Done and done.

After a smooth Japan Airlines trip (watched the Departed, Driving Miss Daisy, and Good Will Hunting) -- three days of apartment hunting, and a great graduation party at Kyle's house...

I'm home yo.

Homeward Bound

Yoooooooo! As hard as it is for any of us to leave (at least most of us), we are officially on our way home. We're currently at the free Yahoo internet cafe in Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Japan, painfully dealing with our five-hour layover before our flight to JFK. I could update you with the details of the last few days, but honestly, it's 7:15am Thai time and I slept for maybe 30 minutes on the flight from BKK. Though I am very sad to leave, I think I speak for everyone when I say I cannot wait to get home. Mom -- what's for dinner? I'm hungry.

Some of my favorite [non-anticipated] moments:

• Anthony sitting down on a squatting toilet not realizing that the grooves on either side were for your feet.
• Vas thinking that the chirping bugs at sunset in Angkor Wat were actually an alarm system designed to tell everyone that the park was closing.
• Ben talking off the ears of every person we had any sort of extended interaction with (maybe that's why we got bailed on so many times).
• My night of debauchery with Pipe and M in Chiang Mai, and the ensuing slap Vas suffered after trying to take care of me (Sorry, V).
• Anthony and I nearly having our faces washed by two small girls who wanted to clean our cab's windows for money (had to be there... or at least hear about it the next day...).
• My dosey-doh dancing skills in Siem Reap.
• Anthony and I 'singing' Bon Jovi on stage at a Thai pop star's birthday party with her famous actor boyfriend (stay tuned for more on that).
• Nearly eating fried chicken feet.
• Being cat-called by Thai hookers every 10 feet in Koh Samui ('Sawadeeeeeee. Sawadee Kaaaa. Where you from? Wha your name? Sawadeeeeeee. I like you.').
• Meeting a girl vendor in Angkor Wat that knew the capital of every state in the US (Did everyone else know the capital of Montana was Helena? Me neither.).
• Vas using my Lonely Planet guide to tell the waitresses at a restaurant in Bangkok without an English menu that he doesn't eat meat, their ensuing confusion, and our later realization that he was reading from the Vietnamese section.

I think that's it for now. I'm hungry, and this damn airport only has two places to eat - a noodles place, and another noodles place... I am in serious need of some fast food. We will all share some more final thoughts and an update of the last few days when we finally get home after this God awful 13 hour flight (It leaves Tokyo at 11:30AM and arrives in JFK at 11:25AM - We go back 5 minutes in time! Sweet.). SEE YOU ALL SOON!

Last day in Bangkok

Yo yo. We hit up some shopping today. I bought two "Polo" shirts. We'll see how long they stay together.

We ship out in 27 hours. It's been real, T-land.

Vas

Federer/Roddick

We hit the "Irish Pub" last night to watch the Wimbledon final. We may have been the only Americans there, but what a match...we went nuts any time Roddick scored on Federer's serve. Sadly, it was not meant to be....

Here is our itinerary for the remainder of the trip for those keeping score at home...

July 6th, 5:30PM: Bus back to Bangkok
July 7th, 7:00AM: Arrive in Bangkok
July 8th, 10:25PM: Fly.
July 9th, 11:30AM: Arrive in NYC
July 9th, 11:31AM: Start looking for apartments.

Vas

A Vacation from our Vacation

I hope you all have enjoyed our blog thus far, it's been great to hear comments from our friends and family. To everyone back home, hope you're having a safe and enjoyable July 4th weekend. Interestingly, I think we're missing the States more than ever right now. That being said, the trip is no doubt winding down...it's been a whirlwind 3 weeks, to say the least...we need a va-cay. So, true to our name...we've made it from Spruce....to Ko Samui.

It's the last leg of our trip, the namesake of this very blog, and a much needed respite from the site-seeing, temples-visiting, and ruins-trekking that dominated our time thus far. Ko Samui is a bumpin island off the southeastern coast of Thailand, replete with blue beaches and palm trees. I doubt we could have asked for a better way to spend our last 3 days on this trip...sitting on the beach, sipping mango smoothies, and rollin deep in sun, sand and surf. After a short ferry ride, we arrived yesterday afternoon to some nice bungalows, just yards from the beach. Kyle was of course the first to jump in the ocean, wasting no time while I instead generously applied SPF 70 before heading out into el sol. Tsk tsk, Kyle. We strolled down the beach to some cool rock formations, eventually landing in a small crystal-clear ocean pond, surrounded by massive boulders. It was pretty legit, and I'm sure Kyle will load pics soon.

After browsing the world wide web for an hour, we retreated to dinner on Chaweng beach, a beach a bit north of Lamai, where we are currently staying. Wimbledon was on EVERYWHERE (yeah Roddick!) and it was cool to enjoy the game with such a multifarious crowd of travellers and natives alike. My spaghetti dinner made me miss the Olive Garden though (when you're there, you're family), so I'm itching to hit that up when I get back state-side. We bounced around a few bars, playing pool for an hour before heading to the Green Mango, Ko Samui's consumate club. It was ill...good tunes, good moves.

All in all, a relaxing first day....only to be followed up by additional relaxing and beach-meandering today. I'm almost done with An Unaccustomed Earth, while Kyle finally finished The Beach.

The other fellas are kayaking tomorrow. I'll opt for a nice beach chair and my iPod, thank you very much.

Adios my peoples. Again, thanks for reading along with us...we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we've enjoyed experiencing it. Just a few more posts I think...hang with us.

Vas