Well after a couple of rather uneventful (but lengthy) flights we arrived in Bangkok at about 11pm local time and as expected we are dog tired.  As we are not planing on spending any time here there was initially some very short lived banter about just staying in the airport and catching an early flight out to Chiang Mai in the morning.  However, being the princess that I am though I threw caution to the winds and splurged the $28 for a room 10 minutes from the airport – $28 that included breakfast, and a free shuttle to/from the airport!!  Best decision ever – we are not fully rested ’cause we still need to get used to the *much* more firm Thai standard for mattresses, but it was not a night of being all scrunched up in an overly cold (the air conditioning in the airport is very cold) seat at the airport listening to the overhead announcements every 20 minutes so we take the good with the bad.

Today we start out fresh, a decent night sleep under out belts, and a 10am flight to Chiang Mai where the real relaxing will begin.   Khao Soi Gai and a Thai massage incoming……

It is that time of year again, and in a few short hours we will be off on our yearly trek to the Land of Smiles.  We are leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow and after a paltry 20 hours in transit we will be in Bangkok once again.

We don’t plan to stop there for long though, just a quick overnight and then we will be hopping north to one of our familiar haunts – Chiang Mai.  Mrs. Columbus is convinced that a trip to Thailand is not complete without some Chiang Mai time, so we will start there and then just see where our mood takes us.

There is some chatter about going back to Cambodia for a bit, but no firm plan so far so we could just as easily end up spending the whole time again in Thailand.  We are at a minimum committed to exploring a few new places somewhere, and regardless of the where, it is guaranteed to be relaxing.

I can already anticipate my first massage on Sunday…….