Days 10, 11 and 12 - Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Well, this will be the last installment for this trip. It's been an amazing trip, very eye-opening, great time, but it's probably best that we return to reality in the good ol' US of A. Probably a good idea before we get any more food-borne illnesses and before Maynard Cooper fires me...

Went to dinner Thursday night at the top of our hotel in Bangkok at this awesome place called Sirocco. It's outdoors at the top of the State Tower (the same building our hotel was in) and has an awesome outdoor seating area and bar that literally hangs off the side of the building. (Nothing separates you from the ground 64 floors below except a VERY low glass wall...would never fly in the States.) The weather was great, and the place was quite a scene...lots of nice looking people and accents/languages from all over the place. Had a great dinner and drinks and called it quits for the night...Rich's botulism was starting to set in.

Friday morning, we got up and took a cab up to the Grand Palace, an amazing Buddhist temple in Bangkok before checking out of our hotel. The complex was pretty jammed with tourists but VERY cool. The entire place was covered in shiny colored, gem-like materials. Again, a stark contrast to what we saw in the early temples of Angkor in Cambodia, but really amazing. Got back to the hotel in time to check out and head to the airport (in a nice big Mercedes Benz) to fly back to KL (on a much newer plane this time, thank goodness).

Arrived back in KL and was met by Kamal, the driver used by Will and Jenny, for the hour ride back to Mont Kiara in KL, which is where Will and Jenny live. Jenny had cooked an awesome dinner for us, and we were joined by their friends Greg and Brie, a great couple of Aussies who live here in KL now, as well as a couple of Will and Jenny's friends from Stanford who are visiting KL. Had a great dinner and great conversation...a lot of diversity sitting around the table.

Got up this morning and headed down to Chinatown in KL to have lunch and walk around the market. Headed by the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club and now resting up before heading out to dinner (crabs, I think) in KL with the crowd from last night. Our flight leaves for Seoul at around 1:00 a.m., so we'll head to the airport around 10 tonight. The flight to Seoul is about 6 hours, then about 16 to Atlanta from there and then on to B'ham.

Looking forward to getting back to the South and football season, but this really has been an awesome experience. It really changes your perspective on things to travel and see how other people live and how other cultures work.

Hoping for some good beer and movies on the flights home. Signing out...

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Photos

Bangkok
The Grand Palace