Bye bye Bangkok-final day

Final day of our Southeast Asia adventures & we have a plan: breakfast, boat to Vimanmek Mansion, shopping, Thai massage, pack up & catch a 1pm van to the airport. 

I must admit I woke up excited to be heading home-six weeks was LONG time to travel and I was just ready to be done backpacking. Had we seen everything there is to see? Certainly not. Absolutely not. But 17 cities in 41 days left us a bit exhausted. On to our last day!

We were at breakfast at 8am. My last day of toast & eggs. I might never eat another scrambled egg. 

We walked to the boat docks to catch the commuter boat a few stops to finally see the Vimanmek Mansion. I had two reasons for wanting to see this: 

1. The structure was made without a single nail. It's the largest teak wood structure in the world. I thought that was pretty cool. 

2. Entrance was "included" in our admission ticket to the Grand Palace. And gosh darn it, I wanted to collect every piece I could of that $14 entrance fee ticket. 

We caught up on blogging as we waited for the boat. We waited an exceptionally long time-we traveled this route before (you'll remember from our Bangkok day 2 post) & the boats came quite frequently, but they sure were not frequent today. Happy Husband was a bit frustrated by this wait-as we had a busy day. We eventually boarded the boat. 

As we walked, we noticed more of a police presence on the street & that photos of the King & Queen were decorated. Of course I had to stop & snap a pic. 

We sweated the 25 minute walk to the Vimanmek Mansion. I was thankful that I opted for a dress & to rent covered clothing upon arrival. We arrived-but couldn't find the entrance. But we knew it was here-we'd been inside before!!

Another tourist couple told us it was CLOSED!! Closed-again!!!!!!!! Something about a national holiday-which made sense with the longer than usual boat schedule and the quieter streets.  Ahhhh! I was so mad-we'd come here twice & I'd already paid for the ticket and I couldn't get in. We later found out it was the birthday of a monk & no alcohol could be served for the next 2 days. 

We walked back another 25 minutes (thankfully most of it was in the shade) with a stop at 7 Eleven. Chris got iced coffee and I had lychee pear soda (yes, emotional eating). We got back on the boat. What a huge bust. 

As we exited the boat we saw Thai massage advertised. I couldn't leave Thailand without experiencing a famous Thai massage. I also liked this location better than those on the tourist street-I didn't want a massage while sitting in the middle of the street. I wanted to relax. 

I changed into one size fits no one clothing & was shown to a large "bed" to receive my massage. 

I decided this time I was going to say something if it wasn't hard enough. Well, that wasn't in her vocabulary. So I demonstrated by squeezing on her forearm. She said OK, but there was no change in pressure of her massage. I thought with one little tool, I could increase customer satisfaction. I'd make a placard that says "soft, medium, hard" that customers can point to. And a picture of the human body where you can point to tender areas or "please massage" areas. These were the things I thought about during my "relaxing" Thai massage. I'm not sure what constitutes a traditional Thai massage, but this lady just squeezed down, along major muscle groups. She would reach a tender area or a knot & not give it any additional attention. I will say this massage was better than my rub down in Cambodia, but nothing compared to the masseuse I went to in GR. I just wanted a decent massage-obviously not for $10.

My the time I finished my massage, we had 10 minutes left until we needed to check out of our hostel! We still needed to shower & pack. Speed racer back to our hostel  and they were kind enough to give us an extra 45 minutes to shower & pack up, which we did. Our packs were lighter-we'd used up toiletries. It was lovely to throw away my broken umbrella. We put our guidebooks in our packs as opposed to our carry on. We packed our bags one final time-and without snacks or water and properly packed-they seemed really light. 

I made one final 7 Eleven stop & we were off to the airport! I was so excited to start the journey home!!!! There are many aspects of life on the road that you take for granted-because they just become "normal." One such sight was the pink & purple taxis. I'm glad I snapped a pic. 

We arrived at the big airport-Suvarnabhumi. This was the largest airport Chris had ever seen. We easily checked in to EVA. I was excited to get through security & get some Mcdonalds. 

