Are you ready? Am I ready? I’d better be, as I’m setting this to post as my flight departs from Dulles, so I am on my way!

I was invited on a press trip with 29 other bloggers to promote Thailand, or more specifically to promote the TBEX travel blogging conference that is taking place in Bangkok in October.

I am pretty much over the moon with excitement. I’ve been writing on this blog for five years and this is the first press trip I’ve been invited on. And it’s Thailand! Not only one of my favorite places we visited on our round the world trip, but one that is, y’know, kinda far away. Like 20 hours of flying time.

And speaking of flying time, they are flying me there on Emirates Airlines, which is consistently ranked as one of the top airlines in the world. I’ve been looking at their website and already I can see why. The first thing that jumped out at me was the free wifi on board. Free. Wifi. For the duration of at least one of the 10-hour flights. That is big. I might actually get to do some writing while I’m on board. Though I think I should probably try to sleep at some point, since I’ll be leaving on Tuesday morning and arriving in Bangkok Wednesday evening.

Which is why, when they gave me the option of adding a few days onto the five day press trip, I jumped at the chance. So when I arrive Wednesday night I’ll hop straight onto another plane to take me south to Krabi, on the Andaman Sea. Now I can go back and explore some areas I missed on my last trip, visit some friends we made on that trip, and have a little solo adventure. And I’ll have a few more days to work out the jet lag.

After a couple of nights back in Bangkok, I’ll be traveling with some other bloggers by campervan to see some Thai villages in the Ratchaburi and Samut Songkram provinces, with an itinerary packed with activities from a flower-garland making to Thai wakeboarding. Wish me luck in keeping up with all the 20-something bloggers on the trip!

I know I am really lucky to be included in this trip, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with all of you.

Be sure to follow along on Instagram, where I’m posting as AllOvertheMap, and Twitter, where I’m tweetthemap. And of course Facebook.