Don't Fly on Air Asia!

A fuzzy photo of the damage done to the back of my laptop. Doh!

I’ve been wavering about whether or not to blog about this, but in a way I feel it’s my duty to bring this to the attention of other travelers in SE Asia. Although it happened nine months ago, it still grates on me...

Basically, what follows is a rant about Air Asia and how through their carelessness, which they admitted to but refused to take responsibility for, I ended up having to buy a new MacBook Pro. 
 

Without going into it too much, I’ll just copy and paste an official complaint that I sent to the Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports (for which I got no reply).

All of this, by the way, followed an incident in which a taxi driver in Krabi basically kidnapped me and made me pay an extra $50 for him to take me to my hotel. Luckily, the airport at Krabi recompensed me the $50, and thanks to the business card the driver gave me at my hotel – what idiot kidnaps you, steals from you, and then tells you to call him later if you need a taxi on the island? – he got, at the very least, a thorough chewing out by the airport taxi company.

My letter to MOTS follows:

Dear Madam or Sir:

My name is D—J— and I was in Thailand from April 13 to May 9, 2010. I have visited Thailand several times and will have the opportunity to return in the future for both work and pleasure. However, during my most recent four-week stay in Thailand, I had a very bad experience as a tourist.

On April 24, 2010, I flew from Bangkok to Krabi on Air Asia. During check-in I was told that my carry-on luggage appeared to be too heavy, and without asking for my permission one of the Thai Air Asia staff lifted my backpack and dropped it carelessly on the scale to weigh it. The heavy impact broke the back panel of my Macintosh laptop. When I complained, they took my information and promised to make a complete investigation of the incident. I had the break in my computer temporarily fixed at the MCC store in Fortune Plaza for 1605 baht and was told that I would soon have to pay US$700-$900 for a permanent repair or pay $2500 for a new laptop of the same model.

This is the email I received last night from Air Asia regarding my complaint:

Dear Mr.J—.

   Regarding to your report on damaged status of your Mc-Apple laptop before check in at counter on FD3163/24Apr ( Bangkok-Krabi ) under CBTBKK10A00172, we would like to say apologize for this incident happened because of our staff careless on process while checking in your luggage.

   After our investigation process, the check in staff provided a full report on mentioned date and apologized on the big mistake on unprofessional way of handling your property.

   We are sure your complaint is justified, nevertheless, we are truly sorry to say that we cannot be liable for this mistake due to personal mindless accident of carrying the unknown content of the belongings.

   We thank you for your kind understanding and we hope to have a chance to being of service to you in the future.

Best regards,

Pasak Palanan

Central Baggage Tracing Officer (CBTO)

Thai Air Asia,Suwanabumi Airport,4th Flr.

Tel:(66)21343511

Fax:(66)21343512

E-mail:taa_cbto@airasia.com

As you can see, the airline admitted that it was their "big mistake" and that the damage to my computer was due to "staff careless on process while checking in [my] luggage" and "unprofessional way of handling [my] property" and "mindless accident." In fact, they even said, "We are sure your complaint is justified." Despite admitting their carelessness and culpability, they still refuse to accept liability for damage I had no way of preventing.

Because the Office of Tourism and Development, Ministry of Tourism and Sports, aims to assist tourists in Thailand with unfair practices such as this, I would respectfully like to ask for your assistance in this unfortunate matter. I travel to Thailand often enough that this would influence my decision to spend more time there in the future. Also, I am planning to contact other agencies to respectfully inform them of Air Asia's unacceptable policy of not taking responsibility for what they admit were careless and negligent actions.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration in these matters. I can be contacted at ... . I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

D— J—

So, for any of you already in SE Asia, and for those of you planning to visit this part of the world, please let this be a warning of what may await you as a passenger on Air Asia. My personal recommendation is to avoid the airline at all costs. Even if you find a decent airfare, as I thought I did, traveling with them ended up costing far more than it should have.

For my sake, if not for yours, please avoid them!