The bad news: our flight from Taipei to Houston was completely booked and Chris & I were not seating together. We'd have to trade seats or not sit together for the 14 hour flight home. We had already begun to pray that someone would switch. 

We went through customs & got our final passport stamp. Chris may have also done a "we're going home" dance. I had one thing on my mind: McDonalds. Crispy, golden French fries. Yummmmm. Even the airport was decorated with aspects of Thai culture. 

There was heartbreak: there was no McDonalds in the international terminal. Our only option was Burger King. I may have thrown an internal adult temper tantrum-but pouting wasn't going to get me deliciously crispy fries. We settled for BK. 

We converted our Thai Baht bank into USD & border the plane. We had a 3 hour flight to Taipei. I slept until dinner was delivered & then watched a bit of TV before drifting back asleep. 

We landed on time in Taipei, which was good-we only had 45 minutes to catch our international flight. We exited the plane & was directed to a line for transfers-a LONG line. Chris held our spot in line while I went to investigate. The agent told me we would be booked on another flight. I told her absolutely not. Our flights were on time-we could make our flight-you sold us this flight schedule. She told me to just go through, so we did security again & made it to our gate. They checked passports as you entered the waiting area so that the plane boarded quicker. 

We were praying-I didn't want to be separated from Chris. The longest we'd been apart the last 6 weeks was two 10 minute 7 Eleven trips. I loaded in an earlier zone than Chris. Thankfully I had a window & he had middle-we would be asking someone to switch middle to middle-unless the other two people in my row were together. As I approached my row, I saw a little old lady on the aisle. Thank you Jesus! That meant the middle seat was traveling alone & could switch. I had Chris' seat traded before he even loaded the plane. The middle seat woman said yes without hesitation. She didn't mind at all. We happily took our seats together & snuggled up in the nice EVA blankets. 

And on for a 14 hour flight. I took an ambien which knocked out 8 hours of the flight. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 took care of another couple hours (I laughed so loud Chris scolded me-it's funny). Spaghetti breakfast and a gin & tonic helped finish up the flight. Before we knew it, it was 11:30pm & we were back on US soil. Side note: Chris is an amazing sleeper. 10-20 seconds after his head hits the pillow-he's snoozing. Poor guy didn't sleep a wink on the flight. 

There is a new automated passport control which is AWESOME. 25 people can scan their own passport & claim items for customs. You get a print out & hand that to the passport control guy. 5 minutes & we were collecting our luggage. 

We put on our packs & headed out through customs. The customs officer wanted to know where was the rest of our luggage. I said we're backpackers. 

Thankfully, Houston still has Uber & we caught a ride back to Mitch & Yen's. We threw in a load of laundry & climbed in bed. Their house wins the award for nicest place we stayed.

Heaven!! We slept until 7am & we're back napping by 11am. We caught an Uber to the MegaBus for our final leg home. 

We were welcomed home to this sight: 

Chris' co-teacher & partner picked us up & we had glorious Chick-fil-A for dinner. The best part of being home: drinking water from the tap. 

Day trip to Ayatthuya

We woke up this morning, and it was heavy going. We had plans for a day trip, but I got up late and Mer even later. 

We finally did get going around 9 for breakfast and then had two morning chores: 1) we were both nearly out of laundry and 2) we needed a ride to the large Bagkok airport (Suvarnabhumi). We got our clothes dropped off and a van ticket purchased. Onto the day trip. 

Now, if there was one more place in Thailand I wanted to see, it was Ayatthuya. It was the seat of Thai power that unified the country as we know it today (and they overran the Khmers of Angkor Wat) before it fell to the Burmese. However, the Thais rebounded and moved their capital to Bangkok where they've since thrived.  

We were following the guide advice from travelfish.org to get a minibus from the Victory Monument. It was 7 km away. The taxis and tuk tuks were offering to bring us for 300 baht ($8.50), which was exorbitant. Mostly, they wanted to sell us a tour or drive us to Ayatthuya for an even higher price. I finally did hear the offer for a 10 baht ride, which was a well documented scam to take you no where you wanted, instead to a highly confrontational gem sale. I laughed in his face. 

