We (heart) Thailand

The Wife and I had a nice little break in Chiang Mai. It was our second trip to Thailand together, the first being a weekend in Bangkok in March 2006 during which I proposed to her on a boat on the Chao Phraya River.

We like visiting Thailand so much that we see ourselves coming back for holidays (or even buying a retirement home !) in the years to come. We would like to visit Hua Hin, Krabi, Phuket and Koh Samui, amongst other places. At the risk of over-generalising, it's not hard to find a good meal anywhere in Thailand, and the service at restaurants, shops and spas is always top-notch.




Our Pavilion at the resort (well, we had the second floor)






The unique feature of the resort is that each room opens out to an attached private "sala".






The resort is centred around a working rice field. Rice is harvested three times yearly and is donated to charities.


The resort employs the farmers to work on the field and maintain the landscaping.










It's low tourist season in CM now so during our four days there we shared the pool with only two or three other couples. Niiiice.




Yours truly suffering the ultimate B-comedy movie cliche : falling asleep and getting sunburned ...


... while the Wife feasted on iced jellies served by the poolside staff.


One of several rice barns around the field. Traditionally, the farmers would store the rice in these barns which are raised from the ground to keep them dry and away from pests. This one also doubles as a yoga place for hotel guests.


The resort also has three water buffaloes in its employ. I dont know whether they actually help out on the fields. But they do get staff benefits (a 24-hour butler service !) and health plan.

We spent most of our time in the resort, but made two trips out to the town for dinners and a spa treatment. The resort is 30 mins drive from town and, short of forking out a lot of dough for a hotel limo, we were pretty much dependent on its infrequent shuttle bus service. I think they just want guests to spend as much time (and hence, money) at the resort as possible.

Most tourists who go to CM would visit the temples and go for treks in the nature reserves. We did none of that. We just wanted to chill out and see what CM is about.


Sunset on the Ping River


Inevitably, most tourists would end up dining or having a drink at either the Riverside or The Good View on the east bank of the Ping River. We had our first dinner at The Good View.


The flower market on the west bank. Although it's Thailand's second largest city, CM has a remarkably laid-back, small-town feel to it. There are few tall buildings and the streets are quite clean. Reminds me of Ipoh, actually (except the cleanliness part)


We found this spa complex from Google. It's just across the road from the Riverside restaurant and is relatively new - it opened only in December 2006. The Wife and I had a 2.5 hour body wrap and massage for THB7,000 (S$335) including taxes. Not really cheap by Thai standards but nothing as exorbitant as what we would be paying in HK or Singapore. And they drove us from and back to the resort.

We enjoyed our treatment tremendously, although getting a massage with sunburned shoulders taught me how high my threshold for pain was. (It was pretty high)

Rarinjinda Wellness Spa Resort
14 Charoenraj Road
Tel : (053) 303030 / 247000
http://www.rarinjinda.com


Our treatment room was on the roof and we had to use the shower cubicle outside the treatment room. Employee and customer satisfaction at that adjacent gas station must be very high. But it was pretty empty when we were there. I don't know whether to feel assured or insulted.


Thai food every evening would have been too much of a good thing. For our last dinner in CM we Googled for Italian restaurants with good reviews and decided on La Gondola by the river.

La Gondola
Rimping Condo 201/6 Charoenraj Road
Chiangmai 50000
Tel: 053-247776
http://www.lagondolathailand.com


We flew on Thai Airways and hence had to transit in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi (I can spell now ! And it's pronounced Soo-var-nah-boom. The 'i' is silent) Airport between HK and Chiang Mai.

The Wife lurrrved it. There were so many shopping and dining options. If you are departing from BKK and have time to spare, make sure you go all the way to the E and F gates to take in the four cool tapas, antipasti, sushi and cafe bars on the main thoroughfare.

Manhood

It just amazes me how some women say they want a man that makes them feel safe and protected, and then proceed to emasculate them by demanding full, absolute control over their combined income.

In our little love-nest/household, I pay for most expenses including the rent, utilities, groceries, and furnishings. One evening, the Wife told me that she had paid our part-time helper for the three hours of work she had put in that morning. So I took out some cash to pay her back.

"Do you know that Joanne makes Alfred hand over ALL his salary every month ?" the Wife said playfully, referring to her best friend and her husband. "See how nice I am to you ?"

"Oh yeah. You're so nice to me by comparison" I replied.

"Oh yeah ? She might as well cut his balls off and hang them off her Birkin bag !" I thought.

Awful Pun

Straits Times, 21 June 2007

Chiang Mai

The wife and I are taking a short break in Chiang Mai soon. Since it's the beginning of the off-peak season there (it's warming up and rainy season is approaching) the travel agencies in HK have been running some promotions. So we are splurging a little and have booked a few nights at the Four Seasons.



Does anyone have suggestions on what to do in Chiang Mai city ? Would also appreciate some restaurant suggestions (address and phone numbers too, please)

We'll also have a few hours in transit at Bangkok Suwarnadunnohowtospell airport so some tips on how to kill time there would be helpful as well.

Many thanks in advance.

That's More Like It

South China Morning Post, 6 June 2007

Over-generalization

South China Morning Post, 30 May 2007

Shopping Mall with Flight Check-in

My parents flew back to Singapore this morning after staying with us for three weeks and the wife and I saw them off at the airport. Hong Kong International Airport's Terminal 2 has just been officially opened and we decided to check it out after bidding farewell to Mum and Dad at the security checkpoint.

The HK Govt had built this extension to ease congestion at the existing terminal. While HKIA is visibly much busier than Changi, I did not really see the need for expansion yet. I suppose it's a case of "build it and more of them will come".

Terminal 2 is nothing but a shopping mall with airline check in facilities.

Right now, only passengers flying on 2 airlines - Oasis Hong Kong Airlines (a long-haul budget carrier that flies to London and Vancouver) or Emirates- check in at T2. Unlike most other airports with more than one terminal building, in HK all the planes are still parked at Terminal 1. After collecting their boarding passes at T2, passengers will descend to the basement, clear immigration and security checkpoints, and then take an underground train to T1 to board their planes.

So aircraft still use T1 to board and disembark passengers. As a result, there is no Arrivals Hall at T2.

As you can see in the pics below, T2 is still pretty under-utilised. A quick browse of the Departures listing on the HKIA website, and I see that Emirates has three, and Oasis only one, flight out of HK today. It should get busier when another two airlines - Thai and Qatar - move their check-in counters there soon. Most passengers using T1 are probably too lazy to walk over to T2 or are not aware of the variety of shops and food outlets there.






The Airport Authority did not even bother to man the information counters. With the Emirates and Oasis flights leaving late at night, none of their check-in counters were open during the day too.


Many shops were still not opened at 11:30am. And while the food establishments were enjoying a steady of flow of customers during lunchtime, most of them were airport employees and construction workers from a nearby work site.


HKIA is truly a transportation hub. On the floor below the Departure Hall, arriving passengers can buy tickets for coaches that will take them directly to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan and other cities in southern China. The airport also has a ferry terminal where high-speed ferries ply routes between the airport and Macau, Zhuhai and a number of ports in the Pearl River Delta.

The wife and I did have fun walking around the near-empty mall (something unthinkable in HK), had lunch and blew about HK$50 (S$10) on tokens at a video arcade. (An employee there said that, with five customers there at the time, it was considered relatively busy already)

With such low shopper/passenger traffic, business for the tenants at T2 is expected to be poor for now so the Airport Authority is waiving their rents from March till August. For now, I think the Filipino domestic helpers of HK have a great new place to congregate at on Sundays.