When I got to the airport in Bangkok to go to China I was told I would need to go through immigration, get my luggage and recheck it at the next airport. Oh jeeze, I have an hour between flights. That’s going to be close. Then I look at my seat and it’s row 33. It will take forever to get off the plane. Row 33 was actually the 6th row. Who knew? I got to China, had to take a shuttle, go through immigration, get my bag, recheck my bag, go through security again, another shuttle, a long walk, get some water, and go to the bathroom. When I finally got to the new gate, they were loading the plane – perfect timing. China magic.
When I got to Beijing I was supposed to have someone pick me up from the tour company, but there was no one there. I got scared for a minute. I realize the tiny bit of Thai that I speak makes me feel more comfortable in Thailand. I know no Chinese. Then I told myself to relax and I just waited. The shuttle guy looked more flustered than me when he showed up. He spoke no English, but got me to the car. The car driver spoke no English. I walked out of the airport and it was cold! It felt so wonderful. Beijing traffic is horrible so it took forever to get to the hotel. The hotel is nice. My room has an actual shower and bathtub. Unfortunately, my room also had wet carpet in the entrance and an angry voice in the bathroom. Also, the heat didn’t work. The man staying next door to me was in his bathroom yelling on his phone for over an hour. I did get the hotel to switch my room, but now I have a twin bed instead of a king. It is warm and quiet though.
Day one of our tour was awesome. It’s a tour group of 23 people and a guide. The guide is great. So, far the people on the tour are nice and interesting. We went to the Temple of Heaven. In the park portion a lot of retirees come to play card games, knit, exercise and just generally hang out together. In a lot of families, the grandparents take the kids to school and then go to the park to hang out. Then they pick up the kids in the afternoon since the parents have to work. The park had exercise circuit similar to Thailand, but much more of it and people use it. There was a massage circuit too. The park was beautiful and in great condition. The actual temple was beautiful. Our tour guide gave us so much information, but a lot of it I don’t remember so I just can’t pass it on. Our tour guide gave us whispers – he can talk on a mic and we can listen over earphones. It makes walking around crowded loud places so much better. He can tell us about the area we are seeing as we walk around it. After the Temple of Heaven we went to a jade shop and then lunch. Lunch was ridiculous. They just kept bringing out food. We had at least 12 different dishes at each table. I tried some of everything, but the soup – there just wasn’t any room left when the soup came out. Then we went to the Great Wall of China. This is something I’ve always wanted to see. It is an amazing feat of engineering and hard work. It’s so beautiful where we went. My knees felt great – Thanks PhuketFit. After that we went to the Olympic complex to see the Bird’s Nest. We didn’t go in, but just took pictures from outside. Dinner was Peking Duck and then another 10 dishes or more. It was like ridiculous lunch all over again. All the food was excellent.
Yesterday was my last day at Phuket Fit. I gained weight – fat, not muscle and I was dehydrated on my check out stats. I think they had my food goals off a little, but my biggest goal was to try to get my body to want to exercise again. After over a year with no exercise, I was tired and unmotivated. So, I feel ready to go again. I was hoping to process a lot of my experiences over the past eight months, but that didn’t seem to happen or is happening in a different way or is partially happening. So more on that later as I figure it all out. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted of Phuket Fit, but a few are attached.
Today I had a lovely pancake breakfast with Lynne and James. I might have gained some more weight just from breakfast. I went to the airport early, because what was I going to do for two hours after hotel check out in the rain?
Besides, my airline reservations were sketchy and I figured if something was amiss, I’d have time to fix it. I had a minor freakout when I booked the flight and the confirmation came from a company different from the airline. My confirmation came through with the note that I could not check in on line because the airline wouldn’t have my info on line. I could only check in at the airport in person. It also had the copy of someone else’s credit card attached to the confirmation. What? Then I reminded myself that everything works out exactly like it should. And if something seems unlikely in Thailand, it will work out exactly as billed no matter how unlikely it sounds. There is some sort of “that can’t work” magic in Thailand that makes unlikely things work. In any other country, I’d be buying another ticket today. I sat in a restaurant for a couple hours until the check in desk opened. I got in line to check in. There were about 30 middle aged or older Thai women in line. Is this the Thai middle aged woman airline? One lady made me go ahead of her and her friends because there were 7 of them and they didn’t want me to have to wait for them. So nice. Then the husbands started arriving – oh, the women go and wait to check in while the men do what? I checked in fine (duh – of course – magic) and now I’m waiting for my flight to board.
