02May10 BR 68 W BKK-TPE 77W B-16712 seat 20K

Check-in was already open when I arrived at 1230PM.  There was no one ahead of me in the line for Diamond members, and the agent greeted me with a smile as I handed her my passport.  Usually the first . . . → Read More: Portland to Bangkok and Singapore – Part 3]]> Heading home to Portland…

02May10 BR 68 W BKK-TPE 77W B-16712 seat 20K

Check-in was already open when I arrived at 1230PM.  There was no one ahead of me in the line for Diamond members, and the agent greeted me with a smile as I handed her my passport.  Usually the first thing I do is ask to try to change my seat, but since I asked the reservations agent to put a note in my booking, I wanted to see if my request was done before hand.  She asked if my bag should be checked to PDX and I replied in the affirmative and then she attempted to print out my bag tag and boarding passes, but both printers had issues.  It just took a minute or so to fix, but the agent apologized profusely none the less.  I was handed both boarding passes and lounge invites, (my seat was changed out of BKK to my preferred bulkhead window) and the agent told me that she blocked the seat next to me from BKK to TPE.

There were some lines that greeted me at outbound immigration; there were only three immigration officers for “foreign passports” and quite a few more than that for Thai passports.  Security was next, and unlike the week before when I flew to SIN, it was deserted, and no questions were asked about my backpack so I got through fairly quickly, and then I was off to the Evergreen lounge.  This lounge is always bright and cheery with plenty of seats, and there were also plenty of decent nibbles at this time of day which I helped myself to as well as an ungodly amount of Coke Zero.  At about 315PM I headed off to our gate which was G4 today, and that is a rarity.  Almost every flight on BR that I take from BKK leaves from the E gates, but today I noticed both TPE flights were leaving from G.  I got to the gate a couple of minutes after it opened, and sat down and read while waiting for boarding.   EVA in BKK always show the boarding time on the boarding passes as 45 minutes before departure, but reality is that boarding is usually 30 minutes prior, and that is exactly what happened today, boarding started at 355PM for the 425PM departure.

A couple of minutes after being seated, the Chief Purser came over to greet me and wish me a pleasant flight.  A few minutes later one of the cabin attendants came by to ask me my meal preference and to take my drink order.  The choices were chicken with fried rice or Pad Thai.  I’ve had quite a bit of Thai food the last couple of weeks, so I went for the chicken, and of course I asked for Coke Light.  The cabin attendant said that she would bring me the can and wished me a nice flight.  We left the gate right on time, but had to taxi completely across the airport.  We took off at 449PM.  Elite class was maybe a third full today.  As customary, the “cabin crew service check” announcement was made when we reached 10,000 feet as usual and soon enough the cart was rolled out.  My meal was delivered first, tonight the chicken had a slight spice to it and it was accompanied with fried rice and veggies.  The main course is simple, but one my favorites that BR serves in Elite class.  It came with a warm soft roll, a shredded onion, pepper, and cabbage salad, fruit, and a carrot cake for dessert.  I had my full can of Coke Light and was offered water as well.  During the meal, the Chief Purser came back to check on me and offered me more water as well.  After the meal was finished I read for a bit and then slept until a few minutes before landing.  Again it was fairly clear weather and I had great views all the way from BKK until we left the coast of Vietnam, and then the island of Taiwan was a beautiful sea of lights as we made our approach.  We landed on TPE’s runway 06 at 852PM after three hours and three minutes of flying.  We taxied over to gate C9, and as we were pulling into the gate, one of the cabin attendants came over to me and asked if I would like to disembark with the business class passengers, which is a gesture that I always appreciate.  I was one of the first off and headed over to transfer security.

