October 17, 2023 • 55 mins
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Can We Start Over podcast! Lindsey and Britt recount their misadventures in Thailand with three kids.
Their adventure takes an unexpected turn, from their last-minute decision to go to Thailand without proper planning to their resort living and unexpected encounters.
Join them as they navigate the bustling city of Bangkok, ride tuk-tuks, visit Pig Island, and experience the rawness and beauty of Thailand.
Get ready for laughs and unforgettable stories in this episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Britt (00:14):
Hello, welcome to another episode of the Cammie Stradover
podcast.
My
Lindsey (00:18):
name is Brit.
And I'm Lindsay.
And today we are bringing you insome hot, hot heat,
Britt (00:25):
Thai hot,
Lindsey (00:27):
Thai spicy.
We realized we hadn't talkedabout Thailand and.
that it was sort of a bummer ofa time.
It was a great time and thendeteriorated.
And we really didn't get thefull taste of Thai, of Thai hot
that we wanted to because wewere just drained.
(00:47):
But we did go to Thailand and wedid want to share it with you
because it was an important partof our trip even though you'll
hear in the episode whathappened.
And y'all,
Britt (00:57):
it's funny.
I'm going to toot my own hornhere and say
Lindsey (01:01):
it's a funny episode.
It's funny.
Stay tuned.
Prepare to laugh.
Before we get into the episode,I want to make sure everyone
knows that there's still acouple days to sign up for my
creative workshop, Touching IntoCreativity.
If you want to learn aboutcreativity as an embodiment
practice and get out of yourthinking mind or creativity as a
(01:24):
healing practice, because maybeyou've tried every other healing
modality, And nothing seems towork.
Why not use your creative spiritand essence to express yourself,
connect with others, and heal?
It's on Thursday, October 19th.
You don't have to be live toattend.
There'll be a replay.
You can sign up at the link inthe show notes.
(01:45):
One of the best things aboutthis workshop, other than that
it's a potent process that youcan take and use every day and
transform your life, is that itonly costs 45.
Imagine that.
Ooh! Ooh! And let's get into theepisode.
Britt (02:01):
I'm charming.
I'm charming.
Lindsey (02:05):
Can this
Britt (02:11):
be like, not That's us, honey.
Really?
That's the way we look.
Could you Photoshop this lady'scouch
Lindsey (02:17):
out of this video?
Yeah, seriously.
And the stupid ass fan, theugliest fan alive.
Ugliest fan
Britt (02:22):
alive.
She just had to get the ugliestone.
Maybe I could put a, uh, No.
Can we
Lindsey (02:26):
make a blared background?
That's always stupid.
I always hate when people dothat, honestly.
Britt (02:31):
We're here today to talk about
Lindsey (02:32):
Thailand.
Yeah, we went to Thailand.
Uh, another episode title forthis podcast could just be like,
When Your Vacation Goes EntirelyWrong.
Right?
And that's also
Britt (02:42):
not When the shit falls apart.
Lindsey (02:45):
And yet it is when you just have a bad time and I think
it's important to tell thestories of the times when it's a
bad time.
Yeah,
Britt (02:55):
and disclaimer, this probably doesn't have anything
to do with Thailand of why itwas a bad time.
It was mostly us.
It was a weird time.
It was a weird timing.
Thailand's great.
It's amazing.
Unless there's something I don'tknow about Thailand that's not
so great, but, um, ourexperience
Lindsey (03:13):
was not great.
Well, and we had a bunch ofamazing experiences there, but
overall...
It was a bummer of a time.
Yeah, it got a little sour.
Yeah.
Thailand, for us, is whathappens when you've already been
traveling for six months, goingfrom place to place to place,
seven months, actually, at thattime, and then you...
(03:34):
quickly decide somewhere to goand you don't actually feel into
it.
This is my own lesson.
So I'm learning my own lessonsin real time and then sharing
them with someone.
So maybe they can be like, ah,don't do that.
Don't feel into where youactually want to go.
And then also get a bunch ofadvice from a bunch of people
that is all conflicting.
(03:56):
Right.
Go here right now.
It's the best time of year.
Don't go there.
It's too hot.
It's this.
It's that.
Go here.
Go there.
Don't go there.
This one's too touristy.
And it was so confusing that Iwas just like, I don't know what
the fuck to do.
Yeah.
That was Thailand in a nutshellfor us.
And when you go to Thailand.
Dear listener, what you'reprobably going to do is actually
(04:16):
plan it out ahead of timebecause you're smart.
And what we did is say, we'regoing to go on this big, long
adventure.
Oh, let's go to Thailand whilewe're still planning Hawaii,
Japan.
And so there was no time toplan.
Yeah, it just didn't happen.
So we, how did we get toThailand?
(04:37):
Let's start there.
Well.
How did we decide on Thailandand when?
Um, uh.
Do you not remember?
Britt (04:43):
I don't remember, no.
It all seems like a blur.
But.
Here's what happened.
Okay, tell me, yeah.
Here's what
Lindsey (04:49):
happened.
The day, gosh, I mean, I feellike when I say things, I'm
like, people are going to thinkwe're such idiots.
We were flying to Japan fromHawaii.
And the day we were leaving, wewere like, Oh, are we going to
need to know where we're goingafter Japan?
Oh, yeah.
We better book something.
Yeah.
Britt (05:07):
For like,
Lindsey (05:08):
Visa reasons?
Yeah, yeah, we have to?
Because I do think that happenssometimes.
Side note, in Japan, they don'tcare about seeing your return
information.
No one asked us for that.
We didn't have like, returnticket that anyone asked for.
Not that that couldn't happen toyou.
That couldn't happen to you.
It didn't happen to us.
And maybe that's because weweren't like asking for a lot of
(05:31):
time there.
Anyway, the day we were flyingto Japan from Hawaii, we were
like, where do we go afterJapan?
First sign of a mistake becausewe've been like volleying back
and forth.
Where do we go next?
Where did we go?
Where do we go next?
And what we probably shouldhave, what I looking back would
have done is just stayed inJapan longer.
(05:53):
Absolutely.
Because we liked it.
It was great.
We didn't know what we weregoing to get into going in
there.
And so we were like, well, let'sjust spend three weeks there and
then we'll go on to the nextplace.
We should have just spent likesix weeks there.
Absolutely.
And we didn't, and no big deal,but that's what happened.
So the day, the morning we wereleaving from Hawaii to fly to
(06:14):
Osaka, we booked Tokyo toBangkok in three weeks.
We were like, that's our plan.
Right, and
Britt (06:22):
because Bangkok was on our list, we wanted to go there,
we
Lindsey (06:24):
wanted to see it.
Totally, and we, yeah, we reallydid want to go to Thailand.
Um, and then we spent threeweeks in Japan, which if you
didn't listen to the Japanepisode, we had an amazing time
there.
Go back, listen to that episode.
We'll link it in the show notes.
And then go to Japan.
And then go to Japan.
It's incredible, especially ifyou're a family, especially if
you have young kids, orespecially if you're just a
(06:45):
human.
You're gonna have a great timethere.
And if you're a spirit,
Britt (06:49):
just go.
You don't have to You don't evenneed
Lindsey (06:51):
a ticket.
You just get there.
Yeah, and probably if you're analien too.
Yeah.
Back on track is, we knew wewanted to go to Thailand, we
booked the thing really lastminute, and then we spent three
weeks every day going out andbeing in Japan.
Right.
So we would come, and You pairthat with, we have three kids,
when we come home, everyonewants to crash, so it's not
(07:12):
like, and then there's like,work, a little bit of work that
we needed to fit in, like, youknow, I had like, some sessions
with people, we're dealing withmassive time change, we went 19
hours in the future.
So all of those things, by thetime we got done, like, touring
around Japan during the day,there wasn't any juice left in
(07:33):
the tank to plan what we weregoing to do in Thailand.
We did not care.
Right.
Britt (07:38):
And I must say, we have had plenty of wonderful times
not planning and just showingup.
Word.
And just figuring it out.
Yeah.
Um, and sometimes that goesgreat and sometimes it doesn't.
Lindsey (07:47):
Yeah.
I'm an advocate for both.
Right.
Britt (07:50):
Yeah.
It works better if you're justlike in a new town.
When you're going to a newcountry, however, maybe you
should know a little bit beforeyou get there.
I don't
Lindsey (07:57):
know.
Yeah.
Or just actually be okay if it'snot going to be that great.
Right.
Yeah.
And there's...
We'll get into it, but there'sother things we could have done
in Thailand to shift and we'llget into that.
This is an episode aboutThailand, y'all.
Are we 20 minutes in and we'refinally gonna tell you?
The first thing we did inThailand was we landed.
Yeah.
At the airport in Bangkok and Iwill say what I remember about
(08:20):
that was it being such a starkcontrast to being in an airport
in Japan because when we walkedout into the terminals, There
was like people talking andnoise and I was like, I could
like feel this more livelinessthat I was like, Oh, this is
exciting to be just in acompletely different experience.
Britt (08:42):
Right.
Because as much as we loveJapan, it is a very quiet,
Lindsey (08:46):
reserved place.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so getting to theairport in Thailand, I was like,
this is going to be awesome.
What we did decide before we gotto Bangkok was that we were
going to stay in a resort, whichis something we really didn't do
literally on this trip exceptfor the first night we got to
Mexico when we first left Texas.
(09:07):
If you want to hear about Baja,that's another episode linked in
the show notes.
It was amazing.
But we stayed at one resort onenight and then we've been doing
apartments, Airbnbs.
For months, so we were like,let's stay at a resort.
We need a full break.
We need like someone else topick up the towels for a few
days.
(09:27):
And this part will feel like avacation from a vacation.
Yeah.
And so we stayed at theAnantara.
And I'm so glad we did that.
It was so fun.
And it was kind of like, it wasthe fanciest experience I've
ever had at a resort with kids.
(09:47):
would you say?
Would you agree with that?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That I can remember.
Yeah, I can't think of anythingbetter.
Yeah, so we did the whole thing.
We got like the private shuttlefrom the airport.
Someone picked us up with asign.
These, these are not things thatare on our everyday experience
Britt (10:06):
list.
Let me add real quick, on thatshuttle, this was night time
when we landed.
We drove through Bangkok for anhour through dense city and it
was amazing.
I had no clue how huge Bangkokwas.
Yeah.
I know we said that about Japantoo.
Japan as well.
Different places.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Coming from the United Stateswhere cities are just, you
Honestly, kind of small afterseeing other cities.
(10:28):
It's true.
It was fucking enormous.
Yeah.
Like for an hour driving throughskyscrapers and just like huge
Lindsey (10:35):
buildings.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
It was so fun.
And the first part of ourThailand experience was So fun.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
We were like living resort life.
Britt (10:46):
I don't know if, if you are a buffet people, but oh my
God, the buffet, I, I've neverexperienced a nice
Lindsey (10:53):
buffet.
So we went to Bangkok.
We stayed at the AnantaraResort.
They have resorts all over theworld.
Stay in one of them because it'samazing.
And we stayed in a suite, whichis also something that was like
a new experience for our kids,but we were like, let's just do
it.
Yeah.
We stayed in a suite that camewith.
Access to the private loungedownstairs, which was so fun, so
(11:18):
amazing, we like, when we gotthere to check in, you don't,
what do you go to the regularconcierge counter or whatever?
No, you go to the private loungeand you sit down and they serve
you tea while you check in.
It was like an experience fromstart to finish.
And that was so fun.
And, and I know I like that.
Britt (11:41):
Yeah.
The resort was on this beautifulriver, and something that really
stuck out to me, there werethousands of catfish that were
just like boiling the water allover.
It was wild.
I've never seen anything likeit.
And it was 24 hours a day.
They were just rolling and theywould sometimes slap their tails
in unison.
And I don't know if it was likeif a predator was coming or
(12:02):
what, but you'd just be sittingout there and just like a whale
or something, they would allslap their tails on the surface
at once.
It was something I had neverseen before.
Yeah, that was cool.
There was a lot of really cooltraditional Thai imagery and art
Lindsey (12:21):
everywhere.
It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful resort.
We check in privately because wecouldn't be bothered to be with
the common people.
And then we went to our suite,which had this welcome basket
with wine, I don't drink wine,but cool, with More tea, water
(12:42):
with all these Thai dessertswith fruit like dragon fruit
and, and our kids were justlike, this is the fanciest thing
we've ever done.
And kind of we were too, but itwas so beautiful.
So in that moment, I was like,yeah, this is perfect.
We spent a few days just likeresort living.
(13:06):
We would go downstairs forbreakfast.
We had private breakfast in theprivate lounge.
We had pool.
We just went to the pool.
Like, we want to go to the poolagain?
Let's go to the pool.
And we were just kind of likereally totally relaxing.
Britt (13:23):
And I should point out at this point, We hadn't thought
about what we were going to doafter we left this resort.
Lindsey (13:31):
Exactly.
We booked this place for fournights?
Or five nights?
Britt (13:36):
Uh, yeah, we booked it for a few nights and then
decided to stay an extra fewnights as well.
But we knew we wanted to go to abeach, but that was it.
That's when we kind of starteddigging through, like, Messages
Lindsey (13:49):
from people we had asked
Britt (13:51):
that, uh, was too much
Lindsey (13:52):
information.
Right, and you say that wewanted to go to a beach, and
that is true, and that's what wedecided on, but I think
originally I wanted to go north.
