United's new international seats

The trip started out GREAT!  On my leg from LAX to NRT, I got to sit up in first on United’s new First Class pods/seats.  I tried to take a good picture but couldn’t find one that did it justice.    The pods turn into a comfie bed and the 19″ entertainment center has tons of movies, TV shows, and lots and lots of video games.  You can make out some of the controls on the right.  More info on UAL’s new seats can be found at http://suitedreams.united.com.  The NRT to BKK leg wasn’t so nice.  I ended up in Economy.  PAAAAAAAAAAAAAINFUL.  So I arrived at 11:10pm on April 10th and took a cab to the hotel.  NOTE:  **ALWAYS** insist that the cabbie use the meter.  If you get a quote from him, you’ll pay double, triple, or more.  If he won’t do it, move on… there are a million cabs in BKK.

Bangkok Airport

After leaving the plane, there was a looooooooooong walk to immigration.  But along the way, you find these statues that gives you a preview of what to expect throughout Thailand.  AMAZING work of arts.

FuramaXclusive Hotel

In Singapore, I ended up in a not-so-great hotel.  But, for a lot less, I had a REALLY create place in the Silom area of Bangkok.  The FuramaXclusive (http://furamaxclusive.com/sathorn).  WONDERFUL rooms, and thank goodness… an AWESOME AC unit.  Because of the combination of jetlag and the heat, I ended up sleeping from around 1pm to 7pm each day.  Worked out great!  Highly recommended place.

Bangkok BTS

The next morning, I headed out on my tour of the city.  A block away from my hotel was the Chong Nonsi BTS station that you can catch a train to take you to most places.  The BTS is fast, clean and dependable.  Here’s their website:  http://www.bts.co.th/en/index.asp

Bangkok Longboats

One part of the BTS ends at the Chao Praya River.  From there, you can catch these longboats to go up and down the river for a few bahts… about a US Dollar.  I took one up to the center area that has the Grand Palace and many temples.  Along the way, you can see some wonderful sites.

Thailand Tuk Tuk

When I got off the boat, a Tuk Tuk driver offered to show me several temples around the area for 50 bahts.  Around $1.50.  I took him up on it.  I’ve been told they will take you places, but some of the stops are tourist traps  where he would get a commission.  I did this anyways… I see it kind of like staying a weekend for free in a time share but you have to sit in on the sales pitch.  This wasn’t too painful… and I actually got a couple of custom tailored shirts for $25 each at one of his stops.  This was pretty fun.

Giant Swing

For some reason, this tall structure called the Ciant Swing is a tourist attraction.  Something to do with an ancient ceremony.  You can learn more about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Swing.  I really don’t get the attraction.

Golden Buddha

The Golden Buddha was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.  This is actually a 1700’s artifact that was recently discovered hidden under plaster to escape the ravages of war.  I was lucky enough to meet the grounds manager at the temple who gave me a really interesting tour.  It was funny how he kept saying he loved Bush and Condi Rice and Powell and “Papa” Bush because of the help we gave after the tsunami.  And I kept hearing the same thing from others too.  ANYWAYS, had a great tour of the temple and was even allowed to take a picture of this Buddha, which was hard to do since almost everywhere, photos aren’t allowed inside.

Burial Tombs

Around the temple where the Golden Buddha was held, you find these structures that house the cremated remains of prominent folks…. monks, dignitaries, etc.  This one was plaster but some were golden.  Nice.

Democracy Square

Another monument built for…. democracy, I would guess.

The Brown McDonalds

I saw this McDonalds and thought it was different for some reason…. Then I found out that it’s the only one int he world that’s brown, instead of red.  I haven’t confirmed this, but that’s what I’ve been told.

Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej

ALL around Thailand, you’ll see portraits of the Royal Family.  It’s EVERYWHERE!

The Grand Palace

After the Tuk Tuk tour, I finally got the The Grand Palace where you can also find the Emerald Buddha.  A funny thing about this place is that you HAVE to wear long pants and shirts with some sort of sleeves.  BUT, you can put 100 bahts as a deposit and they will lend you some crappy pullover pants like the brown ones you see on the guy behind me.  This is funny since, because of the weather… almost 100% of the tourists are wearing shorts and sandals.

