glennaa11

December 2015 I returned to SE Asia for about 4 weeks. This was my US Airways DM last hurrah. I’d been collecting US miles for a long time. After reading horror stories about calling to redeem I was alway a little shy about dealing with them. Since I’d always had plenty of miles in other programs I didn’t worry about it much. But with the AA merger and combination of programs approaching I decided to go ahead and cash some miles in. I used my favorite tools for searching availability (Primarily AwardNexus.com) and found CX F class availability from JFK to HKG. I combined that with an AA F class award seat from DCA to JFK and then a CX business class award from HKG to BKK. On the return it was CX business to HKG, CX business to ORD and then AA F to DCA. So I paid F class miles on the outbound but they only charged me J class miles on the return.

I have been to SE Asia many times over the last decade. I was returning to Thailand for the first time in a couple of years plus a week in Laos and a week in Cambodia. My time in Laos was split between 3 days in Luang Prabang which I had been to once before about 8 years ago and then a cruise on the Mekong in southern Laos and a couple of days on Bolaven Plateau. In Cambodia I returned to Siem Reap, took a side trip to Preah Vihear, and then spent a couple of days driving from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh before flying back to Bangkok.

Things were going like clockwork on the outbound until I got to HKG. Upon arrival there was a board at the end of the jetway that had my name and flight number on it. The equipment had been scheduled as an A330 with their new 1-2-1 business class. I was told that there was an equipment change and they handed me a new boarding pass. As I walked away I noticed that the departure time was much later than the original flight. So I went back to talk to the agents. They weren’t sure what the issue was but told me to ask at the lounge. Upon arrival at the CX lounge nearest the gate I was told that due to late arriving aircraft my flight had been rescheduled. So instead of arriving at BKK around 23:35 it would now arrive around 01:00. I was not pleased and asked if they could move me. I knew that there was a TG flight and an EK flight departing earlier. They told me that there wasn’t enough time to change to the TG flight and no way to make sure my bag would make it. But there was another CX flight that was also delayed that they put me on instead. This one ended up arriving around the same time as my original flight was supposed to. The change was made to a 777 with regional business class. Unfortunately I had also booked a car service in BKK to get to the hotel. I tried to reach them by email to let them know of my flight change but the message didn’t get relayed so in the end I had to wait a while for the driver. One of the security guys called on my behalf to the car service and moved things along. I gave him 100 baht for his trouble.

There are tons of CX trip reports here and I didn’t take any pictures on the plane. Service was the usual, quite good. The food was fine. And I really like the CX Studio entertainment system. I watched a few movies and got a decent amount of rest during the flight.

I wanted to try a new place in Bangkok on this trip so I booked a room at the Hansar hotel which has been very highly rated on the review sites for a while. I booked through the VIsa Signature Hotels program which is supposed to get you an upgraded room among other perks. Most of those perks were meaningless at this hotel since they already offer free wifi, for example. I was not upgraded. This is always “subject to availability” and the hotel claimed they were full despite the fact that I only ever saw a handful of other guests. In the end I didn’t think the hotel or Visa Signature was a good value. One nice thing about the room was a washer/dryer that I discovered toward the end of my stay. I like being able to pack light and wash clothes as I go.

Since I had been to Bangkok many times I re-visited some favorite places. So on Saturday I spent some time at Central World and Siam Paragon. Many cities around the world have had fiberglass signature animals placed around that were decorated and then sold off to raise money for charity. During this time Bangkok was doing this with elephants. Some of them were really beautifully done.











I went to Terminal 21 for dinner. I love the massaman beef at Have a Zeed so I went back there.

The mall was decorated for the holiday season


On the way back to the hotel I stopped off at the Erawan Shrine which was quickly repaired after the bombing a few months earlier and was also decorated for the festive season





On Sunday I decided that I wanted to go someplace new. I think I must have seen on Richard Barrow’s blog (http://www.thaitravelblogs.com/) that there was a flower show happening at Suan Luang Rama IX Park. I had never heard of this park before as it is located a ways out of the city center. After doing some research online I discovered that it is near Seacon Square shopping mall on Sri Nakarin Rd. You can either take the BTS and then a taxi or just take a cab the whole way. Since it was a quiet Sunday morning I decided to just take a taxi. The concierge at the hotel seemed surprised that I wanted to go there but was able to convey to the taxi driver where I wanted to go. I must admit that during the drive I was a little concerned as it took a good 45 minutes to get there. Every time I thought we must be close we kept on going.