We did, I think
Britt (14:02):
we were going to try to do both.
Lindsey (14:03):
Yeah, and then someone was saying, Oh, don't go there
right now, it's too hot.
And that's just another exampleof like, too much information,
it was like information overloadpaired with tired, overextended
nervous system.
And so anything someone wouldsay, I'd just be like, Okay, I
(14:24):
guess that's something toconsider.
Right.
Instead of actually like,feeling where I wanted to go.
Exactly, because
Britt (14:30):
looking back on it, I don't care if it was a little
hotter there, I would have lovedto have gone there.
Lindsey (14:34):
Right.
It was hot.
It was hot everywhere.
And we're from Texas.
It's hot.
Yeah.
Like, we would have been okay.
Yeah.
It would have been better for usto see what we actually wanted
to see.
Right.
But Brit is right because.
At some point, this full relaxmode, we were like, we need to
go to a beach.
We haven't been to a beach inwhat at that point was three
(14:55):
weeks, four weeks.
Cause we just left Maui, whichis also kind of funny to be
like, we need to go back to thebeach.
That's how you can tell thatyou're just like.
That for us we just thinkweren't making the right
decisions.
Right.
So how did we land on where wedecided to go?
Well,
Britt (15:09):
well let's go back a little bit.
We were still having a greattime.
Yeah.
Hanging out.
They had a show by the buffet atnight that was the story of
Hanuman.
And that was a crazysynchronicity because we had
just come from the Hanumantemple in Maui.
Over there it's usuallyBuddhists, so we didn't expect a
Hanuman story.
(15:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Like a Hindu thing to go on.
And the boys loved it because wewere just immersed in all this
Hanuman imagery before we gotthere.
And then we got there and Eli'slike, look, it's Hanuman.
It's Hanuman,
Lindsey (15:41):
yeah.
It was wild.
It was so cool.
We were resort chilling.
And honestly, we didn't.
There's so much to do inBangkok, and we didn't really do
that much, and it felt reallygood.
Really, the only time that weleft the resort, and this isn't
our, also I want to preface bysaying this isn't necessarily
(16:01):
our normal mode of travel,because we're normally like,
let's go see and do everything,but we just really, Wanted to
chill.
The only time we left the resortfor the day was when we We
Britt (16:15):
took the boat across the river with the boys to kind of
walk through the town a littlebit And we got to ride on a tuk
tuk.
It's like a motorcycle that'llfit a whole family It's the best
way to describe it.
Look it up if you want.
And we just rode around the cityand it was beautiful.
Yeah.
It was cool.
Like, Japan is so clean and soneat.
(16:37):
And then we got to Thailand
Lindsey (16:39):
and it was a little gritty.
It was like, has this rawness.
And it felt good.
It's cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a little like New York orsomething.
Yeah.
And it was really nice.
And it drove
Britt (16:49):
us through the, uh, flower market.
Right?
Yeah.
There's like a famous flowermarket
Lindsey (16:54):
there.
And Chinatown and like thestreet.
Oh, the gold district.
The gold, yeah.
There was just like a thousandgold stores.
I was like, I need to come backand buy a necklace.
Of course I didn't.
Yeah.
Because I forgot.
But it was so fun.
You know, we're just ridingaround this tuk tuk for like 5
for an hour.
And that kept the boys soentertained.
It was so fun and then that'skind of the one of the only
(17:18):
things we really did outside ofthe resort and then we took so
they have a this resort and manymost of the hotels and resorts
on the river have river shuttleslike that's how you're going to
get from one place to the otheryou can go to the mall you can
go to the Four Seasons you cango from one place to the To
pretty much anywhere in townthrough the river.
(17:38):
So that's, we were riding on theboat, which is also like free
entertainment for the kids.
Because they could ride a boatall day.
Right.
And just look in the water, lookaround.
And so that was super fun.
And then we went back and wentswimming again.
And with, an amazing thing aboutstaying at a resort was that we
had access to babysitters.
(18:00):
Which we hadn't had in a while.
And so we totally took thatopportunity.
They were so nice.
Britt (18:06):
These babysitters worked for the resort.
They had like a kids day centerthere that you could just leave
your kids there while you're atthe pool or something.
But they could also come up toyour room and watch the kids.
So we took advantage of that.
And one night we went out on adinner cruise on like a
traditional longboat.
Down this beautiful river atnight time where you could see
(18:29):
the whole city skyline lit up,all the temples lit up, gold
shimmering, it was beautiful andthey would announce any time we
passed something, oh this is,you know, the, whatever, and it
was beautiful.
Beautiful, and we ate thisamazing multi course meal, glad
we got to do
Lindsey (18:46):
that.
It was so, it was like theperfect experience of like that
resort vacation living where wewere like having a fancy.
We had a full fancy.
And it was so fun.
The night that we did get ababysitter, Eli got sick and
(19:06):
they like texted me immediately.
They told me he threw up.
Sorry if you don't want to hearthat in your earbuds or whatever
you're listening to.
But they were just like, he'sfine.
We think he just ate too muchpizza.
Cool.
He seems fine now.
He's totally happy.
So we were just like, okay.
I think they even sent us a
Britt (19:23):
video of him being like, I'm okay.
Yeah, yeah,
Lindsey (19:25):
yeah.
We were like, we're just goingto take advantage of this.
He, he was like heavily eatingpizza at that point.
Britt (19:33):
So much pizza.
We were ordering room serviceall the time.
Man, we went all
Lindsey (19:36):
out on that one.
We were like living it up.
And.
Now looking back, that throwingout was a little bit of
foreshadowing.
But we decided where we weregoing to go next, probably that
next day, when we were talkingto someone at the pool, someone
vacationing from England.
And she was saying, we're goingto Koh Samui, we love Koh Samui,
(20:00):
we go there all the time, it'slike our favorite place, we've
been everywhere, all of thesethings.
And so we were like, oh, weshould go there.
And that's how we decided.
And that seems
Britt (20:11):
nice too, like, that seems like a great way to be
like, yeah, let's go to thatplace.
Lindsey (20:15):
It's true.
Right.
I think just after the overloadof everything, it was an easy
way to make a decision.
Right.
Britt (20:24):
And speaking of foreshadowing, let me throw in
this little tidbit.
When you're traveling inBangkok, there are plenty of
cabs and they're super cheap andthey're easy to get everywhere.
Put that in your pocket forlater.
Put that in your pocket forlater.
Lindsey (20:38):
The second time we left the resort with everyone was to
see the Golden Buddha.
And we did get a cab and we didsit in a lot of traffic.
And it was, that was actually alittle bit, it was interesting
because the reason I felt sodrawn to Thailand, other than
that it's beautiful, In so manyways, but it's like, Oh, my
(20:59):
teachers learned so much here,you know, so I want to like go
be in these places where.
My teachers learned from theirteachers and then we went to the
Golden Buddha and it's verybusy.
It's like a very popular touristspot, but like the boys just
were like, cool, let's go.
They were like so acting liketeenagers about it other than
(21:21):
putting the coins in the bowls.
They did like that.
Britt (21:25):
And then it started pouring rain while we were there
too on top
Lindsey (21:27):
of that.
Yeah, so they were kind of, theywere just like, we want to go
back to the hotel, which is areally interesting thing when
you're traveling with kids.
Because I think, I like to thinkour kids are pretty open and
then sometimes they will juststraight up be like, I want to
go home and be like, we don'thave one.
Our home is the hotel.
(21:48):
No, they're like, we want to goback to the room and you just
have to balance that.
That is traveling with kids.
They're going to want to.
Not do what you want to do.
That's true.
So then, we went to Koh Samui.
Britt (22:01):
Yeah, baby.
We took a little plane.
We took a
Lindsey (22:04):
little plane.
A fairly small plane.
Medium sized plane, maybe?
From a big airport, we took alittle plane, and we went to the
island of Koh Samui.
It's a
Britt (22:13):
pretty quick flight, was it
Lindsey (22:14):
30 minutes or something?
I think it's an hour, like rightat an hour.
And when we're landing at KohSamui, this little island, our
plane caught like a wind gustright when it was about to touch
down onto the tarmac and had togo back up.
We bounced off the ground.
We bounced off the tarmac,tarmac went back up into the air
(22:36):
and had to make a giant circlearound.
The entire island, and I was,every possible, like, nightmare
scenario was going through myhead.
Which isn't always normal forme, but for some reason...
Britt (22:50):
Well, I should point out, no one said anything about it.
We just bounced off the runway,no one mentioned anything over
the loudspeaker, no one walkedaround like, oh, it's okay,
we're just gonna circle and tryit again.
Not a single thing.
So we spent 10 or 15 minutesjust like...
What the fuck?
And nobody on the plane wastalking.
Everyone was just sitting therequietly.
We're looking over at the boys.
(23:12):
who are like in a seat in frontof us, I think.
Just being like, are they okay?
Do they know what just happened?
Yeah.
And just quietly not trying tofreak out.
Lindsey (23:20):
I know.
I don't, man, it freaked me out.
Yeah.
It stressed me out.
It was fine.
They just landed.
We landed at the airport.
We took a little Six FlagsDisneyland shuttle from the
airplane to the terminal.
We got all of our things.
(23:42):
Oh,
Britt (23:43):
first thing that, uh, second thing that went wrong,
first was the plane, uh,bouncing.
Second was that we got up thereand our Airbnb hadn't sent a car
to pick us up like they saidthey were going to.
Lindsey (23:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, because I was like, when Iwas talking with the person,
yes, that was so confusing.
I'm so glad you remembered that.
I was talking with the personthrough Airbnb.
Of course, we booked it lastminute, but I was like, can you
send a, you know, like a cab ora car?
And they said they would, andthen there was no one there.
So we're like, what's going on?
And then we had to call them.
(24:16):
And there's this languagebarrier, they don't really
understand what I'm saying, I'masking, I don't really
understand what they'recommunicating.
So that was really confusing.
And then finally I was asking,like, because the address on
Airbnb, and we still need to dothe episode about Airbnb
because...
(24:36):
There's so many frustratingthings about Airbnb, especially
when you're depending on it overand over again.
You just notice, like, all thecracks.
And the address on Airbnb is inthe water.
So that's not a place.
Yeah, you
Britt (24:50):
look it up on a map, and we showed the person at the taxi
stand.
She's like, where is it?
Showed her and she's like,that's in the water.
That's in the ocean.
And that comes up a lot withAirbnb.
They do not give you the rightaddress.
The correct address.
Yeah, and they don't tell youthat either.
You just have to contact themand they'll be like, oh, here's
the real address.
Lindsey (25:08):
What is that?
It's confusing.
And that was another thing onthe phone where I was like, so
they didn't understand what Iwas like asking.
How do I actually get there?
Is this the address?
And finally they understood.
We got it sorted.
We got in a van cab that waslike solid gold inside.
(25:29):
It had
Britt (25:29):
subwoofers
Lindsey (25:30):
everywhere.
Super pimp mobile.
It was a bangin party bus.
It was like, yeah.
Britt (25:36):
And that, I'll, one thing about that island is that a lot
of the cabs are party buses.
And that was
Lindsey (25:43):
badass.
Yeah, yeah.
They're like two chain mobiles.
Yeah.
So then we got to our Airbnb andWhat were you feeling at that
point?
Britt (25:53):
At that point, I was happy to be there.
We walked in, I was like, oh,this is, this is beautiful.
Look at that beach.
It was a beautiful beach.
Yeah.
Just like...
Gorgeous.
The house was like a traditionalThai house, looked really great.
Lindsey (26:07):
That's how I was feeling.
Yeah.
Me too.
This is when I was like startingto feel like it reminded me of
Costa Rica when I went to CostaRica almost 20 years before
because it was very beautifuland very basic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's nothing wrong withbasic, but I just felt like, Oh,
this reminds me of Costa Rica.
(26:29):
So we hung out there.
We chilled kind of the firstthing on our list every time
we're traveling somewhere is weneed to get some groceries
because we're a family.
So we're not going to eat outevery meal.
Our kids want breakfast at like6am.
So we tried to find somegroceries.
That proved impossible.
Britt (26:50):
So it turns out the part of town we were
Lindsey (26:53):
in.
Or the part of the island, yeah.
Yeah, the part of
Britt (26:55):
the island we were on.
Was a little isolated.
You couldn't just pop out andget a taxi.
They weren't just driving by,right?
So we had to figure out we hadto ask the people at the I guess
it was kind of like a hotel Itwas like six little houses.
Yeah, and then a rest like atiny rest breakfast restaurant
and You call the breakfastrestaurant, and they're the
(27:16):
people that own the houses, Idon't know.
And so they hooked us up with aprivate taxi.
Most people, most of the peoplethat work there didn't speak
much English, so it was kind ofhard to communicate.
My bad, not theirs.
And so they got us a number fora private taxi, and we ended up
using this private taxi most ofour trip.
(27:37):
Yeah.
But you would call them, andthen they would show up 15, 20
minutes later.
Take you wherever you're going.
So, we would have to go to adifferent part of town to get
groceries.
But most of the groceries werelike gas station level.
It was all like lots of foodcoloring, lots of, it was all
just like junk food.
Lindsey (27:57):
Right.
Unless you're like at the marketgetting vegetables or protein.
And that's just not fully whatwe were looking for.
