Thailand

Arriving late at night at the international airport was quite daunting, the flow of pedestrian traffic from getting off the plane to finding our baggage carousel was heavy, people people everywhere, incoming versus outgoing passengers all moving swiftly...Elsie got worried in the taxi ride to the hotel as the petrol gauge was empty and flashing and we seemed to be travelling very fast and in lots of heavy traffic. Luxury hotel, handy to MBK Shopping Centre (super-sized 5 floors of everything imaginable to buy) girls you'd love the cheapness of it all, designer labels and huge variety, just sooh great. We ate at an authentic thai restaurant where the locals ate, fabulous cheap meal of tom yum goon soup, thai chicken curry and spicey chicken noodles and two beers for $40 NZ. The cats roamed freely through the restaurant! Today we walked through a couple of blocks in 32oC heat, the smell of the city and the volume of people and traffic added to the vibrancy! We both loved it, the fast pace and the very friendly quiet nature of the thai people makes us want to return again soon. 3 days here is just not long enough. Hey finally thanks for all your blog comments, we enjoy receiving them, keep them coming guys...NZ just seems so far away just now.....and its onwards to London tomorrow.

Thanks Moundo, Joe and Bill to bid us farewell, and big hugs to our lovely girls, Liz and Em, who wanted so much to come out to the airport to see us off, it certainly has been one of the hardest emotional things for us to deal with. But as luck would have it we met up with a dear acquaintaince from Howick, Irene Brooks at check in, whose powers from her magic wand enabled us to fly......BUSINESS CLASS! Yes, rrrreally, she worked wonders and surprised us as we approached the departure gate to "rip up your boarding passes as I have new ones.....have upgraded you"......we had silver service, our own waitress and waiter, own toilet, big bed seats, there were only 6 of us in the class, we had french red wine, scallops, curry, cheese and crackers, more wine, juice, priority baggage claim ...the service was impeccable, thank you Thai Airways, and a sincere warm thanks again to the lovely Irene Brooks from Howick. We had a super flight, and arrived Bangkok to rain and humidity, and our taxi driver sped us off at 120kph all the way to our luxury hotel, where another day awaits us...another day of adventure in the life of the Houghtons...what will happen for us today!