It took about 34 hours from leaving the hostel to arriving to my doorstep in Minneapolis. Joanna and I didn’t sleep since we had to catch an Uber to the airport at 2am Tuesday morning (2pm Monday afternoon) for our flight at 4am. We managed to take this last picture in Thailand before getting on board.

Had a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong where I picked up some snacks for my family. Right before we got on our 13 hour flight back to the states, I double checked the seat assignments and saw that there were a number of empty rows on the flight. I managed to move our seats so we had an empty middle seat. Having the extra space really made the flight easier to manage. I went in and out of consciousness trying to readjust to the time at home because I had to go to work at 8am the next day. Unlike most people, Joanna and I love airplane food. Unfortunately the food always tastes better going to Asia on the flight than coming home, I think because they’re trying to cater to Asian tastes more?

I have no idea what time I woke up or where we were on the Pacific Ocean when I decided to look out the window but this picture turned out pretty nice.

We got into LAX around 1pm and was pushed through customs like cattle with the rest of the passengers. My sister gave me a free United lounge pass and my credit card had a $50 voucher towards charges from United airlines so we went to the lounge to freshen up and eat free food.

Although the full price of $60 per person is pretty steep. I think the $10 total we paid was pretty worth it for unlimited food, drinks, and to get away from the normal airport chaos. I got really spoiled from our last trip at the airport lounge in Tokyo since they had a ramen and udon soup bar, sushi, and showers for international travelers. This did fine though because the both of us passed out for like 3 hours.

We arrived home at 11pm (11am Wednesday Bangkok time) which made this the longest Tuesday ever. Joanna was hungry, I was hungry, so we went to Perkins at 1 am. We craved fatty, deep fried, cheesy American food.

So that’s our trip! I’ve been procrastinating on writing this last post because I had to face reality again when we got back and I didn’t want to close out this adventure. I think what people are least surprised about is that I’m already thinking about where to go next.

Places we’ve thought about so far:

  • New Zealand/Australia
  • Italy
  • Taiwan
  • Japan pt III
  • Iceland
  • Somewhere in South America, maybe Chile/Argentina?

The possibilities are endless, time and money to do those not so much.

Thank you everyone that followed us on this trip. I really appreciate the feedback and kind words when we came home about what people thought about the blog posts. Hopefully I’ll have another chance to go out and see the world sooner than later.