I've been uploading a few photos to include with some previous entries on my TravelBlog. It really is a slow process to attach photos to this site (at least from this computer) and especially difficult to choose less than a half-dozen to represent any given entry. So far, I've finished a few of the blogs from Portland and the first several days in Thailand., But it's getting late now so I'll finish after I've gotten some more sleep. (I slept most of today and still haven't made it to the post office or the grocery store...found a can of mandarin oranges [View Full Entry]

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My last two full days in Bangkok were definitely the most activity-filled of the entire trip. I had booked full-day tours through my hotel for 1000 baht (approx. $25) each and definitely got my money's worth... Monday morning (January 9), my guide picked me up at 6:20a.m. in the 18th floor lobby of Baiyoke Sky Hotel and escorted me to the minivan downstairs. We then went to pick up six more passengers at the China Palace Hotel in Chinatown. I was trying to remember a few phrases of Chinese when the guide was inside retrieving them but they all turned out [View Full Entry]

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I arrived back in Albuquerque late last night, having endured five flights (six stops) in 30 hours — all of it January 11th because of the International Date Line. I left Bangkok at 8:45 in the morning local time (30 minutes late) on Royal Thai Airways, changed to Air Canada in Tokyo, went through U.S. Customs at Vancouver before changing to a Jazz flight to Portland, was switched from America West to Southwest Airlines in the Rose City which took me to Albuquerque via Reno and a plane-change in Las Vegas, stepping off the last plane at 11:45p.m. Albuquerque time. I'm [View Full Entry]

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It was a very long day and I need to get up early tomorrow for the River Kwai trip so I won't write much tonight other than the briefest details. I'll fill those in at a later time. The morning was spent touring the Royal Palace - I've never seen so much gold in my life! We returned at noon and I had my "welcome drink" at the Lobby Bar - it was just watermelon juice and Sprite. I then went up to the revolving observation deck on the 84th floor and took some photos. After that, I went in search [View Full Entry]

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It looks like I won't have much free time here in Bangkok because I booked several tours. My first is of the Royal Palace tomorrow morning at 7:30 and then I£ taking a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River. On Monday, I spend the full day in Kanchananaburi at the famous bridge over the River Kwai. And my last day here will be spent on a full-day excursion that includes a visit to the floating market, an elephant ride, Muay Thai boxing, and several other things I've forgotten. This schedule doesn't allow much extra time for shopping but I'll have [View Full Entry]

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That's the best way to describe Baiyoke Sky Hotel. I'm on the 68th floor (rooms only go to floor 74; restaurants and other facilities occupy the upper floors with observation decks on the 77th and 84th floors - the latter is an outdoor revolving one). The room is extremely luxurious with a huge bathroom, a separate office area, a dining alcove, dessing area, and two windows overlooking Bangkok far below. I'm wearing a really cool Baiyoke bathrobe as I type this. My room is so high that my cellular service is very intermittent, however (Tim and I tried to call each [View Full Entry]

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Having spent almost every minute of the last week together, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Tim wanted to go to the airport to see me off today. We became very attached to each other in such a short time and she cried last night when we began talking about how long it would be before I could return. Today, I was the one who began tearing up in the taxi the closer we got to the airport. She stayed with me in the terminal until I went through the last security checkpoint before my gate (I waited until [View Full Entry]

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The past several nights, I've been awaken in the middle of the night by something large hitting the sliding glass doors to my hotel room. Tonight, I stepped outside to investigate and was almost hit by the largest cicada I've ever seen! It was almost as big as a hummingbird and twice as erratic, flitting back and forth between the left-on porch light and my door. Mystery solved... The light also attracted a few other exotic creatures such as a giant lizard. A good reason to stay inside at night as I'm not a fan of creepy-crawlies unless they're at a [View Full Entry]

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I don't have time for a long blog entry tonight. I'm exhausted after a very long "half-day" tour which ran from 11:30 this morning until after eight tonight (including a lengthy motorcoach ride each way). The sea kayak trip was all it was advertised to be and more. The only small disasoopintment was that by the time we got to Monkey Cave, it was too dark to see any of the gibbons that inhabit the caverns. (In fact, it was almost too dark to even see the rock-carved steps so it was difficult to explore much further than the reclining Buddha [View Full Entry]

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The budget airline I'd booked my return to northern Thailand mysteriously cancelled all of it's flights from Phuket this week effectively stranding hundreds of passengers in paradise. I've booked a flight on a different airline but the earliest I'll be able to leave is early in the evening this coming Friday, which will cause me to cancel my plans for the River Kwai area and crossing into Burma. It's no problem because I'm enjoying myself here in Kamala and I didn't have anything booked until my scheduled return to Bangkok on January 7th. Now, I'll just get back to that city [View Full Entry]

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