Final day of Thailand and the route home through Amsterdam.

Our last day in Chiang Mai went by quickly of course. We made it to the temple on the hill after a very long and windy road up the side of a mountain. Once we were dropped off we had to climb 320 steps up to the temple. From the top we had a pretty awesome view of the city of Chiang Mai. We saw the airport from above a few hours before we would be there for our journey home. The temple at the top was neat to see. There were lots of people praying and being blessed by monks.
When we were finished looking around we headed back down the steps and found our driver. He took us down down down the crazy mountain and back to eagle house 2.
We set off for a walk in search of a final nice Thai dinner in the land of smiles. I had an amazing northern curry dish and Niki had some fried noodles with chicken. After dinner we headed back to get our bags. On the way Jason and I stopped for a last 10 baht red bull of the trip.
Michelle insisted they were coming to see us off at the airport so we all loaded into a red pickup truck taxi and headed toward our departure.
At the airport we noticed my favorite place ever, Dairy Queen! When we first met up with Michelle and Jason in Bangkok we had ice cream at the airport. It seemed fitting that we should part ways after a delicious cheap blizzard treat.
When we checked in our bags we had a little scare. Our last Air Asia flight was rescheduled on us 11 hours earlier than the original departure time. When we were about to check in we saw a notice for our flight number of today's flight saying it was moved to an hour earlier and therefore already gone! Before we were able to panic too much we were up to the booth and noticed that it was a flight for tomorrow with the same flight number! After that heart attack for no reason we then gave ourselves heart attacks eating saturated fat from dairy queen. Then it was time for a heart break... saying goodbye to Michelle and Jason. We had an amazing time with them over the last 2 weeks and leaving them was a hard thing to do. Niki tells me that I was bummed out ever since then!

We went through security and boarded out plane for Bangkok. The first flight was nothing special and only an hour long. We arrived in bangkok, collected our bags, and went through the massive cluster of passport control and security. We said our goodbyes to amazing Thailand as we boarded our next and longest flight. We flew with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on a large two story plane! It was an awesome flight and the eleven hours went by quickly. The seats were roomy and we had individual tv's on the seats in front of us and were able to choose our own movies. I watched The Karate Kid and Salt, slept a fair bit and read. At 550am we arrived at Schipol Amsterdam. We didn't have to worry about our luggage and didn't fly out again for another eight hours so... We decided to take the train from the airport 20 mins to Amsterdam central station and have one last adventure! When we arrived at central station the sun was still down! We wandered the streets for awhile admiring the canals and old buildings all around us. We walked through part of the red light district laughing at the displays in sex shop windows. We spent a while looking for an open coffee shop and finally found one. We hung out there for awhile and then took a one hour boat cruise down the canal. The cruise was amazing! We got to see a lot of Amsterdam and it's beauty in a short period of time. After our tour we hopped back on the train and arrived at the airport around noon.
We were already given our boarding passes this morning so we proceeded straight to customs and onto our plane. The final flight was the same plane and great service as the first one! We were spoiled with free drinks and food! Throughout the duration of the flight I had a gin and tonic, a Heineken, and am finishing up this blog over a coffee and cognac.

We have had the most incredible time over the last 41 days!! It's so hard to choose favorite moments when you have experienced so much! From Slovakia, Vienna, and Prague, out of Europe to Cairo and the pyramids including going inside of one! That was one amazing trip on it's own! To continue it with the beaches, longtail boats, and luxurious accommodations of southern Thailand together was so peaceful and amazing. To top it off meeting up with Michelle and Jason and experiencing Bangkok, the ruins of Ayutthaya, the mountains of Chiang Mai, and Pai was something outstanding. Seeing the elephant sanctuary and getting to ride massive elephants, doing a trek in the mountains to a hill top tribes village, and renting bicycles in Pai and cycling the mountains to beautiful waterfalls. Our trip has been so amazing and will never be forgotten!!! It is sad to put it behind us and return to reality but all we can do is hope we soaked enough of it up for the next few years and start planning another grand adventure!
Thanks for checking in on the blog! Hope you enjoyed hearing about all of our great times and weren't too jealous of us lucky kids!!
Until the next adventure we are signing out!!
Cheers