Archive for May, 2006
05.09.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:58 am by flung
OMG – we had a 6:30 am tour this morning which would bring us to the ancient capital city of Ayuthaya. Ayuthaya was the capital of Thailand up until the mid 1700’s when the Burmese essentially sacked the city. If you get the chance to visit Thailand, you should definitely checked out Ayuthaya. We took a 2 hour bus ride there followed by a 3.5 hour boat cruise back to Bangkok.
At night, we dropped by the Calypso Cabaret Show at the Asia Hotel which wasn’t too far away from our own hotel. Yes – we couldn’t get enough of these shows! If you like cabaret shows, then you’ll definitely like this one. The performances at Calypso were definitely better than those at the Tiffany show in Pattaya. Here are some pictures from the show that night. I even managed to record some video which I’ll post online soon.
We capped off the night by eating at the Hard Rock Café and man.. we couldn’t hear a thing because there was a live band playing old school music all night long.
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05.08.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:58 am by flung
We said goodbye to Pattaya today as well as our Signet Tour guide, Cindy, and headed back to Bangkok for our final five days in Thailand. For the final leg of our honeymoon, we decided to stay at the Davis Hotel located on the eastern side of Bangkok. For those who are into hotels, the Davis Hotel is advertised as Bangkok’s first boutique hotel – whatever that means!
Here’s a picture of the hotel room – nice huh?
The Davis is located within what appears to be a business district. There are a ton of office buildings and condominiums in the area. As you can imagine, there are a large number of shopping centers in the vicinity – many of them housing high end stores as opposed to the more traditional night markets.
After checking in, we decided to take a walk to the Phrom Phrong station which is a part of the impressive Bangkok SkyTrain subway system. I gotta admit, the subway system in Bangkok is pretty cool – the trains are clean and air conditioned with some of the cars sporting LCD screens displaying advertisements. It’s pretty easy going from point A to point B using the SkyTrain although the network isn’t comprehensive as of yet.
The late afternoon/early evening hours were spent at the Siam Center shopping mall where we checked out the working middle class going about their daily activities. Some of these centers have some pretty high end stuff you know. How do they afford it?
After dinner, Yvonne and I decided to check out Mission Impossible III which was playing over at the Siam Center. Yes – it was in English with Thai subtitles. Did you know that you’re supposed to stand up and pay respects to the king and queen before the movie? It’s akin to everyone standing up for the stars and stripes before sporting events here in the US.
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05.07.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:57 am by flung
Sunday certainly was a busy day for us as we got up fairly early in the morning to head out to an island off the coast of Pattaya. We teamed up with another group of 5 tourists (who were also from California) and jumped onto a speed boat to the Coral Island.
Along the way, we stopped by a parasailing site to do some well – parasailing. Yvonne and I both parasailed for about 2 minutes and it was definitely an awesome experience. The only downside to the experience was the harness that they made us wear which was unbearably tight on us. UGH!
Next stop – the Coral Island. What did we do there? Absolutely nothing but relax. We sat on lounge chairs, got some sun, walked around, and of course.. ate some food. NICE….
At around 2pm, we headed back to Pattaya and relaxed for the next three hours or so. At night, we headed out to the famous Tiffany show. Now if you’ve never been to Pattaya, you’re in for a treat! Thailand is well known for a high occurrence of transvestites. Yep.. tons of skinny men who decided to become the opposite sex. The Tiffany show is basically a cabaret show featuring some of the most beautiful transvestites there and let me tell you.. it’s nearly impossible to tell.
After the Tiffany show, we had a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel to rest up.
Hotel for the night:
Royal Cliff Beach Resort
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05.06.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:55 am by flung
It’s travel day yet again as we checked out of the Montien Riverside Hotel and took a nice two hour ride over to Pattaya. Pattaya is a beach resort made famous during the 50’s and 60’s when American GI’s stationed in the region would take shore leave there. They found a small city with friendly villagers, good food, and of course white sandy beaches. Now Pattaya also has a slightly shadier side to it which you’ll see in some of the pictures. However, the city has tried to shake that image over the last few years hoping that tourists would focus on the positive aspects of the town such as the beaches and water sports.
We checked into the Royal Cliff Beach Resort which as the name implies, is set alongside a cliff. Unfortunately our hotel room window didn’t face the water otherwise we’d have some awesome shots on here. Here’s a couple of interesting shots nevertheless.
Down by the beach, we snapped up some pics of craps that were crawling all over the place.
By the time we unpacked and settled into our hotel room, it was already dinner time, so we headed to yet another buffet place – this time located at the Hard Rock Hotel. We ended the night with yet another Thai massage (which was part of the tour package already).
