We got the 6:15 wake up call and it was time to get up, get ready and head out. There are no refunds on the bridge climb if you are late and considering we were leaving on a 5pm flight to Bangkok, we needed to be on time. We headed out of the hotel and hopped on the bus to Circular Quay. We had plenty of time so we stopped and got a quick breakfast….bagel with ham and cheese for me and banana-blueberry bread and fresh OJ for Rhonda. We walked to the bridge climb headquarters and checked in early. We were offered the 7:35 climb and took that. In our group was a young couple from England and a family of 3 from India. All very nice folks. So, they give you tons of stuff for this climb. You can’t take anything with you so they know nothing will fall off. They give you a suit to wear, then a harness, a radio with headphones, a fleece to attach to your belt, 2 kinds of hats if you want (attached to your back), a deal to attach your sunglasses, and a hanky. It’s all clipped on somewhere so it can’t fall. The climb was great…it was a really neat experience to climb the bridge, be on top of it and be able to see all over the city. We had a blast and were glad we decided to do it. Rhonda says next time we should do it at night. I agree it would be really cool but I doubt there will be a next time!! When we finished, we got 1 pic and then headed off for some lunch and to catch the end of the cowboy game. On the 3rd try, we found a place with the game on and I ordered up a chicken burger and it was ribs for Rhonda. There was only 3 mins left in the game but I was glad to see the boys had it under control 31-20 with the ball. After lunch we got the ferry back to Darling Harbor one last time. We made a trip through the aquarium and by far the coolest thing was the Ocenarium with big sharks, rays and tons of other fish. We liked it better than the wildlife one next door. Sadly, our time in Sydney was pretty much up. Oh, what we could do with a few more days! We really did feel like we needed more time but there just isn’t. We went back to the Holiday Inn and packed up and headed for the airport. As sad as we were to be leaving Sydney and leaving Australia, we were very excited for what’s next….THAILAND!!! One of the exciting things is just a different culture….as great as Australia is, it does feel a lot like home. We know Thailand will be much, much different! For some reason, a 9 hr flight doesn’t seem so long in business class. You can stretch out 100%, get fed like a king, have anything to drink you want, have about 20 movies on demand, TV and just about anything else to watch. And of course in this case you can lay almost totally flat but it’s still really nice. We finally did land in Bangkok and had to walk about a mile to get to the immigration/baggage claim. We waited in line for a bit as they take a picture of everyone entering the country. Wonder if we do that….? Our bags were among the first off the plane and I decided I better get some cash. Went to the ATM and hmmmm…transaction cancelled. Tried again…same thing, transaction cancelled and contact your bank. We went thru customs and I tried at a different bank and same message. Crap. We are pretty much screwed. I guess that is why I have a couple hundred dollars for emergencies like this so I had to cash in a $100 so we could finally get out of there and onto the hotel for a couple of hrs sleep. We must have been asked by 100 people, “taxi, where are you going?” 800 baht, 400 baht, etc. So annoying and yet so tempting. Knowing not to fall for that rubbish, I went to the info center, showed them where we were going and had them write the address in Thai for the cab driver and also learned it wouldn’t be more than 200 baht. I knew it would be cheap since it wasn’t THAT far anyway. We got all checked in, the room was fine for a quick layover but nothing else. Carpet kinda dirty, bed ok, bathroom tiny and a hint of old smoke smell on a non smoking floor and in a non smoking room. Not bad though. Rhonda crashed out immediately and I had to go down and buy internet time to email the bank and try to get this ATM crap worked out. The most annoying part is that I gave them the itin and told them when I would be in each country so I figure there should be no problems. I played around for about 30 mins and still never heard back so it was time to go to sleep. It was after 12 midnight (4am Sydney time) and we had to get up at 6 to get ready real quick and head back to the airport for our 7:45 am flight to Chiang Mai.
