LA, Thailand & A Day in Tokyo
Dec 8, 2017, 1:39 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
LA, Thailand & A Day in Tokyo
The last hurrah of 2017!
If you've seen my past TRs this may follow a bit different. I finally get to do "major" travel with a friend! One of my BFFs from Berlin is going to meet me in Thailand. With that said I may do an abbreviated TR at the end of it.
However, if you want to follow along in real time via SnapChat (JV_PHOTO), Twitter (@thejustinv) or Instagram Stories (@justinvphoto) you're more than welcome.
Run of Show:
-Weekend in LA to see a friend and do a Spartan Race
-EVA Royal Laurel LAX-TPE to Thai onwards to Bangkok
-10 days split between Bangkok, Koh Samui & Chiang Mai
-Coming home with Thai red-eye to Tokyo and then a day trip layover nto Tokyo before ANA Dreamliner J into San Jose
I may post some sporadic things here to keep it fresh for those who don't social media.
Dec 11, 2017, 3:58 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
Since I have an hour in the Infinity Lounge and then I'll be in Bangkok with my BFF I am going to do a Reader's Digest version of the past few days.
So two days before my flight I realized..."How am I going to get from my house to MRY at 4:30am?" On a lark I looked on Hertz and got a Managers Special for $34. I ended up getting a Yukon XL that I picked up at 10am and dropped off the next morning at 4:45am. A taxi cost me $28 before, Uber is cheaper but the morning before my flight I got up at 4:30am and saw 1 car over in PG so I didn't want to risk it.
You can read here how I was denied coffee and disapprovingly passed up on the 1K snack on my MRY-LAX flight: Deny me once shame on you, deny me twice...
First time doing Ultimate Choice at LAX. I did a circle of the President's Circle area with a bunch of Nissan and things, the Infiniti sedans were in the upgrade zone. When I was about to hop in a random car someone pulled up with a freshly washed Evoque. This car drives like crap and has no cargo space (drove it LAX-PSP-LAX) but I figure if I'm going to be in LA may as well keep up with the Jones.
Spent the next few days in LA just running around eating, shopping and drinking with a friend. Nothing too exciting thought when we had dinner at Chateau we were two tables away from Die Antwood & Kanye. I was hoping Caitlyn would have crashed the party.
I hopped up one night to Santa Clarita to do a Spartan race at Lake Castaic. I stayed at The Courtyard across from Six Flags. Place was fine had a huge 1BR suite. Though they called me at 4pm saying my CC expired and if I didn't call them by 6 they would release my room. A bit strange as I had done online check-in saying I was arriving around 7 and obviously would have given the new CC.
Absolute MESS at TBIT. You had to go through all this craziness of multiple lines being combined and broken up to get to a puny F/J lined that accomplished nothing.
Awesome *A lounge, had a shower, plenty of food and room and great warm breeze out on the deck.
Wine list, menu with some fancy covers.
Much cooler PJs than the old brown ones. These pants are great I'll wear them at home all the time.
Eerie sight flying over Ventura & Santa Barbara seeing the fires.
I hate this jelly crap.
The pre-order cod was delicious.
I'll be honest. I don't like the seat. The amenity kit, food, VC are great. But it's tight, miserable to get out if you are tall/big and the footwell is pretty shallow I had plenty of bumps on my legs. I would actually consider the United 787 2-2-2 more comfortable if you had the middle 2 seats. The new 77W UA Polaris seat beats this by a long shot.
As much as I'd love to sit in the lounge and hear this couple argue more I need to run to my gate.
Her: I just want a hand towel/rag to wash my face in the bathroom.
Him: Sign up for the shower cabin waiting list to do it there.
Part of me wanted to tell her to just ask the shower attendant for a towel as she was fine to do it in the normal bathrooms.
Sometimes I wonder how I am single!
So two days before my flight I realized..."How am I going to get from my house to MRY at 4:30am?" On a lark I looked on Hertz and got a Managers Special for $34. I ended up getting a Yukon XL that I picked up at 10am and dropped off the next morning at 4:45am. A taxi cost me $28 before, Uber is cheaper but the morning before my flight I got up at 4:30am and saw 1 car over in PG so I didn't want to risk it.
You can read here how I was denied coffee and disapprovingly passed up on the 1K snack on my MRY-LAX flight: Deny me once shame on you, deny me twice...
First time doing Ultimate Choice at LAX. I did a circle of the President's Circle area with a bunch of Nissan and things, the Infiniti sedans were in the upgrade zone. When I was about to hop in a random car someone pulled up with a freshly washed Evoque. This car drives like crap and has no cargo space (drove it LAX-PSP-LAX) but I figure if I'm going to be in LA may as well keep up with the Jones.
