Day 92: Last from Thailand, goodnight and good luck!

Alright, well, it's been a few days since we last wrote. We're back in Bangkok now, well into the return leg of our trip. Right now it's Friday afternoon, and we have almost exactly two days left until we take off for Kuala Lumpur. The recent terrorist scare could make our air travel a bit hectic, and hopefully we can successfully make all our connecting flights. I don't really feel like being stuck in LAX with all this hairy mess going on.

So last time we wrote we were still in Ko Samet. Things have changed since then. We are now deeply immersed in the urban sprawl, with a firm plant in the shopping district of Bangkok. It's actually quite an amazing district. Four different shopping complexes including one very cheaply priced one where we have managed to spend most of our time. We walk through the real stores, more just to oggle at the real stuff than anything else. Once we get that over and done with, we always seem to end up back at the cheap mall (MBK) where the deals are good, and the knockoffs are spectacular. I might actually make it back to Canada with some hint of style.

Over the past few days it's pretty much been a shop till you drop extravaganza. Three very full days of shopping, with a little bit in the way of sight seeing breaks thrown into the mix. For those of you who know me, know that if I find a good deal, it's a real problem getting me to back away. That would make MBK my heaven, and my pocketbook's hell. Everything is so cheap here, that I'm surprised I have any money left over. I'm pretty glad Mike and Nevin are here to calm me down, although they seem to be going at the same buying pace that I am.

Yesterday morning we decided to break away from the MBK stream, and head over to Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn) for a bit of sightseeing. It's really an amazing Temple. The whole structure is decorated with chipped pieces of ceramic. This dates back to when the chinese used the ceramic and porcelain as ballast in their merchant ships. At the middle is a towering 80-some metre spire. All in all, it was a pretty breathtaking sight.

After the sightseeing, it was off to Ko Sahn Road, to make a visit to the place where our whole journey began. We were NOT disappointed. We made a few not so small purchases, and soon, our backpacks and hands were full. One of the things I enjoyed the most was actually being able to see and discern between the two types of travellers. There were the ones who clearly were just starting a vacation, strapped securely with a money belt, no tan, a timid smile, and very wary eyes. We however are now fit into the category of the more experienced traveller. Seasoned barterers in all respects, nice light brown hue on the skin, no money belt to be seen, pockets of surf shorts loaded down with what remains of our funding, and willing to talk it up with all the street lackeys peddling their wares.

We found more than a few things that were cheaper on Ko Sahn than at MBK, so we loaded ourselves down for the day, managing once again to spend more money than we had budgeted. Why is it that spending so much money actually makes you feel like you saved even more?? If someone has a bright answer for that, please share, because I'm sure I could use it while trying to explain to the parents why giving me money is somehow in their best interest. After that we headed back to the good malls to peruse the real stores for a while. I know more than a few people that would be in heaven here. This is an abbreviated list of the stores I was in, just to get you salivating: Gucci, Armani, Coach, Burberry, Energie, Miss Sixty, Diesel, Rip Curl, Lacoste, Tag Heuer, DSquared... and the list goes on. We decided to relax a bit more that night, and went to check out Nascar 3D at the Imax theatre. It was pretty intense for me being that I've never seen a 3D movie before, but I think Nevin had it right when he complained about the movie. Pretty short, and although it gives a good intro to NASCAR, it's pretty much child's play if you know anything about the sport. It was entertaining though.

This morning we headed off to a site that Mike desperately wanted to see. His book said that there was a view point on top of the Shangri La Hotel, from which you can see all of Bangkok. It's supposed to be quite the picture opportunity. We arrived at the Shangri La only to find out that no such deck existed, although there was another hotel not too far away that had a restaurant at the top that we should be able to take pictures from, so off we went. Arrived at this hotel, fittingly much taller than the Shangri La, and about twenty metres from the door my sandal breaks. I decided to put some of that engineering knowledge to work and rig up a system with a luggage lock and put it back together. All in all, I would say that it was a stroke of genius. The sandal worked like a charm.

We then headed inside to see about making it to the top floor. At the elevator bank, we are greeted with the following sign:

No Sport or thong sandals
No Shorts or dirty trousers
No luggage of any sort
No ripped articles of clothing
Mens shirts must have collars and sleeves

What were we wearing you might ask?

Cut off t shirts, backpacks, surf shorts, and flip flops, not to mention that mine had a lock securing one side of them to the base. Quite the ramshackle crew to be heading to a five star restaurant. Needless to say, they didn't let us in. Another early morning wake up that was found to be completely useless. (Note: Picture is from Hard Rock Cafe Bangkok...not the nice hotel)

After that, we came back to MBK to finish up the rest of our shopping. I can say now that we are actually.... completely... utterly... DONE!!! If any of you want us to get you anything, wire the money, because the accounts are tapped. We've thrown in the towel, and we are now officially poor. Well, not poor enough to stop us from going to the outback steakhouse tonight for supper.

If any of you are wondering why we haven't been calling, the explanation goes like this. Skype won't let any of us put any more credits on the account with our credit cards, therefore, none of you get to hear our sparkling voices until we get home. Sorry to disappoint. We confirmed all our flights, and barring any unforseen difficulties, we should be home when we planned.

This looks like our last blog from Thailand, although Mike is going to put up some travelling hints once we get home. All three of us want to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy working days to read up on our exploits and live moderately vicariously through us. I know we didn't get as crazy as some of you may have hoped, but at the same time, broke the crazy meter for others. Overall, I hope that everyone was impressed at how we spent our last three months. I know I was. It's going to be hard leaving such a beautiful place, but I'm sure that coming home to see everyone again will make up for it and more. We all can't wait to see everyone again, and thanks once again for reading our ramblings. See you on the other side of the world.