drron29

I was synchronising by having iCloud photos on my Android computer. Very easy just switching tabs.

So now it was off to the IC Bangkok. We stayed for the first time in January and thought it might become our new home in Bangkok. They started this second stay well and truly on the front back. As we walked out of Customs at exit B this fellow detached himself from the waiting scrum and came up to us and saying Welcome Drron and Rojaan. Then when we arrived at the hotel I found that they had actually taken notice of the note I wrote on leaving the last time. I had said the only problem with our room was that below us the BTS trains made a sharp turn generating noise. Not that caused us problems with sleep as they don't run from midnight to 6am. But I asked for a room on the opposite side towards the back. And that's what we got and 10 floors higher. We are here just to relax and chill out. Much warmer than December/January so no long walks this time. It will mainly be a smorgasboard of club IC offerings. But I start with one of the cocktails that was on the specials for 3 of our 6 nights. Botanicals with Iron balls gin a local Thai brand. I really liked it. Each night they have some served dishes plus a buffet. the menu for the first night. Rojaan had the duck breast. very nice. And I started with a beautiful mushroom soup. Now things from the buffet. From those I liked the salmon but loved the Thai seafood. Loved the pickles. And they had sushi every night. the tuna ,salmon and prawns were fine but the others ordinary. Foie gras terrine. The creme brulee was one of our favourites. And always beautiful flowers.

Finally found the other thread.

One device per passenger. But it was simple to switch between my phone and computer. I have an iPhone and they don't do as well as an Android phone on the ship.For example I couldn't get to the App store to reload an App so did it when in port with shore side wifi.

There was a thread recently about all the Australia/ New zealand cruises being waitlisted in 2026. I thought then that means they would be Cancelled. She was due to come through the Panama canal before sailing across the Pacific. I also thought this meant that the Southern hemisphere Summer season was going to be changed And I suspect staying in the Caribbean or sailing South America as substitutes. On the Silversea website they are still all just listed as waitlist.

Lots of new housing developements. And coming in to our gate.

So after take off my glass of CH. You don't get offered PDB of champagne but sometimes I have asked for it and I did get it. Today didn't really feel I needed it. Lunch is served. And in the middle of the next course was Ren's curry. The best Japanese curry I have had. Beautiful tastes and great presentation. Rojaan started with the sqid salad. I encouraged her to try it. She thought it was very good her beef fillet was as she likes it more medium but so tender and tasty. For the first few hours there was complete cloud cover. It wasn't until we were north east of BKK that it cleared. In the last bit of our descent into BKK it was clearer than I have ever seen it. No cloud and not much haze. just some smoke from burn offs. A golf course developement. Aquaculture.

It very likely means that for that airline they don't have a contract for direct flights. On board the Muse last October BM was on board for 3 days and held a Q&A session one afternoon. She said that post covid most airlines and hotels cancelled their contracts with SS. Post Covid air travel has been expensive because of pent up demand and less available aircraft. Planes can't just be started and fly off when they have been in storage. There were many planes stored at Alice Springs in Australia and the last one left there 2 weeks ago. Then add the Boeing problems and Airbus being being behind on new order deliveries which means most airlines are still operating nearly full planes. Which means airlines are confident that direct flights can be sold at full price.

The osso buco has been poor in La terraza since October last year on the Muse. My wife had it then and it was basically inedible. We asked a few folk on our March/April cruise on the Muse and their experience was the same. but they did do an Osso buco in Indochine which was much better.

It is an easy walk to the terminal just need to take the lift up to departures. No wait to check in and no waiting at security. Sadly we are both OWS now so the Sakura lounge for us. It wasn't a very nice day outside. Time to board. No First class today. One good Thing is preboarding for young children are those up to 2 years of age. Several turned back. Soon in our seatst 1Afor me and 1C for Rojaan. The good thing about this seat set up is my computer bag fits under the tunnel. Just as well because not much other storage available. And my view. And off we go. A pretty long taxi. And the usual send off from JAL staff. Getting very wet.

