A trip of a life time

Yui, my college friend, and I took a trip home together. We had planned this since last year. We just want to visit our family and go to the 75th Anniversary Celebration of College of Architecture, Chlalongkorn University. Then Nithi invited us to visit him in Phuket. With Ada's accident, at first I was about to cancel the trip but then my father passed away, so the trip back to the funeral was a must. Without Ardis, I won't be able to make this trip.

I was glad that Yui was with me. She comforted me through the whole trip making sure I was Ok. At Phuket, Nithi had arranged to have 8 more friends joined us at the private resort. We had a great time, eating, sleeping, talking and laughing. As promised, Nithi gave us a front row seat at the beach to watch the sunset. I picked up some pretty shells on the beach, just like I always did when I was a little kid.


Today I received an e-mail from Nithi and his beautiful wife. Another promise that we will bring Ada with us on the next trip to Phuket.

Back in bangkok, I had many more dinner with friends who had heard about Ada and wanted to help in any way they could. I was overwhelmed by all the support and love I got from all my friends who, some of them, I haven't seen for 25 years. Friends are always friends, forever.
The funeral was beautiful. My brother took care of everything. We had a traditional Thai dance performed during the ceremony. It was an honor for my brother and I that the King of Thailand had given a permission to place my dad's body in a special coffin. It was the higest honor any common could have received. He also given us a Royal fire to start the cremation. The next morning , we gathered the ash and took it to the SeChung island where we spread my dad's ash into the sea. The same place we did with my mom's ash. They finally are together again. You can see in the picture, my nephew had become a monk in honor of his grandpa. Tao is getting married on June 21st. I felt bad that he won't have time to grow back his hair, but he looks handsome anyway. His fiance is Japanese. He also starts building a small house behind our old house in Bangkok.

I went shopping, eating and met more friends and had a great time until I realized that I had booked my flight from JFK on the wrong day. And Ardis made me do it (LOL), she changed my flight and I got to spend 3 days in Hong Kong with Yui and her friend. She also wanted to send me to Australia to see Ting, but we will do that next year.

I am leaving you with the amazing view of downtown Hong Kong. I did a little shopping, mostly buying Jade pendants so I can make a beautiful necklaces with them. Yui and I spent most of the time walking and admiring the beautiful buildings designed by the famous Architects like I. M. Pei and Norman Foster. Thanks Mui and James, Yui's friend, an exceptional hosts. They invited us to join their family for a dinner at a restaurant. After dinner,Yui and I swore that we will not eat any more Chinese food after we go back to the State. Why? Because the food was so delicious, we want to remember the taste of real Chinese food until next time.
Well, I am home now and spend the whole day with Ada. She looks happy and healthy. With her hair all clean up, she smells like a baby, like Ada. I am happy to be back, fully charged and happy and ready for anything else that life would throw at me.
"Be a good, a strong woman" I always tell Ada and together we will be.
Phuket 2008'>"Bang Tao Beach, Phuket Island"
Grandpa's funeral'>"Grandpa's funeral"
Hong Kong'>"Hong Kong"