Also, I was frustrated. We'd asked about 10 drivers and all we were offered was inflated prices. We'd made it out of the tourist district and Mer was not willing to walk it ("That would be our day trip!") but I wasn't willing to succumb to ridiculous pricing. Arg! Finally, a tuk tuk driver drove up behind us. Mer asked again and he said he could do it for 150 baht. Fine!

We got to the victory monument and quickly found the minibuses. Unfortunately, all the destination signs were in Thai. We did a couple laps of the bus stands before a police officer reached out to help. He took us to the right stand (where we then saw 'Ayatthuya' written in English.) It was another 120 baht ($3.40) for the hour and a half ride. (Which was more than our ten minute tuk tuk!)

However, the bus didn't take us to the center of Ayutthaya, but to a mall on the outskirts. Of course there were more tuk tuks waiting, offering tours for the day or another 200 baht just to take us to the market (where we wanted to rent bicycles). There was a Spanish couple in our minibus that I tried to negotiate with to combine a tuk tuk ride, but they wanted an expensive tour. I was not going to overpay for a short 3 km ride!

Not only did I want to use the bathroom in the mall, but I needed to cool off from this targeted, tourist pricing. We did, and then exited from another side. There were minibuses again that locals were using. They were only 10 baht each! But I wanted to make sure they were going to the right market. Mer just wanted to go. We bought the tickets and then piled into the van. Finally, to Ayutthaya!

We were dropped off a few blocks short of the market, but we were fine to walk it. But once we got there, we couldn't find any bikes for rent. We went around another street looking for more. Finally, there were bikes! But the guy wasn't open today, it was Monday after all (apparently the day many things close in Thailand.)

So we kept walking. None of our guidebooks had good maps or listings for Ayutthaya, but Travelfish.org did. Unfortunately, we didn't have wifi here. Also, it was hot. Like Hue hot. The sun was out and beat on us until sweat was again coming from everywhere. 

Finally, we managed to walk to our first site (Google maps still worked!) of Wat Maha That. It is the oldest and largest in the Ayutthaya area. We paid our entrance fees, and then we were in. 

We noticed a lot of similarities to styles in Angkor Wat. The biggest difference was the use of bricks. 

Some places still had stone coverings, but it seemed the building material of choice here was brick. 

Soon, after we'd circled the whole complex in the hot sun, it was time to move on to the next stop just a hop through the park. My Google maps showed there were a couple of ways to get through. The shade was wonderful and we even got a few breezes off the lake. 

Pretty quickly, though, it began to unravel. We thought we could take a bridge through. It only led to an island (albeit with a huge Buddha statue). 

We wound our way back, crossed the right bridge, and made our way to the next ruins. 

But they weren't the right ruins! There was a huge wall blocking them off with no apparent way in. I consulted the map. We turned left when we should have gone straight. We went back and retraced our steps to go straight. 

Lost again! I checked my map and this time we managed to turn right! How was this happening?

At this point, I became frustrated. I was hot. I was hungry. Now I couldn't follow a map. Mer tried to help as her guidebook said where the entrances are. We finally agreed (maybe she succumbed) to heading back left. 

Finally, after what felt like hours, we found Wat Phra Si Sanphet. This was the palace of the Ayutthaya elite. No monks. No commoners. Apparently, the raiding Burnese wanted this place destroyed (as they melted off the gold of a huge Buddha here) but we found massive structures still in place. 

Including entire columns of a former royal court area. 

There were some great picturesque doorways and windows for us. 

And the most photogenic of all were the 3 chedis of a Thai king's dynasty. 

We even climbed some. 

And Mer found a new hat. 

Soon, it was late afternoon. Both of us where hot, tired, and hungry. We decided to deal with the last of that by finally eating. We started to walk back to where the minivans could whisk us back to Bangkok when we finally found a roadside restaurant. Pad Thai and chicken with rice and vegetables. Yes, please!

Feeling much more content we walked back to the market area where, indeed, there were minivans to take us back to the Victory Monument in Bangkok. Amazingly, it was the same price, 120 baht. We waited a few minutes for other passengers to fill the van and we were off. 

