Back

So now we're back. We were supposed to leave Sunday at 7:00 am Bangkok time, but we forgot the passports in the hotel room. Ryan and I realized this after arriving at the airport with all our bags. With Ryan at the airport to mind the bags, I took my most expensive cab ride in Bangkok to date (800 Bhat). My driver was speeding at 140 kph on the highways and running some red lights with some crazy shortcuts inbetween. Even with all that, I didn't get back until 6:30 am. And we had some luggage at the counter in another terminal. As public liaison officer, I went to deal with the United rep who told us she could put us on tomorrow's 6:45 am flight for only 100 USD extra.

So we decided to stay our extra day in Bangkok at a ritzy hotel (the Landmark Hotel) instead of our usual guesthouse (Rambuttri Village Inn). We checked out the Pantip Plaza again where we just about died from gadget heaven again and bought some mini speakers for the iPod. Then we went to Chinatown and ate streetfood while browsing the toyshops and getting lost in the narrow lanes. The next morning we woke up at 3:30am for the second day in a row to get to the airport really early this time. Once bitten, twice shy.

This time, our itinerary was the pits.

06:45 - 15:00 was Bangkok to Tokyo
17:55 - 11:05 was Tokyo to San Francisco
14:00 - 20:02 was San Fran to Chicago
20:45 - 00:01 was Chicago to Montreal

Thankfully, we got exit row the whole way and our nice long layover on Narita airport meant udon, manga, yukata and cheap(er) scarves. We finally got in the door at 01:15, checked e-mails and went to bed.

We didn't see any thai boxing, we didn't check out Vietnam's DMZ, we didn't go to the Viet tunnels around Hue....

We didn't check out Thailand's Phuket beach, we didn't go to the full moon party, we didn't check out Chiang Mai....

We didn't go to Phnom Penh, we didn't go off the beaten path around Siem Reap....

Ultimately, there was just so much to do and so little time.

We really wanted to go out and check out Tokyo, but that wasn't an option either. And my friend Noah in Shanghai didn't get a visit either. But now we know where to go back to. I definitely want to spend more time in Bangkok touring about and generally having a good time. The shopping there was excellent.

So now I'm faced with our massive bags of stuff to go through and our 600 digital photos to post up, and our piles of mail (work e-mail and home snail mail). And I wouldn't give it up for anything!

More on the rest of the trip (Koh Samui and our second hit of Bangkok) in the next post. Until then, I'm hitting the sack.