The positives - The most important lesson I've learned about traveling is to try not to plan too much. The best moments are unplanned. Exhibit A -
1. Bio-luminescent (sp?) plankton - I planned for us to stay at a really nice hotel the night before my birthday. However, the hotel fell short in many ways so we decided to switch hotels. We chose a random hotel in a random place on the island and hoped for the best. The girls spoke with a guy working at our new hotel and arranged for him to put on the pool lights at night and bought a bottle of alcohol so we could drink and do some night swimming. Lina walked down to the shore (our huts were right on the beach) and noticed the tide had receded leaving a quarter mile sandbar from the shore out into the sea. Lina called us over to show us this sight and we walked into the long stretch of sandbar. As we walked we noticed a neon blue glowing light illuminating underneath our feet. Every step we took in every direction, this blue glowing light was everywhere. We ended up playing and dancing around in the sandbar for hours, completely mesmerized and in awe. It was an incredible sight and me trying to explain it doesn't do it any justice. Here is a video to show you a little of what it was like... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN1Yxq8KMsw
2. Monks and Tigers - Monks are awesome. Tigers are awesome. Monks and tigers together are a big ball of awesomeness. At the tiger sanctuary 2 hours outside of Bangkok you can be an onlooker to the incredible bond that occurs between the monks and tigers. It's hard for me to describe why I'm so captivated by the interaction between the monks and the tigers, but the mutual exchange of power and respect between them was incredible. The monks would playfully mess with the tigers and roughly massage them and the tigers responded playfully like they were buddies - except the tiger could literally kill the monk at any second. It made me wish that I was either A. a monk massaging a tiger B. a tiger getting massaged by a monk or C. just had a tiger as a pet in general. Knowing that I will never be or have any of those things, I just starred in amazement.
3. Chaing Mai - There are a million different reasons why this is my favorite place in Thailand. The first being the strong sense of community in the area my hostel was in. It was refreshing how welcoming the locals were to the travelers both new and old, their hospitality and warmth made me feel at home. I gained a greater sense of the different cultures of the region, especially when visiting the hill tribes. Loi Krathong was a beautiful cultural tradition of light and celebration, I felt really lucky to be there during that time and to be able to take part in it.
4. New friends - We met a group of guys along our travels. They started out as travel buddies, they quickly turned into friends, and by the end of our journey they became more like big brothers. It was great to share some of the experiences the girls and I had with them. My favorite moment was the night of my birthday. The weather held out so we went to an outside bar on the beach and watched fire twirlers err dancers err throwers, whatever, people that do crazy stunts with fire. We had lots of buckets of alcohol, meandered down the street and found another open bar and danced in the middle of the street in the rain. Specifically, we doe-see-doed (sp?) to Johnny Cash songs and enticed (read: forced) drunk onlookers to doe-see-doe with us. It was great times.
I realize I am indeed one lucky bitch,
Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes
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