Eastern and Orient Express(ish)

Once again, we took advantage of our location to see Asia a different way...

A quick flight to Bangkok set us up to begin a train trip back down the Malaysian peninsula to Singapore on the Eastern and Orient Express.  

That name is just a guideline, the Express part means they don't stop at every station and take on passengers... but the trip itself lasts four days and three nights. 

That's less than two hours by jet up, 90 hours by train back.  

So Express is solely demonstrated in the number of stops, which is a good thing when you are ensconced on a turn of the century train full of really good food and endlessly entertaining scenery.  

We had a few days in the beginning in Bangkok to wander around and soak up the atmosphere, so of course we hopped on a boat (water taxi) and headed for the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Po ...

My scale model checking boat schedule...

Buddha head...

Buddha head closer...

Buddha body...

Buddha feet...

Bottom of Buddha feet...














Giant Reclining Buddha. Quite the little tourist attraction.

Here's a couple pics of the detail in some of the temple:

We got there pretty early in the day and it was starting to get really busy even then.  Our admission price of 100 Baht (about $3.50) got us entry to the temple, gardens, a free bottle of ice cold water and a frozen washcloth.

We put our spare change into an offering box that allowed us to take a bowl of token coins and walk down a line of bigger bowls, dropping coins into them a couple at a time.  We assume we were getting luck, or wisdom or some kind of Asian spiritual uplift.  We didn't really care because it was just fun to do.

Over the next couple of days, we wandered and dallied and rode boats and trains...

We were walking.  A little lost.  Still havin' fun...

Boats, temples, questionable water...

Three fun pics:

These guys are at one of the water taxi stops.  You can buy food to give them, but we didn't need to- everyone else did.  The fish just flop all over each other trying to get the food... it's bizarre.

These are flood stairs.  They are everywhere in Bangkok, at least near the river. Like urban 'stiles' to get you over little flood walls- in hotels, on walkways, on docks.

Usually about two feet high, sometimes higher in the hotels. Good idea, but as CNN shows us every year, not good enough. 

Train station on the "Sky Train" monorail in Bangkok.

If you are related to me by blood, you will probably find this worth a chuckle.

Everyone else can maturely scroll on...








So eventually, our Bangkok tour led us to the train station where we were pleased and amused to find this guy...

...surprising number of dogs hanging around a country that considers them dim sum ingredients.  We aren't sure what's up with that.  But this one was happy enough.















There was a trackside barber shop that we were also pleased and amused by...

"Late for your train but forgot to get your hair cut? No problem! Let us cut it for you trackside!"













And here is the Eastern and Orient Express Train itself waiting to whisk us away into the last century...

The observation car was at the end of the train and we were in carriage 'A' which was the next car up.  Yippee! It's like being on the last car of a roller coaster and way more fun.  :)

They kindly provided a map of our journey in the Library car, so I include the map and then the map being photo bombed by my scale model...

(click them to make them bigger, both for the route and to better see the Bomber)

Our compartment was standard train issue, but since they are so much fun, I am just going to include a buncha pictures of it...

Origami beds in daytime...

Stretched out with Ted as a backrest, watching the countryside go by at a rattling 40mph.

Munchkin sink...

Munchkin toilet (facing the shower which was actually pretty good sized)...

The hallway of our carriage...

This is the open air observation car.  My scale model is demonstrating proper use.

Improper use is when you stand at the open parts and stick your head out.



Which is what we usually did. 

This is the reading car.  Books provided.  There is a hallway outside so people aren't trooping through while you relax.

















There was also a saloon car, a bar car, and three dining cars.  But you get the idea, right?


Here is the train looking back...

 

Or actually, the train looking forward.  In any case, it's the whole train.  

We got these cool Thai flowers when we boarded...

and we placed them on a pair of graves at the cemetery for the men who didn't survive the forced labor camps on the River Kwai.

The train stopped on the bridge on the River Kwai so we could get off and take a tour down the river and into the Thailand Burma museum for the WWII POWs there.  

