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First off... my apologies as I think this is going to be pretty long winded! If you want the short overview, you may want to peek at the photos section instead, as that has some comments about the pictures but not this full length ramble about the trip. You've been warned! ;-)
So to travel so far we had to make the flight in a few jumps, going from Calgary to Vancouver to Osaka (Japan) and lastly to Bangkok. The trip was pretty long, like 21 hours or something with a couple hours in each city as we changed flights. Fortunately, I discovered that anything rumbling puts me to sleep like a rock, which was great as it really chewed up hours on buses, planes and taxis! As we were stuck in the airport terminals we didn't really get to see much of Vancouver or Osaka, although we noticed the mountains out of the window at the Osaka terminal, and also they had the prettiest flight attendants! They were all so tailored and pretty and polite with their uniforms and their tidy little luggage bags pulling along behind them! I wish our stop on Osaka had been an overnight layover as it would have been cool to see outside of the airport a bit, and Japan always seems like such a beautiful country from the photos (and sushi and their animation are nothing to sneeze at either!), but maybe that'll be a future trip one day. ;-)
When we touched down into Bangkok, the first thing that hit was the HEAT! It was so hot... and I was coming from midwinter in Canada, so it was kind of like a slap in the face! We took a taxi to the hotel, the Krit Thai Mansion (very clean and nice hotel) which was by the MBK, a huge shopping mall in Bangkok, and as it was still early evening we decided to drop off our bags and take a little tour around the city on foot. Dad had been there a few times before, so he played tour guide while we trotted about. The heat had me sweating nearly the whole trip in bahth countries. It's a great way to lose a couple pounds! ;-)
The next day we headed out again and traveled down the canal a bit, checked out Wat Pho (see photo section) and the reclining Buddha, and also saw the late night flower market which was very cool! I've always heard that orchids were these fancy flowers to raise, but in this country apparently they grow like weeds! The flower market had stall after stall of every shade you could imagine in orchids, roses, lilies, and all kinds of other native blossoms. It was really neat... several blocks of all these stalls, and everything was so colorful. If you make it to Bangkok I suggest checking it out... it's really hard to describe that many flowers. :-)
The MBK shopping mall was like 9 floors or something, filled with lots of shops as well as a sort of market on the top floor, where you could barter for things like you would in the street markets. My bartering skills didn't turn out to be too great... I just couldn't bahther to get too worked up over saving $1 US on a pair of silk pants! I did manage to get a few deals though, two pairs of metallic silk pants with a great pattern in them, for about $9 US! And for those who can't live without their Starbucks coffee in the morning, I'm happy to report that although you'll pay a semi fortune for it, there's a Starbucks every couple of blocks and their coffee is great! I think they use a fattier milk... they were really rich and creamy, and this is from me who normally goes to Second Cup if I have a choice. ;-)
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