Our Trip to Thailand: A Starwood Experience

Hello everyone,

Robyn, Kayla and I arrived in Thailand yesterday. We landed in Phuket and went straight to the hotel. Kayla and I crashed while Robyn stayed up for a while. Today, I spent the day lodging my Australian Work Visa and then we went into town. Robyn also realized that we could Skype on the iPad for free with people back home. It worked out beautifully.

Phuket was great. Robyn and I both got a 1 hour massage with Kayla on a third bed just hanging out for under $20 total!! We walked around the markets and bought a few items. I got a Sim card with a Thai number. We think when we're in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, we'll buy A LOT of stuff and ship it home. We really like the quality of goods here and the pricing. We're off to Chiang Mai tomorrow.

Now for the reason for the title of the post. If you have ever talked to me, you know I'm a huge fan of the Starwood Members Program. There are a ton of benefits. They include usually free room upgrades and late checkouts among many other things. Sign up Now. There are 9 different brands in the program, but we prefer the Westin. They have the Heavenly Bed Collection. Robyn and I argue about every mattress we sleep on except for these. We hope to buy two Queen Mattresses when we finally buy a house (hopefully, soon :) )

The really best reason we like the Starwood Members Program though is the massive return on points. Take this trip for example. The flights to Thailand from Brisbane were $2062 for Me, Robyn and Kayla in total. That would have cost no less than 60,000 points per person. This leaves each point being worth about $0.017 ($2062/120,000 Points)

Now look at the hotel rates. I'm staying in Thailand for 17 days. The travel agent told me that she could book my rooms for the whole trip for $4000. This included breakfast. When I went online, using just cash, I could book the same rooms for $3100, not including breakfast. If I used the 'cash and points' system, I paid $720 and 44,000 points for the whole 17 days. There was a savings of $2380 by using the Starwood hotel points. These points are worth $0.054 ($2380/44,000 points) (If you look at the travel agent rate, they are worth $0.075 ($3280/44000))

Now just looking at the flights versus hotel: 120,000 to save $2062, or 44,000 to save $2380. You know which one I chose.

Now there is one more added benefit to this. With the discounted rates on the rooms, I avoid paying taxes on the 'real' room amount. In Thailand the VAT is 7%, so I'm not paying an additional $166 (the $2380 I saving by using points x 7% VAT tax)  in taxes. This tax amount is another reason why I prefer to use the Starwood program.

Lastly, I get all these points by using the American Express Starwood Card. This is how I get all these points I spend. There is a $45 yearly fee, but well worth it when you look at the savings. When you use the card you get 1 point for every dollar you spend, and more at any starwood hotel. If you spend $30,000 a year, you get bumped up to gold level right way for a year. This card beats other AMEX Cards, like AMEX BlueSky because I get more value per point this way (~$0.05/point) and I don't pay tax on the higher room rate. With AMEX BlueSKY, you take $100 off of the post tax rate for 7500 Points (Worth $0.013/point). You can apply for the AMEX Starwood Card on your own, or I can e-mail you a link so we both get rewards, just let me know you are asking for the link.

I know it seems like an advertisement, but I just want all my friends to use their money wisely and get the most out every dollar they spend. Let me know what you think. If you have any better ways of saving money or using points, please post a comment on this blog, so we can all learn.

So just to recap, we're having a great time in Thailand and I really like the Starwood program, because otherwise I could not afford all this travelling on my own. :)

PS Fiji's hotels were paid on just points.

Keep in Touch,
David

Our Time at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Yesterday, we visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We met many of Australia's native animals. There were these large bats called Flying Foxes. They fly all around our area at dusk and are pretty cool to see. We saw a platypus, a couple of dingos and a whole bunch of koalas. We, (meaning me, Robyn and Kayla!!) got to pet 3 dingos and 2 koalas. I also pet a snake. We took a picture with one of the Koalas. Now that I think about it, we should have gotten a picture with a dingo.

Even though they were badly hit by the flooding, they rebounded nicely. Areas were roped off, but all the animals were accessible. We felt like we got the full experience, even though they suffered. I admired their work ethic.

We had a great time and really enjoyed the experience. This was not the only 'zoo' that we visited that lets you play and touch the animals. I only wish the zoos back home in the US would let you regularly interact with the animals. I would highly recommend the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to anyone.

Check Out The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Here

Well that's it for now. Speak to you all soon,
David

Kayla's First Bite of Food and Her First Fever

Kayla had her first bite of solid food yesterday. We smashed up a piece of banana and she ate it. At times she looked like she liked it and took the spoon all by hersef. She ate it with gusto. At other times, she made a 'what is this? Yuck!!' face. I think overall, she liked it though.We're really proud parents.

