April 28th, 2015 - Koh Lanta, Thailand - Day 257
Big Pete's POV
Today we finally made our decision on how to rework our trip. After reading as much as possible and connecting with a few people who know Nepal we decided that a trip there this soon after the devastation was not going to be feasible for us. This was a really hard decision, but we all think we are making the right one.
As a result of the change in plans combined with budget constraints, flight constraints and our capacity to plan a new section of the trip from scratch we decided to come home a few days early. We had been scheduled to arrive back in Boise on the 28th of May and now we will be arriving back May 20th - 8 days early. While this is disappointing, we really had very limited options given the constraints mentioned above and we are making the best of it. On a positive note we are now going to be able to spend a couple of days in Bangkok and even better we are going to be able to see a very small slice of China. Part of the travel constraint was rescheduling our return trip home. United was great about accommodating the change without the typical $300 per ticket change fee, however, it did mean we had to travel on a United flight back to Boise, not simply a flight booked through United. That meant we needed to find a United destination we could get to fairly inexpensively and that meant Shanghai. So the new agenda is two nights in Bangkok followed by three nights in Shanghai and then home.
While we are not excited about having to cancel the trek, it is nothing compared to what the people of Nepal are dealing with. We are so fortunate to have been on this trip for 10 months and be safe that any inconvenience is easily waived off.
Peter does a good job describing another mellow day in paradise below. We will miss our new friends, but hopefully we will see them again soon in Idaho!
Peter's POV
Today was a regular day in Koh Lanta. Last night we met a family from Australia at Miami. We were bummed to learn that they were leaving today at 11. We went and had breakfast with them and hung out with them on the beach.
After they left we all did our on things until 1, when we went to go and get lunch. When we got back from lunch we decided to relax for a while. Around four my mom, dad and I went swimming in the ocean. When we got back we watched the sun set and got take out.
We capped the night off by watching Unbroken, which we all thought was a really good movie, except my dad who said the book was way better and they left out way too much important stuff.