Ratchaprasong...the commercial "downtown" of Bangkok

 

Ratchaprasong is the area in central Bangkok that has numerous shopping areas including several fantastic multistory shopping malls; several of the best hotels and a complex variety of transportation modes.

Above is a view of the Erawan Shrine from the Skywalk above the street level.

Traffic an be very dense and slow in this area as shoppers, tourists and business people swarm to this area

This photo shows the 4 levels of transportation that moves people around this area.
The first level is the street level with autos on roads and walkers and food vendors on the sidewalks.
The second level is the Skywalk which is an elevated sidewalks that wind between the Siam Paragon, Central World, MBK and Siam center shopping malls as well as office buildings.
The 3rd and 4th levels are the BTS Skytrain tracks...an elevated rail system similar to a subway, but 3-5 stories above the street!

There are vendors and multiple beggars on the Skywalk. This one of the several children at his post looking vulnerable and asking for coins to be tossed in his cup. The parents come around at regular intervals to secure the bounty. After I took this photo, there was no way he would let me go without a contribution waving his cup at me..I gave him 5 Baht (about 17 cents)

A very peculiar thing was the New Year's Countdown Bunnies that dotted the area. They are used for entertainment with musicians appearing with them and passersby take each other's photos standing next to them. Digital clocks countdown the time left until the new year...with Australian time usually appearing becuse it is the first major country to pass into the new year.

I go to Phuket Island on Friday to celebrate the New Year.

Arrival in Bangkok

 After 29 hours of travel from my home in San diego to my Hotal in Bangkok, I arrived at 130am. I went to sleep for 4 hours and awoke with the sun on Monday morning. The weather was good with sun, temperature in the day of about 87F and cooling breezes with reasonable humidity. I took a walk around the hotel area in the Ratchaprasong area of central Bangkok. Nearbby in the center of the commercial district was a spritual oasis called the Erawan Shrine. I took a few photos of the people praying and dancing ladies in traditional costume.

Monday I met my friend Aong for lunch at a Thai restaurant and got the SIM card for my phone that he had purchased for me. I resed late in the afternoon and went out for dinner and some nightlife.
On Tuesday I met my cousin, Jean Walzer for lunch at a small Italian restaurant and we talked. After lunch we walked over to her attorney's office to chat with him and pick up her mail. She doesn't trust the Thai postal service in her neighborhood so she has it delivered to her attorney's office. She has lived in Bangkok for 11 or 12 years...originally teaching English writing at a University and then retired about 5 years ago to live in Bangkok.
I have got my brain acclimated quickly to the new time zone.

Returning to Thailand

Tomorrow morning I embark on a 29 hour journey from my home in Del Mar, CA to my hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. I will fly United Airlines this year thru San Francisco and Tokyo with confirmed upgrades to business class on the first two legs but waitlisted on the third leg. I have 2 hour layovers scheduled in both San Francisco and Tokyo. Hopefully this will go with out complications and I will arrive at Bangkok airport as scheduled at 1145pm Sunday nite.
Return to this space for further entries to my blog.......

Trip to the North Shore of Kauai

Yesterday we took a drive up to the north side of the island which is quite scenic. Above is one of the views from the Kilauea Lighthouse looking toward the east side of the Napali Coast.

Below are 2 more views from the lighthouse. The lighthouse is the northern most point on the island.

 

Along the entire north side are many beaches and coves, some of which are very beautiful. They are also not very crowded.

 

Just before the start of the Napali Coast is the Hanalei river valley which leads into Hanalei Bay

 

After the Bay are more secluded beaches until you get to the end of the road at the start of a 11 mile hiking trail

After we returned to our place on the south side of the island, I spent the late afternoon/early evening reading by the beach and observing some of the people there in the lovely light at that time of the day:

Kauai, Hawaii

This week I am at a 2 bedroom Marriott timeshare condo on Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii with a friend. It's a lazy week of sun, swimming, and eating. I'm not playing golf this week for 2 reasons: one is my sore right elbow and the other is the fact that the 2 golf courses at Poipu are being renovated or aerified.

 On Tueday we went on a motorized raft trip to see the beautiful Napali coast. On the trip we went snorkeling for an hour, spent an hour at a secluded State beach and archeologic site. The sea was ride was rather choppy causing soreness of butt, arms and legs from the effort of hanging on to stay on the raft.

We also went to a Luau last nite and managed to eat much more than was necessary for sustenance.

This is is a photo of Poipu State Beach that it right in front of the Marriott:

Today we will probably drive around to Hanalei on the north side of the island..

Hangzhou- West Lake

April 21, Wednesday

Today I arranged a day trip to Hangzhou, a city of 4.5 million people about 100km southwest of Shanghai because it is the home of the storied West Lake which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful places in China.
We lucked out because even though rain was predicted for the whole day, we just had some high clouds without any rain......I suppose the fact that I took 2 umbrellas with me had no bearing on this...or did it?

