Greyhound Bus
In 1965, Peace Corps Headquarters gave $500 for returning volunteers to resettle. Greyhound Bus Company was at that time offering packages for $99 for 99 days for anyone in the lower 48 states who had been out of the country for 2 years.
While not a hotel, I used Greyhound as a hotel by travelling at night and, when available, renting a shower for 25 cents. I went across the country several times to find a job. Losing my luggage in St. Louis is another story.
Aladdin Hotel
Interviewing in Washington, DC, I stayed at the Aladdin Hotel which has now gone out of business. I had a cheap room that adjoined the next room by a sliding door. I could hear everything. Almost asleep, I heard the question “have you read War & Peace?” and sat up and answered “yes”. There was not another sound.
Gellert Hotel
I believe that it was Budapest’s Gellert Hotel that had the following sign at the elevator: “Pardon us. Today you will be unbearable.”
Outside Budapest
In a suburb outside of Budapest, the hotel sign was “No moving with the beds.”
Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel Tokyo
In 1963 the Peace Corps volunteers, on their way to Malayasia, spent one night in Tokyo. I got up early the next morning and went to see the Frank Lloyd Wright hotel just before it was demolished.
Pathumwan House Hotel, Bangkok
Pat and I were in Bangkok for a couple of months spanning the millennium, having arrived several days after Thanksgiving. I was doing a consultancy at Chulalongkorn University for the Japanese government. The pay was good. I was receiving US$500 a day plus free housing at the Pathumwan House Hotel. It was the hotel that the Japanese government used for their official business, and it was close to their office. It was very basic but clean and adequate. The important thing is that it was air conditioned.
Pathumwan Princess Hotel, Bangkok
When grandchildren Michael and Kate and her father, came to Bangkok over New Years 2000/2001, Pat joined the athletic club so that the children could swim. We also attended the New Year’s Eve party which was beyond belief, and which can never be improved upon. Lot of dancing with Kate and Pat looking beautiful in their new silk dresses made by the Jim Thompson shop.
However, the most beautiful were the paper lanterns which were loosed to the sky by the hundreds. Kate and Michael were also
allowed to release some. The most common Thai name for these is khom loi,, while in English they are just called sky lanterns, or paper lanterns. The khom loi are made from a thin material, such as rice paper, to which a candle or fire starter is attached. When the fire starter is lit, the resulting hot air is trapped inside the lantern, creating enough lift to bring the khom loi drifting toward the sky.
Shepheard’s Hotel, Cairo
(see also Travel > 1982 > Cairo)
Shepheard’s Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world from the middle of the 19th century until its destruction in 1952 during the Cairo Fire. Five years after the original hotel was destroyed, a new one was built nearby.
| Feluccas |
Among its famous guests were Aga Khan, the Maharajah of Jodhpur, Winston Churchill, explorer Henry Morton Stanley, Field Marshall Herbert Kichener, T.E. Laurence, Theodore Roosevelt, the Prince of Wales and many more.
When Pat & I stayed there, our room was heavily draped, making the room dark when the lights were off; however, when we opened the drapes, voila, we looked out on the Nile with many feluccas sailing by. We lingered long over our breakfast on the balcony.
Nairobi Hyatt
(see also Travel > 1982 > Nairobi)
Jim Armstrong, head of the Library of Congress office in Nairobi, first booked us to stay in a hotel near the University. When the students were rioting there, he changed the reservation to the Nairobi Hyatt which was downtown. There were several bullet holes in the walls!
RELC, Singapore
This hotel was so bad that we only slept there – going to others nearby to spend our spare time.
Taj Mahal, Karachi
1986
Pat and I arrived in Karachi on September 5, 1986, on Pan Am Flight 73. We got on this flight in Bombay, India and were stopping in Karachi for business before heading for New York and on to home in Washington, D.C.
I was the Director of the National Agricultural Library and was stopping in Karachi to negotiate the translation of Pakistani agricultural publications into English for the Agricultural Research Service.
Pat and I were on that flight and got off in Karachi, which was our destination. While walking the streets, there was a strange feeling. Muffled sounds. We felt very uneasy and couldn’t understand why. We stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel and in the lobby that evening, we listened to the English language news. We learned that the plane that we arrived on had been hijacked at Karachi airport after we got off. The news further said that the hijackers had recently checked out from our hotel – the Taj Mahal.
