Tuesday July 30

 In the morning we went back to K and L’s for breakfast which was followed by a 27 kilometre e-bike ride all around the town (including some scary, for us anyway, crossing of very high bridges). The weather was perfect for this wonderful ride with overcast skies and temperatures in the mid 20’s.

I took the following photos on one of the bridges

As a “thank you” for their awesome hospitality we took K and L out for a lunch at one of their recommended eateries. We had a wonderful lunch at a pub.

At about 1 PM we said our “good byes” and we started our drive homeward. 

The first stop was near Creston at a fruit stand where Caro bought a couple bags of fresh cherries. Yummy!

The drive up to our eventual overnight stop at Radium was beautiful. We did note one spot where we could see five forest fires burning on the side of a couple nearby mountains.

We checked into our Radium hotel some where around 6 PM. We went to a popular pub we have visited before but the  lineup to get in was too long so we went across the street to a small hamburger joint (that was a mistake as the food was only so-so).

A quiet evening followed and at 10 PM it was lights out.

Off to Castlegar (July 28 and 29)

 We left Canmore shortly after 10 AM and went through Banff National and Kootney Parks heading to our eventual stop at Castlegar.

The trip was very nice, totalling about six hours driving. We arrived in Castlegar somewhere around 4 PM and headed right over to Kevin and Linda’s place.

After a nice walk near their house we had supper and shortly afterwards we headed to our hotel. I had pre-booked the Sandman Inn for two nights and was able to use a couple of Hotels.com rewards to defray the costs of these nights. The hotel was booked solid due to a nearby music festival and many fire fighters staying there (BC has many fires this year and a day or so before we left Jasper AB was one third burned down due to a wild fire).

The next morning (Monday July 29) we began a jam packed day of activities planned by Kevin and Linda. We used electric bikes for a wonderful 30ish kilometre bike ride around Castlegar. Caro and I used Brent and Tiffany’s bikes. These bikes are “fat” tired bikes which are perfect for the mountainous terrain there. Our bikes here at home would have not been very good there.

We went for a drive in the afternoon. A very weird thing happened a short while after we headed west from town. A car coming the opposite way flashed its’ lights at us warning us about something. A short while  later a small truck came flying down the highway driving with its driver front tire completely gone and scraping on the rim! Bits of metal and car were being ejected as the vehicle went by us. One turn later on the highway and we saw two police cars following the idiot. They did not have their lights on so we figured they were just waiting until the truck could not go any further. A kilometre or so later (as we passed numerous pieces of tire on the highway) two more police cars (without lights) came flying by to catch up (we assume) with the original two police vehicles.  A wild story!

We stopped at Nancy Greene lake

K and L took us to a beautiful hiking area in an old growth forest

The town of Rossland is beautiful and we enjoyed driving through it as we carried on to the nearby town of Warfield. We stopped at Mitch’s place (their son) and had a break there before heading off to drive through some beautiful houses in Trail.

Supper was upstairs at the home of their son Brent, Tiffany and girls. Brent cooked us up some superb burgers. Yummy!

By 8 PM we were wiped out and headed back to our hotel.

July 25-28 Canmore

 On the Thursday morning we headed out for our first real road trip in our new (to us) Kia Seltos on our way to Canmore.

The purpose of this portion of our road trip was to help Mike and Michelle looking after the three munchkins as M+M participated in multiple events at a friends wedding, beginning with a get together on Thursday night with those who had arrived earlier for the festivities.

Michelle’s parents and sister were also in town staying in a near by hotel so they were available to help as well.

We stayed in a three bedroom condo (which M and M paid for). All of the Mayners stayed there.

During our time we went to Banff, (NEVER AGAIN in the summer time due to insane traffic). Caro and I went to Bow Falls before later catching up Mike and extended family on Main Street. 

During these three days we went with the kids all over town including things such as a picnic at the lake near the Nordic Centre, ice cream from the Scooping Moose, walks to parks (including the board walk along a creek in town) while at other times they were with the D’Angelo’s. Time was spent in both the pool/hot tub at our rented condo and at the hotel complex of the D’Angelo’s.

Bed time was always a disaster (LOL). The kids never seemed to settle down until 10:30 or 11 PM with Will usually being the first to sleep with the girls following behind. Rachel,Rachel.Rachel !!! SIGH!

Nathan drove down on Saturday to be at the wedding and the reception and managed to get a a few hours sleep on the couch before heading back to the Fort early on Sunday morning.

The wedding and reception was great we were told. 

The kids were pretty good considering the upset in their routines. Rachel fell off a bench outside the A+W and scraped her arm before banging her head badly on the cement patio however after comforting from everyone (especially Abuelita) she eventually  felt better and had a good story to tell her folks!

