The Beach!

And now, the non-review edition:

Our trip to Ko Chang was excellent! We had 2 ½ days to lie on the beach, float in the warm water, and eat fantastic barbeque. (I never knew barracuda was a food fish. Now I’ve had it twice.)

The water was undoubtably the warmest I’ve ever felt in nature, even more than a Kentucky lake in July 1995. In fact, our first afternoon, when we were dripping in sweat after lugging our backpacks up the hill to our bungalow, we ran in and all looked at each other, saying, "That’s not even refreshing!" But the disappointment didn’t last long – I think we spent at least 3 hours a day in the water. I read almost a whole paperback and spent a lot of time just staring at all the colors – bright blue water, bright green trees, bright brownish-white sand.

[Lest you think our Peace Corps life will from now on be filled with beach vacations, though, I must note that it’s still quite a difficult and time-consuming trek to get there. Our trip back lasted 27 hours, counting the time spent eating a couple of meals and taking a shower between transportation. (Songtaew, ferry, songtaew, bus, taxi, taxi, train, songtaew, songtaew.) ]

Now back in our house, we’re all looking forward to a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s expedition to Chiang Mai.