How Our Trip to Thailand Almost Fell Apart

In this episode, we’re taking you along on one of our wildest travel adventures yet—our group trip to Thailand. What should have been a smooth non-rev journey quickly turned into a chaotic travel saga involving snowstorms, canceled flights, last-minute tickets, and a four-hour Uber ride through a blizzard just to make it to the airport. Somehow, against all odds, we made it to Thailand… barely in time for the trip to begin. 

Once we arrived, though, the adventure really kicked off. From rooftop welcome drinks in Bangkok to tuk-tuk food tours, floating markets, long-tail boats, and even trying some questionable street food, the trip was packed with unforgettable moments. We’re sharing what surprised us most about Thailand, the highlights from traveling with our group, and a few lessons we learned the hard way along the journey.

Watch this episode on YouTube!

Episode Highlights

[0:00] Our “simple” trip to Thailand turns into a travel nightmare before we even leave the U.S.

[2:10] A snowstorm causes canceled flights, standby chaos, and a scramble to escape Philly.

[5:30] We abandon non-rev plans, buy tickets, and take a four-hour Uber to JFK.

[9:20] We finally arrive in Bangkok, meet our group at rooftop happy hour, and start the trip with a welcome dinner.

[11:20] Night one: night markets, an empty nightclub, and learning Bangkok nightlife starts late.

[13:00] Day two includes a cultural museum, a long-tail boat ride, and a new favorite Thai dish.

[15:20] A tuk-tuk street food tour leads us to exotic fruit and some very questionable snacks.

[18:10] The famous railway market and floating markets where vendors move their shops for passing trains.

[21:00] An unforgettable drag show featuring queens from Drag Race Thailand.

[24:30] We fly to Phuket and immediately start judging the airline service.

[26:00] Island hopping around the Phi Phi Islands with snorkeling and shark conservation rules.

[31:20] A “relaxing” day featuring Thai massages that absolutely wreck us.

[33:30] Our final night in Phuket exploring Old Town and night markets.

[36:00] We wrap up by sharing where we’re traveling next.

If you enjoyed this episode and want more behind-the-scenes stories from flight attendant life and our travel adventures, be sure to follow the podcast, leave a rating, share it with a friend, and drop us a review. It helps more people find the show—and we truly appreciate the support! 