Cleanup of the condo was completed by 10 AM on Sunday morning and we left at that point, with Mike and family staying behind at the D’Angelo’s hotel for a few hours before they began the remainder of their vacation in Invermere..

Leaving Thailand for home

 We were up at 3:30 AM (even before our alarms) and were on our way to the airport (BKK) at 5 AM on the airport shuttle.

Thai Airways counter staff were super efficient and soon had us set up for the day (including the Air Canada portion). Because we have picked up souvenirs and some extra things our carry on bags were big and we weren’t sure there wouldn’t be issues bringing them on the plane with us so we “checked” them. There was no charge for this anyway by the airlines and we felt that if our bags were delayed we were on our way home already so no big deal.

Security and immigration were straight forward and after a short delay because of airport congestion we were on our way. 

Our flight seemed to have a lot of Canadians on it. Air Canada is part of an alliance with Thai Airways and this Thai flight to Tokyo has at least two Air Canada connection flights from Tokyo Narita airport (Vancouver and Toronto).

One great thing about heading home eastbound is that due to prevailing jet streams our flights times are shorter. I noted that at one point on the Tokyo flight we had a 140 mph tailwind helping to push us along. Our ground speed was over 700 mph.

I had been hoping to see Mount Fuji when we landed but I think it is too far away from this airport. Too bad.

Upon landing we followed the crowd to the international transfer security line. We passed through security with no issues and then we had a couple of hours to just wander around the secure part of the airport until our flight. As before when we started our trip we are not officially in Japan as we didn’t need passport control (as long as we stayed in the secure area)..

Leaving Tokyo. When I booked the flight a few months ago I took a chance with seat selection (included in the cost of ticket) and chose window and aisle seats and left the middle one open.  It was a calculated chance that the seat would stay open and we would have a row of three seats for the two of us. The plane was packed with hardly any open seats but we got lucky!

About three hours from Vancouver there was a call over the intercom for “a doctor or nurse on board” to help a passenger somewhere behind us. We saw some medical equipment being taken back. Upon landing in Vancouver we were asked to stay in our seats as EMT’s came aboard to check out the person. All’s well that end’s well. The person was okay.

The flight staffed announced before landing that everyone had to get their luggage for customs so we went down to the luggage carousel and waited, and waited with everyone else for the bags. SLOW!!

I happened to glance at my phone while waiting and saw a notice from Air Canada sent 17 minutes before that we DIDN’T have to wait for our bags. They were being sent right through. Now the rush was on and we hurried through the airport and made it with 15 minutes to spare. Interestingly I got a text about 10 minutes before our flight that one of our bags was loaded. I really like that Air Canada notified me. It is a good service. We were now on the plane waiting and the pilot came on and said the plane was delayed for a few minutes as there were 20-30 bags that still needed to be loaded. Right about then I got another notification that our second bad had been loaded. Obviously there had been an issue with baggage unloading/transfer. Our Edmonton flight was scheduled  1 3/4 hours after we landed in Vancouver so there had been plenty of time to get bags transferred.

The Edmonton flight went smoothly and Vanessa and Beckett picked us up. Thank you!

Floating market

 We took the 6:30 AM airport shuttle and soon we were on the train into the city. Once at the transfer station to the metro we made our way to the appropriate location to catch the metro to the nearest station closest to where we needed to meet our tour. A short tuk-tuk ride later we were there and all for a cost for the two of us of $C8.

After a light breakfast at a nearby coffee shop we started the tour.

First stop was the train market. Somewhat similar to the train market in Hanoi this one was PACKED with people and as we SLOWLY navigated our way along the tracks we passed by a very lively market selling all sorts of things including small snakes, fish of many types and vegetables.

We ended up walking the length of the market and then went out to the street to return (just too many people crammed onto the railway tracks trying to navigate the like-minded hoards of tourists).

A signal from the nearby train station prompted all the vendors to roll up their overhead sun screens and remove any merchandise that was too close to the tracks. All the tourists hastily got off the tracks and went into either a shop or a restaurant. The train came by and we were even closer to it than in Hanoi. The train went slowly (unlike Hanoi) and we “high fived” the passengers watching us as we waved to back at them.

Next we went about one-half hour down the road to the “Floating Market” which is a town built on canals and is the last remaining market like this in Thailand. Our guide explained that these markets used to be very common but when the train system came they slowly vanished.

Our tour included a boat ride on the canals. Vendors would come along side us to sell us things. Caro bought a coconut. It was chaotic at times but everything went well. We purchased our lunch there alongside the canal after our ride (awesome as always).

It was 1 PM by now and we started the two hour trip back to Bangkok. We were let off at a big mall where Caro purchased an item she had been looking for.