02May10 BR 26 C TPE-SEA 77W B-16710 seat 6A

We had arrived at a good time as we were between the other international arrivals, so transfer security was not busy at all.  It was then off to the EVA lounge complex.  This time I headed right to the Diamond lounge, where I made myself comfortable and did a few minutes of work.  I grabbed myself a Coke Light to drink in the lounge, but nothing else as I wasn’t thrilled with the offerings tonight  I left the lounge at 1005PM, and made my to our gate for the evening which was C8.  Before entering the gate there is a passport check; and the line was pretty long as there was only one agent checking passports.  After that, we head downstairs to wait for boarding.  The gate area was very busy already with many passengers in wheelchairs lined up to board, and an extraordinary amount of kids under the age of five.  The gate agents had their hands full gate checking strollers and by the time they got the wheelchair passengers boarded and the strollers checked, it was 1040PM and that’s when boarding for business class started.  The flight was fairly full in all classes, I had a seat mate (who was also a Diamond member) for the first time in many flights on EVA.  There were no empty pairs of seats that one of us could move to; in fact I only saw two empty seats in business class.  At 1100PM the forward door was closed, and five minutes later the Chief Purser came on to the p.a. system to announce that we had an ill passenger that had to be removed from the flight; but our departure would be delayed while her baggage was retrieved.

During the delay, various assistant pursers came by to take meal and drink orders, or in my case verify my order.  Hot towels and a choice of juices/water were offered as well.  At 1125PM. Door 2L closed, and we made our way out to the runway 06 and took off at 1141PM.  Again, as soon as we hit 10,000 feet, the “cabin crew service check” announcement was made and our service began.  Here is tonight’s menu:

Hors D’oeuvre:  Rosette of smoked salmon rose and zucchini, goose liver terrine with duck, pan seared scallop skewed with snow crab

Main Courses

• Double boiled chicken broth with ginseng and shiitake mushroom, pan fried pork filet wrapped in Chinese ham, preserved mustard green with sugar cane sprout, rape green blossom, egg noodles
• Pan seared cod filet with brunoise vegetables cardinal sauce, saffron potato ball and buttered green zucchini ball
• Traditional cold delicatessens, superior abalone with shiitake mushroom Chef Ah Yat style, wild yam with wolfberry, ruby rice

Fresh fruit

Sweet

Coffee

Tea

As I mentioned before, I wasn’t thrilled with any of those choices, so I ordered the lamb roast which came with Yukon gold mashed potatoes, pearl onions and veggies.  Surprise, I just had club soda to drink since I wanted to get some shut eye after supper.  The appetizer was the same as above, but I just ate the duck which was again good.  The lamb turned out better than I was expecting, and was quite a good meal.  The sweet plate came out with both a mini-piece of white cake with strawberry and chocolate cake with almond served with various pieces of fruit.  The entire meal was very good, and the flight crew as very attentive.

As soon as the meal was cleared away, I put on my eye shades and put in my ear plugs and dozed off.  Since this flight gets to the west coast in the evening, I only wanted to sleep for a maximum of five hours so I could adjust better to the time change.  I got about four and a half hours in, and then I got up.  This is one of the aircraft that has stars on the ceiling for evening travel, and there is a “dawn” feature that gradually lights the cabin up.  When I woke, the dawn was just starting.  I went to lav and shaved and then read for a little bit until the breakfast service (which is actually shown in the menu as Refreshment) started.  Here were today’s choices:

• Chinese Style – selection of tea, double boiled port sparerib broth with bamboo pith and ginkgo nut, Congee served with traditional hot and cold delicatessens
• Western Style – coffee, tea, fresh fruit, choice of bread, bacon and potato quiche, roasted mix vegetables (my choice)
• Premium Laurel Special – selection of tea, fresh fruit, traditional cold delicatessens, stewed beef shank soup noodle Din Tai Fung

