Perth, Australia

G'day Mate! We've made it downunder and wow does it feel good to eat a real sandwich, drink tap water, take a run without being stared at and find toilet paper in every bathroom. The little things in life that you don't realize you've missed. It's summertime here!! and Perth is a beautiful city right on the water. Don't be surprised if we move here someday. It's that good.

To get here we had to take two flights from Bangkok, sleep in the airport and then try to navigate the public bus system on three hours of sleep. I was sure it was going to be hell going in, but I couldn't predict that Geoff wearing a green shirt would change our fate (well, this is speculation). Nonetheless, now that we are out of Thailand, I can talk about how crazy they are over their King. It's like a religion--one that you cannot speak ill of until you leave the country. They love their king so much that every Monday is yellow shirt day in honor of the King being born on Monday. Friday is blue shirt day in honor of the Queen being born on Friday and any day is Pink shirt day in honor of the King turning 80 in 25 days. All the shirts are polo shirts with the Kings crest on it, but any shirt will do as long as it's the right color day. Well, it just so happened that the day before we left, the King was wearing a green jacket in public. Well, hold the phone, because it's green shirt time. The King loves green!! (In a side note: politicians don't wear red ties, they were yellow ties). Mostly because we haven't done laundry in a while, Geoff wore a green polo shirt to the airport. Which means he obviously has great respect for the Thai monarchy. Which means we get upgraded to first class!! Oh sweet mercy, it was awesome! (Can you tell we've never flown first class?) We were giddy with excitement. We flew a 747 so we got to sit on the 2nd floor. And there were reclining seats. And 3 course meals. And we were addressed as Mr. and Mrs. And it goes without saying lots of champagne. I actually forgot I hate to fly. Now I see why people pay the big bucks for first class. It's so fun.

The excitement didn't end there. We connected through the Singapore airport which is years ahead of its time. There was free internet everywhere. Free movies. Free X-box stations. Lots of duty free where I could put on $100 lotions. Lots of great food (although I was too full from our flight to eat). You can tell we've been living the frugal life when we're so excited about our layover. Alas, we were demoted back down to economy for our flight to Perth. But it was still pretty good. And even sleeping in the airport wasn't half as bad as it could have been.

So now we are in an English speaking country and it feels pretty good. We're very excited for this part of our trip. It will go so fast and in less than two weeks, Geoff's mom and Bob will be here. We can't wait. Happy Thankgiving to everyone! We'll be on a two day train through the outback, so no turkey and stuffing for us. Although I've heard Kangaroo and cranberry is great. I'll let you know.