Check out the video

Last night, Kayla felt hot. Robyn bought a thermometer and Kayla's temp was 101.7. Robyn cuddled and cared for her, gave her Tylenol and the fever broke. As parents, we did not freak out. Kayla is now fine, just a bit cranky. Her first fever at 5 1/2 months, not bad. She was adorable during her fever. She was just a cute, quiet lump. I love her so much.

I don't think the fever is related to the first feeding. We're going to give it a couple of days before we try again.

Otherwise, things are going great. Got registered by APHRA, but need to get my work visa. One step closer to working. :)

A Thought on the Fijian People

    Now that we're back home, I have had a bit of time to think about our trip to Fiji. It is amazing how many people came up to us and just picked up Kayla. Whether we out shopping or Robyn was getting a pedicure, people would take Kayla and just wander around with her. We had to ask them not to leave the store we were in. They were just friendly; we never had any fear of them taking her, but it was still a bit odd. Kayla for the most part did not cry, as she tends to do now. The Fijians would all want to hold and play with her, regardless of if we were shopping in their store or just passing by.
    Here are two pictures of them holding and playing with Kayla:

Kayla with some Fijians

Kayla Playing with some Fijians

        Robyn at times would say 'No' as we wanted to continue shopping and not worry about Kayla. This however did not stop them as they would continually play with her. It's obviously cultural and meant with nothing but love. We enjoyed the attention Kayla got and the warmth of the Fijian people. I can't wait to go back.

Fiji: the last Day

It's amazing how your priorities change when you become a parent. Yesterday we went to Mana Island. It is a small island in the South Pacific. We choose it mainly for two reasons, it has some nice dive sites and it had a pier so we could easily get the stroller (or pram) onto the island. All the other small adorable islands required you to go from boat to boat to beach. We wee very happy with Mana island. Usually our first desire is to arrange for some scuba diving. We love comparing sites to previous sites, like Hawaii, the Galapagos, Costa Rica and even Boston (David went, not Robyn) just name a few.

Now with a 5 month old, we were able to set something up theoretically, but wanted to take Kayla into the ocean for the first time. She liked splashing in the water and even drinking a bit of it. She did not like standing in the sand because t kept on shifting in the water. She floats well, but likes to stick her head in the water. (As if he really knows what she's doing :) ) We got her hair braided and she looks adorable.

Here are just two pictures, the rest are available from the link below:

  
                                                                           Before

                                                                              After
                                                              Our Brisbane and Fiji Pics

There is no other way we would have wanted to spend the day. We even got a little snorkeling in. We took turns. All in all a great day.

Today we are checking out of our hotel and flying back to Brisbane later tonight. We hope the area is recognisable. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading,
David

Fiji: The Escape Continues

So today was our second day in Fiji. When we woke up, the sun was shining and it was a hot 90+ Degrees. We had a nice buffet breakfast and spent the day by the pool. Kayla could stand up in the kiddie pool with her shoulders above water. At last weight on the airport scales coming here, she's 14.5 pounds. Lunch by the pool was nice and relaxing as was the swim. At around 5, we went back to the room, cleaned up and napped. Dinner was nice and eaten while watching the sunset. Kayla slept through most of dinner. Now we're at the Sheraton to access the Internet and listen to some music. Heading home now to get ready to go to Mana Island. It has white sand beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving galore. I'll put up some pics on Monday when I have a bit of free time with an Internet connection.

Also for those of you wondering, I am still not credential led to work in Australia yet. FedEx has been paralyzed by the flooding. Oh well.

Speak to you soon.
David

First Day in Fiji

Got to Fiji safe and sound. Slept and relaxed for a bit. Spent most of the day in Nadi, getting supplies and trying how togo scuba diving with Kayla. Finished with Dinner on the beach. It's a tough life. Tommorrow, I'll go into some more details and put upsome pictures on facebook with Robyn.

Heading out to Fiji

Today my wife Robyn and I, were in Brisbane looking at the flooding of the Brisbane river. The beautiful beach would soon be under water. The power to our building was going to be cut and we would lose hot water. We were told by our super that we may lose water altogether. My friends from the hand surgery fellowship offered their homes to us to stay in, but we knew it would be too cramped.
Reviewing all our options, we decided it would be best to head to Fiji for a few days while everything calmed down. Once we secured the tickets and hotel, we went for another walk to survey the damage. It looks that all of South Bank in Brisbane would be destroyed. Robyn noted that when we get back, she would like to volunteer to help restore the area. We dropped all our food off to my friends, because it would all spoil in the fridge.
After a quick visit to them, we drove to the airport 7 hours early. This was so we could get to the airport at all. At that time, there was only one road open and it was in the process of flooding as we drove past it. We sat in the airport, bought a few books, had dinner, checked in and are now waiting for our flight.
During my next entry, I will give a bit more background of how we ended up in Australia and about our stay in Fiji.