Truth: We have not been in Bangkok for over a week now. But we have good justification for only writing this blog now as we have some long awaited relatives from home hanging out with us in Thailand for 3 weeks!

Troy's sister and family flew into Bangkok shortly after we arrived there from Sukhothai! Although their total journey from Labrador City took about FIVE DAYS (!!) due to logistics, they are troopers who plow through jet lag and temperature shock, and are proving that they have more energy than us!

What a liveable city Bangkok seems to be! Fantastic public transportation systems, all the amenities you need, and yet still has the traditional markets and food stalls that have come to be a daily part of our routines in Thailand. We loved cruising down the Chao Phraya river to gaze at the temples and modern buildings lining the shores - and both agreed that the setting was very reminiscent of the Thames and London. We could have spend days just travelling up and down the river lounging out in the sunshine - what a wonderful way to meet a city!

Besides touring Bangkok, we hired a driver for one very long day to take us to the ruins of Ayutthaya and the Bridge on the River Kwai for Troy's history fixes for this area. Although impressive, we both preferred the tranquil of Sukohthai for the ruins, and are glad that we decided to spend a few days in that area first. The site of the River Kwai is lush and stunning and like so many other beautiful areas of the world, difficult to now imagine the horrors that took place in the area - really not that long ago. We have to give kudos to our very kind and efficient driver who got us to both of these sites in one day despite being quite far away from each other!

And so we have now jumped away from city life to maybe what we consider the *best* type of life - the island life.