My breakfast Diet Coke arrived just as my breakfast tray was being delivered.  This breakfast was very tasty; the bread service included rolls and Danish.  Unlike my last few flights it was very cloudy all the way from when I opened up my window shade during breakfast, all the way into SEA.  Under the cloud cover, I did get a great view of Boeing Field before landing.  We made up most a good portion of the time we were delayed, and landing was made on SEA’s runway 16C at 647PM after a ten hours and six minute flight.  It took just a couple of minutes of taxi time over to our gate, which was EVA’s usual S11 I was not the first off of the plane, but I was one of the first through immigration.   EVA unloads all priority bags first in SEA on a separate carousel, but it took a few minutes longer than usual to get the carousel started.  I did count, and my bag was number 16 out.  I got through customs quickly and checked my watch; it was 707PM.  My scheduled flight to PDX was at 930PM, and there was one flight before that at 800PM.  Hmm, could I make the earlier flight?  I thought I would at least try.  I took my bag with me on the train to the main terminal (instead of putting it on the carousel) and started to move quickly when we arrived.  I took the sets of escalators up until I was one level below ticketing where the escalator was blocked off.  I hiked to the stairs and climbed up with my bag and walked very quickly over to the AS check in area.  I went first to the MVP line, as there was just one person being helped, but I saw that the ticket agent was in a deep discussion on the phone with the passenger in front of her, so I went back to the regular agents where at this point there was no wait and checked my watch 714PM – I should make the bag cutoff for the 800PM flight.  The agent asked me if I was a Gold or MVP member and I replied yes, and she said that was good because there was a long standby list.  She tagged my bag for the 800PM flight, gave me a standby boarding pass and sent me to the gate.  Luckily there was no wait for the TSA ID checkers, and the agent checking my ID said “good luck on getting on the flight,” and sent me though to security.  There was a short wait for both lines as people had to get rid of liquid, but I made it through and was at gate C2B at 725PM.  This is one of the gates that have the new information boards that show the standby lists.  I saw that I was number two on the list (number one had a seat already) and the flight was booked to 73 out of 76 with 71 checked in.  I thought that my chances of getting on were very good, and within a couple of minutes, I was called up to the podium and given a seat for the 800PM departure.

02May10 AS 2173 Y SEA-PDX DH4 N428QX seat 16D

Even though my preference is for a window seat, beggars can’t be choosers, so I settled into my aisle for the short flight.  We boarded our flight just at 740PM though door 3.  This flight was packed.  I wasn’t the only standby and when the doors finally closed, there were no empty seats at all.  The door closed at exactly 800PM and we started our push back.  As we were taxiing to runway 16C, the captain came on with his welcome on board speech, but added that the flight was expected to be very bumpy, so he was going to keep the two flight attendants sitting down the entire flight.  We were airborne at 808PM and there was cloud cover and slight turbulence for the entire 28 minute flight; we landed on PDX’s runway 28L at 836PM and we were at stand C a couple of minutes after that.  Thanks to the standby on the earlier flight, I got home almost two hours earlier than ticketed.

Overall it was a very good trip and I’m glad that I used two of my upgrades for the long hauls.  I have noticed that for the most part EVA is very consistent, and that in the end is what I depend on.

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I knew that at some point during this trip, I would have to make an overnight journey to SIN.  I didn’t book anything from the U.S. as I had no clue what days I would be gone.  A few days into my trip, I was given the dates that I would . . . → Read More: Portland to Bangkok and Singapore – Part 2]]> Trip to Singapore

I knew that at some point during this trip, I would have to make an overnight journey to SIN.  I didn’t book anything from the U.S. as I had no clue what days I would be gone.  A few days into my trip, I was given the dates that I would need to be in SIN and I started looking at air fares.  Since this flight is under three hours, I had to take the least expensive flight I could find.  I checked the low cost carriers, Air Asia, Jet Star, Tiger Airways, as well as the majors, SQ, TG and CX and the lowest prices of all of those carriers was had by SQ which was a surprise to me.  With taxes, it was about USD $200 (THB6505 to be exact), where the other carriers were close or over $300 for the same trip.  Even a “free” ticket one way on Tiger Air (you still had to pay taxes and exorbitant fees) with a low cost return turned out to be more expensive than that, so Singapore Airlines was the choice.  I had flown SQ many times previously but only in C class, never in Y, so I was looking forward to the experience.  I was able to choose my seats on line, and went towards the back of the aircraft since the flights didn’t look too full, and I might that way get an empty seat next to me.

