Big trip prep and frisbee!

The grind is real. We’re working through our last month and a half at work, and gearing up for what comes after. I enjoy the work, and of course the kids, but it’s hard to focus sometimes with the Thailand trip on the horizon – and there’s a lot to do.

But it’s getting done!

This week we wrestled with the airlines and locked down our macro-flight tickets (Seoul to Bangkok, Bangkok to home, and Bangkok to Mandalay). There will be a few short flights around Thailand besides those, but we should be able to book them on the fly. Notes from that process: Air Asia is the worst. It took us a handful of tries, emails, different payment methods, and third party handlers to get our tickets (luckily this was only for the Thailand to Mayamar leg of the trip – a relatively short, cheap flight).

We've also been mock-packing and weighing our luggage. I may have to ship a box home to lighten the load. The goal is to cut our load down to one suitcase and carry-on each.

Hopefully this is not a countdown to Hepatitis

As for vaccinations, we’ll need Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Japanese Emphen-something-or-another, and probably a tetanus-diphtheria booster. There’s a clinic in Itaewon (an international neghborhood in Seoul) that should have them all on hand. It’s just a matter of getting up early one Saturday and making the trip. The Hepatitis A shot alone is around 80 bucks, but who wants Hepatitis?  

I don’t want to get too much into what we’ll be doing on the SE Asia trip. I’ll write up roughish itinerary as the trip gets closer, and I plan on recording as I can. That’s going to be a lot of blogging. I will say, though, that the general route will take us through a good bit of Thailand (including Chang Mai in the north and the islands to the south). We’ll also be seeing Ankor Wat (!!!) in Cambodia and some amazing places in Mayamar. The whole trip will be about 23 days, which is somewhere between what I want and what is feasible.

More big news: Ray Jay, a good friend from college and a recently vetted dentist, will be travelling with us! He’s told me he was coming over for close to a year now, but I’m still shocked he bought the tickets. It’s just hard for people to get away for that long. But he’s coming! It’s going to be a lot of fun to roll around with a squad over there.

All of this kicks off on June 4^th when Maria and I fly from Seoul to Bangkok, where we’ll meet up with Ray Jay.

So, we’ve got a lot to be excited about, and a fair amount to do in the interim.

Fun Stuff:

The fruits of our first practice.

I’ve joined a men’s frisbee team, and we’re playing in a tournament in mid May. The team is made up of almost every dude I’ve met in Korea, and and we’re all joining forces to play in this super cool beach tournament in Busan (the big, coastal city at the end of the penninsula). Guys from Canada and all over the U.S. – all of them are also teachers.

I’d been dragging my feet on joining a league over here (and in Charlotte last year), and just never made time. This will be the perfect reason to visit Busan (and the beach), and it feels great to be playing frisbee again.

Our team name is the Inglorious Expats, so watch out.

As if that, and the SE Asia trip weren’t enough, Maria and I have started laying plans for an amazing trip over our long weekend in early May. More on that later.