Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok

Hello everyone!

I am currently in the lobby of the Avana Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. We got here around 3am on Thursday the 20th. This is our time to get caught up on sleep and recover from our jetlag. We had quite a journey on the way here. We left the UofN campus around 5am on Tuesday the 18th and caught a short flight from Kona to Honolulu. After maybe an hour layover, we got on an 8 hour flight to Tokyo. It was pretty intense. My legs were pretty stiff when I finally got up to walk around. I slept a bit, but it's not easy to sleep on a plane, with people waking you up to eat every few hours. We didn't stay in Japan too long. We only had enough time to go to the bathroom and look around in a shop. The bathrooms are quite intriguing. There is one stall that reads "Japanese style."I went in to check it out and it is a hole in the floor. You have to squat as low as you can and pull your pants forward so you don't get anything on them. It's actually challenging to keep your balance.

Then we had a 3 and a half hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan. That was the coolest airport I have ever been in. We got to hang out there for almost 5 hours. It was humongous, and we managed to nab some gourmet cake for $1.00, which would probably cost at least $3.00 at home. The airport has free massage chairs, and those were really relaxing. There was even peaceful music complete with birds chirping. We also found a few prayer rooms in the Taipei airport. There was a Christian prayer room, a Muslim prayer room, and a Prayer room that was labeled with a swastika. I am sure this is is not what it actually is, but the guys and I joked around that it was a Nazi prayer room.

After another 3 and a half hour flight to Bangkok, our whole team rode in the back of a pickup to the hotel we are staying two nights at. We were exhausted because we were traveling and having layovers for more than 24 hours I believe. It's a little confusing, but right now it is 9:20pm on Thursday the 20th, and I believe it is 6:20am on Wednesday the 19th back home in California. So we are a day ahead of you guys. Therefore, I can tell you the future. =)

Pray for our luggage. It did not make it on the plane with us to Tokyo, and so we have been sharing clothes and toothpaste here at the hotel. Only 6 of our 21 bags made it to Thailand with us, and the others are supposedly on our way. We have been praying about it, but we know that God is faithful and good enough and big enough to bring our bags in. I think the Lord is trying to bring us closer together and trust in Him through this. It's been really cool to be circled up in the middle of an airport praying as a team. My internet time's almost up, so I must post this.

Pray for us as we take off to Bali tomorrow whether or not we get out luggage.