I might do some more blogs tonight when I get to Bangkok. I fly to China tomorrow. China blocks a lot of websites. I bought a VPN, but I’m new to this concept so we’ll see how it goes. But, if I don’t post for two weeks, I’m either having way too much fun or the VPN didn’t work. I hope China has “that can’t work” magic like Thailand does.
I haven’t written in awhile mostly because I don’t know what to say. A lot is going on spiritually, but I don’t know how to put any of it into words. So, that will have to come later after it’s done processing through my system.
On a more superficial level, I’ve just been working out and eating. There are a bunch of workout classes available every day, but I’ve been attending around three high intensity fitness classes a day. I’ve been having trouble getting out of bed in the morning so I’ve been sleeping more too.
It’s been an interesting meeting the people here. The staff is all nice and wonderful. Some of the guests are kind of snobby which I didn’t expect. Some of the guests are very nice though. Most of the unfriendly guests have left so it’s more pleasant now. Most of the guests are return guests and I can see why. This place is well run and provides something people need.
One night there was a trip to a night market. Since I love Thai markets, I went. I didn’t love this market. It was really for tourists. But, I’m on one of the biggest tourist islands so it makes sense. There was another night market trip the next night to a different market. I decided to skip it.
Loi Krathong is the lantern festival that I’m coming back for in November. It’s been canceled in Chiang Mai because of mourning for the king. The festivities were canceled in Tak, but they are still going to do the actual floating of the candles in the river which is what I wanted to see. So, I had to change all my hotel plans and pretty soon I need to figure out where I’m going to go after that. I would have skipped it altogether, but I still have a suitcase of stuff at Noi’s house that I need to get and a plane ticket to Mae Sot which is not refundable.
When I was diving in Samui I touched some coral with my knee and it turned all red. When I asked the divemaster what he thought it was he said “coral” as if it was no big deal. It didn’t look like a cut. It wasn’t until 4 or 5 days later that I noticed tiny scabs where the coral had cut me. Then about a week later it puffed up and turned even redder. Someone here suggested I go to the doctor right away because it was infected. I looked it up on line and it said to seek medical attention right away. Great. So I rode my motorbike in the pouring rain to the nearest clinic. The doctor gave me a cream. I asked if I needed an antibiotic and she said pointed to the cream. How is a cream going to get under the skin to the infection? I went home later and did a little homegirl surgery. I cut some of the skin away so that the cream could get in. I also used some tea tree oil and neosporin just in case those might be helpful. I’m pretty sure neosporin is the answer to most medical problems. Then I broke my no searching things on the internet after 10pm rule and looked at the coral cuts info closer. This rule was set in place for a reason and breaking it means no good sleep. I read that there are all kinds of nasty things in salt water and coral cuts often get infected and then if you see a dark line on your arm or leg you need to go to the emergency room for iv antibiotics. I woke up every few hours to check my arms and legs for dark lines. I have antibiotics my doctor gave me before I left Colorado in case of an emergency. I started taking those. It’s been a few days now and no dark lines, just an upset stomach from the antibiotics.
Yesterday I rode the motorbike around and went to two overlooks and a beach. We have been having a lot of stormy weather due to big storms in the Philippines. The wind was so strong it was blowing salt mist way up past the beach. The waves were huge. It was unfriendly for swimming which was good, because I didn’t feel bad that I can’t swim because of my coral cut. It was nice and relaxing to watch the waves crash and watch the sea move. I feel like just watching it reset something and I was more relaxed after. It was also nice to ride around and see some of Phuket. It’s more mountainous than I expected. I like it.
Today I took another field trip. When I was looking for fun things to do near here, I found a rum distillery that gave tours. I have drank a lot of rum over the years, but didn’t know how it is made. It was a small distillery and the tour was interesting. The rum was real good too.
