A.S.I.A: The Departure

May 7, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

A familiar hotel.  A familiar airport.  A familiar plane.  A familiar airport. And, back to the familiar hotel where it all began: the Century Park Hotel.  I have to say there is something so comforting about returning to a place and having the staff remember you and greet you by name and, after the whirlwind couple weeks we'd had, it was certainly nice to feel like we were home again.

Rather than head out into the city we decided to enjoy the view from the pool.  It was a beautiful set up with a shallow and sunny upper pool cascading into a deeper, more shaded lower pool.  We spent the afternoon laughing and rehashing everything we had done and, once you get down to it, we did a lot!  Granted, there were a few hiccups along the way, but those really make for the best stories in the end, right?

Our Final Happy Hour

After the pool we made our way upstairs for one final happy hour whilst being serenaded by a live cover band who invited us to join them for live karaoke after dinner.  We weren't too sure how we'd be feeling about that, but one can never tell with Mom and Soup on board :)  Dinner was amazing with steak and red wine sauce and rich potatoes which were all things I knew I wasn't going to be tasting for a long time without my parents around to foot the bill (Thanks Mom and Dad!!)



Mom Rocking Out to Live Karaoke



Stuffed, we waddled back out to the lounge to listen to the band and were finally coaxed onto the stage (after one or two B-52s) and rocked the night away.  Sue wouldn't get up and sing, saying it was better for everyone that way, but was a great supporter in the crowd as she swayed and cheered for me and then Mom.  I think we closed the night down with a rousing rendition of She Bangs by Ricky Martin and then realized we should probably get to bed if we were to make it to the airport on time.

The alarm always seems to go off 5 minutes after you fall asleep when it's time to go to the airport and so we went through our well-practiced motions of checking the room, finishing packing and checking out.  Our hotel gave us a wonderful goodbye and even packed us individual lunch boxes to take with as we weren't going to be there for the buffet in the morning!  We arrived on time at the airport and I got Mom and Sue off without a hitch (well, minus the tears from Mom, but we all knew those were coming!)  It's amazing how fast a trip can go and how much fun you can have.  I had such a good time hosting yet more visitors to my new home and I can't wait until the next ones (yea I'm talking to you readers) get on the plane to BKK!  That finally (1.5 years later) concludes Ann and Sue in Asia!