We did not know the following information until recently. We had no idea how close we were to this hijacking and are eternally grateful that we got off in Karachi.
Recently, I found a Wikipedia article that described this hijacking. Here it is quoted in part:
Pan Am Flight 73 was an Pan American World Airways flight from Bombay, India, to New York, United States, with scheduled stops in Karachi, Pakistan, and Frankfurt, West Germany.
On September 5, 1986, the Boeing 747-121 serving the flight was hijacked while on the ground at Karachi by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal Organization. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Bombay. A grand jury later concluded that the militants were planning to use the hijacked airliner to pick up Palestinian prisoners in both Cyprus and Israel.
More than twenty passengers were killed during the hijacking, including nationals from India, the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico. All the hijackers were arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan. However, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
What would have happened should the hijackers have arrived earlier and did their hijacking as Pam An arrived and before we disembarked? It is too scary to contemplate. That day, fate was on our side. Hallelujah!
Guest House, Noto Peninsula, Japan
The Noto Peninsula is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan. Bill Welsh, Deputy Librarian of Congress asked Pat Battin (former resident of Collington) and me to join him in a trip to Japan, courtesy of the Japanese government, to lecture at several places in Japan. It was in the Guest House of the Noto Peninsula, where I got over stimulated by dancing the “pounding rice dance” as well as drinking my share of sake. I took a rest, lay down in the corner on my stomach on a tatami, when suddenly, a geisha jumped on my back and started massaging it. I heard and felt one of my ribs crack. I was too polite to complain. I still had about a week to go in Japan which I did with pasted on smile. Pat became in charge of the luggage.
Unknown Hotel in Tokyo
On the same lecture trip in Japan, we spent one night in a hotel in Tokyo with nothing unusual except for the sign saying, “For emergency, check with the robby.”
Hotel, Phuntsholing, Bhutan
1982
(see also Travel > 1982 > Bhutan)
Crossing from India into Bhutan, we spent the night in Phuntsholing, Bhutan. We had a nice room with two beds with mosquito netting. We had tea in our room, showered and went to the bar where we drank local rum with canned orange juice.
We ate our dinner in the large dining room. We were the only people. Everything was very formal. The waiter wore an American sweatshirt with Bhutanese dress wrapped around his waist and bare feet, He served us corn soup, chicken, potatoes, pork, rice, cabbage and pineapple salad, beans and cheese, peas, tea, and canned fruit.
Breakfast at 7:30 – all alone – consisted of spam with onion and tomato slices, French fries, toast, and apple juice. We passed on the eggs. Wonderful coffee for Pat.
Motihang Hotel, Thimphu, Bhutan
(see also Travel > 1982 > Bhutan)
In the Motihang Hotel, we were assigned to the suite that had been used by Nehru when he came to Bhutan for the King’s coronation. In it was a full bar with fruit and flowers from the Queen Mother’s Garden.
Paro Guest House, Paro, Bhutan
(see also Travel > 1982 > Bhutan)
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On the last day of our trip, we travelled to Paro by car to have lunch with the Queen Mother in her palace.
We were the guests of the Queen Mother. Our gift to her was a large decorative comb to adorn her beautiful black hair. It contained 3 large turquoise stones from the Kingman mine in Arizona.
That evening we stayed at the Guest House. Evidently, she was pleased with our gift, because that evening, Major Rigzin Dorji, her aide-de-camp, knocked on our door with gifts from the Queen Mother – about 8 beautiful weavings.
Bali Beach Hotel
Initially I had planned to stay in Ubud but the bus stopped at the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur and I immediately changed my mind. The hotel was wonderful! The lobby was open all the way through from the street side to the beach side – the Indian Ocean. A gamelan orchestra was playing. Gamelan is a term for various types of orchestras played in Indonesia. It is the main element of the Indonesian traditional music. The instruments in a gamelan are composed of sets of tuned bronze gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones, drums, one or more flutes, bowed and plucked string instruments, and sometimes singers.
It was here that I rented a motorbike. As I was leaving, I saw the ballet teacher from California who sat next to me in the airplane. I asked what she was going to do. When she said nothing, I said, “hop on,” and we left for Ubud. That is another story.