This building was one we saw before being dropped off. It is now the tallest building in Thailand at 314 meters. They call it the “Lego” building

After a while we made our way to the metro station; rode it two stops; then got the airport link railway to BKK airport and then waited 20 minutes for our hotel shuttle to come get us.,

At the hotel Caro went for a swim while I had a shower.

Time to pack!

From Krabi to Bangkok

 Last night we noted there were many taxi’s so we knew it wouldn’t be difficult to get one in the morning. We had a good sleep and a quick breakfast and by 6:45 AM we checked out of the hotel and were out on the street where we waited, and waited, and waited for a taxi to appear. With nothing happening we went back to hotel reception so they could order a cab. Nope, no can do!  Well SH-T!

Back again on the street waiting, a local transit  mini bus stopped for us. It is a small Toyota truck with  an elongated truck bed in the back, a rudimentary rain cover and two benches (each bench running down a side of the truck box) that sits ten people. Driver confirms he is going to the airport (at least we think he confirms it!) We are passengers nine and ten (and with our luggage). Soon passengers 11,12, and 13 are standing on the purpose built tailgate rack. Most passengers are older kids going to school.

Hmmmm! We are concerned. Did we make a huge error? I pull out my cell phone and check on google maps. We “seem” to be going in the right direction. By now all the kids are gone and there is just one lady and ourselves. The driver pulls into a bus station and the lady gets out. The driver assures us he will take us to the airport and sure enough, 15 minutes later we are there. We are dry mouthed and relieved!. We need to be smarter than that in the future.

On the bright side we did get to see more of the city of Krabi at a slower speed (sarcasm).

I had been concerned about our flight as I never received any e-mail confirmation from the airline so we anticipated needing time in the airport in case things went sideways. I had screen-shot the website confirmation of our flight reservation code when we booked and that was all we needed. Things went smoothly after that. This time it was Caro’s turn to get things more thoroughly checked in security. Also this is the first airport I have been to that really worries (and inspects) cell phone power banks.

The flight was good and in Bangkok we were moved to the terminal via people mover buses. Our bags made it too so now all we had to do was find the hotel shuttle. Turns out this caused us grief. I thought that the hotels would be doing regular rounds to and from their hotels like in Edmonton however this was not the case. We were outside looking for vans from local hotels but after a while it was clear something was different here. After getting assistance from a few different people (and one of them phoning our hotel on his own phone to ask them about the shuttle) we were directed back into the chaotic terminal where we eventually realized there is an area with many small hotel placards attached to railings. When you find your hotel placard there is a person there who somehow is connected to that hotel and they phone the hotel and 15 minutes lates the shuttle shows up. OK, now we know (we are using the shuttle a number of times in the next couple of days).

In mid afternoon we stepped out of our air conditioned comfort into the boiling hot temperatures of Bangkok. Down the street was a nice looking restaurant and we had a great meal. 

This was Caro’s food; a tasty rice, shrimp combo served with pineapple chunks inside a hollowed out pineapple. Yummy!

We had a swim in the pool and then just got lazy. We are up very early tomorrow as we have to be in downtown Bangkok by 8:45 AM (and will use the airport shuttle, the train, the metro and finally a taxi to get to the same place we took the night river cruise about four weeks ago).

Last day in Ao Nang

 Today we did very little.

Caro spent some time at the beach, swimming in the ocean or spending time poolside. I was content to sit on the balcony or in the room. I did venture out to the nearby 7-11 to pick up some snacks and coke and came back with a cold beer for Caro to enjoy by the pool.

This morning I made the last FaceTime (this trip) to Pat catching up on things, and while I was doing that Caro took her IPad down to the pool (which has much better internet) and spoke to all three kids via FaceTime. 

In the afternoon we went to a new (to us) street food restaurant and had a couple wonderful plates of food.

In fact as I write this note we are back in the room after watching the sunset and are still full from this afternoon’s food so will hold off going up for supper until about 7:30 PM

Photo taken tonight.

I am essentially packed for our early getaway to the airport. We have about 15 minutes of time to eat our buffet breakfast and then head off. I want to be at the airport early because once again, we have issues with an airline website and I want to give us plenty of time to straighten things out. When I made reservations I (fortunately) took a screen shot of our ticket code and got confirmation that we had paid but I never received the email with our boarding information etc. Sigh!!

Later: So tonight we went to the same place to eat as this afternoon. The supper was outstanding! For dessert Caro wanted sticky rice, with mango and ice cream. It comes with a coconut syrupy topping that you pour over the rice. To eat you take a spoonful of rice, with a piece of mango and then follow it with a small amount  of ice cream. My goodness but it was good!

We also found a money change place which gives much better exchange rates than we got before (especially US one dollar bills). Too bad we found the place now and not five days ago!,