Just a Couple More Days...

Since last I wrote, I have extended my time here again. Twice. Each time I do it, I think "Just two more days", but then I change it and almost right away another seemingly compelling reason to extend "just two more days" presents itself. So here I am, my original 4 days in Sri Lanka turned into 10. Good thing for free flight changes!

Had I known from the start that I would have been here so long I would have made some efforts to do a little traveling and see some more of the country. But as I kept extending only by little increments, never really thinking I had more than a couple more days left here, plans were never made. And, in the end, I've been very fine with that. For almost three months now I have moved from place to place, packed and unpacked an ungodly amount of times and been in a perpetual state of doing and going. So for me to have a week here where I could keep my clothes in a dresser (SO nice to not live out of a suitcase!) and just settle in, even a little bit, has been delightful. Add to that the fact that I get to spend my time catching up with an old friend, and I have no complaints.

And so the official "Hanging Out" period of my trip has commenced. Dineli and I are masters of this. Back in the day when she and I used to travel so much between each others' houses in Lancaster and Toronto, we would spend weeks at a time doing just that, just 'being' together. Where no one is a guest but rather just a part of daily life in each others' house. It's also been really nice to get to see what her life in Sri Lanka is like and to get to know her family and her city.

One of the reasons I extended my time here (at least one of the times) was so that I could be here for a big party that was upcoming. Every December 1st, Dineli and Nigel host a large Tree Trimming party with lots of friends at their house. Much of our time the past couple of days has been spent preparing for that: making decorations, shopping, going to food markets and, shockingly for me, doing some baking. Anyone who knows me knows how rare it is for me to do anything so domestic but for whatever reason, we (read: Dineli) decided it would be a good idea for me to make a pie. Go figure. I should be clear that this was my first attempt at making a pie crust (I was up front about that fact all along) so I can only assume it's normal to have to spoon out a pie rather than slice it, right?

Tonight we left everyone else at home and Dineli and I went out to a great place for dinner, just the gals. I really love how so many places here are open-air (often with either one whole side of a building open or with an open courtyard in the center) so even though you're technically inside, you always have the feeling of being outside. Didn't hurt that the food was totally yum, too.

Not that we even have to leave their house for amazing food, really. Meal time has been a real treat here. In Sri Lanka it's very commonplace to have house help. Dineli and Nigel have Saro, who happens to be a wonderful cook. So every day I'm treated to amazing, traditional Sri Lankan food for all the meals that we eat at home. It's sometimes almost overwhelming to have SO much good food ALL the time. At home I'm lucky if I bother with a bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. Here there is rice and all manner of curries and spicy meats and seafood and fresh fruits and fresh fruit juice and salad after salad, dish after dish. Whereas in the States we would have one main dish for a meal, here it's common to have at least two. So you don't just have one kind of curry per meal, you have two: often one vegetarian curry and one with meat or fish. Plus all of the accompaniments. It was a bit of a surprise to have rice and spicy beef for breakfast the first day, but it's funny how quickly you adjust. My personal favs so far have been the pumpkin curry and the meal in which all of the ingredients (spicy chicken, rice, curry, sweet onion paste, veggies) were compartmentalized but then all wrapped up together in a banana leaf. Mmm.

A great advantage (or yet another one, I should say) of staying with people when visiting a new country is how much more you learn about the REAL life there. So while I haven't been out visiting and seeing as much of this country as I have of others, I have still managed to learn more about it overall through staying in a Sri Lankan home, talking to Sri Lankan people and observing the daily life of people here. I've also spent a lot of time talking with Dineli and Nigel about their culture, customs, politics and beliefs. I'm really fascinated by other cultures so to be able to hear about and see firsthand the superstitions, thought processes and daily rituals of people here has been very cool for me. Hmm, maybe I should extend just a couple more days...

