Back and intact...
so...how did i get to Thailand? well, i'll start there but it's not nearly as interesting as how i got BACK.
LR is a beautiful, smart girl who graduated bioengineering in 2006, but she took a dare and became a flight attendant for a year. now, one of the benefits of having such a friend is her companion passes. they're standby tickets, but they're severely discounted and upgradedable. so...2 days before i flew back from houston to LA, we decided to take this (quick) trip 1/2way around the world together.
this is us in FIRST CLASS from SFO to Narita, Japan. the service was *excellent* (even my salad, one of the FIVE courses i got for dinner, was served with a chilled fork) and our seats lowered all the way down into a full bed!!
so we made it there fine - thru SF, Nartia, Bangkok, and then up to Chiang Mai, a city in the northern region.
one fantastic thing was that our philosophy about this vacation was very similar - we lived cheap and traveled hard. our various living accomodations ranged from $3-10/person. our most expensive meal was probably $8. of course, we still spent quite a bit of money on other things...getting $7 massages everyday, taking a $20 cooking class, and riding an elephant for $5. =) 
this was during our 4-hr cooking class. we were taken to a local market and our instructor taught us about all the ingredients. we made panang curry, fried spring rolls, chicken satay, and mangoes with sticky rice. yumm.....!
the next day, we took a trip up to the Elephant Conservation Center. There, they help ailing elephants recover from their logging career. and WE GOT TO RIDE ONE!!!
on our hunt for a local restaurant mentioned in our Lonely Planet book (a terrific resource!!), we stopped by this random temple...this was pretty much the only temple we went to but at least it makes for a pretty picture.
after 2 days there, we flew back down to Bangkok and spent a lovely day navigating the local express boats and joining in on an outdoor techno-aerobics class. =)
the original plan was for me to fly back to LA the next morning, but that fell thru when we found out there were NO available standby seats available for at least a full week! then, i found out at the travel agency that i couldn't even purchase a full-fare ticket to LA until Thursday!
therefore, i had to purchase a one-way ticket to Narita for the next day and hope to take a flight to LA from there...so on my extra day in Thailand, we went to the Weekend Market and stuffed ourselves with as much Thai food as possible.
and finally, i come to the most crazy part of my trip - the way home... it took 42 hours and involved an extra $800 & traveling thru Bangkok, Narita, Honolulu, Maui, and LA. it could've been even wilder, as we got more and more desperate towards the end and were putting ourselves on the Denver and Chicago lists as well, but by the grace of God, i made it to LA directly from HI and arrived home @ 5am on Monday morning. lesson learned: never fly standby during the holidays! (...or maybe ever!) =)
but would i do it all over again, even knowing the pain at the end? yup!..in a heartbeat. it's going to go down in my personal history as the singlemost exotic (and expensive) trip i've ever taken, and i wouldn't trade our many priceless moments for anything!
