The view from our apartment living room window looks like a tropical rainforest, but just on the other side is the Andaman Sea. It appears as if we’re in a tree house, but it’s really the Marriott Vacation Club’s Phuket Beach Club – a club within a club, coupled with a J.W. Marriott luxury hotel. We spent the morning at the pool while attendants delivered fresh towels, cold cloths, ice water, and delicious fruit. In the background were the turquoise ocean waters and colorful sailboats. Even my NCAA Tournament pool predictions were leading the pack. Please, don’t wake me up from this dream!

We arrived in Phuket late yesterday afternoon after a short flight from Bangkok and three days of Buddha sightseeing. I was ready for some relaxation, and the room accommodations made it particularly promising. Fifteen-Hundred square feet of living space including two bedrooms, three T.V.’s, two baths, a private outdoor patio setting, and a full kitchen seemed a bit much for just the two of us. However, we managed to spread-out and utilize every inch. We did have to laugh however at how low the T.V. was hung on the living room wall. It was just a reminder of what a giant I am in this country. At just under six-feet and 190 pounds, I’m taller and wider than your average Thai citizen, and find myself ducking under things more often.

I’m not sure if it’s Sunday or Monday? This is not unusual for a retiree like myself, however, it’s further complicated after crossing The International Date Line. There is a 14-hour difference in time between here and our Portland home, so it’s the middle of the night there and mid-afternoon here. When we got up it was Monday morning but still Sunday back home. The Tuesday night I.U. basketball game against Wichita State will be part of our 7:30 Wednesday breakfast. By the time we figure this out, it will be time to go home where we’ll get the day back that we lost traveling here. This is why my consecutive day running streak is still a day behind, so I will need to run twice on the way back. Does that make sense?

In the meantime, I ran around a swamp befitting a tropical rain-forest this morning on a narrow road where cars drive on the left side as opposed to the right back home. I was always taught to never turn my back to highway traffic because you can’t get out of the way if you don’t see them coming. This means that in order to face them coming at me I need to hug the right side of the road, as opposed to on the left in Portland and everywhere else in the United States. I’m too old for all this change!

When I checked in here yesterday, they had me vacating the room on Saturday when our flight is really on Sunday. I thought I had made a booking error, but instead the flight is at 1:14 a.m. on Sunday morning. We’ll need to be at the airport on Saturday night to prepare for our International departure. As a result the Saturday check-out is correct but we’ll have to make arrangements to store our luggage and change clothes prior to our airport departure. With connections in both Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, it will take more than 24 hours to get home, but we’ll still get home on the same day we left. As you can see, this has all the clarity of navigating your way through a tropical rain forest to somehow find the ocean on the other side. This will be our main task over the next week in this Thai tropical paradise known as Phuket.