Reconnecting

Way back in ninth grade, I met Dineli. She had grown up in Sri Lanka but had moved with her family to the US and had landed in my class in high school in, gulp, 1986. We became fast friends during her two years in Lancaster and, despite her moving to Toronto and occasional lapses without regular contact (this was way before the days of e-mail and I sucked at being a faithful letter writer), we somehow managed to keep coming back into each others' lives throughout the years. During our adult years while she was in Toronto, we became particularly close, spending weeks and weeks at a time at each others' houses. In 2005, she came back to Sri Lanka for a summer holiday... and ended up staying. She reconnected with a childhood friend, Nigel, and they got married and had a baby. That was one heckuva holiday!

Our flight arrived at a ridiculous hour so my first reunion with Dineli and introduction to Nigel took place at 3 am with them greeting us in their driveway in their pajamas. Poor things. But they took it in stride and welcomed us into their beautiful home. Their house is tucked way back in off the street so it's quiet and tranquil; it's largely open-air and it overlooks a lovely garden and palm trees. I totally dig the open-air style (pretty typical here) as even when you're inside, it gives the feeling of being outside with fresh air coming in and the sounds of birds chirping. It's such a pleasure to be somewhere so clean and relaxing.

Since it's been a while since I've seen Dineli, this part of my trip was really just about catching up with her. We didn't come with a real agenda or particular things in mind that we wanted to see or do. It's nice for both Sarah and I, after so many months of traveling and constantly moving (granted, that wasn't exactly the case back in Thailand), to have some days to just mentally "take off". Our first day included pedicures. And, um, that was about it.

So we talk, we catch up, we play with the baby, we eat (oh, and do we eat well), we read, we move from one lounging area to the other, we eat some more... and so it goes.

The second day Dineli, Sarah and I went to a beautiful hotel overlooking the sea and had high tea (quite the popular activity here). It's quite an old, traditional hotel and it just so happens to be the one where Dineli's parents got married back in the day. As we were leaving, we happened to see a wedding procession that was coming into the hotel. In a very Sri Lankan tradition, they had highly regaled dancers doing a traditional dance to welcome the newlyweds. Very cool to just so happen to stumble upon such a uniquely cultural thing like that.

Friday Sarah and I went to an elephant orphanage where we got to sit and watch a large herd of elephants bathe in the river. Amazing. There were HUGE ones and baby ones and one that lost its leg in a land mine; we even saw babies nursing. The babies played like real children, wrestling and swimming and splashing each other. Not something you get to see every day in Lancaster. Awesome.

Today was supposed to be our last day here. Well, at least it was one of our last days here. Since it's been so long since I've seen Dineli and since Sri Lanka is SO far from Lancaster and since who knows when I'll get back here again.... well, I changed my ticket. Again. Good thing date changes are free. I'm going to spend another 2 days here before meeting up with Sarah in Singapore.

For Sarah's last night, we went out for dinner to the rowing club, one of the oldest in Sri Lanka and the one where Nigel used to row when he was young. It was also the place where Dineli and Nigel got married. It's a beautiful old club with rich, dark wood overlooking the water. I also tried my first Sri Lankan beer: Lion Lager. Mmm, it will definitely not be my last.

The Inevitable Goodbye

It was bound to happen. Despite our numerous extensions and flight changes to try to put off the inevitable, we knew there would come a time when we would have to say goodbye both to Thailand and to our friends here. We didn't want to have to do either.

After our late night Sunday, we spent a (surprise!) very chill morning/early afternoon yesterday on our bungalow overlooking the sea. We TRIED to get up to go into town to get one last massage, but we couldn't even muster the wherewithal to do that. So instead we spent our last morning together sitting around and, what else?, talking.

But at some point it had to be done: we had to pack up yet again and move on. Sarah, Danni and I had flights to catch in Bangkok today so we had to leave the island yesterday to begin the long trek back up north. Duncan has the luxury of more time here so he stayed on Koh Phangan, which is where we said our goodbyes to him.

I know it sounds odd to say that I was genuinely sad to leave someone I've only known for 3 weeks, but I really was. I've traveled a lot and I have met a lot of people while traveling, and lots of very fun people that I have greatly enjoyed getting to know, but never before have I met up with people with whom we just so instantly clicked and so totally enjoyed each others' company. So much so that plans were changed, plans were abandoned and new plans were made. For three straight weeks, we spent nearly every moment together (you'd think I was exaggerating and, yet, I'm not) talking, laughing, traveling, figuring out Thailand, making each other laugh til we cried and becoming genuinely good friends who cared about and looked out for each other.

