We were up at 4am for the 2nd time in a week to catch our transportation, this morning a 7:20am flight from Colombo to Bangkok. It's about an hour drive from downtown Colombo to the airport (twice that during the day with traffic). Heather's foam roller (lost on the train ride here and supposedly found, and to be delivered to the hotel) didn't appear over the four days we spent in Colombo, so it is officially lost.
We had no problems carrying our souvenirs as carry-on on SriLankan Airlines. (Emirates is much stricter so we'll have to figure something out for the flight home to Toronto.) Spent our last rupees on very expensive teas and muffins (equivalent of over $20 USD for two teas and two muffins) while waiting for the gate to open. Our flight was an older plane and the seats weren't that comfortable, but it beat standing up on a train for seven hours.
We were lucky going through immigration at BKK. The line-up is normally about an hour, but it was temporarily overflowed when we arrived so they shunted us to a VIP line-up which only took 15 minutes! We hit a very narrow window with our luck, as the other passengers on our plane were nowhere to be seen when we picked up our luggage from the conveyor.
The taxi to our hotel was also quicker than previous, maybe because it was the middle of the day. We checked in, got our left-luggage (which was now five (!) bags of souvenirs and winter clothes). We had had snacks at the Colombo airport, and then had breakfast on the plane, so we weren't hungry for lunch in Bangkok. Just munched on the apples in the room. Measured the bigger souvenirs using string, so that we could shop for a suitcase that fit.
We were first in the lounge for happy hour at 5:30pm. (Maybe skipping lunch wasn't a great idea?) Grazed on the tapas and had a few drinks. We then threw caution to the wind and had a coffee after 5pm! *gasp* This was an intentional attempt to mess up our sleep to get back on Eastern Standard Time (a 12-hour difference from Bangkok).
We decided to head into the night market to look for a large suitcase, rather than wait until tomorrow. Took the skytrain two stops to the start of the market. There were more stalls than our previous visit prior to Bhutan when it was raining. Wandered through, but didn't see anything else souvenir-wise. Came across a luggage store, and bought the largest suitcase they had, which according to my string measurements would fit everything, for about $30 USD. It will go straight to Goodwill when we get back home, if it survives the trip, and doesn't fold up like a cheap suitcase, haha.
I was still a bit hungry so we went to the italian restaurant in the hotel. The restaurant seating area was closed (it was 10:30pm) but they served us poolside. We split a draft beer and the pizza, and then went to bed, enjoying our last chance to sleep in a bed until we got home.
...
Slept in, thanks to the late coffee keeping us up for part of the night. After breakfast we took the boat to the tourist area, to go to the amulet market near the temples. We had walked quickly through the market on our first time through, but not really looked at it. I was looking for some small trinkets as souvenirs. (Back home, we have an old wooden hotel key holder, with 100 key boxes. We figured we'd buy some small items from each country that we visit together. We're up to 19 now. The amulets would make a nice little souvenir).
There were even more tourists in Bangkok as it's the height of busy season. We were glad we had done our touristing in early December when it was just busy. Had lunch at a ramen place near the docks, and then caught the boat home.
Spent the rest of the afternoon packing our souvenirs in the suitcase we bought at the market the previous night. All of our clothing now became wrapping for fragile souvenirs. All the souvenirs fit in the suitcase, including the large butter tea urn from Bhutan. I was pretty sure the suitcase was within the size limits allowed by Emirates, but was concerned about the weight. In economy we were allowed two pieces each, with a weight restriction on both the total weight, and the individual weight. I thought the big suitcase was over the individual weight.
We celebrated the end of our vacation at the hotel's italian restaurant, trying their four-course degustazion menu. It was really good. Had a espresso to finish off, so that we'd be able to stay awake until our flight left at 2am.
Checked out at 10pm (it was easier to book the room for the night, even though we were leaving at 10pm) and caught a taxi to BKK airport. It normally takes an hour but it was only 30 minutes at night! But we used up the extra time while checking in. The large suitcase was over our weight limit, and it cost $50 USD in overage charges, which took almost 30 minutes for Emirates to process.
It was a long ways home, 7 hours to Dubai, 4 hours layover, and then 14 hours to Toronto. It was rush hour in Toronto, so took the UP Express to downtown and then a taxi home. The total cost was about the same as a taxi straight from Pearson to home, but this way we skipped the rush hour traffic. Home at last!
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