23Apr10 SQ 973 Y BKK-SIN 777 9V-SRG seat 55K

I booked the first flight of the day out on SQ which was the 940AM departure.  I made better time than I expected in BKK traffic and got to the airport at 725AM.  There was no line at all for check-in, and the agent issued both my outbound and return boarding passes at the same time.  Outbound immigration was fairly quick, there were only two people in front of me, but there was a very long line for security.  Something in my bag looked like a liquid apparently, so the security officers took a look in my bag and found nothing and soon I was on my way to the lounge.  Whoops, this is the first time in almost three years that I am flying a carrier that I don’t have status on, so no lounge access for me.  Wait a second though, as an EVA Diamond member, I can use their lounge even though I’m flying on another carrier.  So I head over to the EVA lounge but find it closed.  Oh well, it was a good thought.  I wander though the mall that is the BKK airport, stopping to get some free internet time. And then head over to my gate which is D4 this morning.  There is still a TG 744 that is bound for HKG at the gate; it looks like they are missing a passenger and going through bags to remove that person’s baggage.  I see my SQ 777 turn into the alley heading for the gate just as the offending bag is found and the TG 744 is buttoned up and sent on its way.

Once I enter the gate area, I see a dearth of passengers.  I guess I again picked a light flight and hopes for an empty seat next to me emerge even stronger.  Pre boarding is announced for C class, Star Gold and passengers with infants.  The gate agents encourage anyone with a child under 18 to pre board, so half the plane is on already before general boarding starts.  General boarding is finally called and I head on board and see that the rear part of the aircraft is pretty deserted.  A few minutes before departure the flight attendants start a hot towel service that is much appreciated.  As that is finished up, “doors closed” is announced and I have ended up with a row to myself.  We leave the gate a couple of minutes early and taxi out to runway 19L where there is no wait, so we are airborne at 948AM.  At 10,000 feet the flight attendants are released and start their service which first is handing out headsets.  I notice that they have carts starting from both the rear of the aircraft and the front of the economy section to speed things up.  Since my section of the aircraft is pretty empty, I’m served quickly; brunch choices are eggs or Thai chicken with noodles.  I go for the noodles and it looks interesting; chicken on a bed of red noodles with veggies and egg mixed in.  I’m also offered a beverage choice and ask for a Diet Coke and the flight attendant asks me if Coke Zero is OK (which it is).  I see that SQ uses metal cutlery even in Y class; this makes a nice change from the usual plastic cutlery that I get on BR.  The meal is served with a roll and a dessert item which was a custard of some sort with fruit.  The chicken tastes really good, but it’s very spicy.  In fact I start to sneeze after the third bite.  After my sneezing fit stops, I eat and enjoy the rest of the meal except for the custard which I wasn’t fond of.  Flight attendants come by with refills on drinks.  I have always enjoyed SQ’s service and this flight is no exception.  I do not find their flight attendants robotic at all as some have said.  This aircraft is a regional 777 which means tiny video screens.  I decide to just have airshow on my screen and read on my way south.  It is a very clear day, and we have some great views.  The flight passes very quickly, and soon I see Changi airport through my window which means we are going to have a runway 02 approach today.  Sure enough we pass the island and start to make our 180 degree turn back north, and before long we are landing on runway 02C and headed to our gate today, F40.  I have no checked baggage, so I am hoping for a quick walk to immigration, but the Singapore authorities have us go through a security check.  Why bother after the flight?  As usual for Singapore, immigration is quick and soon I am out and headed for the MRT to go downtown.