And yet we had to leave Duncan behind on the island. It felt odd to be three now instead of four. Like we were abandoning him somehow. Our group had been broken. And yet it was time to move on as we're all traveling different directions to meet up with other friends. So we boarded the ferry and began the journey back to Bangkok. Again.

After the ferry, we took an overnight bus and got into Bangkok around 6 in the morning. The seats were tiny and miserable and my knees were pressed into the seat in front of me and I did NOT sleep almost at all. I was so tired and so cramped and so uncomfortable that I was literally mad. MAD. Around 4 am I finally gave up even trying to sleep but then was too out of sorts to do anything else. I was going to write my blog, but knew that anything I wrote in that frame of mind would not be publishable (nor appropriate for anyone under the age of 18). I was going to read, but there was no light. So instead I seethed as I spent the rest of the ride listening to the symphony of Snoring Guy and The Cougher. Overnight bus trips are one thing I will NOT miss about traveling.

We had the whole day to kill in Bangkok before our late night flight, which seemed like an eternity after a night of no sleep. We spent a last few hours with Danni before her flight (yet another goodbye, ugh) and then totally unexpectedly ran into Jenny, a girl we had met earlier on our trip, at the hostel. Quite a surprise. So we spent the afternoon with her, having lunch, shopping and seeing a movie.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare (I swear!) but, long story short, still almost missed our flight. Had I not gotten out of the passport control line and gone back to the check-in desk and insisted on them giving us fast track cards, I don't think we would have made it. Serious tension. But at least we got upgraded to business class... SO nice. Amazing what just a little extra room and some real food will do. Now, if only I can figure out a way to get that to happen on my flight home from Sydney...

The Party to End All Parties

Today started out innocuously enough: breakfast at our bungalow restaurant on the water, lounging by the water, lunch at another restaurant overlooking the water... you get the idea.
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The first day we got here, we noticed an island waaaaay out across from our place and that, oddly, people were in the middle of the water halfway between our island and that one and yet were standing in water only up to their waist. We decided right then and there that we were going to walk from one to the other. But of course it took us about three days to get around to it (you have to plan and mentally prepare for these things, you know). Realizing today was our last chance to get it done, Danni and I finally set off to get it done (Sarah and Duncan couldn't tear themselves out of their hammocks in the end). Looked easy enough.

We started walking... and walking... and walking. Turns out things look a lot closer from the shore than when you're actually in the middle of it. We walked/swam for nearly an hour (took a little longer after poor Danni stepped on a sea urchin) before even reaching the point where it got too deep to be able to walk anymore. Pretty weird to be out SO far in the middle of the sea and yet be able to stand. And then it suddenly got really, really deep. And we had to start swimming... and swimming... and swimming. Yeah, it was WAAAY farther than it looked. I swear, by the time we made it to the shore, we looked like Tom Hanks in Castaway, bedraggled and heaving and kissing solid ground.

After working so hard to get there, we decided we were NOT moving before sunset. We sat in the sand for a long time, enjoying a great talk and watching the sky turn beautiful shades of pink and orange and red as the sun set over the edge of the island. Suddenly our journey had all been worth it.

Until we had to leave and realized it was now dark and we still had to swim back. Not the best thought-out plan, admittedly. We decided to be much smarter on the way back, not going back the long way we came, but going straight out the other direction toward the port, which was like 1/4 of the distance. We figured then we could just walk back along the beach. Again, it all sounded so easy. We made it to shore, so proud of ourselves for our genius plan. Until we started walking the shoreline and realized it was another island. Back into the water but this time, as a bonus, we were surrounded by bioluminescent jellyfish the whole way. So now we're not only plodding through water in the pitch dark, but now we're trying to avoid both sea urchins AND jellyfish stings. Awesome. We finally made it to shore, and made the long hike back to our bungalow, right about the same time that Duncan and Sarah were about to send out a search party. It was an brilliant plan.

