Originally written on December 15, 2004

Check out time was 12pm. We managed to get out on time, thanks to a takeout Burger King breakfast (we just had that for dinner, but when you have to shop who has time to be choosy). Shopping… and picking up glasses. Pizza Hut for lunch. Fancy mall browsing… Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Our last day in Bangkok and every food establishment we ate at also exists in Canada. Alas, Bangkok belly is fierce (as we experienced-see pineapple story) so we weren’t going to risk it before a long plane ride. Last minute purchases after dinner, including lots of dried curry packages, fake burkenstocks then repacking the bags and getting a taxi to the airport. Forgot to make our new black bag (full of presents) distinguishable from everyone elses, so we settled for many name tags. Paid airport departure fee and then spent rest of baht on snacks for the plane, and one last fruit shake. One watermelon/pineapple, the other pineapple/orange. Kirk wanted just one flavour, pineapple of course, but they were insistent that he had to choose two flavours. Plane departed at midnight. Good bye Thailand, hope to see you soon! Next stop Narita Airport (Tokyo, Japan), then Washington DC, then Toronto…. Home in 26 hours. » Read the rest of the entry..

Which mall/market did we miss in pursuit of gifts (hardly any). Man did our dogs bark at the end of the night. From 10am till 1am the next morning. Perscription glasses were bought too. We even bought another bag to cart everything home in Shopping districts visited. Silom Road, Surawong Road, MBK centre, Pratnum market, Pantip plaza, Siam Discovery Centre, Patpong market…

Originally written on December 13, 2004

Point form for now… Heather puts her back out, while packing. Tiger balm saves the day. That and another incident described below. Kirk swears profusely while packing his backpack. The last time he did that it was because he got out of bed and almost stepped on a huge cockroach. This time he called me over to the backpack, and a giant toad jumped out of his backpack. My back was instantly better, and although I am a biologist, I ran promptly to the bathroom until Kirk removed it from our room. Taxi at 11 am from Khao Lak resort to Phuket Airport checkin and then satisfy western craving, hello burger king! gorgeous views (both sea and sky) as we fly over the ocean and back to bangkok airport shuttle bus to our hotel checkin to the “Regent Silom Serviced Apartments” Christmas shopping and browsing along Surawong Road, Central Department store (on Silom Road) and the Patpong night market. Somehow I did not read that the night market is amidst the the strip joint/sex show area. An eye opener. A good night’s sleep for a full day of shopping tomorrow.

Originally written on November 27, 2004

We awoke feeling much better and certainly much better rested. We skipped the breakfast downstairs (where they were serving the pineapple) and decided to head for a fancy place. For breakfast we had: Hot Chocolate (the good kind, no powders) and orange juice to start, then some corn flakes and milk with banana, a fruit plate filled with pineapple (best pineapple ever! we were very brave, melon, and watermelon), croissant, toast, english muffin, and omelette with bacon and ham, and a butter and sugar crepe. And some tea. Oh, and heather ordered pancakes with cream and maple syrup as well. It was way too much but… and all for at a fancy place! After that meal we needed to sit and recover some more. We headed to the movies to watch Alexander in a comfy chair with AC. Movie bad to so-so, chairs and AC great! After dinner we pondered what to do next.

The storm was now gone (muifa) but travelling to the south last minute is hectic. We could take the train or bus. The bus was better although it required some craziness to get tickets — we had to travel far. The train was easier but took longer although we still had to get up early to make sure we got seats for the 11 to 16 hour trip. Finally, I decided to check out flying. A flight to Phuket cost was reasonable so we went for dinner and thought it all through. (dinner was some safeties: sheppards pie and a cheeseburger) After dinner we went and bought the tickets over the internet at about 10 pm and promptly went back to the hotel packed and fell asleep.

Originally written on November 26, 2004

Instead of watching kickboxing, Heather and I had several rounds vs some evil bacteria that probably came from a pineapple. It might all be over we hope, you never know. Combine that with what Muifa (the tropical storm) is doing and we are really unsure of whats going on (stay or go south?). Anyway, we aren’t dead yet. And aside from spending the last 24 hrs sipping gatorade and sleeping, nothing else has happened. Recovery.

Started our day with planning for going south, and trying to figure out the storm muifa. Then some shopping, and we went to a movie, “After the sunset.” Not a bad movie. Thai movie theaters play the national anthem before the movie and everyone stands. I like the idea personally. The seats where big with a lot of leg room. Way better than western cinema’s. And cheaper too. Then we went home and started vomiting.

Written October 12, 2005

Our last day in Bangkok (thankfully!). We checked out after a leisurely morning and left our packs at the hostel as we had to return that evening to pick up passports with newly acquired vietnam visa. First stop was lunch at the Whitanhya (spelling?) building. It is a school of some type and we ate in the cafeteria. Heather had something (we don’t know what it was because the menu was in thai) that tasted like licorice a bit with rice and some crunchy sweet thing. I had a spicy chicken dish topped with a fried egg, it was very good but very spicy. Spicy + 33C temp + high humidity= extreme sweaty kirk, not pretty. » Read the rest of the entry..

Our day started at 4:45am, if only we could stay awake past 8am. Last night, I fell asleep to Kirk reading back the day’s journal entry to me, and then he shortly followed. Hence 4:45 am. Alas… We laid in bed with our eyes closed but no more sleep was in store, so at 7am we got up and started to plan our day. We needed to get Vietnam visas in Bangkok so that we could begin our journey, as you can not obtain them in the northern Thailand town where we are next headed or in Laos. We could also get these visas in Chiang Mai but we decided to skip the tourist ridden city and head to Nong Khai instead as there was more of Thailand’s natural beauty to see and a better entrance into Laos. » Read the rest of the entry..