After a day and a half of travel, Monday was a day to just try and get adjusted and relax. I had been fighting off a cold the whole week prior to leaving. Being on a plane that long didn't help matters. By the time we had gotten showered and to bed it was 3:30. Our bodies thought it was 3:30 in the afternoon but since they were so confused we told them to go back to bed. No surprise we both fell fast asleep.

Josh swears I spent most of the night talking in my sleep. I'm sure I was worrying about something. I was jolted out of bed at 7:30 when I heard our Skype. Skype. Computer. Must answer. Since I'm blind as a bat I woke Josh up to quickly answer it. I'm not sure what he thought I was saying but all I know is he ended up going to the bathroom. By the time we got our act together we had missed the call and couldn't get a connection to through at home. We hadn't talked to the kids in 36 hours so I was kiddie sick. After about half an hour we got the Skype signal to work briefly enough to see the kids but had to end up calling them. Hopefully this gets easier!

By 8:30 I was wide awake and starving. Our resort has free breakfast. Reminiscent of our honeymoon we planned to stuff ourselves silly and then eat an early dinner.

We took a look around for the first time. Our location was pretty ideal. Our room was on the far end of the resort where it was very isolated and right on the beach. I could sit on the couch on the patio listening the waves crash over the rocks for hours (probably why these posts are so long). We are walking distance to the crazy Patong beach area but completely removed. Since we are staying in a different part of Phuket for the next few days I think we picked pretty well!

Breakfast was quite yummy for a resort buffet. The normal omelet station and breakfast goodies plus tons of tropical fruits. We left stuffed. With our bellies full we headed to the pool that overlooks the ocean. The breeze is perfect. We turned on Taylor Swift and played a game of Scrabble. Is this Josh's dream day or what? After I won Scrabble (you read that right, I actually won a game of Scrabble against Josh!) we changed into our tennis shoes to walk into town. We needed to find an ATM and of all things I had forgotten sunglasses

The doorman/bellhop looked at us like we were crazy when we asked how to walk to town but he finally pointed us there. This had us worried and when we saw we were on a hill we were even more worried. However, other than avoiding the mopeds the walk was easy. The most dangerous part was trying not to get assaulted by the taxi drivers giving rides or masseuses offering massages. (Josh and I still debate what those really were)after passing a million ATM's we tried one. What was the conversion again?

We tried to take out one amount of baht. Nope. Hmmm. Strange. Lets try half. Uh oh. It locked our account. That's not good. We are going to need money for a dab tomorrow. No problem we will just call the bank. Good thing we have international service. Too bad it's now 9pm at night. Being the bright adults that we are, we open our eyes and see a woman sitting in front of us to exchange money. We exchange all the USD.

Josh looks at the receipt and says "oh". We have a max on what we can withdraw from our ATM. We were trying to withdraw too much baht. This is what sleep deprivation will do to you,

Now with money we go to find me some sunglasses. Josh drags me into a sunglasses shop with Gucci and Percy. I tell him I was thinking more Guci. We realize we are at the Hard Rock Hotel and remember where we are from last night. We stumble across a market with vendor after vendor of cheap knock of goods. Perfect. After looking at the same sunglasses over and over I pick a stunning pair of plastic yellow ones.

I had heard I should barter so this is how it went.

Lady: they are 250
Me: how about 200
Lady: are you going to buy another.
Me: no
Lady: okay

So I'm pretty sure that means I sucked at bartering. However, I got a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses for under $7.

Outfitted with my lovely sunglasses, we made our way back out of the market. I'm pretty sure that someone asked me why I was shiny. Because I'm sweating people! I was wearing a bikini and a tiny sundress and I was dripping. Josh was called the boss. And we were asked if were from Australian. Yep.

Josh was most entertained by the glass boxes on the end of the market rows that housed tattoo parlors. People were actually getting tattoos done in a glass box in the middle of this craziness.

Thoroughly exhausted and having accomplished what w set out to do we grabbed a giant coke from the store and made our way back up to the resort. The uphill walk was nowhere as hard as we feared but we still needed to cool off. An hour in the pool was about all Josh could handle before heading in from the sun.

After a nap we headed to the lobby for a little planning. When we checked in at 2 in the morning my brain hadn't been working fully and I later realized they had charged us almost twice our rate. The front desk staff was helpful and explained that was just a hold and they indeed had the correct rate on file. We also booked a taxi to take us to meet up with our group the next day. $15 for a 20 minute taxi ride isn't bad right? In NY that will basically get you in the cab.

It was still early but our no lunch plan was kicking in. We headed down by the ocean and saw that the Italian Restaurant had tables right on the water. There wasn't a better location to sit for the sunset. Everything about the dinner was perfect. We had a table right on the railing. There was hardly anyone there. The sunset was pretty, albeit obstructed by the mountain. The breeze was amazing. The food was not only yummy but reasonable. We are used to be killed by resort restaurants. We had an appetizer and salad to share, two large pasta dishes and a beer for Josh for a grand total of $50. In Hawaii we paid that for two drinks to get this view.

Our attempts to take a couple picture were comical. We only had the iPad. I will have to paste all the attempts together back home. Oh well. Josh played around with the night lighting around the grounds on the way back.

