The end of our fabulous trip

---

Geo: -38.1, 145.717

Mum came knocking on our door as we were trying to ring her!! She said she'd meet us at breaky but I told her to wait – I might get lost finding the way!! We dressed in 10 minutes. I missed my morning swim but the pool is too far away and there would have to be too much thinking required to find it! Made our way to breaky – buffet style but not to of standard that we were used too!! Did have 3 cereals and they did cook eggs in front of you – only sunny up and down eggs. Sunny up needed one more minute cooking!! No bacon! We waited and waited! French toast very soggy. Butter in our first hotel was curls that started to melt rather quickly. Second place it was foiled butter that sat on in a bowl of ice – it melted very quickly – you could only take one at a time otherwise it was too runny. This place was curls in icy icy water and was too hard. We had to squash it with a knife on plate to soften it enough to be able to spread it. As the butter was sitting in water, it made the plate wet so I had to carried my toast in my hand and wiped plate dry with serviette!! Not as many selections of bread (fussy now aren't I!!). When bacon FINALY arrived I got a plate enough for Nana, Mel and I – it was cold and stringy/chewy/hard. Very disappointing after the long wait!! And NO BANANAS!! Pa took a bite of his bacon and knocked a cap off his 22 tooth.

Back to room then we went for a walk to the bridge. We saw an elephant but had to pay BHT100 to feed it and have photo taken – sorry Mel. Mel reluctantly agreed to go back to hotel with Pa and go for a swim whilst Nana and I went shopping. Mel wanted to come with me but there was a huge, long bridge between us and the market – yesterday was bad enough walking a third of the way. Today would have been walking it twice. Nana and I went over. We found some magnets first and bought them. As I am out of money, I borrowed BHT1000 from mum. I was happy to get money from ATM but she didn't want me to pay the transaction fee of $3.00. I bought some place mats BHT120 – I offered 100 and she agreed straight away – as mum said, how much more could I have saved!! Mum was really feeling the heat so she went back whilst I kept shopping. In one section of the market there must have been 100 jewellery shops and nothing else!! How much can you buy!! I bought Pete some sunglasses and a few more souvenirs then back over the bridge to the hotel. It was extremely hot.

I went to pool, grabbed Nana's door key and went to put my bathers on. We were meant to have 3pm checkout as per itinerary but we were told it was 12. They were going to drop us off at a shopping centre to kill a few hours (about 4 or 5) but that was way too long – even for me!! After much complaining by a few, they extended our time but Mel and I had to vacate our room by 12. We moved in with Nana &Pa for 3 hours. The pool is lovely and big, with shady areas and basketball hoops. It had a bar that was in use, unlike the last place. In the pool a centre "island" with a bridge to it. You were able to walk into the pool down a slope as opposed to using steps to get in. There was varying depths around the pool, it had seats under the water in different parts around the pool. Mel was playing basketball when I got to the pool. I joined in for a short while – after I cooled down!! We played and sat and played some more.

Went to Nana & Pa's room where I had shower, did last minute packing then we checked out. I had given Mel some phenergon when she woke this morning to help with the bus trip. We jumped on the bus for the final leg of the journey. We drove from the resort to Kanchanaburi (to get to the other side of the bridge, we had to drive about 20 minutes - same time it takes to walk over the bridge!) We went to a museum about the bridge – photos and sketches from that time. Back on the bus and we headed back to Bangkok, stopping once for toilet (and an icy pole!) - hopefully the last squat toilets for a long time!!! We were dropped off at the shopping centre for an hour to get dinner and kill time. It was the same set-up as near Manhattan - Robinsons on top, Tops Supermarket down below with a food court. Mel got fried rice and I got roast duck with fried rice.

Off to airport. The queue for the check in was unbelievable although it did move reasonably fast. We went and found our boarding gate and left Nana & Pa with all our cases whilst Mel and I went walking. The size is unbelievable. There were about 73 gates and I don't know how many shops – nearly the same amount I would think. They just went on and on. 'Book shop and pharmacy' (good combination!) post office, money exchange place, coffee stands, jewellery, sports goods, chocolate, duty free grog, cigarettes , perfume etc, flower shops, ornaments, clothing, souvenirs – it just went on and on. We wandered around. We bought a few souvenirs then checked in.

We had to catch a bus from the terminal to the plane. It must have been a five minute trip – a huge airport obviously!! We found our seats (3 behind Nana and Pa). Unfortunately the plane was full so we didn't get the sane luxury as we had on the trip over here.

Up, up and away. Got drinks soon after take-off followed by dinner. We had ordered kids meal for Mel - ravioli and nuggets, fruit salad, 3 slices of fruit and carrot cake and a bread roll. Soggy was her response. I got pan fried tub tim fish with Thai herb sauce, steamed Thai hom mali rice , pumpkin and zucchini; roasted plum tomato and pasta salad, white vinegar dressing (I couldn't taste dressing – it was very dry and bland); fresh fruit; soya bean roll and butter and cappuccino cake. Can't say it tasted nice. Maybe 5/10. Mel ate my rice as she didn't really like her meal. As soon as dinner finished, she got Jessica and a pillow, pulled a blanket up over her head and went to sleep. I ended up holding her food tray so I could put the table up to give her more sleeping room. They FINALLY came and collected trays. I watched the second half of the movie I started on the way over there (Queen Laphier or something going on holiday before she dies) then lay back for a sleep. I dozed on and off for possibly 2 hours maybe 3. My knees were hurting and I couldn't stretch my legs out so most uncomfortable. Mel slept about 4.5 hours. We had breaky at 8am (11am Melbourne time). Again Mel got Kids meal. Box cornflakes, box of milk ("I'd forgotten how much I hate cornflakes" was the comment after one spoonful). Mel also got fruit salad, a roll, a muffin, a pancake with scrambled eggs and a sausage. Pa got Mel's left-over milk from her cereal. I got hot pancakes with blueberries, Spanish tortilla, grilled chicken sausages, vegetable nugget; fruit salad in passion fruit sauce, yoghurt, bread roll or croissant, butter and jam. Pancakes dry, nugget revolting & ….. The food was not nearly as good as on way over.

We landed on time. When we went through immigration we were sniffed by a dog and had our suitcase checked. I thought I'd got everything out to declare but she found an ornament (bowl of fruit) that I should have showed. I also bought a packet of dried biscuits that I forgot about that she didn't find!! Out to the bus stop. Rang and ordered the bus to take us to my car.

---