Transcript

Rich Henderson: 0:00

Moral of the story, we made it to Thailand. I'll try anything once, but I couldn't bring myself to do it that day. Yeah, I didn't eat a lot of the bugs. I'm just a beetle. There were, like, brains and balls and things. I didn't balls of memories and balls. There was a brain. There was some sort of brain, you guys, I know there was a brain, but what balls? There's chicken balls. I don't remember. Oh, I know what you're talking about now. Those were, they were just handing you skewers that were like brains and balls and all kinds of things. I don't know. I It was weird. It was all really weird, but it was all really delicious. Ever wondered what your flight attendants are really talking about behind the galley curtain. Welcome to Two guys on a plane. Your go to podcast for an insider look at flight attendant life. We're your hosts, rich and Drew, and we're here to tell you what really goes on at 35,000 feet. So sit back, relax. We're ready for takeoff. So people always ask us when we go on our group trips, do you guys non rev or do, buy tickets to your destinations. And normally, we take the chance and we non rev, we go a few days early. We, you know, leave ourselves plenty of room to catch flights. We root ourselves 1000 times over to different places. But after a recent trip to Thailand, which was, I don't know, a bit of a chaotic mess, a little bit, just a little we might, we might be rethinking that decision. So that's what we're going to talk about today, is our trip to Thailand. But first, Andrew, how was getting to Thailand? It was terrible. Yeah, it was a awful experience. So we had planned a it was an adventure. It was an adventure, and we made it. We did make surprise. That is the I don't want to come in short, but we did make it. So we gave ourselves a couple extra days. We had planned a podcasting day so that we created everything wrapped up before we left, and then a snowstorm is upon us. So we're trying to figure out, should we leave earlier later? What do we do? It just turned into a nightmare. It was awful. I was a stress pit. The whole time we were doing it. It was really hard to be fair to you, to not be stressed out. Because, you know, we we planned that podcast Day, which we really couldn't move because we didn't have any new episodes recorded or ready to come out. So we're, like, we have to do this, even though we should probably leave even a day earlier, because we knew that storm is gonna hit Philly and, like, it wrecked the entire east coast. Basically, we had both been working like, days prior. Yeah, we were exhausted too. So we did. We had trips, we had podcasting and, like, we're gonna have to just figure it out luckily. I mean, I think we had like three or four days early, is what we planned. We had like two days early. So we decided to go ahead and pack up the night before our podcasting day, come to our podcast and leave from the studio and go right to the airport. We get to the airport because there are like 50 open seats or something like that. But the day prior, or the next day, all the flights started canceling. About this time in the evening, people were jumping shit, so everyone was moving forward. So we ended up being like, one and two on this non rev list that didn't get clear. Yeah, like, a bunch of non revs got cleared to get out of Philly, and we were the next two. They were like, we can roll you over. And we're like to like, three days now, yeah, it was so disappointed. We did what any good flight attendant does? We immediately open up staff traveler, and we start looking like crazy people. We're looking at like, every route possible. We're like, maybe we not every route possible. We are not looking at every route possible. There are three possibilities out of Philly the following day. Well, okay, that's true, because we there were only three flights that hadn't canceled yet. Correct. Spoiler alert, they ended up canceling anyway. But yeah, I think it was like Chicago was one of them. Chicago, Seattle and Dallas didn't cancel. So we were looking to see where we could get so we make plans using staff traveler. Thank thankfully, their routing tools, which is a lifesaver. And Mom, if you're listening, staff traveler is the number one non rev app. If you travel standby. You absolutely need this. I have to it's free to download. It's free to use. You can also buy credits to get flight loads, but basically you put in your city pairings. You can explore different routes, different airlines all around the world. You can request on anybody, and then employees from those airlines answer the load requests basically, and tell you how many seats are available, how many people are listed, all that sort of good stuff. So, like, it's an absolute game changer, because a you can check loads which is clutch on airlines that are not your own. And B you can in these panic situations, like trying to get out of Philly in a freaking Blizzard, you can, you can figure out which routes to take. It was wild at the end of the day. The end of the story is we ended up purchasing