417 HOURS TO GO

I have a great appreciation for anyone who tries to organize a trip farther than the other side of town and I am most grateful for the help and assistance of Beth who first encouraged me to venture to Asia. On this trip, I am going to three countries, one of which, Vietnam, I have never been. As many of you know, I had not planned to travel this year, but upon my return last year, several neighbors said, “next year, we want to go with you to Thailand”. What is a person to do, except say.. “great”. While I have little money, I have the desire to return and so the plans started to unfold as soon as we had the dates. This blog entry will give an overview of the travel plans and introduce the reader to the band of gypsies that will be travelling. I know that this trip will be much more on the fly since we are covering a great deal of ground in a short time. That is one of the issues when travelling with folks that work and just can’t keep going until you get tired. Other than a goal to shop, we are not going to be grounded by yoga or Thai massage school and my time of sitting for hours watching the crowds will be limited to my beer time at night.

To set the stage for the trip, we all leave the 29th of January out of Rochester. The wonderful, Thai Air direct flight from NYC for a 17 hr trip is a thing of the past and we found a reasonable flight, actually three flights, from Rochester to Bangkok. My trip takes me through Chicago on the way to Tokyo and then on to Bangkok. While the other four have gotten the travel confused on occasion, if they follow their boarding passes they will go to DC, then Tokyo where we will meet to fly to Bangkok. This might be a test as to whether DC or O’Hare is more dependable trip in January. Both plans leave around 10 am and arrive in BKK at 11:30PM the next day with a total travel time of about 23 hrs. This will be the first weeding out of folks since several will just sleep their way, one will be ready to jump out of the plane and I will turn the United very limited “b” movie into a three meal five movie venture.

So, who are these folks that have left their sanity to join me on the trip. When they said, we will go with you, they really meant it and so I have tried to plan the most comprehensive trip for the shortest time. Four of the travellers live in community, three of us have scooters, four are women, two are married, two are retired one on the cusp, and one can tell you how many days to go.

I think the first to sign up was Cheryl, who lives near my house and who with her mate Joe, move to Corn Hill about the same time as I. On last year’s trip, while I was blogging, Cheryl said, I want to go. Cheryl is the shopper, coffee drinker, and early to rise and early to bed. This picture on one of the three vespa's in the group on the occasion of her 50th birthday. What is great about this picture is that she did not know the "boys" but just pulled in with the Harley's and said.. get in the picture. She will do just fine with the bargaining.

Shortly thereafter, hearing about the entire photo ops, Joe said, have Cannon will travel. Also Joe and I enjoy the beer. When you see trip pictures of us, Joe and I will be dressed in our Bj's cargo pants, blue grey shoes and have cameras... While rumor has it he is my "boyfriend" In reality, he is one of the best "brothers" I have ever had and has make the trip planning a breeze. I suspect we will venture off to get some great shots and be the last to leave the Chung beer on the table. This is a picture of Joe celebrating the coming together of the new community sign. Now since he is the only male, and we were matching clothing. Joe sent a picture for the blog and I don't think anyone I know has ever seen him in this position. When you think of Joe around home, he is always on his way to someplace. We will call this, the other Joe. I suspect that this was a picture taken on the last trip to Turkey where he and Cheryl spent some time sailing.

At a community soup dinner upon my return, JoAnn said, I want to go. Several of us are not sure she knew what she was getting into, but she has not seriously wavered since her first “lets go” and I suspect she will come home with a tattoo and blond dreadlocks and her poor Tipper the rat terrier will not recognize her. Since this is my blog, I get to pick the pic's for this part of the story. I selected this picture since she is about to go to work and has her high end suit on and in the next shot she would be checking her watch. At the end of our venture, I will do a "revisit" and see where we all are at. This is a picture of JoAnn at Pat's Coffee Cup.

I am not sure when Page got on board but being a traveler who likes an adventure; she was connected early in the summer. She gave me a list of things she wanted to do and we will be hiking and kayaking and traveling from one end to the other in just a little over a week. While both Joe/Cheryl have travelled often, Page lived in Japan and Germany for a year each and last year took two trips - New Zealand and then China. We are the oldest in the group but will do the most physical things. Since I don't swim, kayaking in Vietnam will push my comfort zone, but as Page often says to me, you'll be just fine, relax. This picture is Page in China.

And that brings us to the trip organizer and blogger. While I will know some of you, some will be friends of others on the trip and so I will put in one of my shots from last years travels at the elephant nature park. Obviously I did not take this shot, Beth took it of me. It is me, I want to come home with the camera so I hang it on my person. Comfort is my first call, so I am only reminded of how I look to the rest of the world when I see a picture. That is me... and so now we are all introduced.

For anyone wanting to know where we will be and what the plan is, the following is the itinerary in narrative. We will be in Bangkok Sat-Tues before we fly to Chiangmai. The plan is to have a massage at the WatPho and take in the Grand Palace and see the emerald and reclining Buddha. On Sunday we will visit the Weekend Market, the Siam Plaza, Penis Park, and the Jim Thomson house as well as take a tuk tuk and canal ride. Monday, the temple of the Dawn, Chinatown and ending the day with a floating dinner. Tuesday morning will probably mean another massage and pampering or a trip to the museum or Gem store then an afternoon flight to Chiangmai. After dinner, more shopping at the Night Market. Tuesday is a health and explore day with appointments for an acupuncture treatment, Spa and more market shopping ending the day at the Tapas restaurant and of course if there is any more energy, more shopping. Weds the 5th will be a morning with the monks and a reunion with the “donut man”, a trip to the famous Wat in ChiangMai, Doi Suthep, followed by lunch at the Jok Sompet and Dim Sum and more walk about the shops and Wat in the old city. That night we will meet up with Beth for a veggie dinner and I can’t image that we will not also end up at the Night Market to listen to some Thai music or do the last shopping.
For many of us, the trip to Chiang Mai would not be complete without a trip to the Elephant Nature Center. We will drive up early in the morning and then stay overnight and spend the next day there also, enjoying the jungle area and the scampering pachyderms. At the end of the day we will continue to Nest II and stay overnight in the hills and enjoy some of the terrific food and mountains. While there we will see the village, hike to the Wat on the hill and relax with an in room massage. At the end of the day, we will return to Chiang Mai in time for the Sunday market and more shopping, massage, roti, and people watching. On Monday Feb 9th, we will fly back to Bangkok and then on to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) and start our Cambodian experience at a traditional dance and dinner theater. The next three days will be packed with travel through 5-6 major ruins seeing the sights at dawn and sunset while also stopping for lunch at the tourist training academy. The final day will be a trip along the floating villages and more shopping at the Artisans’ Shops where we are sure to leave some dollars. This will bring us to the 12th of February and the parting of the group. The three gainfully employed will return to Bangkok for two nights and then fly home on Valentine’s Day, most probably in love with the land of smiles. I and another retired person will go on to Vietnam from the 12th to the 21st then return for two nights to Bangkok and home the 23rd.

If you wonder where we are or who I am talking about as the blog unfolds, just come back to page one of trip three... and let the adventure being.. in 416 hrs.