Grand Central and Metrazur

We headed to New York for a 5 day trip over Spring Break and stayed at the Grand Hyatt above Grand Central Station in Midtown. It's really not one of my favorite hotels, but I can get to the office in under 5 minutes, which is super valuable when I'm blearily rousing myself to be in at 9 am eastern time.

We arrived around 8 pm and headed into the Main Concourse of Grand Central to sort out some dinner. Although the basement food court was tempting (I'm serious, I love that food court), we ended up at Metrazur on the east balcony.

The restaurant is beautiful and the ambiance in Grand Central can't be beat. They also had a great deal for a prix fixe - pick 3 courses off the menu and get 2 glasses of wine for $44. Since each appetizer was around $15 and the entrees were in the high $20s, we decided this was the way to go.

I started with a white asparagus salad that was excellent - my first white asparagus of the year! I followed with some wild striped bass with more asparagus (green this time), which was very good. We also ordered a couple of the angus strip steak with french fries - which I liberally sampled from Amara and Sean.

Desserts were pretty but somewhat unmemorable. We finished eating around 10 and wandered back upstairs to our room. Which was billed as a parlor suite. But had the smallest bathroom in creation. Do not book a Lexington Suite at this hotel - trust me on this.

Love the beach!

We're spending a few days in Hua Hin, a sleepy beach town about 2.5 hours away from Bangkok. It's our usual routine - we eat at the same places and stay in the same hotel, the Hyatt. I actually usually try to get the same rooms every time but with mixed success. This time we were generously upgraded to a rather large suite. Well, since I've stayed here every year since it opened, maybe I'm just due ;)

It's been a good trip - the weather has been mostly overcast, which means it's not as stiflingly hot as usual. We've had lots of beach and pool time and the kids are not too sunburned for the most part - I consider that a success!

Langham Huntington in Pasadena

Whilst in L.A., we stayed at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. It was the Ritz Carlton Huntington for many years and is a very old building that was extensively renovated in 1991. Even though we got a dirt cheap internet rate (relatively speaking... for a 5 star property!), we ended up with a very large room overlooking the rear gardens.

I like old hotels. There's a certain majesty, especially in the public spaces, which tend to be large and impressive. The rooms are a bit more of a gamble but it paid off at this location.

On Easter Sunday, we were looking forward to a nice egg hunt in the beautiful gardens. Meh - as with many hunts these days, the property is too afraid of damage to really hide anything in the gardens. So the hunt turns into a foot race for kids to pick up eggs and candy that are just strewn on the lawn. Maybe my kids are just getting too old for this...

A Weekend of Gluttony

Of all the seven deadly sins, I'm afraid that gluttony might be my biggest weakness. Well ok, maybe pride as well.

We were in Napa for a food-filled weekend - Sat lunch at French Laundry, Sat dinner at Ubuntu and Sunday brunch at Ad Hoc. With a few hours in between to digest while lying in a stupor on a very comfortable bed.

We stayed at the Yountville Inn, which is in walking distance to FL, Bouchon and Ad Hoc, were it not pouring most of the time we were there. It was a good deal at $175 for a king deluxe room with vaulted ceilings and a fireplace, and most importantly, no 2-night minimum for a Saturday night. The continental breakfast featured pastries from Bouchon Bakery, and some very nice french bread served with brie.

Now, on to the catalog of meals!

Weekend in San Francisco

Every year in December, we spend one night in SF, at a hotel near Union Square and have a nice time wandering around looking at holiday windows and doing a little holiday shopping. I try to pick a different hotel every year, just to try them all out. This year, we stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square. Unfortunately, that hotel is really not worthy of the Grand Hyatt moniker - and it's long overdue for a renovation. It was no contest - our favorite hotels remain the St. Regis and the Palace.

We had lunch at the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus - a holiday tradition for us and this year, I actually remembered to make a reservation (2 months out!) so we didn't have to brave the walk-in wait (running at 2 hours when we showed up for our reservation). And you're more likely to get a view table with a reservation. They have improved their french fries, which excited me to no end - thin, crispy and well-salted! And for dessert, I had a buche de noel. Now, I can't figure out if I actually really like this dessert or if it's just a seasonal nostalgia thing. Either way, the Rotunda's version was quite credible.