Spent the next few days in LA just running around eating, shopping and drinking with a friend. Nothing too exciting thought when we had dinner at Chateau we were two tables away from Die Antwood & Kanye. I was hoping Caitlyn would have crashed the party.
I hopped up one night to Santa Clarita to do a Spartan race at Lake Castaic. I stayed at The Courtyard across from Six Flags. Place was fine had a huge 1BR suite. Though they called me at 4pm saying my CC expired and if I didn't call them by 6 they would release my room. A bit strange as I had done online check-in saying I was arriving around 7 and obviously would have given the new CC.
Absolute MESS at TBIT. You had to go through all this craziness of multiple lines being combined and broken up to get to a puny F/J lined that accomplished nothing.
Awesome *A lounge, had a shower, plenty of food and room and great warm breeze out on the deck.
Wine list, menu with some fancy covers.
Much cooler PJs than the old brown ones. These pants are great I'll wear them at home all the time.
Eerie sight flying over Ventura & Santa Barbara seeing the fires.
I hate this jelly crap.
The pre-order cod was delicious.
I'll be honest. I don't like the seat. The amenity kit, food, VC are great. But it's tight, miserable to get out if you are tall/big and the footwell is pretty shallow I had plenty of bumps on my legs. I would actually consider the United 787 2-2-2 more comfortable if you had the middle 2 seats. The new 77W UA Polaris seat beats this by a long shot.
As much as I'd love to sit in the lounge and hear this couple argue more I need to run to my gate.
Her: I just want a hand towel/rag to wash my face in the bathroom.
Him: Sign up for the shower cabin waiting list to do it there.
Part of me wanted to tell her to just ask the shower attendant for a towel as she was fine to do it in the normal bathrooms.
Sometimes I wonder how I am single!
Dec 12, 2017, 7:27 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
I have to hand it to my friend for being quite the trooper. He's flown a decent amount in Europe and a few trips to the US but even in my miles I've not had to deal with this.
In a nut shell:
Saturday scheduled to fly BA ORD-LHR-TXL to have Sunday at home, work Monday and then head to TXL for the 6:45pm TXL-FRA-BKK flight.
The BA 777 pushed from the gate and then spent 2h trying to start an engine. Flight gets indefinitely delayed overnight they put him in the Double Tree and on the Sunday 5pm-ish flight on BA to get him back to Berlin Monday morning.
Sunday morning it's already posting a 2h delay blowing his LHR-TXL connection. That flight then cancels. He has his work travel agency cancel that and they get him on United ORD-BRU-TXL so he'll be back before lunch. The UA goes out fine. Then he sits and BRU deplanes and replanes.
At this point I've already passed out for 8 hours on LAX-TPE. I get on wifi and get all the messages disjointed not know all this happened but finally see on IG he posted a pic of the LH A380.
Turns out the BRU-TXL flight landed at 4:05. He got in a taxi to Prenzlauer Berg, spent 10 min grabbing stuff to throw in his bag, back in the waiting taxi and made it to TXL at 6:05 to check his bag and make the flight to FRA.
In a nut shell:
Saturday scheduled to fly BA ORD-LHR-TXL to have Sunday at home, work Monday and then head to TXL for the 6:45pm TXL-FRA-BKK flight.
The BA 777 pushed from the gate and then spent 2h trying to start an engine. Flight gets indefinitely delayed overnight they put him in the Double Tree and on the Sunday 5pm-ish flight on BA to get him back to Berlin Monday morning.
Sunday morning it's already posting a 2h delay blowing his LHR-TXL connection. That flight then cancels. He has his work travel agency cancel that and they get him on United ORD-BRU-TXL so he'll be back before lunch. The UA goes out fine. Then he sits and BRU deplanes and replanes.
At this point I've already passed out for 8 hours on LAX-TPE. I get on wifi and get all the messages disjointed not know all this happened but finally see on IG he posted a pic of the LH A380.
Turns out the BRU-TXL flight landed at 4:05. He got in a taxi to Prenzlauer Berg, spent 10 min grabbing stuff to throw in his bag, back in the waiting taxi and made it to TXL at 6:05 to check his bag and make the flight to FRA.
Dec 14, 2017, 6:49 am
#7
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: 6km East of EPAYE
Programs: UA Silver, AA Platinum, AS & DL GM Marriott TE, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,582
Off to a good start JVPhoto! I'm following along on IG too so it's a real 3D experience 
. As always, thanks for sharing ^
I'd run from Ninja for sure, but I'm a ￥olandi fan!