The river isn't actually the River Kwai, and of course the bridge the prisoners built was blown up by the Allies, but despite the misnomer (Hollywood strikes again!) this was the actual location (and the Thai gov't got around the pesky problem by renaming a short section of the actual river "Kwai" since that is what people come looking for)... 

...and that's our actual train on the not actual Bridge Over the (not really) River Kwai.  :)

The museum was very interesting and very sobering.  The cemetery is just next to it, and thanks to meticulous records the Allied soldiers who died there are all identified and given individual graves.  Not so lucky the Asians- (Thai, Malaysian, Burmese) they were cremated and rest en masse in urns near the temple.  

Back on the train, some random shots as we clattered down the peninsula, eating way too much, drinking just enough, and banging into walls everywhere we walked.

And a nice shot of my scale model doing a commercial for the company...

 

It was a really interesting way to see the Malay Peninsula and it was fun to be on a sleeper train again.  We met some interesting people, and some people who were interesting simply for being kind of... oddly boring.  

It was a truly international mix of passengers, and one night we ate with a British couple doing time in Brunei... but that's a whole other blog.  

Fun times in Asia!

Cinema Hedonists

Well, we did it.  We finally went to a Velvet Class movie.

I have touched on the movies in Jakarta before... we are pleased and surprised at how quickly (sometimes simultaneously) big U.S. flicks show up on Indonesian screens, plus we pay very little for tickets and less than that for food- of which there is a great variety.

Once, a long time ago, we bought tickets for Satin Class, which basically gets you a La-Z-Boy on the mezzanine of a regular movie.

Not too exciting and you end up sitting with a big fat end table between you and your boyfriend which is NOT good.

But today we went to the movies.  It was 1pm on a Sunday, and we could do Velvet Class or wait until 2pm.

We decided it was time to do Velvet Class.

Velvet Class is basically a big bed slapped down in a regular stadium theater along with a buncha other big beds.

Until now, we have avoided it for two main reasons:

1- Eww. Really? A big bed in a public theater? Eww?

2- We are older and any kind of squishy reclining tends to make us take a nap, thus cancelling out the purpose of being at the movies.

But today, we felt brave and awake and decided it was time to go for it.

Now, Velvet Class is shockingly expensive... $14 for each ticket.  To New Yorkers that probably sounds like a bargain, but in the rest of the U.S. that's still a pretty pricey ticket, and to Jakartans it's three times what they normally pay.

We held our noses and ponied up the RPH 250,000.

What that got us was two tickets to Hedonism Indonesian style, plus a movie.

We were escorted back to the Velvet Class Lounge where you can sit in comfy upholstered chairs and wait for the theater to be ready.  In this lounge are TVs and a snack bar, along with private bathrooms.

From there you go into the theater which has a capacity of about 45-50 people.  Three or four lounges (beds) per row and about 5 rows.  That's it.  In the whole theater.  With a regular big sized screen (not a multi-plex mini screen).

This is a picture from the theater website because the pictures we took with Ted's phone were really bad...

There is a hostess who checks your tickets to make sure you paid, and then she whips out a blanket and asks permission to open it for you and spread it on your legs.

Each person has a little nightstand area to put Cokes and whatever else you like, and there is a button on one side to call the hostess if you would like something (fer instance, she will bring food on china and set it up on small tray tables that sit on your bed).

The beds themselves have two giant floor type pillows, one long bolster and two throw pillows, all in velvet, of course.  So we mushed those around until we were nice and comfy and settled in to watch our movie.

We are sold.

The movie was 2 hours 8 minutes long and we were just fine.  No fidgeting in narrow seats, no crowds eating and talking all around us, no nothing.  Just the best date ever, slap in the middle of a Sunday afternoon at the movies.

And lest your mind is tending to the gutter, they remind you three or four different ways that the theater has CCTV and leave you to connect those dots.

When we leave here, no theater in America is going to let me watch movies while reclining on a giant square sofa with velvet pillows while a hostess brings me food... and that's going to make me cranky.

Venice, Who Knew?

Well, okay- to be fair apparently everyone knew but us!  

