Joginder Madra's Place on the Web

Hongkong/Thailand vacation

Vacation time! Off to Hong Kong to visit with relatives and then some R&R in Thailand. Our Hong Kong itinerary:

• Dec 16 Flt AC233 from Edmonton to Vancouver
• Dec 16 Flt AC007 from Vancouver to Hong Kong
• Jan 6 Flt AC008 from Hong Kong to Vancouver
• Jan 6 Flt AC238 from Vancouver to Edmonton

We did discover that the International Air Canada Lounge doesn't open until 9:00 am and is significantly smaller than the Domestic Lounge. No matter, the international terminal is actually quite nice - we quite enjoyed checking out the aquarium. The flight to Hong Kong itself was quite nice - getting the upgrade to business class will do that I guess. The experience did ruin Charlene as I was discover later on in our trip.

Hong Kong itself was quite nice. It was the quite that family reunion:

• Mom and Dad
• Donald, Carla and Baby Alex
• Carla's parents
• Charlene and myself
• plus all of the Hong Kong relatives

The main point of the trip was to celebrate MK and Emily's 25th anniversary. That night was the first real opportunity for us to meet up with everyone. The kids had gotten so much bigger!

We stayed with Calcium an Imma this time. It a while for the security staff to recognize us (though apparently Charlene was easier to remember), but after a while we were able to come and go without too many hassles. We enjoyed staying at Calcium's...it was nice that there were pets for us to play with.

We were fortunate to visit during the holidays as it meant we were able to spend a lot of time with the relatives....lots of outings, including a group excursion to Macau. But first, it was time for a reunion gathering and posing for pictures. We all gathered at MK and Emily's for reunion pictures. When your mom is one of 13 kids, you know that there are going to be a lot of people. It was hours before all of the photos were done. Poor Hoyan got the most grief from the photographer...maybe that's why he looked like he wanted to kill someone :-)

Once in Macau, it was nice to revisit all of the usual sites like the Fort and the Church facade. An extra special treat this time was a visit with Dad's aunt who ran the coffee shop by the Fort. Of course, no trip to Macau would be complete without trying some almond cookies and beef or pork jerky. This trip also marked Charlene's food breaking point.

Soon our 13 days in Hong Kong had passed and it was time to head to Thailand. Our itinerary:

• Dec 27 Flt TG603 from Hong Kong to Bangkok
• Jan 4 Flt TG638 from Bangkok to Hong Kong

That's all we knew - when we were arriving and when we were leaving. All the in-between stuff was still to be decided though we had an idea of what we wanted to do. Once we landed in Bangkok, we decided to check out our flight options to Koh Phangnan as it was a place that Pat and Julie had recommended. Good thing we decided to do this right away as it soon became apparent that it was peak season and our travel options were very very limited. After quite a bit of scrambling, we were able to get flights in and out of Koh Samui as well as boat transfers to Koh Phangnan.

Bangkok was in a word - hectic. It's a much more modern city than one might expect and it was a major city with the vehicle traffic to match. Our first stop was at the Tavee Guest House. It was a nice, clean place that was a little removed from the travellers' hub.

We soon realized that we didn't care much for travelling around Bangkok at street level. It was crowded, crazy and every so often we would come across smells that one could call...um...interesting. For us, the better way to get around was by the fabulous river taxi system. The river itself was filthy, but the river taxis were a nice respite from all of the craziness.

life on the islands was bound to be more relaxing...though the start of our next leg was a bit sketchy. We weren't really sure how the whole transfer to from Koh Samui airport to Koh Phangnan was going to work. It turns out, we weren't the only ones. One of the companies running the transfer service clearly didn't know either as they dropped ourselves and (a little while later) a Russian girl off at some dive shop as opposed to the *big ass* ferry terminal about 20 km down the road. According to the people working at the dive shop, this was a common occurrence

Once we landed on the shores of Koh Phangnan, we were met by a driver from the hotel we were staying at. We didn't know much about the place as all of other places we tried to book were filled right up. When he told us to hop in the back of the pick up truck, we knew the ride up was going to be memorable. About 30 bumpy minutes later, we turned off the main road and headed off onto some unmarked and unpaved road. If you were the worrying sort, this is where you might worry about being led off to who-knows-where and getting robbed. Not us...and a few steep minutes later, we pulled up in front of our hotel.

The pictures on the Internet did not do this place justice. Even though the place was still under construction, it was clear that this was a very nice place to stay. The rooms were nice and airy and we had our own deck and a little pool that we shared with the unit next to us. The grounds, while unfinished, were clearly going to be spectacular. The staff really went out of their way to make our stay memorable. Noot, Sing and Oo really did make our stay at the Salad Buri Resort memorable.

And then there was the New Year's Eve gala dinner. We weren't particularly thrilled at the prospect of having to pay for the gala (it was a mandatory charge) if we were to stay at the Salad Buri. In the end, we figured that it would be a nice thing to attend...besides were were getting about 1/3 off the regular room rate because the place was still under construction. The morning of Dec 31 was pretty miserable..wind...rain. I was wondering what was going to happen to our outdoor gala. But sure enough, the weather lifted and every was ready when it was supposed to be ready. Kudos to the setup crew!

As we hadn't seen many others wandering around the grounds, we weren't sure how many people were actually staying at our resort. Well it turns out there were a lot! The gala was packed! The spread was amazing and our friend Sing was tending the bar and keeping the free drinks flowing. There were fire dancers, fireworks on the beach as well as lanterns that you could light and have float away. The lanterns floating away in the sky were an amazing sight...almost as amazing as the commotion caused by the firework that - instead of flying up into the air - decided to spin around the beach before exploding near us and sending a few tables scrambling for cover.

The process for heading back to Bangkok was a bit easier as we had a better understanding of what was going to happen. Still, there were some hiccups along the way. It turns out there was some sort of problem with our ferry so all of us passengers were transferred onto a smaller boat. This meant that our 25 minute trip was going to take a couple of hours. Surprisingly, it also meant a much rougher and more...um...interesting ride to Koh Samui.

For our last couple of days in Bangkok, we decided to leave the craziness behind and stay at the Marriott Resort in Bangkok. The place really was an oasis amidst all of the chaos. The service was also quite outstanding...as we would learn as I was completely laid out with some sort of fever - between running up with a thermometer, getting us ibuprofen, room service, etc. But despite what some people were thinking, I was not dying ;-).

A couple more days in Hong Kong...a couple of more gatherings and it was time to head home. Natie, Romy and my parents came with us to the airport to see us off. This time, no matter how much Charlene wanted it, we weren't going to be sitting in First Class...no more coupons...I was still coughing and hacking and I'm certain I still had a bit of a fever. However, I noticed that almost all of the passengers in economy were coughing or hacking at some point. It really was a bit of a cesspool back there. I'm actually surprised there aren't more communicable diseases spread on planes. After a bit of a delay in Vancouver (first our flight and then needing to wait to de-ice), we were finally back in Edmonton where Carla and Alex met us and gave us a ride home. I was happy to be back home and Charlene was not only happy to be home, she was itching to get back to work!