Especially because the Airbnb wewere in was like very basic.
I think there was a hot plate.
There was a fridge, there was amicrowave, but it's not, you're
not gonna like, cook mealsreally there, so it needed to be
(28:17):
easy.
Yeah,
Britt (28:19):
and, you know, no shame to junk food, I eat plenty of
junk food, but when I'm going toget groceries, I want better
options so I feel good, youknow, and that wasn't around.
Uh, same with restaurants, therewere a few restaurants like
along the beach that we couldwalk to, but only a few of them
had vegan options and they justweren't the best.
Lindsey (28:41):
Yeah, it just kind of felt like everything took
Britt (28:44):
effort.
Right, and this is like, as soonas we get there, we're figuring
this out.
Right.
And let me throw down my, I, Iam hot natured and I like always
need an air conditioner on or afan or something because I'm a
big wussy and It was extreme.
It was very hot and extremelymuggy there.
So I just had this kind ofgeneral Discomfort where my body
(29:06):
just felt numb and I just it washard for me to relax So making
these decisions I I had kind ofa short temper
Lindsey (29:15):
It's like, it's like when you're already not have
your, you don't have yourcreature comforts and then also
you're physically uncomfortableor something.
That's exactly what it was.
Britt (29:23):
So that was just a general feeling from my whole
experience on Adaline.
Yeah.
Going into everything else.
So I was already, Not feeling mybest.
Lindsey (29:32):
It just, like, adds another layer because you've,
like, been camp I mean, we'vebeen camping and stuff and Yeah,
Britt (29:37):
and that's fine.
Yeah.
Yeah, but there's just a lot ofemotion going on there.
And then eating junk food,feeling extra bad on top of
that.
Lindsey (29:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, we're every Yeah, a lot ofour Several of our meals were
kind of just like, Eugh.
All right, well, I'll eat thistoast.
Yeah.
Sure.
So, that's what we did for a fewdays.
Granted, we're on a beautifulWe're right on the water, on a
beautiful beach.
That was amazing.
I must say
Britt (30:01):
about this beach, it was beautiful to sit next to, but
you couldn't swim in it becauseit was maybe knee deep for like
a half a mile.
Lindsey (30:12):
Right.
And pretty rocky.
And
Britt (30:13):
lots of rocks.
There was a reef out there, soyou couldn't, between the shore
and the reef, it was only maybelike 20 or 30 feet.
So you could sit in it, butthat's really all you could do
right there.
But there weren't very manypeople around it either, so it
was like having
Lindsey (30:27):
our own private beach.
Yeah, yeah, and it was good forthe kids because they just want
to, like, dig around and findrocks.
So it was the perfect place tojust, like, sit in the water,
but not really.
Yeah, you're not really going toswim, and it was beautiful, and
that was kind of like our firstday or two there.
We were just getting ourbearings, figuring out that
(30:47):
there wasn't the best foodoptions for us, maybe we're also
kind of picky.
I'd like
Britt (30:53):
to throw in that there were no cobras on this trip.
We didn't see a single cobra.
Yeah.
Lindsey (30:57):
I was hoping to see.
I saw a sign for a cobra show,which is so sad.
Yeah, no thanks.
So sad.
Britt (31:02):
I want to see a wild cobra.
Ugh.
Saw plenty of, uh.
Centipedes,
Lindsey (31:07):
no cobras.
Yeah, and then something thatexponentially added to Brit's
general discomfort and thegeneral discomfort of the entire
team is that Eli got sick, likeI mentioned in, in uh, Bangkok
and then that went away and thenhe got sick again.
And this time it was like, oh,this is a stomach bug because he
(31:30):
just kept getting sick for likea day and we would maybe try to
go somewhere or And then hewould get sick.
For every family person who everhas passed around a stomach bug,
you know when it starts.
Like, oh shit, we're all goingdown.
And that's exactly whathappened.
Eli got it, and then Jack gotit, and then I got it but I
(31:55):
didn't actually get sick, I justfelt horrible for two days and
like couldn't eat anything, andthen Otis got it, and then Britt
got it.
And it
Britt (32:05):
was, and like I was saying, there weren't good
groceries and we were kind ofstuck at home because no one
wanted to go out because theydidn't feel good.
So we're kind of stuck at thishouse eating food we don't like.
And also it was, like I said, itwas hot and muggy and this
house, even though it wasbeautiful, it doesn't cool down.
There was like a split AC, butunless you were standing right
in front of it.
(32:27):
It all just leaked out throughthe, the boards because it was
kind of a shack.
There was no insulation oranything.
Yeah.
So it was very uncomfortable andeveryone was sick.
And everyone was sick.
And so at this point, none of useven have an appetite and we're
like, we're in Thailand.
Thai food is like our favoritefood and we can't even eat
Lindsey (32:46):
it.
Like my least favorite, I wouldrather everyone have the flu.
than everyone have a tum a tummybug.
It is the worst.
And when you have to clean allthe sheets, clean all the
towels, like twice a day, andyou have to ask someone to do it
because there's no washer anddryer.
So I would just be like throwingeverything onto the porch and
(33:09):
then being like, I'm so sorry,but everyone got sick.
Can you clean this up?
And...
Who was it?
I can't remember which kid itwas, did get sick in the taxi
and I felt so bad and then theprivate taxi that we did end up
using, they were the nicestpeople, his husband and wife.
They were so sweet.
(33:29):
That was an upside is likeeveryone we met so many nice
people and they were two ofthem.
They were so wonderful.
The wife would like stop at 7Eleven and get the boys
chocolate bars.
Anyway, one of our kids threwup, like threw up in their car.
Yeah, paint
Britt (33:48):
him a picture.
Lindsey (33:50):
It was a lot.
And they were, and they werejust like, it's okay, don't
worry, it's okay.
And that was so nice.
Yeah.
That was so for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
So for like four or five days,it seems like, we were just in
this cycle of, okay, one of usis sick, and everyone feels
awful, and everyone's drained,and...
(34:11):
There's not really anything goodto, like, replenish us and
that's what we were doing.
Right.
And then we'll go sit in thewater and in the ocean for a
little while and then come backin.
So that's what we were doing.
Then when everyone felt better,we were like, all right, we're
ready to go do something.
(34:32):
So Brit booked a tour because weheard, you know, there's.
We heard there was cool thingsto do, and one of the things
was...
Britt (34:41):
Pig Island.
Doesn't that sound fun?
Pig Island?
An island where pigs swim aroundand you can pet them.
Cute little
Lindsey (34:48):
pigs.
Beautiful island.
Beautiful island.
You should see the pictures,y'all.
Take a little
Britt (34:53):
boat out there.
Oh my gosh, it looks so amazing.
That was not the
Lindsey (34:57):
case.
That was not the case.
You take a long boat to anisland that's very close.
And you swim with adorable pigs.
That's the sell.
The reality was you do get on alongboat.
The water was extremely choppy.
It was hard to get there, right?
Yeah.
It took a while to get there.
(35:17):
It took a while to get there.
It wasn't as bad.
And then you got, we got to thisisland that's essentially three
little shacks with all thesepigs.
Pigs everywhere.
Britt (35:31):
What we were expecting was like, Oh, this is where the
wild pigs live.
And they, you can kind of likehang out with the pigs.
Yeah.
But this felt like, uh, theyjust let the pigs breed.
Like somebody brought some pigsthere, and they just overran the
place.
So there's little tiny brand newbaby pigs, there's huge giant
pigs, but there was like athousand pigs.
Lindsey (35:51):
Yeah, and they were adorable.
And the boys did love the pigs.
But it's like one of thoseultimate tourist...
Attraction traps.
So there's just 50, 60, I don'tknow how many boats were right
there on this one little beachpulling up, people were pouring
off the boats, and then you goto this, you look at, there's
(36:12):
some pigs, the water's not superswimmable.
It was a cloudy day when we werethere, that's beside the point,
they can't control the weather,but, and then there's like one
little shack that sells Spriteand alcohol and chips.
I don't want any of those.
Britt (36:27):
They also, there's a, there's a restaurant there where
you could get like hot dogs andstuff, but it wasn't open yet.
Lindsey (36:35):
Oh, yeah.
So the.
So the tour was, take a boat toPig Island, hang out with pigs,
eat lunch, you know, have abeautiful lunch there, and none
of that was
Britt (36:47):
true.
It was also, there was trasheverywhere, because I mean,
there's not like a trash truckcoming to pick everything up,
so.
Behind, you know, a tree hereand a tree there, there's just a
giant pile of stinky garbage andflies.
Lindsey (36:58):
And then you're like telling a two year old like, Oh,
don't touch the trash.
Don't touch the pig shit.
Yeah.
Don't touch that one pig.
There's also like lots of pigsthat you're not supposed to
touch because they're not thatcool with it.
And that's also okay.
That's not someone'sresponsibility, but it's just
another layer of hilarity to ourday.
(37:20):
And I should have
Britt (37:21):
known these weren't just wild pigs, you know what I mean?
I feel kind of bad nowrealizing, like, these are just,
like, trapped pigs that thesepeople are
Lindsey (37:29):
making money off of.
I don't know if they were reallytra I mean, they definitely
weren't trapped.
They were all just, they werefree ranging.
Yeah, you're right, you'reright.
They were definitely freeranging.
And they like the trash, so it'sfine with them.
They're probably having thebest.
Um, it's like, kinda seem likeevery group of people that got
off the boat looked around forabout five minutes and was like,
(37:50):
okay, I'm over this.
Pretty quick
Britt (37:52):
we were like, kinda ready to go.
We were ready.
So Lindsey's like, alright, gosee if our, our, and this boat
was just us and our driver,right?
Go see if the driver's ready togo.
I go over to the driver and he'slike, no, there's a storm
coming.
Lindsey (38:05):
He pointed at a storm and he was like, we can't go.
We gotta wait,
Britt (38:08):
like 30 minutes.
We gotta wait 30 minutes.
So we go and.
A storm comes and it's pouringrain and everybody's like
huddling under this one tinyhut.
Like 60 ish people.
And I'm fine.
I'm like, this is kind of nice.
Yeah, it wasn't like scary oranything.
I was just like, look what we'redoing.
Look at this situation we're in.
(38:28):
Kids weren't liking it, so thatmakes it uncomfortable.
Yeah, yeah.
Pretty much any of theseexperiences, if it would have
just been Lindsey and I, I thinkwe would have been fine and
gotten through it fine.
But having the kids, you just gointo this mode where you're
like, I need to make these kidscomfortable or, I don't know.
Lindsey (38:44):
And like make sure they're safe.
Make sure
Britt (38:46):
they're safe, exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
And we never felt unsafe.
But it was also like, okay, nowthere's this huge storm coming
out of the island.
There was
Lindsey (38:54):
just nothing fun or comfortable about it other than
there were some pretty cutelittle piggies.
Right.
Britt (39:00):
So finally when the storm lets up, they take us over to
Lindsey (39:03):
another island.
Which is super close.
And this island is more of thesame minus pigs.
So like minus the cute.
It was some buildings, arestaurant that did have, that
had meals.
And then some, like, secretpiles of trash.
And, uh, there was othertourists there.
That they went on like a tractorride to one of the, um, temple,
(39:29):
there was a little temple on theisland and we didn't do that
because I was like, there's noway the boys will want to ride
on that little truck.
Anyway, all of their faces whenthey were coming back from the
tractor ride, they looked like,Why the fuck am I here?
What am I doing?
I don't understand why I'm onthis island.
Britt (39:46):
We were there on that island for a little too long.
Finally, we had lunch.
There
Lindsey (39:50):
was a swing.
There was a swing.
So that entertained the boys.
We ate some
Britt (39:53):
french fries and then it comes time to go, right?
So we hop back in this boat andthe boys are excited because
they get to go home now.
But.
The water from this storm is sochoppy, we were bouncing in the
air.
I mean, it felt like the boatwas going to fall over.
All the kids are screaming,asking if they're going to die.
(40:15):
Crying!
Lindsey (40:16):
Even Otis, he was crying, like, he was crying so
much.
And he doesn't get scaredeasily, he's like...
Because he's not like...
He doesn't have the fear.
Yeah, he's still like, not withit enough to be like, what's
happening?
But all, we were...
Completely soaked, like waterwas coming over the side of the
boat and just literally, it waslike we were swimming.
Britt (40:38):
Right, and if you've ever driven a boat, you know that you
need to hit the waves at
Lindsey (40:43):
an angle, right?
Ever been on a boat with youruncle or anyone that's like,
tells you to hit them at anangle?
Not
Britt (40:49):
this motherfucker.
He hits them head on and weshoot straight up in the air and
slap down, fall out of ourseats.
Oh my god, we're covered.
We're just like, soaking wetlike we're swimming.
And, um, I don't know, to meit's fine.
I've been in situations likethat before.
But the boys are scared and thenyou want to make them happy.
I
Lindsey (41:12):
was just like, the boat right?
That's also my perception.
There could have been nothingelse to do.
It is open water that you'regoing over on a long tail boat.
That might be the only way to doit.
I mean, it's like four feetwide.
I never, I never want to do thatagain.
So we got back to the placewhere we got on the boat and we
were completely drenched.
(41:34):
And then we ate some ice creamand then we went home.
And
Britt (41:39):
that was Pig Island, baby.
Don't go to Pig Island.
Lindsey (41:42):
Maybe it's fun.
