Goodbye Thailand!

It's about midnight now and I'm desperately trying to kill time by spending my last few pennies on the internet. Our flight leaves at 5:30 am so we're attempting to stay up the whole time, which is proving to be much more difficult than expected. We did get a hotel room though so I'm not lugging around my bag and have a place to relax. Today was fun though, and I finally got to see Wat Pho, which holds the great reclining gold Buddha. It was way bigger than I ever imagined and was a great little last day tourist trip. We were going to try and go to the Grand Palace but it was 350 baht to get in, (about $10) and the lines were insane. I don't think we missed much though, it was so packed we could barley walk around just in the entrance, while Wat Pho wasn't busy at all.

Afterwards we of course gorged ourselves on as much street food as we could. There really isn't anything better than Phad Thai for around a dollar and chicken skewers and sticky rice for about 75 cents. I only have about 6 dollars left at this point, but I might be able to squeeze in one more cheap meal before we leave.

Finally, we relaxed at our roof top pool. Oh yes, our $10 a night hotel has a pool on the roof, so we were able to get some last minute bronzing in. Followed by of course, one last 6 dollar massage. The woman at the massage place we go to remembers me from last year, and is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. She showed us pictures of her family who live in Northern Thailand, and told us about her 10 year old son who has just become a monk. She gave me a picture of her and her other son to take home and wrote down her information so I can contact her if I ever some back. I'm not sure if she'll be in Bangkok if I return but she said I was welcome to stay with her family in her home town anytime. It's people like that that make me love this place as much as I do. Not many people in the states would leave you their information and offer a place to stay if you're ever in town again.

Overall the trip has been great and it's always bittersweet to be leaving. I of course miss home but wish I had another month to see all the places I didn't have a chance to on this trip. I imagine I'll find myself back here again one day though, with more time to explore and not quite as tight of a schedule to keep. But for now, I'm counting down the hours until my 18 hour journey home. I must admit Thai food is getting a bit old and I'm looking forward to some variety on meals. I love traveling, but there really isn't anything better than coming home.

So goodbye Thailand! it's been real!


Oh and Will...

see you soon :)