Leaving on a jet plane....

...though a part of me certainly wishes I didn't know when I'll be back again! But, 2 weeks is much more than many people could ask, so when I head out tomorrow for my airplane Thanksgiving, I will be thanking my lucky stars for the short time I'm getting.

This time tomorrow I will be on my way, and it is still strange to think that it will be Saturday morning when I get there despite only 24 hours having actually passed in my time. After a few weeks of winter starting to set in, saying I am ready would be the understatement of the year! Despite Bryan's "we don't need plans" proclamation, there is a bit more by way of planning for the time that I am going to be there, if for no reason other than to help fit the most stuff into the least amount of time. Don't get wrong, I'm all for throwing caution to the wind if the right opportunity presents itself, but having the bones in place should help to at least a degree.

We are starting in Phuket (fingers crossed the guys will have made it back from Malaysia!) for a little beach time after the crazy flights, a cooking class, some sea kayaking through the limestone karst islands and caves of Phang Nga bay and exploring historic Phuket Town. Then it's on to Koh Phi Phi for a few days of smaller and hopefully more laid back exploring. After KPP, it's back to the other side of the mainland to explore Railay Beach, argued to be one of the most beautiful and can't be missed beaches in all of Thailand. In the same area is Krabi Town, where I will get to celebrate my birthday before wandering back to the islands to check out Ko Lanta just a bit south of Krabi. We'll round it out with a few days in Bangkok, which I'm hoping will involve more exploring than hanging out at the hotel - keep your fingers crossed that the protests stay calm and don't get to crazy. But no need to worry Mom...I have all of the info for the US Embassy and will happily go hide there for a couple of days if they do :)

Wish me luck....25 hours of coach seats here I come!

Visa run

So, leaving in the morning, taking a high speed ferry over to Surat Thani. We are staying at, I believe, the only 5 star hotel in town. It cost a grand total of 1000 baht, or $31 dollars. Our flight leaves at 11:20 from Surat Thani Thailand to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Then we board our flight from Kuala Lumpur back into Thailand, although Phuket this time at 6:10. Just to renew our visas. Thanks Thai Embassy D.C.. Good thing is Air Asia is retarded cheap. Round trip international flight $120. For $45 i think we could take a mini bus to Penang(which is what most people seem to do) and back. Of course that would involve taking a mini bus for 14 hours.And food n drinks n valium so as not to kill the 15 other passengers stuffed into a minibus. And trust me guys it isn't one of our size 15 passenger vans. No chance. Plus you get thirty days by flying as opposed to 15 by land (although differing of opinions on that front some say that you get 30 by land as well i believe the embassy website it says 15).  Wish us luck get to find out how Air Asia really is...

So I promised you some pictures...

Hey all,

          Well lets just say the GoPro and I have been having some difficulties! I tried to change the settings. Everything has gone downhill fast since then. Pretty much all of the pictures and video I have taken since then will not work. Awesome. Blake's pictures will be posted soon.

          We finally have the weather on our side. Beautiful the last few days. Went wandering yesterday, went out on a fishing boat today. Roy on the "Funny Boat" great guy had a lot of fun, caught quite a few fish. Not a one over a foot. Finally getting out and enjoying Thailand. check out the Youtube channel i'm uploading video as I type this. If it isn't up then once again Mr GoPro has defeated me yet again.

r

Plans? Where we are going we don't need plans...

So 6 months of researching, booking, and planning every step of the way for the first two months of the trip, yup throwing that out the door! Blake and I decided today that we are canceling everything after Leah leaves and now we are going to Bali and the Gili islands for two weeks. Alot to do with the Thai visas not coming through among other things. Looks like it'll be Christmas at the Kuala Lumpur airport which is funny because with us not getting the visas we have to make a visa run to reup our thirty days and with Leah getting here on the thirtieth looks like thanksgiving dinner will be in the Kuala Lumpur airport as well. Gotta love it!

