It's a Small World After All

Day Seven: 2/18 – Travel to Phuket
Title: It’s a small world after all


Greetings from 33,000 feet. Dad and I are currently on our flight from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Many of you are probably familiar with Phuket. It supposedly has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world (I will confirm or deny this shortly). Sadly though it may be better known for its role in the tsunami a few years back. I do not anticipate that there will be much remaining evidence of this disaster, but I will keep you posted on that as well.

Today has been fairly uneventful. We spent last night in Chiang Rai, which meant that we had to drive three hours this morning to the Chiang Mai airport to catch our flight. We left the hotel at 7:45 am and arrived at the airport, imagine that, around 10:45 ;~>

I had fun looking out the window on our drive for the approximately 30 minutes of it that I was awake. The rest of the time I spent sleeping curled up in a ball in the back seat with my head on dad’s lap. You know he is a loving and kind man when he tells you it is special to him that you drooled on his pants :~>

One of the `many perks of being an Executive Premier on United is having a gold pass for all of the other airlines in “The Star Alliance”. Today we are flying on Thai Airlines so we got to go in their Royal Orchid Club. The food was only okay (no Frosted Flakes ;~( ) but the Internet was super fast and free. I had fun Google Chatting with mom. All of you should be very proud that she figured out how to chat all on her own. I’m trying to talk her into trying iChat with me but she is fearful it is above her tech abilities. Joel or Jody… if you guys are still reading this you should go over to the house and help her figure out how to do it. She won’t call and ask either of you but I know she’d really like it if you did.

Something cool that I forgot to mention from yesterday was that we saw the Queen. Evidently it is tradition for members of the royal family to distribute degrees (or at least attend) university graduations throughout Thailand. We stopped at the airport in Chiang Rai to see if we could fly to Phuket from there instead of Chiang Mai. We didn’t have any luck with the flight change but we had great luck in that we got to see Thailand’s version of Air Force One land. The ceremony of it all was very cool. There were a lot of military personnel (I think more for show than security). Hundreds of locals lined the fences to catch a glimpse of the Queen. There were red-carpeted stairs and everything. When not flying in her Airbus 320, the Queen rolls in a Lexus if any of you were wondering.

We are now cruising at 34,000 feet with a ground speed of 500 mph. There is a TV in front of me that tells me this. Cruising above our grand Earth I can’t help but think how truly small the world is. When I sat down in my seat (we got upgraded to first and are not sure why :~) I took out the entertainment guide. I wanted to see the music selections. The only English channel is titled “Plugged In… a World-Wide Selection of Pop-Hits” The very first song listed is Breathe In Breathe Out by Mat Kearney. For those of you that do not know, Mat went to both school and church with Jason and me. He, like us, grew up in the South Hills of Eugene (a short walk from our house). After settling in we were offered an English paper “The Bangkok Post”. Dad grabbed a copy and began reading it. In the sports section there is an article about this week’s PGA Tour stop. Jeff Quinney, another South Eugene hills kid (a short walk the other direction), SEHS grad and good friend had a nice write up discussing his “hole in one” and current second place standing behind Phil Mickleson. It is mind boggling to me that I can be cruising in the sky over Thailand reading about two friends from home in the provided in-flight literature. It truly is “a small, small world.”

We are about to begin our descent so it is time to sign off. I am sure I’ll write more tonight about my initial impression of Phuket. I CAN’T WAIT to put my feet in the sand!

Phuket is a fascinating place. We are staying on Patong beach. I would liken it to Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Patong beach is an interesting place to visit with one’s dad. Wandering the streets after dinner we saw lots of call girls and girls offering “kitty” massages. We are still not really sure what that is… but we think Mia (my bro/sis’s cat) would like it ;~>

The Internet in this hotel is not very good and I don’t know how many minutes I have left but I believe they are in short supply. I have plenty more observations about Phuket to note but I will save them for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our first tour free day. Dad and I have big plans of sleeping in, walking on the beach and swimming in the ocean. It is our seventh day on the trip and we are ready for a rest. I’ll leave you with the Doctor P. fun fact of the day.

We ate dinner tonight in an amazing restaurant (more on that in the next installment). The moon glowing over the water was beautiful. The view led to a discussion about the science of the moon and sun. I was asking about what/where/why and how they moved in the sky. I’m sure I learned this at some point in science class but didn’t remember it. My dad, not surprisingly, knew the details of all of it. To illustrate his points he referenced our house. During this discussion I learned dad specifically planned the placement of our house on our lot so that it sits PERFECTLY on a north south axis. Because of this on September 21st (ish) and March 21st (ish) the sun rises and sets in a perfect line with the French doors in our living room and the front door of our house. He gets up on these days to witness the sunrise. I suppose he likes to truly experience the changing of the seasons (the first day of fall and spring, respectively)…. That or the fact that he sees “the shadow cast by the Palladian windows (in the French doors) fall perfectly in the center of the front door. This makes me (him) happy because it is symmetrical.” The guy should be an eye surgeon or something ;~>

I’m really tired. I’m going to go sleep with the ants in my bed now. I’ll write more tomorrow.

All my best,
Katy