Everyone has been asking me how Thailand is, so I thought I may as well do a blog post. My husband is still in his meetings for another few hours, and I’ve been camping out at our hotel since 6am this morning. I’m having a lot of trouble with the time difference, and the days go by slow since I have no one to talk to. I’ve spent a lot of time working on new designs, like a Christmas line, and a few new wedding invitations I’m anxious to introduce!

Getting here
Getting here wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and worse than I’d hoped it would be. Weather conditions delayed our first flight out, and we barely caught our flight to Tokyo because of it. A typhoon hit Japan as we were nearing, so our plane circled for awhile adding an extra 90 minutes to our already 13 hour flight. Engine trouble delayed our last flight by an extra two hours, and we didn’t get to our hotel until 3am Thursday morning.

Stormy clouds over Japan

We got into Thailand around 1am, and took a cab to our hotel. By the time we got through customs, drove 30 minutes to our hotel and got checked in it was 3:30am Thai time (which is 4;30pm US time). We’d been up since 6am the day before, and we were EXHAUSTED.

Ben had meetings all day the following day, but later that night we met up with a few of his colleagues and went to dinner at a restaurant within walking distance.

Ben had shrimp, I had chicken and cashews

It was really cool to meet some of the men and women he was meeting with. Carl-Eric is from Sweeden. Dev is from Britain, and Emma is from Australia. I can’t decide whose accent I love the most!! They’re all incredible people and we sat and talked for three hours straight at this restaurant. It was a really fun night!

The restarautn was outdoors, but had a canopy over the dining areas. Exposed birdcages hung from the ceiling with a lightbulb inside. It was really pretty!

Last night, we went for a walk before we went to dinner. There is a Carrefore within walking distance, and we had to cross a skywalk to get over.

Us, on the skywalk, overlooking the highways.

We read reviews on the Carrefore, and we understood it to be like a Wal-Mart. We went there in hopes of getting some coke and maybe a bag of chips. I’ve been craving Western food so badly, and there are absolutely no options other than Thai cuisine here. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well DUH, that’s a given” but I truly expected there to be a mixture of foods available since this area has so many tourists. I have to admit… there is only so much chicken and rice I can eat before I crave a slice of pizza!

The Carrefore was more like a flea-market on the bottom level (which sold cheap, plastic things). The upstairs was supposed to be an actual market, but it looked more like a Dollar General to me. There truly wasn’t anything worth buying, and while we DID find Lays chips… they were shrimp flavored.

This morning, after breakfast ,we walked to 7-11. THEY HAD COKE. AND PRINGLES. This completely made my day.

It’s slightly sweeter than coke we have back home, and I suspect that they use real sugar in it. Ben says it reminds him of Throw Back Pepsi, so.. I guess it’s real sugar after all!

It’s 6pm here now, and Ben is still in his meetings. They decided to make today extra long so everyone could have tomorrow off. We are moving to our next hotel in the morning, and will be downtown. I’m really excited to explore the city, and go to the Grand Palace.

So, that’s the last four days in a nutshell! Not too exciting, but I didn’t expect lots of site seeing while Ben is in his meetings. I’m not comfortable leaving the hotel by myself, and by the time he gets back he’s so tired he just wants to sleep.

Tomorrow, though, we get to start our real adventure in Thailand!