Here I am again, floating through this world that never sleeps (though somehow I do). Today I woke up to a loud noise and jumped up with a start assuming it was already morning. It wasn't. Not what any sane person would consider morning anyway, as the sun was not yet up. Downstairs, the music was still blasting and in the rooms around me I could hear the thumps and bumps of the Bangkok night. Its pretty crazy here, and I am spending a bit longer than I had initially intended. In fact, India has now been all but deleted from my itinerary, due to a bit of a problem in gettting my visa (ahem... I forgot... ahem). But the upside is that I really get to experience Bangkok, kind of.
Right now I'm near the Indian Embassy, where I have come for the second time in three days only to realize that my presence here was completely unnecessary, as I will be in India for less than 24 hours and will not even be leaving the airport, and so do not require a visa. But such is life. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be...
Koh Tao was incredible, and the first place on this whole trip where I didn't take a single photograph. I didn't want to leave. Part of me still wishes I hadn't, as I don't think I have ever expereinced such a totally mellow and laid back lifestyle before. On Koh Tao, it was as though NOTHING existed outside of the world of the island, and the truth is that I didn't even get out to explore the island too much at all, as every available moment was spent in the water levitating and breathing whilst submerged. I loved it. Made some good friends while there as well, so the combination of the paradise of the island and the diver lifestyle and being surrounded by good people put me in an all around feel good mood. It would have been wonderful to have Kanae there with me also, but being alone on this trip has forced me to put myself out there and as a result I have met some wonderful people.
We were pretty lucky while I was on the Island, as it was wonderful weather almost the entire time, but just as we were leaving, a storm rolled in. The boat ride back was super intense, with probably 2/3rds of the passengers vomitting and everyone else getting really seasick. I was not affected, however. i'm not sure why, but I think that part of the reason is that I put on some crazy Japanese Jazz and danced in time with the rocking of the boat in my seat there. It was incredible, how the waves pushed our catamaran back and forth, bringing us almost vertical so that i was literally almost sitting directly above the passengers on the left of the boat, and then as we tilted the other way they were nearly above me. What started out for me as a really cool ride gradually got more and more intense until at the very end, just before we got out of the storm, I started to feel a bit ill and was only able to maintain my equilibrium by sitting crosslegged, closing my eyes, and meditating in my seat.
In the beginning of the trip a girl from across the boat looked over at me and saw how much I was enjoying the ride and gave me the "surfs up dude" sign. She waw wearing a pirate bandanna on her head and was obviously a hardcore punkrock kind of chick. I smiled back at her and turned to look out the window. When I looked back over at her after about a half hour she was throwing up into a bag. I pretended not to notice.
After we landed and everyone was planting their feet on hard land again, I started talking to her. She is from Germany and her goal is to be a treasure diver. "Allright," I thought, "this girl kicks ass." So we got to chatting and really hit it off. (Don't worry baby, half of our conversations were about our bf/gf.) The attraction we had was more of a recognition of the other person as an individual rather than a sexual interest. So that was fun.
And then I have been hanging out at Brett's place and have had a number of great converstaions with him and his gf Maya. They are awesome, and I'm glad we are finally getting the chance to really spend time together, as in japan i always wanted to chill with them more but never really did. And then tonight J gets into town and he doesn't know that I am still in Bangkok, so I think for my last night and J's first night here we will probably go out and hit it pretty hard! Well, I think i have resorted to rambling at this point and you probably all have things to do, but the next time I write on here will be from the comfort of my childhood home in Tampa. So i'll see a lot of you reeeeel soon.
Much love. signing off,
magdef
