Good Morning Viet Nam

Saturday, January 08, 2005

The Rave that Saved My Life

Happy New Year one and all from your favorite blogger! Hope 2005 is treating you all well! I am currently in northern Thailand in a darling town called Pai. But that's a whole other post. First things first. Before I get to my week in review, want to take care of a few business items. I had the lofty goal of sending out Christmas cards in the form of postcards this year. That has since been transformed from my Christmas project into my New Years Resolution. Last time I sent one out was in Hanoi and I only made it through the I's in my address sheet. Wasn't inspired to write on the beach, but am sensing motivation here in the mountains. Therefore, if you want a postcard and I don't have your address, you know what to do. I can't guarantee when it will get to you, but hopefully everyone will receive one by March! Merry Christmas.

Second, just switched my blogger reply email address. Your replies were going to my Hotmail account, of which I have forgotten what my username is and thus wasn't getting them!, but now they are sent to my Yahoo, which I check daily, if not twice a day. Wasn't ignoring you all, I promise!

All right, here is my week in review..... The full moon party was clearly the worst party I have ever been to with 25,000 others. Worst in that people were being so disrespectful to the environment and each other. The beach looked like a landfill. The energy wasn't good either. But how could it be with a natural catastrophe happening so close just that morning? Glad to be able to check that one off the list, though. And seeing how it was because of the party that we were in Ko Samui/Ko Pha Ngan and not Krabi instead, I consider it a very small price to pay to still be alive.

We spent the whole week in Ko Samui, which was nice but stressful as well. The group of 8 people I had linked up with is a great group of people from San Francisco. Just like all people are, each person in the group was truly a unique individual and thus handled the catastrophe in their own unique way. Aka, a little more drama than I am used to. The beach was so nice and calming, exactly what I needed that week. I splurged and got a massage every day, one day I even got two. Things were stressful because everyone who was headed to Phuket had been rerouted to Ko Samui. More people means less hotel rooms. Actually it meant no hotel rooms. Shouldn't be too big a deal since we already had a room, right? But some of the hotel owners were sneaky and out to make a profit of the situation, and consequently had rerented the room we had booked for the week 2 days into our stay. Priceless. Luckily my roomate, Christy, and I found lodging and didn't become one of the many who had to camp out on the beach. It was touch and go there for a bit, though.

Had no idea being so close to a disaster would affect me the way it did. I can't even really describe it, but I just felt off my game the whole time I was at the beach. New Years was nice, though. The Thais really like fireworks! Christy and I spent a few more days enjoying, more like surviving!, on the beach and when our plane took off on the 3rd for Bangkok we were ready to move on. Christy and I were planning on travelling together to Pai, but she had to go home early due to a piece of rust getting embedded in her foot. Somehow the Thai docs had a hard time getting it out and she just decided to cut her trip short. I was really bummed to lose my travel partner, but met up with some others in the group who had already come to this mountainous paradise and am having a great time. Christy made the right decision and luckily adverted a Staff infection. She's mending well in San Francisco. She is the best roomate I could have asked for and was truly a blessing!

I know this isn't a great post by far, but it's all I could really muster to give you all a glimpse into my experience. It was all very personal and I am still processing it as I type. On the flight back, Christy posed an interesting question and asked if I would have come had someone warned me of the week's events? Without a doubt, YES! I am really thankful to have been a part of the SF group and can't thank them enough for being my ticket out of Hanoi.

So onward and upward and into the north we go! Stay tuned...

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