RETURN TO BANGKOK

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September 17, 2010

This morning as I sit on the couch in the living room of our bungalow in paradise, I have been reflecting on our trip. It has truly been an amazing vacation. It is not yet quite over, one final night in Bangkok, then back to San Francisco and finally back home. While we enjoyed the trip we are ready to go home. I think that is the sign of a great vacation, when you have had a wonderful time, you don’t really want to leave, but you are ready to return home.

As I reported in my last entry, Jerry has caught my bug, we are a couple, it always happens, when I get sick he gets sick and vice versa. But armed with the special Thai brew, hopefully we can knock it out of him. I only have a sour throat remaining of my illness.

Jerry arranged our transportation to the Phuket airport yesterday, so all we need to do is pack have some breakfast and begin our journey towards home.

The difference between Bangkok and Koh Yao Noi, is night and day. Bangkok is a bustling, congested, vibrant city, with everything to offer from street food to sex. Koh Yao Noi, is laid back, sparsely populated, with nothing to offer but beauty, relaxation, and peace. Both are worth your visit, and I recommend 5 nights in each.

A Tuk Tuk, Speed Boat and a Plane

The Tuk Tuk ride to the boat pier took about 20 minutes, Michelle the general manager and Florian the resident manager both spoke with us before we left. We assured them, that despite both of us getting sick, we had a wonderful time. And we did. The speed boat ride was uneventful and took about 30 minutes, with one stop on the larger of the Koh Yao’s. When we arrived back in Phuket it was another 20 minute car ride to the airport. Our plane was to leave at 4:10, Bangkok Air, Thailand’s boutique airline (ha). The plane was delayed by three hours. On top of that, Jerry was getting worse, he is in a great deal of pain throughout his body and I could not find Advil, Tylenol or any pain reliever at the airport, and what we brought was backed in the checked luggage. Once we boarded the plane, everything was fine, except Jerry was freezing. We arrived at Bangkok, three hours behind schedule, but the car for the hotel was waiting when we arrived from baggage. The ride back to Lebua was quick and instead of checking us in at the lobby, they took us right to our room on the 59th floor. We are in the tour club, Gina knows what that means. We get special benefits, and have our own private club that only people in the tower club can use. It is now about 10:30 pm, I have ordered room service for us, and Jerry is down smoking, did not get a smoking room this time. We don’t have to leave for the airport until 2 pm tomorrow, and we don’t have to check out until we leave. So Jerry will be sleeping and I have a busy day of picking up the tailored clothes, and doing some last minute shopping.

Before I end this post, I have a brief comment on the flight from Phuket. While the flight itself was smooth and with out incident. I do have to say, that for the average white American I believe they would have been scared. The southern part of Thailand is predominately Muslim, not Buddhist, so naturally there were several Arabic peoples on vacation and returning home on the same flight. Most of them were young men in their 20’s and I would say most of them were also gay. I have no idea what countries they were from. It is an odd feeling to be in a place, where only 5%!o(MISSING)f the people look like you and no one sounds like you. It is an experience every white American should have. While I was not uncomfortable in any way, I do believe that many other Americans might have been. For me it was more comforting being on a plane was made up of a majority of Arabs and few white people (Americans).

Our journey and this blog are about to an end. Tomorrow I will make my last entry from the road when we arrive in San Francisco. I will then end with a closing comment back at home.

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