Shinya Ota

I am staying at Courtyard Bangkok on the weekend before going to Phuket beach for a business meeting. I planed to visit Jim Thompson’s house and Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is located approximately 80km north of Bangkok. The city thrived as the seat of the Ayutthaya Dynasty from the 14th century until the 18th century. Now the area of the ruins of the city called Ayutthaya Historical Park is registered as a world heritage site. I joined the half day tour by Panda Bus tour..

This is my third visit to Bangkok. Last time I visited a decade ago, I remember the airport has no access to MTR and I had to take a taxi to get down to the city center in a crowded road. The airport has been replaced by a new airport which had MTR service. Now I enjoyed view of Bangkok from the window of the MTR train.

I flew by Japan Airlines from Narita..

I visited Shanghai with my colleague to attend a business meeting held there by a reefer container manufacturer, which has a large factory in Jiangsu province. They invited all attendees to the tour of the factory at the last day of the meeting. We left the hotel we were staying near Shanghai Zoo, also close to Shanghai Hongqia airport, the old one, in the city. (The flight of Shanghai Airlines we took landed at this Hongqia airport. ) The airport was the only international airport in the city before Shanghai Pudong International airport was inaugurated in 1999…

My parents and I woke up and got on a van at the hotel to the airport early in the morning to catch a flight to Maui. My parents have visited the island before. It was the first time for me to visit Maui. I am so exited like a kid on a field trip at school. We hit Maui by 8 o’clock and got on the operator’s bus and headed for Haleakala, the highest mountain with its elevation of 3,055 meters. I saw the clouds stretched below us and we were simply astounded by the views of the crater in front of us. It was like we were watching views of the Mars.