And that wasn't even the most exciting part of our day. The reason we chose the island of Koh Phangan for our second beach destination was because of the infamous Full Moon Party celebration they have every month when there is, you guessed it, a full moon. But the party in November was supposed to be particularly cool because it also coincided with Loy Krathong, the celebration of the end of the rainy season and typically celebrated with lantern festivals. It is estimated that anywhere between 10,000 - 30,000 people attend the party on the beach. Due to its enormous popularity, there are admittedly some dangers involved (rampant theft, lots of drugs around, possible danger to women), but we figured there was safety in numbers and, since it's such a rare opportunity, we were willing to take our chances.

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In the end, there were about 10 or so of us that went together (the four of us along with some others we had met at our bungalow). The minute we stepped onto the beach and into the sea of people, I realized what all the hype was about. Never have I been to such a massive party, all different kinds of music blaring from the different bars along the water and tens of thousands of people dancing all along up and down the beach as far as the eye could see, the crowd literally throbbing. The energy was pretty incredible. It's not necessarily an experience I need to have again, but it was most definitely something worth doing and being a part of at least once. Check.

Beach Life Is the Life for Me

We had shaken off the horrors of yesterday's trip, were reinvigorated and excited to be here, fully prepared to spend the whole day today on the beach reaping the rewards of our grueling journey to get here. We woke up to rain. A lot of it. We lingered for the morning, hoping it would stop and clear up. Nope.

Since a day on the beach was no longer an option, we figured we might as well make the best use of our time and head into town to try to figure out a better way back to Bangkok (NO way I was going back the way I came!). We found an option that will save us over half the time AND is cheaper to boot. Success! But still grey and still rainy.

So we accepted our plight and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town, buying insanely fresh and delicious fruit for pennies, poking through shops, sitting and chatting over drinks and.... you guessed it, getting massages.

But not just any massage, THE massage. The massage to end all massages. I have had a fair number of massages in my day and I have had eight (eight!) to date in Thailand but this was the best one ever. Ever. By chance I got the woman who it turns out has been a Thai massage teacher for 12 years and from the first moment she touched me, literally the first moment, I knew that it was going to be goo-oo-ood. There is a fine line, a perfect balance between pain and pleasure and this woman was a master of the balance. It was painful enough to work out everything that needed to be worked out but not so painful that I couldn't bear it (although it came close a couple of times). It was pleasurable enough that I enjoyed every moment of it, yet it wasn't too soft and soothing as to be ineffective. She had a way of finding my trouble spots all on her own and knowing where to spend a little extra time. She kneaded, pulled, pushed, twisted, rubbed, cracked and massaged. And when she was done, I felt more pliable, more relaxed and more reborn than I can remember. We're totally going back.

Afterwards we just so happened to stumble along the Saturday night walking market. There were selling lots of things but nothing more so than stand after stand of homemade, authentic Thai street food. We sampled some delish things, thinking that would be our dinner. But then on our way back out of town we stumbled upon a whole, entire food market. Okay, twist our arms to eat some more Thai deliciousness.

Needless to say, we weren't up for the walk back to our hostel and happily shelled out the dough for a cab. We came back and hung out for a bit with Tom (one of the chill Thai guys that works at our place) before spending the rest of the evening playing cards by the water, laughing hysterically and, ultimately, going for a midnight swim under the full moon and laughing ourselves to tears trading funny stories about ourselves with each other. Not sure it gets much better.

"Not Our Finest Day of Travel." ~ Sarah Shirk

Wednesday, our last full day on Ko Samet, was delightful. A lot more of the same: beach, Jep's Bungalow (our favorite little restaurant on the beach), reading, napping, swimming, one final leisurely dinner at Jep's.... you know, beach life.

We were beginning to prepare to tear ourselves away from this little piece of paradise as well as from Duncan and Dani (Sarah and I had flights to Sri Lanka on Thursday) but then the rumblings began: "I could really use just a FEW more days on the beach...", "You guys can change your flights for free, right?", "The Full Moon Festival is on the 21st, it's such a rare opportunity, it would really be a shame to miss it.... ". So, long story short, we changed our flights. Again. But this is the LAST time, I swear!