We had thought that someday we should make a trip to Venice but it never made it very far up the wish list.  There were all those stories about the filthy water and the expense and the fact that the whole city was sinking and fetid.  


Lies lies and more lies. 


Well, okay- to be fair it is really expensive and it remains to be seen if the sinking has really been arrested, but the water is no longer the stew pot it was 20 years ago and is reliably scrubbed by daily tides...


So once again we ventured into a land where we do not speak the language, taking our usual care to learn please, thank you, and I'm sorry- the three things we can speak in every language we've encountered.  Especially the last.  Mi dispiace (me dis-pee-ah-chay) a thousand times for all the misinformation I've believed about Venice. 


The city is magical and is certainly one of our all-time favorites!


We were smart enough, or lucky enough, to decide to go during Carnevale (pre-lenten festivities) - five days of Carnevale and four days of blessed peace after all the Carnevale revelers left.  It was a perfect split. 


For Carnevale, people dress in costumes- everything from Casanova and his lady loves to Pooh Bear and Mickey Mouse.  Masks are always a Venetian staple as souvenirs, but during Carnevale you can choose one and wear it without a costume day and night if you like. 


Here's a sampling of some costumes...




(note the tourists in the background of this first shot, with their masks 

 on their heads...)

and then a shot of one of the widest streets/sidewalks on the day before Fat Tuesday... it was a very international crowd- people walking left right and center speaking a half dozen languages and with varying needs for personal space.  


After the first 24 hours we started knocking into people the way they had been knocking into us, since our cultural need for some personal space was clearly not ever going to happen.  

Occasionally we would just stop and force people to move around us since everyone considered their chunk of sidewalk proprietary and we got tired of making way.  


The best way to deal with the crowds of Carnevale is to stop at every 5th shop and buy a small cup of hot wine.  It does wonders for your disposition and people are slightly more careful around you when you are holding a hot, red beverage. 


The people watching was stupendous, and thankfully Venice has no shortage of outdoor tables where you can sit (often in the sun) and sip more wine and just mock... er... admire the passing parade. 


I also claim Smartypants status for this trip re: public transport.  Soon after arriving we stopped by the ACTV ticket booth to check on possibly getting 'bus' tickets to get around.  They offer single tickets, day passes and weekly passes.  The prices are discounted as one would expect when you purchase more time.  I advocated for weekly passes and prevailed... best idea I've had for a long time.  


Bus travel in Venice is by wide flat boats. 

Venice Bus Boat

There is seating inside and out, plus a large area for people to just stand if they are only going one or two stops.  


The boat pulls up to a bus stop, usually banging it pretty good and the conductor throws a rope out and opens the waist high gate and everyone who wants off goes, then everyone who wants on comes.  


The stop rarely lasts more than 30 seconds and you're off to the next one.  


All the bus stops are floating docks with walls to shelter you from wind and/or rain.


Here's my scale model...

...waiting for the bus

We used those bus tickets like crazy.  Hop on hop off, walk four miles out... take the water bus back to the hotel.  

We took the water bus out to Murano Island where they make and sell Venetian glass and where we had the best lunch we've had for a very long time. Picture a place full of Italians on legitimate lunch breaks and only a handful of dopey tourists like us, eating pizza with the freshest ingredients ever and pasta made by people who know how.  




Our hotel was right on the Grand Canal, another opportunity for me to claim Smartypants status.  I told Ted if we were going to do Venice, we were going to do it right and I booked a hotel not only on the Grand Canal, but steps from the Piazza San Marco which is ground zero for Carnevale.  He balked when I did it, but now agrees that I can be Head Smartypants. 


The hotel was formerly owned in the 1500s by a family who was apparently tried and convicted of some treason or other...but now it looks like this:

Click on it to make it bigger and you can see our room.  We were right above the G in Regina on the 3rd floor (4th floor in America).  


And as you look at the picture you say to yourself, "Hey! There's no road.  Did they arrive by boat?" 


Well, yes and no. 


