I'm Ready to Go Home, But is My Plane?

No. The answer is no. After mechanical issues that could not be resolved, we were told our flight would leave 9 hours later than scheduled. That meant I would miss my connecting flight and the one that followed. The upside is, I'm blogging from the Hyatt regency in Taipei where I was able to sleep for 5 hours before going back to the airport to get on a plane that will get me home 14 hours later than planned. At least I'll get home. 

Now to wrap up the trip. The food tour of Chinatown in Bangkok was fantastic. We tried so much food including dumplings, steamed buns, duck, pork, squid, and my new favorite dessert dough that has been deep fried then grilled then covered in pandan sauce which has a coconut like flavor. So delicious!

Then it was off to Chiang Mai. Compared to fashion-forward Bangkok this is a small town full of shabby dressed tourists with a similar vibe to Siem Reap. I was in my element. It's also filled with over 100 wats and what seems like 100 coffee shops. It was here I hit my limit and stopped taking photos each time I passed a temple and instead thought "Oh, Buddha. Cool." 

I got a Thai massage at a business that trains and employees formerly incarcerated women to be the masseurs. A one-hour massage only costs $9! I also signed up for another food tour, this one even more adventurous. A lot of stops in the market visiting vendors who have run their booths for decades making sausages, pork leg, pork belly. I finally succumbed to peer pressure and tried both silk worm larvae (kind of mushy) and crickets (a crunchy snack). Hey, when in Southeast Asia. 

Friday was a visit to Elephant Nature Park, which I posted about the other day. It was very special to be able to walk among the elephants and hear about their stories of being rescued from logging or the tourist trade. Watching them frolic, yes I said frolic, in the river was also fun. And we got to spend 15 minutes in Cat Kingdom with 2000 rescued cats! I wanted to visit with more of them but one sat on my lap so I stayed with that cat the entire time. And... in the souvenir shop, I saw an elephant carved out of flip flops. It was done in partnership with Ocean Sole, an organization I visited in Nairobi and made a short video about back in 2007 when they were called UniquEco. So cool to see.

A trip to the night bazar for some local food and souvenirs and here we are, about to board the plane for the final leg home. It's been great to see places I haven't been before and inspiring to see what local people in both Cambodia and Thailand are doing to improve the lives of people and animals in their communities.

As has become the usual with these posts below is a selection of photos from this section of the trip. Thanks for following along!