I've found myself avoiding facebook the last few weeks for some reason ... so now I'm on the road again I thought I'd have a go at reviving the blog .....

So welcome back dear readers on this latest adventure.

The reason (excuse?) for this trip is to complete phase two of the reconstruction of my teeth under the able direction of Dr. Chanika at Grace Dental here in Chaing Mai .... the right side was completed last trip and I've been looking forward to being able to chew well on the other side of my mouth!

The fact that major renovations on our house at Birch Lake are in full swing (and anyone who knows me knows how I just love the chaos and dust of renos!) and that my itchy feet were becoming unbearable may have been minor contributing factors to my decision to embark on yet another Asian adventure.

I booked myself out of Vancouver to Bangkok via Beijing on Air China .... cheap, but that's about all the good I can say .... I thought that because they recently joined the Star Alliance (think Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swiss Air) their standards couldn't be that bad, but alas, I was wrong.

The plane was stuffy, prior seat selection cancelled, the seats themselves cramped and pretty hard after 12 hours. I thought I might down a couple of scotches and try and sleep (my usual strategy) but the only alchoholic drink I could get was half a paper cup of terrible Chinese wine. ....


So it was with some relief when I finally got to Bangkok, tired and a bit crotchety to be welcomed by a lovley Thai lady at the airport representing my hotel and whisked downtown to the most comfortable and spotless SILQ hotel.

The next morning it was off to Wat Po home of one of Thailand's oldest and most respected massage and traditional medicine schools for a 2 hour massage. No better way to get the kinks out of long haul jet travel!

Wat Po is also the home of a huge reclining Golden Buddha.