5 things I love about Thailand

1. Pad Thai and peanut sauce- I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. (I think.) It is quintessensially Thai in my opinion because it is both savory and sweet. Here there's really no such thing as dessert since so many main courses quench your sweet tooth cravings. Yum.

2. Spirit houses- Nearly every home and business has a beautiful mini temple out front, ladened with offerings of fruit and flowers. I was captivated by these small wonders and started asking about them. I was told they are called spirit houses and are errected during a special ceremony before any construction of the home or business begins. Buddists believe a spirt inhabits the land so a house must be given to the spirit to appease them and express graditude for allowing the humans to use the land. Very rad, I plan on building a spirit house for our apartment when I return to Maui. I think I'll make it out of a coconut. :)

3. Yellow shirts- Our first day in Bangkok, we marveled at the popularity of the color yellow. It seemed every other person owned a yellow shirt and chose to wear it that day. But as time passed, we continued to see the yellow shirts everywhere, in every town, on any given day. Finally we figured it out, though it took an embarrassingly long time. On June 9th, The King of Thailand celebrated his 60th
anniversary as king and to commemorate it, everyone was encouraged to wear yellow the first two weeks of June. And then, wow, on Friday the 9th you should have seen the throngs of yellow. We bought some shirts too of course to show our pride for The King. Travellers will do anything to seem more local, won't they?

4. Praying hands- Everyone presses their hands together and bows to greet and express thanks. Even Ronald McDonald! We found him "praying" in front of the McDonalds in Bangkok. I guess he's praying that the Buddists, who are mostly vegetarians, will come eat his Big Macs!

5. Koh Kai- They name islands after me! Just kidding, Koh means island but Kai actually means chicken egg so it translates as Chicken Island. Still, pretty cool huh? We're looking for Koh Tia but no luck yet.


We're in Koh Tao on the Eastern side of the southern penninsula. We got rained out of Railay (on the west side) which was fine with me- the main activity was rock climbing and that's not something that really lights my fire. Koh Tao is another story. Sunny, white sandy beaches, lots of bungalows and beach bars and snorkeling and diving. You just have to watch your step or you'll bump into one of the
trillions of farang (tourists). Apparantly there is no spot left on earth undiscovered by Lonely Planet. Sigh...

That's all for now. Happy Summer Solstice!

Turtles, tuk tuks, and thai massage-
Kai