TheAAdmiral

I appreciate and enjoy your trip reports and have only one request. When appropriate, a few more photos of the young, slim and in shape CX/SQ/EK FA's. Please?

david-alexis

SFO777: During SFO-HKG was it daylight during all of the flight? Was the cabin put in "sleep mode" with blinds shut, at anytime?

FlightNurse

I have a feeling that Mrs SFO777 would have a problem with that... Now if he was traveling alone, it would be a whole different story.

Rejuvenated

Great report! ^ Glad you enjoyed CX. Looking forward to the EK part.

SFO777

Yes, the FAs did put it "sleep mode" presumably when we all started to doze off. Although after I woke up, even with a couple of open shades at my seat, it was still pretty dark in Mrs. SFO's suite.

Oh yeah!

Today is EK day! I am so excited... just wish it were more than a 2 1/2 hour flight.
Will start catching up soon.

avm2806

Hope you enjoy EK - Looking forward to reading all about it

SFO777

5. The Peninsula Bangkok

What an amazing hotel with one of the best and most helpful staffs of any hotel. Our Grand Deluxe Suite was beautiful and spacious with great views of the city. Excellent location, on the more peaceful west bank of the Chao Phraya with shuttle boat service every 5 minutes to the Peninsula Hotel Pier Lobby on the east side of the river. Combine the gracious and friendly nature of Thais with the Peninsula and the result is an amazing standard for service. Our 30th floor suite was huge with beautiful living room and bedroom, and a foyer with desk and 2nd bath. Huge main bath and closet. And fully equipped with 110V outlets in every room.

We tried all four hotel restaurants, with the highlight being Cantonese-style Mei Jiang, one of the best Chinese we've experienced. On the other hand, food at Thai-themed Thiptara was disappointing, but the riverside table provided a great front row view of night-time actiivity.

Photos do not this suite justice so I've also included a link from the Pen site.
http://www.peninsula.com/Bangkok/en/..._Deluxe_Suite/















Breakfast was included with our Virtuoso booking.

SFO777

Lots of pics and comments but I'm trying to catch up and still keep it in order.
But a preview...
OK so it was only a 2+ hour flights and I'll cut them a little slack, but I was disappointed and underwhelmed with both soft and hard product. Once the excitement of the new plane and the showers wear off, the seats are narrow, the suites a little confining and with some serious deficiencies compared to other First Class suites. Give me a CX First Suite over EK any day.

Top of climb

That marries with my experience with EK F on the A380 as well. Not to say that the EK seat wasn't bad... but the CX seat is so much better. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

Short hair Francis

My notes aren't that great, are they?
Now you have me licking my chops a bit, did you try the Cabin?

kchika

Fantastic report.

You did mention that the CX flight was the best ever flight you've taken, but how would you compare it to SQ? Now my sample size of SQ F is small enough (3), but as a CX regular I'd certainly rate SQ above CX - particularly in food, IFE and service.

And btw, there are PTVs on your HKG-BKK flight. They are located under the armrest.

SFO777

Two Days in Bangkok

While not a particularly attractive city, although it was hard to tell thru all the smog, Bangkok is an intriguing mix of old and new, rich and poor. One thing is indisputable though, Thais are some of the friendliest, most gracious and endearing people we have ever met. And the women!! Wow, now I get it why so many farang come to Thailand and leave with a +1. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Mrs. SFO to bring home an "exchange student".

Through our Pen concierge, we met Arisa, a great local guide who we immediately bonded with, and who with driver, took us on day 1 thru the packed streets of Bangkok...

















to The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keo, the Emerald Buddha Temple and collection of magnificent pavilions...

SFO777

Day 2 started with the Bangkok Canals Tour by private long-tailed speed boat, which picked us up at the Peninsula pier on the Chao Phraya River.





The Chao Phraya is a major primary transportation and commercial thoroughfare in Bangkok, even more so with the city's horrendous road traffic. It is also one of the filthiest rivers I have seen in a long time, and that's saying something considering we lived in Cleveland. It's unmistakable brown color and floating debris will never be mistaken for the Bosphorus.



First stop today was the Cambodian-style Temple of Dawn...









And off to the canals of old Bangkok...



















With a stop at the Royal Barge Museum...

SFO777

Thanks kchika. Just arrived home this morning on CX 870, our second long-haul CX First flight. I am sold on the CX hard product. I can't say enough about that fabulous CX suite. In flight service was wonderful but... food was pretty disappointing. Based on our experience, I would definitely give the head-to-head edge to SQ in spite of CX's more comfortable suite. SQ wins the food and beverage battle hands down... no one can beat the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Georges Blanc and Matt Moran and the truly memorable meals we've had on SQ. IFE to SQ as well. Some call it robotic, but I give a slight FA service nod to SQ. CX clearly wins the ground battle at HKG, but hub-to-hub, SQ's First Class "Terminal" in SIN is only rivaled by LH's FCT in FRA.

SFO777

Our guide Arisa gave us a primer on the fast SkyTrain and we were off for some shopping in modern Bangkok. The SkyTrain is a comfortable, convenient and air conditioned way to get around the major areas of the city. There is a Chao Phraya River station, which is serviced by shuttle boats from the Peninsula, Oriental and other river hotels.