Jet Lag

It has been a little over 24 hours since we arrived home. David and Lisa made it back to Indy without their luggage. It did get delivered later that evening. Quite the overall adventure for all. It was hard to hit the work gig today, but survived pretty much without a hitch. Drake and Logan were excited to see us and it sure is good to be home. Despite the piles of laundry, and errands to run in order to get the house up and running. Thanks Sara for picking us up at the airport.

I'm sure that Koby and Katelyn were glad to see David and Lisa. As Lisa's parents were I'm sure now that watching the kid duty is over.

It was quite the coming home to see snow on the ground in Chicago and most of the flight home. Even a few signs of the snow that hit KC. We even had a few flurries this afternoon to remind us we are not on vacation any longer.

As Dorothy said there is "No Place Like Home"!!

WE ARE HOME!!!

After 49 hours of traveling home, we all arrived home safe and sound and SO happy to see our children.

More later!

Elephant trek and last day in Phuket (keep your fingers crossed)

We went on an elephant trek today which was really cool - we went through some jungle and a rubber tree plantation area. In addition to actually riding the elephants we got to feed some, get a kiss on the cheek (see pic) and pet/touch some. We also had a bit of a show put on for us as they were training some of the younger elephants - that was neat as well. The pictures should show what I mean.

We spent the rest of the day at the beach (over a mile of pristine beach) and it was beautiful with very clear water and sand as far as you could walk or swim out. We went to the Executive Lounge for the last time this evening and enjoyed another wonderful spread of food and cocktails. We have a great view of the beach and resort from the lounge...if you were ever stranded in Thailand, this was the place to be....

Please note that we are leaving tomorrow morning for 2 days of traveling to get back to the good ole United States. We arrive on Tuesday evening US time. While we had a blast, we can not wait to get back to family and friends.

Thus, this is the LAST blog entry for the Clemows' Asian Adventure until we arrive home for our final thoughts on our trip.

Day Relaxing

Saturday was a day of pool, beach, Spa and recovery. David finished his video of the hotel and we all walked up the street for some final shopping. There are numerous hotels, resturaunts, shops, bars, bars, bars, and massage pallors (of all sorts varieties - very interesting indeed). No new pictures, but a lot of great conversation with fellow travelers. There may be up to a 100 thousand passengers stranded or with travel severly altered in the Thailand area. Thailand really didn't need this mess after their recovery from the Tsunami a few years ago. While our hotel is very nice, most of Thailand is very poor - think going to the resorts in mexico.

Lisa, Janie, and Dave went for a "full" body cleansing with herbal rub followed by a massage (half Tai half Swedish in nature). No pics (thank goodness :). We all agreed it was the best massage we ever had (ok, only Dave's 2nd ever, but the girls had experience to compare!). These Tai girls are very good, particularly when you ask for the hard massage - wow.

Friday - Pool Side and Sick

After realizing we had to stay in Phuket a couple extra days and a lot of hassle figuring out the way home, Friday was a little more relaxed. David and Lisa decided to hit the pool and hang at the hotel reading books and taking a dip or two. Jeff unfortunately game down with a bug and spent the previous night and all day in bed or the bathroom. Janie did her own thing along with taking care of Jeff. Here are some pictures of the resort David took as they spent the day relaxing. The Hilton here in Phuket is pretty awesome. We will let the pictures do the explaining. Check out the previous blog info for our new flight information.

Phang-Nga / Kayak Adventure

Thursday was a mixed bag for the trip. Unfortunately the girls ended up skippubg their spa day to work out plane reservation in order to work around Bangkok airport. The airport was closed due to anti-government protestors (we had no idea it would be such a challenge - nightmare). The end result is we now have to spend a couple extra days here in Phuket (one for J&J and two for D&L). That means an opportunity to make up the Spa and pool time. To reduce the stress the men may join them - of course there are worse things then being stuck at a resort (but still stressful). :)

Meanwhile Jeff/Dave went on a sea kayak excursion to Phang-Nga (national park in the ocean so to speak). Hongs everywhere, which are large rock formations sticking out of the ocean (think James bond movie - forget which one, but they filmed a lot of it here). We visited Hong lagoons, islands, mangroves, and caves. The coolest part was going through caves in the kayak via the ocean into what were inner Hong lagoons. Think football stadium of rock covered in tropical jungle and you kayak through a cave that is not even visible in high tide (but may be almost dry in low tide) from the ocean, through the rock, and into an inner lagoon of water - like standing on the football field - now surrounded by the stadium on the inside (but sitting in a kayak on a lagoon of water). Very cool indeed. One of the caves you could see light on both ends - called it oyster cave because all the walls and ceilings were covered with their shells. One of the others was bat cave - much larger and longer - pitch black so needed light. And yes, the ceiling was covered with bats - lots of bats! In both cases, coming into the inner lagoons, we had to lay all the way down flat on our backs to get through to the other side (think 12 inches between face and permanent facial damage on the cave covered in jagged shells and rock). Again, way cool (at least David and Jeff thought so). We also went to another little island to swim and relax and ate a Tai lunch on the boat.

Never in the USA, but we were able to jump from the upper deck of the boat to get in our kayaks and even swim into shore at the last stop. About 500 yards (of course we didn't know the water went to only a few feet deep within the first 100 yards). David captured some great pictures.

Upon return we met up with the girls for dinner and more logistics rearranging before hitting the sack (see previous blog).

Updated Itinerary for travel home - now leave dec 1

Updated 7:24a.m. 11/30

Monday, December 1
Leaving Phuket (HKT) at 8:00 AM on flight #AK823
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur (KUL) at 10:10 AM. 2 hour and 10 minute flight
Kuala Lumpur is in Malaysia

Leaving Kuala Lumpur (KUL) at 4:05 PM on flight #AK78
Arriving in Hong Kong (HKG) at 8:00 PM 3 hour and 55 minute flight

Tuesday, December 2
Leaving Hong Kong (HKG) at 11:40 a.m. on Flight 0896
Arriving in Chicago (ORD) at 11:48 a.m.

David and Lisa
Leaving Chicago at 1:12 p.m. on Flight 0500
Arriving Indianapolis at 2:17 p.m.

Jeff and Janie
Leaving Chicago at 3:21 p.m. on Flight 7528
Arriving in Kansas City 4:52 p.m.