I've never had a city spit me out. Ever. I didn't know what to make of it. Nevertheless, that is exactly what Bangkok did to me. It spit me out.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
Preparing for an overseas adventure is like having a part-time job. In addition, the more I pictured myself in the random situations it would bring, it didn't seem real.
Backing up. The older girls were planning a trip to Japan, and they invited Callie along. I was somewhat apprehensive about sending my 15-year-old on such a trip without me, but I trusted she would be in capable hands. Matt and I had a voucher for a free week at any Marriott Vacation Club. We offered it to them since it expired at the end of April. However, there weren't any Vacation Clubs in Japan. By this point, they were saying, "Mom, you should come along." Huh? I don't do such crazy things. But I couldn't give them a reason why I don't. Looking at the website, Matt started to name places where a Vacation Club was available. Everyone had an opinion about every place he named, but when he said Phuket, we all agreed, "I'd go to Phuket!" So he booked it! On the roster were Mal and Gav, Ava, Callie, and ME!
Next up was figuring out flights. We FaceTime'd one Sunday evening in January (Gavin was having way too much fun with filters). Ava took screenshots of Callie and my genuine reactions to the length of the flight from Seattle to the Middle East—14 hours—and all that would be before we even boarded a plane to Asia.
Furthermore, getting gear for the trip required lots of time on Amazon and a chunk of change! We would be flying through Qatar, which Graham assured us is so cool to fly on Qatar Airways, and they have the nicest airport in the world. We were getting pumped! I began my research.
Conversely, I was also beginning to fret with anxiety about it all. Then, one evening, I decided, "What if it wasn't really me going on this trip, but rather my alter ego?" And this was born:
Katanya.
Ava slept over the night before we were to leave and she guided me in my packing. It is actually a highlight when I look back on the trip. The girls lay on the bed while Little House on the Prairie played on the telly. How was I going to decide which stack of belongings I wasn't going to take? I am a shoe person, for example. I like to have options when I travel. I had narrowed it down to four pairs for the various excursions we would be taking over the next 11 days. However, since we decided to backpack it, I was only afforded one pair, and those would be on my feet. "Abby likes to have options when it comes to footwear, Katanya does not." We crammed and jammed and found a new love for packing cubes. Our backpacks expanded to look like bloated whales, but we were able to get our junk in the trunk.
April 18, 2024
Matt took us to the airport and bid us off on our adventure—I do not use that word lightly. Our first leg was from Salt Lake to Seattle. At Seatac, we had $18 sandwiches, gah. This was a "You're on your own kid" kind of trip, even for Callie. We hoped for lower prices overseas.
Two of our seats on the airline were together, but one was not. I wanted the girls to sit together. I was glad I had done so when I was seated amongst foreign men in the middle row. This was our 14-hour leg. I gave the girls Tylenol PM to take if they wanted to to sleep. However, they were anxiously awaiting Taylor's new album release. Ava said she was going to pay for Wi-fi on the plane so that she could hear it right when it came out.
The staff was so attentive! They were all dressed in blouses, pencil skirts, hose, and pumps. Their make-up and hair were immaculate, and their countenances were pleasing. I marveled at their patience to bend down at each row and repeat the exact same thing. They fed us well, and often!
I had been confused as to why we would be flying to the Middle East at all. It seemed like we would be passing Asia and then backtracking. Graham explained that we wouldn't be going around the world, we would be going over the world.
I noted that though the attendants had been on the same flight as I had, there they were still fresh-faced and smiling. Not a hair out of place. Before we landed, they came around with a full-size sandwich! I was stuffed by the time I got off that flight.
I was in the Middle East with my babies! It was surreal. Somewhere I never thought I would be, there was a thrill to it all. I was happy to hear that the girls were able to get some serious zzzs in. They had taken the Tylenol PM and were out for the duration of the flight. They hadn't even gotten their big sandwich. What was messing with our minds was that we had gotten off our flight feeling like it was morning, but out the window the sun was setting. We would be boarding another red-eye to Bangkok. This leg would be seven hours.
Ava checked her phone and learned that Taylor had released a double album. She was shook and could only focus on getting to a spot where she could listen to it ASAP. But first! We had to take in the Doha Hamad Airport! Wow. It truly is spectacular.