Some quick pics

Hey just wanted to share a few photos real quick. Hasn't been great photo weather so more to come later.

 incheon korea

 This is benjamins hut koh phangan where we are at right now

 view from a kayak back to our place

Koh Phangan Full Moon Party

Hey quick check in, made it to Koh Phangan! We ended up hiring a private taxi to drive us the 4+ hours across Thailand to the ferry terminal. Interesting ride to say the least. $150 bucks but from what I heard about the mini bus trips, worth every penny. Way better than Phuket, not nearly as many people, and you dont have some one trying to sell you crap every 2 minutes or so. Very pushy, and wont take no for answer quite annoying to say the least. Stopped down to Haad rin for the pre full moon party last night, madness cant even imagine tonight. We are staying up in Haad Chao Phao(dont quote me on the spelling lol) which is about 15 miles or so from the party so Blake ended up booking us another room right by the party just for tonight since the taxi scene is nuts. Tomorrow will post some pics and hopefully get some videos up. Oh and its been monsoonal rains since we got on the island. First night my toliet overflowed about 6 inches of sewer water into the bathroom at three in the morning, good start huh! Oh well moved into a much nicer room and enjoying much much more.

Phuket

We made it! Finally after all the planning, watching videos, and all the talking we are here. Its hot, very, very hot. We are staying at the Aspery hotel in Patong beach. Aside from my room not having a safe, my fridge doesn't work, and I don't have hot water it's actually pretty nice. Blake's room across the hall has everything. Oh and my room was covered in blood. Nice. One recommendation AC, AC, AC, AC if you are thinking of going cheap its not worth it. Spend the money on AC. No question about it. The beach is amazing. Coconuts filled with thai whiskey and fresh coconut milk is damn good. Of course we didnt make it past 5 pm yesterday. I can tell already that Phuket is not the cheapest place in the world. Lunch, granted we went huge, was 30 bucks. Tiger prawns the size of your shoe for 4 dollars isnt too bad. Tempura shrimp appetizer? 12 shrimp, asparagus, cauliflower(well what we think was some sort of similar thing!) and onions for 4 dollars.

Note to self, don't get drunk at the bar the night before you leave for a 5 month trip and let your friends shave a mohawk in your hair. Although it was in support of a friend going through chemo so its for a good cause.

 So this is our friend Whis nice guy helped us out huge! Plus got us drunker than well you know.

Blake: A/C (that's all he had to say)

Flight Delays

Hi All. Checking in from sunny Incheon Korea. So our flight was delayed so we missed our connection from Seoul to Phuket. Oh well, at first I was furious, after calming down a bit I realized that it is actually really nice to have a break between the flights. The flight was ROUGH let me tell you. Thank god for the tvs in the seat backs. I managed to catch up on 5 films. I really wished I had paid the extra thousand dollars for business class. Oh and the food? Yeah yesterday was the worst culinary experience of my life, ouch. On the plane and in the airport. Korean Air put us up in the Hyatt Regency in Incheon. It is super nice, dinner was great, on KAL too, but wow it isnt cheap. I had a ten dollar local beer with dinner(Max its actually really good!) Blake was drinking $30 jack n waters when I went to sleep, between that and the casino in the lobby lets hope he still has some money left for Thailand! Oh and buy the no jet lag pills if you travel they really do work.

Escape from THIS!

Bryan and Blake are leaving in 4 days, I can't believe it's that time already and every day I wake up to temps in the teens I get a tiny bit more jealous that I only get 2 weeks.

For the first week of November so far, I have had the wonderful pleasure of trekking through snow to get to my office, and this is my view out the snowy winter scene of Mammoth Hot Springs...can I leave for the beach right now please?!

The countdown has begun...and is FLYING by!

Now that we are actually into the month of November, the countdown is ramping itself up - the guys head out in just 8 days and me in 26. It really has not sunk in yet!

As Bryan mentioned, they will be starting out in Koh Phangan to kick back and relax after another insane Yellowstone summer. They have talked about what to see and do, I think they are going to get a lot of exploring in before I get there - discovering the quickest way to the best beach, searching out their favorite tiki bar cocktail, seeking the most comfortable beach chair and navigating their way home from the famous Full Moon Party. Not that it this is a bad thing - they worked like maniacs this summer and I want them relaxed and happy when I show up!

The goal for today is to seek out information on Thai cooking classes in Phuket for my first full day there. I will arrive in Phuket around 2:00pm after approx. 30 hours travel, so I am heading straight to the beach to sleep and rejuvenate before soaking up some Thai cooking instruction the next morning. Have it narrowed down to just a couple of places, and getting hungry as I read!