But the driver dropped me off in the park and then I was on my own. I don’t recall how much the taxi fare was, probably just a couple of hundred baht. The place was very crowded. I guess in addition to the flower show the park is very popular on weekends as a place to just picnic with family. There were many food stalls and a band playing.

The park is enormous. Despite getting up early to try and beat the heat I was drenched pretty fast. In the end I spent a few hours in the park walking around shooting photos. The sound system had one of the King’s blues songs on constant loop. I don’t know if that was just because it was his birthday weekend or if that is an everyday thing.










I saw lots of these gold colored dragonflies throughout my trip.



Once I’d seen enough (and I was really dying from the heat and humidity) I had to figure out how I was going to get back to town. Because the park is so big it took me a while to get back to the entrance. The main entrance is on a very busy road so there are plenty of taxis. However, none of them want to go all the way to the center of town. So the second or third cab I asked to just take me to the closest BTS station which he agreed to do.

During the week before I left I saw a post on Facebook that one of my favorite Thai rock bands (The Jukks) were going to be performing on Sunday evening at this thing called the Area Five festival. After some digging I found out that the festival was in the empty lot next to the Makkasan ARL station. So it would be easy to get to. I think tickets were something like 300 baht. I bought a ticket online which was completely unnecessary, but I didn’t know that at the time.

After spending some time napping at the hotel I ventured out around 18:00 or so to go to the festival. In addition to music they had stalls with artists’ work as well as some food places. The Jukks were scheduled to go on stage at something like 22:30 so I had some time to kill. Mostly I just hung out by the stage shooting some pictures. Before the Jukks went on their labelmates Somkiat also played. I liked their music as well and they’re fairly popular with the indie crowd. Before them was a very good blues band who unfortunately didn’t get a lot of love the small crowd gathered.


Somkiat’s drummer


Somkiat’s singer


The Jukks bassist

The concert lighting was pretty terrible. So I pretty much just put the camera down and enjoyed the show after the first song or two.



They finished around 23:30 so I hustled back to the train in order to get back to the hotel before the system shut down just after midnight.

On Monday I pretty much just took the day easy as the jetlag was hitting me then.

Tuesday morning I had a 10:00 flight to Luang Prabang. So I left the hotel way too early and arrived at the airport in plenty of time. One little wrinkle was that I had a travel agent that I have worked with many times (www.purpledrag.com) arrange part of my trip in Laos and Cambodia so they had booked all of my flights. I forgot that they included the BKK-LPQ flight so I had also booked the same flight on my own separately. At check in I mentioned this to the Lao Airlines staff and they saw my double booking. They told me that I could get a refund for the flight I booked by going to the QV office in Luang Prabang. Since the travel agency’s plan included a few other flights it made sense to keep that reservation active. Once I got to Luang Prabang I discovered that their local ticket office was not located in town. So I figured I would just deal with it at the airport when I flew to Pakse. Little did I know the headache ahead!

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Laos
In LP I stayed at a small guesthouse called the Luang Prabang Residence. It is located on a small side street near the big museum and the night market. The morning market is on the street right outside the gate of the hotel. They were supposed to provide me with a ride from the airport, but apparently they forgot to arrange it. Since no one was there waiting for me I just took one of the shared vans. It cost about $7, but first I had to go outside to the ATM to get some Lao kip.

I spent the rest of Tuesday walking around town and getting a Unitel SIM card for my phone. The SIM cost just a few dollars for unlimited data for the week I would be in the country. I bought it at a small travel agent who had a very hard time getting it to work. Eventually after a good hour plus of working on the settings I happened to notice that cellular data wasn’t turned on. Once I did that everything worked fine. I got 3G speed everywhere.


I’ve always loved these little things on the top of Lao temples



Main drag


temple right next door to my guest house



It turned out that Wednesday morning there was a special parade to celebrate 20 years of UNESCO status for Luang Prabang town. Lots of groups from the local area marching and floats. It was pretty cool and one of those unexpected little things that I love!
















