for our first day back in bangkok, we just shopped shopped shopped. we headed to siam center where there are malls galore and wandered around for a few hours. at one point, all the lights went out in the building we were in, reminding anna of the blackout in nyc a couple weeks ago. in the evening, we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant in the hotel, hamilton's, and then headed out for the famous Suam-Lum Night Bazaar. There are over 3,000 stalls there and there were beer gardens and concerts all over, complete with fireworks due to the celebration of some sort of festival. We didn't last long, however, since we had to wake up early the next day.



In the morning, Anna & I bid our goodbye to Julia to go on a day excursion to Kanchanaburi. We first headed to a war cemetery where thousands of foreign soldiers (mostly British & Australian) are buried from World War I, after helping the Japanese to build the railroad from Thailand to Burma. All in all, over 16,000 soldiers died during the building of this railroad--quite morbid. We then headed to the actual railroad--specifically the part that is the "bridge on the river kwai". After that, we took a bamboo raft ride down a river over to some Elephant Trekking! Anna & I got on top of an elephant and took a short ride around the area, even for a little swim along the river! What a touristy thing for us to do eh? Anyhow, we then saw a short elephant show where the two of us got "elephant massages" (the elephant essentially lightly tapped us on our backs)...then we ate some lunch, took a train ride for half an hour along the railroad, & then sat in the mini-van for the long 3 hour journey back to Bangkok....



Surprise! Julia was still in the room! For a more complete goodbye, the 3 of us headed up to the fancy schmancy Tiara restaurant for a final toast. Anna & I then literally crashed and didn't wake up til the next day.



Today, Anna & I went shopping again---to the much larger Chatuchak Weekend Market. Whew--that place was overwhelming but quite enjoyable to go to. The bargains there were incredible---Anna & I both got a small lamp that we LOVE for less than $10.



[sigh] I have to wake up quite early in the morning (3am) to catch my 6am flight--I might as well not sleep. Not really looking forward to my journey---I spend a good 10 hours of it just in layovers: 7 hours in Tokyo and 3 hours in Hawaii. ugh. It's going to be a looooong day tomorrow. Sadly, I get in late in Seattle--10pm--and so won't have much time to recuperate before heading back to work the next day. Ah well. This has been such a wonderful, restful, peaceful trip. I had great company, ate great food, indulged in more massages than I think I have ever received in my life and really caught up in all my lost sleep from the past few months. This is absolutely what I needed after my crazy project launch. Time to head back to work and launch another store!