We wandered around the shopping area in the afternoon, including a stop at the SPCA windows at Macy's. If you haven't seen this in past years, it's truly adorable - with adoptable puppies and kittens frolicking (or more often, sleeping) in the decorated Macy's windows. This was enjoyable until my older daughter started a relentless campaign about acquiring yet another kitten ("it's blue-grey and it's a boy and it's named Tom or Bob, I can't tell which one, pleeze can we take him home, pleeze, pleeEEZZE!") Note we already have a cat whose litter box she only cleans under duress...

It's a true sign of recession when Gump's is discounting their holiday items by 25%!

We had dinner at Fish and Farm that night. The 20 min wait after we showed up on the dot of our reservation time did not auger well for the evening. My sister's quail and risotto appetizer was the standout, my apple cider steamed clams were pretty good as well. The entrees disappointed though - the Black Cod was a little salty and dry, the Lamb Shank was just ok. Neither daughter was particularly enamored of their dishes. None of the dessert appealed so we had the warm chocolate chip cookies - you'd have a hard time screwing that up. And an over long break between the appetizers and entrees. Overall, a disappointment for a $350 meal. We won't be back - there are too many other great restaurants in SF.

I've been spoiled...

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, one of the nicest hotels in the city - and it was just ho hum to me. I've been spoiled by our stay at the Venetian in Macau - the toilet here doesn't have a seat warmer!

Here's the view of Hong Kong Harbour from our window.

My Greatest Pleasure!

I have to admit that my favorite thing about our outrageous high roller suite was the toilet. It won my heart over the other over-the-top features like the bathtub TV, the rain shower with 6 different massage heads, the fancy espresso capsule machine, the complex automatic light/curtain controls in every room and the fact that you could bowl in the hallways and still have room to spare.

Oh yes, you may think you've experienced cool toilets in Germany or even those high-tech ones in Japan, but this one, in the Venetian Macau - 5 stars all the way!

It looks ordinary enough, but has a sensor so the seat cover raises when you walk into the room. The seat is heated so wonderfully that it's a joy to sit down.









And oh yes, this is the control panel.

Gosh, I miss that toilet!

The High Roller Life in Macau

We headed to Macau for two days to celebrate my father's birthday - Macau is a Special Administrative Region in China, like Hong Kong, and was a Portuguese colony for the better part of the 20th century. Although it has some lovely European colonial architecture and a unique cuisine, it's best known for being a gambling mecca. I still recall my visits there 25 years ago - well, it's changed a lot. It now takes in more gambling revenue on a daily basis than Las Vegas.

A family friend was a high roller (i.e. big gambler) at the Venetian and arranged for 3 complimentary rooms for our party using his apparently very large balance of casino credits. When we arrived (picked up by many bowing people in private vans at the ferry terminal) we were ushered up to an extremely large 3 bedroom high roller suite and asked if that "would be ok" instead of 3 regular rooms. We quickly agreed ;)







The suite was unbelievable - probably around 3,000 sq feet with 3 large bedrooms with enormous walk in closets and bathrooms, plus a workout room with sauna and steam room, a massage room with massage table, 2 (yes, TWO!) salon rooms with hairdressing chairs, a kitchen, a media room, a dining room and 3 other large sitting areas. And really nice bath products (Bulgari The Vert - mmmm, good).












We counted 12 TVs in the whole suite - including 2 bath tub TVs (the kids were in heaven!)

A case of too much style, waaay too much style

I flew from Istanbul down to Antalya, a famous resort town on Turkey's Southern coast, on the Mediterranean, where my conference was taking place. However, we were actually staying in Belek, approximately 60 km east of the town of Antalya itself. Belek is a newly developed resort area, with a series of mega-hotels along the coast, 10 golf courses built in the last few years, with 10 more scheduled to be completed in the next few years. And construction taking place everywhere.

We had been forewarned that the conference hotel, Adam & Eve, was very modern and highly stylish. However, that in no way prepared me or my companions for the hotel itself, which had only been open a year or so.