It would be nice to know that other people, not just myself, have decided to avoid their airline. They’ve already missed out on my business through several trips I’ve taken in Asia since this happened. Had they just offered to replace my screen, I’d still be using their airline. Instead, they’ve actually lost money by treating me this way because I very likely would have chosen their airline for several trips I’ve recently taken and plan to take in the future.

Ah, for what it’s worth, there you go. Gripe session over…

Happy, safe traveling, everyone! Don’t use Air Asia!

Malai Deli & Jazz Club

There’s a mini-godsend that arrived not too long ago on Truc Bach Lake. This place has a strange name – Malai Deli is neither a deli nor has anything to do with Malaysia – but that’s no reason to stay away.

Malai Deli is (or offers), as the front of the establishment says, “Bar, Coffee, Restaurant, Bakery.” It’s also a nice place to catch live music…though, as is the case with the restaurant’s name, there’s a bit of false advertising in this: the “Live Jazz” that Malai advertises is more like lounge music – lots of old Vietnamese classics, which are imminently more interesting and easier on the ear than what passes as contemporary pop in Vietnam.

First, Malai Deli the restaurant. I come here sometimes to have breakfast. There’s a small selection of purely breakfast items, from phở and mì noodles to eggs and omelets.

The picture below shows an omelet with lots of veggies and ham, along with toast, a small salad, and French fries. It’s something of a steal at 35,000 dong ($1.79). I ordered an iced coffee, too, which with my breakfast order only cost an additional 15,000 dong ($0.77). The coffee here, by the way, is excellent. Malai’s lunch and dinner menu is quite extensive, and while one can order pizza (a very nice seafood pizza, drenched in mozzarella, only costs 120,000 dong, or $6.15) and pasta, the menu is tipped toward Vietnamese tastes. In the mornings and afternoons, both floors of Malai Deli are available, and it’s a very pleasant place to come with friends for a chat and a drink, or to take advantage of the free wireless and get some work done.

At night, the second floor of Malai transforms into a kind of lounge music venue. Live music is on tap from 9 to 11 p.m. on Thursdays and Saturdays only. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, the second floor is used for open karaoke, so, if you’re like me, you’ll want to be long gone before 9 p.m. rolls around and any tone-deaf screechers take the stage.

Thursday and Saturday nights, though, are well worth coming for. There’s no cover charge, and one is only expected to buy a drink. I’ve opted for coffee and Chilean red wine (60,000 dong per glass), and both have lasted me the whole two-hour gig.

The performances are emceed by Chien Thang, who is also a TV emcee, and who will occasionally put in his own practiced performance if a singer isn’t ready or hasn’t arrived (last night the singer Xuan Thuong, picture below, who I basically came to see perform, failed to show up due to the “cold weather,” which was rather a lame excuse).

The other three singers I’ve seen perform here are Xuan Thuong, Phuong Oanh (below), and Tuan Hiep. I’m not that crazy about Vietnamese music, but these performances are worth catching if you’re in Hanoi and have a Thursday or Saturday night free.

Malai Deli is located at 92 Tran Vu Street and is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. Tel: (04) 6291-6892. Fax (04) 3715-2466. Email: maituanduc@gmail.com.

Cold Weather Food: Phở & Qua Vú Sữa (Breast Milk Fruit)

Friday night was cold in Hanoi, the kind of cold that tends to make me obsess about hot soups and hot drinks (not to mention effective central heating and sunny tropical beaches). In this weather, when it's time to eat, having a good phở restaurant within walking distance of where I live is a godsend. On nights like this, it no longer even matters that I’ve been avoiding that phở restaurant for weeks because, as a foreigner, I’m always overcharged there. (It seems that I’m overcharged everywhere, but I’m strenuously trying not to write that kind of blog post here.)