Back to Bangkok…

24Apr10 SQ 976 Y SIN-BKK 777 9V-SRQ seat 54A

I took the MRT back to Changi airport; since I had my boarding pass issued the day before, I decided to check out the indoor observation deck at terminal 2.  I spent a few minutes up there seeing mostly Singapore Airlines and Silkair aircraft before heading back down to go through outbound immigration. As usual there was almost no wait, and I was through to explore all of the wonders of SIN.  I didn’t have time to see a movie, but I at least had to check what the options were if I did, and I poked my head into a couple of shops before checking out the koi ponds and the electronic reflexology machines.  Pretty soon it was time to head to gate F58 for boarding.  At terminal 2 in SIN, all security is done at the gate, and there was just a short line for the screening.  I made it through unscathed this time, and sat in the hold room reading until it was time to board.  Boarding began at 335PM, with a pre boarding announcement for C class and Star Gold.  Everybody started to board anyway since there was no one stopping them at the jetway, so I joined the hoard and made my way to the airplane.  This flight was a little busier than the one to SIN yesterday, I did have the seat next to me empty, but the aisle seat was occupied.  Again there was a hot towel service before we left the gate; we did leave the gate about 15 minutes late as we were waiting for one passenger who was paged a couple of times; he must have eventually shown up (or had no luggage in the hold) since we didn’t have to wait for his luggage to be removed.  We headed out to runway 02C for departure, and after waiting our turn in line, finally took off at 435PM.  Like the previous day, as soon as we hit the 10,000 foot mark, the service started with headsets being distributed; and like the day before I opted to read and watch airshow.  The refreshment service started shortly after, but to me it was a dinner service.  We had the choice of chicken with rice or fish with potatoes.  I took the chicken and a can of Coke Zero.  The chicken has a curry sauce and came with rice and veggies.  There was also a roll on the side, but that was it.  The chicken was actually good and filling.  I had just finished my last bite of chicken when one of the flight attendants came by offering dessert, which today was mango ice cream.  I’m not a huge mango fan, but I took one taste anyway and my mind was not changed.  Unlike the previous day, we had a lot more cloud cover on our trip north, so the views were not as good until fairly close to landing.  Our late departure caused a slightly late arrival as we landed on runway 19R at 529PM and were back at gate D4 by 535PM.  This gate is probably as close as you can get to immigration, there was virtually no walk and when I got there, virtually no wait either.  I was quickly through and into a taxi.

I was due to head home on Sunday, and I faced the same dilemma with the long haul flight that I did with the SFO-TPE flight; at the beginning of the week, the TPE-SEA flight looked oversold in both Elite and regular coach class with the entire flight was sold out, but plenty of seats still showed on the seat map in business class.  Do I gamble on an operational upgrade or use another of my certificates?  On Tuesday, the flight still showed sold out, but a bunch of seats opened up on the seat map in all classes, and it was the same on Wednesday morning.  At that point, I figured I would call EVA and request an upgrade and see what happens.  I called at 1043AM and the agent checked and said that I would be number one on the priority waitlist.  I thanked her and said that I’m sure that TPE would work the waitlist pretty soon.  At 1118AM my mobile phone rings and it’s EVA confirming my upgrade.  I got my favorite Premium Laurel seat assigned, 6A and since I had the agent on the phone, I asked her to put a note in my record requesting the BKK counter to assign me a bulkhead window (either 20A or 20K again) on the BKK-TPE flight.

There was one more reason for me wanting to upgrade in advance; when I took this flight in C three weeks prior, I didn’t like the menu choices for Supper, so I thought that I would beat that by upgrading in advance and using EVA’s version of “Book the Cook” called Meal Order.  They do offer quite a few selections in addition to the standard menu, but I have to say that although it was better than the regular menu, there wasn’t any beef or chicken which I would have preferred.  The lamb roast sounded the most appealing, so I went ahead and ordered that.

My departure day arrives and I plan on leaving an hour earlier than normal just in case there are problems with traffic or road closures.  Of course since I planned for delays, there was almost no traffic at all heading to the airport.

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It seems that there is quite a bit of discussion on any Southeast Asia travel site about taxis in Bangkok.  Many stories abound about being overcharged, taking the “long way” into town, etc.  I’m not here to dispel all of these stories, but I thought I would pass . . . → Read More: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times – Bangkok Taxis]]> Another brief interlude between cruise pieces…

It seems that there is quite a bit of discussion on any Southeast Asia travel site about taxis in Bangkok.  Many stories abound about being overcharged, taking the “long way” into town, etc.  I’m not here to dispel all of these stories, but I thought I would pass along a couple of quick anecdotes.

At the moment I am sitting in the lounge at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi (pronounced suu-wanna-poom) airport.  My taxi ride here was, well, interesting.  Two days previously I actually had the same taxi driver, and he was trying to get me to my destination exceedingly quickly if you follow my drift, even if that meant forcibly moving motorcycles out of the way.  Not that I’m against that in Bangkok by the way; motorcycle drivers in Bangkok (especially moto-taxis) are worse than taxi drivers; I’ve come very close to being hit multiple times while walking down the street on the sidewalk when a moto-taxi zooms up from behind on the sidewalk.