The Emerald Buddha

You can’t really see it but through this door is the Emerald Buddha.  I had to take the picture out here because, like most places, pictures aren’t allowed inside.  There are watchful guards in there and while I was inside, a woman tried to sneak in a picture.  The guard ran up to her, grabbed her camera, and deleted all the pictures while screaming at her!  Really funny!  The Emerald Buddha itself was REALLY small.  Maybe a foot tall.  But it was still pretty impressive.

Palace Guard

Around the Palace itself you will find these English inspired guards.  Of course EVERYONE was taking pictures around them.  Nice uniforms…. but it’s HOT out there.  Can’t they do short sleeves?

Temple of the Dawn

On the OTHER side of the river was the Temple of the Dawn (War Arun) which was very impressive.  I took this picture from the longboat on the way back to the hotel.

Dinner with the BangkokChat gang!

Before my trip to Bangkok, I made some friends over at http://BangkokChat.org and met 3 of them for dinner.  Tallie, Chubs, and Sheer.  Tallie was my lifesaver in Bangkok…. what a woman!   Thai food in Thailand was AMAZING!  Almost every restaurant the dishes are served family style ala cart.  You just order a bunch of food and everyone shares.  But the BEST foods have to be the stuff you get from the sidewalk vendors.  YUMM!

Lychee

On the way to the Floating Market you find carts and carts of this fruit, the Lychee.  I never saw one before so I had to try it….

Inside the Lychee

You pull the outer shell apart and you get this sweet and sour grape-like inside.  Pretty tasty but I don’t see why everyone is so crazy about it.

King Rama II Memorial Park

Another stop before the Floating Market was the King Rama II Memorial Park.  This was a interesting park that had some really cool historical artifacts.

Ratchaburi Floating Market

The Ratchaburi Floating Market was a stop I HAD to make.  This is a huge series of canals where vendors sell good and food from small boats.  I’ve heard this floating market is the most photographed asian sites ever.  Maybe most photographed Thailand site?

Ratchaburi Floating Market Traffic Jam

For the best experience, you rent a boat to go through the miles and miles of floating market canals, about 400 bahts.  In some parts, you get into traffic jams.  This was a LOT of fun and I got 95% of my soveigners here.

Mango Tree

What was suppose to be my last night, I wanted to go to a “fancy” Thai restaurant.  This is the Mango Tree.  The prices were more then the other restaurants but the food just wasn’t as good.  Altho’ the service and atmosphere was great, I’d rather get the stuff from the street vendors.

Of course, when I got to Thailand, there were more protesters.  This time it was the Red Shirt.  Because of this, tourist were trying to leave Thailand earlier then planned.  And I didn’t get on my flight and stayed another day.  Unlike Singapore, this didn’t bother me at all!  There was a lot I wanted to do.  Visit the infamous Soi Cowboy or KSR.  And go to a Muay Boxing match.  And take pictures of this one vendor I saw that had all kinds of insects to eat.  And go to the Zoo.  BUT… the Prime Minister declared a State of Emergency and Chubs and Tallie (see above) said I really should stay in.  So I did.  The next morning I went to try to catch a flight out.  No chance on United but I took an ANA flight out instead to NRT and from NRT I was able to catch my UAL plane back to LAX.

Thailand is an AMAZING country and there’s SO MANY things left to do there.  Besides what I mentioned above, I want to leave the BKK area and go trekking up north.  Or see the Tiger Temple.  Or fly down to Phuket and Phi Phi Island.  See Pattaya Beach and spend a day or two snorkeling at Trangs.

So, this won’t be my only trip to Thailand… just my first.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 16,640 TOTAL: 64,686

Singapore Airport

I arrived to Singapore at their wonderful airport. It was very clean, well organized, LOT of shops and glitter. The immigration was a breeze, as you can see in the photo, hardly anyone to stand behind. This was at 11:30pm on Friday (the day after I took off) and I had yet to get to the hotel.