Maybe it was the wrong time ofyear.
It's fucking not fun.
If we went, if it was liketechnically the rainy season.
It's also a
Britt (41:50):
place where you can't really swim.
So, throwing
Lindsey (41:53):
that out there as well.
Right, right.
If you want to see some pigs,there are 15, 000 other better
situations for you to go seesome pigs.
Absolutely.
For sure.
For sure.
So, that was that.
That was that.
And that was, that was like areal stamp after.
Everyone being sick, eating somegas station food.
(42:13):
Then we went to Pig Island wherewe were just like, what is this
place?
What is this experience thatwe're having?
This is not fun.
Britt (42:20):
So, our next big outing, we went to an elephant
sanctuary.
And I vetted this one.
They're great.
I stand by this one.
This was a good experience.
It was good, yeah.
They rescue these elephants frombad situations because in
Thailand, there's a lot ofelephant tourism.
Where these elephants aretrained to, like, pick people up
with their trunks and get apicture with them and do all
(42:41):
this stuff to do elephant rideswhere they have these collars on
them that Dig spikes into theirskin right so a lot of these
rescued elephants have scars allover them from these spikes
digging into them It's terrible,but here they're just free
ranging.
They're amazing They love beingwith people because that's how
they were brought up and nowthat they're treated right
(43:03):
They're really interested to bearound you
Lindsey (43:06):
filled up our bags with bananas and these little rice
cake things And we just got tolike go feed elephants and meat
elephants And learn about theelephants.
It was such a cool experience.
The boys.
Loved it.
It was amazing.
It was perfect for a family.
No cobras.
No cobras.
But it was cool.
(43:26):
The food was all vegetarian.
Yeah, that
Britt (43:28):
was awesome.
Got to have a great meal.
Yeah.
Yeah, a nice buffet.
It was nice.
I gotta say, let me tell y'all,pad thai is like one of my
favorite foods ever.
And it's hard to find it veganin some places.
And boy, I was so excited tojust have all the Pad Thai I
could eat.
Even though I was just comingoff being sick and could only
eat a little bit.
Right,
Lindsey (43:46):
right, right.
That was a good day in Koh Samuiwhen we went to the Elephant
Sanctuary.
And if you ever find yourself inKoh Samui or anywhere in
Thailand, find a really good...
And make sure, like Britt said,vet the elephant sanctuaries
because there's even some, youknow, that'll say like, we're a
sanctuary, but they're notreally.
Find the good ones, go seeelephants because they're
(44:09):
amazing animals.
Britt (44:10):
Absolutely.
Another thing we really liked isthe night markets and these are
all over Thailand, but the onesin Koh Samui were fun.
There's small ones, big ones,one by the mall, you know, so.
Lindsey (44:23):
Yeah, pretty much everywhere there was a night
market and it's food, vendors.
Almost every single night, itwas bands playing.
So we'd just walk around, seewhat they have, get super cheap
food.
Get sick.
Britt (44:38):
Get maybe I think that's what made probably made us sick.
I don't know.
I hate to be judgy about it,but, uh, it wasn't the cleanest,
uh, conditions.
It was pretty dirty.
Lindsey (44:48):
Yeah.
But So at this point, we'd beenon Koh Samui for about a week.
And also with no plan of wherewe were going after.
Britt (44:56):
So when we did start thinking about what are we going
to do next, right?
We're thinking Bali, becausethat was a must do on our trip,
right?
So we look up tickets to Baliand like, oh, those prices look
pretty nice.
Let's revisit this tomorrow andthen we'll, we'll book these
tickets.
Tomorrow comes around, we lookthem up, and the prices have
jumped way up.
Yeah.
And also, it meant if we weregoing to get them for a more
(45:19):
reasonable price, we were goingto have to stay another week or
two weeks.
Until the ticket prices wentdown, I don't know, became a
thing.
So, at this point, we were stillnot having the best time.
And we're like, well, let's lookat tickets
Lindsey (45:35):
to...
We just kind of started lookingaround everywhere.
But without really an idea oflike...
Nothing sounded great, honestly.
Even, even Bali, I was like, Idon't know.
We were looking at Airbnbs, andthere wasn't really anything
that good that would fit us.
And we were like, how long do westay?
Do we stay a month?
(45:55):
Everything just felt so...
Murky.
And this is
Britt (45:59):
where the wheels came off on the whole trip, I think.
This was like, this was the lowpoint where it was a lot more
going on.
It had nothing to do withThailand,
Lindsey (46:09):
you know, it was us.
Totally.
Right.
Other than Pig Island and theboat.
No, I'm just kidding.
So, also, another.
I mean, we're like calling inthat experience even because
we're like, just, yeah, sowonky.
Right.
Britt (46:22):
So, we decide Melbourne, Australia.
It's not super far.
We wanted to go out ofAustralia, I wanted to go to
Melbourne.
A lot of my favorite music isfrom there.
I felt like this was apilgrimage.
Gotta get to Melbourne.
So we're like, fuck it, let's dothis, Melbourne.
This also requires us to stayfor one more week and go see a
movie.
Another red flag.
(46:43):
So, yeah, we had to stay anotherweek.
But this week we decided to booka different Airbnb in a
different part of the island.
Right.
And that up leveled us
Lindsey (46:55):
a little bit.
Right.
That was a better experience.
Way closer to better grocerystore.
That was in a mall.
It was so funny to be like onlyfor the, I don't know why I felt
like the mall was so comfortingbecause I don't care about the
mall.
Right.
But there was something aboutYou're
Britt (47:11):
going from like a shack.
Yeah, yeah.
On a beach with piles of trasheverywhere.
To a mall.
Lindsey (47:18):
I don't know.
To a place where you can like,get something organic or
whatever.
Britt (47:22):
And let me, there's a huge wealth disparity there.
So like you're either Totally.
In like a beautiful resort.
Or on the other side of thestreet, our taxi drivers pointed
out their house as we were goingby and it was literally a shack.
The roof was just corrugated tinon top of some stuff.
There was a huge wealth, wealth
Lindsey (47:41):
disparity there.
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, it's, it's like fueled bytourism.
And that's like this underlyingthing that you're just so aware
of when you're traveling for along time.
And you're not always in aresort or something like that.
It's like you just see.
Exactly, the disparity, andlike, I can imagine if I was
(48:02):
feeling this weird energy there,of like, what is this place?
Imagine that for the last threeyears, their lifeline and their
livelihood was completelyobliterated by a global
shutdown.
And like no one's traveling andpeople even told us that like no
one's no one's been coming hereuntil like now it's starting to
(48:23):
pick back up right
Britt (48:25):
so and it didn't seem like any of that wealth was
trickling down to people andthat could have just been
because of the shutdown I don'tknow but it did feel very sad
and that it and It made me feela lot better about paying extra
for the taxis there.
The taxis were all way moreexpensive, but the people
driving the taxis were soamazing.
(48:47):
They needed that money and I was
Lindsey (48:48):
happy to give it to them.
Britt (48:50):
And when I'm in the position, I would love to figure
out a way to help support morepeople in Koh Samui.
Yeah, yeah.
Or
Lindsey (48:58):
places like that.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah.
Because there's like a ton ofsmall businesses.
And they are just like trying tomake it just like anybody else
and it hasn't been easy.
Right.
You know?
So we up leveled, we up leveledbaby.
We went to a different Airbnbthat was a lot more comfortable,
uh, also on a beach, not aswimmable beach.
(49:18):
I had a cool pool right by abig, the big golden Buddha
that's there on Koh Samui.
So that was cool.
We could walk there actually.
It was nice, but it was stillthat feeling of a little bit
tourist trap y was what I felt.
You know, I felt a little bitlike.
Just kind of closed in.
Sometimes I, sometimes that waseven fun, even on that.
(49:40):
You can like tap in and be like,let's go walk down the street
where they sell fake Louie's.
Yeah.
And just talk to people and, youknow, have a good time.
And then sometimes it can belike, okay, I just like.
Want something to be easy,right, and
Britt (49:54):
I'll say we, we felt like we were just running out the
clock.
Totally.
It was like, is it time to go?
Yeah, that's kind of how we werefeeling.
Yeah, we did find a great coffeeshop that was in the back of
someone's house.
Yeah, we would go there everymorning and this person Peachy
would make us
Lindsey (50:09):
this great coffee.
We are definitely buying one ofthose coffee.
It was like a Hand pressespresso machine that we are
buying.
With, like, the big ice.
It was the best.
Yeah.
Britt (50:23):
Yeah, it was like cocktail ice.
Yeah.
Like the
Lindsey (50:25):
big cubes.
Yeah.
And they served it in a cocktailglass.
Yeah.
Britt (50:28):
Fantastic.
Uh, we ate some okay food.
We, uh, saw some
Lindsey (50:33):
shit.
We went to a pizza place.
Britt (50:36):
That was good.
Yeah.
We did
Lindsey (50:37):
some shit there.
We went to the mall.
several times also because themall had a, um, arcade, arcade,
and the kids were just like,yes, we want to go to the
arcade.
And we couldn't really think ofmuch else to do.
Nothing else sounded that great.
So we went to the arcade a lot.
The best I, from what I couldgather in Koh Samui, it's like
(50:58):
the best beaches are surroundedby resorts.
So either need to be staying atthe resort or they're probably
public.
You can probably walk through,but we didn't really like have.
gear or whatever to like do abeach day.
Yeah, and like I said, we werejust counting.
We were just like, we're ready.
Yeah, so we really kind of tookit easy.
(51:18):
Right.
We did meet at our Airbnb someTexans.
Oh, yeah.
And that was really cool.
That was like one of thoselittle special synchronicities
to me.
The people right across from us,they were from Houston and they
were nomadic now and they weretraveling with their...
Elderly father slash father inlaw, who was so nice, we met him
(51:39):
first and he was showing us thatthere was an eagle that would
fly by the pool every day, twicea day.
At the same time every day.
At the same time.
So we could map it.
Yeah, yeah.
We were like, oh, let's go seethe eagle.
And they were just so nice.
Again, it just it feels goodeverywhere we go.
We meet like the nicest people.
Yeah
Britt (51:56):
Oh, and let's say we have to I can't stress this enough
all the people in Thailand wereso nice So nice, so happy to
talk a lot I feel like a lotmore people knew English there
than in in Japan even
Lindsey (52:10):
Yeah, so yeah,
Britt (52:11):
yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit more than them.
Yeah, but they were so happy totalk, hang out.
They were so nice, so helpful.
They were very, it was like avery genuine feeling.
Lindsey (52:21):
Yeah, and they love the kids.
Yeah, so much.
Like I mentioned the one taxidriver, she would buy our kids
chocolate bars.
And she loved them so much.
And then we would, then we had asecond taxi driver that drove
one of the pimp vans, and heloved the kids so much.
Just everywhere we went,everyone was so nice.
(52:42):
So again, you can tell it's anus problem.
Yeah.
For why we didn't like thisplace.
And yeah, like Britt said, wewere riding the clock out, so.
Eventually, it was time for usto go.
And that's what we did.
And I do remember this reliefgetting to the airport of just
being like, ah, this part hasended.
Britt (53:07):
Yeah.
Lindsey (53:08):
And I don't know if you remember this, but then we got
to Bangkok.
This is another part.
From Koh Samui.
From Koh Samui.
We had to fly back to Bangkok.
Yeah, we flew to Bangkok to takeour flight to Melbourne.
And this is another aspect ofwhat just feels funny as people
that are telling you guys abouttraveling and how many times we
(53:29):
didn't pre plan.
But we got to the flight tocheck in for our Melbourne
flight and they were like, Oh,do you have your Australian
visas ready?
Oh, I forgot about that.
And I was like, what?
And I had no idea that that'swhat you were supposed to do.
So we all had to sit down.
And it took a while because youhave to do one for each person.
Again, you would probably, youguys probably all know this
(53:52):
because you actually look upwhere you're going to share it
because that's just another realpart of travel.
So even that part being done andus going to the next place, we
were like, Oh, okay, here'sanother way that we.
Could have planned better anddidn't and it took 30 minutes we
(54:15):
sat on, we sat on the airportfloor for 30 minutes while I
filled it all out and then youhave to wait for them to get
approved but it's very fast andthen we could check in for our
flight but that was funny, um,because it was just another
layer of things not really goingright and then we got to go to
(54:36):
the like fast lane for ourflight.
Security, but it took so long,do you remember?
They were like, Oh, you havekids, which is so nice.
A lot of other countries willlike just send you through the
faster security just because youhave kids with you.
Fantastic.
We would
Britt (54:55):
never do that here in the US.
So awesome.
You
Lindsey (54:57):
would definitely have to pay here.
So we went to the fastercheckpoint, but then it took us
like three times as long.
And then it was nighttime, weate that sticky rice we talked
about, and then we got on ournight flight to Australia.
Nice.
That's it.
That's it.
We don't know if you gained anytips about Thailand from this
(55:19):
episode, but at least it's funnyto hear our story of...
mild discomfort, but thenbecomes major discomfort when
you can't handle discomfort.
Britt (55:30):
And as I mentioned earlier, I feel like that was
when the wheels kind of came offthe whole trip, not just
Thailand.
So it was like the air
Lindsey (55:38):
sucked out
Britt (55:38):
of it.
Yeah, there's more to it.
And we'll get to that in theMelbourne episode.
