Thailand - Chinese New Year 2007

To maintain the spirit of this travelogue, we've put together the collection of photos from our Chinese New Year trip to Thailand - a 4 day trip covering both the cityscape and the beach getaway.

Arriving on the evening of Feb 16th, our good friend Gie was kind enough to come by Bangkok's new airport to pick us up. Although there were some minor mis-communications on my part, we finally made it out of the airport and off for a nice seafood dinner at what I believe to be the Sumitomo Bank Building just off South Sathorn Road? I may have been mistaken though.

The standard issue steamed prawns:

Our prawns couldn't come without its companions the crab

Kevin & Gie:

The hotel where we stayed (Metropolitan) is home to the 'famous' MetBar. An interesting place to stop by for a drink, but vastly overrated relative to expectations.

Half of James, Michelle, Leeann and half of Mook:

Notice the slightly burnt person on the left (Mook), Kevin and Gie:

Day 2: The Royal Grand Palace

As part of our 'cultural exploration', we took a trip to the Royal Grand Palace and took in the intricacy of 200+ year old architecture which originally housed King Rama I

" Construction of the Royal Palace began in 1782 and was completed in time for the coronation of Rama I. The original living quarters were temporary and made of wood and thatch and the walls surrounding the palace were made of wood palisades. After the coronation the King moved into a mansion built of permanent materials. The only other building of permanent material at the time was Wat Phra Si Rattanasatsadaram (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and the forts along the walls."

James, Leeann and Michelle waiting in line as they were all "indecently dressed"

Looking pretty tough there..

The bodyguards protecting Leeann as she wanders the Palace:
After the Palace, it was off to see a bit of Bangkok's modern side at Siam Paragon. As per usual, the ground floor of the shopping area consists of none other than a whopping never-ending food hall. This pile of icecream sweetness was found at the Cream and Fudge Factory, where the staff mix and blend a icecream, fruits and toppings into one heap of gooey mess. Not bad tasting either!

After a bit of sightseeing, we went to hang out with Beer at the top of the Banyan Tree's Vertigo Bar. A beautiful view as the sun sets, but shame about the giant generators/motors just off the side of the building ruining the ambiance a little. Nonetheless, Beer and Kevin settled for a couple of Armagnac's as dinner loomed near.

Kevin took this picture of what appears to be some paranormal being as we sat down for dinner at one of the many 'Johnnie Walker' restaurants around Bangkok.

After a gobsmacking combination of delicious Thai food (which I have now actually forgotten the contents of as it was never-ending), a regulation group photo with Beer and his friends was in order.

Day 3-4: Aleenta

The latter part of the Thailand trip was put aside to be peace inducing. Having booked a car and driver to drive us four hours south to the area around Hua Hin and Pranburi:

Where we spent 2 nights getting some R&R at the Aleenta Resort, which was almost in the middle of nowhere in terms of location but amidst 100 other resorts within a few kilometers. The resort only had about 10 villas altogether, and the service was excellent. The four of us got a beautiful Beach House about 10 steps away from the ocean with white sands just 5 ft away from the front door.

Our beach house...

A view as we look out from the villa down the beach:

A view of the beach house from the restaurant at night.

Kevin and James ... tackling a problem over dinner...

Leeann, Kevin and Michelle. James is still working hard in the background...

A view from the front door:

The second night we had a seafood barbeque dinner on the beach with a chef cooking the food right in front of us. As it was almost completely dark with the exception of the torches, this was the best photo we could do.. Aside from it being a tad too windy, it was an almost perfect experience. As the dinner ended, people along the beach lit up floating lanterns and launched them into the sky (not for us though)... even though it was a beautiful night out!

Our final photos before we headed back to Singapore:
The obligatory group photo: Kevin, Leeann, James and Michelle: Beautiful...

Tokyo & Hong Kong - Part 1

With another year starting off at full steam, we have managed to get our act together and put together a bunch of photos from our trip to Japan and Hong Kong over the Christmas and New Years holidays. Here they are!

December 23 - 25: Hong Kong
Taking the first flight out of Singapore to Hong Kong at 6:50 that morning was an absolute nightmare. Recommendation to all: Never fly a US airline anywhere - I have never been through so many checks and screenings at an airport in my life!