We were doing so great! This is not Ava's first international travel, so we relied heavily on her expertise. We found our gate. Wow, all of these people would be getting on one plane. There was a father chasing his curly-haired daughter, calling after her, "Bobbi, Bobbi." Cutest thing.
I hadn't pre-downloaded the album (though I thought I had), so Ava hurried and did it for me. I said that I was fine waiting. She said, "No. We are all going to push play at the same time." She downloaded it for me. We had to board soon. There are two versions of the double album, the clean and the explicit version. I put in my earbuds, Ava handed me my phone and told me and Callie to press play.
Katanya listens to the explicit version.
That album will forever remind me of waiting to board our flight in Qatar. Cool memory.
The seating was the same, with Callie and I assigned seats together and Ava separate, but I chose to sit separately. And what do you know, I was seated behind little Bobbi and her parents who were taking a true red-eye. They seemed so tired! I was sitting next to two Brit gents. They were so hard to understand! My instinct was to say, "What?" when in fact, I should have said, "Pardon?" Of course, they wanted to know about Donald Trump.
"Eesabighuvahoghedizndee?"
"What?"
The gent was asking, "He's a bit of a hothead, isn't he?"
The gent was asking, "He's a bit of a hothead, isn't he?"
I quickly stripped him of the gent title as he started roughly nudging the seat in front of him as soon as it reclined. It was Bobbi's father trying to get comfortable while holding a baby. I told the gent, "He's holding a sleeping baby."
"eh."
There was a little bed that folded out of the wall for Bobbi to sleep in, but she was. not. having. it.
Three flights and two days later, on April 20th, we were still not to our final destination, but we made it to Bangkok, Thailand! We immediately got sim cards so our phones would work, exchanged currency into baht, and Callie made her first purchase—a muffin.
To our relief, all signs were also written in English. We are spoiled as American travelers.
We used our previously downloaded app to hail a Grab (thankful for all the tips from my world traveler daughters) and headed outside to wait for our ride. It was so hot and humid that we immediately decided to wait inside.
Not far from the airport, we passed the Bangkok Temple! Now I was shook.
It has only been open for six months—dedicated in October 2023.
Yet, our plan that day was to spend time at Wats, in other words, the temples of Thailand.
Things started off well enough, but even though I had worn compression socks for the flights, my legs were swelling. Not to worry, we had all changed into flowy clothes at the airport.
Pictured Above: Callie and Abby (soon to be Katanya) at Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram at the
Grand Palace.
We decided at this point that our bags were too heavy for sightseeing. I opted to have a sit with the bags while we took turns sight-seeing. It felt wonderful to sit in the shade and have some tepid water while the girls saw the palace.
When it was my turn, I texted Mallerie to let her know that we had made it safely to The Grand Palace in Bangkok—and that we practically had the place to ourselves;)
How far in the world do you have to go to escape the crowds?
The fresh flower arrangements were gorgeous.
I noticed that the girl's faces were getting red, so we all applied sunscreen. Our sweaty faces were no deterrent from fellow tourists. An Asian family followed us around. They asked for a picture. We said, "Sure," and invited them to be in the picture. They were overjoyed to take a photo with ginormous, sweaty Americans.
From the Grand Palace, we had a 20-minute walk to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. Callie saw a woman selling fabric fans and asked how much. "One hundred fifty baht." One hundred and fifty sounded expensive! She agreed to pay one hundred.
I used my converter app and realized, "Callie, you paid less than three dollars for that." It was going to take a minute to get used to the dollar conversion.
By the next stop, we were each insisting that it was our turn to sit with the backpacks in the shade. We saw tourist groups in matching tees being led around by a guide. I was so relieved that I had not booked a tour. The heat! It was 107°!!! The humidity made it feel like a furnace. I purchased three cold juices, and we agreed it was the best thing we had ever tasted. There was one more Wat we had planned to visit, Wat Arun, which required a 45-minute walk. Knowing we weren't up for a walk in that heat, we decided to take a Grab. However, standing on the street corner, I couldn't even read my phone. My mascara was running into and stinging my eyes. My nose wouldn't stop running, either. I think my brain was liquid. My feet continued to swell, and now, where the elastic from my pant legs was rubbing, was developing into a heat rash. It was hard to think and breathe. What did we really care about seeing another Wat anyway? Besides, the reviews all said that Wat Arun was most spectacular at night. We all agreed that the only Grab we should be getting into was one that would take us back to the airport to await our flight to Phuket!
