Bangkok, 4 very busy and exhausting days!!

After ringing in the New Year the next morning we headed up North to the "Old City" Ayutthaya by train.  It cost about .45 per person one way and was a great way to see more of the city and a bit of the country on route through open windows.
Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 by King U Thong who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, Ayutthaya kingdom or Siam.  By  the year 1600 CE the pop. was about 300,000 and by 1700 it had reached 1,000,000, making it one of the world's largest cities at that time.  In 1767, the city was destroyed by the Burmese army resulting in the collapse of the kingdom.  We toured these ruins and hopefully my pictures will upload to show you.  The site is recognized internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Two days later

of flights that were long but thankfully uneventful!!
We have been in Bangkok now 24 hours and I have only slept about 5 but hoping I will catch a sleep wave and get some rest.  Phil and I were so excited(ok maybe I was excited and Phil couldn't sleep, yeah I heard you guys) that we were up at 6:45, showered and headed downstairs for our free breakfast! It consisted of fried eggs, sausage, Thai noodle dish, steamed veggies an array of other toppings to add, ie. cucumbers, kidney beans, and lots of coffee. Pat and April, bless their hearts met  us at the airport at 2:30 so they were short a few hours sleep while some of us napped on our flights, namely me.  Phil's butt had had enough or the last flight was the worst seats, probably a combo, even though we were in the jump seats at the doorway so had 10 feet of leg room.  I wandered there a bit but our hosts joined us at 8:30.
Will add photo's later. The sandman has arrived! Good night, Happy New Year!! That was the biggest party I have ever been to, the nicest thousands of people, and hundreds if not more police! Such great people to party with!  Could not have picked a safer place I don't think.
Hope you all have fun, make wise choices and have a great New Year's Eve!!
I would put fireworks in for you but all my headings are in Thai so I can't decipher at this late hour. Toot toot!!

Here's a first....

me doing a month trip and only 1 bag, scary and can't believe I did it.  Will see how happy I am with my choices. I usually like to have a few options for each day let alone a week. Will not likely be bringing any of these clothes home, if I have any say.

Here's my first test to readers wonder if Barb will recognize the beautiful "wine" themed luggage tag she made?

Warm

Ready or not!

Here it is a beautiful while coating of snow to send us off.  The snow came too late for my liking as I prefer the old fashioned white Christmas.  There was a huge upside to no snow was that all our family had safe travels from Victoria to Kamloops and to Salmon Arm and home again. It was a terrific Christmas with lots of fun with our girls and their families.  Next year we will actually get to decorate and host Christmas if that is in the plans.  Who knows how we will spend it not making any plans yet.  We have had enough on our plates.  We've been moving for over a year, which meant last December we were already packing up the condo as we had alreadys sold and were looking for our new home.  As Murphy's Law would have it we found our next home in December.  Rather than wait we jumped on the fact the owner was already moving on and decided to buy and move in December 15/16.  Not sure if that was smart or not but I can now say it's done.
Our backpacks are packed! I finally found my runners! I was only going to take them and sandals and                                                 I thought I'd put them where I would lose them in the move! Ha! Yeah it only took me 2 days to find them, in the biggest box of footwear there was, not in any of the other top 10 places I thought they should've been.  Hmmm wonder who sealed that box. Probably me! So we will be up at the ungodly hour of 330 am tomorrow or earlier if sleep is not our friend. Here is a reminder for us as to what we are leaving behind for the time being.  Stay safe everyone and Happy New Year!!

Well that only took 2 hours but better now than when on the road!!

So much to do, so little time!!!

I finally got my "fitbit" busy.  Phil and I went for a long walk from Oriole Rd to our soon to be new home.  Only took us about 70 minutes, there and back, a great walk.  Lots of birds singing, mild weather and certainly doesn't feel like December.  Yesterday Phil and I got our TwinRix Hep A and B shots from Aaron's and we also got our flu shots.  Julie referred us to the doc about malaria.  Dr. P. says not a high risk area as long as we are aware that if we get flu like symptoms to seek medical help, like fever etc., especially on return home.  We tried to give blood at the Calvary Church but due to flu shots we can't, there has to be 2 days between.  Also once we go to Thailand we can't give blood until 1 year and 1 day from the day we return t

Count down is on!! 8 days until we take possession of our next home!! 9 days until our stored belongings will be moved in.12 days until Nicole, Sean, Zach, Eli and Sadie arrive for Christmas.21 days until we fly to Thailand!!!