30 hours later I'm in Koh Samui

What an adventure getting here...but here I am indeed.

Koh Samui.

Basically things break down like this. All times are in EST.

Monday 10pm - Take off from Newark
11pm - Actually take off from Newark after some weird delay
Tuesday 6:30am - Land in Stockholm, Sweden
6:30am - 8:15am - Sit in Arlanda airport waiting for plan to be refueled etc...
8:15am - 7:00pm - Leave Stockholm, fly over the entire world and finally land in Malaysia
7:00pm - 10:00pm - Walk around KL Airport waiting for connecting flight to Bangkok
10pm - Take off from KL
10pm - 12:05 am - Fly to and land in Bangkok
Wednesday 12:05 - 1:20am - Wander around Bangkok airport, get lost, eat ice cream, get oriented
1:20am - 2:30am - Fly to Koh Samui
2:30am - 3:30am - Drive to bungalow where I will be staying
3:31am - Collapse
3:35am - Go to pool

That's a lot of travelling I tell ya!

Many observations thus far but the biggest one is this, finding the "spiritual" side of Thailand will be a challenge. It's here, you can feel it, but it's hidden behind the HUGE wall of tourism that permeates seemingly everything. I think I'm saved in that I'm Asian and people can't automatically assume I'm a tourist. I could easily be a Malaysian business women. But then I open my mouth and out spouts the good old American English.

I'm going to try and avoid most of the more touristy trappings...by that I mean the cheap "handmade" village jewelry that gets hawked at every road side petrol station and food stand. My goals are as follows: back, swim in the ocean, practice some yoga, get lots of Thai massages, maybe take a class on Thai massage, take a cooking class, get SCUBA certified, and maybe get a tailor to replicate my favorite summer dress a couple of times.

I'm gonna have dinner soon and then probably collapse for awhile.

Cheers for now.