And now for a long, quasi-narrative of the vaca C08:::
We left QD in the evening and went to the airport to check in and hang out... good times. Our connecting flight was in Shenzhen. When we got there we had to switch over from domestic to international terminal. It's not the best marked airport I've ever seen, but it works. And of course not speaking Chinese kind of made a difference. To get to the international terminal we had to go outside down a hundred yards and into a rinky-dink check in counter: they hand wrote our boarding passes. Hm. Went through security and then waited... Now, our tickets were cheap, which was nice, but there was a reason it is cheap, and why they ever decided to do this in the Asian culture I'll never understand; but it's first come first serve: no seat assignments. Yeah. We stood there while people pushed and shoved to get onto the bus to take us to our plane and then push and shove off the bus onto the plane to get a reasonable seat. Woo. Part one complete!
We landed in Bangkok, Thailand, at 4am... there was an option to wait until 6.30 to catch a bus or to grab a taxi and get there faster and not have to sleep in the airport; we chose taxi. He was also falling asleep so Kayla talked to him to keep him from going all over. We made great time because he was going 140km/hr.
We woke up to construction going on next door, wandered out to the beach and laid in a chair for the day: reading, swimming, soaking up sun; it was great! For dinner we went to "walking street" which was a bit sleezy so we stayed away from those type of things. I got Starbuck's mugs (a tradition, I send Dad a mug and I buy a tumbler for me!). Called it a day and went back to our hostel.
Christmas Day! We woke up decently early, hit 7-11 for breakfast and sat outside waiting for the bus to take us to SNORKLING! :-) got our gear and headed to another bus to go to the boat! After about an hour or so I puked my guts (and breakfast) up and over the side of the boat, then got off and went snorkling (good times). We saw sea urchines, stars, plants and loverly things! Got back on the boat, took a sea-sick pill, ate the most delicious home-made (on the boat-made) Thai food and went to the next dive spot. More beauty just under the surface of the water! And then we left for land, which we made me very happy! :-) We got changed and went out for Christmas dinner at a local hole in the wall place that we randomly wandered by. I had lasagna! On the way back we stopped for a foot massage, ahhhhh! And then for ice cream which we took to the beach! What a great day!
Friday, got up... went to Continental for breakfast and encountered a completely creepy guy... seriously creepy, we ignored him and had a great breakfast! ;-) and then proceeded to go back to the beach and do nothing! That's a vacation baby! That night we found the best Mexican outside out of Mexico! We had heard about a big market so we walked... and walked... and walked, and finally found it... and it was like a Goodwill out doors. So we left.
Saturday we were going to lay on the beach and do nothing, but we found a place that does elephant rides... and so we went!! :-) So fun! The man had his five year old son with him that was giving the elephant commands and knew how to run the show all on his own! So cute! We came back and decided to go parasailing (we are on the go people once we get moving!) So we went! Down the beach, found the place and away we go! It was fun! I could see the whole city from up there! I flew over a couple of boats and hung on for dear life! I had a crash landing and the Tatum got to fly high... :-) Having done enough for the day, we went back to the beach and laid there until it was time to go for dinner and having had such an amazing experience at Mexican, we went back!! After a very filling dinner we found an internet cafe with Skype access and called home :-) so wonderful to talk to family!
Sunday we got up and headed to the bus station to go back to Bangkok to see some things before flying out! When we got to the city we wandered to a hostel Kayla found online, but being so close to New Year's Eve they had no openings and pointed us to another one. We got lost on the way and eneded up finding another, FABULOUS hostel: hqhostel.com something straight out of the Pottery Barn! Dropped stuff and went to SUBWAY! YUMMY! Then off to the night/weekend market found some super cute things and back to the hostel to crash for the night.
Monday we had breakfast at the hostel then set out to go grocery shopping! :-) I got ranch dressing, chocolate, spices, cereal and some other fun stuff! Stopped on the way back at A&W Rootbeer Stand for floats! We can't get rootbeer here very easily, so it was a great treat! I'd heard that going to a movie was quite an experience so we walked until we found a theater. There were only a couple English movies, so we decided on Australia. Before the movie there were the standard previews then there was music and everyone stood up for a montage of the King, then we sat down and watched the movie. Quite the expreience. And for the rest of the day we walked around and I read and laid down. We went out to some good Thai food and did a little shopping on the sidewalks and called it a day.
Tuesday we met up with a friend and went to the palace via boat, took lots of pictures and explored! Ended our time with A&W Rootbeer stand, again. Then headed off to the airport for some insanity reprised. Tatum's itnerary was jacked up and they said she missed her flight by a day, so she had to rebook, we had to run through security and then fight our way onto the the first come first served airline seating. Woo. Landed in Shenzhen and slept in the airport until Starbucks opened. Bought hot chocolate and mugs :-) and slept til our plane was getting ready.
All in all... and AMAZING trip :-)
