Today's Thoughts...
Clearly there has been a dire radio silence for the past few days. Well, there is an explanation for that! No, I was not carried off by rogue elephants, attacked by wily monkeys, or maimed in a songtaew wreck; never quite so interesting. In fact, the past week found me lounging on a beach in absolute paradise in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand also known as the on site location for… heartthrob addicts unite… Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Beach” (that one’s for you Whit ;)). Because Buddhist holidays abound in Thailand, schools were lucky enough to get off three (yes three!) full days of work, extending the weekend to six days as of good ole Friday. In due fashion, Elena, Becca, Jessica, and I got off work Friday afternoon and hopped onto the highway headed straight for the airport barely half an hour after our last classes. The week went a little something like this:
Friday: Mad dash to the airport; no time to spare. Panting, sweating (as usual), and dragging our bags, we race inside only to find that in appropriate Air Asia style, our flight is delayed an hour. Oh joy. That wouldn’t have been so bad probably if an hour in Thai time didn’t translate to two and a half hours real time. What to do with so much time on our hands? First, we run into Ted Conbeer, a PiAer who is taking off after his year working at a rock climbing company in Chiang Mai; encounter complete with bright smiles, awkward realizations that we didn’t come all the way to the airport to say our good byes, and then a sudden flurry of activity as he takes off to catch his flight out of Thailand for good. Weird, trippy feelings of symmetry going on there, like looking in a mirror. Next, hungry as we of course were, we head to the only restaurant in the domestic departures, a Friday’s esque burger joint where we order over priced bacon (can we call it that?) cheese burgers and tuna melts. Mmm mmm good. Just like home…. sort of.
Now, through airport security we go with momentary panic that Elena has to throw away a $40 bottle of high end face wash because it’s more than the liquid allowance for a carry-on. In a sudden brain blast, I send her off to buy two travel sized bottles of Listerine and as the Thai women working the counter look on giggling behind their palms, we foolish Americans proceed to dump the Listerine in the trash and meticulously rinse the bottles with bottled H20 to fill them with green face goop. No one understands what the big deal is, but I mean, it’s $40 down the drain! (Or bottle rather). FINALLY, after almost three hours delay, we board something resembling a plane with leather interior (fancy!) and take off for Bangkok only to realize that we are late for our second flight and by ridiculous policy, will be forced to exit the airport, re-enter, and re-check in at Bangkok. WTF?! We do it and catch our plane just barely. JUST barely.
More thoughts to be continued tomorrow....
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