Today was my departure day from Bangkok and I am on my way home (I miss my big baby girl Charlotte). This was a wonderful trip and I am sad that it had to end but at the same time I am feeling quite fortunate to have had the experience. I honestly have nothing to say that is negative about this trip and I have fallen in love with Thailand; it may rival my love for Cuba if that tells you anything!! I made it to the airport in record time thanks to my taxi driver Wanchai (which only meant that [View Full Entry]

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Today was my last full day in Thailand and I was spending it at The Thai House. It is located just up the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi. I was getting picked up at the hotel to be brought to one of the piers to continue the journey by boat. My pick-up was late (actually the man who picked me up was a friend of the guy who was supposed to pick me up; that's how stuck in traffic this guy was and did not want me to miss the boat). As I waited in the lobby, I was flipping through [View Full Entry]

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I bought the best book yesterday. It is called "Very Thai" and it is small essays on all of the things that make up Thai culture. There are quite a few things that I have seen and definitely asked myself about as they seem to be distinctly Thai and this book covers all of them, such as: - why some men have long fingernails; - the popularity of foodstalls especially food on a stick (I have had quite a few things on a stick ... quick, easy and quite good) and drinks in a bag (Jana was quite excited to have [View Full Entry]

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I just tried to upload photos and it is extremely slow so unfortunately a no-go until I get home. I probably have close to 1,300 photos if you can believe it. I do have a lot of pictures of signs though as a reminder of what is what; some places look very much alike (for example, all of the ruins in Ayutthaya). Today was for visiting the more random sites that I had yet to see. Basically this is my last day to do any real sightseeing in Bangkok as tomorrow I will try to get on the boat to Ko [View Full Entry]

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I am so exhausted it is not even funny. I just had a thirteen hour day! I had a very early pick up time for my excursion to the Bridge on the River Kwai and the Death Railway. Both of these sites are 2.5 hours outside of Bangkok in Kachanaburi. After the usual pickup of different people at different hotels and a quick van change on Khao San Road, we were on our way. Once out of Bangkok, the hustle and bustle of the city quickly fades away and is traded in for beautiful, lush fields of palm trees sporadically dotted [View Full Entry]

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I woke up kind of sluggish this morning. It kind of always happens in trips like this; there is always a day that the non-stop pace just catches up with you. I had planned out my day (I realized last night that I only have two full free days left; the other ones are taken up with a couple of excursions and the cooking school) and it involved a lot of walking. Didn't really feel up to it so I decided to do the other sites that I had left on my list. First breakfast and making my way through the [View Full Entry]

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I have made a point of getting up early to really get going before it starts getting really hot. The weather today was slightly cooler which means about 30 with some serious humidity (I have officially looked like crap since setting foot here!) Breakfast consisted of another choice off of the Asian breakfast menu, wok fried noodles with chicken and vegetables. Again it was a very thick soup; beef broth, cracked pepper, celery, carrots and topped with a poached egg. It was so good. Poon, the waitress, was impressed that I knew how to eat soup with chopsticks ... years of [View Full Entry]

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First of all, I barely know which day this is ... I had to look at the newspaper to actually figure out that this was Tuesday. This is the first sign that you have officially disconnected and your mind is completely in vacation mode. I had a giggle when I saw the first page of the newspaper. There it was ... a huge photo of the King making an offering of food to a monk during the ceremony of Coronation day held (well we know where ...) Wat Phra Kaew and the grounds of the Grand Palace. So I didn't scammed [View Full Entry]

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We were up bright and early this morning because we had to pack as much in as possible on Jana's last day here. We were on a mission! So off on the Skytrain we were to find that darn Golden Mount ... we had to wait a few minutes at the train because everything stops at 8 am in Bangkok for the playing of the national anthem. It is piped out through loud speakers everywhere! We had the same thing at the train station yesterday. We finally found the Golden Mount ... basically it is this hill with soft earth that [View Full Entry]

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Jana made it in to Bangkok yesterday afternoon safe and sound. It is so nice to see her as it has been so long since the last time I had actually seen her. She had a short flight and a one hour time delay so she was ready to head out sightseeing as soon as she came in. We decided that we would try to climb the 318 steps of the Golden Mount ... problem was that we couldn't find it. We had a bit of time crunch because we were getting picked up at the hotel for our supper reservations. [View Full Entry]

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