Phở Vi has what I consider to be the best phở gà in Hanoi. I wish I knew what made it so great, but there are three elements that ride at the top of my list: heavenly made phở noodles, the highest quality chicken, and a soup so delicious you wish you could take a bath in it. Phở Vi also makes cơm binh dân dishes – cheap (unless you’re overcharged) pre-made dishes to be eaten with rice – that my stomach wholeheartedly recommends.
 

The ambience of Phở Vi is better than most pho restaurants, in large part because the place is kept clean. The mint-colored walls and floor tiles aren’t exactly a selling point, but if you’re looking for a place without water stains and mildew creeping over the walls and ceiling, this is the place for you. It also offers views of the busy intersection where it’s located, and as you eat your phở you can casually watch people at another phở restaurant across the street do the same thing—this offers the advantage of making you feel superior to them for not eating as delicious phở as you are. And phở at night is more atmospheric, as darkness makes the neighborhood appear more charming.
 

Even Phở Vi’s sidewalk dishwasher seems quaint, and night masks much of the dirt that you might otherwise see in daylight. (Not that that bothers me, though it might bother those who aren’t used to it.)

I’ve gotten in the habit lately of eating quầy with my phở. Quầy are basically just long, flaky, hollow pieces of fried bread used to dip in one’s broth. I like them in part, too, because they’re more food. Well, that plus the fact that they go really well with phở.

On this night we ordered phở gà không da—chicken phở without any pieces of chicken skin—and as you can see in the photo below, Phở Vi gives generous slices of chicken cooked to perfection. Look at that broth, too—as clear as the purest boiled tap water on earth.

Phở Vi is located at 72 Cửa Bắc Street, at the intersection with Nguyễn Trường Tộ Street.

On the way home we stopped on the sidewalk and bought a handful of qua vú sữa (translated literally as breast milk fruit, but known in English as a star apple). Winter is the month for this fruit—at least it is in Hanoi—and women in conical hats are selling these from the backs of their bicycles seemingly everywhere now.
 

The fruit is certainly interesting. It has a soft rind, and you’re meant to squeeze it gingerly for a while before cutting it open, to get the milky juice flowing. Then, once you’ve sliced off the top, a simple press of your finger onto the fruit’s flesh will bring a spoonful of milk to the top. We used a spoon to scoop out the fruit, whose mild taste is like a mix between a hồng xiêm (sapuche fruit) and a coconut.

Pie Town, CA

Well, I’m back in the U.S. for the holidays. I flew into San Diego a week ago, and return to Vietnam tomorrow morning. I’m jetlagging like crazy, which explains why I was up at 3 a.m. downloading these photos and smacking out this blog entry. Either that, or the ridiculous schedule I’m keeping means that I’m sick.

Yesterday my family headed out to Julian, California, otherwise known as “Pie Town,” for lunch, pie, and what I hoped would be my first taste of camel milk. (I visited Pie Town before, so I knew about the camel dairies already.)

Our first stop was the Oasis Camel Dairy, which was nothing if not a nod to this blog and the sometimes exotic food choices I like to make. Unfortunately, the dairy was closed, so I didn’t get to try any camel milk or, my god, camel milk chocolate. Even so, I did get up close and much too personal with one particularly vile camel. 

I guess all camels are vile when it comes down to it (no offense to all you camel lovers out there), but two days after Christmas you might think it would behave a bit more civilized and act friendlier. (Spirit of the holidays, Mrs. Camel?) What’s what the chuffing cheeks full of frothy spit, the saliva-gargling and bellowing, the stink-eye-on-the-tourists while urinating on its tail and hind legs? Who wants to drink milk and eat milk chocolate produced from a nasty, disgusting beast like that? Well, me…had the dairy been open.

Despite its vileness, it was one handsome animal. All the more so when it rolled onto its back under a tree in the distance, stuck its legs straight up in the air, and mucked about in the dirt.

If giant flightless birds are more your thing, you’re in luck.

Along the highway to Julian there are also ostrich and emu farms, and highway stands that sell their eggs (empty ones) along with lots of colorful local produce.