. As always, thanks for sharing ^ I'd run from Ninja for sure, but I'm a ￥olandi fan!
Dec 16, 2017, 3:35 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Denver, Colorado
Programs: IHG Spire, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Titanium, Mileage Plus Gold
Posts: 1,736
Ah yes the quite familiar and infamous cluster f&*( security at TBIT. Was there a reason you didn't try to use the "secret" security line?
Dec 16, 2017, 4:44 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
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Posts: 7,058
Mobile check-in let them know I was coming around 12 and worked out well as they had the room ready for me then.
It was fun to show my friend around Bangkok. I hadn't done tourist stuff since my first trip here but all we pretty much did was take a tuktuk (for the novelty of having to fend off his efforts to take us to a gem shop) over to Wat Pho, then the river ferry across and then the river boat down to Sathorn Pier.
Typical with my trips here a fair amount of time was spent at Siam Paragon and also this time we stopped by Central Embassy for the food court there.
I took him by MBK so, as he said, he could put his Bulgarian bargaining to work for a wallet and bag for his Mom when he goes back to Sofia for Christmas.
Evenings usually mean cycling through my rolodex of boys to get drinks at Soi 4 and then if I play my cards right with a sleight of hand end up at DJ Station with another. It usually ends up that we are all in the same place as once, but I don't mind the tug o' war.
I have never been to Soi Cowboy so we went to get food at Terminal 21 and then made a lap there. Decided to actually make a pit stop to people watch at the least bar girl looking place (Lilac, Milac, something like that in the middle across from Toy Bar). Nearing the end of our Sangsom & soda an older (by the street's standard's) lady did come up us to chit chat. I impressed on her that we were Silom Soi 4 boys, but she still wanted us to buy her a drink to which I wished we wished her well and made our way off. I'm going to to pay the bar 100 baht to give one of it's employees a fake drink as the ruse that we are drinking together and have a good time. If I'm going to do that I'd go across the street and string those girls along.
Quick trip, my friend was thrilled and entertained with Bangkok though he's happy to be in Samui now for a change of pace but I can't wait for him to see Chiang Mai.
It was fun to show my friend around Bangkok. I hadn't done tourist stuff since my first trip here but all we pretty much did was take a tuktuk (for the novelty of having to fend off his efforts to take us to a gem shop) over to Wat Pho, then the river ferry across and then the river boat down to Sathorn Pier.
Typical with my trips here a fair amount of time was spent at Siam Paragon and also this time we stopped by Central Embassy for the food court there.
I took him by MBK so, as he said, he could put his Bulgarian bargaining to work for a wallet and bag for his Mom when he goes back to Sofia for Christmas.
Evenings usually mean cycling through my rolodex of boys to get drinks at Soi 4 and then if I play my cards right with a sleight of hand end up at DJ Station with another. It usually ends up that we are all in the same place as once, but I don't mind the tug o' war.
I have never been to Soi Cowboy so we went to get food at Terminal 21 and then made a lap there. Decided to actually make a pit stop to people watch at the least bar girl looking place (Lilac, Milac, something like that in the middle across from Toy Bar). Nearing the end of our Sangsom & soda an older (by the street's standard's) lady did come up us to chit chat. I impressed on her that we were Silom Soi 4 boys, but she still wanted us to buy her a drink to which I wished we wished her well and made our way off. I'm going to to pay the bar 100 baht to give one of it's employees a fake drink as the ruse that we are drinking together and have a good time. If I'm going to do that I'd go across the street and string those girls along.
Quick trip, my friend was thrilled and entertained with Bangkok though he's happy to be in Samui now for a change of pace but I can't wait for him to see Chiang Mai.
Dec 22, 2017, 3:15 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
Koh Samui was fun. Had pretty good weather for the most part.
First time seeing Tibetan Airlines!
The Renaissance wasn't bad. Actually they couldn't check us in at check-in time and sent us to the pool bar to wait. A bit cheap that it was a free non-alcoholic drink. They were booked full so they could not upgrade us...though I'm not sure if they did that we would have 2 beds in one of the pool villas. They ended up leaving a letter the afternoon of our last night there offering us a pool villa which was kind of stupid. Why am I going to pack up and move all of our stuff to sleep in another room?
The hotel grounds are nice, the beach is in a nice little protective cove type area. The room conditions I would give a solid B.
