Last Day and Travel Home…

Woke up this morning with a car scheduled to the airport at 3PM. It’s times to admit this adventure is drawing to a close.

One of the things we’ll miss the most are the Asian buffet breakfasts in every hotel. They’re all huge but the Peninsula really raises the bar. It included a full Asian and Indian buffet with custom noodle soup. There was a whole separate room dedicated to charcuterie, fruit, juice, bread and grains. The western breakfast had a guy carving ham and a custom eggs Benedict station. Juju always has fresh passion fruit on yogurt. I just have all of it.

It’s time. We’re still thrilled to be here but the last two days we’ve had to work harder to stay in “peak traveler” mode. With 6 hours to kill we decided to suck it up and squeeze in two more “adult field trips.”

First we took a quick tour of the Jim Thompson House – with another excellent woman guide! Jim was an entrepreneur who reinvigorated the Thai silk trade in the early fifties. An artist and architect, he produced the fabric and set designs for The King and I.

The silk market exploded on the tail of the play, and he became one of the richest men in Asia. He employed hundreds of home weavers and created one of the first and only opportunities for women to have economic independence in Thailand.

His home was built by amalgamating 6 100+ year old village homes into a traditional (but mansion-sized) river home. His priceless art and antiquities collection (and his home) are now a public museum. His gardens were just amazing.

Two more hours to kill and we’ve checked out of our room, so we walked a couple blocks to a brand new Asian mega mall that everyone’s talking about here – the Icon Siam.

Not much to share here, other than a food court the size of 4 Home Depot’s.

What else?

Qatar business class has a freaking bar on the plane.

Doha airport has a 2 acre indoor jungle, with giant art installations, and sleeping pods!

After a four hour layover, we’re leaving Doha at 2:30 am.

The Qatar Airways flight from Bangkok to Doha makes the American Airlines flight on the leg to Philly feel like a trip to BB’s. No champagne and my dinner is served on a plastic plate – the nerve of these people (we are so freaking spoiled).

11am, on Thursday February 5th and we’re home at last. It’s 5 degrees here and it was 95 when we left Bangkok – a 90 degree swing!

I got some shoveling to do and I need to get an Asian buffet organized for JuJu.