tickets. We went through using some. Staff traveler to figure out the best route to get from, like JFK or Newark or somewhere close to us. But we didn't have access to busses, trains, anything. We ended up having to Uber. I don't often pat myself on the back travel wise, but I decided that of our options, we needed to figure out which one was coming in from an international destination, because they were least likely to cancel. So we, like stalked the flight that we wanted to take, and we made sure it left before we purchased the tickets, because the ticket was the price of a Zed fair. So we were like, remember, just gonna buy a ticket. Buy the ticket at this point, Zed fair is gonna cost this. The ticket is gonna cost this. Plus, again, stand by in a snowstorm hadn't worked out for us previously. So three days prior, we're still fighting. We missed the bullet. Spent more money than we wanted to, but we we bought tickets, but we tried busses and trains too. I think we had like four car service, yeah, no one, no one was operating. Have like four Amtrak tickets purchased at different times, like, they kept canceling and putting us on a different one, and then finally they canceled all the trains. So we were like, how are we even gonna get to JFK? Yeah, we Ubered surprisingly, which is an adventure all on its own, because we, like, did one of those things where you can, like, schedule the Uber. And she texted us, like, an hour before she got there and was like, I'm on my way. The roads are bad, but here we go. Like, I'm ready to do this. And I was like, Okay, this seems promising. And it turns out she has an electric car. So, like, halfway through the ride, she's like, Oh yeah, we're gonna have to pull I forgot about a rest stop, and we're gonna have to charge the car. I totally forgot about the tick. And she's like, not long. It took us, like, a solid hour sitting at a rest stop in New Jersey. But you know what? All part of the adventure. But I think it took us, like, four and a half hours to get from our house to JFK, and should only be, like an hour and a half. Honestly, there was like two feet of snow on the ground, so it's gonna take that long. Anyways, it was really fine. It's all fine. We got there safely. It all worked out. We we eventually made it to Thailand the morning of our trip, which we really hate to do, because I don't know if you all know Andrew or not, but she takes a minute to get ready for people. Yeah, we both like to have a good buffer day to just sleep and become normal people again, because we're both irritable when we're tired. And yeah, I think it might have shown that day a little bit to the traveler we saw in the lobby that day. I'm sorry for my attitude. I just really have been flying for, like, not even flying. We had been trying to get to Thailand for like, four days, and then we had been flying for a full day, and I really just needed a shower in bed. So I'm sorry I didn't hang out and chat in the lobby with you, but more love the story. We made it to Thailand, and thank you, staff traveler for saving when we buy tickets. Staff traveler, always come to your clutch to help us figure out who we need to buy tickets on download the app if you haven't already at staff traveler.com/two, guys, it's amazing, and you will not regret it. We'll never but now we're in Thailand, okay, we made it. We are in our hotel. We got a nap, we got a shower. We had a really nice hotel room, actually, too. It was so comfortable. The AC worked like a charm. Oh, it was kicking. It was kicking. It was kicking. AC was good. Um, had a huge bathtub. That was nice. The Oh, okay, this hotel was wild to me, because I love hotel rooms, but the actual room that the bed was in was smaller than the bathroom. That's true, which I love, was very of a good bathroom. Yeah, I do. I do like a good bathroom. But, yeah, day one, we took a nap, finally met up with the group. We if you haven't been on one of our trips, you should. But what we like to do first is meet up with everybody for happy hour before dinner, which didn't work out in Egypt so well, because the hotel didn't serve alcohol, whoops, but it worked out in Thailand, and we had a really nice view on the rooftop in Bangkok where we started our trip. And it was so nice. We got to meet everybody. We always hand out these little tote bags, kind of custom tote bags for the trip, just to get everybody excited and have something useful for the trip and kick everything off. And from there, we go to dinner. They always plan us this really lovely Welcome Dinner, which we enjoy, which gives us a taste of the country that you're in. Yeah, the good thing about these trips too, is we always have a local guide with us, like every step of the way, and I think that's my favorite thing, is they're always so in tune with like, what's going on in their country and their cities, that they always like plan these really delicious welcome dinners. And this was no exception. We had some amazing food. We did all of Thailand was amazing food, though. Yeah, what was your favorite food in Thailand that you had?

