We enjoyed our final breakfast on the roof top. The toaster is in need of a little TLC as it is broken and difficult to operate. After breakfast, it was time to leave. We walked the 1km to meet our Canadian friends to share a taxi to the airport. On the way we passed a taxi looking for custom. We grabbed him, negotiated a good price and collected our friends, who jumped in and off we went. We were going to try using the Grab app which is like Uber.
A nice smooth ride and nice and early. On the way we saw a huge entourage of white cars with flags and a picture of the monk we had seen leading the prayers when we arrived in Myanmar. It appears he is traveling around doing this.
The airport in Mandalay is pretty small. We completed security checks and bag weighing but our Canadian friends' bags were too heavy. A bit of rearranging and all was ok, no 40 dollar excess charge!
The flight was quick and we all met up again in the terminal. None of our flight seats were together. They seemed to be randomly allocated! However once on the aeroplane, Darryl discovered the seat next to him was free so Christine was able to move.
We landed about 15 minutes late in Bangkok. Once in the airport building one of our Canadian friends discovered he had left his passport on the aeroplane. He tried to run back and get it but they wouldn't let him back out. After a frantic search for someone from Air Asia and the help with of a security person he was informed the plane we had just landed on had already departed and would not be back until later that evening, when they would endeavour to find the passport. This meant they would miss their connecting flight. They were then escorted back to the arrivals areas as he could not officially enter Thailand without a passport. We said a sad farewell as we are going off in different directions but with a vague hope our paths may cross again on this adverture. We have since heard the passport has been returned and a new flight booked later this evening. What a relief!
After leaving the airport we made our way to our hostel, freshened up and headed towards Chinatown in search of food. On the way we saw a small Chinese temple with lots of people gathered round. We went over to investigate and discovered there were people in fancy costumes with their faces painted. We waited to see what would happen. They made their way onto a small stage and started to sing ... it was a mini Chinese opera. We have experienced this in the past so made a quick retreat!
We found a noodle stall which was really busy so we shared a dish of noodle soup. We then wandered further and found a little cafe down a side street with lots of people sitting outside. We took a seat and were given a menu. The man at the next table asked where we were from and how had we heard about the restaurant. Apparently it was made famous on You Tube by a food and travel writer called Mark Weins. We ordered a pork and egg dish which was very tasty.
Finally we headed back to our hostel through the streets of Bangkok.