Our driver only added to our experience. He told us we needed to pay more money for the upcoming toll road. We didn't know anything about this, and it seemed fishy. We explained that the app says what the ride will cost and that it hadn't said anything about a toll fee. He said that he could take side streets but it would take much longer to get to the airport. The toll road was the shortcut. We figured it was a matter of just a few bucks and by now, Ava was nauseous. We came up with change and handed it to him as we got on the freeway. He did use the money we gave him at the toll booth.
He was a character! No joke, he told us that he loves war and thinks Hitler was a great man. He kept pretending he was at war shooting a machine gun. I interjected, "Hitler was a bad man, war is not good, peace is good." I seemed to have introduced a new word to his English vocabulary.
He repeated slowly, "Peeeeace."
"Yes, war is bad, peace is good."
The rest of the ride from time to time he would repeat, "Peeace." "Peeace." A new concept to him.
The rest of the ride from time to time he would repeat, "Peeace." "Peeace." A new concept to him.
(This became Mallerie's favorite story and therefore, it was repeated often throughout the trip, "Peeace," said in a strong Asian accent.)
In my mind, we army crawled back into the air-conditioned airport. We had big plans to spend the day in Bangkok, but the city had simply
Spit. Us. OUT.
As we limped to some chairs to gather our wits, Callie said, "Mom, you look...." Ava just shook her head, as if to say, "Don't say it."
How bad was I? Katanya is a sweaty mess when she travels.
We needed a moment to just be. What had gone wrong? We had an agenda, we had good attitudes, there is plenty to do in Bangkok, but the city had simply
When we landed in Phuket, it was dark. I ordered a Grab on my phone after punching in our destination as the Marriott Vacation Club. Our driver took us through windy roads. The oncoming headlights from the opposite side of the road were giving me a heart attack. Finally, we made it to our destination. We were so happy to be at the villa, we could have kissed the ground, but trouble began as soon as we tried to check in.
Spit. Us. OUT.
We decided to get some lunch. Everything was foreign. It can't be good when you order a spicy chicken bowl at BK (Burger King). Callie just wanted fries from a chicken joint. But they were covered in powdered cheese. Our food was inedible.
We went to a sit-down ramen noodle restaurant next. Looking over the menu, nothing looked good. Mine and Ava's eyes met and the oddity of the entire situation dawned on us. We began to chuckle, then laugh, then cry. Were we crying happy or sad tears? I do not know. The waitress came to inquire if we were ready to order and we couldn't even talk. What was happening? Callie was mortified.
We got out of there!
Hot mess doesn't begin to describe the situation. After lugging around our gargantuan packs, we spotted FREEEEE carts. It was as though the heavens themselves had opened and we heard angels sing.
We pushed our packs to our gate to await getting the heck out of Bangkok. I put on my compression socks and elevated my feet. Ava noted, "Katanya lays on airport floors."
Our domestic hour and 40-minute flight to Phuket was:
I had taken us to the wrong Marriott! I then remembered Matt's council, "There is more than one Marriott, so make sure you go to Marriott's Phuket Beach Club." I scheduled another Grab to come grab us. Of course, it was the same guy who had just dropped us off. He said this happens all the time. In the few minutes we had been at the wrong Marriott, we had grown attached. We hoped we'd like the new one just as well.
We did!
After flying 16,313 miles (keep in mind, to fly around the equator is 24,901 miles),
Home Sweet Home
for the next week.
What. a . day.
I had decided to have the girls share the bedroom with two beds and put Mal and Gav in the primary suit—I would take the pullout. I called for extra bedding. A guy came and made up the couch ship shape.
My legs! Aye, yai, yai. Katanya has cankles.
April 21, 2024
In the morning, Gav arrived first thing. He said, "Mal told me, You need to go help my family, their first day went sideways."
Boy had it ever!
On our way to church, texted Matt me pictures and a video of Graham at the Promenade, which I was missing. I could hardly look. I was second-guessing my choices!We had a bit of trouble finding the meeting house because it is not a meeting house. Gavin spotted the familiar words on the window of what looked to be a strip mall. We were so glad to have him and to have another head in the game.