I have two more days of fitness camp and then travel back to Bangkok and then off to China!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Abandonded (except dog) building next to hotelNearby beach isn’t much of a beachSelf surgery
Another view from my hotelDistillery BarDistillery grounds
I arrived in Phuket in the evening. Whoa, it was a long drive from the airport to my hotel, the Blue Rabbit. It looked like my hotel is the only thing around. Across the street is an actual abandoned building, not one that looks abandoned. There were two very nice ladies waiting for me. One carried my very heavy suitcase up to the third floor. I felt bad. They both were very talkative and helpful. The room is the nicest hotel room I’ve seen in a while. Yay!
Yesterday I started at Phuketfit with an orientation of the facilities and a fitness evaluation. About half the people there are trying to lose weight. They have a weight loss program, a detox program and a fitness program. I joined two of the workout classes and did yoga after dinner. So far the food has been good, but the portions are quite small since most people are counting calories to lose weight where I’m trying to pack in more calories and more protein to help rebuild muscle. Overall, I’m very impressed with the place and glad to be doing this although it hurts physically and financially.
Today I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed. They have exercise classes all day so I don’t need to do the first one in the morning anyway. I did three exercise classes today and I’m so stiff and my shoulders and left knee don’t want to work right. I cried during the last class. I expect there will be more crying as the 10 days go on. Or not.
The King of Thailand died yesterday. The country will go into mourning for a very long time. I want to write more about it, but I should not so you can watch the new or look for news on line if you want to know more.
I got back to Bangkok in the evening. I don’t like my hotel. It smells like mildew. I was lucky enough to be able to cancel my future booking at this hotel, but not tonight. I only picked it because it was close to the airport. The next morning I flew to Samui. I’m looking forward to spending some time relaxing on the beach and some time with my friends from Singapore. My hotel in Samui is kind of disappointing too, but it’s clean enough and right on the beach so no need looking for a new place. Still, three hotels in a row, come on…..
I saw a dive shop near my hotel when the taxi brought me from the airport. We are near Tao and I’d heard they had the best diving in Thailand so maybe there can be good diving in Thailand. Samui and Tao are islands kind of near each other (1 hour by boat). Plus, the idea of being completely covered in water sounds like heaven right now. I went by the dive shop. They are going to Tao tomorrow – great! It was expensive. Why is this sport so expensive?
The diving was just as bad as in Krabi. It’s official, diving in Thailand is not good. I know a four dive sample selection is hardly scientific research, but it’s enough for me. Everything was covered in a light brown blanket of ook. I have no idea what the ook is, but it looks slimy and yucky. There were hardly any fish. The people I dove with were nice so that’s some consolation. And I was covered in water for a couple hours and that was wonderful. Two of the ladies that we dropped off after diving were staying at a fancy hotel. The guards wouldn’t even let us in until they had run a camera under the van to check for scary things. I bet the resort was $800 a night. It was definitely cost more per night than I made last month. The stark difference between that resort and mine was comical.
We went on an all island tour the next day. The tour itself was meh. But, we decided it would be Judy’s birthday and we would post pictures on facebook of her birthday day and see if any of her friends figured out that it wasn’t. It made for a day of laughing so hard your stomach hurt. It also provided for many fun photos especially after we got the pointy Vietnamese birthday hats. The tour took us to many Buddhas, of course. The tour highlight was grandmother and grandfather rock. Grandfather rock was plain to see, but we never figured out grandmother rock. Later, a post card showed us what we didn’t find. I’m including a picture of the post card because I had to see it so I think you should have it burned in your memory too. Really? Genitalia shaped rocks are a tourist attraction? “Come to Samui and see the big Buddha and genitalia rocks!” After lunch we saw a mummified monk. We decided he wasn’t real. Then when we read that he wasn’t actually mummified, but that his body just didn’t decompose after he died, so they put some sunglasses on him and stuck him in a glass box. Well that must be real then. There was a waterfall that was so far from a waterfall that I’m not even posting a picture of it. What Thailand tour would be complete without sad elephants being misused for tourism? I will not post pictures of them either. That evening we went out for “Judy’s Birthday” dinner and live music after.