Andrew: 10:59

It was at the farewell dinner, the street marker that we went to. Do you remember those little coconut balls? They were like pancake coconut balls.

Rich Henderson: 11:06

We had had pancake somewhere else, but these were like, coconut balls. I didn't like those. Did you put sugar on them? Yeah? Because you can eat them with the sugar, without the sugar. I remember what those it was like coconut pudding balls. I don't know. It was like a pancake on the outside with like a little pudding squirt on the inside. Yeah, I think was a texture. Thing was like, am I chewing this? It's like gushing coconut in my mouth. I wasn't sure what I was doing there. Yeah, not to get too far ahead, but we ate a lot of street food. This is the other thing I love about the trips and the local guides, is they know what street food is safe for you to eat. So like, you're looking at all these weird things, and you're like, Should I try? Should I not try? Right? And the guide is always like, Absolutely, we're getting forward. He like, went overboard to our guy. JJ, was honestly, so amazing. Oh my God. He was the best. He was so, like, animated and enthusiastic. And he also, like, just wanted to make sure everybody had a good time everywhere we went, like, he, I don't know what he takes, like, caffeine pills or something, but he was like, so energetic and excited the whole time, and took such good care of everybody. But yeah, the food was seriously next level. And then after dinner, that first night was really funny, because there was a nightclub on our itinerary in Thailand. They don't go out till, like, super late, especially in like, Bangkok and Phuket and stuff like the bigger cities like that. And I think we went, like, right after dinner at, like, did it open at nine? It did open at nine, but we didn't get there till almost 10 because we went to that night market first. Oh, which is a really good addition to the itinerary, because that's not normally there. But JJ knew that we would need a bit of shopping time. Yeah, we always want to shop when you when you come on the trip of this, you're going to shop and you're going to eat. But when we got to this nightclub, it was hilarious because it was really cool, like different floors, different rooms that you can hang out in, but there was no one there. And it was the funniest thing because I was like, This was me in college. I was absolutely that person that was always to the bar a little too early, or, like, there on the night of the week where no one else is going out, and then, like, all the cool people would be out one night, and I'd be in my room being like, Ah, crap. I screwed up. We left the bar like, 11pm and you would have thought we partied until 3am because no one was there still, right? We would have thought we should, like, shut the bar down. Still no one. There's still no one there. Yeah, we were not back that late at all that night. It was crazy. I really liked that bar too. It gave me Do you remember that ruin bar in Budapest that we went to? Yes, tree in the middle, oh, the apartment building, all the different rooms. But honestly, it was probably good that we were not out super late, because Day Two was busy and we started kind of early. We went to a museum, like a cultural museum, to learn, like history and different Buddhas and cultural things that have happened in Thailand's political history, all sorts of stuff that was really interesting. Yeah, I really enjoyed that day. And I love a museum. I do too, and it was funny because there were a lot of school groups in there. And I was like, Is this museum for kids? But also I was highly entertained, so I don't really care if it is for kids or not. Yeah, you did pull up a desk there was like an actual classroom setting in one of the show you, what school in Thailand was like, well, and they had computers. Yeah, they had computers from, like, when we were kids, like people in their 30s, like millennials, when millennials were kids. And it's so funny, because, like, we remember having like these computer labs as kids. And they were like, Oh, look at these, like artifacts. And I was like, I feel so old right now that a floppy disk is an artifact, but here we are. Here we are. And from the museum, we went on a long boat ride. Yes, the long tail. Boat, long tail. Long Tail boat, yeah, I did a lot of boats. So I was a lot of boat. They're all called, I think it was long tail, but that's, it's a really cool boat, like, I really enjoyed that experience? Same seems like you could tip them pretty easy, though, and that made me a little anxious. They did have to, for the aviation people, they did have to weight and balance. It was a lot of weight and balance issues, which was funny. And then they took us. One of the stops on the boat ride was like an artist's village, which was really cool. They had different like things that they were making and paintings and all that sort of stuff. Do you remember that little yes place on the river that we went to? Yes? That was really cool. We had a really great lunch pad, see you. Pad, see you. Which was delicious. I did not know that that was my favorite Thai dish, and then I had it, and it was my favorite Thai Thai dish. It was delicious, yeah. I really enjoyed it. And the artist market was cool, because it was all like local art, like homemade, handmade arts thing, yeah? And there was like studio space in the back, like you could see where they were actually making. Art and stuff to like, make beaded bracelets or paintings or things like that. It was really fun. I like to think I'm creative like that. I am not gifted in that regard, not even a little bit. I can do graphics and things. But when it comes to like, hand crafting things, you don't want me doing any hand graphic crafting, either one of us, honestly. And then that night was probably one of my favorite nights of the trip, was when we did this, like food tour, but on Tuk Tuks. And we all like, there was like two people per tuk tuk. So it was just like this big caravan of Tuk Tuks, like wandering around Bangkok, which was way better than doing it in a car, because the traffic there is so insane that at least the Tuk Tuks could kind of weave around a little bit. But I