Mornings in LP were foggy and cool, but once the sun came out things warmed up a bit.









I stopped by Wat Xieng Thong which is probably the most famous temple in Luang Prabang. It’s very picturesque. Entry is 20,000 kip (just a couple of US$).






There’s a little park at the end of the peninsula with a nice view of the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers.



I figured the sunset light would be good at Wat Xieng Thong so I ran back there just before closing







Sunset on the Mekong

On Thursday I hired a guide a driver to take me out to Kuang Si waterfall. It was even more spectacular than I remembered. And I am a much better photographer now that I was then too so I got some great pictures here.















Located right by the waterfall park is a new-ish attraction that is a butterfly park. They have an enclosed area with lots of butterflies right along the stream and some falls. It’s a nice setting. The weather was cool and cloudy though so there weren’t many butterflies active on this morning. Entry is just a few dollars. Two of my favorite things - butterflies and waterfalls - right next to each other was great.











Once I got back to town I ate lunch and spent the afternoon walking around a bit. Near sunset I decided to make the trek up Mount Phousi. Unfortunately the clouds were a little too heavy for a good sunset, but it was a good workout climbing up all of the stairs.



Then I decided to see which temples were lit up at night. Unfortunately not very many are

Vat Syrimoungkoun Xaiyaram


the night market
Friday morning I left a little early for the airport in order to try and get the refund for my extra flight from BKK to LPQ. However, once I got to the airport I was informed that my whole itinerary was canceled. For some reason instead of checking me in on the itinerary that included all of my other flights, they checked me in on the wrong one. I was frankly mystified. I may have raised my voice a bit (not something I am proud of) in trying to reason with the two folks in the ticket office. Eventually the one in charge realized that I was right but they had to make some phone calls. I spent 20 or 30 minutes there while everything was sorted out and eventually they gave me a cash refund including a nice new crispy $100 bill.

From there I was able to go ahead and check in for my flight to Pakse. The domestic terminal at LPQ is fairly small. Eventually boarding was called for our ATR 72-500 flight to PKZ. The flight was surprisingly full. It didn’t help that they packed most of us in at the rear of the plane with lots of empty seats at the front. There were several monks on the flight which continued on to REP after serving PKZ. They do a little boxed meal service. It was ultimately pretty uneventful.

I was picked up at the airport and driven to the Champasak Grand Hotel. This was one of the most frustrating and messed up hotel stays I have had in a very long time. It’s a large, fairly new hotel right on the Mekong. I think it mainly caters to Chinese tour groups. Not much English spoken. Fairly strange service. It’s really too much to go into, but suffice to say I was glad it was only a 1 night stay. The only good things about this place were the spectacular river view and the fast wired internet service.


Mekong view from my room

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The next morning I was picked up by the staff of the Vat Phou for my 2 night cruise on the Mekong. The travel agent arranged this trip for me. They contacted me several weeks before the trip to inform me that all of the rest of the guests would be a Japanese tour group to make sure I didn’t have any issues with that. I tend to be pretty introverted anyway so it wasn’t a big deal to me. The boat only has 12 cabins. In the end it was a very fun experience. Most of the other guests were pretty elderly. Their tour director was a crazy lady who must have been a kindergarten teacher in a past life. Everyone was extremely nice and even though they didn’t speak much English they all went out of the their way to make me feel welcome.

The boat staff was also great. There was an English speaking guide who accompanied us on the shore excursions and he was mainly my guide but the Japanese tour director translated for her guests. There were also a couple of servers, a cook, the captain and a couple of other crew. The crew mainly slept out on deck which was pretty chilly at night. The food was fantastic and plentiful. Each meal was served family style. Here’s their website for more info http://www.vatphou.com/

Since this was an upstream cruise we first took a bus from Pakse south to the Khone Phapeng waterfalls. These falls are right on the border with Cambodia.





After the waterfall we took a short bus ride and then boarded two long boats that took us around the 4000 Islands where we had lunch at a local restaurant and walked around the little town. And then from there it was about a 2 hour long boat ride to where we rendezvoused with the actual cruise boat. That boat ride was very sunny and hot and frankly kind of miserable. This was the only real negative part of the cruise...the long boat rides on either end of the trip.





