Last Asian Evening
BANGKOK, Shangri-La Business Center (upscale cafe)
In my own glassed in, ac-ed cubicle at the Shangri-La Business Center - my most upscale internet cafe yet. R in a cubicle just behind mine - but in my own business space, a wood desk and all of the technical tools and master planning bulettin boards I imagine I'd need to run an empire. Feel I'm not their target customer - bloggers not yet denizens of lux hotel business centers (day will come...). Little me on the internet while all around the big BIG deals are hatched.
But not another post blathering about the luxuries and excesses of the Shangri-La (though all nice and worth a mention, later) - more exciting to report on Cambodia. In a few hours, at the obscene 2:55AM, I will board a godforsaken Kuwait Air flight out of Bangkok and be winging westward to NYC! to cold and Christmas and friends and my own home and free internet (sort of, not really actually) and the travels, will, for the very small now, be done.
CAMBODIA - Siem Reap, The Victoria Hotel Angkor
So much to be caught up on - the full debrief on Angkor and the Wats will dribble through the next few entries.
Wonderful Cambodia. Had forgotten the warmth, the smiles that can't help themselves, the supremely fun kids and the essential sweetness of their dispositions. They sell, and can sell hard, but also ease off with a perfect grace and never allow a transaction, or a silly j-walker, or an insultingly low bargain pitch, or a gratingly horrendous tourist - to get the upper hand on their good will and calm. So zen? Buddhist? tempered by sadness? So Cambodian.
Siem Reap - bless it - is exploding at the seams. Am sure it's all good for the people and the economy but not a little sad to see the massive hotels hulking along the airport road, with many more on their way. HUGE structures - all architecturally identical - a little flourish on the roof, a little wood on the balcony, maybe some tile, some gilding, and the ubiquitous terra cotta garudas lining the circular drives. And very sad vegetation - the landscaping of new suburban developments - stumpy palms and anaemic bougainvilleas and heavy dependence on planters. Depressing - also a lot of mirror-work - no idea why. The brand new Merridian looks like a private hospital for the well to do.
Of course our own hotel, the Victoria, utterly charming - no monstrosities for this family. Linds did the choosing and booking and reserving and coordinating (go!) and was masterful. So masterful that the entire crew was room upgraded - R and I to the Gouvernour's Suite (me memsahib?), dad and Sarah to the Maharaja's Suite above us (Sarah - Mahrarini) and Linds and Chad - organizers and martyrs - took the lesser of the three suites which may or may not have had an important name.
Anyway - all gorgeous. Ours with a full on corner veranda appointed with teak and cane lounging furniture - fainting settees and drooping benches and masses of silk cushions, a changing room, a vast bedroom looking out on the main square and the resident colony of bats in the trees across, and a four poster bed out of a Merchant Ivory prop closet - slung with (of course) a mosquito net canopy.
And AC!, jasmine tea silently delivered in a silk lined box with two tiny cups each evening, and teak floors and counters too in the bathroom.
There was much more - a DVD library (easy in a country which mints pirated) and lovely other parts of the hotel too but first wanted to deliver the goods on the room.
Have to sign off quickly - will fix all typos and nonsense when I can edit this next from the States. So sad to leave Asia but so very thankful that I've had the chance for this re-introduction. And don't plan on being away all that long.
Love to all from Bangkok, next from NYC. And big hugs to Dad, Sarah, Linds and Chad - our Angkor buddies.
C
In my own glassed in, ac-ed cubicle at the Shangri-La Business Center - my most upscale internet cafe yet. R in a cubicle just behind mine - but in my own business space, a wood desk and all of the technical tools and master planning bulettin boards I imagine I'd need to run an empire. Feel I'm not their target customer - bloggers not yet denizens of lux hotel business centers (day will come...). Little me on the internet while all around the big BIG deals are hatched.
But not another post blathering about the luxuries and excesses of the Shangri-La (though all nice and worth a mention, later) - more exciting to report on Cambodia. In a few hours, at the obscene 2:55AM, I will board a godforsaken Kuwait Air flight out of Bangkok and be winging westward to NYC! to cold and Christmas and friends and my own home and free internet (sort of, not really actually) and the travels, will, for the very small now, be done.
CAMBODIA - Siem Reap, The Victoria Hotel Angkor
So much to be caught up on - the full debrief on Angkor and the Wats will dribble through the next few entries.
Wonderful Cambodia. Had forgotten the warmth, the smiles that can't help themselves, the supremely fun kids and the essential sweetness of their dispositions. They sell, and can sell hard, but also ease off with a perfect grace and never allow a transaction, or a silly j-walker, or an insultingly low bargain pitch, or a gratingly horrendous tourist - to get the upper hand on their good will and calm. So zen? Buddhist? tempered by sadness? So Cambodian.
Siem Reap - bless it - is exploding at the seams. Am sure it's all good for the people and the economy but not a little sad to see the massive hotels hulking along the airport road, with many more on their way. HUGE structures - all architecturally identical - a little flourish on the roof, a little wood on the balcony, maybe some tile, some gilding, and the ubiquitous terra cotta garudas lining the circular drives. And very sad vegetation - the landscaping of new suburban developments - stumpy palms and anaemic bougainvilleas and heavy dependence on planters. Depressing - also a lot of mirror-work - no idea why. The brand new Merridian looks like a private hospital for the well to do.
Of course our own hotel, the Victoria, utterly charming - no monstrosities for this family. Linds did the choosing and booking and reserving and coordinating (go!) and was masterful. So masterful that the entire crew was room upgraded - R and I to the Gouvernour's Suite (me memsahib?), dad and Sarah to the Maharaja's Suite above us (Sarah - Mahrarini) and Linds and Chad - organizers and martyrs - took the lesser of the three suites which may or may not have had an important name.
Anyway - all gorgeous. Ours with a full on corner veranda appointed with teak and cane lounging furniture - fainting settees and drooping benches and masses of silk cushions, a changing room, a vast bedroom looking out on the main square and the resident colony of bats in the trees across, and a four poster bed out of a Merchant Ivory prop closet - slung with (of course) a mosquito net canopy.
And AC!, jasmine tea silently delivered in a silk lined box with two tiny cups each evening, and teak floors and counters too in the bathroom.
There was much more - a DVD library (easy in a country which mints pirated) and lovely other parts of the hotel too but first wanted to deliver the goods on the room.
Have to sign off quickly - will fix all typos and nonsense when I can edit this next from the States. So sad to leave Asia but so very thankful that I've had the chance for this re-introduction. And don't plan on being away all that long.
Love to all from Bangkok, next from NYC. And big hugs to Dad, Sarah, Linds and Chad - our Angkor buddies.
C
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