Planning Ahead This Time!

Some of you know that we've previously traveled without reservations into Europe, allowing us to be spontaneous.  In Italy it served us well because we were able to follow the unexpected sun that we found in Cinque Terra to Sorrento, which wasn't even on our radar for the trip.  We loved Sorrento and stayed for four nights.  In Scotland and Ireland we had just a couple of bookings to make with most of our trip flying by the seat of our pants.  I wouldn't say it was as effective as Italy, mainly because some of the smaller towns we hit in those countries weren't as quick to accommodate AirBnB bookings.  One night we almost slept in the rental car.  Finding wifi wasn't as easy either, which made for a more stressful trip.  Don't get me wrong -we still had an amazing time and you can read all about that trip on our blog here: https://themooresacrossthepond.blogspot.com/

However, Asia makes me nervous.  It was never on my bucket list and I didn't have any desire to go.  I can't begin to read the language.  I'm worried about what I'll be eating.  Will I get sick from water?  Will it be clean?  How is medical care if needed?  What is their view of Americans?  In contrast, Eric has wanted to go to Thailand for as long as I've known him.  His parents went a few times and they loved it.  I figured the younger I am the less set in my ways I'll be, so this trip I suggested we go.  Mainly, I just wanted to "get it over with".  However, my caveat being that I wanted this trip planned.  I didn't want to be worrying about transport, a place to stay, wifi access, etc.  I wanted everything as planned as possible.  Eric readily agreed and we started doing research.

It's funny, as soon as I started watching Youtube videos, reading blogs, talking with people that have been I started to get excited.  Now, I can hardly wait!  In four months from now we'll be back from our trip.  I can't believe time is going so fast.  This trip may be a little TOO booked ahead, but I'd rather know exactly where we're going and how we're getting there.  It makes me feel better :)


So, this is our plan:
We fly out form Seattle on May 1st at 1:30 AM.  Yep, you read that right - RED EYE! We chose Seattle because the affordable flight from Portland forced a long layover in Korea and we didn't want to waste a day sitting in an airport.  Seattle had a "cheap" flight that takes us through Taipei and we only have a 3 hour layover before heading on toward Bangkok.  Due to the International Date Line we'll be arriving in Bangkok on Thursday May 2rd at 11:05 AM.  Total travel time is 20 hours (17 in flight).  We chose the red eye because we both work on April 30th and wanted to start our journey ASAP.

We'll tour Bangkok on the 2nd and stay the night there in a plain jane hotel.  It's $37.  Did I mention that Thailand is cheap yet?  Yah... it's cheap!  We had originally planned to go to Florida this year and visit our friends Bill and Dorothy to save money and save up for another year to make our over seas trip.  But when I started running the numbers I realized that Thailand was only about $400 more than what it'd cost us to travel to Florida and go to the parks, etc.  So Thailand it is.  I know we could even travel cheaper if we flew by the seat of our pants, but we already covered my aversion to that above.

The cheap Bangkok hotel is near the Phaya Thai train station, which will make it easy to get to/from the airport.  Although, our friend Derrick has told us to get a new sim card for my phone at the airport and order a taxi through the Grab app.  It's the Uber of Thailand.  He said avoid making it difficult when your jet lagged.  We'll see - we'll be prepared for both options.

The morning of the 3rd we'll take the train back to the airport and catch an 8 AM flight to Krabi.  We land in Krabi at 9:20 and we splurge.  This is the one hotel that is NOT cheap.  I really want to eat at a restaurant that's in a cave - it's called The Grotto.  This place is gorgeous! and part of the Rayavadee Resort. So we're staying a night at the resort just so we can eat in this cave.  Seems over the top, but we figured if we fly 20 hours we might as well splurge when we want to.  It's not like we can easily get back there to experience it at some other time.  Plus, the hotel sends a boat to pick us up from our flight (you can only arrive to the resort by boat).

After our single night at Rayavadee we'll take a short boat ride to Ao Nang and stay in a cheaper hotel for 3 more nights - The Hula Hula.  While in the Krabi area we plan to SCUBA, hike, and relax in the sun - a beach vacation.  We found a scooter rental facility that will deliver our scooter to our hotel so it'll be there when we arrive - only $7 a day.  Yep, cheap.

The morning of the 7th we'll fly up to Chiang Mai and stay at a guesthouse within the walled city for 3 nights.  In Chiang Mai we plan to take a cooking class, visit the night markets, and experience an elephant sanctuary where we get to feed and bathe the elephants.  I'm so excited to do this I can barely stand it.  Here's a picture of a group bathing the elephants.  They have a facebook page where you can see more pictures as well.  https://www.facebook.com/maerimelephantsanctuary/

The morning of the 10th we'll fly back to Bangkok and stay our last night in the city before flying out the following afternoon.  We leave Bangkok at 4PM and get into Seattle at 7 PM on the 11th!  Only a 3 hour flight back!  Amazing. 😉

So that's our plan.  Everything is booked and scheduled.  So Excited!