Wanderlust

So it's been a few months since we returned from our whirlwind Southeast Asia trip. In that time, Lacey and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about what we would do differently if we did our trip over again. Disclaimer: Our trip was INCREDIBLE and I wouldn't really change anything about the trip. This is just a fun exercise for others who want to do a similar trip to what we did. Getting to Bangkok: Our Trip: We bought our flights in two stages, our tickets from Chicago to Bangkok and then separate MPLS to Chicago tickets. This saved us about $300 but it was a pain in the butt on the way back. On purpose, we got seats across the aisle from each other to hopefully give us more leg room.  What we would do differently: Ideally, it wouldn't be winter and we would drive to Chicago and park our car to save the money. If it was winter, we would do everything we could to get tickets from MPLS to Bangkok instead of the Chicago situation. We would also sit next to ...

Our favorite smoothie bar We woke up in our hotel bright and early (we always wake up early) and both of us were feeling much better. Lacey slept much better and I was ready to restart and get cracking on our travel plans for the day. We got the breakfast buffet again. It was the same pretty good food and same amazing view of the beach. After breakfast, we got another smoothie from our favorite stand. Our main morning concern was figuring out how to get across the bay to the big island of Phuket for the next leg of our journey. There were 3 options for us to choose between: a short boat ride/loooooong minivan ride in the morning, a medium speedboat ride and short van ride in the morning, or a short boat and van ride in the afternoon. We had discussed doing an island boat tour in the morning and then doing the afternoon boat and van but the cost of those combined was very, very steep. We also didn't want to spend all day in a minivan so we chose the speedboat option. It ended ...

What a wonderful, crazy day. I honestly don't even know where to begin. Bangkok is just... so much. Like so many sounds and colors and smells and tastes and people, ohhhhh the people. It's just a lot to take in and makes everything kind of a blur. I've read about that and I've seen some YouTube videos about it too but nothing really prepares you for it. We saw it a tiny bit yesterday with the train/taxi ride but really experienced it in earnest today. WARNING: This is a very long post. Breakfast at Hostel The day had an inauspicious start. As I mentioned in the last post, I woke up at around 1am or so because we were dumb and didn't plan our sleep schedule well. So I was awake for a long time this morning just hanging out at the hostel. The hostel has a really cool set up and I like the location (in a quiet neighborhood but within walking distance of major sites). Lacey woke up at around 2:30am too so we were both wide awake in the middle of the night. We deci...

So it's the night before we leave and I can't really wrap my mind around the fact that it's finally here. We planned this whole trip out soooooo long ago that it never really seemed real and sort of still doesn't. Quick recap: We will get to MSP airport around 2pm and take off at 4pm for Chicago. We will fly out of Chicago to Taiwan at 12am. Then we will fly from Taiwan at 6am Tuesday morning (time changes are insane) and finally land in Bangkok at 11am on Tuesday January 2. Check out the map below. Today was kind of a rough day for me. We did our last tanning session yesterday and I burned myself in a bunch of spots because I'm an idiot. I didn't sleep well last night because of that (like 4 hours of sleep). We drove up to Alexandria to visit Lacey's mom's family which was great buuuuut we had to drop off our cat, Loki. Lacey's mom is doing us a huge favor and is cat-sitting him while we're gone. Loki is our little cat baby so it was kind...

For most people this won't be that interesting to read about but I wanted to post the planned schedule for where we'll be each day for family or friends wondering. This is the longest trip I've done since Europe in college (Lacey went to Europe this summer for 5 weeks so this is old hat for her).  Sunday, December 31 - Fly to Chicago at 3:55pm Monday, January 1 - Leave Chicago at 12:20am Tuesday January 2 - Land at 10:40am, find our hostel, explore a little, and rest up Wednesday January 3 - Bangkok (historical sights, canal tour, lots of food, khao san road) Thursday January 4 - More Bangkok, fly to Krabi at 6:15pm Friday January 5 - Beach Time, Phi Phi Island tour? Or other tour? Saturday January 6 - Ao Phang Nga National Park (Boat tour and canoe trip) Sunday January 7 - Beach Time, take boat to Phuket Area Monday January 8 - Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, more beach time Tuesday January 9 - Fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia at 6:20am, find hotel, explore temples? Wedn...