Totally.
But Melbourne, we had a greattime in Melbourne too.
Yeah.
Anyway, thanks for
Lindsey (55:48):
listening.
All right.
We'll see y'all later.
Bye bye.
Bye.
Hello, welcome to another episode of the Cammie Stradover
podcast.
My
Lindsey (00:18):
name is Brit.
And I'm Lindsay.
And today we are bringing you insome hot, hot heat,
Britt (00:25):
Thai hot,
Lindsey (00:27):
Thai spicy.
We realized we hadn't talkedabout Thailand and.
that it was sort of a bummer ofa time.
It was a great time and thendeteriorated.
And we really didn't get thefull taste of Thai, of Thai hot
that we wanted to because wewere just drained.
(00:47):
But we did go to Thailand and wedid want to share it with you
because it was an important partof our trip even though you'll
hear in the episode whathappened.
And y'all,
Britt (00:57):
it's funny.
I'm going to toot my own hornhere and say
Lindsey (01:01):
it's a funny episode.
It's funny.
Stay tuned.
Prepare to laugh.
Before we get into the episode,I want to make sure everyone
knows that there's still acouple days to sign up for my
creative workshop, Touching IntoCreativity.
If you want to learn aboutcreativity as an embodiment
practice and get out of yourthinking mind or creativity as a
(01:24):
healing practice, because maybeyou've tried every other healing
modality, And nothing seems towork.
Why not use your creative spiritand essence to express yourself,
connect with others, and heal?
It's on Thursday, October 19th.
You don't have to be live toattend.
There'll be a replay.
You can sign up at the link inthe show notes.
(01:45):
One of the best things aboutthis workshop, other than that
it's a potent process that youcan take and use every day and
transform your life, is that itonly costs 45.
Imagine that.
Ooh! Ooh! And let's get into theepisode.
Britt (02:01):
I'm charming.
I'm charming.
Lindsey (02:05):
Can this
Britt (02:11):
be like, not That's us, honey.
Really?
That's the way we look.
Could you Photoshop this lady'scouch
Lindsey (02:17):
out of this video?
Yeah, seriously.
And the stupid ass fan, theugliest fan alive.
Ugliest fan
Britt (02:22):
alive.
She just had to get the ugliestone.
Maybe I could put a, uh, No.
Can we
Lindsey (02:26):
make a blared background?
That's always stupid.
I always hate when people dothat, honestly.
Britt (02:31):
We're here today to talk about
Lindsey (02:32):
Thailand.
Yeah, we went to Thailand.
Uh, another episode title forthis podcast could just be like,
When Your Vacation Goes EntirelyWrong.
Right?
And that's also
Britt (02:42):
not When the shit falls apart.
Lindsey (02:45):
And yet it is when you just have a bad time and I think
it's important to tell thestories of the times when it's a
bad time.
Yeah,
Britt (02:55):
and disclaimer, this probably doesn't have anything
to do with Thailand of why itwas a bad time.
It was mostly us.
It was a weird time.
It was a weird timing.
Thailand's great.
It's amazing.
Unless there's something I don'tknow about Thailand that's not
so great, but, um, ourexperience
Lindsey (03:13):
was not great.
Well, and we had a bunch ofamazing experiences there, but
overall...
It was a bummer of a time.
Yeah, it got a little sour.
Yeah.
Thailand, for us, is whathappens when you've already been
traveling for six months, goingfrom place to place to place,
seven months, actually, at thattime, and then you...
(03:34):
quickly decide somewhere to goand you don't actually feel into
it.
This is my own lesson.
So I'm learning my own lessonsin real time and then sharing
them with someone.
So maybe they can be like, ah,don't do that.
Don't feel into where youactually want to go.
And then also get a bunch ofadvice from a bunch of people
that is all conflicting.
(03:56):
Right.
Go here right now.
It's the best time of year.
Don't go there.
It's too hot.
It's this.
It's that.
Go here.
Go there.
Don't go there.
This one's too touristy.
And it was so confusing that Iwas just like, I don't know what
the fuck to do.
Yeah.
That was Thailand in a nutshellfor us.
And when you go to Thailand.
Dear listener, what you'reprobably going to do is actually
(04:16):
plan it out ahead of timebecause you're smart.
And what we did is say, we'regoing to go on this big, long
adventure.
Oh, let's go to Thailand whilewe're still planning Hawaii,
Japan.
And so there was no time toplan.
Yeah, it just didn't happen.
So we, how did we get toThailand?
(04:37):
Let's start there.
Well.
How did we decide on Thailandand when?
Um, uh.
Do you not remember?
Britt (04:43):
I don't remember, no.
It all seems like a blur.
But.
Here's what happened.
Okay, tell me, yeah.
Here's what
Lindsey (04:49):
happened.
The day, gosh, I mean, I feellike when I say things, I'm
like, people are going to thinkwe're such idiots.
We were flying to Japan fromHawaii.
And the day we were leaving, wewere like, Oh, are we going to
need to know where we're goingafter Japan?
Oh, yeah.
We better book something.
Yeah.
Britt (05:07):
For like,
Lindsey (05:08):
Visa reasons?
Yeah, yeah, we have to?
Because I do think that happenssometimes.
Side note, in Japan, they don'tcare about seeing your return
information.
No one asked us for that.
We didn't have like, returnticket that anyone asked for.
Not that that couldn't happen toyou.
That couldn't happen to you.
It didn't happen to us.
And maybe that's because weweren't like asking for a lot of
(05:31):
time there.
Anyway, the day we were flyingto Japan from Hawaii, we were
like, where do we go afterJapan?
First sign of a mistake becausewe've been like volleying back
and forth.
Where do we go next?
Where did we go?
Where do we go next?
And what we probably shouldhave, what I looking back would
have done is just stayed inJapan longer.
(05:53):
Absolutely.
Because we liked it.
It was great.
We didn't know what we weregoing to get into going in
there.
And so we were like, well, let'sjust spend three weeks there and
then we'll go on to the nextplace.
We should have just spent likesix weeks there.
Absolutely.
And we didn't, and no big deal,but that's what happened.
So the day, the morning we wereleaving from Hawaii to fly to
(06:14):
Osaka, we booked Tokyo toBangkok in three weeks.
We were like, that's our plan.
Right, and
Britt (06:22):
because Bangkok was on our list, we wanted to go there,
we
Lindsey (06:24):
wanted to see it.
Totally, and we, yeah, we reallydid want to go to Thailand.
Um, and then we spent threeweeks in Japan, which if you
didn't listen to the Japanepisode, we had an amazing time
there.
Go back, listen to that episode.
We'll link it in the show notes.
And then go to Japan.
And then go to Japan.
It's incredible, especially ifyou're a family, especially if
you have young kids, orespecially if you're just a
(06:45):
human.
You're gonna have a great timethere.
And if you're a spirit,
Britt (06:49):
just go.
You don't have to You don't evenneed
Lindsey (06:51):
a ticket.
You just get there.
Yeah, and probably if you're analien too.
Yeah.
Back on track is, we knew wewanted to go to Thailand, we
booked the thing really lastminute, and then we spent three
weeks every day going out andbeing in Japan.
Right.
So we would come, and You pairthat with, we have three kids,
when we come home, everyonewants to crash, so it's not
(07:12):
like, and then there's like,work, a little bit of work that
we needed to fit in, like, youknow, I had like, some sessions
with people, we're dealing withmassive time change, we went 19
hours in the future.
So all of those things, by thetime we got done, like, touring
around Japan during the day,there wasn't any juice left in
(07:33):
the tank to plan what we weregoing to do in Thailand.
We did not care.
Right.
Britt (07:38):
And I must say, we have had plenty of wonderful times
not planning and just showingup.
Word.
And just figuring it out.
Yeah.
Um, and sometimes that goesgreat and sometimes it doesn't.
Lindsey (07:47):
Yeah.
I'm an advocate for both.
Right.
Britt (07:50):
Yeah.
It works better if you're justlike in a new town.
When you're going to a newcountry, however, maybe you
should know a little bit beforeyou get there.
I don't
Lindsey (07:57):
know.
Yeah.
Or just actually be okay if it'snot going to be that great.
Right.
Yeah.
And there's...
We'll get into it, but there'sother things we could have done
in Thailand to shift and we'llget into that.
This is an episode aboutThailand, y'all.
Are we 20 minutes in and we'refinally gonna tell you?
The first thing we did inThailand was we landed.
Yeah.
At the airport in Bangkok and Iwill say what I remember about
(08:20):
that was it being such a starkcontrast to being in an airport
in Japan because when we walkedout into the terminals, There
was like people talking andnoise and I was like, I could
like feel this more livelinessthat I was like, Oh, this is
exciting to be just in acompletely different experience.
Britt (08:42):
Right.
Because as much as we loveJapan, it is a very quiet,
Lindsey (08:46):
reserved place.
Yeah.
Yeah, and so getting to theairport in Thailand, I was like,
this is going to be awesome.
What we did decide before we gotto Bangkok was that we were
going to stay in a resort, whichis something we really didn't do
literally on this trip exceptfor the first night we got to
Mexico when we first left Texas.
(09:07):
If you want to hear about Baja,that's another episode linked in
the show notes.
It was amazing.
But we stayed at one resort onenight and then we've been doing
apartments, Airbnbs.
For months, so we were like,let's stay at a resort.
We need a full break.
We need like someone else topick up the towels for a few
days.
(09:27):
And this part will feel like avacation from a vacation.
Yeah.
And so we stayed at theAnantara.
And I'm so glad we did that.
It was so fun.
And it was kind of like, it wasthe fanciest experience I've
ever had at a resort with kids.
(09:47):
would you say?
Would you agree with that?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That I can remember.
Yeah, I can't think of anythingbetter.
Yeah, so we did the whole thing.
We got like the private shuttlefrom the airport.
Someone picked us up with asign.
These, these are not things thatare on our everyday experience
Britt (10:06):
list.
Let me add real quick, on thatshuttle, this was night time
when we landed.
We drove through Bangkok for anhour through dense city and it
was amazing.
I had no clue how huge Bangkokwas.
Yeah.
I know we said that about Japantoo.
Japan as well.
Different places.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Coming from the United Stateswhere cities are just, you
Honestly, kind of small afterseeing other cities.
(10:28):
It's true.
It was fucking enormous.
Yeah.
Like for an hour driving throughskyscrapers and just like huge
Lindsey (10:35):
buildings.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
It was so fun.
And the first part of ourThailand experience was So fun.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
We were like living resort life.
Britt (10:46):
I don't know if, if you are a buffet people, but oh my
God, the buffet, I, I've neverexperienced a nice
Lindsey (10:53):
buffet.
So we went to Bangkok.
We stayed at the AnantaraResort.
They have resorts all over theworld.
Stay in one of them because it'samazing.
And we stayed in a suite, whichis also something that was like
a new experience for our kids,but we were like, let's just do
it.
Yeah.
We stayed in a suite that camewith.
Access to the private loungedownstairs, which was so fun, so
(11:18):
amazing, we like, when we gotthere to check in, you don't,
what do you go to the regularconcierge counter or whatever?
No, you go to the private loungeand you sit down and they serve
you tea while you check in.
It was like an experience fromstart to finish.
And that was so fun.
And, and I know I like that.
Britt (11:41):
Yeah.
The resort was on this beautifulriver, and something that really
stuck out to me, there werethousands of catfish that were
just like boiling the water allover.
It was wild.
I've never seen anything likeit.
And it was 24 hours a day.
They were just rolling and theywould sometimes slap their tails
in unison.
And I don't know if it was likeif a predator was coming or
(12:02):
what, but you'd just be sittingout there and just like a whale
or something, they would allslap their tails on the surface
at once.
It was something I had neverseen before.
Yeah, that was cool.
There was a lot of really cooltraditional Thai imagery and art
Lindsey (12:21):
everywhere.
It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful resort.
We check in privately because wecouldn't be bothered to be with
the common people.
And then we went to our suite,which had this welcome basket
with wine, I don't drink wine,but cool, with More tea, water
(12:42):
with all these Thai dessertswith fruit like dragon fruit
and, and our kids were justlike, this is the fanciest thing
we've ever done.
And kind of we were too, but itwas so beautiful.
So in that moment, I was like,yeah, this is perfect.
We spent a few days just likeresort living.
(13:06):
We would go downstairs forbreakfast.
We had private breakfast in theprivate lounge.
We had pool.
We just went to the pool.
Like, we want to go to the poolagain?
Let's go to the pool.
And we were just kind of likereally totally relaxing.
Britt (13:23):
And I should point out at this point, We hadn't thought
about what we were going to doafter we left this resort.
Lindsey (13:31):
Exactly.
We booked this place for fournights?
Or five nights?
Britt (13:36):
Uh, yeah, we booked it for a few nights and then
decided to stay an extra fewnights as well.
But we knew we wanted to go to abeach, but that was it.
That's when we kind of starteddigging through, like, Messages
Lindsey (13:49):
from people we had asked
Britt (13:51):
that, uh, was too much
Lindsey (13:52):
information.
Right, and you say that wewanted to go to a beach, and
that is true, and that's what wedecided on, but I think
originally I wanted to go north.
We did, I think
Britt (14:02):
we were going to try to do both.
Lindsey (14:03):
Yeah, and then someone was saying, Oh, don't go there
right now, it's too hot.
