Bags are packed

When you book a trip for February in July it seems as if it will take forever to get here! Well, believe it or not, seven months have passed and tomorrow my parents and I embark on our adventure to Thailand! This trip has required much more preparation and planning than our past vacations. A trip to the International Travel Medicine clinic resulted in a typhoid shot and a terrifying briefing by a very passionate doctor who concluded her visit with "You will have a wonderful time". Ok, lady, now that you have told us we should only eat food served by people wearing gloves (What are the chances of that happening?) and that we might die if a mosquito bites us, sure we'll have a great time! Thhhhanks. After that visit, I frantically quizzed my friends who have been to Thailand about the thrills and the dangers. They all assured me that that lady was quite zealous and we really would have a wonderful time!

On Monday, we went to our primary care doctor to get our Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and Tetanus shots. He filled prescriptions for malaria pills, Cipro, Zofran, and a patch that helps seasickness for my dad. We are a walking pharmacy, I tell ya! All of this is probably an act of over precaution, but considering a mosquito in Richmond will come and bite my dad and I in DC, better safe than sorry!

It was fun to pick out the clothes to take on the trip. Did I mention it is 95 degrees and sunny there right now?! My suitcase is jammed full of summer clothes in hues of orange, pink, and white. Sadly, I had to leave out the cute shoes. I won't be able to blend into the crowd because if you look at my feet, my tennis shoes and socks scream "tourist"!

Our ride will come at 8am tomorrow morning to take us to the airport. Our first flight from Dulles to Tokyo is 17.5 hours! Yes, you read that right. Seventeen-and-a-half hours. I am struggling to pack a bag for the plane. 2 books, 2 magazines, an iPod, an iPhone, a deck of cards, Soduku - iPod will probably die half way through the flight because the battery life is not that long --- and that is just the FIRST flight. We land in Tokyo, sit around there for 2 hours, and then board a second flight lasting 5.5 hours to our destination, Bangkok. I will probably be bored of all of the stuff I brought to do by our second flight, so maybe I can catch up on some movies I missed in the theaters. Don't even get me started on what to do on the return flights! Who the heck knows?! Any ideas?

In 18 hours, I will embark on the longest flight of my life for the biggest adventure of my life! I'll be tired, dirty, stiff, and probably a little heavier from all they will be feeding me. But, who cares! In this case, it's the destination, not the journey, that counts. I'm leaving behind freezing temperatures, traffic, and long days for heat, sun, elephant rides, long necked ladies, Buddhist temples, and amazing food! A 24 hour flight! Oh well. I wouldn't trade it for the world.