We got to the boat pretty much right before sunset




There’s an indoor dining room for dinner which is needed because of the bugs. There was a prodigious amount of insects. They smartly hang some light bulbs over the side of the boat near the waterline to attract the bugs away from the deck. But it means you have to run through their gauntlet to get to the dining room. There were great views at night of the huge amount of stars in the sky thanks to how dark it is in this part of the world. Unfortunately due to the vibration of the boat it was impossible to get good night time photos.

I had one of the two upper deck cabins. It was nicer than I expected with a small en suite bathroom and air conditioning. Since there wasn’t a whole lot to do I turned in pretty early. There was wifi on the boat but only enough for my phone not for my laptop.

Luckily going to bed early meant I was up early enough for sunrise






Breakfast and lunch were served on deck. There was always more than enough food at every meal. Breakfast consisted of baguettes with butter and jam, eggs cooked to order, some fruit, juice, coffee, tea, etc.



We spent most of the day sailing up river with just a couple of stops, one at a small local village to see village life and then at an old temple ruin in the late afternoon. So I spent most of the day just lounging and watching the world go by.









And then we back on the boat again just in time for sunset

The sunrises and sunsets were truly spectacular



Monday we sailed for a short time before we arrived at the Champasak where we boarded a couple of small vans for the ride to Vat Phou temple. This was the northern outpost of the Khmer Empire












From there we went back to the boat where we had lunch while sailing up river a ways. Eventually the Japanese all got off the boat as they were staying a night at a place along the river. So the resort sent a couple of boats out to meet us and take their luggage and the passengers away. So then it was just me and the crew. We sailed on for a while before we also got off and boarded another long boat for the ride the rest of the way back to Pakse.

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Upon arrival in Pakse I was picked up by another guide and driver who would be with me in Bolaven Plateau for the next couple of days.

We set off and stopped along the way to the hotel at Tad Fane waterfall. It’s a spectacular double waterfall that is something like 120 meters tall.




I really loved this part of Laos. The abundance of insect (and spider) life was impressive and makes me think that the environment there is still quite clean. The country has a pretty small population. It seems like a natural “eco-tourism” destination. Lots of great waterfalls too.

My guide took me to several villages where ethnic minority tribes live. Some were nicer than others. I was impressed by the number of schools all over the place.

I spent two nights at the Sinouk Coffee Plantation. They have a couple of small bungalows and a more modern building. The first room they gave had no hot water and it was very small and dark. When I mentioned the lack of hot water the owner gave me an upgrade to the suite room instead which was much larger and brighter. But it had some pretty big gaps in the floor boards so it go very cold at night. Luckily I had my CX F class jammies which helped keep me warm.



In addition to growing organic coffee they also have a huge botanic garden which was gorgeous. I had plenty of time the second afternoon to enjoy the gardens and the abundant dragonflies.






One crazy looking spider



We spent the early part of the day seeing more waterfalls and then took a hike to another small village.






















that same crazy spider











Ultimately the gardens were the best thing about this place. The food was just OK. And the room was also just OK. But I got the impression that there weren’t a whole lot of options in this area. Apparently the coffee from here is supposed to be fantastic. I am not a coffee drinker though so that wasn’t important to me.

We left the next morning (which happened to be my birthday) for the ride back to Pakse. My flight to Siem Reap was supposed to leave around 13:00 so there was plenty of time. We stopped at another waterfall along the way.




We arrived at the airport pretty early so I spent a little time in the small waiting area before checking in for the short flight to REP.

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Cambodia
There’s a small gate area where I waited after check in that has a small shop selling drinks and snacks. The flight REP only had about 12 pax yet we were strangely assigned seats next to others. I was supposed to be seated next to a stranger. But he decided that was silly so he chose another place to sit. I was one of the first off the plane once we arrived. Unfortunately a couple of Cambodia Angkor Air flights had arrived just before us from SGN and ICN. So the arrival terminal was quite crowded. Luckily I had arranged an eVisa in advance which meant I was able to skip the giant line of people who were doing visa on arrival and went straight to the immigration desk. I was the first one through and had to wait a short while for the luggage to come out but I was still the first person out of the airport.

