Game day!

So I am sitting in my apartment at 6:58am waiting to head to the airport. It is 11:58pm in Thailand so it's about time for bed..... See you in Bangkok tomorrow.

24 hours away

Actually it's 19 hours away but who's counting..... We got our converter app set on the iphone, set our email "out of the country" reminders, printed the train schedule from Bangkok to Southern Thailand, set my watch to the proper time (S.E. Asia is 15 hours ahead) and confirmed hotel and pick up for the first night. Actually that is the only reservation we made, the rest we will figure out as we go. We got our pick up set from our house, arriving about 3 hours early to be safe and figured out a game plan so we can get on the time schedule. If we sleep right away on the plane (11:40am pacific time) we will wake up in the early hours and that way when we land in Thailand (11pm the next day) we will hopefully be able to sleep that night. My plan take my Theraflu night-time as soon as I get on the plane.

Ideas for the trip

Anyone been to Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam? Or is there anything anyone would like to see? I a looking for last minute recommendations.....

Last Minute Prep

4 days until we depart for the trip! Today, it is the last visit to the travel clinic for the booster for our Hep B shot and my flu shot. The last and hopefully final trips to Target or REI and the search for flip-flops for Eric. I prefer Reefs, I ordered mine a few weeks ago...... Our trip to the bank to change in the coins I rolled over the last few weeks, an extra $115 goes a long way in S.E. Asia. Lastly the search for travel toilet paper..... It seems to be non-existant anymore.

1 week out!

So we leave in a week! I am done with work, Eric is finishing up. This week is all about last minute running around; picking up prescriptions which we are finding out is a bit of a pain, getting the remaining toiletries, making a schedule for someone to get our mail and feed the cat. Not as much on our "to do" list as we thought so for me it's all about getting the everyday things done. That is what stresses me out, I have to have the house clean, all laundry done, all our bills paid and scanning and emailing all our documents to our parents so in case of an emergency some one has our info.

We looked at the travel journal from the Central America trip just to compare notes and look at our daily budget. We also made a list last time of things we didn't need and things we want to bring next time. That came in handy! This kept me distracted about the plane, I am sure in the next few days it will all come back to me.

Pre-trip diet

So I remember the days that I could just say "I want to lose a few pounds before my trip" and poof it happened. That is not the case anymore.... Last week I worked out 5 days straight and I am pretty sure I gained weight. There is no way I can fit into my bathing suit or even possibly my shorts. Everyone says "you will lose weight on the trip" which I am sure will happen but I need that pre-trip body. It's like when people used to go tanning (do they still do that?) before they go to a beach. You absolutely don't want to look like a ghost when you step onto the beach and you for sure don't want to burn. In this case I just don't want people to laugh at me. Let's see if I can make that happen.

Plane Anxiety

The closer we get to leaving the more excited I get but the last couple days I have been thinking more and more about the plane ride. It is 20 hours and 35 minutes, I have never been on a plane for more than 7 or 8 hours. How is it possible to fly that long? Seriously.... I start to get anxious after like 5 hours, what if I start to freak out? Should I take anything? I have enough trouble sleeping as it is, will they give me a pillow? These are questions I need answered. Any good long term flying tips would be much appreciated....

3 Weeks Out!

So today marks 3 weeks until we leave for the trip. We are so excited and so ready for another adventure! In fact I am so ready that I have already packed, well at least my first stage. I have three stages of packing the first is going through everything I want to bring, try it on and see what I need. Then I try to see if what I want to pack actually fits in my backpack. Now I know going into this that it never fits.... but it is always interesting to see if I can find a new packing technique that mysteriously lets me bring more. Stage two is about a week or so before and it is adding in whatever new stuff I got which means I need to eliminate some of the old. Stage three is a few days before and well it is the final stage, it's the realistic stage that for a five week trip I will only be able to take about 25% of what I originally packed. Good thing it will be hot!!

Joshua Tree National Park NYE 2010

We left around 7:30am, with no traffic it only took like 2 hours. We stopped for breakfast, fyi there is only a Denny's and Carrow's in Yucca Valley right before you hit the park. We stopped at Denny's, the food was good but service was terrible!

We spent the day hiking and even had lunch on a group of rocks in the middle of nowhere over-looking the park. As the sun went down it got pretty cold so we headed to Palm Springs which was only about 30 minutes from there. We spent time in the pool and hot tub, then hit the downtown area for a Mexican dinner complete with margaritas. We headed back to the hotel to miss the craziness. Since we missed midnight last year in Nicaragua after a very long and draining travel day with a ferry (if that is what they call it) ride that had me praying for my life and as sick as a dog, we made it a point to be awake this time.   Not a bad way to end 2010.....