think we went to, like, how many stops did we go to? I think it was three. We went to an open air market, and our guide got us some treats, and then we went to a restaurant that was like, Michelin star rated for Pad Thai, yeah. And then we tried a whole bunch of local treats, including, like, cockroaches and things, yeah, did you eat one of the cockroaches? We were sitting at different tables, so I don't remember. I didn't have a cockroach. I did have a beetle. Okay, I was a beetle. Don't know why the Beetle was less scary to me than the cockroach, but looking back, it should have been scarier. I didn't eat any of the bugs, which I'm normally like, I'll try anything once, but I couldn't bring myself to do it that day. But all the fruits, like, I think probably like, 15 different kinds of fruits that I couldn't even name. Yeah, were unreal. They were so good. All the fruit was delicious. Yeah, I didn't eat a lot of the bugs, just a beetle. There were, like, brains and balls and things I didn't I nibbled on a ball, but balls of memories and balls. There was a brain. There was some sort of brain. You guys, okay, I know there was a brain, but what balls? There's chicken balls. I don't remember. Oh, I know what you're talking about now. Those were, they were just handing you skewers that were, like, brains and balls and all kinds of things. I don't know. I It was weird. It was all really weird, but it was all really delicious. And our gardening, yeah, he kept explaining stuff. And I was like, it's still, I'm still not understanding what this is, but thank you. Oh, there was chicken butt. Chicken butt. It was definitely chicken butt, because I made a few jokes as that was being passed. Of course, you were, I'm a grown up. Everyone. That was fun was that the night we went to the flower market too? Yes, yeah. One of the stops on the tour was a flower market, and it was super cool, because it's open 24 hours a day, 365 they you can buy flowers anytime of day you want in Bangkok. And the busiest time for them was midnight, because that's when, like, the freshest deliveries would come in. And so that's when people would like go and get their flowers, which I thought was the coolest thing. Learned how to fold the lotus flower, which, oh, yeah, really, yeah, we had a lotus. He wanted to say white lotus, because of the show. And I'm obsessed. In Taiwan. You want to live in Taiwan? Yeah, they taught us how to make the lotus flower, and some of us were really good at it, and some of us, me were not so good at it. I mean, they kept like you folded it that little like grandma lady came over ending point and judge, like she looked at me and was like, Oh, sweetie. Like you could just tell she was like, This is not for you. Told you me and crafting not not a good thing. But the next day was also super fun and busy. We did a lot. There were a lot of markets on this trip. There was no shortage of shopping. But the first one we went to was super cool. It was the railway market. And I'm not sure if you guys have been to Thailand or, know, like, some of the more touristy things to do, but it's basically just your regular old market, all the different shops and things. But there's literally a railroad track, like, right through the middle of it, and to the point where, like, the only walkway that you have is the the actual railroad, like, the stops are that close to the tracks, and then, like, twice a day, or something, maybe more than that, it comes through the market. But all the stores, like, pull all their supplies and and like items back in, and then close their doors and like their awnings and all this stuff. And like, I mean, it happens within like, a five minute period. They move so fast, so fast. The market was really cool, because you're literally just, like, so close to that train. Like they could never allow you to do that in the US, because, like, people in the US would probably sue somebody for the training, I'm sure. But that's really good to know that Vietnam has one. Them too, since we are thinking about going there, yeah, next year, I think it'll be really fun, yeah, to compare the two, because see how quickly they move, right? Yeah, it's not a competition Vietnam versus Thailand, but it is, and we'll be watching. And then from the train market, we ended up going to a floating market, small boats into canal, I guess, yeah, it was like little canals, for sure. And they were either like stores on the on the river, or you had, like boats sitting out on the river too that were selling you items. It was cool, because at first I was like, Oh, we're just, like, gonna boat around and, like, look at all these shops. And like, you could pull over, like, on your boat into, like, some of these stores, into like shop, or there were actually people selling things on other boats. So you'd be like, Oh, that was fun. And all of a sudden a boat would come up to you and be like, here, do you want this shirt? And you're like, Whoa, what is it was, honestly a little bit of like, stimulation overload, yeah, but it was a really cool experience to see that. And then we went to lunch, and we had what I think gave me food poisoning, but at the time, was the most delicious meal I had this, like, pineapple fried rice with chicken. Actually, you know what? Just thinking about it is kind of making my stomach turn. But it was really good. I ate so much of it. It was so good. But, yeah, I we think I got food poisoning on this trip, and I don't think he got food poisoning. We know he got food poisoning. We don't know what gave it to him. Yeah, we're assuming it was this one meal, because what's funny is that three of us ate the same thing. Two of them got sick and I didn't. So, yeah, yeah, Selena said she didn't feel so great either after it. But I don't know, normally I have a stomach of steel, but that trip I that did me in. And then after the floating market that night. We is when we went to the drag show, which was so fun, incredible experience. Like, fun, I think maybe the best drag show I've ever been to. Yeah, top three, at least, for sure. But we upgraded our tables. Like we got the option from our tour guide when we started the trip. He was like, just so, you know, we can upgrade tables. And like