The exterior of the building is green, covered with vines (fake of course) and the interior is uniformly white. Everything is white. Or clear. Or covered with mirrors. Except for the spa. Which is all black. The only color that you can see in the decor is the square apples which light up at night on the fake trees situated all around. Words cannot describe this place.

My room overlooked a large construction site next door, but the balcony was mirrored so the mountains and sea were reflected. The balcony was the best part of the room, with a metal curtain that could be raised and lowered by remote control.

The notable feature of the room (besides being all white) was that there were three beds - one nice and relatively normal bed, one large lounger for the balcony and the last was a Kamasutra bed (or so I was told) that consisted of a platform mattress (vinyl?) and many interestingly shaped wedges and pillows. Oh and a large jacuzzi bathtub in the middle of the room, right next to the desk. Apparently one of the taxi drivers called it the "sex hotel". Yes indeed, this is where a 1,000 person Oracle conference was taking place.

The room was quite stark and I spent some time looking for a brochure that provided a guide for the hotel. Instead I found 4 remotes and some limited instructions. As I've mentioned, one remote operated the metal balcony curtain, the second was for the TV, the third was for the A/C and the last and best one was for the room lighting options. There were 8 settings. One was for standard white LED lights, the rest were various colored options - I especially liked the rainbow option (where the lights cycled through the spectrum). This was particularly impressive since all the room walls were mirrored. Oh and the jacuzzi tub? Underwater changing lights as well!

The hotel had a huge Atrium level that was 5 storeys high, with the upper walls and ceiling covered with the same small mirrors used to cover disco balls. In the middle was the "longest bar in the world" and flanking the bar on either side were lounge beds, where I guess you could lie down and have a drink. At night, the Atrium had its own DJ, spinning one indiscernible house track after another, from 10 pm til midnight. I know this because I could hear the bass beat in my room. When the DJ was in session, the Atrium was also flooded with a colored flashing light show.

This is only a small illustration of the bizarre nature of this hotel. I've enjoyed the new modern boutique hotels like the Mondrian, Paramount etc in the past, but this one was just insane. It actually turned into an uncomfortable environment because it was so unnatural. Three nights here was way too long...

Sun Boat IV

Sun Boat IV is an A&K boat (one of 3 that are currently in service, they're also building a 4th) and moors at their private dock in Aswan. It's the largest of the 3 boats with 40 cabins. For our 3 night cruise, there are 76 passengers and 70 crew/staff. It's a very good ratio!



Unfortunately, the boat has no connecting cabins, so the girls are across the hall and one door down from us. The cabins are quite nice, with small bathrooms and a miniscule shower (as to be expected). The floor-to-ceiling windows yield beautiful river views, but don't open so we can't get the fresh air.


This is less of a problem than anticipated as we've flown south just in time for a major heat wave. Our time in Upper Egypt is blessed with 100+ degree weather every day. We all wilt fast...

A Mediterranean Break

Alexandria is beautiful and has a very different feel from Cairo - much more Mediterranean. The Four Seasons San Stefano here is less than a year old and is a gorgeous hotel. Much of the decor uses my favorite color combinations of blue and yellow, and the breakfast room was the prettiest I've ever seen, overlooking the Mediterranean.

When we went out for dinner the first night, we had a tourist police escort who sat in the front seat of the van. We're still not quite sure why he was assigned to us, and the girls were quite confused. But he proved to be really useful in stopping traffic when we had to cross a busy 6 lane road. Please don't underestimate how important this was - you take your life into your hands when you try to cross roads here!

Welcome to Egypt!

Our Cairo stay is at the Four Seasons First Residence - the decor is marginally more localized than the FS Amman, and the staff is extremely nice and friendly. We're on the 9th floor, where we can still hear the traffic on the congested street outside, and from our balcony, we have a great view of the Giza Zoo, and on a clear day, the Pyramids off in the distance.

Unfortunately, there really isn't anything within walking distance apart from a few restaurants moored on the Nile next to us.