San Anselmo Hotel, Rome
Every two years I had a meeting at Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). I stayed there each time at the San Anselmo Hotel which was close– often with my wife Pat and sometimes with a couple of grandchildren.
In the chic residential Aventino area of Rome, San Anselmo is a 19th-century villa with a garden where breakfast is served when the weather is nice.
Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten – Hamburg
I took an opera tour to Hamburg, Germany – I’m not sure of the date. I was to hear Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (usually known simply as The Ring cycle) is essentially four very big operas, all linked together by the same story. In order, they are: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The great soprano Birgit Nilsson was singing Brünnhilde.
Our tour group stayed at the elegant Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. I went into the bar, ordered a drink, and was given a small menu for small plates. Knowing no German, I spotted something that looked familiar – a wurst. It looked wonderful but when I cut into it the contents oozed out. My Oklahoma stomach did not prepare me for this. Found out later that it was a blood sausage! Not for me. I quickly left everything in a hurry!
Hotel Teatro Scala, Milan
In about 1950 I went on an Opera Tour to Europe. One of our destinations was Milan where I attended operas in both La Scala and Piccolo Scala. At the Piccolo Scala, I heard a young mezzo soprano named Fiorenza Cossotto. It was early in her career. I have heard her at the Metropolitan Opera several times after that first hearing.
I had breakfast at the Hotel Teatro Scala with the piano teacher of Richard Bonynge. Australian conductor and pianist. He was married to Joan Sutherland. Bonynge was responsible for convincing her that she should become a dramatic coloratura soprano.
| In colonial times there were 4 famous hotels in Southeast Asia
The Raffles in Singapore The Erewan and Oriental in Bangkok The Strand in Rangoon With the exception of the Oriental, I have stayed in three |
Raffles, Singapore
Raffles Hotel is a British colonial-style luxury hotel in Singapore.
The hotel was named after British statesman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore.
Some of the earliest guests include Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Edward, Prince of Wales, Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin, Maurice Chevalier, and Eliabeth Taylor, among others.
I stayed in it in 1965 before it closed in 1989, to undergo an extensive renovation that lasted two years and cost $160 million. The hotel reopened on 16 September 1991. Long Bar is also where the national cocktail, the Singapore Sling.
Erawan in Bangkok
Now the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok
The Erawan Hotel is a luxury hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok. opened in 1956, following many delays which prompted the construction of the Erawan Shrine to ward off bad fortune. I first stayed it before renovation when it was still cheap. Later, my wife Pat and I stayed here after its renovation, and it is where we bought a pearl ring.
Strand Hotel – Burma
The Strand Hotel has stood as a celebrated cultural landmark in Yangon, Burma (later Myanmar) since 1901.
It quickly became popular, especially among British expats who called the city home. In particular, the hotel’s bar, The Strand Sour, was the choice meeting place for these residents to gather and reminisce. Many illustrious people traveling from abroad also lodged at the hotel during this time, including George Orwell, Richard Kipling, and the future King Edward VIII.
Unfortunately, The Strand Hotel began to fall into disrepair. I stayed there 2 times, once with my wife, Pat. It was not until the 1990s that the hotel received a new lease on life. After completing an extensive series of renovations, the hotel was ready to reopen in 1993. The Strand Hotel is once more a fabulous tourist destination in Myanmar.
Bagan Guest House – Burma (now Myanmar)
On my first stay in Rangoon (Later Yangon), one was not allowed to leave the city; however, on my second visit, it was the first day that visitors could visit Bagan.
Lying on a bend of the Irawaddy River in the central plain of Myanmar, Bagan is a sacred landscape, featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive. In about 1200 Genghis Khan vandalized Bagan.
I took a small plane. With me was an East German gentleman. The airport is located on the outskirts of Nyaung U and it takes about 20 minutes by taxi to reach Bagan. The locals had not seen foreign guests for many years and were delighted to sell us opium weights. They cost about 25 cents.
My German friend and I did our sightseeing together. We stayed in the Bagan Guest House which had 2 large rooms – one for men and one for women. It was clean and adequate except that there was one towel to share. We tore it into two pieces thereby creating 2 large wash rags.