The bay we were staying on was shallow. You could walk for hours and never see water deeper than your waist. So, I bought a raft and floated around for part of the day. That day was a close to relaxing and doing nothing as I know how to do. That evening we found a lovely restaurant with bean bag chairs on the beach and happy hour drinks. Two bars over was an acoustic guitar player with the most wonderful voice. After about two hours we got up and went to watch him. The last day was more floating until it was time to go to the airport. Two sweet ladies from the hotel took me to the airport in their pickup truck. The Samui airport is ridiculous. When you get there it’s like a posh outdoor mall. I don’t even remember going through security, but I’m sure it happened. When you get to the gate, its an open air pavilion with uncomfortable but trendy seating. There are cats everywhere, it’s sweltering hot, but they have free snacks. I sat in front of one of the portable air conditioners with my free popcorn and pineapple juice and tried to pretend I didn’t feel horrible. Then you get on small trams that look like you are a Florida theme park and they trams take you to the plane. Of course on the plane, it’s so cold I have to put on long pants and a hoodie with the hood up. I’ll take the cold over the hot though. I’m looking forward to the next 10 days. I’ve signed up for a fitness camp so I will just be eating healthy food and working out for 10 days.
So my plan to relax and spend some time on-line researching potential jobs didn’t work out. But I did enjoy spending time with Judy, Andy and Ivan and laughing so hard my sides hurt.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Enter a captionEarly morningEnter a captionEnter a caption
Dive SpotEnter a captionEnter a captionLooks like a giant carrot farmEnter a captionWhere is Grandmother Rock?Enter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionOh, I lied, this is the waterfallLook! A Buddha and StairsA dragon with flowers on its tongueEnter a captionEnter a captionFemale Giant?Enter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a captionBeware Bag Necklace SnatchingGrandfather RockEnter a captionSomeone’s dinnerMummy MonkPostcardJudy’s “Birthday” dinnerEnter a captionBean Bag Beach BarScrambled eggs with cheeseEnter a captionEnter a captionEnter a caption
I always had this idea that Malaysia was a third world country or at best, a second world country. Maybe parts of it are, but Kuala Lumpur surprised me. It’s cleaner and nicer than Thailand. The guesthouse I booked is not wonderful, but it is ok. I have always wanted to see what it would be like to travel abroad alone. After almost 2 months of it before, and now, I’ve decided it’s not wonderful either.
I’m excited to see the Patronas towers. They use to be the highest building in the world, but aren’t anymore. I had found a website with the top 10 rooftop bars in KL. I thought that sounded like a worthy goal to find all 10. I was going to do 3 the first night. The second one was difficult to find since google maps is useless once you lose the wifi signal. So I skipped the third one. The other nights I gave up altogether. Being sick and drinking very expensive drinks alone didn’t turn out to be as fun as it first sounded. I still think it’s a worthy goal and suggest someone else attempt it sometime. And I got to see a roof top that is a heli pad by day and bar by night – brilliant idea.
I either lost my jewelry or packed it in the bag that I left in Thailand. So, I found a cheap place in the mall and bought some new earrings. I also did some shopping for things I can’t get in Thailand such as face products without bleach in them and hair jell for curly hair.
The park near the Patronas towers is wonderful. I also went to the bird park and the butterfly park. I walked a lot and got lost a lot (I blame google maps). There’s a tourist bus that goes to all the tourist spots. You pay one price and can get on and off it any time all day. I never found it. I went to the top of the KL Tower – great views but not worth the price. I went to the top of the Petronas towers – very expensive, but for some reason a better experience than the KL Tower. I went to Batu Caves – a famous cave temple. It involved a lot of stairs. It was under construction/repair. It smelled like garbage and was a total waste of my time. I ate roti after and that almost made it better.
I slept late every day. I got a pedicure finally. I got to wake up at 5:30 every morning to hear the muslim call to prayer or whatever that was. I saw another movie. I got a body scrub and they got most of the Thailand off my skin. I ate either salads or Indian food. Halfway through the antibiotic and I feel much better.
