April 16, 2008 3:36 AM PDT
Ok, yes Ginafish I should blog about everything. I am way behind. (I've ALWAYS spelled ya'll with an apostrophe since it is a contraction of the words "you" and "all", granted, it looks a little 'off' placed just there, but go read a really southern book and you will find the apostrophe stands) ;)
I got sick the night of the very first day of Song Kran. Montezuma's Revenge. I think I must have ingested some of the festival water or something. Who knows? But I refused to believe I was ill, even going on a bike ride early the morning of the second day, but quickly found myself back in my room. :-[ For the whole rest of the fun. Laurie was so sunburned on her poor feet and arms! She blistered on her arms a little and couldn't even walk through a sunbeam in our room without hollering. Anyhoo, by the second full day of being sick, I waited until what I hoped was a decent hour and had Laurie walk across the hall to Sean's place with mu pill bottles the dr had given me to use his internet to find out which one was for the stomach bug. Neither bottle had any indication of what the med was for and it had been so long I just didnt know anymore. We found out which one it was, but Sean graciously gave me two of his Cipro tablets. I feel all better now, and Laurie started with it lastnight. We are just a mess! I watched Song Kran the rest of time from my balcony, and even started trying to zoom in and get video. I am standing on the 8th floor balcony totally absorbed in trying to get some video when Laurie walks out and says "RAAARRR!" I nearly dropped the camera she scared me so bad! :-\ I left her sleeping in the bed when I went out to shoot.
It has taken a little (ALOT) of getting used to the heat. I really thought it wouldn't be so bad on us since we are from one of the hot and humid climes in the states, but there really is no comparison. The mornings are just about perfect here. So beautiful, coolish, the birds seem to wake up the whole world right here. Just after the birds, you will start to hear people sweeping the sidewalks and streets. And then the tuk tuks and bikes start hitting the streets. And strewn sporadically in all this heaven are the screams of some guy down the alley below. I dont know if he is drunk, praying, singing, or pissed off. I recongized him yelling "THANK YOU!" in thai once, to no one in particular. I can see him from my balcony, and I have no idea what his story is. And I'm not gonna ask. He is just part of my morning music. ;D This morning, from my balcony, I could see a group of about 15 or so monks going about their business of collecting what I think is food from people who give to them. One person rode up on a motorbike with a big bag of food and gave each of them some, and then rode off.
My pants are falling off of me, and while that makes me happy, it is also a bit of a double edged sword. If I lost fifty pounds, I still couldnt find pants here to fit me. haha!!! Moomoo, here I come! ;D At the moment, my pants slide off when they are buttoned and zipped. I had to wear a pair of Laurie's the first day of SongKran. I spent part of this morning trying to sew darts in the back of one pair of my capris.
So, yes, there was an elephant walking down the interstate in Bangkok the night we arrived in country. The scorpion was outside of the 7-11. A lady named Apple gave Laurie and I a pink wall clock with the King on the face of it in the Udon airport and also her cell phone number and invited us to her house for dinner (we passed). Laurie and I are learning a bit of thai. :D I bought a set of sheets at the mall today for our bed and did you know a sheet set comes only with the fitted sheet here? Four pillow cases and one fitted sheet. haha!!! Laurie's sunburn has kept her temp at the boiling point at night, so like lastnight, the a/c was a little chilly without a sheet to cover up with, so I took our shirts out of the closet and used those to cover up with. LOL!!!!
And to answer a question I think Ginafish asked somewhere, yes, Laurie and I are on bikes. The kind you pedal. ;D Its that or walk for the most part, except today when we went to the mall. We bought ourselves a microwave for our room and a broom, and sheets and a big radio/CD/DVD player that ended up not having a power cord in the box (we got that because we had not gotten a tv in the room yet and needed something besides our own voices to listen to while confined to bed and toilet)and when we got back to the room, the landlord brought up a brand new tv! ;D I thought ours was being repaired, but he brought us a new one! When I was at the mall. I had to call PK and ask if someone could come up there and help us get a tuk tuk back to our place. I still don't know how to explain where we live to the tuk tuk drivers. I can't say the name of the road, but I think PK said to tell them Chaiporn Road or market or something. Thank goodness, he came up there. Laurie had to ride on the back of his bike and I got in the tuk tuk with all my "nesting" supplies. It feels great to feel like I have a home again.
Now you understand why they take cold showers!! :D 100 degrees = cold showers!! ;)
