Sketching a Twisty Path on the Globe

Hope you are reading this with a full belly, bells in your head, head full of satisfied Christmas sentiments. It’s now officially the 26th for me, but I am still sitting thinking warm thoughts for all of you at home—can you feel it? : )

Well, I officially got over my pouting; a self-inflicted kick in the butt is more like it. Christmas Eve an impulsive bus decision plopped me on Pattaya Beach, Thailand. Oh My Hedonistic Holidays!! Probably anywhere in Thailand would have been culture shock leaving the peace of Cambodia, but this particular place highlighted the worst of this country (or the best depending on your perspective). To keep from a breakdown I composed “Pattaya Days of Christmas” which memory morphs to the following:
12 ladyboys slinking
11 lines of lingerie
10 thais in fishnet
9 naughty neon
8 pornshops peddling
7 streets of go-gos
6 wide-eyed children
fiiiiiiive, scoops of ice creeeammmm
4 cat calls cooing
3 sleeping “cops”
2 hours to Bangkok
and a fa la la falang runs far away! : D

Yup, I rapidly wove my way through the throngs of old men and tiny Thais in santa minis and ran to Bangkok first thing the next morning. (Who would have guessed that Bangkok could look so lovely?) Here, Khao San Road set a humorous set for my Christmas scavenger hunt. I met some interesting and fun people, got to dance for the first in a long time, and joined the throngs of others who were either homesick like me or oblivious in their traveling trances that it was Christmas anyway.

Tomorrow morning, I leave early early for India. Looking forward to the change, no matter how intense. Will prepare myself through a progressive dinner through the streets, shifting scarves to the top of my backpack, and getting ready to actually WEAR my money belt.

Merry Christmas! Sawadee Pee Mai! (thai) Feliz Navidad! (spanish) Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom! (russian) Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! (dutch) Meri Kirihimete! (maori) Shub Naya Baras! (hindi) Froehliche Weihnachten! (german) Merry Keshmish! (navajo) Maligayamg Pasko! (tagalog) Mele Kalikimaka! (hawaiian)

The last 5 weeks of traveling together have been a blur of banana trees, noodles, tuk tuks, history lessons, smiling faces, and playgrounds of the most unusual sorts. Sadly, Kristin hops a plane tomorrow to head home to chilly Alaska (unless, of course, her alarm mysteriously doesn’t go off). There’s no way to summarize our trip completely. We’ve packed it full yet lazed away many days as well; spent time on the “tourist conveyor belt” and as the only pale faces on busfulls of locals; found activities to make our heart race and others that made our hearts hurt.

Last night over what we voted to be the best ice cream of Southeast Asia (included crumbled cookies, strawberry sauce, and, of course, a sparkler!), we devised some lists that I’ll type into a less sticky form here. : )

TRIP DUTIES:
Kristin’s:
–navigator, whether to find our way through a city or just to turn the right direction when we exited a shop
–keeper of the key
–scam spotter
–locator of hidden ice cream shops
–animal tamer

Cindy’s:
–supplier of any obscure toiletry or first aid item
–blogger and photo uploader
–mental entertainer: lists, rhyming games, scavenger hunts
–time-keeper (the irony, huh? it’s only because I wore a watch)

TRIP’S 10 BIGGEST CHALLENGES:
Kristin’s:
1. Finding surfable waves (absent; the elephant head had to suffice)
2. Trying to speak Lao
3. Self-entertainment on long busrides
4. Picking cucumbers out of every meal served, every country visited.
5. Convincing herself to put on slimy, stinky, sandy and otherwise disgusting Birkenstock’s each morning.
6. Leaving Cindy in Cambodia.
7. Exorcising the demons from her new camera.
8. Making sure that buses/groups didn’t leave without Cindy.
9. Stepping off the ledge on the river trapeze swing.
10. Packing her backpack the morning after her Happy Birthday celebration. : )

Cindy’s:
1. Sticking to my fantasy $20/day budget.
2. Waking up before 6am for multiple bus, plane, and sunrise trips.
3. Hiking 3 hours/day, 3 consecutive days with a fresh knee injury.
4. Figuring out the complicated system for getting hot water out of the shower (usually gave up and took cold ones).
5. Not getting lost in every/any town we visited, large or small.
6. Finding sufficient sweet AND salty snacks to satisfy PMS cravings.
7. Keeping body parts free from injury (only about 4 survived unscathed)
8. Convincing Kristin that my malaria med hallucinations were real—i.e., monkeys on the roof, rats on the floor, monks praying in the waves
9. Driving a motorbike on a very unroadlike road (boulders, ruts, gravel, dirt) with Kristin on the back.
10. Taking off /putting on shoes with straps and buckles at every doorstep (and often while wearing the world’s heaviest backpack).

Guess that shows we’re either both a mess or a pretty good traveling balance. : )
La Kohn, Kristin! Until our next world adventure!!!

“Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.” Anne Sophie Swetchine

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