Geylang Street at 3AM

So I took a taxi to my hotel and got there around 2am after going through everything at the airport. I wanted to walk around the area to get my first impression of Singapore. The above picture was taken down Geylang Street at 3am! In the morning! And there was a traffic jam. The Taxi driver said the Geylang is always packed, 24/7. And I believe him! So off I went to one of the hundreds of 24hr sidewalk diners and grabbed some chicken gizzards on a stick, and some chicken feet. Yummmm!

Hotel 81

Ok, here’s a hint. Hotel 81 is about the same as Motel 6 in the US. Not the best accommodations. And after I checked out the area, it was apparent that I was smack dab in the middle of Singapore’s Redlight District! OYE! The room was small, sparsely furnished, but I had an internet connection and a really good air conditioner. Plus, I prepaid so no way out of that.

Singapore

On Saturday, I wanted to find get the lay of the land and the best way is to take the Singapore MRT. This goes all around the island and you can pretty much have a feel for where things are located.

Singapore

One thing that I noticed, even on my late night ride from the airport, there were a TON of apartments all over the place. These were 30-40 story apartments! What the heck? These are Singapore’s HDB, or Housing & Development Board. What I have been told is that these apartments are built by the government and are available to all Singaporeans at a very low cost with the condition that they live there for a minimum of 5 years. Then they can sell it or do whatever they want. Sounds pretty nifty. Some apartments are better then others. Some are bigger, some more colorful, like the ones above. And some are just plain ghetto.

Singapore's Orchard Street

So off I went around the entire island. My last stop was downtown, where the MRT is actually a subway so you can’t really see anything like the rest of the island. I got off a Orchard street, what a mistake! This is where I found out what Singapore REALLY is. A shopping Paradise (for those who like to shop). I thought Milan was bad. This is WORSE! There are literally malls on top of malls in Singapore! There’s an underground mall that must have 3 or 4 malls over this mall! And everything was totally decorated for Christmas! The only good thing about these malls is that they are all air conditioned. So you can almost walk all around downtown without going outside.

Singapore Flyer

I made my way to the first real destination in Singapore. The Singapore Flyer. This is billed as “The World’s Largest Observation Wheel” which I guess is a fancy name for a ferris wheel. It sure looked big and I guess I’ll just have to take their word for it. Getting the tickets, you would think that they are prepared for thousands of tourists to come to the Flyer. Huge crowd cues are set up for long long lines. I guess I was there during the off season because there were hardly any people going on the Flyer. So I got my ticket and my pre-recorded tour guide and hopped on a car with 2 other people and started the tour. Lots of great info of the area was given.

Ships in Singapore Harbor

The first thing I noticed when the Flyer started up. The harbor was totally packed with ships anchored out. Not sure what they were waiting for but the sea was packed with ships of all types.

The view from the Singapore Flyer

Another really cool thing I saw from the Flyer was the floating soccer field on what they call the “Marina Bay Floating Stadium” and looked like it could be a pretty cool way to view events. I would imagine fireworks display being spectacular.

Afterwards, I headed back to the hotel because it was getting REALLY HOT! And the room’s AC was turned REALLY low. Plus I was a little jet lagged.

Singapore

Saturday night, I headed towards Singapore’s Night Safari. This is the world’s first nocturnal zoo. REALLY cool. I took a lot of pictures but because they have a non-flash policy and things were kept pretty dark, nothing much was shown. But they had some great shows and the tram tour brought you up close to the animals. There were usually no barriers between us and the wildlife.

Flesh Eating Fish - MY FEET!

On the way out, there was this place that had tanks of little fish. After reading, it turns out these are flesh eating fish! And they eat away at any dry/dead skin off your feet and legs, and so I just had to try! I was the only person who did was doing this too. I took off my shows and they washed my feet in a foot bath. Then I stuck my feet in and the fish instantly going away eating my dead flesh! EW! But it felt AMAZING! Kind of like when your leg falls asleep and when you get up, it’s all tingly. But this felt a lot better.