Inside, we wore headsets. Depending on who was speaking, and what language it was in, we would trade the headsets around. At one point, a man whose first language was Russian was speaking English while the missionaries translated into Thai. During the service, two Brit gents walked in and sat in front of us. This time, "gentlemen" applied. (One of them was full-blown Aquaman—we could scarcely look away.) I will forever regret not getting them in our photo. After Sunday School (held on the 2nd floor), we were invited for lunch. Back downstairs, a table had been set up with piles of food and real plates. It is a Sunday tradition since members travel far distances. We traveled for about half an hour. We felt a little awkward since we didn't have anything to contribute, but they were so warm and welcoming. And the banana bars...
I chatted with some new friends while the kiddos went outside to hail a Grab. I even talked to the Brits! Though they were backpacking, they somehow managed to show up in full suits. I told Ava she should have talked to them with me. She said, "I couldn't, he was too beautiful." Cool guy.
Outside, Gavin told me that the only Grab he could get were motorcycles. At that time, one of the ward members (from Utah) came out and hopped on a Grab motorcycle. I asked, "Where do you put your hands?"
He said, "I'll just figure it out!" As he sped off.
I wondered out loud, "What if I die today?"
It was then that the kiddos told me they were kidding about the motorcycle thing.
I wondered out loud, "What if I die today?"
It was then that the kiddos told me they were kidding about the motorcycle thing.
Katanya was willing.
Old Phuket Town
Fun vibe. On weekends, the street is closed off for street vendors, in addition to the regular shops. The quaint streets were an attraction, and so was the heat! I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. I simply couldn't believe the heat, but it wasn't as bad as Bangkok. Phuket is near water, so it is about 4° cooler. It was amazing to see locals bustling about as if the heat wasn't a thing. I saw a girl wearing a cardigan.
We didn't have to worry about Gavin because he's used to Mal, "She's a shopper!" he said. The girls and I bought pearl jewlery. The shopkeeper proved they were real by holding them in a flame.
Gavin and I shared mango sticky rice atop ice cream. I marveled that they keep it cold. I found some fun wrap pants and a skirt. We were getting used to the currency conversion and what felt like a good deal. In Thailand, it's all a good deal!
The bustle of the streets can be a distraction if you don't look up. I loved the bright-colored buildings.
When we passed by a restaurant, the doors opened, and we were blasted by cold air. It became an easy choice to go in. Look at that entrance! Inside was even more unbelievable.
He kept saying, "We have to come back and bring Mal."
We found a Poe, can you?
The place was nuts. Such a fun stop in our day. The food was good too!
We arrived back at the Marriott in time to see the most dreamy sky. The lighting was unreal. It was our first time at a beach in Thailand, and we were staying right on it! The lighting kept getting more and more magnificent. I think I'm going to like it here.
We had a lovely patio with a view, but we never sat out there. Too hot. Didn't swim in the ocean either.
Too hot.
We did enjoy seeing the different towel animals from housekeeping that awaited us. I can see why they took the time to fold them...in an air-conditioned space!
It wasn't unusual for the kiddos to go get something to eat in the evening. I was never hungry. My body didn't know what day or time it was. It had shut down all cues. I would stay behind in the air-conditioned villa to do the laundry and text goodnight to Matt, though it was good morning for him. We were sad to have missed Harrison's farewell during the night. Our hearts were with him!
April 22, 2024
We were so happy to see smiley Mallerie join us the next day! Now we were all here. We wished Kat could have made it work to join us on our girls and Gav trip, though. Mallerie had many tales to tell about her own adventures in regard to her solo flight. She wanted updates on our trip and how my legs were doing. I showed her, "I didn't want my legs to look like this in Thailand. Would you want your legs to look like this?"She would not.
She had cute headbands for all of us that she had purchased in Singapore just the month before.
Below: waiting in the lobby for our daily driver.
Ava took note that we do not give any leeway when it comes to time. If the driver is coming at 8 am, we are there at 8 am. According to the photos, I beg to differ. One morning, I shared a golf cart to the lobby with a family from Finland. When we pulled up, Ava said, "Of course, Mom has made friends with them." We found it interesting that whenever we thought maybe someone was American, we could tell right away that they weren't when they began speaking. Thailand has quite the collection of tourists.
Now that there were five of us we always got a party van when ordered a Grab.
Mal used her concierge knowledge to work with our concierge and had some fun excursions lined up. It was nice for her to finally meet in person!
First up, an elephant sanctuary and a cooking class.