We arrived by really super crowded boring slow boat filled with jet lagged tourists from all over the world that left from the airport docks and cost us 15 euros apiece.  Bleah.  It dropped us and the other Smartypants hotel bookers off at the Piazza San Marco and we headed for the hotel on foot.


Family Rule #1 since the beginning of time: If you can't hump it, don't bring it.  So we were okay for luggage because we never have more than we are willing or able to carry for a mile or two and we knew it wasn't that far.  


Although we had no idea in which direction it was that we didn't have to go far to. 


I spotted an information office on the Piazza, and we did Rock Paper Scissors to see who got to be the dopey tourist with the stupid question and poor language skills.  


I lost.  


Ted stood with the luggage while I went inside and showed the nice lady my reservation sheet.  She told me "Italian Italian Italian, Tesselini, Italian Italian.  Over bridge Italian turn left Italian then left again."


I smiled, trotted out my best 'Grazi' and backed out of the office. 


Ted said, "Okay! Where do we go?" 


I said, "Okay! I dunno." 


Fortunately he laughed and I used the pause to look around frantically for Tesselini which turned out to be the name of a street nearby.  I faked some confidence and told him "This way."


Luckily there was a bridge right away and when we crossed it and turned left there was an actual sign for our hotel leading down what, in our previous experience, would have been a back alley...

...that's the hotel sign in the right center of the picture and we took two of these street/alleys before suddenly popping out onto a little campo in which was located the front door of the Hotel Regina and Europa.  


TaDa!  We had arrived.  


And this is how we knew we were in Europe...

Our son's favorite (NOT) part of Europe has always been the phone booth elevators.  So this shot is for him.  Airplane bathrooms have nothing on these guys.  A porter had taken our suitcases to a service elevator, and good thing, because the pair of us barely fit in this one. 

Scale model demonstrating European elevator.

We used it to go up, but came down the stairs every time... too claustrophobic even for lazy people to use going down.




















From our Front Row Seat Room, the windows of which were rarely closed, Sunday morning about 10am, we heard music.            Italian music.  


We looked out the window and saw variations on this theme...

Remember, [almost] all the pictures are bigger when clicked.

They were having Carnevale boat races right outside our window.  Mickey and Minnie won this one.  Off camera to the left was a larger flatter boat with the race committee and large speakers playing atmospheric music.  


Three races and they were done, among much happy yelling in Italian.  :)


Meanwhile, on the Piazza San Marco... there is a huge open space in the area around the Campanille (giant bell tower) and the Doge's Palace (where Casanova was once imprisoned and escaped), and a statue to Saint Theodore, who was patron Saint of Venice until he was dumped around 800 A.D. for St. Mark.  


So here for your viewing pleasure is a picture of St. Theodore and Regular Theodore, together for the first time. 

Up on the plinth with the Saint is a big lizard or something... we are unclear about his lore, but I prefer my Theodores regular anyway so...


At this point in our tour, I will just put up some pictures.  We took over 500 but even I understand that would be too many to share, so I grabbed some highlights.

The Campanille at Piazza San Marco

Get a fresh apple as you walk...

Canalside, Piazza San Marco

From a bridge...

From another bridge...

,,,and yet a third...

These are called 'sotoportego' - through buildings...

Wow.  Just wow.

Ditto.

One of hundreds of tiny campos.  Sit, order wine, rest.

We would get to a spot like this and say...what's around that corner?... and we'd be off for another mile.  We couldn't resist.

Saturday morning after Friday night...wine kegs.  :D

And that's your whirlwind tour of Venice by picture.  If you're a glutton, ask me to see the other 485 some day.  


Finally, a quick shot of my scale model getting us the most delicious Italian Salami sammiches while I lounge in a window table admiring my lushly Venetian surroundings.  This truly is a magic city...

We had to say good bye eventually, but we were determined not to repeat the slow boat to Venice we arrived on, so we asked for a taxi and it pulled up right outside our room.  We reluctantly entered what we knew to be our last Venetian boat and gazed pathetically out the back for as long as we could...

Ciao Venezia!