Breakfast the first few days were a bit hectic and made me feel what it must be like to be in a New Delhi train station. After the tour group left things mellowed out and breakfast seemed less of a hassle.
Traveling with friends means you learn new things about them. I knew my friend didn't have a DL but I thought he at least new how to drive. Nope. I opted to get a Honda PCX with a 150cc engine instead of the 125 Clicks so that it could carry myself at 200 pounds along with his 250 pound butt. Took me a day or two to get comfortable with the way it handled off the starting line or in traffic weaving between cars.
Fake fights but still fun to people watch and have some drinks at Sexy Sex Bar while I showed him the best of the worst tourists.
Kob in Lamai was great for dinner. Owned by a French guy and his Thai wife, they also have a pool you can use!
We did a full circle of the island one day to go to the Hin Lad waterall near Nathon which was also a nice little town with great food at the foot of the pier. Introduced him to the daily staple.
Samui is nice. My friend loved the "tropical" airport and we had a great time there. When I come back next year with a different friend I think we will end up going to Krabi. This was my second trip here in 2 years and I think I'm good for a bit though I should probably go to Koh Tao...if I can stomach the full moon partiers.
First time seeing Tibetan Airlines!
The Renaissance wasn't bad. Actually they couldn't check us in at check-in time and sent us to the pool bar to wait. A bit cheap that it was a free non-alcoholic drink. They were booked full so they could not upgrade us...though I'm not sure if they did that we would have 2 beds in one of the pool villas. They ended up leaving a letter the afternoon of our last night there offering us a pool villa which was kind of stupid. Why am I going to pack up and move all of our stuff to sleep in another room?
The hotel grounds are nice, the beach is in a nice little protective cove type area. The room conditions I would give a solid B.
Breakfast the first few days were a bit hectic and made me feel what it must be like to be in a New Delhi train station. After the tour group left things mellowed out and breakfast seemed less of a hassle.
Traveling with friends means you learn new things about them. I knew my friend didn't have a DL but I thought he at least new how to drive. Nope. I opted to get a Honda PCX with a 150cc engine instead of the 125 Clicks so that it could carry myself at 200 pounds along with his 250 pound butt. Took me a day or two to get comfortable with the way it handled off the starting line or in traffic weaving between cars.
Fake fights but still fun to people watch and have some drinks at Sexy Sex Bar while I showed him the best of the worst tourists.
Kob in Lamai was great for dinner. Owned by a French guy and his Thai wife, they also have a pool you can use!
We did a full circle of the island one day to go to the Hin Lad waterall near Nathon which was also a nice little town with great food at the foot of the pier. Introduced him to the daily staple.
Samui is nice. My friend loved the "tropical" airport and we had a great time there. When I come back next year with a different friend I think we will end up going to Krabi. This was my second trip here in 2 years and I think I'm good for a bit though I should probably go to Koh Tao...if I can stomach the full moon partiers.
Dec 26, 2017, 11:52 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: MRY - CNX - TXL
Programs: UA 1K / *G / Marriott PE / Expedia Gold+ / Hertz PC
Posts: 7,058
Finally time to take a deep breath in and out to the absolute feeling on calm & joy of arriving in Chiang Mai.
I didn't even think to snap pics of Sirilanna where we stayed. Central location inside the Old City, traditional Thai lanna style decor. Staff was efficient but cold. Got a room with 2 full beds overlooking the pool with it's own balcony and big jet tub for $90/night. Breakfast was okay but I was planning on taking my friend out to my spots. Not to be confused with Siripanna, where I stayed my very first trip to Chiang Mai, which is similar in style but sits across the Ping on its own little rice plantation. It would have been fun to stay here again and do the Rice Farmer package where you get to go out and plant a small plot of rice; but, with a short time here I wanted to be a little more central to show my friend around.
First stop for lunch always is Jok Sompet for the spicy chicken leg with crispy basil. For 90 baht it's my favorite dish. My heart skipped a beat and my butt clenched when we walked up the road and I saw the metal gates pulled down with a big sign in Thai...luckily the next sign in English was just saying it moved 2 spaces down the road.
Had to flex my street cred by walking into Dash, getting a big hug by the owner and a table on a busy night. If the above dish is my favorite quick bite the Swimming Rama at Dash would be my HiSo dish. Sautéed morning glory in peanut sauce with crispy shallots and shrimp.
To continue with food...the green croissant at Rustic & Blue.
My friend was intent on trying bugs, I couldn't find any at the south gate food market but once we went up to Doi Suthep we found some. Honestly just crunchy and seasoning.