We learned so much about the dos and don'ts in the conservation efforts of the elephants in Thailand.
DO NOT RIDE THE ELEPHANTS! Instead, at the sanctuary, we prepared food for them and bathed them. Man. This was a highlight. This photo even made my Christmas card.
A young performing elephant had been rescued who thought he had to perform for food. He would sway his head back and forth when he saw the food. It was breaking our hearts! For the rest of the trip, if Gavin wanted something, all he would have to do is sway his head back and forth and none of us could say no.
After showering up (with the elephants), we helped prepare a delicious lunch of papaya salad.
Are you getting the gist? Everyone loved spending time with the elephants.
We relaxed at the vacation club that evening by watching a fountain show. It was such a beautiful night.
Phi Phi Islands
April 23, 2024
Nervous about getting seasick, Ava put on motion-sick patches behind the ear before boarding the boat.
They made her so sleepy!
We got to get off the boat and swim at this stop. It was fun to splash around, but the water wasn't refreshing. We stopped several times throughout the tour. Once for swimming, once to snorkel, once for lunch and shopping, and again to beach. We wondered what the lunches would be like that were included on the tours. Would we be eating on the boat? A sack lunch? Nope and nope. We always docked at a resort and ate in the dining room, buffet-style. Though the buffets were pretty similar, there was enough variety to mix it up day after day. Our tour guide, Bobby, was great. Phi Phi was the most popular of the tours we went on. I can see why, you gotta swim in the warm waters of Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee;)
Stop #2
Maya Bay
Just up the boardwalk, we arrived at the most stunning bay!
We got a kick out of watching the intense photo shoots going on! In particular, a red bikini will forever live on in our minds. Surprisingly, when we took our own shots, it would appear we had the place to ourselves. I can assure you that we did not.
Glad to know that I wasn't the only one who was feeling beat by the time we got back that evening.
Khao Sok Lake
April 24, 2024
I had no idea what to expect this day. Our driver drove us for about an hour to a place where we switched vehicles and drivers. Our new driver (Peter?) had a lot of information to share along the way. He stopped at a lookout where Matthew McConaughey posed for the promo poster of Gold. We had Gavin recreate it.
Peter did not just drop us off at Khao Sok, but he spent the day with us. He told us to not leave any belongings or food in the car because of the extreme temps. The day was muggy, and we couldn't wait to get on the long-tail boat and feel the breeze.
Didn't help.
I will say that Khao Sok has some of the most magnificent rock formations I have ever seen.
Hiking to Pra Kai Petch cave was next. Peter told us that some people call it Diamond Cave because of the sparkles. The sparkles are actually on the backs of spiders. I held out my fingers to symbolize an inch and asked, "Spiders?" Then held my hands apart from each other, "Or spiders?," He held his hand up with fingers spread, "Spiders." Okeeee. Spiders the size of my hand. But not to worry, you'd have to be bitten by 30 of them to die. Also in the cave were live bats, just hanging out up top but also flying around. I don't know how Ava kept herself together 'cause I was in full Kataya mode just get through it!
All said and done, Ava wasn't quite sure what to make of the cave. But she is always up for a hike!
Lunch was at the floating bungalows.
I think this is what people picture when they think of staying in Thailand. After seeing how far out the floating bungalows are, away from everything, that it is a tourist stop, and that the water is boiling, I personally wouldn't want to stay there. Just sayin'.
I got started on my evening chores while the others went to dinner. "Do you think mom is okay? I can't believe she isn't hungry," Mal wondered. Even after a late meal, Mal wakes up starving. Don't know where she puts it! The kids were living their best lives at the JW Marriott Restaurant.
Pool and Spa!
April 25, 2024
And yet, the next day, I was the only one who ordered poolside food. I ordered a cob salad—something I never do at home—but I needed something familiar, and of course, mango sticky rice.
That morning, I did yoga on the beach—while pretending it wasn't smoldering. The kids took a video where they are whispering about spotting Katanya in the wild. Our refreshing pool day was a bit of a joke as well. Too hot to be in or out of the water!
There are several Buddhas to see in Thailand, we chose to see the biggest one and called it good. Big Buddha. It felt impolite to be walking around their place of worship as a tourist while the monks prayed. Some people were on a group tour. A guide had a book with laminated photos of monks, which he was telling a group about. I couldn't imagine anything he could say that would interest me. Mallerie compared it to the Buddhists looking through a binder of our past prophets. They would be equally as disinterested. Knees and shoulders must be covered when visiting Buddha or wats (30,000 wats in Thailand!).