After Shinjuku we changed to the Yamanote line. Unlike the past the young ones push past you and take the empty seats. fortunately the couple we were near got up and got off at the next stop. The Yamanote line takes you to Shinagawa station. A bit of a problem because you walk past an entrance to the Keikyu line before you exit the JR lines but there is no ticket office so you have to go out and find it. Wasn't easy because it is down a floor. Next was the Keikyu Line Rapid Limited express for Haneda. However it is just an ordinary suburban train with no where for luggage. Again we had taken advantage of the Takubin system and sent our large bag to the Villa Fontaine Grande hotel. A little problem. We arrived about 20 minutes before 1500 and the checkin kiosks aren't turned on until 1500 precisely. There were quite a few in fron of us but there were enough kiosks that we weren't held up. Except that unlike other hotels,even the Royal Park hotel at Haneda which has the kiosks which are switched on at 1500. leave your bag in the room you have been given. but not here you have to be checked in. Then you go to the baggage office and show your checkin ticket and Takubin. it then took the woman at least 20 minutes before she found our bag. Finally to our room. Supposed to be 1sqm bigger than the Royal Park but felt smaller as the bed is right next to the window. I had to crawl over from the end of the bed. Nice wardrobe! And a tiny bathroom. But OK views. The one thing that we like is the fact that it is attached to a shopping centre and there are quite a few restaurants on the ground floor of the centre. It was about 1700 and a lot of the restaurants opened between 1730 and 1800. There was though a food court which was open and had a reasonable selection. Rojaan had a seafood bowl that came with Miso soup. And I had extra spicy Dan Dan noodles. Yummy. There was a bar so Rojaan had a Sav Blanc and I had a beer. There was a display area. We slept pretty well as our flight wasn't until 1125 the next morning. We are booked at the Villa Fontaine next time but after that will probably go back to the Royal Park. So up just before 8 and caught the Monorail as I was maneuvering out of bed.

Not a long trip to Shinjuku but mainly quite scenic. But first our carriage. Leg room adequate. We are just in an ordinary car but one with reserved seats. The system so that the guard doesn't have to check tickets. Red lights are occupied seats the others green. But if somebody with a reserved ticket is getting on at the next stop the green will go to yellow 5 minutes before the stop.

The last day and it starts to rain. fortunately a break when we got off the hotel shuttle until we had boarded our Fujisan express. If yo want the express you have to reserve your seats which I had done when we arrived. When we got to the station at about 11am there was a note up at the ticket office that only 1 of the JR resort expresses had standing room only tickets. You could of course take the ordinary private railway train to Otsuki which is all stops. So buy your tickets before time and best to have reserved seats. Several trains at the station. A Fujisan express but not our one. A JR Fuji resort express. And a collection of local trains with a couple of their decorated ones. But this one was our train. We were first on. Quite a few got on including a tour group. But the express stops at the first station as it changes direction. At that stop an inspector got on and quite a few including the tour group got off. Should have got their reserved seats. Now some views from the train. And now we are in Otsuki and awaiting the Kaiji express to Shinjuku.

I should have realised that this store might not have been that good as it was closed with a sign saying open at 5pm. I thought about walking down to the Lawsons about a Km away but thought I would just stroll around the neighbourhood. Besides more clouds were rolling in. Many have a veggie garden in front of their house. Some were just preparing to start planting. But this fellow had a lot of strawberries coming on. A Catholic school and convent. Some beautiful flowers. So back to the convenience store at 5pm. Turns out to be just a room on the front of an older woman's house. Very little stock. Not much that I thought would be acceptable for Mrsdrron. So first a tub of potato salad. Next a packet of potato crisps that were actually quite nice. But I bombed out on the last thinking I was buying some cheese. When I got back to the room and used google translate it turned out to be 6% cheese. Yuck. Fortunately we had a couple of packets of grape gummies and a bottle of Sav blanc we bought at the supermarket the day before.

Then back to the hotel grounds. And another little flash of Fuji. Rojaan went back to the room while I walked up to the convenience store to buy some things for dinner. The wind was causing a lot of blossom to end up on the ground. '

Not all craft left in this area looked capable of use.

