Honestly, now.

I’ll leave tonight at 6pm.  I’m leaving my phone in Phuket (since I just borrowed it from a friend) so I’ll be hard to get a hold of for the next few days.

First things first.  I’m alive and well.  Nothing remotely bad or scary has happened to me.  My travel plans went from simple to stupidly complicated, but things should work out alright.  I was supposed to fly from Bangkok.  Obviously, not going to do that.  My flight was canceled and then re-booked.  However, I’m flying out of Chiang Mai.  Meaning I have to get to there.  Tomorrow evening, I’ll hop on a bus sit there for 12 hours on my merry way to Bangkok.  Hopefully, I’ll get to sleep through most of it.  Then, Monday morning, I’ll catch either another bus or a train from Bangkok and chill for another ten hours on my way to Chiang Mai.  I’ll arrive just in time to find a hotel, crash, wake up, and get on the plane.  I’ll fly to Taipei, transfer, and then on to LA.  After that, it depends on how well I can butter up the airline staff into changing my ticket.  I’m currently flying into New Orleans.  However, with all the current muck, I’d rather just come home.

That’s the plan, anyways…….

The current situation is rather icky.  Basically, a lot of people want to get rid of the Prime Minister because they feel that he’s just a puppet of the old government that they overthrew last year (they are also very much for the king-but that’s almost never mentioned).  Demonstrators have taken over all of the government buildings.  The Prime Minister is planning on bringing is the police.  This part I’m sketchy on.  A few months ago, something similar happened.  However, when the Prime Minister ordered the military to pitch in, the military did……….nothing.  There’s a lot more, but I’m still confused by it all.

That’s about all I know right now.  Most of my information comes from either Thais or the foreigners who can read Thai.  I find myself getting more and more annoyed with the Western reporting on the situation.  There’s a whole lot of focus on the  tourists.  One article even went so far as to say that they were “hostages to a deepening political crisis.”  Yes, it sucks that this is such a mess, but hostages?  For me the word “hostage” implies that someone is sitting there, trembling and helpless, with a gun to their head.  Okay, people might be trembling, but aside from a very small percentage of cases, people aren’t helpless.  There are dozens of routes to get out of the country.  Yes, people will have to do some legwork, but if you’re sweet to the locals, they’re more that happy to help you out.  I feel for the people who have limited mobility of other health problems, but I’m increasingly annoyed with everyone else.  Sure, it stinks for the tourists, but what about the people who say that their not afraid to die for their cause, that they will not back down, and they are willing to be human shields.   Isn’t that information a little more pertinent?

P.S.  I passed my CELTA.  I’ll have to wait a week to receive my final grade.

Heyla.  Got a phone set up in Thailand, so feel free to give me a call via my Skype number.  Best time is between 6pm and 8pm (Thai time).  Other than that, I’ll either be swimming, in class, or studying.  Weekends are also good.

Class is keeping me busy and it’s only day two. Yikes.

Creative title, I know.

Today was supposed to be spent getting up early and going to the beach.  Although I woke up early, I didn’t get started early.  I decided to just stay in bed a bit and listen to whatever was going on around my apartment.  Which was, it turned out, a pretty good way to start the day.  After ambling downtown to find some grub, I vetoed the idea of going to the beach.  I didn’t have the time, especially since I was meeting Nahn for dinner.  Instead, I made use of the pool (which doesn’t smell like chlorine) by the complex.  I spent a few hours swimming and reading.  I even met of few of the tenants, which was nice.

Later, Nahn and I met up and wandered around the night market for a while.  She bought things for supper (we ate at a lovely British couple’s house).  It was a relaxing evening.  Except that I had to pay very close attention to everything everyone said.  It took me a while to get used to all the accents in the room.

Well, I’m off to bed.  Enjoy the updates while you can.  Next week, I expect to be frightfully busy. 

And, as always, click on the photo below to get the link to the rest of today’s photos.

Phuket Day 4

Due to admirable weather, I scratch my plans for the zoo and aquarium and decided to hit the beach.  This time, I chose Karon Beach.  After hopping on the bus and giggling at the killer cow (this cute little Holstein will shoot you if you light up, so be warned), I settled in for another 45 minute ride to the opposite side of the island.  Along the way, I saw the largest Buddha in Phuket, logging, and some development sites.  I finally arrived at Karon Beach.

Ahhhh…….After Patong, Karon Beach was amazing.  There were the perfect amount of people there and not only that, but they were the type of tourists that I throughly enjoy enjoy being around.  Namely, older couples and families.  Don’t ask me why.  I just like them around.  Most everyone was European, which might have also had something to do with it.  Americans (and I’m guilty of this as well) tend to be loud. Too loud, too often.  I appreciated the murmuring.  I swam for a while and then spent another few hours just walking along the beach and thinking nothing for a while.  Not a lot to say about it. 

Pretty soon it was time to go meet Nahn (I’m probably butchering her name, but it’s pronounced the same as the flat bread from India).  Nahn is the Thai woman that owns the restaurant where I eat breakfast every morning.  She’s very chatty and her English is pretty good.  We agreed to meet up for a movie.  The theater was in a part of town that I hadn’t wandered to yet and I was grateful to be shown around.  We purchased our tickets and then went for Thai food (what else?).  The meal was lovely (I really like omelets made with pork) and after a quick detour through the department store (I needed a watch), we went and watched the movie.

Queens of Langkasuka was a little long, but considering how complex the story line is, that’s forgive able.  The movie had subtitles in English, for which I was thankful.  If you can’t decided on either pirates or ninjas, this movie has both!  However, the ninja’s only have one scene.  I have a feeling that there’s a lot of subtext going on in the movie that I missed out on.  Even so, there’s a lot of things that are pretty obvious (influence of foreign countries, power struggles, the importance of loyalty, etc.).  Be prepared to suspend your disbelief, but it’s worth it.  (There was only one point in the movie where I thought, “What?! No way!”)  The fight scenes are fun and there’s a love story thrown in for the ladies, albeit an unrequited one.  If nothing else, watch it for the costumes.

And have a good (and safe) Halloween.  I’m off to bed.  Click the photo below for the rest of the pictures I took today.

From Phuket Day 3

Phuket Day 3