Spontaneity.

Successful spontaneity involves buying plane tickets for Thailand the day you plan to go, securing those tickets, having 30 minutes to pack, remembering everything you need, and getting into Bangkok at 9:30pm with no hotel reservation, yet easily finding a place to stay.

Unsuccessful spontaneity involves writing in a journal (which I am taking this entry from) to commemorate an hour and a half (and counting) cab ride to a bus station with tickets you've acquired earlier that day for a departure time you will most definitely miss due to the stop lights in Bangkok. What they don't tell you in the travel books (as far as I know) is that at the height of traffic in Bangkok it takes 15 minutes (not an exaggeration) to make it through the majority of the stop lights...

I am tempted at this point (in my journaling) to hitch a ride on one of the motorcycles weaving effortlessly through the frozen traffic. The one plus of continually stopping in traffic is that it is conducive to writing in a journal. It is also a practical test of learning how truly patient and "flexible" you really are (apparently a requirement for missions, from what I hear). Josh also became convinced by hour 2.5 of being in the cab that our driver was actually the twin brother of the King of Thailand.

We never confirmed this possibility.

But we remain certain (Josh says if I say it was the actual King of Thailand I may be banned from the country. They love the king. They stand for him during the previews at movies. I am not that risky).

In the end, our cab ride took 3 hours to the bus station (should have taken less than 2). We missed our bus but ended up catching the next one. Good news!

The unfortunate news is that this bus (aside from not being as comfortable as the bus we would have been on) doesn't actually go to our destination. We left Bangkok at 8:30 pm and arrived at a town I was far too groggy to remember at 5:30am. We boarded a new bus at 8am and after our bus ride, a taxi ride, 2 ferries and trekking down a few flights of stairs, we descended into the tropical paradise of the island of Lanta a mere 24 hours from when we first departed out of Bangkok.

We have since gotten everywhere 3 hours early.

Learn from us.

The good news is that once we got to Lanta we were spoiled by a private bungalow, beautiful beach, excellent Thai food, and the chance to go on a half-day "soft adventure" (as the brochure advertised) that involved riding on elephants, trekking through the jungle for half an hour and exploring an amazing cave for 45 minutes. It was my first opportunity to legitimately have to wear a head lamp.

I could ask for nothing better :)