Goodbye Thailand, Hello Maui

You should have seen us on our last days in Thailand. We didn't do anything half way on this trip. We hit Bangkok running this time, knew exactly what we wanted to do and how to do it. Our haggling skills refined to an art, we eagerly roamed the markets, shopping ruthlessly and inhaling our last pad thai. We could always get a smile out of the easy going shopkeepers and we ended up spending way too much baht but it's all worth it when you unpack your bags back home, right?

The best part of our finale was fate smiled on us again (still trying to make up for those stolen bags, no doubt) and sent us Carl from the Four Seasons, a friend of a friend of a friend, who let us crash at his place right in the heart of the city. He even made us reservations at a fancy riverside restaurant for our last night where we finally got to see real thai DANCE which I was of course overjoyed about. So beautiful and graceful with flexed hands and feet and bent knees and titled heads and elaborate costumes. A cascading percussion of flute and drums, flickering candles, and humid breezes completed the evening. What an experience.

Later that night we exhausted the last of our baht at the Night Bazaar and cheered for Germany and Argentina with the venders as they were closing up shop. (Side note: The World Cup played a surprisingly large role in our travels and we're going home much bigger football aka soccer fans than we were when we left.) After we rode the largest ferris wheel I have ever seen in my life, we flagged down a tuk tuk to take us home. Our only stipulation was the driver make one stop along the way so Tia could buy some thai rice whiskey to take back home. A simple request we thought but it turned into quite the adventure. Apparently only certain stores sell alcohol after hours and out of those stores, only certain ones sold the exact brand that we were looking for (the one with no english on the label) and out of those few stores, only a handful sold the smaller size we wanted. After each failed attempt we'd turn to the driver and say No worries, we'll just go home now and he'd laugh and say No no! I know another. And off we'd go, careening into the night down empty steets and twisting alleys, catching glimpses into windows and holding on for dear life. A good hour later we found a sizeable store that was open and sold the exact product we were looking for. It was a considerable distance from our original departure point and we started to worry that the agreed upon price of the tuk tuk ride was going to be increased dramatically. But when we finally pulled up in front of the Four Seasons Hotel (after mistakenly going to the All Seasons Hotel, enciting much laughter from the driver) he didn't ask for a cent more, just sent us on our merry way. We left him a generous tip and would have skipped home if we hadn't been so laden down with rice whiskey.

A week later and I'm back in Maui. Back on the boats, back in the Subaru, back at 10 Aolani Place, Paia, HI. It feels great- smelling the plumeria blooms, sleeping in my own bed, seeing friends, catching up on all the gossip and drama at work and just being out on the water again. My tan actually faded while I was gone so I'm having to use extra sunscreen to avoid burning as my color returns. I'm meeting all the new summer crew and looking forward to a very fun summer. I even found a new dance studio just down the street. Life couldn't be more sweet.

A refreshed appreciation of my life here in Maui is probably one of the most important things I'll take away from my trip. It is so incredibly awesome to leave an exotic special tropical location and return home to another one. I feel like the luckiest girl alive. I just hope this general euphoria doesn't fade too soon. But how could it? It's Maui.