It was a 2 1/2 hour ride each way on a small tour bus from Shanghai for me and the 6 other tourists. Returning we had to pass thru the tight security on the freeway leading into Shanghai as the 2010 Expo world's fair opening was one week away. Also we had a rest stop on the freeway which had the most beautiful urinal I have ever used; one stepped onto a steel grating and you peed onto a glass wall with water running down which flowed under your feet...behind the glass wall was a beautiful landscaped area of flowers and plants. Of course I did not have my camera with me there and would have felt silly returning to the bus for it and thus delaying our journey.

Here are some of the beautiful scenes we observed at West Lake:

On the way back to Shanghai we stopped at a green tea plantation:

Shanghai

April 18, Sunday

Shanghai is one of the most extraordinary cities in the world. It has a population of over 15 million people and a short but vibrant history. It was a small fishing village until after the Opium Wars it was established as one of the Treaty Ports in the mid 19th century. It grew under the influence of the British, French, American and German Concessions to become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Asia by the 1930s. It was known as the Paris of the East with a wild reputation of parties, prostitutes, jazz until the Japanese took over in 1938. When the communists won the Civil War in 1949, Shanghai fell into a poor state as it was ignored by the Central Government. In the mid-1980s, the government decided to resurrect Shanghai and poured resources into it. It quickly regained its former status and now is one of the most vibrant, sophisticated cities in the world. It is the financial capital of China; it is the fashion capital of China; it probably has the finest creative architecture in the world.
The buildings on either shore of the Huangpu River demonstrate the architectural diversity.

There is the "Bund" which is the traditional European west riverfront with buildings from the Concession heyday of the late 19th to early 20th centuries:

The Bund at nite:

Along the east riverfront is Pudong:

at nite:

Two of the 5 tallest buildings in the world:

These buildings have video advertising constantly running:

And Pudong was nothing but swamps and farms before 1990 !!!!!! All this was built in the last 20 years!!

As you can see the city literally comes alive at nite with some of the most extraordinary lighting.

This is the view from my hotel room window:

I spent 5 days in Shanghai. The weather was not good as we had rain, fog and clouds 3-4 of those days. But at nite it is amazing.
I spent part of 2 rainy days in the French Concession. It is the area that has best maintained its character from the early part of the last century. It has lovely, quiet tree lined streets with old residences and villas that have been turned into restaurants and shops. I went to an interesting Yunnan restaurant that was wonderful and an Italian restaurant that had the best spaghetti bolognese that I have eaten.
The Concessions are an interesting part of Chinese history. The Qing Dynasty by the 19th Century was weak and corrupt so it was beaten handily in the Opium Wars and forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Nanjing in 1842.  This allowed the Western powers to set up "concessions" in several coastal cities and cities in the interior on the Yangtze River (such as Wuhan). Hong Kong was also ceded to Great Britain in this Treaty.
The concessions established areas that were independent of Chinese rule and were subject to the laws of the foreign country; some also set up separate electric and sewage systems as well as police. An actual piece of the foreign country in the midst of a Chinese territory!

Nanjing

April 17, Saturday

Today we sailed into Nanjing, a mid-sized city for China with 5 million people, which was the capital of China for 10 different Imperial Dynasties and also for the Republic of China after the 1911 overthrow of the last Emperor. The captital was moved to Beijing in 1949 when the Communists won the civil war from the Nationalists.

In the morning we had an excursion to the Purple Mountain Park which has the elaborate Mausoleum of  Dr Sun Yat Sen, the leader of the 1911 Revolution. It is a beautiful park: large with extensive landscaping . The Mausoleum is very impressive at the top of a 392 step climb.The park was full of people, foreign tourists and Chinese.

 In the afternoon I left our group as they returned to the boat for lunch and was picked up the family of a a good friend in San Diego.  They took me to a grand lunch in the old part of the city in a private room of a restaurant…..they just kept bringing food- most of which was not identified. Only the 14yo son spoke English and did not know the English names for most of the foods…. He was able to explain to me that I had eaten duck blood soup (after I ate most of it). We also had a dancing girl do some traditional Chinese dances while we ate.

 

 We also visited the Fuzi Temple and shopping/restaurant mall surrounding it….lots of local families were enjoying the fine weather there.   

We also visited the grand  Zhongua Gate in the impressive city wall built during the Ming Dynasty. 

I was brought back to the boat and we set sail for Shanghai late in the afternoon.

Jiuhua Shan

April 16, Friday

Today we were supposed to go to Huangsan...the Yellow Mountain which is famous for its beauty especially in the mists and clouds that swirl around its peaks. However it is a 2 ½ hour drive from the river each way and fog closed down the river for 3 hours in the early morning so the boat had to anchor. Therefore we did not have time to reach the river port and bus to the Mountain. Instead we went to a mountain that is one hour each way from the river port thus saving 3 hours….it is called Jiuhuasan.   
It turned out to be a very good day despite the early disappointment.  Firstly, when the fog lifted it turned out to be a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and temperatures in the mid 60’s.  Secondly, Jiuhuasan is a delightful place, one of the four most important Buddhist mountains in China; there are several temples as well as monasteries and a Buddhist College. We took a funicular to the viewpoint in the midst of the area for beautiful views of the area.

There were many Buddhist monks of all ages as there is a monastery, a Buddhist college and several temples.