Goodbye to Bangkok

I’m at the Bangkok airport and just said goodbye to Sue – was very sad!  It was so much fun seeing her, and she’s been to Bangkok so many times she’s like a local which was super handy.I totally screwed up the Customs thing at the airport and waited with Sue for ages in a ridiculously long line with a creepy man leering at us just to find out I was flying domestically and belonged in a different check in than her.  Somehow this flight to Koh Samui felt a hell of a lot more like an International flight than a Domestic one, but I felt a little stupid having made the mistake.  

We had a great last day in Bangkok and took a fab cooking class in the morning.  Since then, Sue and I have been taking turns sprinting to the bathroom which was our own fault because we’re the ones who cooked it.  But it really was fantastic!  I’ll have to check out A’dams China town and see if they have any of the ingredients so I can try out the recipes at home.  Ok, who am I kidding, I’ll never bother to cook any of the recipes again (along with the long list of other recipes from cooking classes that I’ve never attempted again).  But I learned a lot and should I ever be forced into a Thai cooking contest, I would still lose but it wouldn’t be quite so embarrassing.

Sue and I also went to the night market where she showed off her negotiating skills.  She’s really good!  And I’m really bad!  My idea of “Getting to Yes” with a Thai street hawker is looking at them, thinking “I just want to pay you a fair price” and then happily being ripped off.  Sue, however, takes no prisoners in the most pleasant way so that everyone is laughing by the time the sale is finished and the deal is great.  Side note:  neither Sue nor I was exactly sure what the exchange rate was with the Baht for any of the many different currencies we’re getting paid in or spending right now.  So throughout the negotiations we were making educated guesses as to how much we were spending and had to google what we had spent the next day.  But it all turned out well!

Outside of that, we did a great job visiting rooftop bars.  I know, I know...on  scale from 1 to 10 on how much I immersed myself in Bangkok culture, I score about a 4.  But I saw a lot of the skyline which included several Wat’s and I also feel good about how I helped inject some growth into the Thai economy by buying all those purses that Sue negotiated.

Now I’m going to the spa for 5 days to become one with myself and detox which is probably the right thing to do.  But I’m seriously going to miss the rooftop bars.