so, yesterday i decided to get a thai massage. everyone had always talked about how great they were and how relaxed they made you. so i went to go get one, and it’s only 200B(5$). so, the thai massage is pretty hard to explain. they basically bend you in all these really weird positions. pressing on random parts of your body, tugging on other parts, and hitting you all over the place. so it actually did turn out to feel really good and was really relaxing. oh and they even stand on you and walk all over your back at one point. once they were done, my whole body felt so loose. great!
when i had dinner tonight, i ended up having this really long conversation w/ this british dude. when i told him that i feel lucky to have this trip cause most people in the US only have 2 weeks of vacation a year, he looked at me in horror! really, he just couldn’t believe that and said that this was unheard of! every other country gave their people about 5 to 6 weeks off. he really just couldn’t understand how people could live like that… and honestly all i could do was agree with him. i mean really, you work your job so that you can enjoy the free time you get in the end… and if that free time is only 2 weeks out of 52 a year?? is that really a life? we spent a lot of the rest of the conversation debating how i should move from the states to somewhere else.. anywhere else… and although i cant say i’m totally convinced, it really gave me a lot to think about.
today in the morning it was pouring again. it took me hardly any time at all to realize that riding a moped in the rain on gravel roads isnt very safe: the whole bike skidded out on a turn, and it was only thru an amazing stroke of luck that i didn’t crash. it also didn’t take me hardly any time at all to realize that riding the moped thru the rain is really really fun. i’m coming to terms w/ the fact that i’m gonna spend a lot of this trip wet, and it’s ok.
in the afternoon i went on my first dive. so dope!! we went out fairly far from shore and dove down to only about 30 feet deep, but it was still so cool. tons of cool fish down there and the coral is amazingly beautiful. also there are these tiny fluorescent plants that stick out of holes in the rock, if you swim by them, the plants dart backwards into the holes somehow. swimming down in the depths is so amazingly peaceful and tranquil. other than your respirator, it’s completely silent and you just slowly float around observing the life around you. it’s weird to be able to just float there..like you’re in outer space…. actually.. i’m hoping that sometime i’ll be able to do a night dive while i’m here. that would be really trippy.
after my dive, jamie and tom met me by my bungalow. they’re spending one day here on kho tao. it’s really fun to be able to share traveling stories. each of us have had our own unique experiences here in thailand, and it’s really cool to see how the other’s trip has been going. when we went to a store looking for flip-flops today, we saw that they sold fireworks. werd! we are planning on buying a bunch and lighting them off on the beach. unfortunately, after we went swimming tonight, we tried to light one and it was bunk.. but there’s plenty more where that came from.
-v
I still hate you.
Time spent in the rain alone is enough to make me want to go. I love the rain and I rarely get to spend time in it anymore as California seems to only get rain when it’s fuggin cold these days… of course, I usually end up running around in it anyway.
As for leaving the country, I’m almost sold with all I have learned about other countries and the 5 weeks of vacation is another nice bonus. I say you do it. Hell, even just for a year or so. More and more people I am meeting and know have gone out of the country to work for a period of time and more and more are simply not coming back because they love it so much.
heh, yeah it definitely seems like a good idea. it’d be really hard to leave all of my friends trhough ya know? but maybe if it was just for a year….
-v
Yeah, leaving friends behind is always a bit of a bummer, but if you always allow them to hold you back, you never get anywhere. Life is short and the world is large. Friends are wonderful, but you can’t hang around forever and deny the life experiences. Besides, I’m sure they’d be stoked to visit you and you’ll totally make new friends. You can always keep in touch too.
Anyway, that’s why you just plan for a year or so, then you can always come back, but if you love it, then you stay. Possibilities are endless and the world is a big place. But that’s just my thoughts on the matter.