It’s the night before our flight, and I decided it would be
a shame not to write a blog about this vacation. I’ll tell you something odd… I
haven’t spoken to a lot of people about this one, because I’m kind of
embarrassed that we’re going on holiday twice in one year. It’s dumb that I
want to apologize for the decadence.
You see, this year, we first booked a holiday to California.
In October we’re going to see Disneyland (something I’ve wanted to do since I
was about four years old) for the first time in our lives. Not only that, but
we’re going during Halloween time, which means the Haunted Mansion is going to
be all decked out in the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Anyone who knows me
even a little, knows that this is a big deal for me.
This is bucket-list material.
Because we’re only going 11 days (and spending 2 of those
days in an airplane) instead of our usual longer holiday, and because we had a
bit of a break financially this year, Daan suggested we take another vacation.
To my joy I got to cross another country off my bucket-list,
and we’re going to Thailand. I’m very excited about this, but also feel oddly
guilty. It didn’t help that I messed up the reservations to the hotel, and that
I found out Sunday (three days before we were to fly out) that we didn’t book
the all inclusive package after all… only breakfast would be included. I may
have panicked a little bit, because I hadn’t put food in my budget, and we don’t
want to spend too much. Luckily food turned out to be a lot cheaper than we
thought, and I no longer needed to be hooked up to an oxygen machine to calm my
panic attacks.
Daan has been a great help. He got me back on the right
track of thinking how lovely this vacation will be. We’ve booked a snorkeling
trip, and I think we might have even found a humane place where we can interact
with elephants. I want to feed and wash one so bad, but I’m not too keen on
riding. And I certainly don’t want to go to one of those places where they
train the elephants. There are a few where they house the abused elephants and
give them a better life. That sounds wonderful. We’ll have to see how it goes
when we get there.
Tomorrow we fly, first to Dubai, then to Phuket. It’ll take
about 18 hours in total or something ridiculous like that. Can’t say I’m not a
little nervous about it. Out of the 10 days holiday, we’ll be spending 3 in an
airplane (that’s a bloody third of the trip) but… c’est la vie. I think it’ll
be worth it.
We did the last of the shopping today, and the snorkel masks
we ordered arrived just in time. They are hilarious. I feel like a freaking
storm trooper wearing them, and we look absolutely ridiculous... but I love them. Elora was super disappointed because I only ordered
two. (It said ages 12 and up, so I didn’t want to risk it) We tried getting one
anyway, but none of the stores had them in stock, so she’ll have to do with a
normal snorkel. I think there are children who have suffered worse fates.
Elora is cleaning her room as we speak, because we want to come back into a nice and clean home. I can hear the drama through my closed door. She can’t clean without lamenting it seems. I hope one day I’ll read this back and laugh. Maybe…
I’m so excited!
