Trekking to Thailand

Surprise! I'm headed overseas! The last few weeks have been filled with last minute swimsuit shopping, passport renewal, nonstop googling, and texting people in all corners of the world- because I'm headed to Asia with my girlfriends!

Maybe I should start at the beginning, because although this was not exactly a spur of the moment trip, it did feel like it came up very fast and furious!

Last July, one of my college roommates messaged me with some great news- she was engaged and I was invited to her wedding the following spring in her home country- Singapore!

Yes, all the way over here

When she extended the invitation, I said yes without hesitation and decided I would figure out the details later- the vacation time from work, the flight and hotel bookings (and of course, what am I going to wear?)- because I remembered being roommates in Ann Arbor long ago, talking about visiting her beautiful home, and now feeling guilty and like a horrible friend because I still had not managed to visit.

Then I bought a plane ticket with another former roommate and we started making plans to attend the wedding of the century. Eventually the other details came together and we had the makings of an amazing trip on our hands.



Eventually we decided to extend the trip beyond just Singapore to Thailand for a little spring break getaway! Our trip originated in New York (where my friend lives but I definitely don't), so I flew into New York a day early with my stuff. (One thing we did not think of- having to carry my massive suitcase up the stairs in her sixth floor midtown walkup!) Our trip itinerary had us starting at JFK, with a layover in Hong Kong before finally arriving in Phuket, with a total trip time around 24 hours.

The next evening all three of us piled into an UBER with our massive bags and set off to JFK praying we would not miss our flight (because of course we left just a little late). In the end we didn't miss our flight, but our reward was having to buckle in for a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong! It was immensely draining. Even after sleeping for several hours, we woke up and still had...10 hours of flight time...

Never never never again. (Unless I'm going on another fabulous trip I guess?)

When our flight finally landed we had a 3.5 hour layover in Hong Kong, except it was roughly 4am local time (and we really had no clue what time it was at home anymore since we were so disoriented). We had to wait an hour for a restaurant to open, and even when we found some food, it was difficult to eat because your body is so confused.

STRUGGLE BUS. Did you know Chinese food is not at all like the US? I got a major reality check when I went to find something to eat on my 4 am layover in the Hong Kong airport. We had to wait for everything to open up, and wanting to try something new, we decided to try some authentic Chinese food, which was a mistake- we ended up with some weird bland angel hair noodles that were unlike any Chinese food I've had in the US. (Surprisingly, the longest line was for McDonalds! I guess we're not so different after all.)

No makeup, no sleep, but we are on vacation!

After the brief freedom of our Hong Kong layover, we were seriously dreading another flight to Phuket- it was going to be another 4 hours. It was nothing compared to the flight we'd just taken, but somehow still just as bad when it was shorter and we were crabby and hungry.

Our second flight to Phuket. More Prison.

Airline gruel on Cathay Dragon. After 20 HOURS of travel you'll probably eat dirt as long as it comes with coffee.

All three of us got to sit together again, so we ate and crashed into a nap. After awhile, I woke up and was excited to see this peeking through the clouds- THAILAND, after 25 hours of travel!

YES YES YES

After 25 hours of travel I almost cried tears of joy upon seeing my bag show up on the baggage carousel after we deplaned! Clean underwear, a shower, my makeup my granola stash! I missed all of them so much!

After going through immigration we exchanged our USD for Thai currency, which is known as the Baht.

It was really colorful and had pictures of Thailand's King on it, which was kind of cool. When we were there the currency conversion was around ~29 baht/$1. (So sometimes it felt like we were spending a fortune, but we really weren't)

When we went outside to flag down a taxi, we all immediately started sweating like crazy! Coming from New York/the Midwest where it was in the 40s/50s to Phuket in the upper 90s meant we were soaked with sweat. Apparently Bangkok has the distinction of being the hottest city on Earth.

Our hotel is in Patong Beach. We sprung for a  more western style hotel with an apartment configuration for safety and proximity to the water. It was so worth it!