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in the grocery store before we left for the island, i picked up a dragonfruit and took it to the guy to have it weighed and priced. waiting, out of my perif(eral vision), i noticed a figure that didn't even reach my hip enter my personal bubble. i tried not to call attention to him because i knew what was up and didn't feel like dealing with it. i ignored him but he didnt move. so i looked down to my right. his little asian eyes were huge and his mouth was wide open. it took his father grabbing his arm and picking him up until he left, but his gaze stayed on me until they turned the corner.
"farang!"
yeah, kid, i know. i'm white.
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in case you didn't know, which i'm sure you didn't, farang is the thai word for white person. in fact, alex and i have gotten really good at picking it up in conversation. so though we don't know what is being said, we know when we are being talked about.
and they talk about us all the time.
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somehow i managed to spend three days in the malaysian rainforest and leave with not one bugbite but sitting on a computer in surat thani, which is about as cool as etters, pa (love you allison), i get 30. i'm not kidding.
i counted.
in fact, i'm probably being eaten alive again as we speak. five of those bites are nearly the size of a dime. lesson learned? always wear bugspray when the geckos aren't around to eat the mosquitos.
i want to bring him home. :)
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it's a full moon tonight. ko phan ngan is filled with booze, ecstasy, and sloppy nineteen year olds right now. at least we're still on shore.
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it's going to be a long night on the ferry. we sat around today waiting for the night boat so that we could avoid trying to find accommodations late ate night. these boats are made to be slept on, but we've been warned of their... cleanliness. it's two stories. the bags are downstairs, everyone else is upstairs. all of the mattresses are numbered, 1-32 then 38-69. i'm not sure where 33-37 went, but i don't expect much here anymore and a few missing numbers is pretty standard, i'm sure. they're all lined up, side by side.
i'm not talking with space in between.
literally, every mattress touched the one next to it. luckily, i was in the middle. alex weeks and i probably had less than a five foot span between the three of us. about every fourth bed was a fan. the couple next to us managed to get their fan to oscillate, a luxury everyone else was envious of. but the oscillating probably would have been a lot cooler if the fan blade actually spun.
in an effort to avoid unexpected disaster, alex and i popped tylenol pm to help us sleep. i hope the bed bugs don't bite.
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the greatest-- and only-- advantage to the language barrier here is that virtually no one understands us unless we speak slow, broken english, leaving out articles and slurring our r's.
you've eaten chinese at home. you know how it sounds.
anyway, i've come very accustomed to saying what i want, when i want. my potty mouth has gotten some exercise, but trust me, it's very soothing to be able to say some of the things i can't say at home. i find myself frustrated much less.
"kid, why are you running in circles? is this a playground? no. it's a god forsaken grocery store. yeah, stare, fah-rang, white, fahhh-raaaaang, i get it. where the hell is your mom? tell your mom to take you home."
i'll try to leave it overseas.
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we arrived at ko tao, turtle island around 6:05 am. it's now 11pm and i haven't even napped. it took us almost three hours this morning to find accomodations, and we were faced with some major decisions. most resorts on this island reserve rooms for people who want to get dive certified. right now, ko tao is considered the best place in the world for open water certification. the island is full of life (i can see the coral about in water that is about 40 feet deep), the competition keeps prices low, and the island itself is newly inhabited.
i think we've come to terms with not getting dive certified, but doing a one-time dive for now. i guess if we fall in love with it, we can still do the certification, but it's not worth it now. it was a rough morning.
so thankfully, it was followed by sun and sand. by 11am i was sitting on the beach with salty sea-water hair. the water is so clear here i can see where the polish on my toenails is chipped. i cut my dragonfruit in half for lunch, laid back, and relaxed.
i think the beach can take it from here.
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at 11pm, i can still taste the salt on my lips from the ocean water. can't beat that.
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Y rae. racho. d.