Random notes:
Malaysian men are quite a bit more masculine than Thai men. People are rougher here too – not mean, but just have an edge to them.
In general, Asians who are traveling are rude. I got my table taken several times or got cut in line or people just bump into me and don’t acknowledge it.
There are a lot of Muslim here and the women are covered with long dresses or pants and head scarfs. They work and are very nice when you interact with them. But, I wonder what they think of me and other women like me. I’m dressed conservatively for me, but my hair and arms are showing. They don’t seem offended or jealous, but I still wonder. I saw one woman completely covered except her eyes. She was on the top of the KL Tower and they were taking pictures together. She had sunglasses on so her eyes were technically covered too. I wondered how your family ever knows that’s a picture of you when you can’t see anything but black fabric and sunglasses. She didn’t seem unhappy about it as best as I could tell. I wonder if there is a sense of safety being so covered. Do Muslim women get less sexual harassment? Do they feel safer walking around a big city than non Muslim women do?
There was one train I took that had a woman only train car.
Yesterday morning after a horrible breakfast, I found the information desk. I’m not sure why it was invisible the night before. I asked them how to get to the temple (Chin Swee) near the casinos. There’s a free shuttle from the hotel and it’s something to do in the real outdoors. The giant bus is terrifying on these steep roads. It’s still foggy, but it’s real pretty to see the fog rolling around the mountains. It was really moving fast at times. At the temple I got to see more Buddha statues. I also go to walk the journey to enlightenment. I’ve studied and worked so hard and here’s a simple path to walk. Who knew? Ok, it’s not that easy. The path was a series of dioramas showing the 10 different hells. What hell a person goes to depends on what horrible things they did here. They get tortured and then at some point they get to go to the last hall and they are given a drink to make them forget everything. Then they get to come back here in another life and try to do it right again. So, basically, this was a way to scare you into being a nice person. I doubt I will be turning into a Buddhist anytime soon. I prefer my world where hell is actually a creation in the mind, something we made up.
After the temple it was time for a pedicure. They told me to come back at 2:00. I came back at 2:30 and they were all booked up the rest of the day and evening. I went to 4 other spas and they were all booked too. Either there are only 2 nail ladies at Genting Highlands or I pissed someone off and have been blacklisted. Tell the curly haired girl no, she showed up a half hour late. I went back to the burger place and ordered the pesto gnocchi with greens. The greens were arugula. I love arugula and have missed it so much. This is the best food related thing to happen in forever! I went to a movie, Ben Hur. It’s the first movie in a theater I’ve seen since I left the US. Arugula and a movie – life is good! I still feel sick so I went to the clinic and got an antibiotic. This has to be a sinus infection, colds don’t last this long.
Today Omar, my taxi driver, is taking me down to Kuala Lumpur. I didn’t gamble at all and I thought maybe I’d want to work here. I’m not going to pursue that avenue.