My driver was waiting and I was driven to the Shinta Mani Club. I had received a message that morning from my travel agent wishing me a happy birthday and letting me know that I had been upgraded from the Shinta Mani Resort to the Club. He had told me that this hotel was the best in Asia and one of the best in the world when I was booking the trip so I decided to give it a try even though it was a bit more expensive. The service here was amazing. The best service I have ever had at a hotel. The staff are very friendly and always welcome you “home” when you return. The manager who was checking me in stalled for time while the rest of the staff got together. They produced a birthday cake complete with candles and all sang happy birthday. It was completely over the top and slightly embarrassing, but also very sweet. They took the cake to my room for me. I ate a little bit and then later asked the staff to take the rest to share.

Since it was near Christmas time the hotel was decorated with this cool light bulb tree




For the evening I attended the Phare Cambodian Circus performance. They do acrobatics and dance mainly. It was pretty impressive especially in the small space they had at the time. I think since then they’ve moved to a larger venue. I had a seat in the front row VIP section which was somewhat helpful for taking photos.













The next day I had free. I hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days so this was a chance for me to just take it easy and enjoy the hotel. I had dinner in town which was a $2 tuktuk ride from the hotel. The walk was also not too bad and the weather was pretty nice.





I had not been to Siem Reap in 8 years or so and was amazed at how much the town has grown. The road from the airport is wall to wall businesses now where it used to be completely empty.

Friday we spent the day seeing the temples of Angkor. The guide suggested that we save Angkor Wat for last as the later afternoon sunlight would be better for photos.

We started at Ta Phrom


There ended up being some pretty big crowds this day as it turned out that the next day was a big Buddhist holiday so some things were going to be closed. There were lots and lots of monks in town for the holiday as well.

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From there we went next to Banteay Kdei










then we stopped for lunch at one of the many small restaurants in the park that basically charge museum prices and then Bayon - my favorite temple of them all






















After Bayon it was time to move on to the big daddy, Angkor Wat. As I mentioned there were lots of monks visiting and there were large groups of them present at Angkor Wat. My guide was particularly excited about this and thought they would make great photos, but I am always uncomfortable using people as props if I don’t know them.














I got yelled at for taking this picture because apparently you’re supposed to pay these people to take their photo.





As part of the time in this area of Cambodia I decided that I would like to visit Preah Vihear which is a much-disputed temple on the Thai border. They’ve fought a shooting war quite recently over the temple. The Thais claim it belongs to them (rather dubiously IMHO) while the Cambodians of course believe it belongs to them as part of their Khmer heritage. It used to be that the only access was from the Thai side. Working with the travel agent, he suggested taking a day to see Koh Ker and Beng Mealea temples on the way, overnighting near Preah Vihear and then going back to Siem Reap the next day. That all made sense to me.

First stop was Beng Mealea. I had visited there on my first time in Cambodia and it was much more wild back then. The temple is still in its largely ruined state. My previous visit you could climb on the stones and walk on the roof of the buildings. I almost fell off and broke my neck back then. Now it is a popular place for the Chinese tour buses to visit so it is all much more organized than it used to be. There’s a ticket office a short drive from the temple whereas before you just drove right to the site and paid the guard at a little kiosk. It was much less-visited in the old days.





We wandered around Beng Mealea for a while and then got back in the van for the drive to Koh Ker. I had thought that Koh Ker only referred to the pyramid shaped temple, but it was actually the whole town that was once the capital of the empire that is called Koh Ker. In addition to the pyramid there are many other temples scattered throughout the forest.

















We overnighted at this place called Preah Vihear Boutique Hotel. It was OK for one night. We were up very early the next morning. The ticket office at Preah VIhear was supposed to open at 7:30 so we left the hotel around 7 for the drive over. Once we arrived we discovered that the bus that brings all of the workers to the office broke down so it would be a while before it opened. Eventually shortly before 8 they arrived and we could get our tickets. You ride from the ticket office up the mountain in a 4wd pickup truck. The trucks seem to be freelance and there is some sort of system to how they are assigned. The road up the mountain is very steep in places which is why you need to take the truck.

