Phase 3: A day off (vacation finally)

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Today is our day off! After a morning of "sleeping in" despite the dogs barking and gibbon calls, an extra hour felt good. We drove to Hua Hin about 45 minutes away.

As soon as we got here we spotted a McDonald's and a Burger King right across from each other plus a dozen or so restaurants and street vendors. As someone in my group said it best, this street has more than all of St. Kitts. Truly this country has more of everything than St. Kitts and when I return "home" its going to be a bit of a shock.

We then hunted down the Starbucks and then started shopping and working our way to the beach. The beach was nice kind of looks like NJ water not nice and clear like in the Carribean but it was great anyway. There is so much to do here it can be overwhelming.

We just had a nice and relaxing lunch sadly because of elections no alcohol can be served until midnight so fruit shakes are as daring a drink we can get. We're heading to the night market tonight before heading back to the center. We are having a Secret Santa and someone in our group signed all of us up so sadly I do have to participate.

We're having a big dinner tomorrow apparently so it should be nice. Today was the first day it felt like X-mas probably sitting in Starbucks listening to Bing Crosby singing white Christmas.

The Thai people are amazing so incredibly friendly and nice. Some like the drivers can be pushy but even they have the best intentions. Its also amazing to see there work ethic. They work so incredibly hard and are so devoted to the animals at the center its such a difference from St. Kitts. If I have a nervous breakdown this is where I'm coming-its just fantastic. Although I hear there are lots of single men in New Zealand and not enough women so....

Yesterday I started coming down with a cold so I spent most of my time off duty in bed just relaxing. I felt better today but I desparately need some sudafed or something. Working with gibbons when you're not quite up to speed is not a good idea. I kept getting grabbed by the gibbons whose arms are about my arm length and one of those primates grabbed my hair too. Not my favorite creature but still pretty cute.

Apparently a King Cobra lives outside of our room at the center so I'm not to happy about that especially since I was the one that got tricked by the fake snake that was planted in our room on the first day. I was so freaked out and still am having nightmares about it-my one fear that I cannot conquer, I expect a fake snake in my Secret Santa gift tomorrow.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

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