And that's just another exampleof like, too much information,
it was like information overloadpaired with tired, overextended
nervous system.
And so anything someone wouldsay, I'd just be like, Okay, I
(14:24):
guess that's something toconsider.
Right.
Instead of actually like,feeling where I wanted to go.
Exactly, because
Britt (14:30):
looking back on it, I don't care if it was a little
hotter there, I would have lovedto have gone there.
Lindsey (14:34):
Right.
It was hot.
It was hot everywhere.
And we're from Texas.
It's hot.
Yeah.
Like, we would have been okay.
Yeah.
It would have been better for usto see what we actually wanted
to see.
Right.
But Brit is right because.
At some point, this full relaxmode, we were like, we need to
go to a beach.
We haven't been to a beach inwhat at that point was three
(14:55):
weeks, four weeks.
Cause we just left Maui, whichis also kind of funny to be
like, we need to go back to thebeach.
That's how you can tell thatyou're just like.
That for us we just thinkweren't making the right
decisions.
Right.
So how did we land on where wedecided to go?
Well,
Britt (15:09):
well let's go back a little bit.
We were still having a greattime.
Yeah.
Hanging out.
They had a show by the buffet atnight that was the story of
Hanuman.
And that was a crazysynchronicity because we had
just come from the Hanumantemple in Maui.
Over there it's usuallyBuddhists, so we didn't expect a
Hanuman story.
(15:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Like a Hindu thing to go on.
And the boys loved it because wewere just immersed in all this
Hanuman imagery before we gotthere.
And then we got there and Eli'slike, look, it's Hanuman.
It's Hanuman,
Lindsey (15:41):
yeah.
It was wild.
It was so cool.
We were resort chilling.
And honestly, we didn't.
There's so much to do inBangkok, and we didn't really do
that much, and it felt reallygood.
Really, the only time that weleft the resort, and this isn't
our, also I want to preface bysaying this isn't necessarily
(16:01):
our normal mode of travel,because we're normally like,
let's go see and do everything,but we just really, Wanted to
chill.
The only time we left the resortfor the day was when we We
Britt (16:15):
took the boat across the river with the boys to kind of
walk through the town a littlebit And we got to ride on a tuk
tuk.
It's like a motorcycle that'llfit a whole family It's the best
way to describe it.
Look it up if you want.
And we just rode around the cityand it was beautiful.
Yeah.
It was cool.
Like, Japan is so clean and soneat.
(16:37):
And then we got to Thailand
Lindsey (16:39):
and it was a little gritty.
It was like, has this rawness.
And it felt good.
It's cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a little like New York orsomething.
Yeah.
And it was really nice.
And it drove
Britt (16:49):
us through the, uh, flower market.
Right?
Yeah.
There's like a famous flowermarket
Lindsey (16:54):
there.
And Chinatown and like thestreet.
Oh, the gold district.
The gold, yeah.
There was just like a thousandgold stores.
I was like, I need to come backand buy a necklace.
Of course I didn't.
Yeah.
Because I forgot.
But it was so fun.
You know, we're just ridingaround this tuk tuk for like 5
for an hour.
And that kept the boys soentertained.
It was so fun and then that'skind of the one of the only
(17:18):
things we really did outside ofthe resort and then we took so
they have a this resort and manymost of the hotels and resorts
on the river have river shuttleslike that's how you're going to
get from one place to the otheryou can go to the mall you can
go to the Four Seasons you cango from one place to the To
pretty much anywhere in townthrough the river.
(17:38):
So that's, we were riding on theboat, which is also like free
entertainment for the kids.
Because they could ride a boatall day.
Right.
And just look in the water, lookaround.
And so that was super fun.
And then we went back and wentswimming again.
And with, an amazing thing aboutstaying at a resort was that we
had access to babysitters.
(18:00):
Which we hadn't had in a while.
And so we totally took thatopportunity.
They were so nice.
Britt (18:06):
These babysitters worked for the resort.
They had like a kids day centerthere that you could just leave
your kids there while you're atthe pool or something.
But they could also come up toyour room and watch the kids.
So we took advantage of that.
And one night we went out on adinner cruise on like a
traditional longboat.
Down this beautiful river atnight time where you could see
(18:29):
the whole city skyline lit up,all the temples lit up, gold
shimmering, it was beautiful andthey would announce any time we
passed something, oh this is,you know, the, whatever, and it
was beautiful.
Beautiful, and we ate thisamazing multi course meal, glad
we got to do
Lindsey (18:46):
that.
It was so, it was like theperfect experience of like that
resort vacation living where wewere like having a fancy.
We had a full fancy.
And it was so fun.
The night that we did get ababysitter, Eli got sick and
(19:06):
they like texted me immediately.
They told me he threw up.
Sorry if you don't want to hearthat in your earbuds or whatever
you're listening to.
But they were just like, he'sfine.
We think he just ate too muchpizza.
Cool.
He seems fine now.
He's totally happy.
So we were just like, okay.
I think they even sent us a
Britt (19:23):
video of him being like, I'm okay.
Yeah, yeah,
Lindsey (19:25):
yeah.
We were like, we're just goingto take advantage of this.
He, he was like heavily eatingpizza at that point.
Britt (19:33):
So much pizza.
We were ordering room serviceall the time.
Man, we went all
Lindsey (19:36):
out on that one.
We were like living it up.
And.
Now looking back, that throwingout was a little bit of
foreshadowing.
But we decided where we weregoing to go next, probably that
next day, when we were talkingto someone at the pool, someone
vacationing from England.
And she was saying, we're goingto Koh Samui, we love Koh Samui,
(20:00):
we go there all the time, it'slike our favorite place, we've
been everywhere, all of thesethings.
And so we were like, oh, weshould go there.
And that's how we decided.
And that seems
Britt (20:11):
nice too, like, that seems like a great way to be
like, yeah, let's go to thatplace.
Lindsey (20:15):
It's true.
Right.
I think just after the overloadof everything, it was an easy
way to make a decision.
Right.
Britt (20:24):
And speaking of foreshadowing, let me throw in
this little tidbit.
When you're traveling inBangkok, there are plenty of
cabs and they're super cheap andthey're easy to get everywhere.
Put that in your pocket forlater.
Put that in your pocket forlater.
Lindsey (20:38):
The second time we left the resort with everyone was to
see the Golden Buddha.
And we did get a cab and we didsit in a lot of traffic.
And it was, that was actually alittle bit, it was interesting
because the reason I felt sodrawn to Thailand, other than
that it's beautiful, In so manyways, but it's like, Oh, my
(20:59):
teachers learned so much here,you know, so I want to like go
be in these places where.
My teachers learned from theirteachers and then we went to the
Golden Buddha and it's verybusy.
It's like a very popular touristspot, but like the boys just
were like, cool, let's go.
They were like so acting liketeenagers about it other than
(21:21):
putting the coins in the bowls.
They did like that.
Britt (21:25):
And then it started pouring rain while we were there
too on top
Lindsey (21:27):
of that.
Yeah, so they were kind of, theywere just like, we want to go
back to the hotel, which is areally interesting thing when
you're traveling with kids.
Because I think, I like to thinkour kids are pretty open and
then sometimes they will juststraight up be like, I want to
go home and be like, we don'thave one.
Our home is the hotel.
(21:48):
No, they're like, we want to goback to the room and you just
have to balance that.
That is traveling with kids.
They're going to want to.
Not do what you want to do.
That's true.
So then, we went to Koh Samui.
Britt (22:01):
Yeah, baby.
We took a little plane.
We took a
Lindsey (22:04):
little plane.
A fairly small plane.
Medium sized plane, maybe?
From a big airport, we took alittle plane, and we went to the
island of Koh Samui.
It's a
Britt (22:13):
pretty quick flight, was it
Lindsey (22:14):
30 minutes or something?
I think it's an hour, like rightat an hour.
And when we're landing at KohSamui, this little island, our
plane caught like a wind gustright when it was about to touch
down onto the tarmac and had togo back up.
We bounced off the ground.
We bounced off the tarmac,tarmac went back up into the air
(22:36):
and had to make a giant circlearound.
The entire island, and I was,every possible, like, nightmare
scenario was going through myhead.
Which isn't always normal forme, but for some reason...
Britt (22:50):
Well, I should point out, no one said anything about it.
We just bounced off the runway,no one mentioned anything over
the loudspeaker, no one walkedaround like, oh, it's okay,
we're just gonna circle and tryit again.
Not a single thing.
So we spent 10 or 15 minutesjust like...
What the fuck?
And nobody on the plane wastalking.
Everyone was just sitting therequietly.
We're looking over at the boys.
(23:12):
who are like in a seat in frontof us, I think.
Just being like, are they okay?
Do they know what just happened?
Yeah.
And just quietly not trying tofreak out.
Lindsey (23:20):
I know.
I don't, man, it freaked me out.
Yeah.
It stressed me out.
It was fine.
They just landed.
We landed at the airport.
We took a little Six FlagsDisneyland shuttle from the
airplane to the terminal.
We got all of our things.
(23:42):
Oh,
Britt (23:43):
first thing that, uh, second thing that went wrong,
first was the plane, uh,bouncing.
Second was that we got up thereand our Airbnb hadn't sent a car
to pick us up like they saidthey were going to.
Lindsey (23:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, because I was like, when Iwas talking with the person,
yes, that was so confusing.
I'm so glad you remembered that.
I was talking with the personthrough Airbnb.
Of course, we booked it lastminute, but I was like, can you
send a, you know, like a cab ora car?
And they said they would, andthen there was no one there.
So we're like, what's going on?
And then we had to call them.
(24:16):
And there's this languagebarrier, they don't really
understand what I'm saying, I'masking, I don't really
understand what they'recommunicating.
So that was really confusing.
And then finally I was asking,like, because the address on
Airbnb, and we still need to dothe episode about Airbnb
because...
(24:36):
There's so many frustratingthings about Airbnb, especially
when you're depending on it overand over again.
You just notice, like, all thecracks.
And the address on Airbnb is inthe water.
So that's not a place.
Yeah, you
Britt (24:50):
look it up on a map, and we showed the person at the taxi
stand.
She's like, where is it?
Showed her and she's like,that's in the water.
That's in the ocean.
And that comes up a lot withAirbnb.
They do not give you the rightaddress.
The correct address.
Yeah, and they don't tell youthat either.
You just have to contact themand they'll be like, oh, here's
the real address.
Lindsey (25:08):
What is that?
It's confusing.
And that was another thing onthe phone where I was like, so
they didn't understand what Iwas like asking.
How do I actually get there?
Is this the address?
And finally they understood.
We got it sorted.
We got in a van cab that waslike solid gold inside.
(25:29):
It had
Britt (25:29):
subwoofers
Lindsey (25:30):
everywhere.
Super pimp mobile.
It was a bangin party bus.
It was like, yeah.
Britt (25:36):
And that, I'll, one thing about that island is that a lot
of the cabs are party buses.
And that was
Lindsey (25:43):
badass.
Yeah, yeah.
They're like two chain mobiles.
Yeah.
So then we got to our Airbnb andWhat were you feeling at that
point?
Britt (25:53):
At that point, I was happy to be there.
We walked in, I was like, oh,this is, this is beautiful.
Look at that beach.
It was a beautiful beach.
Yeah.
Just like...
Gorgeous.
The house was like a traditionalThai house, looked really great.
Lindsey (26:07):
That's how I was feeling.
Yeah.
Me too.
This is when I was like startingto feel like it reminded me of
Costa Rica when I went to CostaRica almost 20 years before
because it was very beautifuland very basic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's nothing wrong withbasic, but I just felt like, Oh,
this reminds me of Costa Rica.
(26:29):
So we hung out there.
We chilled kind of the firstthing on our list every time
we're traveling somewhere is weneed to get some groceries
because we're a family.
So we're not going to eat outevery meal.
Our kids want breakfast at like6am.
So we tried to find somegroceries.
That proved impossible.
Britt (26:50):
So it turns out the part of town we were
Lindsey (26:53):
in.
Or the part of the island, yeah.
Yeah, the part of
Britt (26:55):
the island we were on.
Was a little isolated.
You couldn't just pop out andget a taxi.
They weren't just driving by,right?
So we had to figure out we hadto ask the people at the I guess
it was kind of like a hotel Itwas like six little houses.
Yeah, and then a rest like atiny rest breakfast restaurant
and You call the breakfastrestaurant, and they're the
(27:16):
people that own the houses, Idon't know.
And so they hooked us up with aprivate taxi.
Most people, most of the peoplethat work there didn't speak
much English, so it was kind ofhard to communicate.
My bad, not theirs.
And so they got us a number fora private taxi, and we ended up
using this private taxi most ofour trip.
(27:37):
Yeah.
But you would call them, andthen they would show up 15, 20
minutes later.
Take you wherever you're going.
So, we would have to go to adifferent part of town to get
groceries.
But most of the groceries werelike gas station level.
It was all like lots of foodcoloring, lots of, it was all
just like junk food.
Lindsey (27:57):
Right.
Unless you're like at the marketgetting vegetables or protein.
And that's just not fully whatwe were looking for.
Especially because the Airbnb wewere in was like very basic.
I think there was a hot plate.
There was a fridge, there was amicrowave, but it's not, you're
not gonna like, cook mealsreally there, so it needed to be
(28:17):
easy.
