Day 196 - Travel day

Cz's mom left early this morning. Cz spent the rest of they puttering about the apartment and muttering "I miss my mom." While Cz puttered and muttered (and also read the Seoul guidebook), I spent the day planning the next six weeks. Like with packing, I piled up all the places I wanted to see, then tried to squish them into an itinerary. When it proved impossible, I cut a few cities. Still long on sights and short on days, I made the tough decision to cut Vietnam. Disappointing, but I would rather spend more time visiting fewer places in depth than simply buzzing point-to-point.

By 5PM, we were ready to go having gone through E's kitchen like locusts, planned and re-planned our time in SE Asia, and re-packed the packs to airline standards. Our cab driver was very friendly, and got us to the airport in record time. Cz almost had to abandon his walking stick, but the Thai Air people were able to convince the security check people that it was OK.

Thai Air might be vieing for the title of Cz's favourite airline. It was only a two hour flight, yet there were hot towels at takeoff, a snack, juice, unlimited beer or wine, dinner, even brandy after dinner! When we landed, the stewardesses came by and gave every lady on the flight a fresh orchid corsage. And that's in economy class! We are simply not going to know what to do with ourselves when we have to start flying domestic again.

We arrived at our hostel at 11:30PM. The front desk was friendly, and the rooms and bathrooms spotless. Best of all was the lounge area where a group of backpackers were happily chatting away. Cz and I got ourselves sucked into the conversation, and before we knew it, it was 2:30AM. It's not exactly the wild nightlife we expected to keep us up at all hours, but in ways, far more pleasant.