Final Thoughts from Thailand

We arrived back at Buddy Lodge in Bangkok (where we had stayed the first 3 nights)at about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, February 8th to pick up our suitcases, repack and do some more shopping. As I mentioned before Thailand is a shopper's paradise - so many vendors, such cheap prices and you are expected to barter. I feel badly about doing that because everything is so cheap but I did more of it as my money dwindled. Sash was relentless!!:)

We met up with a couple of Canadian teacher colleagues of mine (Carol-Ann and Vanessa - Vanessa and I have the same birthday)and they walked around with us and then we had a drink and some food together. Sash was determined to keep shopping until the last store closed!! Both of us ended up having to take out more money. You know the old traveller's credo - "take 1/2 the amount of clothes and twice the amount of money you think you will need" - truer words were never spoken!! YIKES!!

After Carol-Ann and Vanessa headed off to their hotel to go to bed, Sash and I sat at an all night cafe and did some people watching although at 1:00 a.m., there were not as many people as usual on Khao San Road. Around 3:00 a.m., we were both getting 'punchy' and so decided to head to the airport. Our ride to the airport in a taxi proved to be hilarious for us just because we were tired and started taking stupid pictures of each other in the back of the cab and laughing hysterically!! (You had to be there!!)

On arriving at the airport, we changed into our 'cold weather' clothes. YUCK!! and then tried to find a secluded space on the floor to catch a few winks (didn't really happen!) We checked in about 8:30 a.m., had some breakfast and then had a foot massage before boarding the plane.

The first leg of our journey home was together to Hong Kong, then Sash had a 2 hour stopover and continued on to Toronto. I had less than an hour and then continued on to Seoul (Incheon). I arrived there at 7:40 p.m. Thursday night and stayed overnight at a backpacker's hostel. They picked me up and took me back to the airport on Friday where I caught an express bus back to Gwangju and then caught another bus back to Yeonggwang. I was a little miffed at the one bus driver who refused to help me load my bags into the belly of the bus even though he saw me struggling - I guess his motto is "it's not my job lady"!!

I arrived back in my apartment around 5:30 p.m. Friday. It was kind of lonely coming back to an empty apartment but I definitely have wonderful memories and pictures of a fantastic trip with an equally fantastic, fun friend - let's do it again Sash!! Hope you enjoyed the pics everyone!!