Today was a doozie of a travel day. Alarms went off at 5AM which was extra painful after Nick and I stayed up too late planning out the next couple of weeks. Everything is so expensive and many places we were hoping to go are entirely sold out. So our plan is to be beach bums for a while until winter break ends.

We arrived at the airport two hours before our flight, and thank god we did because it was mayhem. We got plucked from the check in line and sent to a much shorter family line. Without this luck we probably would have missed our flight. The line to get through immigration was out the door and took about an hour.

At security, they made Nick unpack his entire bag and then confiscated a tiny pair of folding sewing scissors. When we tried to buy a croissant, they wouldn’t sell it to us without scanning our boarding pass and passport. We were very annoyed by the Ho Chi Minh City airport by the time we got on the plane.

The flight was a bit delayed but short and easy. The passport control line was equally packed when we landed in Bangkok. Millie was very over it but managed to control herself and not completely lose it. I should give us some credit too, we have gotten much better at figuring out ways to diffuse her frustration.

We hired a private car to drive us 5 hours to the island of Koh Chang. This was much cheaper and seemingly less stressful than all of the connecting flight options. The airport was so packed with drivers picking up tourists that it took a while to find our name.

We ended up getting to the car almost an hour later than planned due to the delayed flight and long lines. Our driver was kind but an absolute maniac on the road.

Millie and I were sitting in the back and Nick was in the front seat. After about 45 minutes of speeding Nick texted me from the front. “Should we get out and call another driver to take us? This doesn’t feel safe.” I had already done the calculations and knew that if we did this, we wouldn’t be able to make it to the ferry before the the last boat left, so we’d have to find a new hotel and spend the night on the mainland. Plus we were in the middle of nowhere and I’m not sure how we would have found another driver.

As an empathy exercise I made up a story about how the driver also didn’t want to miss the last ferry back, because it would mean he’d have to spend the night on the island instead of home. With out delayed flight, he was right on the edge of making it, and that’s why he was speeding. I figured we could offer to take the ferry as a walk-on and find a car on the other side, and then he could relax.

Nick and I texted back and forth about all the possibilities and he asked him if he was planning on heading back to Bangkok tonight. He wasn’t. So he was just a crazy driver and there was nothing we could do. I can feel my mom’s anxiety building as I imagine her reading this.

We decided to just let go and let god. A few additional details to set the scene… Every time we approached a red light he turned, did a u-turn, and then turned back onto the main road, like a DIY roundabout. When going downhill he used the parking break instead of the break-break. There was a Bluetooth speaker behind my head that he was streaming a YouTube video called “love songs” onto (no idea why he didn’t use the car radio). Imagine listening to Celine Dion for hours thinking it might be the last song you ever hear. He drove so fast that over the course of 4 hours, he shaved 45 minutes off the Google Maps ETA.

We made it to the ferry. I’ve never been so glad to get on a rusty old boat. We sat at the top and had a mango smoothie and cruised the 40 minutes to the island.

On the other end we had 25 more minutes of maniacal driving, and then made it to our resort. We were able to exhale.

We are staying a bit off the beaten path and I’m so happy to be here. We arrived as the sun was setting and watched it go down over the water from our little hillside bungalow.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We didn’t expect much but had one of the best dishes we’ve had in a while: a whole fried sea bass topped with herbs, cashews, and a spicy-sweet-lime-y sauce. We devoured it and I have a feeling we’ll order it again tomorrow.

As we were leaving dinner our waiter told us there would be a fire show starting in 10 minutes. We set up on some beanbags by the pool and watched the show. Millie was up and dancing to the loud music and shrieking at the tricks. The performers came over to us and let us hold on to one of their fire thingies (technical term).

The evening was probably worth the 12 hours of travel hell.