We made it! Jon and I are in Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived last night a bit after 9 pm local time. This gets us to 6 continents visited. A number likely to remain the same as Antarctica really holds no appeal to me, because… cold.

Most of our avid readers know we’re on an adventure, but just in case you don’t know, here’s the short version. Jon and I quit our jobs (well, I’m technically on a leave of absence which I didn’t even know was an option, woo) and we ended our lease in Melbourne. We have a bit of stuff in storage, our car in a random old lady’s driveway and we’re in Asia for a few weeks, then the US, then Australia, then New Zealand for varying durations with more to come on those trips in the blog. We plan on living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia when all is said and done, because… warm AND sun.

So, back to Thailand. We flew Thai airways here and they lived up to their reputation as a decent airline, serving essentially two dinners both of which were actually not bad. Two random bits about the flight:

1. An old Italian man smoked a cigarette in the plane bathroom. He didn’t seem to get into trouble, but he also never smoked a second one. Phew.
2. Thailand advertises itself to people who are on their way to Thailand by way of interrupting all in flight entertainment and playing an endless commercial for the last 15 or so minutes of the flight. I’ll never know what happened on that episode of the Big Bang Theory (except that I’ve already seen it 2 times).

Today we indulged in our hotel’s free breakfast and got advice on how to get to The Grand Palace. We have the subway and sky train figured out for the most part so the first leg went smoothly.

After that we needed to find a ferry. This is where things got a bit dicey. Every other Thai man wanted to help us get where we were going. Unfortunately, they all want you not to go where you are going. Each one told us The Grand Palace wasn’t open and some other nonsense. I’m not entirely sure what their end game is though as they weren’t really trying to get us to do something else instead.

We had a near miss where we almost paid 100 baht (~$2.95 USD) for a long tail boat, but we managed to figure out that wasn’t quite right and made it to the normal ferry for 15 baht (~$.44 USD). Yeah, yeah, the money wasn’t much, but we didn’t want to be taken for rubes!

We made it to The Grand Palace and went to nearby Wat Pho. We had a fantastic first day and really enjoyed walking around. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Grand Palace

Wat Pho

We’re hoping to post frequently during the Asia leg of the trip, but no promises!

After two years without going on my annual golf trip, I was getting a bit antsy.  Luckily my family lives in Raleigh, just an hour north of our golf trip location, so I was able to combine a visit with family with the festiveness of Golf Trip and a bonus side trip to see Mike at Clemson.  I get more vacation days than Sara, so I didn’t have to sacrifice any fun trips with her to make this work! 2 weeks in America, woo.

I hitched a ride (for free!  Thanks 2013 HandelTech business travel!) on the Qantas Airbus A380 to Raleigh via Los Angeles and Charlotte.  I had a challenging connection at LAX and my golf clubs ended up a flight behind me, but all in all I made it fairly unscathed, if a bit jet-lagged.  Certainly better than our experience in December.  I had a good couple of days visiting with my family despite two plus days of torrential rain.  I got to hang with Natasha and Nick a good amount along with my dad and step-mom.

Then it was off to meet the mates in Pinehurst, NC for what was an annual trip (8 years in a row leading up to 2014 for me) before I left for Australia.  The boys managed to scrape together a trip without me in 2015, but not in 2016.

Lots of golf was played, along with Kan Jam when we got home.

And how could we not choose King Cobra 40oz as our drink of choice given it’s $2 price tag.  It helped dull the pain of 36 holes of golf and Capitals losses.

After Pinehurst, it was off to Clemson to meet up with Mike and see what he was up to in South Carolina.  He was a great host – in a day and half we got in a trip to a local brewery, grilled massive steaks, watched the Caps win and even played golf.

Then it was back to to Raleigh for more family time.  I saw Natasha’s softball team score an epic walk-off win and again went kayaking with Nick on the small pond behind their house.  I even managed to get in a round of golf with my dad.  I also provided numerous, much need IT services for the household.

I headed back to Australia via the epic Dallas – Sydney route.  For a while it was the longest flight in the world, now I think it is #3 or something.  It was a 17 hour flight.  Luckily I was able to sleep for quite a bit of it.  Then thanks to my arrival to Melbourne via Sydney, Sara was able to meet me right at the gate!  Woo.