Hello Thailand!

This morning I woke up in Thailand. I woke up to warm weather, sounds of birds chirping, bugs buzzing, Timmy typing away on the computer outside (and watching VCU in the Final Four on his laptop) and thought “Wow. This is my new home!” Then we headed to breakfast in the lobby and had noodles, chicken, rice, fresh fruit (as in watermelon and pineapple!!), eggs, croissants, FRENCH TOAST!!, bread pudding, etc. Yup, it is PRETTY awesome here…but here’s how we got here.

During our few weeks of “retirement” from work Tim and I got our VISAs for working in Thailand, had our goodbye parties, saw our families, and packed our lives away to start our new adventure. Then it came – Thursday 3/31/2011 we headed to the airport for about 2 days of travel. We left out of Dulles airport Thursday evening and flew on Russian Airline, Aeroflot to our first layover – Moscow. The food on the plane was the best plane food I had eaten before (and while that isn’t saying much, it was actually pretty tasty). We had chicken and rice with green beans and a side salad with Cheesecake as dessert for the dinner meal and then for breakfast we had an omelet and a small side salad and shrimp. We spent the flight sleeping, snacking, and playing travel games we had picked up before we left the states.

Once in Moscow, we settled into the airport for our 6 hours. We got online and checked in with our families, and then of course we had to try Russian Vodka in Russia! We took a shot, and then grabbed a Russian beer. It tasted like the Russian version of Milwaukee’s Best but WAY more expensive. It was great to people watch – you could tell who was Russian because they were super attractive and dressed to the nines (just for the airport!). Once we got onto our next flight (2:40pm Russia time) we headed to Bangkok.

The flight felt a lot longer than our first flight, but that’s probably because we were just ready to be in Thailand already. There was a LOT of sleeping done on this flight, which was fine since we didn’t really travel over anything awesome to look at. But once in Bangkok we settled in for our next layover. We grabbed some Thai food, and I got something spicy – AND SURVIVED!! Also, I had the TASTIEST smoothie ever. I swear the watermelon smoothie was just watermelon put in a blender, I felt like I was eating a real watermelon through a straw. IT WAS SO TASTY!! Once it was time to get on our flight to Phuket (our final destination) we headed to the gate and boarded our final leg of the trip. It was a quick trip (about an hour and a half) and then we were there…our home for the next 3 weeks: Phuket, Thailand!!! We were EXCITED! So we went to our shuttle meeting location and made friends with another couple that were waiting, Joni and Gavin from South America. They were just married in December, and this is their first big adventure as hubby and wife. Our first Thailand friends!! JWe took the shuttle to Naiharn Beach to our resort: All Seasons Phuket and checked in. Driving through the island was really neat, tons of temple looking buildings, huge walls with paintings of the king, and everyone driving on the left side of the road! Once at the hotel we got our rooms – and it really does look (and feel) like we are staying in a tropical paradise.

After we unpacked a few things and took MUCH NEEDED showers we headed to do a little exploring. We went to a cute little restaurant beside the hotel and grabbed dinner: a large (wine bottle size) of beer, a mixed fruit smoothie, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. It came out to like $12 in US dollars. Yeah, I like living like a king!! There were also a few dogs milling around, and they even got into a little fight! Who knew we’d get dinner AND a show! We also saw one of those same dogs this morning, so we know that dog isn’t on the menu tonight

*Side note: you may think that “Thai Food” is just called “food” over here, but we have already seen in a few restaurants over there that has a “Thai Food” section in their menu. It cracks me up each time!!

Afterwards, we walked down a block (if you can even call a few feet a ‘block’) to the beach – and WOW!! It looks like a secluded beach, with umbrellas and chairs, and a restaurant right to the side. Just a little spot of paradise! I’ll get pictures of that later today and post them on my pictures page. Whelp, that’s our trip here! Timmy should be back from the gym any minute, and room service should be knocking on our doors any minute, meaning it’s time to go exploring!!! :)

Sawasdee Ka!
- Apes :)

PS – Fanny packs are ALL THE RAGE here!!!