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Published: June 29th 2009
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Our good friend Kerrie was there waiting for us at the exit as arranged - lucky considering we were 20 minutes early, had no luggage to collect, flew through immigration and past the temperature monitors without stopping. We hadn't seen Kerrie since they moved from the Mount to Bangkok almost a year ago. It was so great seeing her after all these months - we just clicked back to where we had left off. Before long her driver had the car brought round (oh how posh~) and we were heading off to their lovely apartment near Lumphini Park in the middle of Bangkok city.
The next day was spent traipsing around MBK getting all the goodies the kids had on their shopping lists. We hadn't spent a lot of time in the MBK during our last two visits as the kids were young and hated shopping, so we had a really great time. Ultimately the bargaining was made easier by having Kerrie there taking us to her regular suppliers and telling them the price we were prepared to pay (in Thai no less!). We got heaps of fabulous shoes, tee shirts, bags, dvds & nintendo games - oh and did
I mention bags????
Wednesday we headed down to the Saphin Taskin pier and hired a longboat to take us for a jaunt around the klongs. Cost B900 (down from the B5000 originally requested thanks again to Kerrie's fantastic method of negotiation). We spent just 90 minutes going on a circlular route around the residential area over the other side of the river and even tho' we enjoyed it, it was a oncer. Got some great photo's and saw a completely different side of life.
Afterwards we headed to the Oriental Hotel and had a delicious morning coffee and pastries at their riverside cafe followed by a little wander around the old original part of the hotel. Next time we are definately coming for the chocolate morning tea in the Author's Lounge - how did we ever miss this????? Later in the evening after eating out at a lovely restaurant directly over the river from the Temple of Dawn, we checked out the Suan Lum Night bazaar. This huge market is virtually over the street from Kerrie's apartment - More shopping and sore feet to end a great day.
On Thursday Kerrie kindly took us all the way
to Kanchanaburi in their car (Chauffeur driven). We stopped at the Hell Fire Pass memorial and walked a short way along the track, had a beautiful cheap lunch at a roadside restaurant, walked over the Bridge and checked out the market briefly before heading back to Bangkok. It was just perfect for us and although it was a long way to go for only a day, we really enjoyed ourselves.
Friday morning, our last day we took a taxi to Chinatown. OMG why had we never been here to shop before?? This place is just so GREAT! We picked up wrapping paper and ribbons for next to nothing, enough beads make hundreds of pieces of jewellery, hair accessories galore, more bags, delicious food etc etc etc. Even tho' it was hot, claustrophobic and quite manic I would love to come back with girlfriends, a heap of money and a large shopping list!! Hmmm, another bucket list item.
Before long it was time to save farewell and head out to the airport by taxi. Fortunately we left in plenty of time so the horrendous traffic jamb we got stuck in wasn't too stressful.
The long journey home was
pretty uneventful but we were pretty pleased to finally touch down in Tauranga and see the kids again.
All in all, a truly awesome trip.
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