A vacation from the vacation

We're bracing ourselves for yet another countdown. In one sense it seems not that long ago that we were counting months, weeks, and days before this trip. Now we have but 10 mere days left to enjoy this trip. We've spent most of our time of late remembering the adventures, the friends who have come into our lives for a day or two, late nights waxing philosophical, the victories and defeats of our culinary quests.

We tried and failed to embrace the bohemian lifestyle in the south of Thailand. Our stormy outlook on the scene may have served to pave the way for the real storm that was to come. Our last three days in Ko Phangan were lit up with lightning, thunder, and a deluge of rain. The rain left the streets passable only if you were willing to wade through the eight inches of murky water. We snickered a bit to think how the rain must be spoiling things for the loud and lewd Israeli kids who filled the island. Perhaps such judgments were too rash as I think most of them were enjoying some brief reprieve before or after their compulsory military service.

The best part of Ko Phangan was Uli, the lovely Thai woman we met who offered us nothing short of kindness and generosity. We felt that it was the first time in all of our travels that we had a genuine encounter with a Thai person. She showed the patience of a saint in teaching me to count to 100 in Thai and learning a few other helpful phrases. When we parted she gave me a book to help me study my Thai.

One minivan ride, one ferry ride, one all night bus ride, and one short plane ride delivered us back to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. This is the place we love best. It's familiar sights, sounds, smells, and plethora of vegetarian restaurants have given us a vacation from the vacation. Here we met another Thai and had another wonderful encounter - a man named Ed who runs a divine little pizzeria. Turns out Ed is a University of Washington alum (Go Huskies!) and we had a nice evening talking over pizza, local politics and places.

This may be the last post from abroad. Our days are spent sleeping and eating and walking and talking. Nothing really remarkable or photo worthy for the folks at home. We land back in beloved Sea-Town early the morning of November 6th. We are eager to sleep in our tempurpedic bed and nuzzle our little orange Piggy cat