The Start of a Well Deserved Break!

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After the final few chaotic weeks of school - report cards, parties, fourth grade play, kids practically swinging from the rafters with summer fever - it was definitely time for a break! It felt good to lock the door to a clean and tidied away classroom, knowing that I wouldn't be back for two months. It was time to hit the road again.

Scott has been travelling in The Philippines for the last month while I finished up the school year. His emails about white sandy beaches and all of the critters he'd seen while diving were a bit of a blur, having been read, in many cases, in a hurry during recess or late at night after a 15 hour work day. However, while the details were a blur, the essence was not - adventure and a tropical idyl here I come!

My journey started at 10:30am on Saturday June 12th when Tom came to pick me up to help shuttle our cars back and forth to Kathleen's house. Kindly, she'd agreed to give them a home for the summer. Tom later dropped me to get the 3:50pm airport shuttle bus from Santa Barbara. I arrived at LAX at 7pm, six hours ahead of my 1am flight. It was hard to find a place to sit and wait, but luckily an Australian woman saw me wandering around with a tray of food and offered for me to share her table. We spent the next three hours chatting.

When it was time for her to go through customs, it was finally time for me to check in for my flight. This whole time I'd not seen a single person with a backpack. Everyone had piles of suitcases and boxes. When I weighed my bag in, it was only 12kg despite the fact that I'd packed 9 moisturizers, 5 sun tan lotions, and a full length wetsuit. Finally, after all these years of travel, I am learning how to pack light! If you have to pay for excess baggage, shouldn't you get a discount for carrying half the allowance?!

I shuffled towards my seat on the plane and was a little surprised to see that I was sharing the row of three seats with two Thai monks, fully clothed in their bright orange robes. I instantly racked my tired brain, trying to remember proper etiquette. I was pretty sure that they were not allowed to talk to women and certainly were not allowed any physical contact. Yikes! That would be difficult to do for 14 hours in economy seating!

I smiled and nodded a thank you when they got up to let me into my window seat. I then sat still, trying not to spread out so as to avoid contact. There was an older one by the aisle and a young one beside me. Luckily, ther young one seemed pretty chilled out and asked me a few questions. It was obviously OK to talk! Inevitably, our arms ended up resting next to each other on the shred of an arm rest and he seemed fine with it - phew! What really surprised me was when they brought the meals around. I got a vegetarian meal but the monks ordered chicken. I could have sworn that Buddhist monks were supposed to be vegetarian. I quizzed the younger one about it and he said it was fine for Thai monks to eat meat. I couldn't help wondering if they were just being bad, given the chance - he he! The young one then had a coffee and then proceeded to pound back two beers (OK, I'm kidding about the beers, but the rest is true). It was fun seeing them and made me miss Thailand.

Fourteen hours after take off, we landed in a drizzly Taipei. I gathered my things together and the monks got their blue silk bags and their brand new dart board from the overhead compartment. I'd always imagined their day to consist solely of meditating and eating. I guess they get to do more that I'd realized! The young one smiled and waved goodbye to me. I had been plucking up the courage the whole time to ask him for a photo but I had never done it, so you will have to take my word!

After 3 hours in Taipei airport, I got my final flight to Bali. From there, I changed money, jumped in a taxi, and checked into the room we reserved. Then, off I went to find email. It took me rather a lot of trekking to find it as I realized that I was going the wrong way along the main street - only 1/2 hour after setting off - oops! Now, all that remains is to shower up, get something to eat, and then wait at the hotel for Scott to show up (somewhere between 11:30 and midnight I am guessing. 😊

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Comments

[Andi and Paul]

OMG
I just logged onto email to send you a travel advice request and what do I find?? Knew it was a possibility, but didn't actually think you'd do it. So, whats's the plan? Where are you off to? Go on, make me green :) Oh yeah, and we need some advice on Africa. What would you recommend for a three week trip. Would like to fit in some beach time if possible (Tanzania / Kenya?) Thinking of heading there October time.