Home again!

After two rather hectic and exhausting weeks I'm finally back home, arriving last night around 9 p.m. - tired but happy! I reckon jet lag was at play this morning, though, because I was up at 5 a.m., paid some bills, did my washing and put stuff away before heading out to yoga, grocery shopping and then sewing club. I suppose I'll pay for it later but right now I'm still going strong!

My flight to Dubai with Emirates was delayed by 90 minutes, but that notwithstanding, I can't begin to describe how good the experience was flying with them. Of course, I'd decided to spoil myself by flying business class, but to be honest economy also looked really good. The food and service were excellent, and then to have a handsome young steward ask if he could make up my bed was just sublime! On the down side, being delayed by 90 minutes meant I had to run when I got to Dubai in order to make my connecting flight to Bangkok. You can't imagine what I (and a few others) looked like dashing through Dubai airport to get to our ongoing flights. On top of that, Dubai is a "silent airport" in that there are no tannoy annoucements so you end up crashing around trying to find which gate you should be heading for and all this in the searing heat! But make it we did, with the flight from Dubai being just as good as the first one, although by the time I finally made it to Bangkok I was pretty wired!

At the hotel I met up with the rest of our group (there were 10 of us) and our guide, who took us to a little out of the way restaurant overlooking the Chao Phraya River where we all made our introductions and got to know each other a little. I woke early the next morning (still jet lagged I guess) so sat on the terrace watching the boats go by until the others came down for breakfast. While I was sitting there a young French man sat down with his breakfast plate and then went to get coffee. Big mistake, apparently, because in his absence a crow swooped down and stole most of his breakfast before he made it back to the table! You live and learn I guess!

Later that morning we took a boat ride down one of the canals that branch off the river. It was already 35°C (95°F) so it was quite a shock to the system, but everywhere we went people made sure we always had cold water on hand as I guess they know how serious it can be if you get dehydrated!

I'm guessing my next few posts will be pretty picture heavy, so feel free to skip if you like. I'm just reliving my trip while it's fresh in my mind - and saving it to enjoy later!

Flying over Bangkok!

The view from our hotel by night!

Feeding fish on the canal trip!

Along the canal!

I wouldn't want to meet him
in the breakfast area!

And I couldn't resist this one - it's Gary Larsen I think, but I'm not sure!