a museum and more

Monday evening in Sattahip as I write this.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Although I will likely post this on Tuesday in Thailand, so perhaps belated happy Thanksgiving.  Conrad and I are relaxing in bed after dinner and before lights out, so what perfect time to check in.

I was up early as usual, before 6AM, and I headed out to the common room for hellos and coffee.  No one was around, however, and I eventually came back to our part of the villa to blog a while.  Conrad got up, we joined everyone for breakfast, and planned the day.  A boat trip was not to be, alas, due to the high tide and water conditions following the overnight storm.  That being the case, J-J took us to the Sanctuary of Truth Museum.  Resembling a Buddhist temple, it is a glorious structure, all of wood.  Beautifully carved, still in process, a challenge to maintain.  

The funny thing is that it is not actually a temple.  Maybe a place for contemplation, but it’s really a tourist attraction at heart, and we were mandated to wear helmets inside and for Conrad and J-J to don some pants because their shirts were disrespectfully short.

Just the same, though, we had time to wander and take shots after the obligatory guided tour group was done.  Better still, from the time we arrived to the time we finished the tour, skies were turning blue.  A fine morning for seeing it.

We were home by 1:00, in good time for Vanda to have a very satisfying lunch for us.  An assortment of things to fill betel leaf pouches and a pomelo and dried shrimp salad to start.  I think pomelo may be one of my new favourite things.  That and longkong, a very tasty fruit with a nice balance of sweet and sour.  Vanda also had a duck curry, rice, and vegetables saiteed with shrimp.  And wine!  A huge meal, a filling meal.

While we ate lunch, the rain came on along with thunder.  So much for an afternoon dip in the pool.  Conrad and I retested to our space and napped a goodly while instead.

We rejoined the others after 5, darkness coming on.  There was much discussion of dinner options before we settled on pizza at a nearby place in their town.  

Yes, we had non-Thai food.  The people here do like eating other cuisines, after all.  The pizza was fine, the salads were alright, the wine was decent.  It was a fine enough meal, and perhaps a welcome break from all of the SE Asian cuisine before we re-immerse ourselves in the days ahead.

Tomorrow promises more rain at times, and we think exploring markets will be in the works.  A last full day with our lovely hosts, and then on to the fourth stop on this trip.

a seven-course meal

Marie, my darling sister, was in Vietnam with her brother Dave earlier this year, and she had a recommendation or two to share.  One of those was for a Hanoi restaurant, Maison 1929.  

Have the pomelo salad, she said.  And so we did.

It was a relatively easy walk to the restaurant.  I say that to mean that one block from the hotel we turned left and headed in a straight line.  The sidewalks were cluttered with scooters, the city was livelier than earlier in the day, and we had to walk in the street at points.  Just like everyone else, no big deal.

6:00 seems to be an early dinner time here, and maybe we can blame that choice of time on jet lag.  We’re actually doing not badly on sleep even if it is just before 6AM as I start writing this.  But no, we opted for an early meal, and as such, for a goodly part of the time at dinner we were the only ones on their small balcony overlooking a five-way intersection.

The restaurant had à la carte options, but we opted for the discovery menu, seven courses.  We each had wine - cocktail choices were very limited - and I thank Conrad for having the red wine first so that I knew to ask for the white wine instead.  

That was a small point against the meal, one of the only ones.  Otherwise, it was terrific.  Yes, we were warm sitting outside, but there was a fan keeping the air moving, and we settled in to watch the traffic below and enjoy our company before having a week or so with a larger group.

But on to the food, right?  In order of courses:

Fried clams.  Squeeze lime on the clams, mix, scoop on to the crackers.  Tasty, light, a good way to start.

Pomelo with fresh and dried shrimp.  Marie was right, this was a star on the menu.  Loved it!  My second favourite course.

Spring rolls, a trio that included crab, pork and mushroom, and beef.  All of them were good, but I liked the pork and mushroom best.

Squid stuffed with sausage and served with a turmeric sauce.  My favourite.  That sauce was so good!  Tender squid, too.

Sautéed duck.  Another one I loved.  I enjoy duck but all too often I find it cooked as a breast, sliced, and so chewy and kind of cold.  This was very tender.

Pork ribs.  Tasty and tender.  I took the meat of the bones and use the lettuce and herbs as a wrap.

Oh, we also had rice to go on the side for the three entrees.

Banana cake with coconut ice cream.  Nice, not too sweet, a little mundane after the previous courses, but fine.

Filling but not too filling, the meal was a good one.  We walked back, wound down, and got into bed before ten.  Now I want some breakfast and maybe some postcard writing!

Disneyland

1977.  That was when I last (and first!) at Disneyland with my sister.  Oh, I'd been there a few times since, most recently in 2018, but yes, almost 50 years since she and I were kids.  I can't even remember Disneyland from that trip save for two things:  I was freaked out by Space Mountain, the roller coaster that was the newest (or nearly) attraction at the park, and I loved splashing in the pool at the HoJo our family stayed at.  I dimly recall other bits of that trip to California, but honestly?  Little of Disneyland.  I am sure I loved it at the time.

