Phuket, Thailand
After this crazy trip to Asia we can honestly say that there is no faster way for a family to welcome a new member than by jumping on a 27 hour flight across the world and spending two weeks on vacation together! You learn about people fast when you are in close quarters for that long, and I'm honestly surprised Kelly didn't take me aside to rescind his blessing to marry Whitney after this trip! However, at the end of the day we had a great time and certainly kicked off my membership in the Murdock family with a bang!
After 27 grueling hours of flying, and at least one projectile vomiting incident, we made it to the big, crazy, fast paced city of Bangkok, Thailand. Landing at 11pm we immediately went to bed to rest up for our three day tour of Thailand's capital city.
While in Bangkok we saw many beautiful Buddhist temples, attended a series of muay thai kick boxing matches, visited far to many tailoring shops, took the pg-13 tour of the red light district (where Whitney's brother Braedon may or may not have been accosted by a transgendered "working woman" causing him to contract some sort of eye disorder), and took in as much of the history and sites as we could in the little time we had. Neither rain, nor heat, nor annoying shop keepers could hold us back and when it did rain, which happened a lot, we were prepared with our stylish and sexy ponchos!
After our three day tour of Bangkok we jumped on a flight and headed south to Phuket, Thailand for a little sun and fun. We wish the sun had come out more but we didn't let that hold us back from enjoying the beauty of the Thai coastline. The highlight of Phuket was definitely our kayaking tour of Phang Nga Bay and its thousands of limestone cliffs and caves!
At the end of our three and a half days in Phuket we hoped on a plane to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. No one was more excited than Braedon, who just got home from his mission there last March, but we were all looking forwarding to seeing the country and people he had told us so much about. As we drove from the airport to our hotel we were shocked to see just how far behind Cambodia was compared to Thailand, its neighbor to the Northwest. Economics aside the people were wonderful and couldn't have been more friendly welcoming, and open. As we spent with the people Braedon had come to know and love over the last two years it quickly became the highlight of the trip!
(more to come on this post!)
