Arriving late in Kanchanaburi, we slept in and enjoyed the hotel breakfast before taking a tuk-tuk to learn about war atrocities at the JEATH War Museum, Death Railway Museum, and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. We revisited Lanai food for lunch, then negotiated with a cabbie to tour the Tiger Cave and Dragon Cave Temples, which included a steep climb up a dragon’s mouth, past hidden caverns, to a golden chedi and gong to signal our victory. We stopped by Meena Café for cute treats and scenic views, souvenir shopped by tourist-packed River Kwai bridge, then watched the sunset from our riverside bungalow before exploring JJ Night Market to discover new dishes like grilled eggs and boat noodles. After more hotel breakfast with chocotea and Ghibli tunes, we went to Erawan National Park, where I used my tripod and ND filter to photograph five of the seven cascading waterfalls before donning life vests to swim and serve as fish food. We returned by bus and haggled with a Grab driver to take us to Bangkok. Sadly, Jay Fai was sold out, so we pivoted to pink noodle soup, steam bread, and sweet-savory shaved ice for dinner. Sunday at Chatuchak weekend market was hot, necessitating coconut shakes and Thai boba tea while we shopped for pants, trinkets, and statues. We spent an extra hour failing to find an elephant locket that Westley wanted, which left only enough time to check out Jim Thompson’s artifacts and silk collection, but not Wat Traimit’s Golden Buddha. Our hotel comped us dinner at their jazzy restaurant due to possible noise from a wedding they were hosting, but the nearby Yaowarat night market tempted us to supplement our meal with coconut pancakes, mangosteen popsicle, fish maw soup, and Michelin-level rolled noodles and pa thong ko. On Monday, we battled crowds and heat at the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and found reprieve at the Sixth with curry, omelette rice, and air conditioning. We snapped selfies with the reclining buddha at Wat Pho, then ferried to Sathorn for an unexciting long-tail canal tour through the klongs of Thonburi, before photobombing colorfully-costumed women at Wat Arun. Our second night at Yaowarat was less exciting with many vendors closed, so we settled at T&K for grilled lobster and bird’s nest soup. On Tuesday, we took an early train to Ayutthaya and rented bikes to visit the buddha head at Wat Mahathat, bat-filled prang at Wat Ratchaburana, and white chedis at Wat Phra Si Sanphet. The giant river prawns from Baan Mai Rim Num put us into food coma on the train back. So we skipped Bang Pa-In to rest up for our third visit to Yaowarat for dinner including amazing mantis shrimp and seafood stirfry at Fikeaw, duck spring rolls, coconut pancakes, and custard-stuffed buns. I bought another big statue that required us to check in our luggage, but at least squeezed in Thai massages at the airport to relieve our backs, and crab omelette and massaman curry to take aboard our flight to Manila. We checked into the Conrad just in time for dinner in the adjacent mall at Manam for eye-opening filipino dishes like patis wings, crispy pancit palabok, pancit sisig, gising gising, and kare-kare, along with ube and mango shakes and a halo-halo that melted by the time we returned to the hotel. After giving my two talks at PAO and sharing more filipino fare with the Ocular Genetics group, I joined my wife and son to explore the old walled city of Intramuros. Ilustrado was out of their signature sampaguita ice-cream, but we got water to hydrate our way through Casa Manila, Fort Santiago, and the Rizal Shrine, where the matyr’s bronzed final footsteps we searched for was already gone. We weaved between jeepneys to return to our hotel to pack and dine with my friend Yvette at upscale China Blue prior to our flight home. Our whirlwind tour of Thailand and Philipine’s capital showed us new sights, sounds, and flavors, but we were glad to be back home for the holidays.