With only about 40 hours in Hong Kong altogether, it was nice to see old friends and catch up even with such little time.. a couple of those pics:

Jo and Leeann had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Central on Christmas eve. Even though I didn't join for lunch, I did stop by towards the middle to hang out for a bit, which is better than what I can about Jo's other half (Mike); who was too busy sleeping at 2pm =D Afterwards, I was off to have a drink with Kev Lee in Lan Kwai. Group photo (l-r: Leeann, Kev Lee, Kevin, Jo):


At the G-Bar at IFC on Christmas Eve with the Poulsen bros, Jess, Nicole and Marc (the first time I ordered a cranberry juice at a bar! Amazing):

(l-r): Kevin, Allan, Richie, Nicole, Marc, Jess and Leeann)

December 25: Tokyo
First time in Japan for Leeann! Aside from the 2 hour bus ride from Narita to the hotel, the traffic and the rain, landing in Tokyo was exciting!.. Our hotel was in Shiodome/Shimbashi, a relatively new area of Tokyo, with connecting walkways often compared to a scene out of Bladerunner (although I didn't quite see it).

Stepping out of the hotel into the massive sprawling underground shopping center/walkway, we watched a couple of streetperformers as one of them played what I can only describe as a hybrid electric guitar and the other one was painting??? Strange, but the music this guy was playing was amazing... anyone know anything about them?:
edit: After much digging, it seems that the guy is playing a Chapman Stick and his name is Toshiaki Kanemaru, absolutely brilliant performer.

One of the many outstanding fruit juice shops in Tokyo. (I finally realize why a Japanese imported fruit can cost US$100 - they are literally a taste of heaven); Leeann sampling a fresh strawberry (iichigo) juice at Hanafru in Ginza:

Pretty lights outside Caretta Mall in Shiodome:
Dec 26: Tsukiji Fish Market - 5am
Probably the best sushi we have ever eaten in our lives...After getting lost in the fresh seafood and tuna auctions going on in Tsukiji Fish Market and taking some time to get used to the freezing cold rain, we found a few sushi places in Tsukiji side by side with queues already piling on... Although we couldn't actually find the recommended place (Tsukiji Sushiko), we came across a gem. Going against the recommendation of NOT going to a place with a small queue, we took a stab at a small 14 seater sushi bar called Daiwa Sushi. As it turns out (lucky for us) - Zagat's, The Economist and Conde Nast note Daiwa as pretty much the best sushi place in the world... not an understatement.
We opted for the omakase (set menu) for Y3,500 per person and the ootoro (tuna belly) was to die for. This was similarly voiced by the trio sitting next to us, one of whom (an IT professional from Silicon Valley) kept declaring his "big breakfast" as being the best he has had in his life. Well worth the 4:45am wake up call and the queue.

Above: The piece on the left is the ootoro. Below, chutoro in the middle.
After breakfast, the pre-dawn wakeup called for a quick nap before we checked out for the day.

Dec 26 - 27: Shimoda Yamatokan

To follow with the Japanese holiday tradition of visiting an onsen (hotspring), our journey took us down to the Izu Peninsula, where we stayed overnight at a ryokan for some down time and a bit of R&R. We took the Super View Odoriko Express train from Tokyo Station direct to Izukyu - trip was about 2.5 hours straight down the pacific coast of Japan. With the rains and winds that afternoon, the view of the coastline was spectacular.. unfortunately the train was moving a little too quickly to get photos. For those with a penchant for maps, we are in the red circle below.Map is courtesy of wikipedia

With about 40 minutes to spare upon arriving at Izukyu-Shimoda station, Leeann found some goodies - cuttlefish just out of the ocean and in the process of being dried for packaging.
A 10-seater mini-van came to pick us and a few other guests up from the station and a quick 5 minute trip brought us to the ryokan.

Above: A view from the ground, the Ryokan sits just off Tatado beach (an apparent surfer haven). Most of the rooms had private onsen baths overlooking the ocean; ours looked like this:

The same view at night with Tatado beach and the Izu cliffs looming in the background:
At 55 degrees Celsius, the water was hot! But it was open air and the rain kept it cool. (The outside air temperature was about 2-3 degrees Celsius, nice!). It was a truly chilled experience and sitting in the open air with the sounds of waves hitting the beach and the cliff was absolutely superb.

Then comes the food. We were served a traditional Kaiseki dinner, an elaborate 10-15 course Japanese dinner decorated immaculately and using nothing but the freshest ingredients - all I can say is wow. Fresh sashimi from the nearby waters, live abalone (soon to be broiled), lobster soup, an a whole Kimi fish (a local speciality with ultra tender meat) per person. We were stuffed! The starters:
During the stay, we had to wear the traditional Japanese clothing; the Yukata and the Kimono; as seen below:
The view from the "R&R room", a room where all people do is sit in lazy chairs, get massages and enjoy the view all day long:
An attempt to try out the ISO1600 feature on our Canon IXUS 900. Turned out ok!:You might just notice the dots in the water above which are actually surfers who weren't afraid of the almost zero degree waters.. when we woke up at 7am, there were a good 10-15 surfers trying to catch some waves already!
A final few photos before we headed back to Tokyo.

The sand was still wet from the rain the previous day but it was still a beautiful day out; and yes it was still cold as you can see from the overcoats!


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