November 22, 2012
Shades of Bangkok—no free wi-fi to be found. I bought the bullet and paid $25 for three days of unlimited access from my iPad so that I could continue to blog. I’ll also use it to find and map things I want to see and to read the NPR site, so I guess it’s okay to splurge.
It’s another lovely day here in the city. The sun is shining, and the noise of the night has died down some. Mark and I had breakfast at the cafe alone. We called Tony and Tom to see if they wanted to go with, but they were still sleeping at 8:30. Mark is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV while I get caught up on my blog and listen to a Train album. I haven’t listened to any music since Tuesday night, so it’s a necessary, calming half hour. After I get cleaned up, I think I’m going to roam a bit. I’m planning to take some pics of the parade, and if that comes to pass, I’ll upload them. [I made it down for a short time, so here are a couple camera phone pics.]
Our big plans for the day—like just about every other Americans’—center around Thanksgiving dinner. Historically, we’ve dined at the Carlyle Hotel. They’ve always had a very nice buffet in the café, which is a beautiful but also homey room wrapped in a mural by Erté. A number of years ago, a large chain bought the hotel, and the Thanksgiving buffet has been on the decline ever since. (The price, however, continues to rise to unwarranted levels.)
When Diane tried to get us a reservation this year, she had an awful time getting someone to call her back. When she finally was able to speak to someone, she learned that that the hotel was no longer serving the buffet in the Café Carlyle; rather, we’d would be eating in the hotel dining room, which is just like any other boring dining room in any other hotel. Further, said was warned that our large party would have to be split into two or possibly among three tables. And, we would have to be put on a wait list because they were already booked. Those discouraging developments, added to Mark and Matt’s report that the food two years ago was a marked disappointment over previous years (though it rebounded somewhat last year), suggested pretty strongly that it was time to move on.
I did a little research and found that the Waldorf Astoria’s Peacock Alley also offers a Thanksgiving buffet (featuring more than 100 desserts!). The Waldorf’s buffet is less expensive than the Carlyle’s, and the hotel is nearer our hotel (meaning it will be easier to get there during the parade). We decided that the Waldorf couldn’t disappoint us more than the Carlyle has this year, so we decided to give them a try. Diane reported that the reservation hostess was thrilled to welcome us for Thanksgiving (especially since we were dumping the Carlyle), so this year, we hope to start a new tradition.