everybody thought that would be a fun idea. So we were, like, right up on the stage. We got up close and personal, Andrew, maybe more than others, with some of these drags. Listen, I just feel like you just have to let the Queens know that you're a good time, and I am. And they understood. They understood, and I understood the assignment, and we all had a great time. Yeah, it was so fun. And they were, they were all contestants on, like, Ru Paul's drag race Thailand, yes, which was even cooler, because it's like, okay, you don't get on a show like that without being like, like, even the worst drag queens on drag race are like, the best drag queens, yeah, so it showed how talented they were. There were five of them. Six terrible at counting, apparently. But they were all so so good. Our table included drink and fat. That's why rich. Yeah, some of the night got really funny. And, yeah, it was fun because our group got really into it, like Kara, like, there was like this dance competition or whatever on stage. And one of our travelers, Kara, who's been on a bunch of trips with us now and is coming on, I can't more trade to insert the Yeah, we need to, like Podio, of that, pull up a clip of it for you guys to see. But it was, it was so fun. And she got so into it. And she, like, she did a full, like, drop on stage. Yeah, I was like, dance dropped. She was like, out, uh huh, probably done the same. I had gone to the bathroom. It was the whole dance thing. It was cute because then, like, she was one of the top two finalists, and, like, before they announced the winner, like, the two of them were holding hands like you felt like you were watching like American Idol or something. You're super fun, like one of them is going home with the prize. It was cute, but that was super fun night. I love Kara. She's always down for a good time, yeah. But the next day was when we traveled to bouquet and thank God our flight wasn't until like 1230 because I woke up the next morning thinking I was hungover as hell, and I was not I, it turns out it was more than just the hangover, because I don't get sick like that from drinking. But I was like, you know, I drank. This must be what happened. I ended up just so sick for the next probably two or three days, like just deathly ill. You hit well, it wouldn't stop you hit it well, like half of our group had no idea, which is great, because I didn't want anyone to, like, feel too bad for me, like I wanted everyone to have the experience that they wanted to have. But I was like, deathly ill. It was like, I'm gonna go take a little breather. I'm I'm not. I'm tired right now. I just like run out of a room to a bathroom. So thankfully, on this day, the only thing that we had to do was fly from Bangkok to Phuket, which made the day a lot easier. But as flight attendants were super judgmental, so we were excited to see what what the airline had to offer us. Yeah, and they were amazing. What was it? Um, Bangkok Airways, I think so it was called, they were so good, like it was an hour long flight. We had a full, full meal on a one hour flight. And rumor has it, it was good. I wasn't eating that day, but I heard it was actually it was delicious, but it was really good. I ate the whole thing. I just couldn't believe it. There weren't really options available to anyone, which is what I have now decided. Is the problem in aviation is that we give to people too many options. They just set food in front of you, and everyone was like, Oh, I get food. This is wonderful. Yeah, I didn't even really hear anybody complaining about there wasn't even drink options. It was orange juice, tea or water. Yep, you didn't get a lot of anything else, but they did offer it twice, like they came back through at the end, two beverage services, a meal service in a one hour flight. Yeah, I've never seen anything like it. Blown away. Now I finally believe the like senior mamas in US airlines that are like, back in my day, we served a full meal from Philly to Pittsburgh, I'm like, maybe you did. They probably did. They probably did. They probably weren't giving anybody any choices. They were no like, here, here, here, here, but here, here, here, luckily, we, we made it in one piece to the next hotel. I did survive the trip, and the pool area was so nice at our hotel in Phuket, like, I could have just stayed there for days. I it was so relaxing. The view was, like, incredible. You could see, like, all of Phuket from the top of that like, hotel. It was so nice. Yeah, it was nice just to, like, after Bangkok and being on, like, go, go, go, go, go the whole time. It was nice to, like, get to the hotel midday and just relax the afternoon away. Yeah, what did we do the next day? We took an eight hour boat ride that included the Fifi islands. Think it was PP. P is how they say it. That's how they say it in Thai. I just remember them telling us that because our group has the maturity level like, we're all just like little middle schoolers. And kept laughing about PP, so, yeah, I guess it was the PP island but yeah, we did the PP island hopping tour. And I didn't realize how much island hopping was there was going to be, like, we made several stops throughout the day. Had our own, like, private boat with this incredible guy, Jessica, who was like, phenomenal. She was so much fun, although she pulled, what every captain in a US airline is like, she was like, it's gonna be smooth today. Very lucky, very good weather. We get out on this boat and we're being thrown five feet in the air. We were all airborne at least one point throughout the day because it was so bumpy. And her and JJ, our tour guide, kept being like, no, seriously. Like, it's a really smooth day. Like, apparently, one day they did it in like, a monsoon, and it was like, I would have said, No, not bad, but yeah, it was still really bumpy, but it was fun. So for those who don't know, the Fifi islands are the really popular beaches in Thailand. They're made famous for being on the beach, the movie, yeah? Movie, the beach. So we went to the island, they won't let you in the water because it's a shark sanctuary, yeah? So you can't put more than, like, literally, the bottom of your foot into the water, because they don't