Thankfully, we have tour coordinator Sherif, driver Mohammed and uber-guide Mohammad ("best guide in Egypt!") to shepherd us around and ensure that we do not blunder into anything unexpected (yes, that in and of itself, is a shame).

Our first day is an action-packed itinerary of visiting the Citadel, the Egyptian Museum and the Khan el Khalili market. With a stop at the Naguib Mahfouz Coffee Shop for a late lunch.

The Museum was clearly the highlight of the day. The collection was amazing, including some beautiful sculptures that were an unbelievable 4,000+ years old. Of course, the Tutankhamen collection was wonderful - it's strange to see something in front of you that you've spent all your life seeing in pictures. After my mild obsession with Egyptology as a teen, I felt a special connection with his wife, so looked for her figure in all the artifacts. The throne was my favorite piece.

The Royal Mummy room was a little creepy but enjoyable, nonetheless. The Animal Mummy room was fascinating - a 30 foot mummified crocodile is not a common sight. Plus who would have expected mummified fish?!

The market was a cacophony of crazy vendors using all possible tactics to get your attention - "How can I take your money, Sir?", "Lady, Lady", "Konichiwa" (I get that a lot). I especially liked the pita bread delivery boys who balanced their large supply of bread on their heads.

The Royal Suite!

The first good omen was that we were upgraded to the Royal Suite at the Movenpick Petra Hotel – this hotel had much more local flavor with fancy Moorish fountains in the lobby and an ornate chandelier in the sitting room of our suite. Sadly, the same could not be said of their dinner buffet, where the most Arabic item we found was hummus and some accompanying pita bread.

No matter, since our visit to Petra exceeded all expectations. We met Hamdi in the lobby at 8:30 am – well actually 8:45 since we, of course, ran late. This is the huge benefit of not being with a tour group! We entered the site and took over an hour to walk the Siq (the 1,200 m canyon entrance path into Petra) with Hamdi pointing out many interesting sights.

The first view of the Treasury as you come down the dark Siq was priceless. It was rather crowded, which was the only downside to our day. We ended up walking all around, and had lunch at the Bedouin buffet, which finally gave us a taste of Jordanian food. After lunch, the girls and I rode donkeys up to the Monastery, which was an upward climb of 800 steps. Sean walked alongside, taking pictures and trying to ensure that we didn’t hurt ourselves.

We ended up spending 8 hours in Petra – our main regret was that we didn’t get a carriage to take us out of the Siq. The way home seemed a whole lot longer and we finally returned back to the hotel – bedraggled and exhausted. We promptly retreated to the lobby lounge where we indulged in ice cream sundaes and french fries. What a day!

We're on our way!

After a lovely and uneventful flight over the Atlantic, we ended up with an overly long layover of 6 hours in Frankfurt. The girls had been looking forward to the tomato soup in the lounge but alas, they were serving beef consomme instead. Thank goodness for the gummy bears.

We landed in Amman at the ungodly hour of 2:30 am and were met by the Abercrombie & Kent representative who ushered us quickly through the process of obtaining a visa, getting through customs and picking up our luggage. Which was probably a good thing since we were all in a bit of a daze.

We stayed at the Four Seasons in Amman for less than 7 hours, although I’m pretty sure we didn’t get a break in the daily rate. I may have to rethink my Four Seasons strategy – the hotel room could have been in any city in the world. Very nice, very luxurious, but no local flavor to speak of. Thankfully, we found the “Foul” at the breakfast buffet (some sort of broad bean stew that’s a common Jordanian breakfast food, with lots of condiments.)

Snow, Snow and More Snow

We spent much of last week up in Lake Tahoe at Northstar for our annual ski trip. This time, due to some one-time only circumstances, we were staying in the largest and most luxurious accommodations that Northstar Village had to offer - the Great Bear Lodge 4 BR condo. At a whopping 2,700 square feet of space for 4 adults and 4 kids, we were living in the lap of luxury!

The first pleasant surprise was that the lift from the parking lot opened directly into our unit. The second surprise was that the unit was HUGE, with lots of living space and an attached bathroom for each bedroom, plus a guest lav as well.