During the hour and a half ride back, I plotted away to get back to our guesthouse without the exorbitant taxi price. Bangkok has an elevated train, or BTS, stop at the victory monument. That connects to the river where we could board the Chao Phraya express boat northwest that stops a block from our place. Mer decided she was up to the task. 

As we pulled into the monument, there were immediately stairs up to the BTS stop. We checked out the map, saw where we needed to transfer, asked the lady for help, and bought two tickets for 84 baht ($2.40). So far, so good. As we boarded the train, Mer commented, "It's just like Japan!"

We then made our transfer (on a much busier train!) and were off to the pier!

That's when disaster struck. As we got off the BTS and went down the stairs to the pier, there was an enormous line for the boat. I tried to verify that the line was for the Chao Phraya express and the folks there wobbily shook their heads. We waited in that line for about an hour. Night fell before we finally made our way onto an available boat. Mer actually got a seat as everyone else piled in around us. The boat took off and then I sunk my head. 

"Are we even going the right way?" Mer asked me. I shook my head 'no.' We wanted to head north. This boat was heading south. It took about 15 minutes to head to a tourist pier with lights, shopping, restaurants, and a Ferris wheel. 

We were hot, tired, salty, building hunger again, and definitely not in the mood for taking a tourist boat the wrong way. My eyes ached from my contacts. I just wanted to get back. By now it had been nearly two hours since we first arrived near the victory monument. My attempted 'cheap cut' had failed miserably in time spent. 

We got to the end and tried to negotiate our way back on the boat. The first guy said 'no more boats' but then a 2nd lady kindly let us on as they began re-loading passengers. 

Mer just looked at me. "My guy that's 99% of the time easy-going is now upset. I don't even know what to do with you, but smile because this happens so rarely." The frustrations of the day just mounted against me. The overcharging tuk tuks, the indirect travel paths, no bikes to rent, getting lost between sites, and now waiting in line forever for a boat going the wrong way. I could only peer out at heat lightning flashing in the night sky. It looked like a battle going on in the clouds. It seemed to mirror the storms inside me: Lots of flashes, but no sound or rain. 

Finally, we landed on our original pier. We got off and tried to find our intended company. That service ended at 7:30. It was now 9 pm. We walked out to the street trying to get a tuk tuk or taxi back. 

"300 baht"

"200 baht"

"Two people, 250 baht"

Grr, we made it to the main street and waved a taxi. "How much to Khao San Rd?"

"Meter," he answered. 

"About how much?" I inquired. 

"150 baht."

We got in to get home. As we rode off, we noticed there was no meter. I didn't care anymore as the price was right and I was nearly done. 

We got back on the wrong side of Khao San Rd, but I didn't care. I was back in control of where I was going and how much. We traversed the loud tourist street and to our own quieter soi where our Guesthouse was. Once back, I was able to shower off the long day and take the contacts out of my aching eyes. 

Although Mer said she preferred our roadside kabob place, we walked down our little soi to see if we could find anything else. I inhaled a 7 Eleven iced coffee along the way, but ended up right back for kabobs. It was pretty filling. 

We then set out for some night shopping. Mer really liked some shirts in me. We tried to look around a bit, but then my tummy started rumbling. Maybe it was the day or maybe it was the rushed iced coffee, but I needed to go home. 

We got back in and I settled in for sleep. It was our last sleep of the trip. It had been good and long and we had seen so much at a torrid pace. 

But now we were both ready to go home. One more morning in Bangkok and then we were on the plane. Today prepared me for it. 

KL-day 3, good-bye

I didn't even want to start the day today-I was going to have to say good bye again. The older I get, the more I hate good byes. And to be honest, I didn't want to return to Bangkok. I'm much more comfortable & oriented in KL-and to leave it & head back to Bangkok is not something either of us were looking forward to. 

After a late night last night, we all agreed to a late start this morning. We were too tired to determine a time and thanks to WhatsApp, we had flexibility. 

I wanted to show Chris the KL Hilton where I spent much of our engagement. He obliged and I walked him across the street from KL Sentral and over to the hotel. That was such a great location-which was a reason why I enjoyed my time in KL so much-I could navigate the city. But I digress. 

