Sawadee Ka!

Sawadee ka from Thailand!

Well, I can't believe that my 6 months in Korea is up. Though there were some definite ups and downs, I made some really great friends and had a learning experience I will never forget. It was hard to say good-bye to a lot of people. Karen and I had a great last couple of nights - especially our last Noraebang night. We had lots of people come out and say good bye and all the classics were definately sung. Karen was a waterfall in the crying department, but I held myself together pretty well.

It was definately hard to say goodbye to some of the kids as well, as you really do become attached. My preschoolers didn't really understand that I was leaving until the last day and then they gave me a hard time. I teared up saying goodbye to some of them, but they're young so they'll move on probably quicker than I will.

So here I am in, back in Thailand with my friend Karen from Korea and my ex-roommate Erin from university. It's been over 10 years since I've been here, but already I feel more at home here than I ever did in Korea. Karen and I had a good first couple of days in Bangkok. Made friends with a tuk-tuk driver who drove us to a bunch of temples, met some great people from England who took us to a night market. I was so young when I lived here that I never fully realized how much everything is centred around sex. You're almost constantly being asked to go to sex shows or being offered a "good price" by hookers (for the record, I don't know what the good price is). The ping-pong shows are the most popular attraction so if you wanna see a girl shoot a ping pong into a cup or write a letter or smoke a cigarette from her goodie part, Thailand is you're kinda town. I think I'm going to pass and go to the lady-man cabaret . . .

So now we're in Southern Thailand, Phuket exactly. Our days are pretty stressful, you know, having to wake up and go to the beach. Yesterday we went on a snorkel trip out to PhiPhi island. Absolutely amazing - the fish and coral were so colourful and the beaches gorgeous. Snokelling rules - you get to see all the fish but it lacks the danger of being 50 feet down. I'm still haunted by an episode of "Baywatch" where the Hoff spent the whole episode almost dying from the bends. We, of course, had to stop and feed those stupid, mean, little monkeys - they don't deserve my banana. Then today Karen and I got Thai massages which is, basically, see how far you can bend in weird positions.

Off to Ao Nang tomorrow! Update again soon! Well, maybe . . .