The truck drops you off in this little clearing area ringed by little shop stalls and food places. From there the walk up to the top of the mountain takes 20 minutes or so. My guide suggested that we start at the top and work our way down because the light would be better for taking pictures.





















Once we finished up we had to wait a little while for the people who had ridden up the mountain with us so we could ride back to the ticket office. And then the 3 or 4 hour drive back to Siem Reap. We did stop for lunch on the way and then at another butterfly park near to Siem Reap.

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I had stored my luggage at the hotel since I would be returning to Shinta Mani when we got back to Siem Reap. I had spent a good bit of time chatting with the staff during my visit and kind of fell in love with them. Making friends with them paid off when they upgraded me from the Resort (where I was supposed to stay for my second visit) to the Club. On my return to the Club my luggage was waiting for me in my new room which was just off the pool. This room was a good bit darker than the upstairs corner room I had on my first stay. But it was still quite nice.

On Monday I had a tuktuk at my disposal for the day. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. So the driver first took me to one of the killing field memorial sites that had some interesting display boards about the victims of the Khmer Rouge along with some of the collections of bones that you see around. From there we went out into the countryside and he said he wanted to show me the borei where he had helped out on some sort of conservation project. So that was kind of cool. There was a ton of insect life there including swarms of dragonflies. And then we rode back towards town via the scenic route. We got a bit lost for a while. Eventually he dropped me off around the night market area so I could have lunch and then I had him take me to the big museum which I know had been much-maligned. It is a bit overpriced and no photos are allowed. I’m not positive how much of the collection is authentic. When it first opened I think a lot of the artifacts were reproductions. But it was worth seeing for a couple of hours. And the galleries are air conditioned.







To finish out my time in Cambodia I had a driver and guide take me by road from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh with stops along the way at Sambor Prey Kuk which predates Angkor as well as some other places.


Spean Preah Toeus - the ancient bridge, 800 year old Khmer bridge

Sambor Prey Kuk













After that we continued on and arrived fairly early at the Sambor Village Hotel where I would overnight. The hotel is a bunch of bungalows in a nice garden setting. I had a very large “suite”. It was a little dark inside but it was fine for one night. Some big rain storms rolled through in the late afternoon and overnight. The roosters next door started cock-a-doodle-dooing at about 4:30. Even with earplugs in it was very loud.





We departed around 8:30 or so to continue our drive including a stop at Wat Kuhak Nokor where old nuns walk around looking to tie a string around your wrist for a donation.






still more dragonflies


We did a brief stop at this bamboo bridge which links the shore to an island in the middle of the river. It’s fairly new.


And we stopped at this roadside market selling fried tarantulas. I did not eat them, but Alex my guide bought a bag to take home. I guess they are considered to be a great delicacy.


I did eat here though which is a little roadside restaurant. The food was pretty good. I had the stir fried beef in a pineapple.



My flight back to Bangkok was supposed to leave at 19:30 so we arrived way too early for that at PNH. We got there before 15:00 actually. Unfortunately Bangkok Airways is a total mess on this route. The actual flight is only about 45 minutes but they simply are unable to keep to a schedule. The flights are spaced about 2 hours apart on a shuttle route using an A320. I tried to see if I could get on on earlier flight but was told I could not unless I wanted to pay a gigantic fare difference. So I sat and waited for several hours. I could see from monitoring the inbound and outbound flights that there was no way we’d be on time. In the end I think we left about 90 minutes late. PG did provide food vouchers for those of us waiting. Judging by the stats for these flights they are very late every day. Frankly I don’t understand it.

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I spent a couple of days in Pattaya on my return at the Barraquda M Gallery hotel. This used to be a Dusit D2, but Accor took it over recently. It’s still in dire need of a thorough cleaning and refresh. The first room I was assigned smelled very moldy so I complained and was moved to another room which was acceptable. The problem is that the humid climate and outside corridors don’t mix well. So the a/c system in the room gets moldy.

