The thing about escapes to paradise is that they are, by their very nature, temporary. All things must end, and such was the case with our short but lovely stay in Koh Yao Yai. 

We woke up this morning on the early side, headed up to the restaurant for one more breakfast by the water, and just lounged in the room until it was time to check out. I sat on the balcony and read for a while. We both repacked our bags. Nothing too exciting.

Around 11:30, we hopped on the trolley to the reception area, checked out, and dragged our bags down to the beachfront restaurant. We had an hour and a half to kill until our speedboat time, so we just read our books, munched on some snacks from our bag, and stared out at the water and watched the waves.

To be honest, two nights was just about right for me at a beach. Maaaaybe I could've stretched it to three if we'd booked some excursions on one of the days. The resort was gorgeous and the views were breathtaking, but other than the beach, the pool, and the restaurants, there wasn't a whole lot to do there. I'm the type of traveller who isn't content sitting still; I need action. I suspect Ryan would've been happy to park himself on the beach a little while longer, but it was time to head back.

The speedboat ride back was much smoother than the inbound ride, given the better weather and calmer water today. We raced through the water with the wind in our hair, enjoying that last little bit of sea breeze. It was actually really lovely. I'm definitely gonna remember this when I'm back in cold, snowy Montreal.

Back on Phuket, we hopped off the boat at the marina and were ushered to the transfer van for the ride to the airport. We had to wait a few minutes for a few people's luggage to arrive, but it didn't take long, and we were soon off to the airport. Traffic was, luckily, light today, so we made it to the airport in just under a half hour.

We were still too early for our flight (I'd purposely left a fair amount of buffer time in case of any issues, which we didn't end up needing). So instead of going straight into the airport, we headed down to the arrivals level, bought some water and banana muffins from a newsstand, and ate them while sitting on some outdoor seating. 

When we couldn't stand the heat anymore, we headed inside and up to domestic departures, skipped the long lineup at AirAsia's counters by using the self check-in terminal, and sped through security in about ten seconds flat. Then it was just a matter of sitting at the gate for a couple of hours waiting for our flight. Like I said, we had loads of extra time today.

The flight to Bangkok was on time, smooth, and uneventful. With all the complaining that people do about the low-cost Asian airlines, I've found AirAsia to be really hassle-free on every one of our flights so far, which is honestly more than I can say about any European ULCC. And hey, don't get me started on the Canadian carriers. I'd fly AirAsia over them any day.

We landed in Bangkok around 6:30 and hopped back on the airport train for the third of what will be four times this trip. We're getting to be pros at this. The train whisked us into downtown Bangkok in 25 minutes flat, which is how airport transit works in major cities that actually operate efficiently. And the ticket cost us 40 baht, which is about a buck and a half. You hear that, Montreal?

We walked from the train station to our hotel, navigating our way through the Pratunam Night Market on the way there. Because there's always a night market. And this is Bangkok, so there are actually dozens of night markets. Pratunam is a multicultural area of Bangkok that is full of shopping malls, food stalls, market areas, Indian restaurants, Halal restaurants, a gazillion 7-Elevens (we kept a running count and were up to six on the short walk from the train to the hotel), and people from all over the world. It's busy, bustling, noisy, full of tuk-tuks and motorbikes and neon, and the exact opposite of sleepy Koh Yao Yai.

We've opted to stay in this part of town tonight mostly due to the proximity to the airport train, since we have to head back out to the airport early tomorrow morning. But it's also fun to get to explore a new part of Bangkok. Actually, this is the kind of city where I feel like we could easily spend months exploring new areas we hadn't seen before without running out of things to do. I love how alive Bangkok feels.

We found our hotel, checked in, dumped our bags in the room, and spent about five minutes checking out the impressive view from the balcony. Then, before the temptation of inertia grew too great, we headed back out to search for food.

That last part wasn't difficult, as we'd passed a bunch of restaurants and market stalls at the night market. Walking back in that general direction, we perused a couple of menus and finally sat down at the first place with decent-looking Thai food and outdoor seating. Ryan had one last pad thai for the road. I did the same with some chicken and spicy basil. We washed it all down with a bottle of Chang. It was a bit overpriced but not bad, overall.

Then, with our clothes literally sticking to us, we were both tempted to simply go back to the hotel for shower and sleep. But it's our last night in Bangkok and our final night in Southeast Asia. It seemed like a shame to turn in early, especially in this city that never sleeps.

So we decided that there was time for one more round of craft beer. To that end, we walked over to Beer Republic. On the way there, we passed at least three different shopping malls, a huge street food market that was clearly where we should've gone for dinner (oh well, live and learn), and more humans in twenty minutes than we'd seen in the past three days.

Beer Republic is a small craft beer bar set downstairs from a Holiday Inn. Despite the setting, they had an outdoor courtyard and a decent international beer menu including a couple of Thai microbrews on tap. We ordered two of them, both of which were leaps and bounds better than any other beer we'd had recently, and toasted our final night here in Bangkok.

After that, it was finally time to call it a night. We stopped off at one of the many 7-Elevens on the way back to the hotel to pick up a few fixings for breakfast tomorrow, and then headed back to take care of some practicalities like repacking our bags for the long flight tomorrow, showering, and getting some much-needed rest. We may be in the city that never sleeps, but it's time for us to do just that.