We, kind of sadly, left our resort at Ao Nang. I said my thank you’s to the staff, gave them each a tip and told them to keep practicing their English. I don’t think they understood much of my gibberish, but they smiled a lot.
Molly and I took a ferry boat back to Phuket, actually transferred ferries out in the ocean. My luggage was getting tossed from one boat to another and I took a big step and landed safely on the other side. Interesting process, never allowable in the United States. Anyways, as always, we arrive safe and added another story to our list.
In the morning, we flew from Phuket to Bangkok. We collect our luggage and head out to meet Cookie, our Thai friend and hostess, who is picking us up. Not just picking us up like you might expect, but picking us up in style with her “driver”. Cookie’s family, and many other families in Thailand, have a driver. Her family has a large, new, van that can hold nine people and a driver or 3 girls, the driver and lots of luggage. It was so great to see her again! She is as cute as ever and even after three years, she is familiar to us. Her hair is longer and she seems thinner than when she lived in Bellingham, where she ate ice cream and fast food all the time, but overall, the same bubbly, sweet personality.
We spent the afternoon at a weekend market shopping (again) Great bargains, t-shirts for $5, dresses $15, bras 2 for $3. Can’t beat it. Now we need a new suitcase. We visited, had a nice lunch, took naps, visited again and then the driver, MaHa, took us back to the airport to pick up Zach and Noel. Yeah! I was so excited to them.
At the market, we had bought matching t-shirts and santa hats. We wore them to the airport to make sure the boys wouldn’t miss finding us……and of course, we stood out loud and clear in the crowds of Asian, dark haired, non-santa hat wearing or matching t-shirt wearing group of picker uppers. The boys had had a long flight from Seattle via Seoul. They were tired, we were tired, so very quickly we found our way to bed in Cookie’s Bangkok house. All had arrived in one place, at one time, safe and sound. I breathed a sigh of relief.
