Quest to See the World

It took me 20.5 hours to get here, but i finally made it to Ko Pha Ngan in the gulf. I was originally going to the Andaman coast and then come here, but i need to relax a bit. I left the hotel in Bangkok at 6:30pm last night to head to the train station and arrived in Surat Thani at 7:30am, an hour late. The sleeper cars were sold out so I thought I was getting a seat in an a/c car, but no such luck. It wasn’t hot when the train was moving, actually, I got chilly later in the night, but it was sooooo loud with the windows open and I had a very difficult time sleeping. The bathroom was quite pleasant though, very spacious and it didn’t stink either. I didn’t realize how bouncy trains are though until i was trying to pee. I’m not sure, and i hope i’m wrong, but it kind of seemed like the pee went straight out onto the track because it sounded like I could hear the noise from the outside coming up through the toilet????

anyway, when i first got on the train there weren’t a lot of people on there yet and the few that were on there were together and my seat was next to one of them. they all looked at me, then looked at each other and began to say something. they didn’t seem too thrilled that I was in their section, they didn’t seem mean or anything, just not thrilled. They were a family and the one girl around 22, asked me where i’m from and she said that she lived in phili last year for a little while, she was friendly, but she wasn’t staying on the train, just sending off her family that came to Bangkok for her graduation. So her mother was the one beside me and once the train got moving she got up and moved to a different seat but left her purse sitting on the chair beside me, at least she trusted me about an hour into the trip she had moved to the seat in the row in front of mine on the other side where another woman had been sitting. the woman that was sitting there previously had moved to the space behind my seat (i was in the last row) and laid on the floor to sleep. I didn’t understand this and even smelled my armpits to make sure i didn’t stink, and i didn’t because I freshened up before getting on the train. eventually, after a few stops the train filled up and the only empty seat was the one beside me. for a few hours i stayed within the limits of my personal seat, but then i decided to stretch out for a while and figured she could wake me up if she wanted to come back to the seat. at around 6 am she did just that. she then went into the bathroom to freshen up i guess and came out all spiffied up with her fancy fake pearl matching ring, earrings and bracelet. i really don’t understand why she slept on the floor?!?! she was around 60 years old too. i’m only 32 and i can’t emagine how i would’ve felt in the morning after sleeping there!!! I’ll just think of her as the dog lady from now on because she slept on the floor and after she woke up she spent the rest of the time standing behind my seat with her head out the window. weird. [read on]

oh no, i don’t even know where to start. it’s so difficult when i get so far behind, and i don’t even have my notes with me. i guess i’ll start with the palm reading since you all are son interested. here goes….

So Dale’s dad met us at the bus station and drove us to many temples around town and showed me the correct form for praying in the temples, i hadn’t realized that there was a specific form, but there is and i was doing it incorrectly the first few times i tried. oh, yeah, we also went to his school and talked to 3 classes of students who were all very giddy and excited to have farangs (westerners) in their school. All of the girls are required to have the same haircuts…bobs. The class clowns made themselves known right away. After the visit and tour of the town we had dinner at a place in the country. We went back to our hotel and rested, i guess, i don’t quite remember because it seems like ages ago. the next day was exciting… Tawi (Dale’s dad) picked us up after breakfast at 8:30 and took us to another temple. across the street from that one was a big hill with steps going all the way up, i’d say that there had to be at least 407 steps to the top and there was another temple up there. i had seen a postcard of the steps with monks walking down and therefore was interested in this particular spot. after we went into the first temple (still at the bottom of the hill) we were headed back into the car so that we could drive to the top of the hill rather than walk, and that’s when i noticed a woman there sitting in a shady area on one of the those grass mats, you know, kind of like the ones you can buy for the beach at home that fold up, but much larger. She was an older woman with rotten teeth and a very big smile. i asked tawi if he would mind interpreting for me and he didn’t mind at all.

ok, so i sat down and she took both of my hands in hers and looked at my palms very closely and intensely. she began by [read on]

We haven't disappeared, it's just hard to keep up when traveling with others. Since I last updated we've bathed elephants, ridden on every class of train and tuk tuk, fed wild monkeys sunflower seeds (stacy even got a monkey scratch!!! ... [Continue reading this entry]

Yesterday morning we woke up, got some breakfast, and caught a taxi to the bus station. Everyone is soooo helpful! When we arrived at the station we were quickly spotted, I said the name of the town, and we were ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well today we started the day off with some Muesli w/ yogurt and fruit for a buck, a huge bowl, and then headed for the public transport boat again. We took it down to the skytrain which is like, well ... [Continue reading this entry]

It's 7:49 and they are still sleeping, but it's the perfect time to get some blogging in. I didn't think that the time change has been that difficult to adjust to until it got to be around 8pm and all ... [Continue reading this entry]

So, on Saturday my mom and I got dropped off at the Pittsburgh airport at 8:30am & i took off at 9:30 to Phili where I met up with my mom when her flight got in an hour after mine. ... [Continue reading this entry]