The taxi pulls up to a forest of fake trees with lights in them. Omar, my taxi driver, pulls my suitcase out of the trunk and points to a series of sliding doors with lights and people everywhere. “Over there” he says as he bids me goodbye and I tell him I’ll call him in a day to arrange my pick up. There are signs everywhere and everything seems to be moving. I can’t read any of the signs even though they are in English. I can’t find a hotel check in desk. I’m not even sure where the hotel is. People keep bumping into me and I feel like I’m dragging the largest suitcase ever. I know it’s not the largest suitcase ever because I use to own that and left it in Thailand. Still….. I see 4 or 5 banks of electronic kiosks with 10 or more kiosks in each one. I walk up and see that it’s for hotel check in. So, I must be near the hotel. No matter what I do, it won’t let me check in. I try to get help. There are a bunch of people in uniforms standing around, but none of them will help me. Maybe I’m invisible. Maybe I’m not actually here. It does feel kind of disjointed like a dream. Finally a lady helps me. She points to a sign that says all pre-bookings need to register with a guest services clerk first. That sign wasn’t there a minute ago and what’s the point of point of self check in if you can’t do it yourself? She asks how many people – just me. Then a little later she asks if I need a second key. For who? It’s still just me. If I want a second key, I will need to give her a second passport. It’s still just me. What is going on? “Any special requests? Oh, too late, here’s your key”. Huh? I find tower 1 and go up to my floor. I step off the elevator and into a bad dream. Have you ever been so sick with a bad fever or woken up from too much anesthesia where your dreams are drug induced, creepy alternate realities where nothing is as it should be? I found the portal to this alternate reality. It’s at the First World Resort Hotel in Genting Highlands. In the air was soft electronic ambient music. There’s no real tune or beat, just horrible wandering sound that suggests that time no longer exists, you are the last human being on the planet and you no longer have arms or legs. The only windows are covered in purple film casting a creepy light everywhere. The striped carpet is covered in water stains as if the entire hotel was flooded last week. I could almost feel the water on my feet as I walked down the hall wondering what could have caused that much water damage. The halls go on forever and the music makes me feel like I’m in slow motion. Well, I no longer have arms or legs so maybe that’s why I’m moving in slow motion. Or maybe the halls are growing longer as I walk down them. Or maybe I’m actually underwater. Three years later I arrive at my room. It has twin beds, not a double and the tv doesn’t work. There’s no wifi. I might have walked backward through time to before there was wifi. That’s possible.
I make the three-year journey back to the hotel lobby or rain forest or whatever it is. They told me that it doesn’t matter what I booked ahead of time, the rooms are all first come first serve. I can come back later and see if a room with a queen bed became available, but there’s no wifi in tower one and for some reason unknown to me, there’s no chance in hell I will get a room in tower 2 or 3. There’s 4 hotels, 4 or 5 casinos, an indoor theme park, shops, restaurants and an arcade all interconnected so let’s go explore and hopefully find some food on the way. My experience so far had left me very disoriented and I notice that there are signs and some of the words are in English, but I can’t read them. All I see is trees with lights in them. I find an elevator and go up. When I exit I am “outdoors” in a market. A whale floats by above me. It reminds me of main street Disney with the overdone perfect shops, fake bakery smells, lights everywhere and people everywhere. This is the slightly lower budget Asian casino version mimicking an open air market. A reindeer sled with two kids in it flies by. The statue of liberty is riding a Harley. I see the casino entrance, but don’t go in. That might be too much. There are restaurants on the other side of the river, but I can’t get to them. Guess that’s not where I want to eat tonight. I find a movie theatre, a haunted house, tons of stores and Ripley’s believe it or not. It’s 4 or 5 stories of this fake outdoors. An escalator goes up, but there’s no escalator down. There are dead ends and a lot of “how do I get over there?”. I find an escalator that goes to the next hotel/casino. Maybe they will have food I want. It turns out to be 6 or 7 escalators some of them so steep that I had to hold onto the railing because I felt like I would fall over. It drops me off at an arcade. FUCK. It’s so loud, lights everywhere, and so many small humans. I have now lost all ability to function. I stood there like a deer in the headlights. I don’t even remember walking, but then I was at the other side of the arcade and looking at an Italian restaurant. I couldn’t read the menu, but by looking at the place, I figured I couldn’t afford it anyway. More walking, more dead ends, more casinos, more hotel, more Chinese people, more food consisting of something and rice. So hungry. So don’t want rice. And about 2 minutes before total melt down – burger and a ginger beer. Yay! Not sure how I found it, but I felt human again after I ate it. I think going from rural Thailand to this in one day, I might have overestimated my adaptation skills. I know people that get easily overwhelmed by too much stimulus. I think this might be how they feel. But, knowing that it’s just over stimulus, I never panicked or actually freaked out. I kind of enjoyed most of it even though it was frustrating when I got hungry.
