midtown

Bangkok. I won't do much on this as so many people have been. Highlight was a bike tour around the city and then riding a motorbike taxi through rush hour traffic and not dying. Also dinner at Sra Bua. Michelin star 18 course meal with wine pairings for $250 per man.

Angkor. No words to explain the magnitude and beauty of this place. Just magical for me. I think we hit six temples total.

Siem Reap. I can not speak highly enough about this town. In fact the neighborhood of Wat Bo was just named like 3rd best neighborhood in the world. Not seeing that but its getting chic with little cafes, restaurants etc. The amount of construction is unbelievable and we saw at least 4 super cars. McLaren's, lambos etc. There are 4-5 star hotels everywhere. Its like South Beach. Great town to just walk around. Excellent food. Beer larvae ftw. They are really odd with the currency. They love $$ but will only take nice clean bills. Anything beat up. Negative. ATMs will actually disperse $100s. Pub street was a nightmare with constant hounding about drugs and women. NTTIAWWT I knew the minute I first stepped foot in Viet Nam that I would return and I did. Siem Reap and Cambodia is 100% a return spot for me. I could do another day of Temples, another day of chilling in one of the many great hotels and then head down to their beaches which are supposed to be pretty amazing as well.

Luang Prabang, Laos. Lived up to the reputation. Really quaint town. Lots of cafes and restaurants. The night market was kind of overwhelming and made it hard to get to the other part of the town where some good eats and drinks were. Tour up the Mekong (not the actual name btw) to the Pak Ou caves. Then a bus ride to the Kuang Si waterfalls. Yes I went in and yes it was fucking cold.

Vientiane, Laos. The capital and center of business etc. Dusty and dirty. We did happen onto the annual boat race which was kind of cool but not a whole lot going on but temples and Wats out the ass. Beers are a dollar and quiet tasty. Buddha Park was nice but its 30 mins out of town and you can tour it in 45 mins. One night max here. The restaurant in the Crowne was damn good. Must be where are the dignitaries and business people stay.

Ninh Binh

Ha Noi. Always a great city to visit. Unfortunately due to weather they canceled all boats out on Ha Long Bay. We were in the van about to leave the city and they called and cxld. What a huge disappointment so we did Ninh Binh aka Ha Long on land. We got some bikes and peddled around with our guide down a bunch of tiny little country roads. That was awesome. Ninh Binh was nice but clearly not Ha Long. Open Jeep tour and street food tour. Fun to just walk around and eat/drink. Beer corner is 10x the size it was on my last visit 8 year ago. The women of Viet Nam have discovered implants, skin care, and fashion. 8 years ago hardly a woman worth looking at. Now beautiful women everywhere.

Taking kids Dec 20-24. 16B and 13G. They haven't been in 8 years. Probably see BMG again. Skip Rockettes. did that. Need a good show that kids would like. Advance tickets to Wicked are $128. That seems way excessive. Any other show suggestions. Should we just suffer in the TKTS line? Might do Keens and Frank. Any other teen friendly good dining options. They like all food.

I went with the Chase Infinite United card. Same thing. Club access and I earn PQPs on spends. I was able to get to United silver with very little flying.

I guess this is the go to TSA/GE/Clear thread. WTF IAH? First of all they had 75% of their GE kiosks closed this past Friday which created about a 5 min wait. Just landed a triple from Narita so I assume lots of GE folks. Ok no big deal. No receipt printed anymore. No eye scanner or passport entry. Just a picture and you go through. Now this is where it get interesting. There was another line about 10-15 mins long. Everyone was just looking at each saying wtf is with this? Two CBP officers for GE line. They take your passport and match it with a screen that has everyone's photo from what I can tell. This seems like a step back. How do they even know you have GE? They did reject one guy so I assume they have some facial recognition going on. I asked an officer after I got through about the new procedure and he just said yeah this is the new system. Also IAH the first TSA checkpoint has no pre-check. I went through vs going all the way to a different checkpoint. I assume this is by design that they'd prefer to go full check on everyone.

Buy a high quality Japanese knife like a Masamoto.

Well crap all around

Boom I switched scarfs. So I'm taking credit

The rain is a rebirth

Poop

Shit fuck

Argh!

COYS!!

Ugh. We need him badly

Even the commentators and a sooner were saying it without saying it.

Lol. Not a single penalty? The fix is in

If you watch the PL there is no way not to subscribe to Peacock at this point

Back in Texas after two weeks wandering around SE Asia. What a fantastic trip with a few hick ups. Will add more in the coming days. Also. What a difference a few weeks makes at Narita. it was JAMMMED today. And obviously things are dirt fucking cheap. Even had a store owner in Bangkok say "you American rich right now" Visas and immigration were easy as can be. Not a single customs check in any single country. Just waved us on in to spend. Everywhere took dollars in a bind except Thailand. ATMS were plentiful everywhere but it was trial and error on which ones worked with our cards and which ones didn't. As always everyone was so freaking nice. Staff in the hotels bent over backwards. The only place where I felt it was slightly off was Laos due to how we mistreated that wonderful country during the war.

Glad I was sound asleep in a Bangkok hotel

Well I still have my contacts in SE Asia and we've been bringing it in every since. 2 major shipments a year. Its just vacation but but man Laos and now Cambodia are growing like mad. Construction every where. Someone is making a killing here and its pretty much the Chinese.