Thailand

I miss Thailand. This time last year ... I was there. Laying on the beach. Tan. Drinking coconut milkshakes from a restaurant called Charlie Browns. Taking Zoe for $.30 7/11 Slurpees. Walking the markets. Being refreshed by air conditioning. Eating noodles and rice and skewers with my fingers. Mastering chop sticks. Being shuttled by taxi and tuk tuk and motorcycle boys. I miss the egg boy in the mornings at Narateewa, and the view of hazy city when I would wake up in the mornings. The flash storms. The smell of spices and heat and people. I miss not having to spend a bunch of time on my outfits for the day. Trying to figure out menu's and signs in a language other than my own. Wandering in the city, trying to get lost. I miss six dollar massages. Wine on the airplane and sunsets that blow everything out of the water. Bowing to everybody and the genuine smiles the protruded from strangers. Shrines to foreign gods in front of every single door - and being constantly reminded to pray for a nation and people lost in the darkness of the absence of truth. I miss feeling safe, even though I probably shouldn't have been.

When I was there, I said I wanted to stay forever. By the end, I decided that I didn't based upon the heat being too intense and my lack of interest in such a huge city or living on a beach. The farther away I get from there, the more I want to go back. I need to go back. Of the 13 Countries I have been to outside of America, it is the only one I think about daily, the only one I could see myself going back to.

I splurged tonight to buy myself Thai dinner on the urging of Jerren. It was a disappointment. I should have paid like a dollar more to get the Pine Apple Fried Rice. Now, I sit with a cup of hot Thai Chai and am happy ... but still dreaming of that wonderful land...