Final Days in Bangkok and Looking Ahead…

It is hard to believe that it was three months ago that we literally stumbled upon our apartment in Union Tower that has been our home here in Bangkok. It has been a wonderful place for us to study and accomplish one of our main goals of this part of the trip – learning and/or improving our Thai. But on Monday we will check out and begin the last month of this nine month sojourn that we have been on. We have begun to say our goodbyes this week to the people we have spent the most time with here – Pii Oo, our Thai teacher for the past four months, Pii Fai the receptionist/manager at the front desk and Eak, one of the security guards for the building who has become much more than that to us. We have also had some great hang out time with Iven and Kashmira and Roy and Bonita, our friends who have greatly encouraged and walked with us during the past four months. Each of these people and many others have left their mark on us and we are so grateful. They have helped fill our lives while we were leaning into the studying and language learning. (Photos are in order mentioned.)

We are acutely aware of how much we haven’t done over the past four months. I think we had grand but somewhat unrealistic expectations that we would study during the week and then go explore and visit beaches and national parks outside of Bangkok on the weekends. But apart from our week in Manila and my trip to Maehongson, we really haven’t done much other than study. We decided this was ok as goal number one was language acquisition.

We know there are some who probably think we have been just taking it easy and having a very long extended vacation, but the reality is, life carries on. Studying has been our full time occupation for the past four months, interrupted by various medical maladies and illness, having to deal with our credit card numbers (not our cards!) being stolen from the ten days we were in the US in January, Andrea having to take an online Statistics course (which we haven’t written about yet - we are waiting to get her final grade!), and even making decisions about where we will be and what we will be doing after we return to the US in July. However we still realize it is a grand adventure and one that we are so privileged and blessed and grateful to be on! We’re just hoping no one comes up to us and asks how our nine month vacation was!

And as mentioned, the journey continues for our last month beginning on Monday so we want to give a little itinerary of sorts. On Monday we catch the train from Bangkok down to Penang (another wonderful 24 hour journey!) where we will spend the night before going to the Cameron Highlands, where I went to school in the Jungle…at Chefoo for five or six days. (By the way, for all who have read the book ‘I went to school in the Jungle,’ I had dinner with the brother of the main character the other week –without knowing his family was the inspiration for the book until halfway through the evening! How cool is that? He and his wife are currently working here in Thailand. Another great couple!)

From the Cameron Highlands we travel to Pangkor Island for a couple days and then down to Kuala Lumpur for a two nights before we fly to Cambodia for about a week. We will be hanging out with Dave and Fifi Rickards and also hoping to connect with Steve Hyde who also works there. Fifi and I started at Chefoo together in first grade and went all the way through Faith Academy and Steve is also a former Faith classmate! From Cambodia we fly back to Bangkok and then directly up to Chiang Mai in N. Thailand for a couple days before going out to Maehongson from June 13-21. Then we will make our way back down to Bangkok and head down to the beach at Huahin and one of our favorite places to stay, Veranda Lodge before returning to Bangkok for a couple nights. We fly to Singapore on June 29 and leave for the US on July 1.

We will be in the Seattle-Tacoma area for about a month before moving to North Carolina where Andrea will begin graduate school in August. As with any journey there are still many unknowns in front of us but having the experience of the past eight months gives us much faith for what lies ahead.

If you have wandered and kept up with us via the blog over the course of the past eight months, please know how grateful we are for your emails and prayers as we have wandered the globe. Thank you for following along!

We aren’t sure how much internet/email contact we will have during the next month but we will update the blog as we can and certainly when we reach the US if not before. We also have a few posts scheduled over the next few days including the Khlong Boat (promised long ago), navigating airport security as a diabetic, and why President Obama is good for African Americans and Thailand.

Duncan