Today is it, our last full day. We left our hotel around 9:30am to catch a taxi up to Phuket airport and to catch a flight to Bangkok. I have to say, I am normally so sad when vacations are over and I try to eek the very last drops I can out of my vacations, but today, I am just ready to go home. I think it’s quite interesting that we all feel that way.
Last year on our Europe trip, we were out sight seeing until the very last possible moment. But today, we decided to get to our Bangkok hotel and just stay there. There is more to see, like the Grand Palace, but we just want to stay in.
Ali opts for an afternoon nap, while Jacob, Matt, and I go grab a small ice cream at the Dairy Queen across the road. We then head back to the hotel to do some research for dinner. We weren’t ready for more Thai food yesterday, and when we had to eat it for lunch…it just did us in. We are in full agreement that it will probably be a few months until any of us consider Thai as a possibility for a meal.
Matt finds a BBQ restaurant within walking distance of our hotel, called The Smoking Pug. We have learned our lesson that nothing is as you would expect it to be, but all the reviews on TripAdvisor are really good…one even says that it feels like you are back in America. We are sold. We call and make our reservations for 5pm, which still gives us time for a nap!
At quarter to 5 we start the walk over to the restaurant and are overjoyed to see that it meets all our expectations,…which the rest of Thailand might have actually lowered a bit. We are greeted by a familiar American accent, so refreshing. I hate to sound stereotypical, but Thailand has beaten us all. We figure that this is going to be our last meal on vacation, so we are going out in style. When we travel with Matt and Ali, we tend to do all of our meals sharing style, that way you get to sample more foods.
So in that spirit we order: BBQ chicken wings, nachos, a full rack of Kansas City style ribs, the brisket platter, BBQ chicken salad, a side BBQ baked beans, a side of BBQ mac and cheese, and then finish off the evening with banana cream pie and chocolate cake…HEAVEN. As Matt sat eating his ribs, brisket, and coleslaw he mutters, “God Bless America…”. We all munch away, nodding in silent, content, full agreement.
We sit for a while, enjoying what has become the best meal of our entire two week trip, and eventually make our way back to the hotel. We spend the rest of the night chatting away, discussing highlights and lowlights of this trip, reminiscing about our Europe trip, and discussing where in the world we want to go next!
We sit in our room and talk for as long as we can, before Matt and Ali have to call it quits, their flight is first tomorrow and they need to leave the hotel at 4:45am to make their flight. We say our good byes as they head off to get a few hours of sleep before their long journey back to San Francisco via Tokyo.
It was so fun getting to spend the last two weeks with them, I really love the 2 week vacations we have gotten into the habit of arranging with them. And talks have already begun regarding next years trip, still to be confirmed. I can't share the surprise yet, but I can tell you it for sure won't be Thailand again....
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