I showed Chris the artwork on the walls that I still think about. For the life of me I could not find them anywhere. One evening I even had Billy come to the hotel to look at them to see if he could help me find them. At least he could identify that they were framed batik. The lobby of the hotel has been updated-but it still smelled the same. 

I took Chris up to the pool. This was where I spent most Saturday/Sunday afternoons-reading my Kindle by the pool. My co-worker Mary and I would often have dinner outside on these tables rather than inside. 

 

Poor Mary, she had to listen to me as Chris and I went through pre-marital counseling a world apart. She told me she felt like she was going through the counseling sessions too for all she had to listen to. I was fortunate to have her on the project with me-she is a straight shooter & man, did we have some fun times. I remember having chats with Mary in this hot tub. Chris gave the thumbs up-saying we made it to the alter & our marriage is good. 

After my trip down memory lane, we went to explore the new mall. And my "explore" I mean Chris was hungry & we searched out a snack-per Billy's directive. I tried to describe these spicy empanadas which was unsuccessful translation. But I found them at the mall. They're called something curry. And they are delicious!

We checked out of our hotel & Billy & Mun took us to the temple where they registered (legally married) for their wedding. 

I finally let loose and insisted on capturing as many photos as my heart desired of us all together. 📸 Thankfully the selfie stick cooperated & we captured these smiles.  

We learned so much from a 30 minute visit to the temple with our ethnically Chinese friends. Chris & I both would have lit the wrong end of the incense sticks. 

This was by far the most beautiful temple we'd seen. (Aldo the newest.) Billy & Mun explained the different gods & traditions. 

They showed is the registration office where they were legally married (the traditional wedding was several months later). Since we missed the wedding, we had them recreate photos for us. And even had fun posing for photos. 

Except that they were already married, so Billy made some edits to the sign. 

We even took a few photos ourselves. Chris said getting married is serious business. Been almost 4 glorious years!!

Outside the temple were the animals for the Chinese calendar. I call them "spirit animals" as I have a staff member who would ask in interviews, "What is your spirit animal & why?" We had a good laugh letting our spouses declare which characteristics did & did not describe us. It was such a fun afternoon together as couples. 

We got in the car & headed to lunch-dim sum. Chinese tapas. Again, I have no idea what I ate thanks to Mun's excellent ordering skills-it was delicious and I left full. 

The air hung heavy-we knew what was next-the trip to the airport & a dreaded good bye. They were kind enough to take us the 70 km to the airport. I should have known they wouldn't let us get on a train. Last time when I left Billy said good bye with everyone else, I went through the transportation gate-and then he followed me. His proper escort to the airport was so unexpected & showed our solidarity in friendship. Of course he insisted on a proper send off. 

Oh-to say good bye again. At least now we know a reunion is feasible, even if it is another 4-5 years. And we've met as couples, and as opposed to two friends, there are now four. 

And then I watched them walk away and we went through security. I turned to Chris & told him I'm ready to return home. Billy & Mun were incredible hosts-the thought of returning to chaotic Bangkok was daunting. Leaving friends to continue on the road again-left me sad. Nothing we could do in these next few days of travel could ever compare with the wonderful weekend we had in KL. 

It's not a rainbow, but the clouds as we flew back to Bangkok reminded me of God's promise & His goodness. 

We landed back in Bangkok and went through Thai customs for the 3rd time-I'm thankful they offer a free visa. We were exhausted-not physically, but more emotionally from having left the comforts of KL (local guides) to head back to the harsh reality of Bangkok. Thankfully we booked at the same guesthouse & could count on being in a familiar space. 

Back in Bangkok we were once again responsible for feeding ourselves. I'd seen a man grilling earlier in the week & wanted shush kabobs. We found him-less than 100 feet from where we were staying. We had chicken, roasted vegetables, potatoes and Chris had a beer. 

I think we are ready to return home. Although we have loved every moment of this adventure, we are looking forward to a slower pace of life & a familiar culture. 

For all we have seen & experienced in these Southeast Asian adventures, by far the highlight was spending the weekend with Billy & Mun. Better than elephant rides or playing in the ocean or any temple, was building relationship with those we love.