Is this really real? (I still babble. Reader Beware.)

I've made it! I've arrived. And, as you might notice, decided to save you from the all lowercase and will use correct capitalization this time around. Or I'll try.

After many sad goodbyes I left Minnesota with my dear friend Barb on Friday, 20 February. (A little taste of how they show dates here... day first.) We enjoyed our flight from MSP (MN) to NRT (Tokyo) in our own row! One seat between us! Lucky for the both of us, Barb's flight attendant friend was working first class and he made many stops back to economy to say hello and see how we were doing. It was a really special treat, one of many on our journey from Home to Second Home (Thailand). After arriving in Tokyo (I love Japan... the airport at least), Barb exchanged some US$ for yen and we interneted for a brief time before sitting at the gate for our next flight from NRT (Tokyo, I love airport codes) to BKK (know this one?? Bangkok). I couldn't believe I was in Asia again! WHOA! It's still all some dream I'll wake up from, right? (It happened so fast... but I'm happily here now.)

We arrived to Bangkok very close to 1 am (their Sunday AM... your MN Sat. 12pm) and waited (already feeling the HEAT!) in the long line for immigration then gathered our (my) many bags (3 suitcases and two carryons... what? that's not normal?) and saw our way effortlessly 'through' customs and into the madness that is Thai drivers trying to rip us off. NOT THIS TIME, I said. We passed them by and went to the public taxi stand... to get nearly ripped off there. Welcome back to Thailand, farang! (farang = foreigners, pronounced fah-rong, or in thai accent fah-long, you'll learn.)

With some effort, we tried to bully the taxi driver into being HONEST and putting on the meter, which he did after I made a phone call to my American friend, Evelyn (the school librarian who is fluent in four languages, including Thai, thank goodness!) who explained where to go to get to her house and not to rip us off. The driver wanted extra money because of the "many bag" that we had. WhateV! Luckily sweet Evelyn got him on the same page as us and we were finally moving at the speed limit, maybe a little above. (anyone know if there actually is a speed limit in Thailand?)

We made it to Evelyn's house and she (and her maid) helped us and ALL my bags in and showed us the room we'd sleep in for the night, complete with air CON! (Unfortunately no one knew the AC didn't work, or didn't cool, it blew air. Hot Bangkok air. :) But OH were we grateful and not going to complain.) I had a shower and we tried to sleep. Jetlag. Boy, it's really something when you've traveled for 20+ hours. It really gets confusing after a point. They do you a favor and make the whole plane dark like night but this silly (old) DUDE must've had issues because he kept opening his window shade exposing the ENTIRE cabin to a bright beam of light. He woke me up more than once until I announced that he was causing the rest of us discomfort. Then he didn't really do that again until the lights were back on. Oh the Minnesotan passive aggressor in me. ICKO!! Sorry guy!

In the morning we (I) packed a smaller bag from the 3... no, 4 larger bags and we took off to meet my friend Angus (a colleague and close friend of mine. yes friend, thank you.) for a reunion and a coffee. It was great to catch up, briefly and we wandered the Old Neighborhood and I floated on cloud 9. I do really love Thailand. Barb and I giggled about the smells (you learn which places to just simply hold your breath) and scattered random dog poo... or stray disgusting dog... to step around. It all came back to us.

After meeting Angus and a quick internet check-in session, we collected our bags (her one and my one) and returned to the airport for our flight to PHUKET! (please people it is NOT an "F" sound, in any way. The Ph is a sort of soft, breathy P sound... Poo-ket.) Barb and I spent New Year's Eve of 2008 in Phuket and really enjoyed our stay, so planned to spend most of Barb's current visit there, on the BEACH!! Which is exactly what we did.

