Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore – March 2012

I was able to book about five weeks off from work and headed to Thailand and area.  Due to language and trying to get around in a crowded place, I decided that taking a tour would be a lot easier.  The original tour I was going to do was to start in Bangkok, went north to Chaing Mai and then head back south and ends up in Singapore.  Unfortunately, this tour was cancelled but I was able to put two tours together to make basically the same trip and pay the same price.   

Getting there was a long process.  I flew to Vancouver late at night as I wouldn’t be able to start my next leg until the AM.  I knew I would have to stay awake and entertain myself so the later I got to Vancouver, the better in my opinion.   As I was flying on points, I didn’t have the best options for how I was routed.  I had quite a few hours to kill in Vancouver so I found some food and then found a place to bunk down.  Many people were having naps, but as I was travelling alone, I didn’t feel comfortable doing that.  Eventually I was able to get checked in for my flight to San Francisco and continue my journey.  Once I got to San Francisco, I was off to Tokyo and then to Bangkok.   I arrived at my hotel at 1:30 AM, tried the Wi-Fi but no luck so I went to bed.

When I woke up the next day, I found food; the pool and internet so I could let everyone at home know I arrived.  Spend the next days just relaxing by pool and wandering outside on Khoason Road to check out the shops and food.   As I knew I would be back in Bangkok again, I didn’t do much for shopping at this point as no sense carting it all around.  I had a night scheduled here at the end so I
would shop then.

One of my favourite things to do was to go out and get a shake.  I stopped at one cart and went back to it the next day and the vendor remembered me and my order.  I thought that was pretty impressive with the amount of tourists that wander through the area on a regular basis.

Typical foot traffic

One of many shake stands