Came across a large temple. There were roadworks further up so didn't get to the temple. I then walked a bit further whilst Mrsdrron walked slowly back towards the hotel. This was at a boat launching ramp. there was a flood level sign which showed a maximum flood level nearly 2 metres above my head. Many of those places would have been under water. When I caught up with Mrsdrron we came across this. The sign says it is the Sakuya love Bell. Ring it once and your wish will come true. And some seats so you can look at the love bell and the lake.

After I returned to the hotel we decided to go for a walk along the lake it was cool and overcast. showers were predicted for late in the day. we walked dow through the woods and the golf course and headed away from town.

The sushi restaurant was basically unrecognisable to us. Have had a huge makeover and gone computerised. You check in at a machine which gives you your seat number and an order number. At the end you take that ticket back to the front,scan the QR code on it and it prints out your bill and then insert cash or card to pay. It had also been enlarged and at ~5pm it was almost full. Everything is automatically delivered to your table. So our drinks coming. It was really quite good. I had my Uni which I really like and tried tempura burdock which I had only had pickled before. I prefer the pickles. On waking the next morning the weather hadn't changed. I had to take the car back to town. Filled the tank which took 2.25 litres for ~110 km. Once again the pump attendant went out on the road so I could get out and drive the 5or 6 metres to the Toyota rental return next door. the fellow there saw me drive in so not even asked if the tnk was full just handed over the keys and walked off. Probably signs of the tourist effect here as I walked back to the station to catch the hotel shuttle. And a tori gate just on the street with no temple or shrine. Whilst waiting for the shuttle i took a couple of shots of the trains. First the local railways Fujisan express. Then a picture of the 3 types of train at the station. First the Fujisan express. Next a local train and the JR Fuji resort express and another local train.

It was now nearly 1600 and we felt that with the weather starting to threaten rain we decided to go for an early dinner to a sushi place we had enjoyed before. We went via a supermarket and a 100 yen shop first. On the way though we saw all these people running. We had also seen them in the morning and thought it was a fun run. Definitely not fun it was the Fuji 5 lakes ultra marathon. 3 courses -118Km, 100Km or a leisurely 71Km. Those in the 118Km run had started at 4am, the 100Km between 4.30 and 5am and the 7i Km folk could sleep in and start at 7am. Some very tired looking folk. So Mrsdrron didn't find much at the 100yen shop but wouldn't let me buy a curry bowl because it was too expensive. The supermarket was in the same centre. First the snacks. Then the seafood and sushi. we did consider just buying some sushi and going back to the hotel but decided to go to the restaurant. What surprised us here was the cheap prices for spirits. just put a decimal point before the last 2 numbers and you have the $A price. Halve it for the GBP and a third off for the USD. 4 litres of whisky for $29. I did consider buying a Japanese gin but our suitcase was already a bit heavy. A beautiful sake label.

Most of the rest was photography especially of Mt. Fuji. There were some good views from the building but a lot of reflections in the glass so only a couple of shots were OK.

We then drove a short way to the Kawaguchigo Museum of Art. We parked in a shopping centre across the road. They had small murals in the footpath. Also a couple of large cherry trees next door. The Museum of music next door to the Art Museum. As you enter you see this. It's amazing how many times we see this around the world. There was a special exhibit on but it was on quite a dark subject. Later works had more colour and form.

We then went and had a coffee. I thought it was good but then Starbucks is fine by me. Again items for sale and a bit more about the artist. And this spot is said to be the perfect spot for a picture of Fuji.

On the sides and the back of the main gallery is a reasonably large garden. It has all the features of a classic Japanese garden but in a quirky way. The first few pictures are taken from the Japanese coffee shop at the back of the main gallery. As in all areas it is part shop as well. Matcha just isn't my cup of tea. I caused a bit of a stir as you had to sit on the floor especially if you want to take photos. There is no easy way for me to get up. I have to turn over and push up on all 4 limbs. In doing so I knocked the bench behind which I thought was quite heavy. It wasn't and it very nearly fell down a level. Fortunately the only thing that happened was embarrassment. Now I went out into the Garden itself.

You are too kind @mysty. I tried my best but couldn't keep up with your daily routine.