We had such a simple plan. All we wanted to do was to go to the Full Moon Party on the island of Koh Phangan on the 21st. That's not asking too much, is it? We had heard it was a 6-hour trip from Bangkok to get down there. No sweat, we thought.

We were on the east side of the 'split' in Thailand and, since we pretty much had to go back to Bangkok anyhow to get down to the west side (where Koh Phangan is), we planned to make a pitstop while we were there to do some laundry and drop off our big bags so we could travel light. It was all SO simple. I shall spare you a lot of the gory details but, in a nutshell, here is how our "6-hour" trip turned out:

Left Ko Samet at 10:30 am, pumped about our next beach destination. Took a taxi to the port, then a 45-minute ferry back to the other side. Found a bus to Bangkok and got on it JUST as it was about to pull out. Luck is definitely on our side, we think. Three hour bus ride to Bangkok then a taxi to the train station, getting there at 4:15. Things take a downturn. We find out the next train (and our only option as all the others are full) is at 5:05. Less than an hour so no laundry, no leaving our big bags behind. No biggie, we decide. The train ride is now inexplicably 11 hours. What?!? Okay, we can survive that. We board, we play cards, we sleep, we wake up at 4 am. So tired. We then get our "bus", which is actually a van crammed to maximum capacity which drops us off at a hut in the middle of nowhere at 5:30 am. More cards while waiting for 2 hours and, oh yeah, the rain starts. A real bus picks us up at 7:30 and takes us to yet another port an hour and a half away. We wait for one more hour, getting our ferry to the island at 10 am. Three more hours on the boat. Our spirits are flagging. We sleep. Dark clouds and more rain. Taxi to our hotel by 1:00 pm. And THAT is how a 6-hour trip (who ever told us it was 6 hours anyhow?!) turns into 26 1/2 hours. Good times. And why are we doing this again anyhow? We've now left a gorgeous, sunny island to travel for a full day only to end up on a grey, rainy one.

But then we get to our place, and we see our bungalow and it is darling and has a thatched roof and it faces the sea and is, in fact, only steps away from the sea. And the clouds start to part and the sun comes out. And all is suddenly right with the world again. We went for a swim and we watched the sun set over the water from the porch of our bungalow. We cheered our great fortune in being here. And we "could not deny the beauty" (that one's for Danni).

They say it's about the journey and not the destination. But I don't know. I think both are pretty important. In this case, the people I was with made the journey as enjoyable as any unexpected 26.5 hour trip from hell can be. When you are that exhausted and yet can still find yourself laughing hysterically (and I mean hysterically) with those around you despite the circumstances, it's about the journey indeed. But when you can come out of all of that intact, still laughing and still friends, and you STILL get to end up in a seaside bungalow, the destination is pretty awesome as well.

The Beach in Thailand. Oh My.

I haven't written much since being on the island because a) internet is pretty scarce here and b) there just isn't that much to write.

But that isn't a bad thing, as it turns out. In fact, it has been a most glorious thing. I mean, really, who needs constant movement and excitement when you have white, powdery sand as far as the eye can see, a clear green sea and sunny skies every day?

All of the days seem to roll into one here and they all involve pretty much the same things, although in varying orders: getting up whenever the mood strikes, liesurely breakfasts, beach time (and lots of it), talking (and lots of it), meals at restaurants ON the beach, naps on the beach, walks along the beach, handstand competitions in the water, swims (okay, slow bobbing) to a neighboring beach, reading, walks to the fishing village side of the island, walks into "town", massages (sometimes even ON the beach, oh yeah), playing cards, laughing, fawning all over the world's cutest puppies who just so happen to live on "our" beach in Thailand and who spend lots of time playing and sleeping around us, making fun of the way Brits say things (both Dani and Duncan are English and I would conservatively estimate that half of our conversations revolve around me and Sarah either being totally enchanged by their accent, trying (badly) to imitate them, trying to figure out what the heck they're saying and/or mocking them... but let it be said we also take lots of mocking for our bad American accents), making fun of men in Speedos (it really should be illegal in ALL countries) and lots and lots of general lazing about. It's awesome.

