Well, let me jump right in to some responses to some questions and feedback we have gotten so far, and some more info we have found about what to expect while we are there.

1) Is the country unstable?  We have been watching the events that are appearing on the news lately and keeping an eye on the political situation there.  So far the US State Department has issued no travel warnings or advisories on travel to Thailand (unlike the recent advisory they issued for Mexico).

Thailand seems to have a long history of governmental change – in the last 60 years or so years they have gone through almost 40 coups or changes in government, almost always peaceful and with little unrest.  The recent protests have been focused in Bangkok (where we plan to spend little or no time at all) and have for the most part been fairly peaceful.  Given the impact this tends to have on the Thai economy, most people expect things to get sorted out fairly quickly and for the political climate to settle down again until the next cycle of change.

On a positive note, this sort of press tends to hit the tourism industry a bit and people expect prices to sink even more for rooms, flights, etc. in the coming months – we are already seeing huge price drops on Air Asia for flights in and out of Thailand (for example a return ticket to Bali, Indonesia – about the same as a trip from Seattle to New York – is currently going for the sum of $150 US return).  So worst case scenario, we get to Bangkok on our current tickets and fly off to another location in SE Asia 🙂

2) Yes you can come with us – however, you will need your own tickets as most of you exceed the 50lb limit that the airlines place on checked bags.  Seriously though, should anyone be in the mood for some tropical relaxation we have no fixed agenda for our time there so feel free to ‘pop in’ for a week or 2.  In fact we already have our first potential visitor!  Our cousin Russill – who has come to visit us almost every summer since we moved to the US – is going to come and join us for a couple of weeks of our journey.

Things to expect should you decide to journey that way in the summer months (July/August):

• temperatures will be fairly consistent in the upper 20s to low 30s (C) – in the 80s (F) for those on the Imperial system
• it is the ‘low’ season in terms of their tourist industry (Dec – March is high season) so prices for rooms, tours, etc drop by about 50% or more.  We are planning to stay in 4 star type hotels and are seeing rates around $25 per night for that including breakfast.  (and of course don’t forget the ever popular $8 1 hour massage – I am hoping this drops to the $6 range for the off season 😉 )
• it is the rainy season in SE Asia, this means that it could rain about every other day.  However rain there mostly implies that it comes down like an Georgia rain storm for about an hour or so and then clears away.

As we do more and more research we are coming up with more information about how to get there, documentation required etc. and will be posting some of that over the coming weeks.  We are also finding lots of interesting things to do while we are there, so while it seems like a long vacation we sometimes feel like it will not be long enough – so much to see, so little time.

PS: A special shout out to our friend Vicki who we will miss dearly while we are gone.  When you decided to stay close to home this summer for swim-meets and such we understand, and figured we would just be in your way 😛  We won’t have any fun, this is just an educational trip – honest….

In reality, this will be a very differnet summer – we normally have a fairly busy summer schedule including lots of trips and activities with local friends and neighbors, and those adventures will be missed.  We will try our best to make up for it when we get back though 🙂

Well, it’s done.  We booked the tickets!!

For those of you just tuning in, let me bring you up to speed.

We have been talking about doing something different this year for our summer vacation.  Our kids are getting older and are better able to appreciate different experiences (vs just going to Disneyland and such) and our oldest is soon going to be headed to college so we feel like our opportunities to do something off the beaten path as a family are coming to an end.

We talked about various places we might go and things we might do and narrowed the list down to travel to a foreign place (Costa Rica, Caribbean, Thailand), or RV around America.  Given that the kids have not traveled much outside the US and Canada we decided to find a foreign location and go abroad.

Our final destination:  Thailand!!

Thanks to the nature of my job and my ability to telecommute, our plan is to spend about 7 weeks in South-East Asia, and Thailand in particular, moving around a bit and seeing as much as we can of the country and the culture and also have some relaxing family time.  I will be working part of the time along the way, but that should give Laurie and the girls a good chance to browse the shops without the grumpy old guy along.

Our plan is to fly in and out of Bangkok, leaving on June 24th and returning on Aug 10th.

We will miss our usual Oregon beach vacation with our neighborhood freinds, but with the travel costs down the way they are now seems like the perfect time.  We plan to update this blog as our travel plans evolve, and of course while we are away, so if you want to follow our adventures this is the spot.