After dinner, foot massage. Here that involves a steam tub for your feet and legs. At first it was nice, then it tried to peel my skin off. Not a fan. Then back through the arcade. Arcades are just casinos for kids, practice for later. I went into one of the casinos. I didn’t understand any of the table games and I don’t care for slot machines. I found some game rules and descriptions and took them to one of the river side bars I couldn’t get to before. I had a drink and read about the games. The drink did me in so I will play games tomorrow. I was able to get my room changed to one with a queen sized bed. Still no wifi. I think they named the hotel wrong. Instead of First World Resort, I think it should be called Better than Third World Resort. My new room is still in the time warp tower 1 so I still had to swim with no arms and legs to it.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Entrance to rain forestOutdoor market insidehuh?A whale with children in itFoot steam bathDon’t like foot steam bath
I stayed in this cool hotel in Chiang Mai. I booked it because it was right next to the airport, had a coffee shop and was made of shipping containers. I have a friend that owns a company that makes houses out of shipping containers so I was excited to see a hotel with this concept. It was a great concept. But in effort to make the place look cool, they kept the restaurant open to the hotel section. If I opened the door from my room, I was looking directly at tables in the restaurant. Even with the door closed, it sounded like I was sitting in the restaurant. It was a very popular restraint and every table was full all night long. So, going to sleep early so I could get up early and well rested for my flight was not happening. Then they didn’t have a shuttle and were not willing to call a taxi for me so I had to walk 3 blocks to the nearest road to get a taxi. The coffee shop wasn’t open in the morning. The hot water didn’t work. Great idea, poor execution. They should have just had a kick ass restaurant and skipped the hotel part.
The Chiang Mai airport is so easy. No lines. My bag was overweight and they didn’t say anything. Security did take my deodorant though. Getting there wasn’t easy. I was literally next to the airport (could see the runway) and had to walk 3 blocks in the other direction to get a taxi. Then the taxi went 15 minutes in the wrong direction to drop someone else off. I swear it took 25 minutes to get back to the airport.
Flying into Kuala Lumpur, the ocean was an unnatural green, not the pretty pale tropical green it should be. It looked like radioactive waste. In places it wasn’t green, it was brown like a Colorado river in flood. I had originally planned to scuba dive, but then scrapped that plan when I realized all the scuba places were a 4-8 hour drive away from Kuala Lumpur. Now I know why they are so far away. Still between the weird water and the acres and acres of palm farms, it was a beautiful strange new world to land in. The highway is big and clean and at first glance everything seems to be much cleaner than Thailand. I bought a SIM card in the airport so my phone will work here. It seemed to be working, but on further inspection (in the cab, not in the store) it’s not. Yay technology. We drove past the city on the way to Genting Highlands. It’s a huge city. Genting Highlands is a tacky looking ridiculous casino at the top of a mountain. I found it when I was looking for jobs in Asia. I thought it would be a hoot to check it out and if I like it, maybe I’ll try my hand at dealing cards again. The road to Genting Highlands is very steep, steeper than most places in Colorado. The entire top of the mountain is covered in casino, hotel complex, and mist. Just driving through it is a maze of tunnels, high rise buildings and construction. If I had been driving, I’d still be driving in circles lost.
Last night there was apocalyptic thunder. It shook the whole house. The electricity went out twice. I remember storms like this in Florida, but have never seen (heard) storms like this in Colorado. I was so dizzy and feverish that I just hoped that the storm didn’t take down the house because I would be unable to move to safety.
I got up this morning and finished packing and cleaning. Then I sat and waited for an hour for Noi. She took me to the post office to mail a couple boxes and then to the highway to catch a bus. I’m now homeless. It should feel like a huge relief, fear, excitement, sadness or something, but it just feels empty. All my belongings fit into 4 bags or were mailed back to Colorado. I’m setting off on a travel adventure and I’m not excited about it. I feel lonely, but not sad lonely, just alone. And there seems to be no point in anything. Why travel? Why go home? Oh, I have no home to go to, just a storage shed full of stuff and a car I can’t afford. Should I sell everything I own and wander? Should I build a new home in Colorado or somewhere else? Where? I was restless and uncomfortable when I did have a home and I’m restless and uncomfortable without one. So, home or no home is not the answer. I wanted to get lost – I’m lost. So, I guess I’ll just wander and be lost or empty or full or alone or not and see what I see and see what happens next.
Rraine Drops 