au revior

Sadly, now we are two(ish--Katie and I still have to figure out how to meet up). Last night we barely managed to get "butt rash" on her flight, and as of this writing, nearly 16 hours later, she is nearing in on New York. Though Katie may be prone to exaggeration (such as me vomiting in the ocean--it was just a little bit), I think she was right on about our time as a group of three. It was lots of fun. I am sure we inspired some speculation: Were we a frighteningly similar looking couple with our prostitute? A honeymooning couple with a lesbian sister in tow?

Well, it was a great month. I will miss you Liz. I hope that you realize that hanging out on a beach is much more fun than looking for a job in New York and that you decide to get on the next 17 hour flight. We did good. Got culture out of the way right off the bat with Angkor Wat and thousands of photos impersonating Angelina, then spent weeks rotting away on beautiful beaches. I was also quite impressed with the sheer range of beaches we wallowed on. The small, perfect beach at Ao Leuk in Koh Tao, its stunning beauty got almost boring after a few days. Then Tanote, with Disneyesque rocks and exploding sea cucumbers. After that, Krabi and the dizzying, dramatic limestone cliffs and cannon balls in the pool every day. Followed by Phuket; I now understand why it is such a major tourist destination. Though the only downside was being back in areas with rotund white guys and their Thai "companions." I was concerned that Katie was going to shoot one girl in particular--she was probably about 20, but she acted liked a cracked out 7 year old. I'm glad we left the AK-47 In Rai Lay.

The Phuket vegetarian festival was awesome. It is a Chinese-Thai Buddhist celebration in which everyone dresses in all white and abstains from meat, alcohol, and sex (and for the ladies, menstruation and pregnancy), which is combined with acts of self-mortification. People work themselves up into a religious frenzy and then walk across hot coals, climb ladders made of knives, or (my favorite) pierce their cheek and tongue with just about anything. It is quite gross. I managed to get out of bed at 8 to see the procession (sadly, Liz and Katie could not be roused from their slumber despite my beautiful singing). Well, there were men with several two foot long metal spikes through their cheeks, or my favorite, one guy with two big wooden parasols coming out of both sides of his face. There is nothing like the sight of blood to work up an appetite in a vegetarian. For a festival in which people are trying to attain ritual purity, there was quite a lot of gluttony, and while we left the fire and sharp objects to others, the three of us certainly took part in the eating. Now, there is always food around in Thailand, but the numbers of street stalls must have increased a hundred-fold. The best part was that I could eat anything and not have to try my baby-talk Thai to find out what was inside. So, basically it was three days of us, clad in white pajamas (Liz got a shirt that made her look like a Japanese peach), eating constantly. Heaven.

Unfortunately after Phuket, we had to leave the beach and come back up to Bangkok so Liz could fly out. We only had a few days, so there was some serious shopping to be done. I'm talking major cardio full workday shopping. Constant consumption. Shop, shop, shop, eat, shop, shop, eat, sleep, repeat. We filled up an enormous suitcase, and then at the airport had to suffer from the somewhat nauseating experience of the security guard examining each of our many, many purchases. Stop by Liz's apartment in Brooklyn for a souvenir--I think it is a first-come, first-served kinda deal.

Well, tomorrow I am headed back down south to try to meet up with Katie again so we can head to Malaysia, Truly Asia!