Trip to Thailand .....and more....

In November, I had the opportunity to go to Thailand for a week. I flew into Bangkok and met a friend of mine, Wicky, from university who is from Bangkok. We hadn't seen each other since graduation so it was great to catch up and he gave me a great tour of Bangkok.








What an amazing city; so modern compared to Ho Chi Minh City. It is very westernized but still maintains its unique culture. Traffic was a bit of a mess, shopping was out of this world (variety, style, and price), and the food was terrific.


Wicky and his friends were amazing hosts and are really into the live music scene and amoung themselves they are always getting together for a jamming sessions. Being starved of the live music scene you can say it was 'music to my ears'! Thanks Wicky & Sun:-)


My purpose for going to Bangkok was to represent UNBSJ (the university I graduated from) in a recruitment fair for their MBA program. It was a great opportunity to meet the potential students and answer their questions about studying in Canada, UNB, and of course the weather!!


I decided to make a bit of a holiday out of the trip and headed up north to Chiang Mai. Wicky had some other friends visiting from Italy who were also heading up north so we all went together!! One of the Italian girls and I did a 2 day trek into a remote village. It was extremely beautiful! Here are a few of the highlights:

Elephant riding!!

All they wanted to do was eat the Bananas we had for them!!










Our guide from one of the villages, Buffalo Bill, was extremely entertaining. He didn't speak much English or Thai but knew all the words to the Bob Marley song he was named after and didn't go anyway without his slingshot!










The scenery was beautiful




and when we arrived at the village we were greated by the children who sang to us around the camp fire. Then they wanted us to sing a song from our country to them!! OH GAWD!!! Yeah, you guessed it, I sang oh Canada! and it was aweful:-) Sorry kids!

After a few more songs by the fire and some dancing lessons from Buffalo Bill it was time for bed. We had another full day of trekking ahead of us. What a great sleep under the stars in complete darkness..ahhh!!

If you noticed I mentioned I was in Thailand in November, yes, during the airport protests! Instead of taking a plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mai I had to take an overnight train which was totally packed due to the cancellation of so many flights. As planned I stayed in Chiang Mai for 4 days hoping the airport would reopen before I had to catch my flight back to Vietnam. Getting a bit concerned it wasn't going to reopen in time I decided to look into alternative ways to get home. Everything was selling quickly and my only option was to fly into Luang Phrabang, Laos and get a connecting flight to Hanoi from there. So I had to stay an extra day in Chiang Mai and took advantage of the opportunity to take a Thai cooking class.

The next morning I took flight to Luang Phrabang and after a brief connection I would be back in Vietnam by that night. Right?


View of Laos from the plane!

I got off the plane, onto the single runway and was surprised at how small the airport was. Upon entering the airport, about the size of a legion hall, I was given the form to apply for a visa to enter Laos. I politely explained to the customs official that I wouldn't need a visa because I was just connecting to Vietnam. He gave me an equally polite and innocent smile and handed me the application. To make a long story short, there were over 80 people on stand-by for the next flight to Vietnam and there were only 2 seats left on the plane!! The next available flight to Vietnam was a week from that day and the bus would take 35 hours to get to Da Nang. What to do....?

....to be continued.....