OK Math students! If Mike and his wife have a 1:40 a.m. flight on Sunday morning from Phuket, Thailand to Portland, Oregon, and have layovers in Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, can they get home on the same day? And, if so at what time?

One last day on the beach before our long journey home. We’ve already checked out of our luxury suite, put our big bags in storage, and secured a locker at the Fitness Center. After the run this morning that included a loop of Micky Monkey Beach, we took an overdue dip in the ocean. The turquoise water was surprisingly calm with a slight undertow and not many waves, except when the tsunami hit fifteen years ago and took nearly 5000 lives. Last night, we watched some excerpts from the movie Impossible, filmed here about the Indian Ocean earthquake that caused all the destruction. We also watched clips of other Thai movies including The Man with the Golden Gun, Hangover 2, Star Wars, Mortal Combat, The Beach,and Rambo. The towering rock islands that identify this area are like Oregon’s Haystack Rock on steroids. It’s time to get back to reality, but you need a calculator to get there.

One last visit from my cousin, and a final afternoon of lounging by our favorite pool. There were three to choose from. I finished the book Swimming Lessons and ordered more Cheeseburger Spring Rolls. It’s Saturday both here and at home with a 14-hour time difference, so I need to get in at least a mile at the Fitness Center to keep my daily running streak intact, although I did also run twice two days ago but today I will stay true with Pacific Standard Time. It gets confusing when you cross the International Date Line. I’ll do the Sunday run on our treadmill once we get back to the house and Monday morning I should be back on schedule.

We did our showering & changing at the Marriott Vacation Club Fitness Center then enjoyed a great meal at Andaman. It was a resort-wide lights out at 8:30 p.m. to observe the annual energy saving worldwide Earth Hour event. Another Thai massage on the beach eased some of the stiffness in my lower back. An hour long session was the equivalent of 16 U.S. dollars (500 bahts). Maybe it was the “Luggagethon” on the outbound journey that caused the problem? At 10 p.m. we caught a taxi to the airport, arriving three hours early since we didn’t know what to expect with United partner Asiana Airlines. The flight was delayed another two hours, eliminating any possibility of touring Seoul during our seven-hour long layover there. Let’s add this up: 5 hours in Phuket, 6 in the air, 4 hours sitting in Seoul, 12 more to San Francisco, 2 hours there, and another 2 back to Portland. That’s 31 hours to get home at 2:45 p.m. on the same day we left. It’s what you call crazy “Travel Math” to go along with a certain lack of restful sleep. Hopefully, there aren’t any more delays.