of mobs (the friendly kind), bugs, and jellyfish

Dearest readers,

I have so many new adventures to tell you about, but I must restrain myself and try to keep some sort of logic and order, so unfortunately you’ll have to read the regular email first and just wait for the juicy tales until the next time I stop by at an internet cafe (could be tomorrow, who knows?)

I left off my last email at Ubon. We were there for Buddhist lent, which in Ubon’s case involves all the wats (temples) making hugely brilliantly bright orange, ornate wax floats of various religious scenes (or so I gathered). We’d arrived at around 6am after taking a 3am bus from Surin, so plenty of time to wander around the floats and take photos before the leisurely procession started. Unlike parades at home it wasn’t rigidly organized, the floats went a few meters, then stopped, and people milled in, out, and around. In between some floats were traditional dancers. But for many young Ubon teens, the attraction was not these phenomenal artistic feats, but rather the “farangs” (foreigners). Everywhere we went, it seemed that a group of kids would see us, gasp, and run (or at least speedwalk at top speed) towards us. What ensued was all similar, answering basic questions for an English assignment, followed by about 5 minutes of photo shoots with the various kids. Since the candle festival is more for Thai than foreign tourists, we were quite a rarity, and therefore in very high demand! I felt like Britney Spears being mobbed by the (very friendly and cute) paparazzi.

We took the night train to Bangkok, which was a rather unsavory experience…it was our 3rd night of sleeping on mass transportation and certainly the worst (although the toilet stench on the previous night’s bus was not exactly pleasant, either). We hadn’t been able to reserve any sleepers, so we got uncomfortable plasticky vinyl chairs, which luckily reclined. (Actually they reminded a lot of 1st class seats on Indian trains). There was no AC which was fine, but it meant that the windows were open, and the lights were on, which meant a constant parade of earwigs, beetles, and other little unsavories being blasted in a constant stream into my face. I can just imagine how many I ate when I finally got to sleep…mmmmm…..

The flight to the island of Koh Samui was decidedly more agreeable. Samui itself didnt’ even feel like Thailand. THere was no Thai writing in sight, and if you ignored the staff people at the various hotels and restaurants, there were no thais in sights, only heaps and heaps of farangs. The beach was pleasant enough, and we pampered ourselves in a nice hotel, and went on a pleasant kayaking trip, and I went scuba diving out to Ko Tao, which was fantastic. I was the only diver, and the divemaster was actually Thai (a rarity, I’ve only ever had Western divemasters wherever I’ve dived) and so although his English was good, he insisted on speaking Thai to me the whole day so I could practice. The only semi-scary parts were swimming beneath a giant jellyfish with a diameter of about 1 foot, and tentacles that probably dangled about 8 feet (luckily we were deeper). That, feeling like I was going to get sucked into the motor of one of the giant boats that were milling around ominously (the dive was only about 10m deep, and the boats probably sat about 3-4m down into the water), plus having to cut a dive short because of the dangerously aggressive triggerfish patrolling around, all just added to the excitement. On the funner side, I went through some great caves and saw gorgeous coral, fish, and even a stingray!

Well, I will sign off now, with the promise of more adventures forthcoming! (Very soon. They’re all written in my head, just not quite on paper just yet.)

Happy trails to all,
Heather