And that's it, really. That's all I have to post about to cover the last 4 days or so. And I have absolutely NO complaints at all about it. This will forevermore be referred to as the "insanely chill" portion of our trip and I have to say it was perfectly timed. It has been absolutely delightful to have no plan whatsoever and to so completely, totally enjoy just being able to spend these days on such a lovely little piece of Thailand. Especially with such cool people. It's good to 'see' and 'do', but sometimes it's equally important to just 'be' and to enjoy being. It IS vacation, after all.

Best Decision Ever!

Yesterday was a pretty non-eventful, but necessary, day. We got back "home" to our cozy little hostel in Bangkok after a looong, tedious night on the bus. We had left our big bags there so needed to stop back in to go through everything and carve out some time to mail packages back home. Not until I had it all together and in a big pile did I realize just how much I had accumulated. Yikes. Way too many awesome things in Thailand to pass up, apparently. So what started out as great, inexpensive finds skyrocketed in cost once I factored in the postage to send them home. It was a shocking sum of money, one that punched me in the gut when I heard it... but I'm sure it will all be worth it when I get home and see those things there... and to not have to carry any of them around anymore!

The rest of the afternoon/evening we spent doing laundry, on a mission to find a gift for a friend (mission failed) and having dinner. For whatever reason, we were both craving American food. Very unusual as I make it a point to not eat American food while traveling and very rarely miss it. But it hit us both at the same time so we gave in... we shouldn't have. Not sure why I ever expect American food to be the same in another country. I should have learned my lesson from the "hamburger" I ate the other day. Ick.


Either way, that was as exciting as yesterday got. But once we shed ourselves of all of our extra stuff, we were ready to take off again... to the beach! Two of our peeps from Chiang Mai, Dani and Duncan, made their way down to Bangkok and met up with us there this morning. It was funny to have a 'mini-reunion' after less than two days apart, talking and catching up as if we hadn't seen each other in ages. We were all more than ready to get out of the city so we caught the bus down south and then got a ferry over to the island of Ko Samet. I was so excited to get to the beach in Thailand! Especially considering that just a few days ago we were resigned to the fact of not being able to go... suddenly all the hassle of changing our airline tickets was SOO worth it.

We checked in, dropped our bags, changed into our bathing suits and headed straight out to the water. The sand is some of the whitest I've ever seen, as well as being the softest and the water is green and warm. Aaaah. Dinner was at a place on the beach (of course) where the tables are actually ON the beach and you sit with your feet in the powdery sand beneath you. Again, aaaah. We cheered Julie's Guest House (where we met) and we cheered beach life. Not too shabby, I must say.

We sat there for a long while soaking it all in before heading farther down the beach and stumbling on a rather hopping place. There was fire limbo and there was dancing. Let's suffice it to say it turned into a rather late, and most memorable, evening. Fun, fun times. Beach life is the life for me. Aaaah.

Leaving Chiang Mai... finally!

Is it possible to be TOO relaxed? I would have previously thought the very idea was absolutely ludicrous but now I'm not so sure. It is a concept I am pondering... and happily testing out.
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Sarah and Dani signed up for a Thai cooking class today. Anyone who knows me knows there is just no good reason for me to even go through the pretense of feigning interest in a cooking class, so I politely passed and planned to spend the day chilling (as opposed to every other day, right?). They left early so I took advantage of having the whole, lovely room to myself and... slept in. Aaaaah.

I figured everybody else would also be out and about by that hour so headed down to the lounge on my own, laptop in hand, planning to do some 'work' and unexpectedly found Duncan there hanging out. It took about, oh, three full minutes before we decided to go get massages. Seriously.

It is just SO cheap here to get a massage that it's almost literally impossible to pass up. I figure that, for the price of one massage at home, I can get 15 here (I'm not kidding). So since I've had four so far, that means I have to really get cracking to be able to squeeze in the remaining 11 in the week I have left here. I need to get on that.