First off, let me apologize.  I've been fairly busy this week and just haven't had the wherewithal to blog.  It happens, I go through lulls.  The writing eats up time that I don't always want to give - yes, the writing actually takes some time.  But let me get this posted, and let me post more through the weekend.  The next two weeks will be busy ones as well, but I will restart my blogging efforts more regularly at some point.

Anyway... 

Marie's birthday was last week, and way back at Christmas last year (I think), she had commented that she would like to go to Disneyland as an adult.  Technically, she had been in her early twenties, but that was with some of her birth family including non-adult siblings.  She has wanted to go as an adult and with only adults since.

Last week Tuesday I came home from work after lunch, got my bag packed, and Van picked the three of us up.  A good car nap carried me most of the way to Anaheim, and before I knew it, we were pulling up to the hotel, the Grand Californian.  Oh yes, we went fancy while there.  Well, not really.  The rooms were pricey but, frankly, basic. 

Not bad, but basic.  It's a handsome hotel facility - a terrific and grand lobby,

a fine restaurant that was closed for renovation (boo!), and a decent bar that made Last Words (a bit tart, but fine). 

Sorry, I sound unappreciative.  I don't mean to be.  It's an expensive hotel though, and although there is much to admire about it, we've had better stays elsewhere for less.  Van and I were talking about that last night, and he felt the same way.

But Downtown Disney was right there,

happily, and although we had to pass through security to get to it, it did mean that there were shops and restaurants right there, a short walk away.  And with the nice restaurant at the hotel closed (I've dined there a few times, it is nice), we had booked one of our meals at Paseo, in that Downtown Disney area.  And truly, it was the better of the two dinners we had on our trip down there.  I was interested in the lamb barbacoa and absolutely sold on it when the waiter told me it was lamb neck - meat is always so tender at the bone. 

The pickles and condiments with it were fine as well. 

I also thought that my drink, the Maya-Tai, was the best of the cocktails ordered around the table. 

The pavlova was tasty but the inclusion of an ice cream or sorbet took it beyond a pavlova for me. 

And I didn't care for the chocolate dessert - I dislike these desserts that are just shapeless mounds or blobs of assorted stuff. 

Still, it was a good dinner, not too indulgent, and it set us up for a nice day the next day.

The next day?  Full on Disney.  Rides!  We headed into the park mid-morning, and I have to say, it wasn't as busy and jampacked as I thought it might be.  Line ups were not ridiculous.  I got a photo of the statue of the gentleman himself,

and then we headed to the first ride:  the teacups!

It's interesting to me that I have met so many grown ups who cannot handle the teacups or similar rides.  Not ones for spinning, it seems.  Me, I'm not one for heights and dangling, so there was no way I was going on that big Ferris wheel in the California Adventure park. 

As for the rides we did go on, I found Soarin'

convincing enough that I gripped tightly the whole time.  We enjoyed several rides that day, including the Matterhorn (wow, was that uncomfortable to us older folks - clunky and jerky and not padded),

Autopia (Conrad's favourite - I confess, I like this one as well even if I do drive almost 80 miles a day whenever I cam working on campus),

Star Tours (Star Wars themed, cute enough, but I am not a Star Wars person),

the Jungle Cruise (dad jokes and a gentle ride in a boat),

the Haunted Mansion (Marie and Van were so very keen on it and then disappointed that it's now just a place to shill Nightmare Before Christmas - I thought it was meh),

and the Incredicoaster (formerly California Screamin' - we actually got Van to go on it, and he was very glad when it was over). 

We had pizza for lunch

and a Dole Whip treat among the four of us,

and we enjoyed light entertainment in the Enchanted Tiki House. 

It was fun.  It was mildly warm that day,

plenty of shade for the most part.  The four of us had a good time, and we got some steps in!

At the end of the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to make ourselves pretty for dinner.  We then went back into California Adventure to a restaurant in the park:  Carthay Circle.  It wasn't bad at all, but it was not nearly as good as the night before.  More expensive, for one thing, and the timing was really wonky.  Our waiter was great, very personable, and it's not his fault, but we got our appetizers well before our drinks, and I basically had to snap at everyone to hold off on eating so that we could get our drinks.  I had the special martini which was really only special because it had blue cheese olives. 

Ah well.  Dinner seemed to come quickly as well, and it was fine.  Duck schnitzel for me. 

We did grab our waiter to get wine with dinner, and he was quick with that, happily.  I can't recall what we had for dessert.  All in all, an ok meal.  None of us were upset, believe me, but again, we've paid less for far better experiences.  Wow, I really make it seem like I hated our time there!

We headed back through the park, taking some photos,

and - happily - there was an entrance to our hotel directly, without taking us through Downtown Disney or the hotel lobby.  It was a good day, but we were done in, and bed called.