I'llll be hooome for Christmas...

It's been amusing to me to see so many signs of Christmas here in Thailand, a country that is 95% Buddhist and 4% Muslim. Back in Bangkok now, it's amazing to see the over-the-top holiday decorations in weird juxtapositions with every day Thai stuff.


There was a band just to the right banging out AC/DC's Highway to Hell when we took this photo.

Everywhere you look, there are gaudy Christmas trees decked out with color coordinated lights and, of all things, giant credit cards or simply the Star of Visa.



Of course, this just confirms for me that the idea of Christmas is not a religious celebration for the Thai people for the birth of Christ, but a brilliant retail phenomenon that they've discovered which will make people buy more, more! Oh wait, that's just like back home.


Anyway in the end, we were delighted to find that we couldn't really lose our way back to the ice too badly from Bangkok.

And yes, I'll indeed be home for Christmas. I leave Bangkok the morning of Dec 24, arrive at LAX the morning of Dec 24 (a very long day) and if all goes well, I'll be back in Tucson in time for lunch. Brien is going home to Oregon/Idaho and Renee is boldly pressing on to India then Europe.

Hope you've enjoyed the travel blog. I'll keep it going from Tucson and then I deploy back to South Pole on Jan 18 so as always, stay tuned.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a smashing Happy New Year to everyone!