The traveling life has shifted into days based more on living rather than moving - which is why it's been difficult to update this journal! I left Malaysia and headed back up to Ko Lanta. I booked my room for one month and unpacked my bags, a glorious feeling i must admit!
I haven't been up to much, trying to learn some thai every day and helping out in the bar on the resort. The experience of this life here is hard to describe, days are filled with nothing yet so many experiences that i cannot even put into words. Yesterday was one of my favourite days so far. I headed up into the jungle to see my favourite little girl, her mother is English and her father Thai, I find myself hanging out with her for hours and not even knowing where the time has gone. She has graviously accepted my suggestion that she should be married to Ashton, but has insisted (in her 4-yr-old thai english accent) that if they are to married they must have a honeymoon, to Brazil nonetheless. Yesterday we were in their home, a simple bamboo hut in the jungle where we decorated a mini christmas tree and listened to christmas carols (her mother's attempt to hold on to the snow-filled christmas times of her youth!). The situation had me laughing - sounds of frosty the snowman drifting out of the missing walls of the home, past the monkeys and roosters, and deep into the depths of the jungle. After my day of hammocks and christmas trees i headed back to my guesthouse where i had dinner with my thai "family" - freshly caught mussels and fish and some of the most insanely spicy food i've ever eaten. Even though my mother probably nursed me with a bottle of tabasco sauce, nothing could prepare me for the heat of proper thai food. I can only assume that this was my initiation into becoming one of the locals - and i am happy to report i now have a stomach of steel.
Most of my days are spent hanging out with the thai people and watching the other travelers come and go. I have met some of the most amazing people since i have been here and it is always hard to see them leave. There's such beauty in the simplicity of travelers friendships. People are open when they are away from the confinement of their lives back home, judgements are dropped, discrimination is hard to find, and people become friends with people they may never consider talking to in their regular daily life. If only these mindsets could be maintained back in the "real world". But for now i am enjoying every day, always feeling a sense of contentment and happiness.
Christmas preparations are under way here, the family of the resort puts on a big celebration of food and games and presents. If i had to be away from family for christmas, i couldn't have found a better place to be to celebrate. I think this experience is confirming the fact that I am not a thriving backpacker. I love seeing different cultures and being able to experience new countries, but nothing compares to living in one place and feeling the sense of being an outsider fade away.
So Merry Christmas everyone! Dig yourselves out of the snow and enjoy the holiday celebrations, raise your glasses to the new year and instead of "cheers" try a little thai "chuk dee" - meaning good luck.
oh and just in case i haven't rubbed it in anyone's face yet - you are buried in snow and i am heading to the beach to lay in the hammock, drink out of a freshly fallen coconut, and swim in the most pristine waters - Merry Christmas:)
