I came home a year older.
It was a happy coincidence that my birthday fell during our semester break. I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 25th birthday than by having an exciting Thai adventure. The only trouble was… I couldn’t keep track of the date! Nearing the end of the trip I kept having to double check with Molly what day we were on. I was pretty sure on the afternoon of the 8th that it was my birthday… but, no.
Our last morning at the beach Molly and I woke up early to catch our ride back to the ferry. It took me a few hours to realize it… but… ding ding ding! It was my birthday!
We spent the first half of the day on a ferry and a plane making our way back to Bangkok. We returned to our first hostel to a very welcoming staff. It was nice to see familiar faces! After getting cleaned up a bit (like I said, no showers at the beach)… we headed into town to explore our options for our last day in Thailand.
Strangely… we ended up in a mall. I hope that if you know me, you know that I’m not so much the mall type. I’d much rather eat at a hole in the wall restaurant than a food court. But now I have to admit that I was in awe of the food options we found! We went to a section of the mall known as Food Avenue (I think). You get a little gift card type deal as you enter and then you are free to visit food vendors from all over the world. Molly and I settled on some Mexican food which I’ve strangely come to like over the past few years after a lifetime of abhorring it. [Don’t get too excited family, I’m not ready to take the Villa off my x-list yet!] Molly was very sweet to treat me and let me choose the dessert. It was a difficult decision that I never really made… I just ordered two!
After lunch we did a bit of shopping… trying to finish picking out a few things for friends and family. Then we headed to the Jim Thompson house where I received another little birthday gift. Jim Thompson was an American that came to Thailand and helped to jumpstart the Thai silk industry. He was also a collector of Thai artifacts and a Thai culture enthusiast. Visitors are welcome to tour his house and view his collection. AND… if visitors happen to be under 25 they get a discount. The sweet cashier decided that I qualified.
We tried our own Khao San looks in the taxi.
Early the next morning we flew out of Bangkok back towards the Middle East. It was a wonderful and exhausting experience! Novelty snack post coming soon!
xo, jill
Jillie,
I’ll reserve a table at the Villa when you come home to visit in June! Yum!