Thailand Recap

Wow...I have been traveling in SE Asia for over 30 days now! and the experiences are starting to pile up. I really do want to apologize for updating so infrequently but it is hard to sit down and write about what I have done after the fact - especially since it means I am not currently doing something new.

I loved traveling through Thailand - beautiful places, wonderful locals and a few interesting experiences thrown into the mix. Some of the highlights include: going rock climbing in Railay with a Thai named Tex (he was so excited to take a Texas girl climbing he personally took me out for 4 climbs and wouldn't let me pay a dime!), watching the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life on Koh Lanta where I had the beach entirely to myself and the sky looked like it was on fire, and hissing at a troop of monkeys that were harassing me on my walk back to my room and having the dominant male look at me like I was the craziest human he had ever encountered. Being proposed to on the beach by a local Thai Rastafarian man who wanted to "take care of me for every day of the rest of my life", riding on the back of a motorcycle in Bangkok with my full pack on my back trying to get to the train station on time, and being the only traveler on a packed bus to say hello (in Thai) to the Muslim woman that got on with her 7 year old daughter and being given the most grateful smile and half the cookies she brought for her little girl while I taught them how to say hello, thank you and good bye.

Something that has taken some getting used to is the assumptions most people (travelers and locals alike) make about me. 1: I am American - this has lead to some fun and frustrating conversations and interactions. In Thailand, if someone knew only 1 or 2 words in English, one of them was guaranteed to be "Obama" (always delivered with a thumbs up and a big grin). Other assumptions included that I must be rich, I hate everyone not American, I am stupid and several others that I forget now. 2: I am traveling alone - this usually lead to at least one of the following assumption - that I need help, don't know what I am doing or where I am going ever, I don't have any friends, I can't make friends, I am stuck up...and so on. 3: I am female - I will fall for every scam in the book, I can't learn Thai, I can't count money, I need help picking anything up, I want to shop all the time, I hate local food, I love cocktails and want to drink copious amounts of them and I can't play pool. 4: I am female and traveling alone - so I MUST want to sleep with everyone. Locals and travelers alike all think that I am just itching to get into bed with them. Lord knows I am not a prude, but it is extremely frustrating to have every male, and most females, think that I am constantly on the prowl and easy to bag.

But enough ranting: I loved Thailand, and I love traveling and learning about the world, its people and myself.

p.s. I am going to try and start dedicating every other morning to updating my flickr and blog. Shorter blogs with a bit more current and spur of the moment info. Wish me luck!!

XXOO
Heather