Today I see a cab idling outside as I need to get to the airport after running an errand.  It’s the same guy, but I figure it could be much worse; at least he uses the meter and doesn’t overcharge.  I tell him that we need to make a stop at my hotel to pick up my bag that I left after checking out this morning, and then head to the airport.  He liked that; it would be a decent fare.  We got to the hotel in great time (of course), and I run in to get my bag.  The hotel porter brings it out for me, and tries to open the trunk and it’s locked.  The porter tries to signal the taxi driver but then realizes that the guy isn’t in the car; he went to the bathroom – on my dime (or baht being this Thailand) by the way.  The porter then just puts my bag in the front seat and we wait a couple of minutes for the driver to return.  It’s then off to the races as we head out to the airport, my driver honking and trying to get more motorcycles off the road during the drive.  When we get to the airport, I notice that the meter is only 26 baht (about 80 cents) more with the stop at the hotel than my usual ride, so I guess this taxi ride can be considered a success.

If you are going to be traveling to Thailand and plan on taking a taxi from the airport, keep the following in mind.  The official taxi stand is on the very bottom level of the airport; there is a 50 baht surcharge for taking a taxi from that stand.  You can save the 50 baht by going upstairs to departures to try and catch a taxi that just let someone off, but I only recommend this if you have been to Bangkok previously.  If you take a taxi from the stand, the driver is just supposed to use the meter.  However I’ve been asked a bunch of times if I want a “flat rate.”  Most of the time, that rate is way higher than the meter.  But I did have one driver who was very honest, and the flat rate he offered (including tolls) was exactly the amount that I usually pay on the meter, so I agreed.  Speaking of tolls, you can avoid the toll roads into the city, but there is more traffic and it takes longer if you don’t take the toll road.  My advice is if you are coming in late at night or on a Sunday don’t bother with the toll road, but if you arrived during the AM or PM commute, it will be worth the extra.

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There are a couple of longer itineraries that I thought deserved their own mention.  The first are the ten night round . . . → Read More: How to pick an Alaska cruise – part 1B]]> As I started to write part two of this piece, I realized that there were a few more options of the type of Alaska cruises available that I wanted to touch on briefly.

There are a couple of longer itineraries that I thought deserved their own mention.  The first are the ten night round trip sailings from San Francisco.  These cruises go to the same spots as the round trips from Seattle, but have extra sea days since the trip to Alaska is a little longer.  There are also 14 night sailings from Seattle.  These cruises not only go to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Sitka, but also get to lesser visited ports such as Homer and Kodiak as well; some sailings even go into Anchorage which before this season hadn’t had a large cruise ship call in many years.  You will also have multiple glacier viewing days on the 14 day itinerary.

Then there are the niche operators that give you a very intimate experience with smaller ships, usually less than 200 passengers.  These sailings mostly leave from either Juneau or Ketchikan and spend their time exploring the glaciers up close.  These ships aren’t the big ships with many restaurants and entertainment venues; for these sailings Alaska is the entertainment.

Another good way to see Alaska is on a so called re-positioning cruise at the beginning of the season in April/May or the end of the season in September.  Many ships at the start of the season will start in Southern California and spend seven to 14 days sailing to all of the Alaska ports, but instead of going round trip; you will end your cruise in Vancouver BC.  They do the reverse in September.  There are also re-positioning cruises that go to and from Asia via Alaska.  These are much longer voyages spanning the entire Pacific Ocean.

As you are planning for your Alaska adventure, remember that the weather changes in an instant.  I have taken ten Alaska cruises and have sailed there throughout the entire May to September season and have experienced just about all the weather patterns that visit Alaska during that time frame.  During one cruise we had temperatures in the low 80s while in Juneau, but our visit to Glacier Bay put us in the mid 40s.  My one word of advice about packing for your Alaska trip – layers.

The real part two about the different cruise lines will be coming soon.

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I am currently in Bangkok.  While it is the height of summer back home in the U.S., even though the calendar says it is summer here as well, in actuality it is . . . → Read More: The Monsoon Season in Southeast Asia]]> Forgive the interruption to the cruise series, but what fun would Travels with Anthony be if you weren’t actually traveling with me.