Thanks, Gav! Heart fingers.
Next, we walked to dinner at...where else???
We're baaaaaack! Mallerie agreed that the restaurant was worth seeing!
We marveled at the electrical cords and telephone wires running a muck across the town.
It was fun being back at Old Town at night! We all found more treasures. Just because the sun had set, it didn't cool down. We spent a fair amount of time in a shoe store pretending to browse. No one needed shoes, but it was air-conditioned! I found a dress that I later showed a picture of to Matt and asked what he thought. He said, "I don't like it, it is too pioneer-y."
Then I told him, "I bought it."
Takua Thung -- Kalai
April 26, 2024
James Bond Island and more~
Our tours included breakfasts of toast and other stuff... (what was it all?)
Once again, we boarded a boat. With music playing and salt air spraying, I closed my eyes to take it all in as we sped along the water in a remote part of the world—headed to an even more remote part of the world.
The legs of the Asian couple in front of us didn't touch the floor of the boat. I watched as they alternated between folding them on their seat, letting them dangle, or pressing them into the seat in front of them. I felt for them. It looked very uncomfortable.
Ko Na Kha Yai
The guy in the life vest! Do you see how shallow the water is? We were also aware of the abundant jellyfish. We stayed in a circle so we could "have eachother's backs" as Mallerie would say. As we watched lifevest guy paddle out, she said, "He doesn't have anyone to watch his back."
Then it was me who went and stepped on one! A strange bruise developed on the ball of my foot.
Phang Nga Bay
This excursion day included a variety of stops. We kayaked through caves.
We could not figure out where to put our leggy legs!
Koh Panyi
We had lunch at a floating village, which rests on stilts. We didn't know it was possible to feel even more remote! And yet, there was a fancy dining hall with a buffet lunch waiting for us. It was as though it appeared out of nowhere.
Callie recounted later, watching a little girl (about six years old) play happily with a container of toys. She marveled that the floating village was this girl's whole world.
We found something cold! (HOW were they keeping popsicles frozen in this heat?)
The last person back on the boat got a bucket of ice water poured on them. I think we were all fighting to be that person. Our guide was dear and let all five of us have an ice bath;)
Takua Thung
better known as
James Bond Island
Ice Cream Cave
We laughed quite hard at the instructions to climb up the rickety ladder and then place our hands and feet "just so" so that we didn't plummet 20 feet. This sort of carelessness would never be allowed in the States, not without a safety harness and a wavier.
(Back home, a week later, I went to a yoga class and had to sign a wavier!)
I went first. "Go, Katanya!" everyone yelled. She did it! Complete with the twerk at the end. We kept climbing higher up into the cave; the drop-off continued to grow as well. Our guide showed how we would have to step down one part to keep our footing. The Asian girl couldn't reach her legs down, so he just picked her up and lifted her down like a baby, then did the same for her equally short-legged mate. When it was our turn, we just stepped down like it was a step. Leggy, we are.
The cave looked like melted ice cream. Don't let the cheerful name fool you, though; at the end, our guide took us into a narrow space that quickly became another bat cave. Actually, it was also a cemetery, so we had to whisper. That was hard to do when the guide was telling funnies...in a whisper, of course.
Patrick Island
Headed to our last stop, Patrick Island. Interestingly, that was our guide's name as well...
We waited patiently for the sun to set. Patrick came over and told us he would take our photo.
Then he positioned us very deliberately; we weren't sure what he was aiming to do.
Then we saw the photo, ahhh. Good on ya Patrick!
Patrick hijacked Ava's phone and filled nearly the entire camera roll with additional sunset shots.
He wasn't wrong that the lighting was dreamy.
Throughout the day, Patrick called me, "mommyyyy" in a whiny baby voice. I can still picture it. Fun Guide. Long day.
The air-conditioned party van felt amazing.
"The night sky is very beautiful." -Abby
"Look at the shooting stars!" -Ava
"Is everyone making a wish?" -Abby
"I wish for them to turn off." -Callie
"I wish for the elephants to be free." -Mal
Back to Bangkok!