want, like, the sunscreen or anything to affect the water for the sharks. Yeah. And of course, there were a few tourists that, like, not in our group, obviously, but there were a few tourists there that were just blatantly breaking the rules. Pull you out of the water. They went after those people, like, they committed a heinous crime, which they did. I mean, like, shark conservation is obviously important. Like, nature conservation in general is important. And they the like, they should probably just close the beach and not allow Taurus and but, yeah, it was, it was really cool to see how much Thailand focuses on their conservation efforts and things like that, especially with tourism being, you know, insane there well, because apparently, it used to be a really popular tourist destination, and then during covid it closed, the tourism kind of stopped for a little while, and the sharks started coming back. So that's why they've decided to they won't let both park in a certain area, they won't let people into the water because the sharks came back when, Oh, I totally missed that. That's really cool. And I have to tell you, if you do go to the Fifi islands at any point and you're with a guide, put your camera down and just explore, because we she, like, took us over. Like, there's a really pretty. Spot where everyone was taking pictures, but then if you walked a little further, like she was like, and there's a shark and there's a shark, and look at that shark. I'm so follow the guide. Put your camera down and follow the guide. It was a really good time. That's one thing I've really learned to love about these group trips that we do, is there's so many cool things that I would never see on my own, or that I would never see in this way, on my own. Yeah, and I feel like we've seen things that people miss, and it's it's been really cool having, like, trusted local people with us agree 100% I've learned so much because of these local guides about the area that we're in. And I just really enjoyed a lot, me too, and I really enjoy seeing how much people like JJ and Jessica, like love where they live, yeah, like they're so proud of it, rightfully so. And it's just really cool to see that passion shine through. Yeah, I don't know that I would be so enthusiastic being a tour guide in the US right now, although I do really love living in Philadelphia, but, yeah, it's really true. From the Fifi islands, we ended up on a private well, they put us on a one of those snorkeling and, yeah, we had fun doing that. Then we went to a floating restaurant. Oh, that was so cool. It was really cool. And the food was phenomenal. They had this, like, coconut and lemongrass soup. I don't even know how to describe it. It was warm and cold and just deliciously perfect. So, yeah, it was really cool. It was just a bunch of docs, like chilling in the middle of this river that we were out sitting on. It was really cool. All fresh seafood. They're literally fishing it out in the net like it was so yummy. Yeah, that was honestly probably a highlight of the trip, despite me being still pretty sick that day. Like just seeing all those beautiful sights that you see in movies and on TV and like you kind of dream about, and then you see, you know, those big cliffs and things like that in person. And just like the magnitude of everything, like the amount of beauty that we saw that day was unreal. It was insane. It was really, truly magical. And then day six, it was another fun day, but we had a lot of downtime on day six, which, that's another good thing I love about these trips is, like, some of the days are really jam packed, and some of them are really chill, because it's nice to have downtime sometimes too. And so like, we slept in, we went to the pool, we got massages, like all those like things you think you're gonna do on our relaxing beach vacation. We did that day, and it was so nice. Now I have to warn all of you, we did get a lot of massages while we were there, but we did get a Thai massage at one at one place, and we got, like, the weak one, because Thai massages are supposed to be really intense. And we were like, go easy on us. And we got the intense one. It's like, shit beat out. Literally, they were taking bamboo sticks to our feet. And it was, I felt so good afterwards, but like, if you're not familiar with the Thai massage, it's like, elbow into your back pushing, yeah, it's not like normal massage, no. And it was funny, because we did a couple's massage, and I just could hear, I could hear Andrew on the other table, and I I heard the lady be like, pressure, okay? And you'd be like, Uh huh. And then, like, it's like, are you all right over there? No. And every time I groan, thinking she would know she was too much, she took it as a personal challenge to, like, push harder. And I was like, well, here we are. Felt so good the next day, though. So it was worth every every grunt and groan. It really was nice and cheap too. Like even getting it at, like, a big hotel chain like that, like it was still cheap as hell, yeah, which was so nice, so nice. But yeah, that day was super relaxing. And then that night, I couldn't believe it. Like the trip felt like it flew by so fast, but like Phuket, they call it like a treats local treats tour. And I think we had five stops on this tour, and we took the vans around. It wasn't like Tuk Tuks this time, but we had our farewell dinner. We went to another night market. We went to this, like, lookout point to look at, like Phuket at night, which was really pretty. What else was on that tour? Oh, we went to Old Town, which might have been one of my favorite parts of Phuket. Same, so charming, so cute. It was beautiful. Lots of just, like, really cute restaurants and shops. We bought a lot of stuff there. Again, shopping kind of a big theme of our trip. We did. We didn't get to spend enough time there. And if I go back to bukat Old Town, is where I would be. We were originally going to stay a couple extra days, but Rich was sick, and we just decided to Yeah. So we didn't say any extra it was also Chinese New Year too, yes. And like when we went to Bali last. Year we were like, or the year before, we were like, oh, we'll just get an Airbnb. We'll plan something stay