Kosher Travel with Fran and David: Far East Update 2 - Hong Kong to Chiang Mai

November 6th, 2012

We both were up bright and early and headed out for a 2 hour morning walk along the Hong Kong boardwalk which affords you with wonderful vistas of the Hong Kong Island skyline. We then headed up Nathan Road and saw the city waking up. Before long there were throngs of people heading out to work or school and the streets and sidewalks became packed.

We returned to the hotel at about 10 am and finished our packing. Once again as we headed out to the airport, we marvelled at the efficiency of a city where everything works crisply and yet the city is spotlessly clean. One of the real bonuses of heading to the airport via the train is that at the train station, almost all the airlines have check in counters; you get your boarding passes and drop off your luggage and head for the train and the airport unencumbered with any heavy loads; just your carry ons.

After clearing customs and immigration, we headed over to the Thai airlines lounge and awaited our flight. Apparently we are flying on the Honk Kong - Bangkok portion on an Airbus A380 which has two full levels of passengers. According to the web, If the plane is serving in a standard "three-class" configuration, then the capacity is 555 people. But, if the entire plane is just the economy class, then the capacity is 853 people. I guess there are between 500 and 600 passengers on our flight today. It should be quite an experience.

Fran with two Thai Airline Flight Attendants (cardboard cutouts!)

We checked this morning to see if we could get bulkhead and surprisingly, it was available.

Upon boarding, we were amazed by the size and spaciousness of this aircraft. The seating is 3 - 4 - 3, and the height of the ceiling is easily a couple of feet higher than on any plane we have been on. But when we got to our seats, we had another surprise....the legroom from our seat to the bulkhead was enormous....about 5 feet.

Now that is legroom - on the New Airbus A380

When boarding, there are a couple of flight attendants dressed in the Thai silk gowns who strike the typical Thai greeting pose of palms together with their thumbs near their faces and bowing a bit to welcome you on board. Their outfits were beautiful and Fran posed with them for a picture.

These are not cardboard cutouts!

As we settled into our seats, another flight attendant approached us and asked whether we could open the kosher meal boxes (from Belgium of all places), so that he could warm up the double wrapped entree.

Another interesting feature of this plane is the webcam that is filming the takeoff, flight and landing from the top of the rear tail......it is quite interesting to sit back and watch your plane take off to 37,000 feet.

When we arrived in Bangkok, we were amazed by the size of the airport and we had to walk what seemed like miles to get to the area where we could board our flight to Chiang Mai. After clearing Thai immigration and getting our temporary visa, we checked into the Thai Lounge to await our connection to Chiang Mai.

The terminal and the lounge were both very warm and humid which sort of prepared us for what to expect as we had to take a bus (a la old Ben Gurion airport) to the plane and it was very humid at 5 PM. While this airport is probably as new as the Hong Kong airport, it appeared to us that things did not run as crisply as in HK.

But the one thing that was consistent in both was the amazing courtesy and politeness of the crews and the airport staff; and as we saw in HK, so too in Bangkok, we saw that most people were dressed very neatly and quite modestly.

While walking thru both HK and Bangkok airports, we saw ELAL planes and counters and the usual mix of religious travellers making their connections. Both HK and Bangkok are major transfer hubs for ELAL.

An hour later we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, with a metro population of about 3 million. The area is the centre of elephant camps where they take care of injured elephants and train elephants to do all sorts of tasks.

We are staying again at the Shangri La. We opted for the hotel to pick us up and waiting for us was the driver and one of the bellhops with a sign that said "Woolf".

Our first impression is that this looks like the Wild West. Very busy, very unstructured and with none of the neatness and glamor of Hong Kong. However, this was in the dark and perhaps we will have a better look tomorrow. On the way, I asked the bellhop if he knew where we could find the synagogue, and he did not know what I was talking about. Then I took a stab in the dark and said " where is Chabad ?" To which he answered, "oh, Chabad, we will pass it on the right in a minute....it is a two minute walk from the hotel".

The hotel is amazing, even more beautiful than the one in HK. When we checked in, the girl behind the counter (who was the night manager) told us that because the hotel was full, she would be upgrading us to a beautiful suite. That was a major understatement. What we got was an apartment with a kitchen, dining room with a ten seat table, enormous living room and magnificent bedroom bathroom combo. The furnishings are exquisite, the service again impeccable.

Our amazing suite in Chiang Mai

While checking us in, she told us that there was a reception downstairs near the pool and if we tasks. wanted we could go down and join in. She said that they had brought in two elephants to entertain the crowd. Off we went and before long, Fran was sitting on one of the elephants, feeding them sugar cane and snapping a lot of pictures. What a bonus.