April 27, 2024
Towards the end of the trip, Gav had lost his voice. He said his throat was raw. In Thailand, you can go to any pharmacy and leave with an antibiotic, so that is what he did. The guess was that it was strep brought on by the polluted air. We missed his input and commentary once he went silent.
There was an older gentleman who met us each evening as we got out of the van. As he opened the door for us, he would nod, smile, and click his heels. We wish that we had taken a picture with him. Instead, on the last morning, we saw that he kept his hat in the plant. That'll do.
When the kids asked me what I loved most about Thailand, I said, "The people." They were so warm and welcoming. It will stay with me always.
We all boarded a domestic flight to back to Bangkok. I had reason to be nervous about that! However, we were headed to the Bangkok Temple, which I was very excited about.
At the airport, while buying snacks, we learned that sometimes buying an extra tin of Pringles for a distraught child who had mistakenly spilled all of his is a good thing to do.
Despite the snacks before boarding the short flight, after our driver dropped us at the temple, everyone was starving again. Oh dear, that could take a while. As we started to walk in the heat, I said, "I already did this in Bangkok" (and it did not end well!). I didn't feel like eating and was anxious to get into the temple. While they pressed on for eats, I headed inside.
I wish I had kept the sticky note with my name written in Thai. I also enjoyed hearing the ordinances in Thai. I met a temple worker who is married to the first member of the church in Thailand. He is now serving in the temple. He has waited for this day to see it all come full circle. When the others came back, we did an endowment session together while Callie spent time in the baptistry. It was a lovely day!
Boc was missing me and needed a pic.
I was anxious to see the temple at night and was glad to see the lights coming on when we left.
The order of the temple grounds was a stark contrast to downtown Bangkok that evening. We hit one of the many night markets.
With all our shopping, I needed to buy a carry on so we could get our treasures home. Many tourists must run into the same issue, as there was an abundance of luggage for sale.
Some of the kids had wanted to ride in a tuk-tuk, but with so many of us we didn't think we could—or rather, should. However, the driver insisted we could all squeeze in and that it was no. big. deal!
Off to Wat Arun! Ava used her legs as a seatbelt till Gavin switched places with her. We were not driving on side streets, rather on the highway! (Our Amazing Race moment.)
Our tuk-tuk driver had to have known that Wat Arun was closed for the night, but he didn't bother to tell us that. He let us off and waved goodbye. We kept walking on side streets trying to get around to the entrance. In the end, our view came from holding our phone over the wall and snapping a pic. Good enough!
Gav, still only whispering, arranged transportation for us. We got a compact car and he took a motorcycle. We watched him hop on silently and wave to us.
We stayed at separate hotels for the night. Mal and Gav would spend another day in Bangkok, and we would return through Qatar. It was time to say goodbye. What a special time we had all spent together.
It felt great to call it a day.
April 28, 2024
We had to get up early to catch our ride to the airport. The hotel included breakfast, but we were officially tired of room-temperature watermelon, toast with "butter," and pad Thai. We hoped they hadn't make it just for us!
To Qatar!
The international wing area of the Bangkok airport blew our minds. It was the size of a football field. Again, we relied on Ava's quick wits to get us from point A to B B to Q. Bangkok to Qatar.
What to do with a 20 hour layover?
I never thought in a million years I would spend time in the Middle East, let alone dip my feet in the Arabian Sea. It was thrilling beyond words.
On the return flight, I woke up in the night with a stiff back. I needed my Aleve out of my backpack, which was stowed in the overhead across the isle, a row back. I gingerly got up—as to not disturb the sleeping passengers—opened the overhead, heaved out my backpack, did the combination in the dark, retrieved the bottle of Aleve, put the medicine bag back in the backpack, scrambled the combination, heaved the backpack into the overhead, shut the bin, returned to my seat, and I realized I had mistakenly grabbed the Ibuprofin, which was...empty. I could have cried.
However, all that movement loosened up my back enough to make it feel okay.
Back in Seattle, we had one leg left. Ava was on the earlier flight to SLC while Callie and I had a long layover. It was worth asking if there was room on the earlier flight. The gal didn't respond, but instead click-clacked on her keyboard and printed two tickets. She casually handed them to us as she informed us we were now on the earlier flight. I could have climbed over the counter and wrapped her in a bear hug.
What an adventure we had been on! It's amazing where your two feet can get you. I was pleased when my bird ankles made an appearance five days later. Abby was HOME.
