Butterflies. Every Time.

 As much as I love to travel, I still get butterflies before each trip. Some good, some bad, but mostly around flying and GETTING to my destination. My flight is approximately 17.5 hours to Singapore and then another 2.5 or so to Bangkok. Last year, I was lucky enough to travel to probably my #1 bucket destination (considering I’m a massive LOTR fan), New Zealand. The flight there was around 14 hours and I felt every 14. I watch one movie, two movies, three movies, and then have to face the realization that I could watch another three movies and still have time to spare. I go to the bathroom for a change of scenery, do the alphabet with my feet regularly (they love to swell when I fly), and try to sleep (I never do). Overall, the flight always makes me nervous from an entertainment perspective as well as the alienating feeling of being isolated over the Pacific Ocean for that long. I never had an appreciation for how big the Pacific Ocean was until I flew over that sucker.

I also have bad memories flying home from NZ, where Air New Zealand stuck me and my best friend on the last two possible seats on an aircraft after our initial flight plans falling through. I was lucky enough to get a seat right behind the partition on the (practically IN the) aisle, but could not have my bags with me and they got put in some remote part of the plane because again, some of the last people on. I pretty much had to cold turkey that thing the entire way back seated next to a son who spoke to his mother in a way that….well let’s just say I’m not familiar with and don’t want to be familiar with. At one point a service trolley toppled over sending a wave of half + half barreling towards me and my blanket, someone passed out in front of me, and I was next to the bathroom. Overall, not the best cross-Pacific experience but hey, that’s how things shake out sometimes.

That being said, I have high hopes for this trip. I’m going with what I think will be a really fun group to travel with to a place I’ve always wanted to go. What could be better than that? I’ll keep updates on here as I can, photos where applicable, and just keep in mind, Thailand is a 14 hour time difference (ahead) of Pacific time. So, Mom, if it’s noon in California, it’s 2am the next day in Thailand :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back in Action

Image
Ok guys! First day back in action since the food poisoning debacle. It was real bad, but I didn't let it beat me. Missed out on a beach day yesterday at Railay Beach but the alternative was me going and that was a worse option haha. Started today with some French Toast at a cafe called Cafe 8.98 owned by an Australian woman. Seemed very legit, food was well cooked, and I haven't gotten sick yet so I call that a win! We were originally supposed to go to a place called Phi Phi Island, but opted out considering we had a few people get sunburned on the beach adventure yesterday. So, in the spirit of giving everyone's skin a break, we grabbed a tuk tuk and schlepped it about 20m to "Old Krabi Town". There wasn't a whole lot of interesting things to capture here. Some open food markets, a muddy river and a mall. I'm not sure why it was necessarily a place we wanted to visit and most others seemed confused as well, to be honest. But the tuk tuk drive there was BE...
Read more

Departure.

I'm sitting in the Singapore airport, having made it through a relatively stressful start to my trip. A 4+ hour delay out of SLC had me growing increasingly concerned about whether I'd make it to LAX on time (thanks again, Dad, for helping talk me off a ledge!) I was finally able to get there, but completely missed my day hotel reservation that would allow me to get some valuable shut eye and the even more valuable shower prior to my 17.5 hr flight across the Pacific Ocean. So, as is common when traveling, I had to call an audible. What I thought was a moment of refreshing solitude in the only handicap stall, of what seemed to be a quiet terminal restroom at LAX, turned into a panic. I was in the middle of changing my clothes and watched in horror as the wheels of a walker strolled into the restroom. So I scrambled to vacate the handicap stall as quickly as possible while also making sure I was dressed enough. I didn't like having to do it at the airport, a handicap stall i...
Read more

"James Bond Island"

Image
Today we started around 9am, heading out with a 1.5h van ride to Ao Phang Nga Nat'l Park, which is home to our ultimate destination - James Bond Island. But BEFORE we get there, we stopped at "Monkey Cave Temple", which is like a local religious cave system with a lot of golden Buddha statues. It was pretty cool but I was excited about the monkeys and the fortune I received. Unfortunately, my fortune told me I have trouble getting married because of my big mouth. Arriving in Ao Phang Nga, we hop on a traditional Thai Longboat, which are interesting. Essentially, they are long wooden boats that have a captain in the back who powers and steers with what is essentially a car motor on one end and a propeller on the other. image credit: Easy Day Thailand image credit: Reddit, user deleted This is the traditional type of watercraft here, and these things can a...
Read more