It was a hot and sticky day in Bangkok and when the downpour started every rat, cockroach and backpacker was headed for high ground. We watched from the safety of our hotel lobby as umbrellas were blown into the pond and people ventured into the knee deep swirling water - drenched in a matter of seconds. Shopkeepers elevated their merchandise and unsuccessfully tried to sweep the filthy water away. The carnivalesque backpacker hub of Kao San Road was getting a much needed bath on the day of our departure but we were in no hurry. Our bodies had rebelled after our recent stint in Myanmar and a trip to the hospital confirmed that we had picked up the e. coli bacteria and a number of parasites which rendered us rather sluggish. Sent away with three allotments of drugs each that promised to annihilate everything living in our systems over a five day period, we decided to spend this time in Koh Phan Ngan at the beach before my parents were scheduled to arrive. As long as the rain stopped in five hours we'd still manage to catch our train.

Huge reclining Buddha

Spending time at the quiet resort was just what we needed to return to ourselves and when we wandered into the Holiday Inn swimming pool a week later to meet up with my parents we were up for anything. Anything started with a trip to the tailors. We were offered beers as mom chose in which material she'd like to have a couple of her favourite skirts copied. Two skirts turned into nine pieces of clothing and when I turned the other direction, dad was being fitted for a suit and picking out colours for six shirts...ties to follow. Brett and I shook our heads and drank another round of free beers.

After a gorgeous and never ending buffet breakfast, compliments of the Holiday Inn, we visited Wat Arun and Wat Pho via ferry on the Chao Phraya River. Wat Arun is the quieter of the two and we wandered around its impressive structures decorated in floral patterns from what appears to be old porcelain dinnerware. Wat Pho was a little bit trickier to visit because at every corner there was someone trying to convince us that it was closed and full of helpful ideas of what we could do instead. Despite the empty threats, it was no problem to wander in, pay our admission and view the famous massive reclining Buddha with the highly decorative mother of pearl footprints. We had lofty plans of visiting the Grand Palace as well, but by that time the sun was high in the sky and the heat proved to be too much for all of us. With difficulty, we found a metered cab that promised to take us back to the hotel with no stops along the way.

Floating down the Chao Phraya the second time in an intimate wooden boat set for a lavish dinner was a completely different experience. Colourful night markets emerged at the side of the river as we ate seafood, peanuts and ginger wrapped in leaves and dipped in honey. Wat Arun dominated the skyline in its floodlit splendour as we feasted on crabcakes, tarts, seabass and spring rolls. When we thought we could eat no more, the main dishes arrived and we cruised past the royal dock and drank more wine, unbuttoning our trousers to make more room. We watched the busy city drift by from the comforts of our dinner table and remarked at how much use the people of Bangkok get out of their river both day and night.

Just another big house cat

Kanchanaburi was our next stop and a place called Little Creek Resort catered to our every need – including Dad's perpetual need for a bucket of ice to cool his whiskey. Nam, our gracious host, busied herself about my dad, seeing to it that all his questions about flora and fauna were answered, that he understood everything on the menu and that he was properly massaged and entertained. We set out that day to visit tigers. The abbot of the Tiger Temple nearby had set up a wildlife rescue project that helps and treats homeless and wounded animals, including about a dozen Bengal tigers. We were led by hand into an area where the enormous tigers alternately roared and lazed in the hot sun and were told to sit beside and pet a few of them. I hadn't made the connection between these fanged beasts and the common house cat, but sure enough, within about five minutes my allergies had kicked in and I was sniffling and wheezing with more drama than any other feline had provoked.

The next day was chalk full. One minute we were riding atop prickly haired elephants through the River Kwai and the next we were floating down it on a bamboo raft. We hiked up a seven tiered waterfall the top of which was full of orange-robed monks frolicking in a pool as if posing for a National Geographic photograph. Dad was the only one to see this and he did not have a camera with him so we'll just have to take his word for it. A short rail trip was taken on the death railway – which was built by the forced labour of American, English, Dutch and Australian POWs during the Japanese occupation in Thailand. More than six thousand of them were killed in the process and are laid to rest in Kanchanaburi. Our last stop was the site of the bridge over the River Kwai, bombed during the war. Later we were told that the actual site is about twenty metres away and part of the decaying bridge still juts out of the ground beneath the museum.

Happy New Year!

After a brief pit stop in Bangkok where mom learned bargaining tactics and went crazy at the night market, it was off to the islands for a week of relaxation. The Thai Songkran Festival which is a celebration of the New Year was due to begin and walking to the beach we could see a few of the local children dusting off their water guns and filling buckets of ice water in preparation. Prime real estate was purchased on Pattong Beach in Phuket for the day and we relaxed in our chairs as the day’s shopping came to us - sarongs, bikinis, jewelry, wooden motorcycles and Magnum chocolate ice creams marched past on a regular basis. Ambushed by water gun toting guerillas on the way home, even Dad on his rented scooter wasn't spared from being drenched with ice cold water.

Festivities accelerated on arriving at Koh Phi Phi and as we made our way through busy footpaths to the beach we were doused with ice water and then smeared with white and red paint. Walking a water gun gauntlet all the way to the beach, we immediately dove in. Our days at Phi Phi were filled riding in long tail boats from one gorgeous beach to another with plenty of stops along the way for snorkelling through the crystal waters. Perhaps the best nights were also our last together: eating incredible food at the aptly named Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) restaurant, listening to great music and watching sheet lightening reveal at intervals the dramatic silhouette of Phi Phi Ley’s cliffs across the normally pitch black bay.

Longtail boat to Phi Phi Ley

Our goodbye had to be brief as the man carrying Brett's and my bags to the pier seemed to be in a hurry. We thought that we would see each other at the docks to say a proper goodbye in dry clothes and with a bit more time, but it just didn't happen. Fortunately, I was able to yell goodbye over a channel of water to Mom and Dad as they boarded their boat to Phuket and we ferried away to Krabi. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I waved at two familiar figures on the deck of another boat who were blowing kisses back to me. Time goes by so quickly and you don't realize what you’re missing until its waving goodbye to you on a boat going in the opposite direction.

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