Good morning Bangkok!

What an adventure we had last night! We enjoyed breakfast at our hotel and then spent a few hours in the pool and on the beach. Jess and Mikayla made a fantastic sand fort, complete with a pool filled with living shells. After our beach time, we checked out and went across the street to eat lunch before catching our bus to Saigon. The first ominous sign of the trip was the late arrival of the bus. We had been assured that the bus would be arriving in Saigon at 5:30pm. To us, a 200km trip should be safely covered in 4 hours but after only a few minutes we heard our driver say that we should be arriving around 6:00 or 7:00pm. We tried not to worry about the likelihood that we would be missing our eight o'clock flight and Jess did a much better job of not "stressing" than I did. As we crawled into Saigon, it became clear that unless our Air France flight was delayed, there was no way we would be able to catch our flight. My patience with driving in Vietnam had worn thin by 6:00pm on that awful bus and by 7:00pm when we stopped to pick up some guy to scam us all into staying at his hotel, I was ready to scream. We stopped outside this guy's hotel, rather than the bus station and I bolted off the bus very upset. I dragged our luggage by myself to the curb, while Jess tried to get off the back of the bus with Mikayla. I hailed a cab and we began our hopeless dash to the airport (by now 7:20pm). We arrived at the poorly marked airport and wandered around aimlessly trying to find an Air France representative to re-issue our tickets for today. Several people kindly told us, "Your plane go already" "Yes, we know" we replied and continued to search for an Air France representative. As a last ditch effort, I stopped at the Thai Airways desk as I noticed they were boarding an 8:50pm flight to Bangkok. They told us that if we could get Air France to endorse our tickets, we could fly on Thai Airways at no expense on their flight. To Jess' great credit, he sprinted around the airport, up and down stairs to another building after being scrutinized by security, and found an Air France worker! It was an answer to prayer because although I enjoyed most of my time in Vietnam, I was eager to get to Thailand where things are so much more advanced and easier. Thai Airways was superb to us, both the ground staff in Saigon and on the plane. We arrived at the new airport in BANGKOK (hooray!) around 10:30pm and caught a taxi to the guest house. We are all so very glad to be here. After breakfast at the guest home, we hired a taxi to take us to the Grand Palace. Mikayla really enjoyed it - so shiny and sparkly and quite frankly, GRAND. After the seeing the palace we came down to World Trade Centre and are currently at Siam Square (I've been thinking about you Jen as I see all the high school students in their uniforms down here where we often visited). The downtown area has grown tremendously, with many features far superior to things at home, for example the movie theatre offers a variety of seating luxury - bean bag chairs, individual recliners, etc. There is even a Toys R Us and a White Spot here now! During our shopping today we found Mikayla a simple Thai dress for herself and one for her Barbie too. Her first real meal in Bangkok, at her request was Italian, oven-roasted pizza. Jess and I snacked on some guava and ate our meal at MK. MK is a restaurant chain in which you have a hot pot at your own table and cook your own food to your liking. Mikayla thought that this meal was delicious. We had some marvelous Thai desserts which we have waited for since this last time we were here five years ago. Mikayla is going to go on her first Skytrain trip here shortly and then maybe a tuk-tuk from the Skytrain back to the guest home. Jess and I really have to pace ourselves with the food - so many things we see we say, "Oh, I love that - I haven't had that in years!" It brought tears to my eyes to see Mikayla here in Bangkok. It means so much to me for her to be able to experience the country of her birth. I have been very proud of all the Thai women who have commented on how cute and beautiful she is. I am pleased with how much Thai I remember but it is a far cry from what I used to know. Tomorrow we will spend with my host parents and it should be a fun time. And the best part of all, is that we will meet Tananya in two days! We bought our first gift for her from Thailand today - a pearl necklace. Jess bought Mikayla and I one last time we were here and of course as our newest little lady, Tananya will be getting one as well. Mikayla has sat so patiently (and even Jess has too) while I've typed this so it is time to close for now!