Our Trip to California

We got up with the sun and had coffee and breakfast in a little restaurant around the corner on the beach. The place was pretty quiet on this Wednesday morning.

We did an "E-Checkin" for our plane trip at the internet cafe across from our hotel. I had already picked the seats that we wanted on both planes. For the 11 1/2 hour ride from Taipei to Los Angles we like the back of the 747 where the seats go from three across on the side to two across, row 59. The reason is there is a lot of space between the seat and the aircraft fuselage giving more room to spread out. It is like have isle seats on both sides of us.

We finished packing and hung out in the hotel lobby for our taxi that had been arranged for 1:00 PM pickup. At 1:05 Pm I walked across the street to where I had arranged the taxi and ask what was up. The lady made a call and said the driver would be at the hotel in about 10 minutes.

Twenty minutes later as I was getting ready to walk across the street again the driver showed up. He was not in a metered taxi but a nice car. He said there was a screw up of reservations and he would take us. The trip took about 1 hour and 45 minutes with moderate traffic.

Check-in at China Airlines at the Bangkok Airport went very smooth. Boarding the aircraft, plane trip, transferring planes in Taipei and flight to Los Angeles all went very smooth. I even slept about seven hours on the plane.

No these are not pictures of Tijuana they are of Taipei, Taiwan (ROC)

When we arrived at immigration in Los Angeles there were no lines and with Daeng's green card we just sailed right through. Out bags were already on the carousel and the same custom's officer we had last trip wished us happy greetings and said "Welcome Home!"

The RED Van shuttle took us right to our home without any other stops. At our home everything was in good shape so we spent a little time getting settled and put our heads on the pillows.

We are happy to be HOME in California! Total time from pillow at hotel in Pattaya, Thailand to pillow in our own bed: 31 hours.

When it Rains, It Pours - Pattaya, Thailand

This day started with the sun coming out clear and bright. The day was very relaxed here in this adult orientated beach city of Pattaya, Thailand.

Daeng and I ate in the morning market and rested until about 2;00 PM. We then hopped on a baht bus to our friend Rick and June's condo in Jomtien Beach.

June fixed a wonderful meal of "Pathai". "Pathai" is a fried rice noodle dish.

June made it without much spice but it can be made with spice that will burn your face off. She had a lot of peanuts in the dish which I liked because it was crunchy.

We rested a while and than the four of us hopped back on a baht bus to Pattaya to meet some other English speaking folks for a little meeting at 6:30 PM. When we arrived at the meeting it started to rain.

The meeting was very interesting as there were six of us, all from Southern California. Three of us were from Orange County, one from Los Angeles, one from Hollywood and one from Riverside. We talked about our lives and how Thailand had changed all of us, for the better.

Now, while we were in the meeting it had rained hard. As you can see in the picture, we had to walk through water, over ankle deep, to get to the main road. The main road named "Second Road" was also flooded. I had on black leather shoes and socks so I took them off and walked.

We had fun in the water although it was a little smelly from the sewers. We took a good shower with lots of soap when we got back to our room at the hotel.

When it rains here in Thailand, it pours!

Tomorrow we need to start getting ready to fly back to California on Wednesday. That is a long trip. We will miss Thailand, as well.