So here I am in Koh Lanta, Thailand. Jen, Courtney and I got here last night after having a mildly annoying day of travel from railay. basically, our driver who was supposed to take us from krabi to koh lanta (an hour's drive) decided to do all of his personal errands and take us around Krabi for an hour and a half before taking us to our destination. finally after he exchanged a hair straightener, went to the hardware store, got gas, dropped off a box of worms at some lady's house, and did something with a cell phone, we started getting fed up and courtney confronted him about it. Shrugging her off, he finally started to take us down the correct road...as slow as humanly possible. even tuk-tuks were shaking their fists at him...but we eventually made it and after a couple hours, found acceptable lodging (cheap, adorable and clean bungalows with a roof deck, outdoor shower and western toilet!)
But let's start at the beginning: a week ago today...
After one day, i was offered a (real) and fucking sweet job--working for the same company that brooke works for in bangkok as a writer and researcher for an online educational company. if i take it, i would be working in bangkok for 3 months, then sf or wherever else I wanted for 3 months, etc... so that was huge, especially after only being in town for 24 hours!
i stayed in bangkok with brooke and her parents in their sweet ass house with a lovely maid who made us breakfast and dinner that was fucking insanely good. one night we had pumpkin curry and fresh mangos off the tree outside of her house. i had my own room and we rode mopeds all around the soi (neighborhood) she lived in. there are semi-mean soi dogs everywhere though, so we had to avoid streets where they ruled the school. i ate delicious street food (chicken satay and papaya salad) and drank the water within the first day and my belly was fine, so i was extra happy about life.
we were in bangkok for 3 days and then met up with courtney correll and jen at bkk (the airport in bangkok) where we (and brooke's new boy, Jeff) all flew down to Krabi. leaving bkk I got my carry-on confiscated because I tried to hide my hair products, sunblock and bugspray (all over 3 oz). "Come on!!!" I pleaded, "can't i at least keep one?! I freckle, I fro, I get eaten alive!" the airline people giggled and shook their heads no. Somehow I got the idea in my head that i would spray allllll of the bug spray all over myself (and jen) if I couldn't carry it on. So right there, I ripped off the top of the can and sprayed a huge cloud of bugspray all over the place, even in our mouths!! then the airline staff started really cracking up and as jen and i were coughing and spitting out bugspray all over the floor. i was pretty shocked that they actually let us do that.
once in Krabi, we noticed that there were no taxis allowed into the airport area, only very expensive vans. So we walked out to the street where we caught a songthaew (a truck with a cover over the back where people sit on benches) to the docks. There we haggled for a long-tail boat and took it (during an amazing sunset) to Railay.
We stayed in Railay for only 3 days, but it seemed much longer because life goes so slowly there. there are no cars or mopeds, only long-tails and feet to carry you around. there were bioluminescent flagellates in the water at night and as you moved your hands through the water, it looked like you were climbing through the stars. amazing. One night courtney taught us the half-moon pose which we did on the beach under the half-moon in the sand which was as soft as finely ground flour. some local guys crouched nearby, watching us curiously, so we waved at them to come join us. We tried to teach them how to do it, but they kept falling over and laughing at us in the moonlight
there is so much more to write about but internet is kind of slow and expensive so I will write more when we get to Chang Mai in the north. Once there I am going to take a thai cookery class and courtney says it is a really cheap and good place to get dental work done, so maybe i'll get my teeth cleaned or something...i got a great thai massage on Ton Sai ( a beach on Railay where all the rock climbers go) and as the lady was massaging and stretching me out, another lady went to smack a giant flying bug on the ceiling and like 5 bugs fell out of the ceiling and onto my face. i screamed and everyone in the place started cracking up. after that broke the ice (and the ceiling) all the ladies started joking around and one told jen she was sexy ( as translated by brooke) and they all crowded around her to gawk at her belly button ring. Then one lady proceeded to lift up her shirt to show us her rolls and tell us that she was "too fat for a belly button ring." We started dying after that and couldn't stop laughing through the entire massage, but it was still really amazing (and only about 6 bucks for an hour!) I think I'll go get one today too...
i'll put up some pictures and write more once i have better internet connection (the power just went out and luckily, this blog was saved!!)
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