Blog farewell....

Trip Start Oct 20, 2009
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Trip End Nov 29, 2009


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Where I stayed
Millenium Hilton
(Bangkok hotels)

Flag of Thailand  ,
Sunday, November 29, 2009

My last day in Khon Kaen ended up being filled with a mix of farewell wishes and laughter. The day started early for me – or technically I guess one could say it never really ended because I stayed up most of the night finishing the final draft of the Three Generation House proposal for the Dean. I emailed it to her around 10:45am, just in time for me to zip my suitcases shut before O, Nan, and Fei-Li arrived to help me take my stuff to the van. En route, we ran into the W.H.O. training participants in the lobby of the dorm where they bade me a warm-hearted farewell, showed me new pics of "Killer" the tookay, and gave me two gifts from the region of India where they are from.  Shortly thereafter, Dr. Siriporn came to say farewell to me also. After she left, O, Nan, Fei-Li. Tek, Krishna and I – the same group that ate together at Ubon Rat dam my first week in Thailand – went together to eat a final lunch together before my departure. As always, when we get together there is a ton of meaningful discussion and even more laughter
Tek, Krishna and Fei-Li at lunch
Tek, Krishna and Fei-Li at lunch
.  We talked about Bhutan and the custom of marrying more that one wife (or more than one husband – apparently both options are permitted – and Krisha shared that he is one of 15 children born to his father's two wives. Another 5 children died in infancy, bringing the total number of children to 20. Tek is the only child in his family, so we had a lot of discussion about the issue of family size in Bhutan as well as in China. We also talked about which gender child is preferred in each of our countries. Bhutan and the US are similar – both genders are preferred equally – but China the preference is for a boy child. A woman giving birth to a son as her first child is accorded much higher status in the extended family and in the community than a woman that gives birth to a girl.

Walking to leave the restaurant and head to the van, Krishna walked face-first into a sliding glass door so this led to much laughter (Krishna was unharmed). I was glad he ran into the door because I was walking directly behind him and was digging around in my purse for my lipstick. If Krisha hadn’t run into the sliding glass door first, it would have been me. Krishna and I had a good laugh….

At the Khon Kaen Airport, things got even funnier.
Another shot of the view from my room
Another shot of the view from my room
We went to check me in and when they weighed my luggage, great gasps of horror erupted from the airline staff. My suitcases were SERIOUSLY overweight. And we’re not talking about a couple of pounds here. My bags were 88 POUNDS overweight. This was a bit of a problem because there was no way to redistribute the weight – both bags were too heavy. The woman at the counter said I would have to pay an overweight charge of around $40 US, PLUS I would have to buy a box in the airport and pull out 20 pounds of crap from my suitcase and then stick it in the box. Nan ran to buy a box somewhere while I opened my suitcase and discreetly tried to remove heavy items without accidentally pulling out something embarrassing. All the while, Tek, Krisha, and O are standing over me watching this process. Nan came back with the box, we stuffed a bunch of things into it, sealed it up, and finally got my bags checked.  Thank goodness for friends – otherwise, I would have been stuck trying to juggle all this chaos by myself. Tek, Krishna, and Fei-Li said this is good practice for when they return to their home countries. Now they know how to prepare: ship everything home ahead of time.

We all hugged goodbye and I headed for the plane. The flight was uneventful aside from the fact it was incredibly late and I didn’t arrive at my hotel in Bangkok until almost 6pm. I checked in, stopped briefly in the executive lounge for a free soda, brushed my teeth, and then headed out for my big Bangkok adventure. Since it was evening and the sights were closed, I opted for a trip to the Big Knit Café, an awesome knitting store on the other side of the city. The ride there took forever – about 45 minutes by taxi because of the traffic – but when I arrived there, I knew I’d made a good decision to come there. I bought two balls of inexpensive yarn, a brownie and a soda, then pulled up a chair for an evening of knitting
Big Knit Cafe
Big Knit Cafe
. Pure bliss….

I headed back around 8pm or so, then ordered a sandwich from room service and checked email. I’m hoping to get to bed soon because I have to leave the hotel around 3:30 am to get to the airport. But I may just end up bagging the idea of bed altogether so that I’ll conk out completely on the flight to Tokyo. Nothing makes sleeping on a plane easier that total and utter exhaustion.

Assuming nothing terribly exciting happens en route home to the U.S. (and please, let’s all hope the journey is a boring, uneventful one), this will be my last blog entry from my trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. I’ve enjoyed having you all alongside me during my journey. You are a great group of virtual traveling companions!

Best wishes to all of you. I hope you have a chance to do some traveling soon. When you do, I hope you do a travel blog so I can tag along for the ride!
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