Then I spent the last couple of days of the trip back in Bangkok. This time I chose to stay at the Crowne Plaza Lumpini which is quite nice and in a very good location right around the corner from the Sala Daeng BTS and the SiLom MRT. I am an IHG Platinum solely because of the Chase IHG credit card. But I was upgraded from a basic room to the Club floor. The first room I was assigned had airconditioning that did not work so they moved me to a new room. One wrinkle was that the power was shut off from 14:30 to 18:00 on the day I arrived for some kind of maintenance. They told me about this when I checked in. The only thing I really didn’t like about the hotel was that the hotel is only the top 9 or 10 floors of the building so you have to take two elevators whenever you are going in or out. So after unpacking I spent the afternoon at Central World. Once it got dark I went up to Chitlom to see the holiday decorations they billed as Winterville. They were nice. I walked back from there to Siam shooting photos along the way. The pedestrian walkway between Chitlom and Siam was decorated with really neat light displays and then there was the big light projections on the outside of Central World which was also quite nice. So I spent a couple of hours walking and taking pictures.


Central World ice rink


Winterville at some upscale shopping mall





















On Monday I decided to visit the Grand Palace since I had only ever been there on my first ever Bangkok visit several years ago. Unfortunately every other tourist in Bangkok had the same idea. So it was VERY crowded. I took the BTS down to Saphan Taksin station and then took the boat up the river. I took the tourist boat which was a bit more expensive than the regular boat. But I did just hop on the regular boat on the way back.

You have to go through a bag check and then go get in line to buy a ticket. So even once I arrived it took a while before I could get inside.






The Ramakien wall paintings inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha compound are gorgeous.























And then I went next door to Wat Pho










The view from my hotel room


Tuesday was my last full day and I started out in the morning with a visit to Lumpini Park. There are lots of giant lizards in the park



and small lizards too


This one was nice enough to strike a pose for me.

My flight the next morning was at 6:30. So I checked out very early and arrived at BKK around 4:30 which was way too early, especially since I was in business class. I was checked in and through immigration and security very quickly. I spent a while in the CX lounge which was OK but nothing special. This time the aircraft was the A330 with the latest business class which was quite nice. We arrived in HKG a little bit ahead of schedule. The gate for my flight to ORD was at the totally opposite end of the airport so it took a long time to walk there. There is a lounge nearby though so I spent a little bit of time there before boarding. I noticed that there was a giant queue for the U.S. flight security theatre so I headed to the gate a little early. However premium class pax are allowed to skip to the head of the line.

I was in the little two row mini-cabin (rows 11 and 12) on the 777-300ER so even though it was “only” business class it felt very exclusive. I think the load on this flight was very light in general since it was December 30. The CX business class seat is perfectly fine for this longhaul flight. It’s basically on par with the UA Global First product as well as some others. The food service was just OK. I took a nap for a while and woke up hungry so I rang the bell and asked for a burger. Unfortunately it was still cold and raw in the center.

I had never done an international transfer at ORD before so I was completely lost once I passed through Global Entry and customs. There were no lines at all when we landed so Global Entry didn’t save me a ton of time. After I dropped my bags at the AA transfer area I was out in the international terminal with no idea of how to get to the domestic terminal. There is a serious lack of useful signage. Evetually I found the travelers’ aid desk by the check in counters and the person there told me I needed to take the train to the other terminal. Ultimately everything worked out OK. I spent some time at the Admiral’s Club in the H/K terminal and took a shower. I had about 3 hours to connect which was plenty of time.

Arrival back at DCA was pretty much right on time. Overall the return trip was great.

Overall it was a great trip. The time in Laos was spectacular. I think it’s a really underrated destination. And the Shinta Mani Club in Siem Reap is truly magnificent.

The only real downside was the exceptionally hot weather I encountered. Cool season came late to SE Asia this year so I missed it.

grandgourmand

Wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting!

TOMFORD

Oooh very trigger happy with HDR now are we...

Thai concerts are hella fun, hope you had a great time there!

blueferrari

Those photos are astonishingly beautiful. I love especially the macro ones.

Thanks for sharing.

glennaa11

Depending on the shooting conditions, yes. :-)

glennaa11

Thanks!

GA400

I found this thread looking for information about a visit to this area, originally focused on Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. Thank you so much for the detailed information and the beautiful photos! I am looking at my calendar to see how soon I can make this trip happen and will plan on visiting more areas - so much history, old temples and natural beauty!

glennaa11

Glad you found it helpful. I'm happy to try and answer questions if I can. And the Asia destination forum here is really good too.