Travel Plans Update

We're slowly making this sabbatical more real and right now that means we have more plane tickets! On a whim, I searched for tickets from Australia to Thailand and discovered our currently preferred, budget airline, Jetstar, was running a sale. So, we scooped up some tickets to Phuket in late October to do some rock climbing for a week or so and perhaps some snorkeling for the days our poor arms give out from climbing. The rock climbing we want to do in Southern Thailand is actually across the Andaman Sea from Phuket, so we'll be taking a ferry adventure after our flight, but at least the flight details are figured out for now. 

After basking in the glory of finding a good ticket to Phuket, we went to bed. But, following the theme of the last ticket buying spree, Brandon got up in the night and searched for return tickets. He figured that if there was a sale to Thailand, there could be a sale back to Australia as well. And, my wise husband was right! So, I got woken up at 11:31 pm to give permission to buy flights from Bangkok back to Melbourne in mid-late November. Which, I sleepily gave. 

The reason we're flying out of Bangkok instead of Phuket is that we'll also be visiting a city in Northern Thailand as well called Chiang Mai. There's some more rock climbing there as well as other adventures. It's also cheaper than Southern Thailand and by staying there about three weeks it will hopefully give us a more local Thai experience. 

Chiang Mai has an airport, but of course it is much more expensive to fly in/out of than Bangkok or Phuket. Chiang Mai to Bangkok is a 12-15 hour train ride, whereas Chiang Mai to Phuket would involve multi-day travel including a bus, train, and ferry. Definitely an adventure, but definitely exhausting. So flying out of Bangkok does indeed seem like our best choice. 

We'll still have to figure out how we're getting from the Southern Thailand rock climbing region to Chiang Mai in the North. Maybe plane, or maybe we'll be swayed to try an authentic Thai bus and train combination. We shall see.