winding down

Well, the trip began winding down as we flew back down to Bangkok from Chiang Mai. That morning, we went to a Celedon workshop and factory so we could see how the porcelein was made and it is beautiful. We all commented that it was a good thing we stopped there at the end of the trip instead of the beginning, because we all knew our suitcases were bulging and couldn’t hold much more! If we had gone there early on, we might have been under the assumption that the suitcases could stretch to any size! We all enjoyed it though and came back with nice souvenirs to remember it by. When we flew to Bangkok, Ya checked in our luggage as a group and it was 60 lb overweight! We were allowed 44 lb each, but with all the shopping we’d done, we had all grown a lot! But Ya was able to negotiate for us and told the guy we were supporting the local economies and so no one had to pay.
Thursday we went to the Royal palace and it was exquisite. Lots of glitter and gold everywhere and we got to see the Emerald Buddha which was beautiful.
We had an afternoon free and Megan, Eleanore and Jim went to the Teak museum and some other fun places, but I was so hot and tired that I opted to go back to the hotel. After cooling off a bit and getting a bite to eat, Ya told several in our group that he’d take us to the international market not too far from the hotel, so I went with them. It was a 4 story shopping center that had all manner of things, from groceries, souvenirs. The last night we had our goodbye dinner on a cruise down the main river in Bangkok. It was beautiful and we could see the Grand Palace and all lit up at night. So it was great fun.
We had to get up at 2 to get ready for our plane flight home. They gave us a boxed breakfast to eat in our room. Our flights home were uneventful and ok. I was lucky to be able to sleep a lot. We got back to Atlanta about 8 and Jim and I are in the hotel getting ready to sleep and will drive home in the morning. I will try to post a few more photos when I get home tomorrow. Thanks for following along!