Again had to upgrade over a Click and got a Yamaha 155cc which had no problem going up the hill to Doi Sutehp, including passing plenty of songtaews that were shooting out tons of black exhaust trying to change gears.
My first trip to Chiang Mai I also visited Patara Elephant Farm to do the half-day "daycare" with an elephant. I spent a fair amount of time researching the options and where to go. From what I gather Patara is unique in that it is one of the few, if not only, that is a rescue, recovery, reproduction and reintroduction program. You spend some time feeding sugar cane and bananas to the elephant you are paired with. You then dust it off with some branches while they talk about the health care of the elephants and you inspect the dung. After that you go to bath in the river waterfall by scrubbing all over the elephant, they lay down and you get on top and give them a good scrub all over, after that you ride bareback to the area where they spend the night. I do not find issue with "riding" (more like sitting on top) of the elephants in this case. It's as painful as it is for me wearing a baseball cap. Some of the "sanctuaries" are masquerading as such but in reality they still make then "paint" and do other things which are trained tricks like the circus standing on one leg, etc. Though you're still bound to get plenty of (E)SJWs commenting on Facebook/IG posts when they see you at Patara, but fail to realize what the arm actually is or that they have one of the most successful breeding programs with a newborn ever year. I thought it was uny that someone commenting on my friend's photo had photos of himself at Tiger Kindom (sedated tigers) AND "Long Neck" Village (human zoo).
I didn't even think to snap pics of Sirilanna where we stayed. Central location inside the Old City, traditional Thai lanna style decor. Staff was efficient but cold. Got a room with 2 full beds overlooking the pool with it's own balcony and big jet tub for $90/night. Breakfast was okay but I was planning on taking my friend out to my spots. Not to be confused with Siripanna, where I stayed my very first trip to Chiang Mai, which is similar in style but sits across the Ping on its own little rice plantation. It would have been fun to stay here again and do the Rice Farmer package where you get to go out and plant a small plot of rice; but, with a short time here I wanted to be a little more central to show my friend around.
First stop for lunch always is Jok Sompet for the spicy chicken leg with crispy basil. For 90 baht it's my favorite dish. My heart skipped a beat and my butt clenched when we walked up the road and I saw the metal gates pulled down with a big sign in Thai...luckily the next sign in English was just saying it moved 2 spaces down the road.
Had to flex my street cred by walking into Dash, getting a big hug by the owner and a table on a busy night. If the above dish is my favorite quick bite the Swimming Rama at Dash would be my HiSo dish. Sautéed morning glory in peanut sauce with crispy shallots and shrimp.
To continue with food...the green croissant at Rustic & Blue.
My friend was intent on trying bugs, I couldn't find any at the south gate food market but once we went up to Doi Suthep we found some. Honestly just crunchy and seasoning.
Again had to upgrade over a Click and got a Yamaha 155cc which had no problem going up the hill to Doi Sutehp, including passing plenty of songtaews that were shooting out tons of black exhaust trying to change gears.
My first trip to Chiang Mai I also visited Patara Elephant Farm to do the half-day "daycare" with an elephant. I spent a fair amount of time researching the options and where to go. From what I gather Patara is unique in that it is one of the few, if not only, that is a rescue, recovery, reproduction and reintroduction program. You spend some time feeding sugar cane and bananas to the elephant you are paired with. You then dust it off with some branches while they talk about the health care of the elephants and you inspect the dung. After that you go to bath in the river waterfall by scrubbing all over the elephant, they lay down and you get on top and give them a good scrub all over, after that you ride bareback to the area where they spend the night. I do not find issue with "riding" (more like sitting on top) of the elephants in this case. It's as painful as it is for me wearing a baseball cap. Some of the "sanctuaries" are masquerading as such but in reality they still make then "paint" and do other things which are trained tricks like the circus standing on one leg, etc. Though you're still bound to get plenty of (E)SJWs commenting on Facebook/IG posts when they see you at Patara, but fail to realize what the arm actually is or that they have one of the most successful breeding programs with a newborn ever year. I thought it was uny that someone commenting on my friend's photo had photos of himself at Tiger Kindom (sedated tigers) AND "Long Neck" Village (human zoo).
Dec 27, 2017, 6:32 am
#15
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,181
Good to know about Koh Samui. I went to Phuket and really liked it, though we spent most of the time at our hotel. The Phi Phi islands though were full of garbage so I did not go swimming there. Wanted to go to Krabi but was told they have a lot of mosquitos there. Is Chang Mai really worth it for someone like me who is not interested in elephants? I did not like Bangkok. Thanks for your interesting report.