Day 13 - Bangkok & HCH City

Our final day, we got up bright and early to sneak in a final walk through the city before our flight that evening back to Ho Chi Minh City. Of course once we stepped outside of our room and felt the blast of heat and humidity, we decided we'd much rather take a carcinogen-laden, overpriced tuk tuk ride instead. The best part of of the ride? Cramming our five bodies into the tiny tuk tuk built for probably 3.

We headed over Wat Ratchanatdaram, only 5 minutes away by tuk tuk. The route had us winding through shopping lanes filled with dozens of stores hawking giant golden Buddha statues. It's unfathomable that even a large, crowded city in Bangkok would produce the demand for thousands and thousands of golden Buddha statues, but it's a sight we passed through many days during our stay.

The temple was built in the late 1800s by King Rama III for his granddaughter, and is best known for it's metal spires (there are 37 of them, signifying the 27 virtues toward enlightenment). I believe our tour book described the spires as resembling a medieval birthday cake (which nails it).

The best part of the temple we hadn't been anticipating? One of the buildings, the one with the 37 black spires, was built with maze-like lanes inside.

Each 'lane' ended with a Buddha statue, and someone had fun walking through the 'maze.' ;-)

We could also walk up a winding staircase in the middle of the building that took us to the top, where we had an almost birds-eye view of the temple complex.

Since we were only a half mile from Khao San Road, we walked over there to load up on last minute souvenirs, coconut ice cream, pad thai and a painful/wonderful Thai massage for me. On the way, we passed the usual homage(s) to the queen (behind the street sweepers making their own brooms, see the al fresco painting of the queen on the building).

Couldn't pass up more cold pressed juices either! My mom chose dragon fruit, I had lilikoi (passion fruit) and Ryan chose mango. On other days, we'd had orange, pineapple and watermelon...I think it was just under $1 per bottle, vs. the $6-8 we'd pay in Hawaii.

Later that afternoon, we headed out on the 45 minute drive to Suvarnabhumi International airport, which I liked even more the second time. Not only did it have elements of traditional Thai art scattered throughout, but it also felt like we were in a space station.

Seriously- I was pretty sure were flying to Mars so we could visit Mark Watley and help him grow potatoes (The Martian reference...great flick if you haven't seen it).

Our flight to HCHC was fairly uneventful, and we quickly caught a cab over to our hotel in the heart of the city. In fact, it was so central, that we were walking distance (5 minutes?) over to Cho Ben Than marketplace...a place that my mother and Ryan could not wait to revisit (our son LOVES to shop). We also found a really trendy place to eat dinner (I'm pretty sure it was a converted shipping container) right near our hotel.

Once we had our last opportunity to eat Thai food, we walked over to the night market at Cho Ben Tanh and let Ryan pick out a final souvenir. After much hemming and hawing, he finally selected a custom, hand sewn (from a northern Vietnam tribe) mouse. My father referred to it as "the train rat." I opted out of souvenirs on this trip (which was pretty hard, actually), but I did get a final container of some gorgeous dragon fruit on the walk home.

Here I am pictured with my two favorite things in Vietnam- cheap dragon fruit, and Choco-Pie (a reason why I ballooned up over three years in Japan). The nostalgia of downing those pies nearly everyday made me a very happy, chubb(ier) person.

The next morning, we ate at our hotel's breakfast buffet (it must have had a hundred different offerings). Once we loaded up, we caught a cab to the airport to fly back to Seoul (6 hour flight).

Someone conned his grandmother into buying him a ghost-shaped Dunkin Donut in Seoul at like, 9pm at night.

Just before boarding, I took Ryan to the bathroom at the Seoul Incheon airport (much, much nicer than Seoul Incheon...our normal transit airport). I swear, it was the most beautiful airport bathroom...ever! I was so taken aback by how gorgeous it was that I made Ryan take a quick picture before I let him pee (which you can tell from this shot that it wasn't maybe the best idea). He was screeching at me to hurry up because "Mommy I have to peeeeee so bad!"

I want to say the flight back to Honolulu was about 10 hours, with a three hour delay there before our short flight back to Kona. In a blessed turn of events, I did not puke on any of the three flights (???). Victory!

Our vacation ended there, and lordy...it was time. Though I'm never ready to head back home, I'm always quite happy to put my head down on my own pillow that night. It went incredibly well- we crawled in guerrilla tunnels from the war, ate more fresh fruit than on any other trip, splashed with elephants, fed a tiger cub, visited tribal homes and our son finally got to ride on an overnight (roach/mice infested) train. I loved watching people wearing straw hats peddle their wares from their bicycles, slurping pho on street corners and seeing my father picking up by an elephant. The memories we created are forever etched in my mind, to be replayed with my son whenever we are bored, feeling grateful or wondrous at this world we live in...