Back home (AKA, Thailand)

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I wish now that I'd stayed longer in Nepal - I think it takes two weeks to really start to love a place - but coming back to Thailand was like coming home. I had a big stupid grin on my face when I got back to Khoasan. I know, I have some gaps to fill in, but this entry is just about today.

Sometimes there are days where you barely do anything, and absolutely nothing happens. And sometimes these are the days you know you'll remember best. Today was one of those days. And this is a rather long post about not much at all.

After sitting around at the pool for a few hours, chatting, reading, messing around on Facebook, I decided I really wanted some pineapple - the kind you get in a little baggie with a toothpick for 10 Baht at the market. The market's about a 20 or 30 minute walk away, but what the hey, I wasn't doing anything anyway. So I wandered off.

I got about halfway there when the wind started to pick up. A sign blew off the restaurant I was walking past. I glanced up and noticed the black clouds rolling in. Keep in mind, it's about 90 degrees, so I'm in a beach dress and flip flops. But no worries, I figured I'd just keep close to the awnings, what's a little water anyway.

Cue the torrential downpour, complete with lightning and, I'm pretty sure, hail.

I gave up on the market - although I was quite close at this point - and ducked down a side street which I believed would be a shortcut back to my guesthouse. And then, like a vision, there was a little streetcart, braving the elements, with just the pineapple baggies I was looking for! Hurray!

Pineapple achieved, I'm hastening down this side street when "my" (that's another story) left flip flop breaks. Oh well, it's hard to walk in flip flops in the rain anyway. I ditched them. Laughing to myself, I'm positively frolicking now, barefoot, water pouring off my hair, my face, into my pineapple baggy. I grinned at a Thai lady with an umbrella - she smiled back.

My best memories of this trip aren't the ones where I went paragliding, snorkeling, kayaking, on a jungle tour. The best ones are much simpler - swimming in the ocean during a lightning storm, climbing a fire escape to see the lights in Bangkok, listening to the gecko at the Sunflower Resort sing his song, that taxi ride through Kathmandu.. Or skipping barefoot through puddles, feeling the warm wind and rain, tasting pineapple. For a few moments, being a kid again.

There aren't any shortcuts down these meandering sois. I arrived back home completely drenched, and only sad that I couldn't drink the juice (now mixed with rainwater) leftover in my pineapple baggy - because, come on, that would be gross.

The sun's back, so I'm heading to the pool again. Life is good.

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