Yeah,
Britt (28:19):
and, you know, no shame to junk food, I eat plenty of
junk food, but when I'm going toget groceries, I want better
options so I feel good, youknow, and that wasn't around.
Uh, same with restaurants, therewere a few restaurants like
along the beach that we couldwalk to, but only a few of them
had vegan options and they justweren't the best.
Lindsey (28:41):
Yeah, it just kind of felt like everything took
Britt (28:44):
effort.
Right, and this is like, as soonas we get there, we're figuring
this out.
Right.
And let me throw down my, I, Iam hot natured and I like always
need an air conditioner on or afan or something because I'm a
big wussy and It was extreme.
It was very hot and extremelymuggy there.
So I just had this kind ofgeneral Discomfort where my body
(29:06):
just felt numb and I just it washard for me to relax So making
these decisions I I had kind ofa short temper
Lindsey (29:15):
It's like, it's like when you're already not have
your, you don't have yourcreature comforts and then also
you're physically uncomfortableor something.
That's exactly what it was.
Britt (29:23):
So that was just a general feeling from my whole
experience on Adaline.
Yeah.
Going into everything else.
So I was already, Not feeling mybest.
Lindsey (29:32):
It just, like, adds another layer because you've,
like, been camp I mean, we'vebeen camping and stuff and Yeah,
Britt (29:37):
and that's fine.
Yeah.
Yeah, but there's just a lot ofemotion going on there.
And then eating junk food,feeling extra bad on top of
that.
Lindsey (29:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, we're every Yeah, a lot ofour Several of our meals were
kind of just like, Eugh.
All right, well, I'll eat thistoast.
Yeah.
Sure.
So, that's what we did for a fewdays.
Granted, we're on a beautifulWe're right on the water, on a
beautiful beach.
That was amazing.
I must say
Britt (30:01):
about this beach, it was beautiful to sit next to, but
you couldn't swim in it becauseit was maybe knee deep for like
a half a mile.
Lindsey (30:12):
Right.
And pretty rocky.
And
Britt (30:13):
lots of rocks.
There was a reef out there, soyou couldn't, between the shore
and the reef, it was only maybelike 20 or 30 feet.
So you could sit in it, butthat's really all you could do
right there.
But there weren't very manypeople around it either, so it
was like having
Lindsey (30:27):
our own private beach.
Yeah, yeah, and it was good forthe kids because they just want
to, like, dig around and findrocks.
So it was the perfect place tojust, like, sit in the water,
but not really.
Yeah, you're not really going toswim, and it was beautiful, and
that was kind of like our firstday or two there.
We were just getting ourbearings, figuring out that
(30:47):
there wasn't the best foodoptions for us, maybe we're also
kind of picky.
I'd like
Britt (30:53):
to throw in that there were no cobras on this trip.
We didn't see a single cobra.
Yeah.
Lindsey (30:57):
I was hoping to see.
I saw a sign for a cobra show,which is so sad.
Yeah, no thanks.
So sad.
Britt (31:02):
I want to see a wild cobra.
Ugh.
Saw plenty of, uh.
Centipedes,
Lindsey (31:07):
no cobras.
Yeah, and then something thatexponentially added to Brit's
general discomfort and thegeneral discomfort of the entire
team is that Eli got sick, likeI mentioned in, in uh, Bangkok
and then that went away and thenhe got sick again.
And this time it was like, oh,this is a stomach bug because he
(31:30):
just kept getting sick for likea day and we would maybe try to
go somewhere or And then hewould get sick.
For every family person who everhas passed around a stomach bug,
you know when it starts.
Like, oh shit, we're all goingdown.
And that's exactly whathappened.
Eli got it, and then Jack gotit, and then I got it but I
(31:55):
didn't actually get sick, I justfelt horrible for two days and
like couldn't eat anything, andthen Otis got it, and then Britt
got it.
And it
Britt (32:05):
was, and like I was saying, there weren't good
groceries and we were kind ofstuck at home because no one
wanted to go out because theydidn't feel good.
So we're kind of stuck at thishouse eating food we don't like.
And also it was, like I said, itwas hot and muggy and this
house, even though it wasbeautiful, it doesn't cool down.
There was like a split AC, butunless you were standing right
in front of it.
(32:27):
It all just leaked out throughthe, the boards because it was
kind of a shack.
There was no insulation oranything.
Yeah.
So it was very uncomfortable andeveryone was sick.
And everyone was sick.
And so at this point, none of useven have an appetite and we're
like, we're in Thailand.
Thai food is like our favoritefood and we can't even eat
Lindsey (32:46):
it.
Like my least favorite, I wouldrather everyone have the flu.
than everyone have a tum a tummybug.
It is the worst.
And when you have to clean allthe sheets, clean all the
towels, like twice a day, andyou have to ask someone to do it
because there's no washer anddryer.
So I would just be like throwingeverything onto the porch and
(33:09):
then being like, I'm so sorry,but everyone got sick.
Can you clean this up?
And...
Who was it?
I can't remember which kid itwas, did get sick in the taxi
and I felt so bad and then theprivate taxi that we did end up
using, they were the nicestpeople, his husband and wife.
They were so sweet.
(33:29):
That was an upside is likeeveryone we met so many nice
people and they were two ofthem.
They were so wonderful.
The wife would like stop at 7Eleven and get the boys
chocolate bars.
Anyway, one of our kids threwup, like threw up in their car.
Yeah, paint
Britt (33:48):
him a picture.
Lindsey (33:50):
It was a lot.
And they were, and they werejust like, it's okay, don't
worry, it's okay.
And that was so nice.
Yeah.
That was so for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
So for like four or five days,it seems like, we were just in
this cycle of, okay, one of usis sick, and everyone feels
awful, and everyone's drained,and...
(34:11):
There's not really anything goodto, like, replenish us and
that's what we were doing.
Right.
And then we'll go sit in thewater and in the ocean for a
little while and then come backin.
So that's what we were doing.
Then when everyone felt better,we were like, all right, we're
ready to go do something.
(34:32):
So Brit booked a tour because weheard, you know, there's.
We heard there was cool thingsto do, and one of the things
was...
Britt (34:41):
Pig Island.
Doesn't that sound fun?
Pig Island?
An island where pigs swim aroundand you can pet them.
Cute little
Lindsey (34:48):
pigs.
Beautiful island.
Beautiful island.
You should see the pictures,y'all.
Take a little
Britt (34:53):
boat out there.
Oh my gosh, it looks so amazing.
That was not the
Lindsey (34:57):
case.
That was not the case.
You take a long boat to anisland that's very close.
And you swim with adorable pigs.
That's the sell.
The reality was you do get on alongboat.
The water was extremely choppy.
It was hard to get there, right?
Yeah.
It took a while to get there.
(35:17):
It took a while to get there.
It wasn't as bad.
And then you got, we got to thisisland that's essentially three
little shacks with all thesepigs.
Pigs everywhere.
Britt (35:31):
What we were expecting was like, Oh, this is where the
wild pigs live.
And they, you can kind of likehang out with the pigs.
Yeah.
But this felt like, uh, theyjust let the pigs breed.
Like somebody brought some pigsthere, and they just overran the
place.
So there's little tiny brand newbaby pigs, there's huge giant
pigs, but there was like athousand pigs.
Lindsey (35:51):
Yeah, and they were adorable.
And the boys did love the pigs.
But it's like one of thoseultimate tourist...
Attraction traps.
So there's just 50, 60, I don'tknow how many boats were right
there on this one little beachpulling up, people were pouring
off the boats, and then you goto this, you look at, there's
(36:12):
some pigs, the water's not superswimmable.
It was a cloudy day when we werethere, that's beside the point,
they can't control the weather,but, and then there's like one
little shack that sells Spriteand alcohol and chips.
I don't want any of those.
Britt (36:27):
They also, there's a, there's a restaurant there where
you could get like hot dogs andstuff, but it wasn't open yet.
Lindsey (36:35):
Oh, yeah.
So the.
So the tour was, take a boat toPig Island, hang out with pigs,
eat lunch, you know, have abeautiful lunch there, and none
of that was
Britt (36:47):
true.
It was also, there was trasheverywhere, because I mean,
there's not like a trash truckcoming to pick everything up,
so.
Behind, you know, a tree hereand a tree there, there's just a
giant pile of stinky garbage andflies.
Lindsey (36:58):
And then you're like telling a two year old like, Oh,
don't touch the trash.
Don't touch the pig shit.
Yeah.
Don't touch that one pig.
There's also like lots of pigsthat you're not supposed to
touch because they're not thatcool with it.
And that's also okay.
That's not someone'sresponsibility, but it's just
another layer of hilarity to ourday.
(37:20):
And I should have
Britt (37:21):
known these weren't just wild pigs, you know what I mean?
I feel kind of bad nowrealizing, like, these are just,
like, trapped pigs that thesepeople are
Lindsey (37:29):
making money off of.
I don't know if they were reallytra I mean, they definitely
weren't trapped.
They were all just, they werefree ranging.
Yeah, you're right, you'reright.
They were definitely freeranging.
And they like the trash, so it'sfine with them.
They're probably having thebest.
Um, it's like, kinda seem likeevery group of people that got
off the boat looked around forabout five minutes and was like,
(37:50):
okay, I'm over this.
Pretty quick
Britt (37:52):
we were like, kinda ready to go.
We were ready.
So Lindsey's like, alright, gosee if our, our, and this boat
was just us and our driver,right?
Go see if the driver's ready togo.
I go over to the driver and he'slike, no, there's a storm
coming.
Lindsey (38:05):
He pointed at a storm and he was like, we can't go.
We gotta wait,
Britt (38:08):
like 30 minutes.
We gotta wait 30 minutes.
So we go and.
A storm comes and it's pouringrain and everybody's like
huddling under this one tinyhut.
Like 60 ish people.
And I'm fine.
I'm like, this is kind of nice.
Yeah, it wasn't like scary oranything.
I was just like, look what we'redoing.
Look at this situation we're in.
(38:28):
Kids weren't liking it, so thatmakes it uncomfortable.
Yeah, yeah.
Pretty much any of theseexperiences, if it would have
just been Lindsey and I, I thinkwe would have been fine and
gotten through it fine.
But having the kids, you just gointo this mode where you're
like, I need to make these kidscomfortable or, I don't know.
Lindsey (38:44):
And like make sure they're safe.
Make sure
Britt (38:46):
they're safe, exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
And we never felt unsafe.
But it was also like, okay, nowthere's this huge storm coming
out of the island.
There was
Lindsey (38:54):
just nothing fun or comfortable about it other than
there were some pretty cutelittle piggies.
Right.
Britt (39:00):
So finally when the storm lets up, they take us over to
Lindsey (39:03):
another island.
Which is super close.
And this island is more of thesame minus pigs.
So like minus the cute.
It was some buildings, arestaurant that did have, that
had meals.
And then some, like, secretpiles of trash.
And, uh, there was othertourists there.
That they went on like a tractorride to one of the, um, temple,
(39:29):
there was a little temple on theisland and we didn't do that
because I was like, there's noway the boys will want to ride
on that little truck.
Anyway, all of their faces whenthey were coming back from the
tractor ride, they looked like,Why the fuck am I here?
What am I doing?
I don't understand why I'm onthis island.
Britt (39:46):
We were there on that island for a little too long.
Finally, we had lunch.
There
Lindsey (39:50):
was a swing.
There was a swing.
So that entertained the boys.
We ate some
Britt (39:53):
french fries and then it comes time to go, right?
So we hop back in this boat andthe boys are excited because
they get to go home now.
But.
The water from this storm is sochoppy, we were bouncing in the
air.
I mean, it felt like the boatwas going to fall over.
All the kids are screaming,asking if they're going to die.
(40:15):
Crying!
Lindsey (40:16):
Even Otis, he was crying, like, he was crying so
much.
And he doesn't get scaredeasily, he's like...
Because he's not like...
He doesn't have the fear.
Yeah, he's still like, not withit enough to be like, what's
happening?
But all, we were...
Completely soaked, like waterwas coming over the side of the
boat and just literally, it waslike we were swimming.
Britt (40:38):
Right, and if you've ever driven a boat, you know that you
need to hit the waves at
Lindsey (40:43):
an angle, right?
Ever been on a boat with youruncle or anyone that's like,
tells you to hit them at anangle?
Not
Britt (40:49):
this motherfucker.
He hits them head on and weshoot straight up in the air and
slap down, fall out of ourseats.
Oh my god, we're covered.
We're just like, soaking wetlike we're swimming.
And, um, I don't know, to meit's fine.
I've been in situations likethat before.
But the boys are scared and thenyou want to make them happy.
I
Lindsey (41:12):
was just like, the boat right?
That's also my perception.
There could have been nothingelse to do.
It is open water that you'regoing over on a long tail boat.
That might be the only way to doit.
I mean, it's like four feetwide.
I never, I never want to do thatagain.
So we got back to the placewhere we got on the boat and we
were completely drenched.
(41:34):
And then we ate some ice creamand then we went home.
And
Britt (41:39):
that was Pig Island, baby.
Don't go to Pig Island.
Lindsey (41:42):
Maybe it's fun.
Maybe it was the wrong time ofyear.
It's fucking not fun.
If we went, if it was liketechnically the rainy season.
It's also a
Britt (41:50):
place where you can't really swim.
So, throwing
Lindsey (41:53):
that out there as well.
