Our final day in Thailand started with a glorious sunrise over the Mae Kok River, and the discovery of a frog and a cricket in our room.
After a leisurely breakfast' we packed up and headed off to walk into Thaton to pick up the local bus service back down south to Chiang Mai. This 4 hour trip turned out to be 4.5 hours due to two police checkpoint stops in the mountains, where we were asked to show our passports, followed by a 20 minute stop in Fang, and then a stop for petrol !All this was followed by :
A Tuk Tuk ride acros Chiang Mai to our old hotel to pick up the suitcase we had left there, with a cheeky half in a local cafe
A 3 mile taxi ride out to the airport and a last meal in departures
An 8.50pm flight down to Bangkok lasting 1 hour 20 minutes
A flight to London lasting 13 hours!
Then finally a shuttle bus back to the Heathrow hotel to get the car for a two hour drive back to Bristol.
We have really enjoyed our trip to Thailand - the scenery has been great, the people friendly, the weather awesome, and it was nice to see Ali and learn about where she is working and living. Thailand has been a very pleasant experience.