After a surprisingly bumpy flight, but with a pilot who keeps Channel 9 Air Traffic Control on throughout the flight (especially nice when the ride is rough), we breeze through Immigration and Customs at Bangkok's magnificent airport and find our way to the empty taxi queue.
A taxi for the four of us costs 700 Baht - sounds like a lot until you find out how much a Baht is worth. It's a drizzly but quiet 3-40 minute ride to the Hilton in what they would call a big SUV (about the size of our RAV 4)with a friendly driver who speaks no more than a word or two of English.
We check in and find out they'll only upgrade one room to the Executive level - cheapskates. It turns out we can upgrade the second room for a surprisingly modest rate and that's what we do.
Now it's off to bed at about 1:00 a.m. local time, or 11:00 a.m. yesterday back home.
Kathy and Brian
Two retired educators alternating joyfully between seeing the world and enjoying our eight grandchildren (in order of birth), Jake, Avery, Taegan, Lily, Peyton, Riley, Blane, and Jace.
Kathy and Brian met in the clarinet section of the University of California (Santa Barbara) Symphony Orchestra several decades ago.
Brian's Western Canadian roots and Kathy's Colorado ties resulted in their making beautiful music together along with producing a cross-border crop of descendants.
Kathy spent a year studying in Vienna at the Institute for European Studies and the University of Vienna.
Brian started the school band program in Hope, British Columbia, and later became the high school's vice-principal for 6 years and subsequently principal for 15 years before retiring in 2001.
Kathy, in between raising our three children, taught kindergarten and first grade, middle school, and high school - mathematics, computer studies, ESL, and her first love, band, before retiring in 2001.
We enjoy sharing our travel experiences and providing the odd travel tip to friends, relatives, and visitors.