Right, right.
If you want to see some pigs,there are 15, 000 other better
situations for you to go seesome pigs.
Absolutely.
For sure.
For sure.
So, that was that.
That was that.
And that was, that was like areal stamp after.
Everyone being sick, eating somegas station food.
(42:13):
Then we went to Pig Island wherewe were just like, what is this
place?
What is this experience thatwe're having?
This is not fun.
Britt (42:20):
So, our next big outing, we went to an elephant
sanctuary.
And I vetted this one.
They're great.
I stand by this one.
This was a good experience.
It was good, yeah.
They rescue these elephants frombad situations because in
Thailand, there's a lot ofelephant tourism.
Where these elephants aretrained to, like, pick people up
with their trunks and get apicture with them and do all
(42:41):
this stuff to do elephant rideswhere they have these collars on
them that Dig spikes into theirskin right so a lot of these
rescued elephants have scars allover them from these spikes
digging into them It's terrible,but here they're just free
ranging.
They're amazing They love beingwith people because that's how
they were brought up and nowthat they're treated right
(43:03):
They're really interested to bearound you
Lindsey (43:06):
filled up our bags with bananas and these little rice
cake things And we just got tolike go feed elephants and meat
elephants And learn about theelephants.
It was such a cool experience.
The boys.
Loved it.
It was amazing.
It was perfect for a family.
No cobras.
No cobras.
But it was cool.
(43:26):
The food was all vegetarian.
Yeah, that
Britt (43:28):
was awesome.
Got to have a great meal.
Yeah.
Yeah, a nice buffet.
It was nice.
I gotta say, let me tell y'all,pad thai is like one of my
favorite foods ever.
And it's hard to find it veganin some places.
And boy, I was so excited tojust have all the Pad Thai I
could eat.
Even though I was just comingoff being sick and could only
eat a little bit.
Right,
Lindsey (43:46):
right, right.
That was a good day in Koh Samuiwhen we went to the Elephant
Sanctuary.
And if you ever find yourself inKoh Samui or anywhere in
Thailand, find a really good...
And make sure, like Britt said,vet the elephant sanctuaries
because there's even some, youknow, that'll say like, we're a
sanctuary, but they're notreally.
Find the good ones, go seeelephants because they're
(44:09):
amazing animals.
Britt (44:10):
Absolutely.
Another thing we really liked isthe night markets and these are
all over Thailand, but the onesin Koh Samui were fun.
There's small ones, big ones,one by the mall, you know, so.
Lindsey (44:23):
Yeah, pretty much everywhere there was a night
market and it's food, vendors.
Almost every single night, itwas bands playing.
So we'd just walk around, seewhat they have, get super cheap
food.
Get sick.
Britt (44:38):
Get maybe I think that's what made probably made us sick.
I don't know.
I hate to be judgy about it,but, uh, it wasn't the cleanest,
uh, conditions.
It was pretty dirty.
Lindsey (44:48):
Yeah.
But So at this point, we'd beenon Koh Samui for about a week.
And also with no plan of wherewe were going after.
Britt (44:56):
So when we did start thinking about what are we going
to do next, right?
We're thinking Bali, becausethat was a must do on our trip,
right?
So we look up tickets to Baliand like, oh, those prices look
pretty nice.
Let's revisit this tomorrow andthen we'll, we'll book these
tickets.
Tomorrow comes around, we lookthem up, and the prices have
jumped way up.
Yeah.
And also, it meant if we weregoing to get them for a more
(45:19):
reasonable price, we were goingto have to stay another week or
two weeks.
Until the ticket prices wentdown, I don't know, became a
thing.
So, at this point, we were stillnot having the best time.
And we're like, well, let's lookat tickets
Lindsey (45:35):
to...
We just kind of started lookingaround everywhere.
But without really an idea oflike...
Nothing sounded great, honestly.
Even, even Bali, I was like, Idon't know.
We were looking at Airbnbs, andthere wasn't really anything
that good that would fit us.
And we were like, how long do westay?
Do we stay a month?
(45:55):
Everything just felt so...
Murky.
And this is
Britt (45:59):
where the wheels came off on the whole trip, I think.
This was like, this was the lowpoint where it was a lot more
going on.
It had nothing to do withThailand,
Lindsey (46:09):
you know, it was us.
Totally.
Right.
Other than Pig Island and theboat.
No, I'm just kidding.
So, also, another.
I mean, we're like calling inthat experience even because
we're like, just, yeah, sowonky.
Right.
Britt (46:22):
So, we decide Melbourne, Australia.
It's not super far.
We wanted to go out ofAustralia, I wanted to go to
Melbourne.
A lot of my favorite music isfrom there.
I felt like this was apilgrimage.
Gotta get to Melbourne.
So we're like, fuck it, let's dothis, Melbourne.
This also requires us to stayfor one more week and go see a
movie.
Another red flag.
(46:43):
So, yeah, we had to stay anotherweek.
But this week we decided to booka different Airbnb in a
different part of the island.
Right.
And that up leveled us
Lindsey (46:55):
a little bit.
Right.
That was a better experience.
Way closer to better grocerystore.
That was in a mall.
It was so funny to be like onlyfor the, I don't know why I felt
like the mall was so comfortingbecause I don't care about the
mall.
Right.
But there was something aboutYou're
Britt (47:11):
going from like a shack.
Yeah, yeah.
On a beach with piles of trasheverywhere.
To a mall.
Lindsey (47:18):
I don't know.
To a place where you can like,get something organic or
whatever.
Britt (47:22):
And let me, there's a huge wealth disparity there.
So like you're either Totally.
In like a beautiful resort.
Or on the other side of thestreet, our taxi drivers pointed
out their house as we were goingby and it was literally a shack.
The roof was just corrugated tinon top of some stuff.
There was a huge wealth, wealth
Lindsey (47:41):
disparity there.
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, it's, it's like fueled bytourism.
And that's like this underlyingthing that you're just so aware
of when you're traveling for along time.
And you're not always in aresort or something like that.
It's like you just see.
Exactly, the disparity, andlike, I can imagine if I was
(48:02):
feeling this weird energy there,of like, what is this place?
Imagine that for the last threeyears, their lifeline and their
livelihood was completelyobliterated by a global
shutdown.
And like no one's traveling andpeople even told us that like no
one's no one's been coming hereuntil like now it's starting to
(48:23):
pick back up right
Britt (48:25):
so and it didn't seem like any of that wealth was
trickling down to people andthat could have just been
because of the shutdown I don'tknow but it did feel very sad
and that it and It made me feela lot better about paying extra
for the taxis there.
The taxis were all way moreexpensive, but the people
driving the taxis were soamazing.
(48:47):
They needed that money and I was
Lindsey (48:48):
happy to give it to them.
Britt (48:50):
And when I'm in the position, I would love to figure
out a way to help support morepeople in Koh Samui.
Yeah, yeah.
Or
Lindsey (48:58):
places like that.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah.
Because there's like a ton ofsmall businesses.
And they are just like trying tomake it just like anybody else
and it hasn't been easy.
Right.
You know?
So we up leveled, we up leveledbaby.
We went to a different Airbnbthat was a lot more comfortable,
uh, also on a beach, not aswimmable beach.
(49:18):
I had a cool pool right by abig, the big golden Buddha
that's there on Koh Samui.
So that was cool.
We could walk there actually.
It was nice, but it was stillthat feeling of a little bit
tourist trap y was what I felt.
You know, I felt a little bitlike.
Just kind of closed in.
Sometimes I, sometimes that waseven fun, even on that.
(49:40):
You can like tap in and be like,let's go walk down the street
where they sell fake Louie's.
Yeah.
And just talk to people and, youknow, have a good time.
And then sometimes it can belike, okay, I just like.
Want something to be easy,right, and
Britt (49:54):
I'll say we, we felt like we were just running out the
clock.
Totally.
It was like, is it time to go?
Yeah, that's kind of how we werefeeling.
Yeah, we did find a great coffeeshop that was in the back of
someone's house.
Yeah, we would go there everymorning and this person Peachy
would make us
Lindsey (50:09):
this great coffee.
We are definitely buying one ofthose coffee.
It was like a Hand pressespresso machine that we are
buying.
With, like, the big ice.
It was the best.
Yeah.
Britt (50:23):
Yeah, it was like cocktail ice.
Yeah.
Like the
Lindsey (50:25):
big cubes.
Yeah.
And they served it in a cocktailglass.
Yeah.
Britt (50:28):
Fantastic.
Uh, we ate some okay food.
We, uh, saw some
Lindsey (50:33):
shit.
We went to a pizza place.
Britt (50:36):
That was good.
Yeah.
We did
Lindsey (50:37):
some shit there.
We went to the mall.
several times also because themall had a, um, arcade, arcade,
and the kids were just like,yes, we want to go to the
arcade.
And we couldn't really think ofmuch else to do.
Nothing else sounded that great.
So we went to the arcade a lot.
The best I, from what I couldgather in Koh Samui, it's like
(50:58):
the best beaches are surroundedby resorts.
So either need to be staying atthe resort or they're probably
public.
You can probably walk through,but we didn't really like have.
gear or whatever to like do abeach day.
Yeah, and like I said, we werejust counting.
We were just like, we're ready.
Yeah, so we really kind of tookit easy.
(51:18):
Right.
We did meet at our Airbnb someTexans.
Oh, yeah.
And that was really cool.
That was like one of thoselittle special synchronicities
to me.
The people right across from us,they were from Houston and they
were nomadic now and they weretraveling with their...
Elderly father slash father inlaw, who was so nice, we met him
(51:39):
first and he was showing us thatthere was an eagle that would
fly by the pool every day, twicea day.
At the same time every day.
At the same time.
So we could map it.
Yeah, yeah.
We were like, oh, let's go seethe eagle.
And they were just so nice.
Again, it just it feels goodeverywhere we go.
We meet like the nicest people.
Yeah
Britt (51:56):
Oh, and let's say we have to I can't stress this enough
all the people in Thailand wereso nice So nice, so happy to
talk a lot I feel like a lotmore people knew English there
than in in Japan even
Lindsey (52:10):
Yeah, so yeah,
Britt (52:11):
yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit more than them.
Yeah, but they were so happy totalk, hang out.
They were so nice, so helpful.
They were very, it was like avery genuine feeling.
Lindsey (52:21):
Yeah, and they love the kids.
Yeah, so much.
Like I mentioned the one taxidriver, she would buy our kids
chocolate bars.
And she loved them so much.
And then we would, then we had asecond taxi driver that drove
one of the pimp vans, and heloved the kids so much.
Just everywhere we went,everyone was so nice.
(52:42):
So again, you can tell it's anus problem.
Yeah.
For why we didn't like thisplace.
And yeah, like Britt said, wewere riding the clock out, so.
Eventually, it was time for usto go.
And that's what we did.
And I do remember this reliefgetting to the airport of just
being like, ah, this part hasended.
Britt (53:07):
Yeah.
Lindsey (53:08):
And I don't know if you remember this, but then we got
to Bangkok.
This is another part.
From Koh Samui.
From Koh Samui.
We had to fly back to Bangkok.
Yeah, we flew to Bangkok to takeour flight to Melbourne.
And this is another aspect ofwhat just feels funny as people
that are telling you guys abouttraveling and how many times we
(53:29):
didn't pre plan.
But we got to the flight tocheck in for our Melbourne
flight and they were like, Oh,do you have your Australian
visas ready?
Oh, I forgot about that.
And I was like, what?
And I had no idea that that'swhat you were supposed to do.
So we all had to sit down.
And it took a while because youhave to do one for each person.
Again, you would probably, youguys probably all know this
(53:52):
because you actually look upwhere you're going to share it
because that's just another realpart of travel.
So even that part being done andus going to the next place, we
were like, Oh, okay, here'sanother way that we.
Could have planned better anddidn't and it took 30 minutes we
(54:15):
sat on, we sat on the airportfloor for 30 minutes while I
filled it all out and then youhave to wait for them to get
approved but it's very fast andthen we could check in for our
flight but that was funny, um,because it was just another
layer of things not really goingright and then we got to go to
(54:36):
the like fast lane for ourflight.
Security, but it took so long,do you remember?
They were like, Oh, you havekids, which is so nice.
A lot of other countries willlike just send you through the
faster security just because youhave kids with you.
Fantastic.
We would
Britt (54:55):
never do that here in the US.
So awesome.
You
Lindsey (54:57):
would definitely have to pay here.
So we went to the fastercheckpoint, but then it took us
like three times as long.
And then it was nighttime, weate that sticky rice we talked
about, and then we got on ournight flight to Australia.
Nice.
That's it.
That's it.
We don't know if you gained anytips about Thailand from this
(55:19):
episode, but at least it's funnyto hear our story of...
mild discomfort, but thenbecomes major discomfort when
you can't handle discomfort.
Britt (55:30):
And as I mentioned earlier, I feel like that was
when the wheels kind of came offthe whole trip, not just
Thailand.
So it was like the air
Lindsey (55:38):
sucked out
Britt (55:38):
of it.
Yeah, there's more to it.
And we'll get to that in theMelbourne episode.
Totally.
But Melbourne, we had a greattime in Melbourne too.
Yeah.
Anyway, thanks for
Lindsey (55:48):
listening.
All right.
We'll see y'all later.
Bye bye.
Bye.
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