I am currently in Bangkok.  While it is the height of summer back home in the U.S., even though the calendar says it is summer here as well, in actuality it is the rainy season.  This part of Thailand has three seasons, cool (if you can really call it that, but really it is the less humid season) from mid-November through the end of February, hot from March through June and rainy from July through mid-November.

I can still remember my very first visit to Bangkok which took place many years ago in the month of June.  I brought very light clothes with me since I knew what the weather was supposed to be like, but I was not nearly prepared.  I left the air conditioning of my hotel to find some lunch and in less than a block my shirt was literally dripping wet with my sweat (sorry for that picture in your mind).  Now I’m used to it, but I still warn my clients if they are traveling here for the first time.

Back to today…  When I woke up this morning, I popped on to my balcony for a moment to check the weather; it was not steaming hot, the sky was blue with just a couple of light, puffy clouds.  It stayed that way most of the day until late afternoon when I went back to the balcony, looked out and saw dark clouds to the west of where I was that were headed right to me.  Mere seconds later I was knocked back by tropical storm force winds (which I heard later were over 50 miles an hour), and the rain began pelting the balcony sideways.  I ran back inside, unplugged and shut down the computer and just watched.  The winds subsided after a few minutes, but the rain kept coming and coming.

Soon the drainage system on the street got overwhelmed and light flooding began.  Taxis coming by had to drive very slowly since the water in the street rose quickly.  The street vendors selling their exotic fruit or chicken or some meat on a stick that I don’t want to know the origin of started to shut down as their clientele all but disappeared.  This is not to say that the street was empty of people, they were just all huddled under any shelter they can find; the closest to me being Family Mart which is a competitor to 7-11s here.  One thing that the guidebooks don’t tell you about; when it rains in Bangkok the restaurants that deliver food (for those that can’t get by without their American fast food, both KFC and McDonalds deliver in Bangkok) stop their delivery service.  Just when you are stuck and can’t go out, you can’t get food either.

Just as suddenly as the storm started, it abated.  The flooding didn’t recede as quickly as it started, but within a few minutes the street vendors opened back up and life on the street got back to normal.  And I could phone in my dinner order.

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First is the round trip sailing from Vancouver BC.  You will . . . → Read More: How to pick an Alaska cruise – part 1]]> OK, you’ve made the big decision and Alaska it is.  There are so many options, how do you narrow down the choices?  Before we even get into cruise lines, there are three basic types of Alaska cruises that you should be aware of.

First is the round trip sailing from Vancouver BC.  You will visit three of the following ports:  Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, or Icy Strait Point. You will also have a glacier viewing day in at least one of these spots:  Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier or Tracy Arm which is a fjord that leads up to Sawyer Glacier. Leaving from Vancouver you sail east of Vancouver Island, so the great views start as soon as you board the ship.  So what’s the draw back?  Flights into Vancouver can get very expensive.  There are also less round trip sailings from Vancouver than there used to be, so your choice of ship may be limited.

Next is the round trip that sails from Seattle.  Most ships will call on three of the same ports as I mention above and also have a glacier viewing day as well.  In most cases you will also have an evening call in Victoria BC on the last night of the cruise so the ship meets its “foreign port requirement” of the passenger services act (I’ll have a separate blog item about this in the future).  Flying to Seattle is in most cases much less expensive than Vancouver, and there are quite a few different ships that sail the round trips from here.  The negatives though are sailing west of Vancouver island, so after you leave the Seattle area, you have mostly open water until later in the afternoon of the next day, and in some ports, you will have less time to spend ashore.

Option three is a one way sailing between Vancouver BC and either Seward or Whittier, Alaska.  The one way cruises are great because they allow you to add time before or after the cruise exploring the interior of Alaska such as Denali National Park, the Copper River, the Kenai Peninsula, and Fairbanks.  In many cases you can take the Alaska Rail Road here as well.  You can choose to do the land portion as part of your cruise known as a “cruise tour” or you can do it on your own.  On board the ship you will also get to visit three of those ports above and still have a glacier viewing day.  If you like this option, my suggestion is to do your land tour first and then take the cruise south bound.  That way you will have some time for R&R on the ship after your explorations.

In part 2, I’ll discuss the cruise lines that you have to pick from and then in part 3, I’ll take you through some individual ship choices.

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