19th March (Week 14 Thailand - Chiang Mai)

We are in Thailand! Many things are the same but many things are different too. It’s a sweltering 39C right now, even up here in the highlands. It’s burning season so the atmosphere is a bit hazy but still miles better than Hanoi. There are street vendors, restaurants but generally things here are just easier. 
Examples. 1. ATMS dispense more than $80 per transaction. It is possible to withdraw $800 in a single transaction here if your bank will allow it. 2. Cars drive on the left and follow traffic signs. In Vietnam I don't actually know what side of the road people were supposed to be on. It was a free for all, including the sidewalks. 3. There are significantly fewer vehicles. Seriously, Ho Chi Minh city was a vehicle, flood like apocalypse! It was insanity!Don’t get me wrong, I love Vietnam. I think it is cooler, less commercial, than Thailand. Thailand has been doing tourism longer and it shows.

Anywho, 4 days to go and then 3 days of travel. Our main goals coming here were to see the Mundays, check, meet Jon Brooks, check, see Owen, tomorrow evening, and possibly hang with some elephants, Monday afternoon. Cool.

It’s going to be a long slog getting home. We fly Wednesday morning at 10:10am to Bangkok where we have a whirlwind domestic to international connection onto our flight to Hanoi. Please pray that we make the connection and that our baggage does to. Bangkok Airport is massive.
Once in Hanoi we sit around for 8hrs waiting for our 11:00pm flight to Seoul which arrives at about 6:00am. We hope to pop in to the city and maybe see some friends as we have 12hrs to kill before our final 11hr flight home to good ol’ YVR!  7C and raining, yeeha!! I think I have a pair of jeans and long sleeve sweater deep in my backpack. Thanks to the International Date line we will arrive about 10hrs before we left at noon on Thursday 24th.
Thank you in advance to all those people preparing us care packages and meals for the first couple of days.

It’s kinda surreal that this is it. We left September 24th and will arrive home March 24th, exactly 6 months later. I was in my forties when we left and I am now in my fifties. We all celebrated birthdays while we away (Jenny’s was just this week). I was laid off on December 19th and exactly one year later on December 19th we all flew to Hanoi. Anyway, enough blogging. Here are some photos.

Our last night in Phu Quoc. Seafood hotpot on the beach.

Our Tuk Tuk in Chiang Mai

Mango smoothie on Jenny's birthday.

Jon and family at the movie theatre

Waterfall 1hr north of Chiang Mai