After dinner we unsuccessfully tried to connect back home. Then we grabbed the iPad, headed to the pool and played another game of scrabble with Miss Swift along the ocean. Patong put off fireworks over the water ever couple minutes. it was like a private show for us. I'm not sure we could imagine a more peaceful night. Now it's time to meet our friends!

Let's face it. Getting to Southeast Asia is just painful. Any way you slice it. No matter how many movies you have. No matter how much Ambien you take. It's just plain painful. Well, unless you have lots of money or lots of points and go first class, which we don't and didn't.

Even with all that, I'd say the trip went almost as well as I could have hoped. I had a slight brain fart when booking flights, which I will explain, but it worked out.

So we had to be in Phuket by Tuesday morning at 8am. The flight we could get would put us into Thailand at 1am. The idea of traveling for 29 hours and then spending a night in an airport to meet new friends - made we want to cry. We opted to leave a day early and get acclimated.

Our flight path was Charlotte - LA - Seoul - Phuket. We had a really difficult time booking tickets. Prices kept jumping. I'm still kicking myself for not booking the Signapore Air tickets at a super low rate last summer. We ended up booking LA to Phuket pretty reasonable and then we purchased Charlotte to LA with points.

The problem? Stupid me forgot about connection times. On the way there we theoretically had enough time. However, at LAX international flights are in a terminal at the end of the airport and terminals aren't connected. Add onto it the fact that the airline would only let us take one personal item (not two like our domestic flight) and we were now forced to make it by the baggage cutoff. We literally ran outside of LAX down the entire length of LAX and made it to the desk with minutes to spare. Had we missed this flight we would have been spending a day in LA.

Dripping with sweat we get to our terminal simply to wait for the delayed flight. Yes, how stupid is that? We were most impressed with what seemed like dozens of the most well manicured flight attendants I'd ever seen waiting to board our flight. Overall, I will say that the staff of Asiana Airlines were extremely polite and responsive.

Josh and I boarded our lowly travel seats and watched the lucky few climb the stairs to the promised land of first class. One day. I loved how quickly and efficiently these large planes loaded. Shortly we were up in the air and I was choosing which movie movie to start with. Bourne Legacy? Ah, yes. Good choice. Josh chose the same thing. So much for the benefit of our own screen and selections.

After figuring out that our super fancy Dr. Dre headphones will only allow us to be fancy in one ear on Asiana Airlines (sorry Best Buy, I'm pretty sure that means Josh will be returning), Jeremy Renner had me starting to forget about the next 12, actually 20, hours ahead of me.

I had heard mixed reviews on the food. Overall, Josh and I thought it was decent. It was without extra cost, filling and edible. That's more than I can say for most American Airlines. At the beginning of the flight we were given a choice of Western or Korean meal. I tend to think that eating airline food is adventurous enough so I went for the Western meal. Josh pretty much can't understand anything anyone is saying, so he always gets what I'm getting. Make that two Western meals. We had two meals on this plane and it all blurs together. I think we had beef, broccoli, potatoes, salad and mango cake. Later we had chicken, rice, fruit, vegetables, bread an some other stuff I never got to.

After the movie I have no clue what Josh did. I, however, was ready to sleep. I apparently passed out for a good 5 hours which is great for me. I woke up for another meal, watched Pitch Perfect, yet again because I'm obsessed, and we were coming into Seoul.

As we fly into Seoul you can tell its cold. The windows are icing and we can see islands with snow caps. It was pretty amazing. As soon as we get onto the jetway you can feel the 27 degree air hit you. We landed in Seoul a bit early and already had a 2 hr layover. Luckily you don't have to go through immigration to transfer.

The line to get up to the gates looks disastrously long but it goes quickly. The security check spits you into - is this a 5 star mall or an airport? Okay. A few things about the Seoul airport. It is by far the prettiest airport I remember traveling through. The key word being remember. Secondly, where the heck are the trash cans? I had to go on a hunting expedition to find one at the gate. Thirdly, someone please teach me how to connect to their wifi.

We finally get on our last flight and are on our way to Phuket. This flight is only 6 hrs but it almost killed me. I slept for 3 hrs (completely missed takeoff) and then was wide awake those last 3. I was over it.

But alas we landed. At 1:05am we touched down on Monday morning. About 29 hours after leaving. The Phuket airport was a breeze. We were through immigration and had our luggage by 1:45. Not wanting to mess with taxis I had prebooked a transfer through our hotel. The swarms of taxi drivers pouncing on us made me glad of that choice. The lavender scented wet cloths and ice cold waters waiting in the back of our town car made me super glad.

For the first two nights it is just Josh and I to relax. We (I) splurged and booked and ocean front room at a 5 star resort. Heck it's our 10 year anniversary trip and the rest of the time we will be with a group right? Plus, splurging in Thailand is a little different.

As we entered the open air lobby Josh and I both commented that it reminded us of the place we went for our honeymoon fitting. We easily checked in and found our room. I'm not sure what we were more excited about, a shower, the comfy bed or the fact that when we opened the patio door we discovered we were on an isolated beach. Ah.

From January 5th through the 20th, Josh and I will be on the Raddest Photo Trip Ever. Yes, that's really the name of the trip. You will hopefully be able to follow our journey here as we head out to Thailand and Cambodia. We are stoked!

P.S. I have no intentions of drinking elephant dung coffee. Thanks for the many suggestions.