Our final night in Korea ended with a delicious Korean barbecue, cooked at our table and shared with a traditional rice wine drink. The barbecued meat was wrapped in sesame leaves with a soybean paste, garlic, grilled onions and kimchi onions. It was a great way to end our amazing time in Korea.

Sadly, yesterday was a pretty strict travel day and almost entirely taken up by our seven hour flight to Malaysia and then our two hour flight to Phuket.

Phuket is beautiful, covered in blue mountains and lush foliage. Our resort is on an island, so we took a boat ride to get here. The most amazing thing to see was the display of stars. There is very little light pollution here (unless you’re right up next to a hotel area) so the stars just seem to sparkle against the milky black of the sky, especially against the dark water. They looked so close that I could reach out and touch them if I tried hard enough-  I don’t know that I’ve seen a sky that looks that beautiful since traveling through rural Alabama, and given the surrounding scenery here, I have to say, it was an incredible welcome to Thailand.

The resort itself surpasses expectations in terms of what we received for our money, so we are very pleased with the room, the access to our private pool, and our little lizard friend that snuck in the door as we entered (he adds ambiance).

Today, we sat down to a breakfast of fresh fruits (I finally tried dragon fruit!) and Thai curry, tom yum soup, and other breakfast goodies. Last night we enjoyed their take on “Italian” food, since we arrived too late for the traditional Thai restaurant.

Now, we’re just enjoying our pool, the resort spa, and likely taking a boat trip to a neighboring island tomorrow. It’s truly a beautiful, relaxing space.