Farewell Thailand

Today is Saturday, December 20, five days before Christmas.

On Monday we left Thailand and headed for Vietnam.  In this writing, I want to focus on some final thoughts regarding Thailand as well as our travel day from Thailand to Vietnam.  I have all kinds of thoughts about our time thus far in Vietnam but I will save that for another blog in a couple of days.

We spent our final weekend in Chiang Mai, visiting places for the last time and simply enjoying those last moments in Thailand.

We said goodbye to our morning coffee place and its very friendly employees.  We went there 3-5 mornings a week for the month we were there.  They knew our coffee order and they were so kind to us every day so I felt compelled to say goodbye.  I thought it would be weird if, all of the sudden after a month, we simply vanished.  I am sure I overthought that whole scenario.  We are clearly not Thai so I am sure the thought was at some point, we would be gone.  But it didn’t feel right not saying goodbye, so I did.

I do have to point out that Blaise liked going to this coffee place because for some odd reason it had a scale to weigh yourself.  This coffee place was two stories with the 2nd floor being a nomad workplace area.  You had to go up to the second floor to use the restroom and the scale was in a “conference room” (for lack of a better term) next to the bathroom.  No one ever used the conference room so we would go up there and weigh ourselves.

Why would they have a scale?  The only thing we could come up with was maybe some of the digital nomads working there would bring their luggage to weigh.  Maybe?

By the way, I lost about 11 pounds while in Chiang Mai.  All that walking will do it for you! Crazy! I have no idea how much I lost before Chiang Mai but I am sure once we left the cruise ship, weight was shed.  I just don’t know how much.

We had our last walk in the park Sunday morning and then went back to the AirBnB and did laundry so we would arrive in Vietnam with our clothes clean and ready to go.

Miscellaneous Observations of Thailand

Temporary Markets

Both in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, they had lots of temporary outdoor markets and festivals that would be there one day and the next day there would be absolutely no sign that a market had even been there.  These markets mostly sold street food but there would be - to use a former Kroger employee (from the 1980s) term - non foods, you could also buy.

For example, when we first got to our AirBnB in Bangkok, on our first trip to the train station, there were food stands on one side of the street on the walkway.  Two days later, those stands were gone and the ground was clean as a whistle.  A couple of days later, an outdoor market popped up in an open area next to the street where the first market shut down.  Then a market appeared across the street on the walkway.  Then, right before we left, the one across the street disappeared and a day later, the market was back on the other side of the street where we saw a market the first day.

In Chiang Mai, we visited a courtyard area surrounded by buildings and a shopping center.  This courtyard area had some food vendors. Then a few days later, the courtyard had even more vendors, and a rather large covered area that was previously selling clothing, was now devoid of clothing and stalls were being set up in place of the clothes.  The day after that, the clothing area was filled with food vendors and there was signage up for some sort of festival.  This lasted for about 10 days.  A few days before we left, we went there so Blaise could get some sausage from one of the vendors and the entire courtyard was completely empty except for a few empty stalls.  Two days before we left, the courtyard had food vendors again, some new and some from the last event.  It was supposed to be some wine festival but no wine could be found.  At least by us. And I tried!

The courtyard area in Chiang Mai the first day we stumbled upon it

All these markets were super clean; not like some of the street vendors we ran across.  We did eat at these markets many times.  The food was great!

Christmas In Thailand

Although 90% of the Thai people are Buddhist, they sure do love Christmas!  There are Christmas decorations everywhere.  So much so, I had to Google why that is.  The Googs says it is for three reasons:  1) The Thai culture is very accepting of all religions and people; 2) They aren’t going to turn down a good marketing opportunity to sell things; and 3) the Thai people love to party and will always find an excuse to have fun.

However, their acceptance of Christmas is not an acceptance of Jesus as the son of God.

The Thai People

We loved the Thai people.  They were always kind, smiling, and helpful.  They seemed proud of their heritage, country, and their monarchy, particularly the queen mother who had passed away while we we there, their current king, and the last king (who passed away in 2016).

I know I mentioned this before but it bears mentioning again - the Thai businesses really took pride in ownership.  You would see employees or owners sweeping and cleaning in front of their businesses, making sure they were as clean outside as they were inside. It was nice to see.

Leaving Thailand

On Monday, we took a Grab to the airport around 6:30 AM which cost us about $4.50 all in with the tip.

Our flight left at 10:10 AM for Bangkok, but since we had no familiarity with the airport, we wanted to get their early, knowing that we could hang out in a lounge until boarding time, which we did.  If you are someone who flies a great deal, I recommend the CapitalOne Venture X card, which includes access to many airport lounges around the world.  It’s a game changer.

At one point, we thought we were going to leave the Bangkok airport to visit the national museum since our layover was so long but once we found out at the Chiang Mai airport that our checked bags would not go all the way through to Da Nang and that we would have to pick them up in Bangkok, recheck them, plus go through security again with our carryons (rather than store them), we were out.  What a hassle.  We checked our bags all the way through and stayed within the secure area in Bangkok.

In Bangkok, we visited two different lounges since they would not let us through to our concourse until 3 hours before our flight to Da Nang.  The layover was a whopping 8 hours!

Our flight left out of their brand new concourse, Satellite 1.  There is no Satellite 2.  It was beautiful and the former Verizon employee in our party noticed the vast number of cell sites within the concourse.

Sculpture in Satellite 1 in Bangkok International Airport

Temple in Satellite 1

We flew coach on Emirates from Bangkok to Da Nang and they did live up to the hype.  We received a full meal, their service was top notch, and I can see why their entertainment system is award-winning.  They had more movie and TV show choices than I have ever seen on a flight, including transatlantic flights in business class.

We arrived in Da Nang around 9:30 PM.  I will save arrival in Da Nang for my next entry.

Final Thoughts

When we leave a location, Blaise and I ask ourselves two questions.  Here are those questions as well as each of our answers:

1. Will we miss it?

Blaise: Yes

        Ami:                No

2. Would we want to come back?

Blaise: Bangkok - Yes; Chiang Mai - No

        Ami:                Bangkok - No; Chiang Mai - Yes (but not in the summer)

Just because I would not miss Thailand does not mean I didn’t enjoy our time there.  We absolutely did!

I think, of all the places we have visited, Italy is really the only one that I miss.  There are many I would return to - but Italy - I miss!

We have been in Vietnam for five whole days, wrapping up our 6th.  That is what I will talk about in the next blog.