Hotel for the night:
Royal Cliff Beach Resort
Thai massage number:
2
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05.05.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:54 am by flung
It’s starting to be a theme here folks – another western style buffet breakfast to start things off before our tour continues with Cindy. Our first major stop of the day is to the Damnoen Floating Market. Never heard of a floating market before? Don’t worry – neither have I. If you think the name implies the market is floating on something.. say water, then you’d be absolutely correct. The Damnoen Floating Market is essentially an outdoor market made up of canoes floating along a small river/ravine. You travel by boat to the market and then shop for your items from your very same boat. You’ll find many of the same items that you would typically find in a night market in Thailand. Items for sale include food, fruits, souvenirs, clothing, and trinkets. Here are some pics of the floating market.
After the floating market, we took a quick stop at a wood carving place to check out some hand made wooden products. Here are some pics for you to enjoy:
Afterwards, we headed off to our next stop which was the Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo. It was here where I discovered that Yvonne absolutely loves feeding Elephants. (Set them free we say!) At every opportunity where we could feed elephants, you’d see Yvonne right there parceling out food to these gentle yet LARGE animals.
Here are some additional (and adorable) shots of baby elephants hanging out with us.
The trainers even had the elephants conditioned to take Thai baht money from us and hand it to the trainer. Here’s how it works. You had over 20 baht to the elephant which then promptly hands it to the trainer and then makes a loud noise acknowledging your offer. Can you say “Stupid Pet Tricks”? Yet another way to extract money from tourists eh? Well all for a good cause!
After we fed the elephants, we took a quick ride on an actual elephant. Here are pics taken from a worker at the zoo.
We also spent some time watching an elephant show as well as a crocodile show but there wasn’t much to talk about there.
Dinner was yet another buffet and we capped things off with a nice two hour massage at a local parlor. Thai massages are definitely all that folks. We haven’t cracked our backs like that in years! The entire two hour massage cost us 500 baht per person which is approximately 14 dollars or so. SWEET!
Hotel for the night:
Montien Riverside Hotel
Thai massage number:
1
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05.04.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 8:14 am by flung
Having just traveled halfway around the world, Yvonne and I decided to check out the fitness center this morning and do a little treadmill running. After the workout, we dined at the Raddison restaurant for a nice complementary breakfast buffet thanks to the tour package that we had.
Check out time was noon and Cindy promptly picked us up afterwards to take us to our first of many buffet restaurants. Here are some pictures of us at the restaurant.
Following the restaurant, we headed over to the Grand Palace which is sacred royal ground to the Thai. This meant that we had to make sure we wore at least a t-shirt and long pants – no cut offs or shorts allowed around here. Here are various pics taken from the Grand Palace.
Notice the sweat on our faces.. it was one HOT day!
After the Grand Palace, we checked into our next hotel which was the Montien Riverside Hotel. As the name implies, the Hotel is literally next to a river which was unfortunately somewhat brown in color. One of the many nice things that Cindy did for us while we were on this trip came at the Montien Riverside – she informed the hotel that it was our honeymoon and they promptly placed a bunch of rose petals on our bed in the shape of a heart. Here are some snapshots.
Yvonne decided to have some fun with the rose petals too!
We capped off the night with a Sunset Cruise along the Chao Phraya River. Here are pics from that cruise.
Hotel for the night:
Montien Riverside Hotel
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05.03.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 1:04 am by flung
Our first stop was Hong Kong where we had a 2+ hour layover before continuing onto Bangkok. We got a quick bite to eat upstairs at the café and then hopped on another Cathay Pacific flight straight to Bangkok. At this point, it’s evening hours in Hong Kong and it’ll be around 8 to 9pm by the time we land in Bangkok. (Bangkok is one hour behind Hong Kong in case you’re wondering).
The flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was relatively quick at around 2 hours and 15 minutes. After going through customs clearing, our tour guide (named Cindy) from Signet Tours was waiting for us out by the exit. We thought that we would be in a huge tour group but luckily it turns out that we’re the only people on the tour. Cool – personal attention baby!
Throughout the trip from LA to Bangkok, we were pretty much in air conditioned environments.. but reality set in once we exited the Bangkok airport. Wow it’s Hot and Humid!! On top of that, the air is somewhat thick with pollution so be prepared for that should you decide to ever come out to Bangkok.
Since we got in at night, there wasn’t going to be much sightseeing done on the first day so Signet Tours booked us into the Raddison Hotel for one night before officially starting up the tour.