a few days. Typical flight attendant like, kind of, let's just wing it. And we looked at hotels and Airbnbs, and they were all like, hundreds and hundreds of dollars a night. So we were like, well, I guess we're leaving today. And like, people on our trip kept being like, so wait, when are you guys leaving again. We were like, I don't know, few days tomorrow, today, like, and so we literally ended up leaving that last day, whenever a lot of people were leaving, but yeah, their farewell, like, Phuket night was super fun. We got to see a lot of cool things in Phuket. And I really enjoyed that. Yeah, I would 100% go back, I don't I mean, there's more Phuket to explore. Yes, we didn't make it to Chiang Mai, which I hear is phenomenal. Everyone says that if you've been to Chiang Mai, send us some recommendations. Yeah. So we have a lot more Thailand to explore, so we will be going back at some point, but what little we saw was phenomenal. Yeah, we enjoyed it so immensely. Yeah, but Thailand was cool. There's so much more places we want to see. I mean, we're thinking Vietnam, Iceland, South Africa, like there's 1000 places we want to go and check the show notes. There's a button where you can text us, and if you want to travel with us, maybe shoot us a text and tell us. Tell us where you want to go next. Because we're we want to go. Where you want to go this year, we still have three more trips, if anybody wants to join us. We're going to Peru, we're going to India, and then we're doing a Christmas market trip, which I'm so excited about, because I love Christmas I'm so excited going to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We're doing Christmas markets in all three of those cities. We're doing Castle tours. There's like, a marzipan class, like, there's all these super cool things that we're doing to to make it kind of more of a comprehensive like culture trip as well as Christmas Market Fun. Because, you know, we like to do a mixture of all sorts of things, and I'm so excited about that. Plus, you just sent me something about, like, a spy hotel or something. We're staying extra we're staying at this KGB so we might go early and stay in this KGB hotel, because that would be super cool. We're both nerds and love spy things, so we think that would be really interesting. But anyways, please come on a trip with us, Christmas markets India, Peru, we still have a few spots available on India, but it is, it is filling up really quickly, and then Peru and the Christmas trip. So just go to two guys on a plane, comm slash travel, and reserve your spot today. We can't wait to travel with you. Yeah, before we go, we're gonna do one of our favorite segments. This is galley gossip. So galley gossip is where we read a story from one of our listeners about a crazy thing that happened to them while on a flight or while traveling. You can go to two guys on a plane, comm slash podcast and submit your stories. You can be anonymous, or you don't have to be anonymous, we're happy to give you a shout out on air if you so choose. But we've gotten some pretty interesting stories, so please keep them coming, because we are always entertained. This one today's story is from Rachel. She is Boston based. She said we had a couple boarding our full flight from Disney. They had the gear, the whole get up, matching ears, shirts, the whole thing. I can hear you cringing already, this like our least favorite passengers. But anyways, they were telling everyone that they had just gotten married. They were kissing, taking selfies, making small talk with anyone who would listen to them. Mid flight, I decided to be nice and bring them champagne. And the woman quietly said, Oh, actually, we're breaking up after this trip. We just didn't want to waste the honeymoon, so we decided to fake it. The rest of the flight, they sat there in silence, but still held hands and said hello anytime someone walked by to congratulate them. I just, this is hilarious, but I don't even understand. I understand going on the honeymoon and not wasting the money, but I don't understand faking it, because it sounds like they turned down the free champagne, so it wasn't even like they did it for fully committed to the bit. I don't understand. Like, why would you pull the bit if you're not going to fully commit to the bit? Yeah, I don't. I think I still would have been like, Well, it sounds like you need something more than champagne, and we would have come back with whiskey. Did they get married? No, I don't think so. So, they just went on the trip. They didn't actually get married. I think they Rachel, they broke up. Yeah, she's oh, we're breaking up after the trip, after the trip, but did they get married? Rachel, we have questions. Then decided to go on the honeymoon, and they didn't like each other, and we're breaking up afterwards, maybe. Or did they not go through with the wedding and just didn't throw the vacation away? Rachel, message us, please. We need to start having these people on air live, because I think so we always have follow. Up questions and we never get the answer. Also, most people aren't as nosy as I am, so they wouldn't have asked these questions anyway. Facts You would make a great detective or spy. Probably goes back to us wanting to to nerd out a good spot. Okay, Rachel, we love your story. Disney adults are weird. Yeah, this just proves it to me, Disney is weird behavior. Have another Disney friend that could have gone on this vacation with instead of taking somebody you were like, apparently, not, adamantly, not going to be around for the rest of forever. Wild. That's psychotic behavior, truthfully. Well, keep sending us your stories. Go to two guys on a plane. COMM slash podcast, we can't wait to hear from you join us next time for more humor, heart and stories from our beverage cart. This episode was brought to you by staff traveler, the number one non rev app if you travel on standby tickets and are looking to make your journey easy and stress free, check out the staff traveler app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, visit staff traveler.com/two guys to learn more and sign up

Buzz Burbank: 43:14

an ironic media production. Visit us at I R O N, I C, K, media.com you.