There was also a simply enormous central fireplace, and large decks overlooking the central ice skating rink.

Now we go up there every year, and this year, I think we've finally figured out the perfect algorithm. We booked 3 full days of private lessons and alternated the lessons between the two pairs of kids. And boy did they get better in just a few days! The two older girls skied a black run and I'm sure they will all surpass me within a year or two.

There's a bit of a building boom at Northstar with the new Ritz Carlton residences going up mid-mountain (target opening is Nov 2009) and a Hyatt Residence Club next to the Village. And a new Japanese sushi place called Mikuni has opened up, adding to our dining selection. In fact, we did not leave the Village once for a meal the whole time.

A huge snowstorm delayed our departure by a day but the girls made good use of their time by constructing a huge snow fort!

Things I Learned in London

I was in London for a brief 3 day trip last week. The weather was actually quite cooperative and I even saw the sun emerge for a few minutes one afternoon. I stayed at my favorite hotel, the Churchill in Portman Square - it used to be an Intercontinental and is now a Hyatt Regency. They just redid their rooms last year (while we were there on holiday, as a matter of fact). Anyway, the location is the big plus for me - plus the Montagu, their lobby restaurant is really nice. I can get to M&S and Selfridges within minutes as they're just 2 blocks away.

I managed to dine at my favorite restaurant, Nobu and also tried out MintLeaf, a nouveau Indian restaurant on Haymarket. And had afternoon tea one day at Liberty's little tea shop, imaginatively called "Tea". They served their tea in beautiful Burleigh Black Willow teapots with scones (choice of fruit or plain) with organic strawberry preserves and Devonshire clotted cream. I was in heaven! I eyed their large meringues but managed to restrain myself.

All the Christmas decorations were up along Oxford St and Regent St, and major shopping was taking place all around me - they were shutting the street to make it a pedestrian-only shopping zone on Dec 1.

My big learnings from this trip are that:
1) United won't officially allow you to check Christmas crackers in checked baggage. BUT if you just go ahead and check them, they don't seem to notice.
2) The one carry-on bag rule is strictly enforced at Heathrow - witness the scores of passengers trying to repack their things by the security queue.
3) There is a separate shoe scanner that you go through after the main security line which is thoroughly confusing for many.
4) Things cost WAAAY more in London, especially with the horrible dollar exchange rate.

Cheers!

Present-giving Etiquette

I met a long-time Japanese colleague for breakfast today at my favorite breakfast spot in the New Otani, the Garden Lounge. It overlooks the hotel's 400 year old Japanese garden and is a beautiful spot to start your day.

I had worked closely with this colleague about 12 years ago and we've stayed in touch through the years - he's just recently returned to Oracle after almost 10 years away. After a nice chat to catch up, he proceeds to gift me with 4 presents - one for me, and one each for my daughters and husband. Yes, not just for me but for my entire family. I opened mine right away and it was a lovely pink fan.

I, of course, had nothing for him. In my defense, this was a very short trip and I didn't think I'd have the time to see him. However, in our 12 year acquaintance, I believe the present count stands at around 25+ for him and 1 for me (I can't quite remember, but I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt that I've given him at least one thing over the years!)

When will I learn to pack a few extra gifts for any trip to Japan?!

Our Villa at Last!

We spent Sat morning touring Marseille, taking a little mini train up to Notre Dame de la Garde, the church that overlooks the whole city. There were wonderful views of the Mediterranean, the coastline and Vieux Port.

We drove to Calanques de Callelongue for lunch at a little place called La Grotte - the village seemed to be in the middle of nowhere on the coast outside of Marseille, but the restaurant was quite full at 2 pm when we arrived.

After a lunch of pizza and pasta, we headed to our villa in Vernegues, via Aix-en-Provence, arriving around 4:30 pm. The others had just arrived so we had a chaotic 30 mins or so learning about the house and figuring out the sleeping arrangements.


Here's the view from our bedroom window - lavender and grapevines.

We went to the supermarket and filled three large carts with food for 18 and had a lovely dinner on the terrace - eating, drinking and talking for hours. It's a great start to the vacation...