Hotel for the night:
Raddison Hotel
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05.02.06
Posted in Honeymoon at 12:48 am by flung
It’s Tuesday, which means it’s travel day for us as we head out from LAX to Thailand. Our itinerary takes us from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Bangkok and spans around 14+ hours of travel time. Airline wise, we’re traveling on Cathay Pacific Airlines which is definitely one of the best airlines I’ve ever been on.
The flight itself was uneventful and very smooth. Cathay Pacific made sure that no one sat in our row since we told them that we were newlyweds.
Nothing much to write about here since the entire time was taken up in sleeping, eating, and watching movies.
Movies watched:
- Underworld
- Underworld 2
- Brokeback Mountain
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05.01.06
Posted in Wedding at 9:52 am by flung
First off, many thanks to everyone who came out for our wedding this past Saturday. Everything went without a hitch and we are so very happy that all of you could share in this special day with us. Here’s a bit of a recap for this past weekends’ events
On Friday, we had our rehearsal at 3pm followed by the rehearsal dinner at Good Choice restaurant over on the east side (gotta love that Chinese restaurant name eh?) Rehearsal was a good time for everyone to get together - from family to friends to helpers to our Pastor. Good times. Heck - Nobu even ended up getting lost on the 5 before getting to the wedding rehearsal a bit late (yes.. he ended up as far north as Six Flags).
Friday night, Yvonne stayed with her folks while I stayed back at my apartment getting stuff together for the big day.
On Saturday morning, things began fairly early for everyone. Yvonne and the bridesmaids were getting their hair and makeup worked on as early at 8ish in the morning while Dave, Kerwin, and I were picking up the shuttle vans at around 9ish. All the groomsmen arrived at the house at around 11am and then we tidied things up a bit. In the meantime, the bridesmaids and bride were getting ready for the big event.
Our helpers arrived at around 12-12:30 and they were just utterly wonderful. Many thanks goes to all of you who helped make this occasion smooth and steady! Amazingly, everything went on time as guests started arriving at around 1:30pm to the house. The shuttle vans started rolling and people started meandering around the house.
What was truly amazing was the weather. At around 12:30, it was hazy and somewhat overcast.. and cool. At around 1:15pm, sunlight started peeking through and by 1:30pm, the sun was in its full glory. It was absolutely amazing. We ended up having the most beautiful day you can ask for with crystal clear skies. This was truly providence folks! Thank you GOD!
At 2:30pm, the wedding ceremony started and everything else was history.
We’d like to thank the following people:
The Wedding Party for helping us out in so many different ways. The party consisted of:
- Alma Sweeney
- Sibil Kwok
- Vickie Wang
- Lydia Chung
- David Wu
- Ted Yu
- Kerwin Kam
- Nobu Honma
We’d like to thank the folks at Catalyst Church for helping us out with wedding preparation, with sound, with officiating, and with all the love and prayers. In particular, many thanks to:
- Angelina and Doug Lee
- Christie and Ron Kobata
Where would we be without our helpers from that day. My goodness - everything from the guest table to seating of the friends and family to cleaning up.. EVERYTHING. A special thanks goes to:
- Steve Cho
- Curtis Lew
- Alan Sung
- Matt Tom
- Bobby Tsai - thanks also for reading the scriptures
- Ya-Tin Yang
- Maurice Callis
- Daranee Pramest
- Lorraine Wu
- Adam Ling
- Teresa Tran
- Trung Pham
- Dennis
- Brad
We’d like to thank our vendors who did all the behind the scenes work.
- Mrs. Virginia Hom - for the beautiful flower arrangements at the house and at the reception. They were absolutely INCREDIBLE.
- Mr. Young Lee - for shooting all the images on that day and capturing all the special moments
- Mr. Scott Tompkins - for DJing and MCing the entire reception.
- Ms. Stephanie Nagami - for coordinating the entire day for us and making sure we didn’t lose our minds behind all the little details
Many thanks to Eric Liu for graciously hosting the wedding ceremony. I think we’re all in agreement that the house was absolutely stunning. THANK YOU ERIC!
Finally, to our families, relatives, and family friends who helped us in so many ways. Everything from the wedding planning, to the dinners, to well.. everything, our families have been a wonderful source of encouragement and backing. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Thank you to God for being the source of our strength and love through everything and finally - last but certainly not the last, thank you to my beautiful bride and wife - Yvonne Chu. She has been everything to me ever since I met her and I truly can say that I am one of the luckiest men on the face of this planet. Thank you Yvonne for walking with me through this journey of ours.
Thank you all for this wonderful weekend! –>
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