I don't want to dwell on the flight. Since planes keep going down here and there I was a very annoying nervous passenger. I tried to just ignore my thoughts and prayed. At take-off, in the middle, at several (20) minutes before landing. So yea, I don't want to dwell on it, but it was the worst landing I've ever experienced. I didn't think they were going to stop and I ALmost screamed. But pushed on the back of the seat in front of me instead. Mature, I know. My super cool, calm and collected flight attendant instructor friend informed that (thank GOODNESS!) that they had merely used the entire runway to stop. (Sorry Barb, I feel like I need to educate people, it was nothing to really be scared of, right?) ;) Nothing big. SO, I picked my heart up off the floor and stuffed it back down my throat and we got our stuff and found a taxi to our guesthouse (same one we stayed at before. we liked it! Sawasdee Guesthouse on Kata Beach.) We checked in and ... then the air con was on and I think we fell asleep and slept the entire night. OOOOooooooops! No dinner. With jetlag lingering... I slept like an anvil and poor Barb spent some quality time with her handheld Tetris game.

When a decent morning hour arrived (that night is a blur to me, maybe Barb could clear it up for me) we got ourselves together and ventured out for some breakfast. We ate across the street at the more resort-y part of the guesthouse (they're owned by the same company I think) and were in awe at the beauty of the place. (We ate breakfast there every morning.)

When we arrived at the guesthouse we had noticed that road construction that was present during our first visit was cleared, so we decided to walk that way (as we never had before) to see what we would discover. Nothing much to note there. Just hops, more hotel/resorts and a busy main street at the top of the hill that the street makes. We bought some necessities at a Big One Stop shop (something like that) and went back to prepare ourselves for the first day at Kata Beach. It is SO beautiful and wonderfully relaxing there. A slice of my own little heaven. (video and pictures will be posted once I upload them.)

We spent that day and the the next at the beach. When you arrive you choose a pair of beach chairs, pay the guy (who must own them??) 100 baht per chair (35 baht = $1) and stay there allllllll day. We read, we swam, we SHOPPED (!!) we chatted, we had some waters (wink) and reapplied our sunscreen at reasonable intervals. :-D
Skerrrrch. Back to the shopping. It is entirely possible to shop for things like mini-brooms to sweep your beach chair, musical instruments (do you like the flute, Dirk?), sunglasses, headbands, jewelry, and ... what we were most interested in: sundresses!!! You bargain for your price, your "la pri. sheep sheep for you. heppy hou" (last price. cheap cheap for you. happy hour.) and then it's yours. Right there, lazily sitting in your beach chair. My own little slice of heaven. We got the cutest dresses. (Photos posted soon.)

So, we spent our days that way and nights having food and checking out the local markets. Great shopping, Thailand.
On our second day we shopped around for a snorkeling tour to attend and signed ourselves up to go the next day. It was similar but different than the snorkeling tour we did the first visit. It was very fun, though the hour-long boat ride to the first island stop (Maya Bay... the beach from the movie The Beach, we visited it last time also) was very choppy and the boat slammed violently on each subsequent wave. We made it, though and the rest of the trip was nice. We snorkeled and saw the most beautiful amazing fish and sea life. The photos will be better descriptors of the tour. It was great fun.

Okay, long-winded. Barb and I spent the next and last day in Phuket at the beach, enjoying the perfect waters of Kata Beach. (By the way, these Thai beaches have the most INsane people watching. OMGoodness.) We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and raced to the airport. We made it back to Bangkok later that evening and enjoyed a nice sushi dinner and dancing out with Angus and Evelyn, for Barb's last night in Thailand. The next day Barb and I saw Wat Pho (with the massive Reclining Buddha which symbolizes Buddha's death) and shopped for more souvenirs. After too much heat and who knows what else, I became very ill, stomachache and headache, full force which reduced me to a pathetic puddle. Barb helped me move my Many Bags to my friend Richard's house where I have spent the remaining time I've spent in Bangkok since Barb left, later that night.

At this point I'm frustrated since I revised and added to this post, then posted it and the changes were not saved. BOO! So I will write more later.