We're back in Thailand for a few days before we fly to a new, spontaneous country: Taiwan! And Bangkok is the perfect place to hunker down and enjoy knocking off several items on an exciting to-do list, including:

• Catching up on writing your travel blog!
• Using your improved wi-fi and data connections to upload and back up photos, and download some new entertainment content for those long travel days
• Getting your smudge-y camera sensor professionally cleaned
• Travelling way out of your way to visit the Thai Lion Air office to add a checked bag to Taiwan, because this cannot be done over the phone or online with a Canadian credit card!
• Doing your laundry yourself at a coin-operated laundromat so that you can wash and deal with all obscure items the way you want (i.e. - no hats in the dryer!)
• Going to good ole Boots drugstore to get some moisturiser and Sensodyne
• Mailing postcards with fairly full confidence that they will arrive at their designated destinations.
• Continuously and fully charging all electronic devices without the frequent, daily power outages of Myanmar
• Starting an insurance claim for a refund on a booked Sri Lanka flight that we did not take

Yes, we had gone and booked a flight to Sri Lanka not long before the terrible Easter bombings took place. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, travel insurance is void if you travel to a country/area that has a Level 3 or 4 warning from the Canadian government. (At least, ours is.) We both felt like we still wanted to go as of course now this country's tourism industry is suffering greatly, and we had really been enjoying researching a route, but it's not a risk we felt like we could take. So enter Taiwan - a country that is close enough from here to not warrant an overly long flight, but far enough away to really get into a completely different part of the world (although we hear it has some similarities to Japan, and this was definitely part of the appeal as we loved that country!)

Not too many touristy things this time for us in Bangkok - instead we focused on getting lots of sleep and enjoying our fully functioning air conditioning. We did take the boat along the Chao Phraya river a few times to get around, which we think is by far the most enjoyable way to get around this city. No traffic snarls, a bit of a breeze (and maybe a small, refreshing splash!), and tons to see along the water's edge.

Now feeling rested, organized, and caught-up with life, we are energised and ready* for Taiwan!

*Although we are not naive that it is in fact, the rainy season in Taiwan. We are taking a chance. Clare's rain gear consists entirely of a poncho she scored for free from a Niagara Falls boat ride. This will suffice, right?!