It only takes about an hour to reach Julian from San Diego, and as you can see from the photos above, it's an interesting trip. Although we missed Julian Apple Days by a few weeks, the atmosphere remained very Christmas-like and festive, and the weather in southern California had finally sunnied-up enough that we could walk around the town comfortably.

Julian gained its fame originally in 1870 during gold rush times, and its popularity continues today for its old hotels, apple orchards, working gold mines, spring flowers, seasonal festivals, crafts and art stores, and of course pies.

Our first stop in Julian was the Miner’s Diner, on the corner of Washington and Main streets. 

The Miner’s Diner is an old-style breakfast and lunch restaurant, famous as much for its malted milkshakes as for its eclectic interior and old collectibles displayed virtually everywhere.

The busy counter, with its old soda fountain, is also worth noting. When it's not too crowded, it's fun to get up close and watch them make their milkshakes here.

The menu is nothing to brag about, but then again, it's nothing to sneeze at either. It offers standard diner fare, and at reasonable prices. The five of us ended up ordering two chili cheese-dogs, a veggie burger, a turkey burger, and the miner's burger (your standard burger with a different name). I went with the most heart-clogging choice: the chili cheese-dog. (I like to think this was a nod to my Cincinnati roots: Gold Star Chili and Skyline Chili.) It was pleasurably messy to eat, but a bit weak on flavor. I say spice up the chili more, Miner's Diner!

We were all pretty full after that, especially my dad and brother, who ordered gigantic malted milkshakes with their meals, and while I could have squeezed down a piece of pie at this point, I made do for now making love-eyes at pies in windows.

There are all kinds of interesting crafts shops here, too, with the main themes appearing to be nature, the old west, and California in general. We ended up walking to a place called The Birdwatcher, which sells all kinds of interesting bird-related merchandise, from bird seed to handcrafted birdfeeders, birding books to bird ornaments, bird art to bird flags...on and on.

I was still the only one ready for pie, and one of only three people in our group whose eyes weren't glazed over with that kind of gray, regretful look of over-satedness, so we piled into our car again and drove off about 10 miles to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Along the way are some great views, along with numerous lakes and interesting barns.

One place we stopped off at was an overlook of the Salton Sea. It's not really a sea, but a low-lying salt lake on the San Andreas Fault. On a clear day, one's view is rather spectacular.

Like I said, between Julian and Cuyamaca Rancho State Park are various lakes and ponds.

We didn't stay long at Cuyamaca Rancho, mostly because we realized that our time was short, and Pie Town closed early. So after a quick look around here, we were off again, this time to buy pie to bring back home.

We were in such a hurry for pie we nearly ran over these newlyweds taking a carriage ride through town.

The first place we went to had just closed for the day, so we rushed to a different pie shop -- The Julian Pie Company -- which we knew from a previous visit, and found it very busy, with a line going out through the door.

There's all kinds of seating here, too -- front, back, inside -- so when there's no place to sit, that means there are probably more than 50 people eating pie here all at once.

The Julian Pie Company has a wide selection of pies, some of which are baked on the spot and sold whole or in slices, other which are assembled and then sold for you to bake in your own home.

We were getting antsy waiting to buy pie. The couple in front of us bought ten pies to take home, which nearly cleaned the place out. By the time we got to the counter there were no baked pies left, though we did get a frozen unbaked Dutch apple crumb to take home with us.

We also decided to load up on the spot with slices of warm cherry pie and hot apple cider. The cherry pie was heavenly on the first bite -- okay, and also on the second and third -- but after that it became too rich for me, and there was a slight, salty aftertaste to it that I didn't much care for. But I ate the whole thing anyway. That's just the kind of human disposal I've come to be.

By the time we'd finished it was a bit after 5 p.m., and already the sun had gone down and Pie Town was winking on its lights. This is a great little trip to make if you're in San Diego and have some time free. Weekends are busy but the crowds are fun. Weekdays, I'd imagine, you'd have the town more or less to yourself.