of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake 270 miles away from Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, which generated a 2-foot tsunami.
On March 10 I had my best Chinese meal, ever.
My first set was with a Tiger Draft and Johnny Walker Black Label scotch, which mostly went into the double boiled shark fin dumpling soup. In addition, I had steamed Shanghai pork dumpling with foie gras and crackling pork belly.
I did regret my having the shark fin soup, and decided to forever avoid it, and have succeeded:
For my second set, I had a Kir Royale with braised abalone on pan seared foie gras, accompanied by choy sum (or was that bok choy), with a sweet corn soup.
My best Chinese lunch, ever, ended with some jasmine tea. Want to guess what this cost? With three alcoholic drinks, tax and tip, the whole bill added up to $84. Will there be a better lunch in Beijing? Stay tuned.
The Huffington Post published this posting. I inquired with the staff of the Sheraton Sukhamvit about my flight to Narita the next morning, March 12. No one knew what was really happening. This was:
I said:
Getting from Bangkok to Narita was in high question as Japan was in turmoil after their 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. In a way, this reminds me of my Lufthansa flight from Delhi to Munich last year. A stressful beginning, fabulous meal/drinks and landing in a white out. Narita should be the equivalent, but in a totally different way. Let's see how the day went.
Next week I will relive flying into the turmoil of Narita Airport and somehow finding my way to the Tokyo Westin. For a couple more nostalgic Tuesdays I will focus on some high and low lights of what I referred to as
THE CHICKEN AND CHICKEN LITTLE SCHOOL OF REPORTAGE.
I awoke this morning to a short video on Classic Arts Showcase of Fritz Lang's 1929 masterpiece, the
launch of Woman in the Moon. You think maybe that NASA borrowed from this production? If you have three hours,
here is the entire film. Fascinating. The movie premiered in Berlin 13 days before the stock market crashed, initiating the
Great Depression, which lasted for 12 years.
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Very possibly my most traumatic trip I ever took began on March 1, 2011, when I left Honolulu on a first class flight to Bangkok via Tokyo. In the United First Class Lounge I had a maguro and hamachi sushi, edamame, cream of mushroom soup, soba and some Yamazaki whisky. While the Thailand and Singapore stops were wonderful, all hell broke loose in Japan...and I finally returned to Honolulu on April 11.
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