We went to lunch and I drank coconut juice straight from a real coconut. I also let Duncan sell me on the idea of a bacon cheeseburger. I don't usually eat hamburgers in foreign countries both because it seems kind of silly to come to a foreign country and order something I could eat any day back home and also because I have had some bad foreign hamburger experiences in the past (there's something about the meat that is just so DIFFERENT, and not in a good way, than in the US). But it suddenly sounded SO good and was bringing up such tantalizing mental images of a thick, juicy burger with sizzling bacon and gooey melted cheese, I just had to try it. Mental note to self for future reference: always trust your instincts regarding red meat in foreign countries.

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In the evening, everyone met back up at Julie's Guesthouse, the place that brought us all together in the first place, to spend a last couple of hours there before Sarah and I had to catch our bus. I swear, you would have thought we were saying goodbye for good, not just for 2 days. We just kept stalling and putting it off... and off... and off. Seriously, I wonder how much therapy for codependency runs in Thailand these days?

So now we're on a bus, riding 11 hours overnight back to Bangkok. Yuk. I wonder if it's possible to go 11 hours and not have to use the bathroom? I am definitely planning to try!

A Plan, Sort Of.....

Woke up with no plan whatsoever. I love that. But things always seem to formulate over breakfast....

We've found that all we really need is even a tiny seedling of a plan, just enough to get us out and moving. Whether or not that plan comes to fruition or not (it rarely does) is completely irrelevant, it's the having of a plan that's important. Today the kudos of plan formulation go to Duncan. He came up with one that involved a walk, a bus, a park, a museum and a boat ride. Well, one out of five isn't bad.

It turned out to be a rather random day. We stumbled upon a nice little temple in town (not too unusual in Thailand, I now realize) on the walk to the bus stop. Got to the bus stop and waited for a bus that never came... until RIGHT after we finally gave up and got in a taxi. We made it to the aforementioned "park", which was more like an abandoned, long-forgotten, slightly creepy overgrown field. We ended up finding a hole in a fence and making our escape that way... only to find ourselves smack in front of a shooting range. For reasons I'm still unclear about, we hung around there for a bit, having drinks and watching strangers try out their aim. Too loud, so we moved on. But not before finding great amusement in the "package deal" they were offering (see pic). Hmm, after a day at the shooting range, it's always so hard to choose between a soda or a lovely cup of herbal tea...

We finally found our way to the tribal museum.... which was closed for renovations. But you can't keep a good group down so we plodded on. I'm so glad we did as we then stumbled upon a long, charming row of thatched roof restaurants (what IS it about thatched roofs??) on the edge of a lake. We chose one and ended up spending a ridiculously long and lovely time there. Since this place was nowhere near the tourist sections of town, the menu was written strictly in Thai and the waiter didn't speak a single word of English. So we randomly pointed at some 'mystery items' on the menu and that was what we had for lunch. We still don't know what it was, but we do know that it was hot-hot-HOOOT.

When we got back into town, Sarah, Dani and I finally went for the pedicures that we have been talking about since about our second day here. Delightful. And let's just say that I tipped very generously as wearing flip-flops every day for 2 months straight is, well, a tad hard on the feet. Frankly, I should have paid her double.

And the rest of the evening we all spent hanging out in the lounge... while Sarah and I worked on changing our flights. Again. We were originally planning to leave Thailand on the 7th but after our first day in Bangkok knew we wanted more time here. So we pushed it back to the 14th, thinking then we would have a few days to spend at the beach after Chiang Mai. But once we got up here and met up with our cool new peeps, we couldn't drag ourselves away so we resigned ourselves to missing the beach in lieu of more time up here with The Gang. We were okay with our decision as we knew there would be more beaches in our future, but not another group like this.

And then tonight, as we were all talking about the idea of Sarah and I actually having to leave tomorrow (as we needed to get back to Bangkok to do some things there before flying now out), no one wanted to think of actually having to go our separate ways. Ideas started flying around and, long story short, we are now leaving Thailand on the 18th (which pushes everything else back, which meant changing ALL of our remaining flights). Sarah and I are still going to Bangkok tomorrow to take care of our stuff there but the The Group will follow a day later and then we'll all make our way down to the beach together. I'm starting to think we have some codependency issues but, hey, what's a little codependency when you're having so much fun? Plus, we get to go to the beach. In Thailand. Woo-hoo!