We use China Airlines as we can fly round trip for about $1,000 USD each. Of course that is economy fair as first class is about $5,000 USD each. I am small enough now to sit okay in the tiny economy seats. I have lost about 76 pounds from my top weight of 326 pounds.
Everything went smooth, the immigration officer laughed at me as I sang my "Good Morning Song" using English, Spanish and Thai. Because the streets were pretty empty at two in the morning, the taxi driver took us on city streets so we did not have to pay the 75 THB (about $2.40 US) for tolls on the highway.
Pam at the White Orchard Inn II had our favorite room ready for us. We like this little place as it is clean, close to the sky-train (BST) and the staff is very friendly and helpful.
I have made the trip over the Pacific Ocean 21 times. The longest trip was in 1961 from Korea to California with 44 hours in the air on prop planes. I was a young man of 21 years old and the trip still beat me up.
When we arrived, we checked in our room, showed, eat and took a little nap. Bangkok is a 24 hour town so we had no problem having breakfast at five o'clock in the morning.This is Sukhamvit Road at Soi 5 at 5:00 AM. The party is still going on.
We had breakfast at Took Lae Dee Restaurant in Foodland. They have Farang food so I had an English Breakfast."Took Lae Dee" translates from Thai to English as "Cheap and Good". That is a excellent translation and the folks there are very friendly.
Here is a picture of our server at 5:00 AM. This is why they call Thailand the "Land of Smiles".
A few hours sleep and up again. With the red shirt and yellow shirt demonstrations happening in Bangkok it is hard to move around this Sukhamvit Road area by car or taxi but very easy on the Sky-Train. We'll talk of the red and yellow shirts at another time.
By the way, you can even get fresh vegetables right in the city. Yea, Thailand.
I wanted to go to a noon meeting on Saturday with some English speaking friends so I hopped onto a motorbike taxi. At that time of day we were able to travel through the Tobacco Monopoly. 
The Tobacco Monopoly is a several square mile area in the center of Bangkok that is used to dry, treat and cut tobacco.
On the way through the area, the smell of tobacco and the chemicals that they add was so strong I almost vomited.
I wish I could take my smoking friends through this area as maybe smelling this stuff would help them quite smoking.
We have been talking about buying a car here in Thailand for the last few years. Gasoline is very expensive so we have been considering vehicle with a diesel.
At this time, real gasoline, when you can find it, is around $6.00 USD a US Gallon. Gasohol is a little cheaper and is what most folks buy for their cars. Diesel is around $3.54 USD a US Gallon.
The folks at this dealership were not very friendly so we agreed that we would look more when we got home in Chiang Rai. There is a Chevy dealer there, as well.
During our stay in Bangkok, we took a little time to smell the flower, so to speak. The flowers here are beautiful.
We also walked around the more know areas of Bangkok.
We stopped for a coke in the Nana Fun Area. It is know as the World's Largest Adult Playground.
By the way, here you can still buy Coco-cola made with real cane sugar in 7 oz. glass bottles.
We were also a little sad as we made a little side trip to the little coffee shop were we bought coffee every morning in 2006. It was run my an elderly couple that always smiled and treated us nicely.
When we got there we found this, an empty shop. We went through the open doorway and found the owners. He was ill and they had to close the shop.We spent some time talking with them to be sure they had enough food and could live alone okay. They said their son was helping them so they would be okay.
Things change but this made us both sad.
It also reminded us that life is like a roll of toilet tissue. The closer you get to the end the faster it goes.
We have been here in Bangkok for six days so it is time to go north. I also have to renew my Thailand retirement Visa. I could do it in Bangkok but it is much easier in Mae Sai.
We flew Thai Airlines as it still has planes from the new airport to Chiang Rai. They also give you 20 Kilograms of free checked baggage. Nok Air and Air Asia charge for all checked baggage. With baggage the cost is about the same. I also got a deal on line for 1900 THB (about $57 USD) each.
The trip was uneventful and we took a taxi the 60 Km north to our home. Every one and everything was good when we arrived.
A couple of new news items. While we were gone, Daeng's brother Tun made a septic room so he could do kidney dialysis at home.
They did a nice job with the glass but the plumbing has a little to be desired.
I have to remember that most folks here have never seen "A" grade work so they think "C" grade is okay and "D" grade is acceptable. Oh well, this is Thailand.
The other new item is Daeng's niece, Nuy, is five month pregnant. She lives with her boyfriend but come here every morning early, when he goes to work, and spends all day eating, eating and eating. I told her she would be as big as me in a few months. I need to try and be loving.
She told me that after the baby is born she will be skinny again and I'll still be fat. It is also nice to see Bang helping with the laundry business. Her son, Bum, is so cute and growing up really smart.
His nickname is really "Bom" but I always call him "Bum".
It's also nice to have coffee and Pa Thong Ko at the Ban Pa Mueat morning market. Our friend "Me", the lady on the left is going to have another baby. We asked her is she knew if it would be a boy or girl. She said she didn't know. I told her is she was on the bottom she would have a little girl and if on top, a little boy.
She started to laugh. I ask her why and she said: "I think I'm going to have a puppy!"
Here is a picture of her little girl. She is just like Mom, want more money. Grandma is going to stick around also to help with the new baby.
We ran into "Mai", the fellow that helped us with our home after the 6.8 earthquake here in 2011. He was a great help and put everything back better than it was. For stories about the 6.8 just CLICK HERE.
He understand the value of quality work and is an excellent craftsman.
Watermelon anyone? The sign says: "3 for 10 THB". That is about 10 US Cents each. To bad I gave up watermelon for lent. I should have given up Brussel Sprouts. 
Tortillas in Thailand? They don't call them tortillas but they look and taste about the same. Here is the way they toast them on the Myanmar (Burma) border.
I think this is the way they have been doing it for hundreds of years.
Renewing my Thai Retirement Visa was extremely easy as most of the immigration officers have Tun, Daeng's brother, laundry their uniforms. They filled out most of the paperwork and I was out in about a half hour with a Visa until March 13, 2015 and municipal entries. That means I can come into Thailand as many times as I want during the year.
We also visited the big Mae Sai morning market. You can buy just about anything there. That includes Ant Eggs for Ant Egg soup.
Now that we are here for a few weeks before we do some traveling, we did some shopping for food items, like coffee, milk, bread, sugar, peanut butter, jelly and stuff like that at Tesco/Lotus. Tesco/Lotus is a big store. Daeng bought cheese and sauce to make pizza.
We also spent three days looking and test driving cars and pick-up trucks. I was thinking about the Chevy Colorado but when I test drove one it was very sloppy in handling compared to the Toyota.
We stopped to buy gasoline for my motorbike and I could hear Daeng laughing. I turned around and ask her why she was laughing. She pointed to the drawing of the pigs on the big truck next to us. I laughed, also.
We went to the Toyota Dealer just south of Mae Sai and test drove the Toyota Vigo Hilux 2.5L diesel model G Smart Cab, again.
Here is a review of the "E" model CLICK HERE. In the USA it is known as the Tacoma or 4Runner. We like the "G" model as it has all the extra stuff like back up camera, DVD player, etc.
Ta, the lady we are working with, is going to call the main dealership in the morning and see if they have it in white with a cream interior. If they have it we think we will buy it.
More will be reviled tomorrow, Monday.
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