People watching fish eat my flesh

Since the only one, naturally a crowd started forming around me to watch what’s going on. Everyone wanted to know what it felt like and if it hurt and what the heck was going on. I felt like a display. But it was still fun. I can say this was actually on of the highlights of the trip.

Singapore Zoo

On Sunday, it was more animals. I got up for the Breakfast Safari at the Singapore Zoo. This is where you get a pretty decent breakfast buffet while they bring out various animals like the Orangutan up close and personal. After breakfast, I toured the rest of the zoo which was a pretty nice. They had a wonderful working elephant presentation that I felt was the best part of the zoo. Amazing how they can handle these guys.

Jurong BirdPark

After the zoo, I headed over to the Jurong Birdpark on another part of the island. Again, the birdpark was very well laid out and had some pretty cool displays. If I were into bird more, this would have been amazing.

Singapore's Chinatown

Monday I headed back to downtown to visit a couple of more places I’ve heard about. First was Chinatown. Singapore doesn’t seem to have it’s own culture, but is made of of several cultures from other country’s and they are grouped together. Chinatown, Little India, and other areas. I got to Chinatown early so not much was open. But the the area and buildings were pretty impressive.

Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple

At the end of Chinatown I came across the Sri Mariamman Temple, built in 1827, it’s Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple and the artwork is AMAZING. You can’t go in with shoes on so I had to take them off and entered. There were Hindu ceremonies going on so I kept my distance but spent about an hour checking the whole place out. This is something not to be missed when going to Singapore.

Fountain of Wealth

Next stop was the Fountain of Wealth. The largest fountain in the world. I guess it all depends on how you define a fountain. Isn’t the water display in from the Las Vegas’ Bellagio considered a fountain? Guess not. It was said that if you walk around the center portion of the fountain 3 times while touching the water, you get good luck. And, of course, I did. I took a video of me doing this but it really didn’t turn out well.

Singapore

Finally on Monday, I went to one of the landmarks you see in Singapore, the Merlion. While it was pretty neat, there’s really not much to it. But, it appears that it’s the pride of Singapore. Go figure.

Now comes Tuesday morning when I should have been heading home. Remember I was saying that Bangkok Airport was closed because of protesters? Well, everyone who was wanting to head back home out of Bangkok was going to any surrounding cities to try to fly out. Singapore was one of those cities! When I was checking flight loads before heading to Singapore, the planes were pretty much half full. Now, all flights out of Singapore was way, way overbooked. For days to come! I still had hope and stayed at the airport trying to catch a flight out on United. No luck. I went back to my motel and checked in. Hooked up my computer and did some work the rest of Tuesday. Hopefull that Weds would bring me some luck that I earned from the Fountain of Wealth. Wednesday came and it was a repeat of Tuesday! NO FLIGHTS! But I had a plan. If I can’t get a United flight, I’ll catch some other airline to a different location AWAY from Singapore and Thailand. No luck with United but Cathay Airlines had 7 flights a day to Hong Kong. I purchased an ID90 standby ticket and hoped for the best. First flight, no space. So was the second, third, and forth flight out. On the fifth Cathay Pacific flight, I got a seat! Off to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong, from the Airport.

I arrive to Hong Kong around midnight and couldn’t find a place to stay. Fortunately, there was a transit hotel at the airport where I was able to get 3 hours of sleep, a shower, and breakfast. At 12:10 on Thursday, I was able to catch a United 747 back to the states! And arrived at 9:00am the same day! Thanks to the mystery of the International Dateline, I arrived before the plane departed. I guess I’m easily amused.

In summary, Singapore is a shopping destination and nothing much more. There is really no Singapore history beyond the 1800’s. There really isn’t a Singapore culture. No rain forests. No ancient temples. Heck, because of land reclamation, there really isn’t even a natural beach on the whole island.

While it was nice to go someplace where English is one of the official languages, I really don’t think I will make a return trip to Singapore.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 17,600  TOTAL: 41,714