We'd been travelling for nearly five months when we arrived back in Bangkok. Our bus took a bit longer than expected, so we quickly dropped our bags off at the rather-lovelier-than-usual hostel we'd booked for Christmas Eve (http://www.cozybangkok.com/) and went Christmas shopping. The malls in Bangkok are massive - and varied, from the flash Siam Paragon to the everyday Central Department Store and the covered-market 'charm' of MBK. We did manage to find M&S, Mango, Uniqlo and TopShop though, which was a lovely surreal indulgence (though we were of course looking rather shabby in the lovely Siam Paragon!).
We treated ourselves to an (actually rather disappointing) meal in the gourmet food court at the Siam Paragon, and also stocked up on wine and cheese in the gourmet food hall for Christmas day. It was almost like being in Harrods in the food court - and it had the prices to match, but it was good practice to get back to more familiar prices before the shock of arriving in New Zealand.
As we descended the steps from the mall later that day we were rewarded with a Christmas display and a festive performance by body-suited Santas singing 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'. We marvelled at this in the +30 degree heat and as the sun set and it stayed just as hot, we headed back to our air-conditioned room to watch Bad Santa.
We treated ourselves to an (actually rather disappointing) meal in the gourmet food court at the Siam Paragon, and also stocked up on wine and cheese in the gourmet food hall for Christmas day. It was almost like being in Harrods in the food court - and it had the prices to match, but it was good practice to get back to more familiar prices before the shock of arriving in New Zealand.
As we descended the steps from the mall later that day we were rewarded with a Christmas display and a festive performance by body-suited Santas singing 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'. We marvelled at this in the +30 degree heat and as the sun set and it stayed just as hot, we headed back to our air-conditioned room to watch Bad Santa.
On Christmas Day we packed up and moved to an even nicer place to stay: http://www.citrus13bangkok.com/en/.
It was a true indulgence and we had no greater plans than to Skype home, enjoy our wine and cheese, watch films on a decent-sized telly and venture out to find a half-decent Christmas dinner. After tracking down a HDMI cable so that we could watch our own films (rather than end up watching crap telly) we sought out our mythical roast dinner, but it was nowhere to be found! I'd been so sure that it would be an easy tourist win, to sell a roast dinner at any price to homesick travellers, but apparently not. Instead, we ended up in a sports bar eating bog-standard pub food. Ah well, at least we had the wine, cheese and Christmas films - and internet to Skype with!
After the most comfortable sleep in months, we checked out and used our final hours in Bangkok to go and see The Hobbit before our flight to Auckland. In Thailand, they play the royal anthem before every film, so we had a typically Thai experience even in a multiplex as we stood respectfully before the king.
And that was that. After nearly five months, we were heading to New Zealand to try living in a whole new country. And we were ready for the change - Asia can be wonderfully exhausting, especially if you're on the move as much as we were in our last few weeks (desperate to cram in as much as we could with our remaining time). But we had fallen massively in love with Asia. I'd fallen hard for Cambodia in particular, but every country had charmed us at times and we knew we'd want to return one day. Until then... our thoughts turn, inevitably, to New Zealand, and our working visas. We had at least a year to experience all the wonder that New Zealand has to offer.
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